Survivor Season 26 CBS HD February 13th, 2013 - Page 11

I dare say that if the goal is never to get angry in life, then EVERY person suffers from anger management issues. Brandon did not let it erupt into violence, except against the food supply, but I think there he correctly deduced that Phillip was conspiring with the majority of votes that his (Brandon's) time was nigh, so it was not altogether displaced rage. Now of course that act did not endanger anyone's health or strength -- let's not be frivolous --nor do I think it violated any SURVIVOR rules.

And of course I do think he sealed his fate, which may have been the idea -- he certainly was toying with quitting anyway. But I saw both Brandon and Phillip getting mad -- neither one controlling it very well, though Phillip undoubtedly allowed self-preservation to play a greater role in whatever control he did exhibit.

I will agree that overall Brandon could be characterized as "unstable" -- meaning highly mercurial, unpredictable, and with wider mood swings than are generally normative, though not to "fatal" degree -- meaning that his temperment was manageable, by himself and the tribe. That said, I found him remarkably, and somewhat unexpectedly, restrained throughout most of the last installment -- even approaching preposterously arrogant Phillip and playing the diplomat at one point.

What I react to though, is people leaping up to affirm that yes, Brandon certainly is a complete psycho, blah blah blah. That assertion itself is off the deep end for me...

Are you serious!!!??? If Brandon had pulled that crap in the Big Brother house he would have been gone a long time ago. Nephew Brandon is just another Hantz wacko, the third of thee including Uncle Russell before him and Uncle Willie last season on Big Brother who displayed the famous Hantz temper and got tossed out on his ear.

http://www.examiner.com/article/big-brother-14-willie-hantz-bashes-joe-online-after-big-brother-fight

http://www.tmz.com/2012/07/26/willie-hantz-big-brother-arrested/

There's a lot fewer places to run in the BB house than in the jungle. Maybe that's why Survivor kept Brandon as long as they did. I'm certainly no fan of Phillip, but, based on what Brandon displayed on Wednesday's show if you don't think he's a "complete psycho, blah blah blah" (your words) then you must be living in la la land. Sure, he may have been provoked to a certain extent but the entire tribe wouldn't have been concerned if he had kept himself even moderately under control.

^^^Not sure how BIG BROTHER enters in here, or uncles or second cousins, or anything other than the topic at hand, but the fact that you raise all these issues demonstrates to me that you are allowing such considerations to weight your judgment -- no wonder that it becomes unreasonably unbalanced.

If I'm not mistaken, SURVIVOR did not kick Brandon off, he was voted out by tribemates in an impromptu improvisation of tribal council. And not surprisingly -- the vote had no prepatory strategization, nor was it confidential, and it seemed it was all leading toward one end, so tribemates conformed, did the easy thing, and voted out the bloke who just dumped their rice. Makes perfect sense to me.

What I do find mystifying is this willingness to step up to some extreme declarative diagnosis on the basis of things not in evidence. I guess that is why some folks with considerable foresight thought it prudent to have a number of opinion holders on a jury, or more than one judge in the Supreme Court.

 

 

 

Right on.  Anybody who thinks Brandon was driven to his actions by the show or even Phillip are seriously naive.  Brandon very clearly went on the show with the intention of creating havoc and "enHantzing" his image.  He openly bragged to Eric right after the very first TC, that he was planning on going "russell hantz style" before his exit, in an attempt to outdo and one-up his uncle's previous havoc by playing "dirrrrrrty" and going out with a "BANG".  He's certainly got emotional and anger issues but there is no question that what unfolded was planned by him long before he got on the islands.  He wasn't really playing to win but rather looking for the first excuse to go wild and make a big scene.  I'm not sure how much clearer it could be really.  Just in case that wasn't clear enough here's another scene that wasn't shown which covers the same crap.

