Survivor 40.12 “Friendly Fire”

Last night, Survivor gave us another chaotic tribal council.

In fact, it was so chaotic — with everyone jumping up and whispering to one another — that it actually made it seem like more was happening than actually did happen.  When I rewatched the tribal council this morning, I discovered that — for all of the scheming and the paranoia — nothing really changed.  Everyone who said that they were going to vote for Jeremy voted for Jeremy.  Everyone who Tony approached about voting for Kim voted for Kim.  By a vote of 5-3, Kim was voted out of Survivor.

And really, that’s the way it almost always goes.  The Survivor editors are very good at making things looks more suspenseful than they actually are.  Usually, people show up at tribal council with a plan and they stick to that plan, regardless of what is said during the council.

When last night’s episode started, Kim was all fired up to take out Tony.  However, Kim made sure that everyone knew that she wanted to take out Tony so it’s not surprising that Tony decided to come after her instead.  Kim has a reputation for being one of the stronger “recent” winners, though I think she clearly benefited from not having a lot of strong competition during her previous season.  She’s spent most of Winners at War struggling and that continued last night.

The big news from last night is that Kim, Michele, and Nick all voluntarily dropped out of the immunity challenge so that they could eat.  (Nick at lest managed to negotiate getting a fire token from Tony before doing so.)  By dropping out, the three of them essentially handed immunity to Denise and (for the third week in a row), Tony.  Meanwhile, over on Edge of Extinction, the exiled players spent the day exhausting themselves by carrying coconuts from one side of the island to the other.  Even when it was apparent that he wasn’t going to win, Rob kept going “as a matter of pride.”  That was quite a contrast to the people still in the game.

With Tony safe, Kim and Ben wanted to target Jeremy.  Tony wanted to target Kim and eventually, he and Jeremy were able to get Ben to come over to their side.  Tribal was messy, largely because Tony got paranoid about whether or not everyone was going to vote the way that they said they were going to vote.  Tony got it into his head that Sarah was going to be targeted.  Tony started to play his idol for Sarah but then Sarah told him not to.  Jeremy then started to play the 50/50 idol that Michele gave him but, at the last minute, decided not to.  So now, everyone knows that Tony and Jeremy have idols.

For all that drama, though, the vote went the way it was expected to.

Michele, Denise, and Kim voted for Jeremy.  (Though Michele voted for Jeremy, she still gave him her idol so that he could potentially be safe.)

Tony, Sarah, Nick, Jeremy, and Ben all voted for Kim.

FInal vote, 5 for Kim and 3 for Jeremy.  Kim was sent to the Edge of Extinction.

Next week, we have a two-hour episode and then the finale is the week after that!

Lisa Marie

Survivor 40.11 “This is Extortion”

Well, having rewatched last night’s episode of Survivor, I really only have two thoughts:

First off, Tony is obviously back to being a force of chaos.  Ever since the merge, he had actually been playing a rather lowkey game, sticking with his alliance and not disappearing into the woods.  Last night, the old Tony emerged and it actually paid off for him.

Tony went into the woods and managed to find an idol.  Tony decided to do his undercover detective thing and tried to convince the minority alliance of Jeremy, Michele, Kim, Denise, and Nick that he was with him.  This, however, led to Tony deciding that he actually would be with them.  Then Parvati and Natalie sent Tony a disadvantage from Edge of Extinction, which required Tony to pay 6 fire tokens if he wanted to compete for immunity and vote at tribal council.  Tony managed to get some tokens from Jeremy, Nick, and Ben in order to pay off the debt.  That required a lot of old school hustling on Tony’s part.  (It also showed how unpopular Tony is with two potential members of the jury, which should concern him.)

Then, at the immunity challenge, Tony won his second immunity in a row!  Going into tribal with safety around his neck, Tony decided it was time to pull off a blindside and, in the process, prevent a different blindside from happening.  When he discovered that Kim and Denise were planning on turning on Jeremy, he went to Jeremy, Michele, and Nick and came up with a plan to blindside Sophie instead.

