Sorry for not opening a discussion thread earlier but I actually forgot it was Wednesday today. Luckily I finally remembered because the Tribal Council this week was crazy.
Before getting to this week’s recap last’s weeks results showed that just over 54% thought Malcolm was a goner last week. That was lower then I expected but some people see things differently. It is what makes Survivor fun.
As always discussion the episode below and if you would like I can be found on Twitter @nericmitch if you want to discuss.
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Happy Wednesday and welcome go to this week’s Survivor recap. We had some action at the last two tribal councils and I am excited to see what happens this week. Jeff has promised that this is one of the best episodes of the season.
Back at camp everyone but Reynold, Eddie, and Malcolm go off for a team meeting clearly showing who is at the bottom. The bottom three plans on getting up early and searching for the idol while Stealth-R-Us are celebrating that there is no idol in the game.
Malcolm laments thinking Dawn was at the bottom of the totem pole and knows it was a mistake to go to her. But he does still have an idol so anything can happen.
The next morning Cochran and Phillip are talking about how Dawn is not the sure thing to win anymore because she has burnt a lot of bridges with people and is playing a deceitful game. In the background we can hear Dawn screaming for Brenda for help like someone attacked her but really she is just having a breakdown.
I was expecting from good laughs from the crying but It’s actually awkward to watch her crying. Apparently it is about a retainer that fell into the water and she seems embarrassed because she is missing teeth. She says she will pull herself from the game if they are not found but Brenda comes to the rescue and dives for them. And Brenda actually gets a confessional and now we can go back to pretending she’s not in the game.
We are off to the reward challenge where each team of five will race through an obstacle course and mad to collect bags of balls. Once all balls are collected they will shoot them into a net. First team to get all 12 balls into the net wins. They are playing for a trip to a resort with a pool and a nice lunch including plenty of meats and drinks.
Purple is made up of Reynold, Erik, Dawn, Cochran, and Phillip while Orange is made up have Malcolm, Eddie, Brenda, Sherri, and Andrea.
Erik takes a lead but Malcolm makes the strategy to find all five bags before moving on. Reynold hits the mud and follows the same strategy. Reynold gets all five bags as Dawn into the mud. She gets through quickly followed by Cochran. Sherri gets what seems like forever on the balance beams but gets through as Phillip reaches the end for the purple.
Purple starts untying the bags and shooting as Eddie races through the course to try to catch up. It’s all for naught as Purple wins 12-0.
Purple arrives at the resort and starts chowing down on the meats. There is a beautiful pool and a shower beside it to wash down but Phillip gets the chance to just jump in with all his caked on mud and strips out of his clothes. This pisses Erik off because Phillip has no consideration for anyone else.
Back at camp everyone is sleeping except Dawn who is paranoid about being blindsided and is worried about her place in the game. She is worried about Andrea hanging out with Malcolm, Eddie, and Reynold. Somehow she is afraid of Andrea flipping if they have to split the votes. With votes split they would only need four votes to take out Dawn. Phillip promises her that she is not in danger but he is thinking of taking out Dawn because she is losing her grasp on reality and the game. Dawn’s doubts are also worrying Cochran.
While eating coconut for some reason Dawn continues her downward spiral since Andrea is talking with Malcolm and Eddie. Andrea goes to Phillip to see what is going on and he tells her Dawn is leaving is living in a world of paranoia. Phillip ensures Andrea that she didn’t do anything wrong and that Dawn is just out of control.
Dawn continues to break her preseason promises to not cry by breaking down with Cochran and staying that she may just need some time alone. You know where you can get some alone time. At Survivor Ponderosa.
Back from Commercial Dawn finally got some sleep and seems better with some sleep. We are treated to another Stealth-R-Us want to take out Reynold first. They plan on voting 4 to Reynold and 3 to Malcolm thus ensuring any idols are flushed. Cochran says that he doesn’t want to get to comfortable but he likes that his alliance has numbers. That can only mean that Reynold is winning the immunity.
And with that we are ready for this week’s challenge. There will be two heats. They will need to jump into the water, use a rope to swim under a platform and transfer two buoys from one side to the other. Winner has a 1 in 9 chance of winning the game.
The first heat is Reynold, Cochran, Dawn, Andrea, and Sherri. Two people move on to the finals. Andrea and Reynold hit the water first but Reynold and Dawn come up first. Cochran and Sherri are quickly out of the running. Reynold and Andrea move on to the finals.
