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The Dragon Slayer won immunity. Oh man, he is so happy! I love it. Imagine how great a story this will become as it grows over the next 20 years.

Coach: ''And then, it was raining so hard that you literally could not see. Even Jeff said, 'It's raining so hard, I can't see.' But I dug deep and I used my ability to meditate while standing and that allowed me to see through the impenetrable rain. Something only Jedi masters can do.

''Then, I used my telepathic powers to guide the ball through a maze that was so difficult it had never been accomplished by anyone before. Even Jeff said so: 'This challenge is so difficult, no human being has ever accomplished it before!'

''When I finally won, Jeff tried to put the immunity necklace around my neck but due to me bench pressing 350 lb tree trunks earlier in the day my neck was too big for the necklace. That was another first. Even Jeff said as much, 'Wow, I've never seen a neck so big as a result of bench pressing 350 lb tree trunks that I can't get the necklace around. That's impressive.' ''

Strategic Overview of Survivor, Episode 10: There's the Right Way, the Wrong Way, and…

by Jeffrey D. Sadow -- 05/01/2009

SOS! There's the right way, the wrong way, and Coach's (right) way of doing things, and this episode had them all. We know that Coach did things Coach's way, which automatically implies obtuseness, so let's review the right and wrong ways to advance in the game.

The most wonderful surprises are those that come unexpectedly in plain packaging, and this episode certainly qualified for lovers of strategy in Survivor. Seldom have we seen such clear thinking on one side contrasted with absolute ineptitude on the other. And it is wrapped up with a strategic flourish that would do any player proud.

No matter how strategically well things can be arranged in Survivor, risk always remains that makes (or should make) every move calculated. This episode loomed large for the Stephen/J.T./Taj triad because of the calculated risk it took in the previous one. Now the moment of truth would come.

Sending off Tyson, probably the most formidable competitor outside of their group, had its value because, after demonstrating some challenge-winning and strategic-thinking abilities, he made himself so available for excising by so thoroughly alienating enough votes against him. The risk was that the alienated, to a small degree Erinn and to a much larger extent Sierra, might have it in them to start playing at a higher strategic level that could lead them to start paring both the triad and the dyad of Coach and Debbie, or perhaps choose Coach and Debbie because they are weaker competitors than at least two of the three in the triad.

Any possibility of this dissipated when Coach and Debbie opened their mouths. In an incredible display of hamhandedness, any small chance they had to bring Sierra back they completely eliminated and thereby sealed the fate of at least one of them to be gone in the next week, and both if neither won immunity at a strategic time. What part of the "Idiot's Guide to Survivor Strategy" did they even read if they didn't know that you never, ever alienate somebody who can get you further in the game; that even if you're a historical enemy of that person, if you can convince her that there are even greater enemies to her, the enemy of her enemy becomes her friend?

By contrast, the triad worked calmly to bring Erinn into the fold and allowed itself to disseminate some disinformation to the dyad. But this brought them to a quandary. Stephen certainly showed clear thinking when he said an erratic player like Sierra was dangerous to their plans (look at the havoc Sugar wreaked last season), yet the clearest overall long-term threats were, in order, Debbie and Coach. The latter was taken off the block with his immunity win, so this became a critical decision that had to be handled correctly.

Complicating matters was the disinformation campaign leading Coach and Debbie to believe they were in with Stephen and J.T. Taking out Debbie now would make a quick fiction of that, disable its use as a tactic down the road, and perhaps lose as many as two jury votes. In the final analysis, this may have been the deciding factor in getting rid of the random element rather than the biggest threat.

But what sets apart the way in which she was dispatched from the run-of-the-mill elimination was the elegance in using the opportunity to accomplish the additional objective of disinformation. For that to work, in the mind of Coach and Debbie, Erinn must be the one to go next and must be seen as an outsider, and Taj as a future expendable as well. While a prosaic 6-1 straightforward ejection of Sierra would do the job, the 4-2-1 outcome was just so much better.

The four against Sierra ended up being Stephen, J.T., Coach, and Debbie - perfect if a group is trying to project an image of a fictitious majority. Sierra of course voted for Debbie, but so did Taj - a ruse to make it appear that there was some dissension among the triad. And Erinn's throwaway vote against Stephen makes it seem like she is off by herself, a seeming obvious next target of the majority while Taj is by all accounts being muscled out and due to be sent off next.

Now all Stephen and J.T. have to do is confirm to Coach and Debbie that they voted against Sierra and let that pair's imaginations begin to run wild, inducing a complacency. This makes it easier to vote one off next, probably Debbie, while claiming extenuating factors.

For example, they could tell Coach that Debbie was too big of a threat, or that Erinn had the idol (the purpose of sending her for show to Exile Island this episode) and blackmailed them into getting rid of Debbie. As guileless as he is, he'll buy it, and the real elegance would be next to have Taj actually play the idol (assuming it is useless after five) with everybody voting for her except with her for Coach, and knocking him out totally unaware of being set up.

This would be a fantastic sequence of events, but even making the vote come out as it did alone serves the useful function of creating disinformation that will make "betrayal" of Coach and Debbie less obvious and costly when they are on the jury. It paves for a smooth move to five, and even if Coach or Debbie were to make it to four with an immunity win, then it's the perfect excuse for the triad to get rid of Erinn. Stephen's place in the game remains paramount with his ability to use Taj or J.T. against the other and still probably get the loser's vote in front of the jury.

So this episode serves up a fine lesson in exactly how to make a next step and how not to do it, and thereby was entertaining to lovers of strategy much more than any surface assessment of it would indicate.