Hall of Shame Moment: Morgan Tribe’s Village Fiasco

When the staff here at the Reality TV Hall of Shame discusses new “exhibits,” there usually is not complete agreement. Many people see things in different ways, and what might be shameful to one person is just a silly mistake to another. However, the premiere episode of Survivor: Pearl Islands provided us with a Hall of Shame Moment so obvious that there was not one dissenting vote. That Moment? Morgan tribe’s behavior at the Panamanian village.

How many times did host Jeff Probst urge the contestants to work as a team in the village? Have a plan. Be prepared. Spend your money wisely. You won’t be coming back. Etc. Apparently, that wasn’t enough for Morgan, who swam to the village willy nilly and then ran around like chickens with their heads cut off. They had no plan. They were not prepared. They were not working as a team. Hell, Ryan O. ran off by himself without any money or the map and then looked like a complete idiot as he tried to ask the local boat drivers how much it would cost to get to an unspecified location.

But that alone wouldn’t have been worthy of a mention in these hallowed halls of shamedom. No, Morgan tribe kept right on plunging downward.

As tribe members arrived with the raft, they saw Rupert from the opposing Drake tribe taking a rest with Drake’s raft. So what did they do? They plopped down their raft, which contained additional items like shoes. Rupert immediately caught on the idea that this is a pirate type of Survivor and did some quick looting, costing Morgan some items that they could have used either in camp or to barter with.

Let us put aside for a moment what Rupert did. Perhaps it just never occurred to Morgan that somebody from the other tribe would steal from them. It should have, but maybe in their frenzy they just didn’t think about it. Fine.

But they had just entered a town where they knew nothing about the locals and immediately plunked their stuff down out in the open and ran away. Even if they weren't thinking the other tribe could steal their stuff, it should have occurred to them that somebody else might! I mean, if people are willing to barter for shoes, it should have occurred to them that some people in the town might take a short cut and just take the shoes. Have none of them ever been to a poor town before? I’m not saying everybody there is a thief or anything, but things have been known to disappear in such areas. Yet that never occurred to Morgan.

So that’s two things so far. As the Ginsu knife commercials say, though, “Wait, there’s more!”

The tribes were both told that they would not be able to go back to town. But rather than find out how much money the boat would cost, they just all ran there with Ryan S. in the back saying, “Hey, guys, we still have money.” Nobody listened. As Jeff Probst would later say on Wayne Brady’s talk show, they were “idiots.” Balboas don't do them a damned bit of good at camp. They needed to get every available resource they could from that village – it was their only source of goods. While Drake was bartering for an entire chicken dinner (plus a live chicken!) and trading off jewelry, Morgan left town with their pockets still jingling.

As I write this, it’s still very early in the game and Morgan may well be able to come back from this fiasco. But that doesn’t change the fact that it never should have happened to begin with. Morgan tribe ignored every single one of Jeff Probst’s warnings, had no plan, left their possessions out in the open to be stolen, and then left with money in their pockets and goods they could have used still on store shelves.

For that, the tribe deserves special mention. And they are getting it with this Hall of Shame Moment.

David Bloomberg is the Editor of the Reality TV Hall of Shame, and can be reached at RNO@pobox.com.

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