Survivor 37.9 “Breadth-First Search”

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

So, today, let’s give thanks for an entertaining tribal council!  I have to admit that I was really worried that, despite John getting voted out last week, this season of Survivor was going to devolve into the Goliaths getting rid of the Davids one-by-one but last night, the Davids managed to pull off an amazing blindside and they got rid of one of the biggest threats on the Goliath tribe, Dan!

Admittedly, Dan was only a threat because he could win immunity challenges.  His social game, as we saw last night, sucked and I doubt he could have convinced the jury to give him the million dollars.  However, he was a part of the “Goliath Strong” alliance and getting rid of him certainly helps to make the tribal breakdown a bit less lopsided.

Last night’s episode really didn’t get that interesting until the tribal council.  I have to admit that, until it actually happened, I had the feeling that the Davids would make a mistake and Christian would end up going home.  (When Christian didn’t play the immunity idol that he found earlier in the episode, I nearly screamed.)

Going into tribal, Dan thought he had all of the Goliaths on board with getting rid of Christian.  However, he actually only had Alison, Angelina, and Mike on his side.  Alec and Kara had turned against him and they joined up with the Davids to blindside either Dan or Angelina.

So, here’s what happened at Tribal.  For once, all of those little powers and idols were used strategically to take out a worthy target:

At Tribal, right before the vote, Nick announced that he would be using his steal-a-vote power to take away Alison’s vote.  Why they took away Alison’s vote and not Dan’s, I’m not sure.  Maybe they were trying to make Dan waste his idol on the wrong person.

After the voting, Dan announced that he was using his second immunity idol to protect himself.  (Alison, who obviously believed herself to be the target, was not amused.)

Jeff accepted the idol and then announced that the idol nullifier had been used and, as a result, Dan’s immunity idol now had no power.

Angelina, Mike, and Dan all voted for Christian.

Alec and Kara both voted for Angelina.

Meanwhile, all of the Davids — Christian, Davie, Nick, Carl, and Gabby — all voted for Dan.  Nick used the vote that he stole from Alison to also vote for Dan.  So, as a result, the final vote was 6 for Dan, 3 for Christian, and 2 for Angelina.  If Carl hadn’t used his nullifier or had used it on the wrong person, none of the votes against Dan would have counted and Christian would have been sent to the jury.  Instead, Carl used the nullifier on Dan and Dan became the third member of the jury.

So, this leads us to a very interesting point in the game.  The tribe is now made up of 5 former Davids and 5 former Goliaths.  If Alec and Kara continue to vote with the Davids, they could easily pick off the 3 remaining members of “Goliath Strong,” Angelina, Mike, and Alison.  After the past two tribal councils, almost all of the special advantages have been used.  As of right now, Christian is the only person in the game who has an immunity idol.

So, these upcoming few weeks should be very interesting!  It all depends on whether Alec and Kara stick with Davids and whether Mike, Angelina, and Alison can pick up some immunity wins (or find an idol) when they need to.

Speaking of the new few weeks, I’m currently on vacation so my sister, Erin, will be filling in for the next two weeks!  And then I’ll be back for the final two episodes of Survivor: David vs. Goliath!

Happy holidays!

Lisa Marie