The other big lesson from last night’s episode is that you can’t allow yourself to get complacent on Survivor.  Sophie left with an idol in her pocket because she allowed herself to get complacent with her place in the game.  Even with all the sign that she was about to get blindsided, Sophie still didn’t play the idol and, as a result, she was voted out.  It was kind of a shame because, up until the past few episodes, Sophie had been playing a pretty strong game.

For the record, here’s how the vote broke down:

Ben, Denise, and Sophie all voted for Jeremy.

In case Jeremy had an idol, Kim and Sarah voted for Michele.

Tony, Nick, Jeremy, and Michele, however, all stuck together and voted for Sophie.

The end vote was: Sophie – 4, Jeremy — 3, and Michele — 2.  As a result, Sophie was sent to Edge of Extinction.

We’ve got 3 episodes left and then the Amazing Race will be taking over the time slot!

See you next week,

Lisa Marie

 

Survivor 40.10 “The Full Circle”

Last night was the dreaded family visit episode.  This is the episode where the loved ones emerge from the jungle and everyone stands on the beach crying as if they’ve been away at war for a year as opposed to filming a reality show for a little less than a month.  Some people like these episodes.  I always find them be a bit mawkish and sometimes even a little smarmy.  Some of the contestants on Winners at War are making their fourth and fifth appearances on Survivor so, by this point, they should be used to abandoning their families for a month.

This season was unique in that the families didn’t have to compete in anything and the Edge of Extinction crew got to see their families as well.  The entire first half of the show was just people hugging and crying,  Again, I know some people probably loved it but for me, it was just filler.

The second half of the show was a bit better.  First off, Tony V. won immunity.  I’m not even a Tony fan but I was still impressed by his victory because it was a challenge that required patience and even Tony admitted that it wasn’t the type of challenge that you would normally expect him to win.  The fact that Tony did win it shows that, perhaps, he’s grown up a little bit.  If nothing else, he finally modified his style enough to win something.  Apparently, this is the first individual immunity that he’s ever won.

Tribal was fun, with all of the usual whispering and scheming.  Kim nearly pulled off a huge blindside but she made one mistake.  Basically, going into tribal, it was Denise, Jeremy, Tyson, and Kim vs. everyone else.  Three advantages were played:

1. Jeremy played his “leave tribal early” advantage.  He was allowed to head back to camp before the vote.  Therefore, he could not be voted out but he lost his vote, which meant his alliance was even more outnumbered than before.
2. Sarah played her steal a vote advantage and took away Denise’s vote.
3. After the vote, Kim played her immunity idol for Denise.

At first, it looked like Kim’s plan was going to work.  Denise did get two votes and it looked like Sophie might get blindsided.  However, all of the rest of the votes that were read were for Tyson.  The majority alliance split their vote between Denise and Tyson and Kim made the mistake of thinking that, because Sarah stole Denise’s vote, Denise would be the primary target.  Instead, by a vote of 5-2, it was Tyson who was sent back to the Edge of Extinction.

Again, Kim came really close to pulling something off.  If Jeremy hadn’t left and had stayed to vote for Sophie and if Kim had played her idol for Tyson, then Sophie would have been blind-sided.  But that didn’t happen and Tyson did not look very happy about the results.

Only two more episodes left!

Lisa Marie

P.S. I may not have cared much about the family visits but the big group hug that the jury gave to Jeff Probst at the end of tribal council was sweet.

Survivor 40.9 “War Is Not Pretty”

Well, we all know it was going to happen at some point, didn’t we?

Adam won his first season by being a weasel.  He tried the same strategy in Survivor 40 but this time, he was playing against experienced players who knew better than to underestimate him.  I can’t say that I was shocked to see Adam voted out last night.  Stabbing everyone in the back and then having a meltdown during tribal council is never a good strategy.  Even though Adam was right about the way that Ben’s playing the game, Adam betrayed too many people for him to not be the target.  Adam did make a heroic attempt to play a part of the voting podium as an immunity idol but it did not work (largely because it was just a part of the podium and not an idol) and Adam was sent out of the game by a vote of 8-2-1.  (Adam voted for Sarah.  Sarah and Denise voted for Nick, who was the original target before Adam freaked out.  Everyone else voted for Adam.)