 

 

 

ron

I would not characterize Brandon as a Whacko or Psycho but as I've said before, he has impulse control issues. Everyone else in the Favorites tribe is dealing with Phillip in their own way. Some play along with him and some avoid him and some it seems are going to scheme to get rid of him. They all went through the starvation, exhaustion and exposure to the elements that Brandon did, but they did not snap. Unless you're a Hantz too, neither you nor I, or anyone else knows him personally, So we are all guilty of forming opinions based on just what we've seen of him on Survivor. Maybe he's just been misunderstood and portrayed in a villain's role for the sake of ratings or maybe we haven't seen how really evil he was, but either way, no one watching the show really knows.

As for my statement about the endangerment of his tribe mates' health, perhaps that was a bit dramatic, but if they lose what little food they had, it will affect them even more than normal and affect them in the challenges. And Brandon's rants at the challenge and his ouster gave the Fans a boost. So the whole favorites tribe has been dealt a huge setback, not just Phillip. I would also have to throw out the words Selfish and Immature too.

Let's be clear: Brandon is an independent actor with free agency. I certainly never asserted that anything "drove" his actions -- such far reaching philosophical pretensions are way beyond my pay grade. I did state that his anger was understandable, though never intended that that should be read as equivalent to even justification for anything, let alone that cause indisputably led to effect.

And of course any player that is honest, assesses the pay-off for entering into this adventure. Only a very few win, and I speculate every contestant weighs the impact on their life as a mere participant without the consideration of winning. Perhaps he saw himself as an unviable long shot. So what's the starategy then? How will this life episode enhance his beingness? Far from demonstrating suicidal wackiness, this is the hallmark and bedrock of stability -- ability to gauge reasonable outcomes, plan the future.

None of any of that points to the "Brandon is a nut-job" theory.

Can't find anything to disagree with there. He may well be a villian. Is certainly not a person I would wish to have in my life, but I have known a few folks who were outrageously self-destructive -- train wrecks to know really, and still they were not what I would call bonafide crazy. So I just think it goes a little bit beyond reasonableness to pronounce someone a nut job based on a flight of temperment, or even a whole case history of antisocial leanings.

You know, I was just thinking of a guy I knew -- I was minding my own business with my dogs in a park one day. Guy comes up that I knew. I always had considerable dread when this guy showed up, as it was always gonna be bad news. That day he had a horrendous gash in his forehead -- about four inches long and gapped open about a half-inch I would say. Still bloody, but not gushing. Well, of course this guy was very happy to see me because he needed me to sew his forehead shut, and I was just the man to do it. I didn't know if it would turn violent because I had to decline. I don't think I even asked him what happened. Didn't matter really -- that was this guy's life. Even HE was quite reasonable to talk to, if you saw through all the disfunction -- nowhere near a true psycho. So I just find myself pretty reluctant to level that kind of judgment, especially from limited clips assembled for ratings purposes.
Edited by Emaych - 3/15/13 at 12:04pm

I think Brandon saw the writing on the wall -- the tribe was with Phillip for the most part. And they were. And he deserved to be voted out just as he was for being destructive to the tribe's interests. All well and to the good. I think we saw the same thing.

I'm not so sure that he wasn't actually kicked off. Pulling him aside and then making the tribe have an open vote then and there effectively amounted to the producers kicking him off. Based on what we saw, I think it's doubtful that they would have ever let him go back to camp with the rest of the tribe.

Exactly my thought.

 

I wasn't referring particularly to anything you said.  It was the contention someone posted (and in that joke of an article from RB) about Brandon's behavior essentially being the result of his victimization at the hands of the show's dastardly producers, and/or bullying from Phillip that I meant to address.  It was directed at the people who failed to see that his whole "performance" was largely a big pre-planned show put on for the cameras in an attempt to prove he's not a punk and nobody's little bitch! 

 

After casually seeing the sideshow that is the Hantz family over the last few years I would guess Brandon's problems probably stem from all the lunkhead, redneck "adult" family he's surrounded with in his real life more than anything.  That said, I hate to admit it publicly because I do think he does have some real issues, but it would have been a little satisfying to see Phillip pound little Hantz's face into the sand a couple times

 

 

ron

He did know he was going, because Andrea stupidly tipped him off that he was on the chopping block. Brandon put that handwriting on the wall with his emotional instability that went on the whole time he was there. His first season was the same thing: Bullying, crying, praying, apologizing but Coach was able to manipulate him enough to get him to the F5 and then he was cut loose. As much as people don't like Russell he fought all the way to stay in the game while Brandon just basically quit and then made his big splash with his tantrum.
Brandon probably isn't a psycho like Norman Bates, but he may have some disorder that needs diagnosis and intervention.

