Survivor 33.9 “Still Throwin’ Punches”

Hi everyone!

I’m sitting here thinking about last night’s episode of Survivor and one word comes to mind:

Wow!

Seriously, that was a great tribal council.  You can say what you want about some of the people in this group of survivors or the weakness of this whole Gen X vs. Millennials theme.  (I’m not a huge fan of the theme and I think that Jeff Probst has been going overboard into trying to convince us that every little thing that happens is somehow emblematic of an entire generation.)  But this season has given us some wonderful tribal councils!

Last night, from the minute that Ken won the immunity necklace, I think it was pretty obvious that either Jay or Taylor would be going home.  The show tried to create some suspense by showing us that Sunday wants to get rid of Jessica and that the Gen X alliance isn’t quite as tight as it initially appeared to be.  But, going into the tribal, it seemed obvious that it would either be Taylor or Jay.

But then Taylor and Jay both turned on Adam.  Taylor admitted to stealing and stashing food but he then also revealed that Adam has an “advantage.”  Considering that almost everyone in the tribe dislikes Adam, this was not a bad move.  Adam’s sputtering response didn’t help.

But then Taylor and Jay both made a huge mistake.

They accused Adam of helping Taylor steal the food.  There was no reason to lie about it and try to make Adam look bad.  When Adam replied that he hadn’t helped Taylor steal any food, it was obvious that he was telling the truth.  And it just reminded everyone that Taylor cannot be trusted.

Jay then started to claim that Adam should have told everyone about Taylor’s stash and Jay ended up going so far overboard in his indignation that he pretty much sacrificed whatever credibility he once had.

In the end, 7 votes were cast for Taylor, 4 for Jay, and 1 for Adam.  Nobody played their immunity idol.  Taylor was sent to the jury, where he can now hang out with Michelle.  One thing that surprised me about the vote is that only Taylor voted for Adam.  Jay still voted for Taylor, indicating that he realizes that his scheme hadn’t worked.  Even more surprisingly, Will voted for Jay.  Up until this point, Will has basically been Jay’s right hand man.

Personally, I think that Taylor and Jay’s scheme would have worked if they had revealed Adam’s secret before tribal council and given people time to think about it.  By taking everyone by surprise, they may have caused a little damage to Adam’s game but, for the most part. everyone voted the way that they were originally planning to.

Still, it was great Tribal and I can’t wait to see what happens next week!

Lisa Marie