The second heat is Malcolm, Eddie, Brenda, Erik, and Phillip. We know Phillip won’t win because he likes to be in control by throwing challenges. I stated that before Phillip announced he has a fear as a child from being under water for too long and decides to sit out the challenge.
Malcolm and Brenda hit the water first but it is a close race as everyone is in and out of the water. Malcolm finished first and Eddie is right behind but somehow he fails to ensure his second buoy is on the other side and Brenda sneaks in for the win. With that much of a lead Eddie should have slowed down a little and ensured his buoy was on.
The finals are Reynold, Malcolm, Andrea, and Brenda. There are five buoys on this round so that is five trips underwater. Malcolm and Reynold are side by side followed by the ladies. The ladies fall behind ad Reynold and Malcolm fight it out. Reynold pops out first on the last run and wins immunity. Cochran cursed the alliance’s plans by being too comfortable.
Reynold says he has no respect for Phillip because he chose to not even try the challenge. For his part Phillip now wants to split votes between Malcolm and Eddie.
Malcolm wants to try to get through the vote without using his idol so Reynold, Eddie, and himself go Idol hunting while everyone else lays about at camp. They figure there are no butts to kiss so kill two hours by searching. Andrea and Dawn join in the hunt.
Malcolm is searching everywhere and when Dawn asks Malcolm if he needs help searching he pulls it out of a rock right in front of them. And since they are already there he opens it in front of them. Stealth-R-Us are still planning on splitting the votes even with nothing that Malcolm has an idol.
The smart decision would be for Malcolm to play both idols for him and Eddie and search next week for another Idol but we will see how he plays it. It really depends on whether he feels he needs Eddie in the game.
One of the greatest tribal council moments was Parvati playing multiple Idols at Tribal to save her alliance and this has the chance to be a moment like that since only Malcolm knows he has two idols.
We are off to Tribal. Michael comes in as the first member of the jury. Reynold admits that Reynold, Malcolm, or Eddie are goners. Eddie knows he is going home since everyone knows that Malcolm found the hidden idol.
Cochran admits that Reynold was the first choice but he won immunity. He says that Reynold is the biggest physical threat and people are worried about that. Phillip explains that the reason he skipped the challenge is because as a child he got stuck under a deck and was stuck underwater until the owner pulled him out. He says he would make the decision to sit out of a challenge like that every time.
Andrea says that people are paranoid at camp and people can’t talk to Reynold, Eddie, Malcolm or they will have targets on them.
Malcolm pulls out all the card when he says that he wants to really mix up the game by pulling out the second immunity idol and handing it to Eddie who has a surprised but relieved smile on his face. Jackpot!!! The looks on people’s faces are amazing. Andrea looks pissed and Dawn has a wide open mouth of shock.
There is a lot of talking among the alliance while Malcolm, Eddie, and Reynold are living it up and Michael is having a big laugh at the worry on the others faces. Dawn is really worried since she has been having moments every day. Jeff goes back to Malcolm who remembers he just wanted to celebrate that none of his three were going home. He says that he knows there position in the game won’t change tomorrow and they will be down 6-3 but throws out that the three of them will be voting for Phillip.
Malcolm argues that Phillip sucks the fun out of the game which Phillip says that is not the game he is playing. Andrea is still paranoid because her name was thrown out last week. Erik wisely brings up that they may not even play both idols.
Phillip says he thinks they should vote the way they planned on voting before coming to tribal. Cochran who has studied this game says this vote will be a gamble but as a viewer it is great to watch.
This is why I love Survivor!!! Going into the vote we have three questions as pointed by Jeff: 1) Who are the three amigos going to vote for? 2) Who are the other seven going to vote for? 3) And will Eddie and Malcolm play their idols? I have no clue what will happen and I love it.
We are shown only Erik’s vote and he votes for Fillip. Both Eddie and Malcolm played the idols so any votes counted for them will not count. The first six votes were for Eddie and Malcolm and they do not count. The Three Amigos stay true and vote out Phillip finally ending the National Nightmare.
What a crazy Tribal. Phillip had a lot of moments that annoyed me but he was a solid player and had some funny moments. The Specialist can bring his spy games to Ponderosa.
Next week the Three Amigos try to recruit Sherri and Erik and we are treated to the Survivor Auction. If Reynold, Eddie, and Malcolm don’t save their money for the advantage at the next immunity challenge they are crazy.