Actually, if he had pulled his Survivor antics in the BB house, he WOULDN'T have been gone a long time ago. The difference is his uncle crossed the "reality show" line by getting physical and head-butting another contestant during a confrontation. Be it BB or Survivor, these shows will let the contestants pull whatever antics they want so long as they don't physically assault another person.

In this instance, Brandon never assaulted anyone...even after challenging Phillip on the beach, both apparently made it to the actual challenge itself without any fisticuffs. Yes, Brandon might have eventually gotten to that point given enough rope for all we know, but he didn't up to this point.

I think he let his emotions get the best of him but probably didn't care once he saw the writing on the wall.

I've seen the "I'll go out on my own terms", chest-thumping, bravado before, and frankly it's idiotic. What Brandon did was the equivalent of steering your car into a wall with 50 laps to go because you're pretty sure you aren't going to win the race.

I mean, yes, he kind of attempted to sabotage his former teammates, but he didn't even have much of a strategy there either. It looks like there'll already be a tribe shuffle in the next episode, so at least a portion of his former tribe will be back at a camp with rice, so whomever he wanted to hurt with the rice-dump may or may not even be affected. If you know you're going home and you want to sabotage things, why not call people out? Why not expose sub-alliances? And if you don't know of any make something up!! If he wanted to go out with a bang but take someone with him, he failed miserably.

To sum up, he had no chance of winning, so he quit using the "suicide by cop" method. Pathetic.

But I tend to disagree with the posters above - that was some damn fine television.

Brandon may have exposed more than what editing had shown,maybe we wiil find out with the probable tribal mix and match next week.

Very good Ron, I do concur with almost everything you said here (outcome of physical engagement by the two parties excepted). Brandon himself put forth that he was made to feel very meek and weak by his own family in the aftermath of what they saw as a shamefully pathetic, possibly disgracefully soul-searching, tear-filled spiral out that original go round. I think he did seek primarily to eradicate that lingering legacy with a bolder self-immolation this outing, with no real aspiration or hope of winning anything beyond that. And I think he succeeded -- even managing in the process to come off as much more in command of himself, less erratic -- even in spite of seeming to flirt with the brink of "stable" civil conduct -- it was perfectly premeditated after all.

Also, as has been pointed out, he never got violent, did not violate the rules (in my understanding), and even as he was calling Phillip out, was perfectly capable of switching right back over into a well-modulated tone of perfect equanimity in responding to Jeff. And from what I saw, he did not get kicked out -- Jeff just did the best with the situation he was given -- it made better drama to improvise tribal at that point than go through foregone ritual of parading to council knowing the outcome. Just very intelligent spontaneous show management by Probst, and great TV to boot, as has also been ventured.

Don't know that the producers are anxious to get him back though -- I think they realize the draw of Hantz drama has seemingly largely played out, unless perhaps there are just a few more of the clan they are sure we absolutely need to know...

Hadn't thought about that, but it makes perfect sense.

But, did it translate into ratings?

^^
He's obviously a "Legend in his own mind".

I'd be willing to bet that that is almost exactly the same as the last evaluation that the Univ of CO psychiatrist gave of James Holmes (the CO Theater shooter).

Yeah, he's a bit antisocial and has mood swings wider than the norm and he's made threats of violence, but he hasn't actually acted on any of them[yet]. So I don't have any evidence that he's a complete psycho....

And just like Holmes, we'll never be sure of Brandon until the day he actually hurts someone or when he finally passes away.

How about the Hantz women?

Somehow I envision Russel in a wig with lots of tramp stamps.

Seems to me that Survivor is going the "Jerry Springer" path to get ratings and it's not working. Without some major shift, I don't see Survivor surviving much past another couple of seasons.

So maybe we should all toss our TVs in the trash bin or just use them to play stupid video games...