It wasn’t an unexpected result but it was still an entertaining tribal council.  It’s always fun when everyone starts whispering among themselves before the vote.  As I mentioned, Nick was the original target but Adam dug his own grave.  Nick may or may not make to the end but, right now, he’s having a streak of good luck.  Every time that he’s a target, someone else self-destructs.

I honestly thought that Sarah would be the target last night.  Though she was on the team that won the reward challenge, she gave her prize of Chinese takeout to Nick.  She said that she did it out of the kindness of her heart, because Nick is on the outside and had just celebrated a birthday.  Her actions made everyone suspicious of her.  Nick repaid her by voting for her.  That’s Survivor, for you.

Meanwhile, on Edge of Extinction, Parvatti and Denise found a 50/50 advantage — a big coin that you flip at tribal council to determine whether or not you’re safe that night.  They sold it to Michele for 4 fire tokens.  Michele probably wouldn’t have purchased it except that, during the Chinese Takeout reward, her fortune cookie told her to take a risk.  Basing your strategy on a fortune cookie is definitely a good idea that will not backfire.

So, Adam is now out of the game.  We’ll see who joins him next week!

Lisa Marie

Survivor 40.8 “This Is Where The Battle Begins”

Well, the merge is here.

All three tribes are now one big tribe and, joining them last night, was Tyson.  The folks at Edge of Extinction finally got their chance to compete to reenter the game.  It was one of those competitions where you had to go through an obstacle course and then navigate a ball through a hole.  I like Amber but I knew that there was no way she was going to be a factor in this competition and she wasn’t.  I don’t like Natalie and I cringed when it looked like she was on the verge of winning but then Natalie dropped her ball and had to start all over again.

At first, I wanted Rob to win because he’s Boston Rob.  Then I wanted Yul to win, just because Yul is likable and he’s an underdog.  In the end, Tyson won and I guess that’s okay.  I’ve never really been as big a fan of Tyson as some people are.  Jeff Probst always insists that Tyson is one of the best players ever but I really don’t see it.  Still, Tyson was smart enough to lay low and not draw attention to himself after reentering the game.  That was a good move on his part.

So, here are the members of the new Koru Tribe:

Wendell

Tyson

Sophie

Jeremy

Ben

Michele

Adam

Sarah

Kim

Denise

Tony

Nick

During the traditional post-merge feast, Denise made the mistake of bragging about how she got rid of Sandra, which automatically put a target on her back.  Meanwhile, Jeremy and Wendell bonded and Jeremy came up with a plan to form an alliance of “big targets” — himself, Tyson, Ben, Tony — that would then target the smaller targets.  Meanwhile, Sophie got annoyed with Jeremy trying to control everything and started thinking about targeting him.

At the immunity challenge, the castaways had to hang onto a pole for as long as they could.  The last man and the last woman to still be hanging on the pole won immunity.  The challenge was won by Jeremy and Denise, which meant that the two biggest targets in the tribe were both safe at tribal council.

Jeremy wanted to vote out Nick but he soon discovered that the rest of the tribe had decided to vote out Wendell.  Though Jeremy tried to change their minds, he ultimately went along with the majority.  It did briefly appear that Wendell might be saved by the fact that no one trusts Adam but, in the end, Wendell was the one who was blindsided at tribal.  The final vote 9 votes for Wendell and 3 votes for Adam.  (Those 3 votes came from Wendell, Nick, and Michele.)  Wendell split his two fire tokens between Nick and Michele and then headed to the Edge of Extinction where he — and the other players — will wait for their chance to reenter the game.

I don’t know that Wendell being voted out is going to have a huge impact on the game but Adam is probably going to freak out over getting those three votes.  It’ll be interesting to see how he handles it next week.

Lisa Marie