Eliminated Tonight: Katie
It’s Wednesday and that means there’s another survivor on tonight. Now that we are down to just two tribes it’ll start to get a little more interesting with more time spent on the other tribes. I liked the first few episodes but there was a lot of Matsing footage. While this was understandable since they lost so badly, I’ll be happy to spend more time with the other tribes. Especially at Tandang with crazy Abi-Marie and RC. I cannot wait for these two to go to Tribal Council. It may be the craziest pre-merge tribal ever.
The season is still lacking any real alliances that could make it to the end. The only alliance I can see lastly is Malcolm and Denise and that will only matter if they both make the merge. At Kalabaw the Guy Alliance is more out of convenience then an actual bond to the end. Jonathan has shown in past seasons that he is not afraid to jump ship to get further in the game and I think he would do the same thing here if it took him to the end. I suspect Jeff Kent would do the same. As for Tandang I the Day One alliance died on day one. Abi-Marie and RC were never going to work out and Pete was working against Michael from the start. I like that Malcolm instantly becomes a favorite on the tribe by pretty much everyone. I’d be surprised if he doesn’t make at least the merge if not the end. He is already in with Pete and has the knowledge of the Hidden Idol they have. He can pretty much pick and choose who he works with. Hopefully he is smart enough to align with the right people.
I’m most excited that they will be two challenges per episode which means Abi-Marie will actually need to compete in one. I can already see Tandang sacrificing the reward to allow her not to compete in the Immunity. It kind of surprises me since she looks fit enough to compete in challenges that I would expect her to do well but I guess looks can be deceiving.
For predictions if Tandang wins I can see a group team together to take out Abi-Marie since she is crazy and can’t do challenges. If not then RC will be hurt with her earlier “alliance” with Abi-Marie and she’ll be voted off. As for Kalabaw I think Katie should and will be voted out. They will keep Denise because she is the stronger of the two.
Look for my recap tomorrow morning.
RECAP
We start off at Kalabaw right after Tribal Council. Katie feels like she is at bottom at totem pole and has to work magic to see if she can regain place in tribe. Katie and Denise speculate that Penner has the idol. Katie is trying to plant seed of distrust to have Penner eliminated. It’s a good attempt and she’s smart to start early to try to save herself.
Over at Tandang they are running out of rice because Mike is eating it raw. The tribe is starting to think of Mike as useless and disposable now that Malcolm is with the tribe. Both Artis and Pete are leading the tribe on the discontent of Mike. Mike on his part is oblivious of the way the tribe feels about him. He wants to eat before challenge but everyone else wants to save food for later since they are running out. Even with the tribe winning it is clear that it is the Tribe vs. Mike and RC.
With the decision not to eat made we make our way to the reward challenge. Three members of each tribe must run at each other, trying to push a giant ball into their goal. First team to three wins reward of a Dry Hut filled with sandwiches, soup, brownies, and chips. Tandang chooses to sit RC and Artis so clearly they are already planning to sit Abi-Marie for the Immunity Challenge.
The first round is Pete, Lisa and Skupin for Tandang vs. Penner, Carter, and Denise for Kalabaw. It’s a long drawn out process of people sitting in mud and throwing each other around and after an hour the ball barely moves from the center. At this point Penner offers the rest of Kalabaws rice for the victory in the challenge. Clearly the majority of both tribes do not want to make this trade but somehow Penner and Skupin are able to accept the trade. They didn’t show it so it may have happened but someone should have at least asked how much rice was left. Also being that close to the merge they could have dragged out what they had left as I am pretty sure they get more rice at the merge.
I fail to see a winner in this trade. Tandang gives up a challenge and potentially allows Kalabaw to gain momentum. On the flip side Kalabaw gave up all their rice so if Penner is wrong and they fail to find rice they can become weak and continue losing challenges and get picked off.
After Kalabaw “wins” the reward they go back and enjoy their feast. It is actually a really good reward but I don’t think it was worth giving up all their rice. The letters from home do not change my impression even if it can give a slight emotion boost. Once they are starving the letters will be forgotten. Also I cannot remember the letters being given out this early before. It’s pre-merge and just seems really early.
When we go back to Tandang they discover that Kalabaw had same amount of rice as Tandang so basically they doubled their rice which if they don’t decrease the amount they eat will only last an extra day. The majority of the tribe is still clearly against the trade especially Artis who hates to lose. They quietly express their anger without bursting out except for Abi-Marie who keeps making snide remarks about the limited amount of rice.
The next morning Kalabaw is trying to fish. Penner runs out to try to catch a stingray but misses badly. The mean side of me hopes that they lose or damage the sling but I’m glad it stayed safe since overall I’m a nice guy. If Ozzy was on this tribe I would have totally been all for giving up the rice. Instead they rely on Penner who comes back with two of the smallest fish I have ever seen that aren’t pet fish. It barely feeds the tribe and everyone is still starving except for Penner who pretends he is filled. They lament being weak for the challenge which brings us to the Immunity Challenge.
One member must launch balls while the other members try to catch any ball. First team to five wins. Tandang sits Skupin after he loses Rock Paper Scissors to Malcolm and Abi-Marie. She is again called out for not participating and she claims this is the tribes decision. I wonder why they are deciding this.
Denise and Lisa are launching the balls. We start off with Penner scoring for Kalabaw followed by Pete and RC doubling off to give Tandang a 2-1 lead. Jeff takes the next 3 points for a 4-2 Kalabaw lead. Skupin then makes the suggestion to shoot the ball at Malcolm and he takes over scoring the next three points for the Tandang win.
With this, Denise has been to every Tribal thus far. She must be approaching a record for most tribal councils in a season which I’ll be forced to look up later. If anyone knows the answer please let me know in the comments or on twitter. Kalabaw admits they were outplayed by Malcolm and the battle of the minds starts.
Jeff and Carter want to keep Denise due to her strength and are thinking Katie due to her being weak, or vote out Penner since he is a vet and no one wants a vet to win the season. They consider voting out Penner as long as they can keep it secret so he doesn’t use the idol.
This leads to a great moment for Carter as he asks Penner if he wants to vote out Katie or Penner which must have been awkward for all involved but it seems to blow over as they discuss taking out Katie. As Katie walks up Penner freely volunteers that it is Denise being voted out with Katie needing to ask for the info. Katie being smart clearly knows this is BS and starts pushing for the tribe to eliminate Penner. Going into the tribal council it is clearly Katie or Jonathan
Jeff Probst asks who feels vulnerable and only Denise and Katie raise their hands. Denise worries she is the new kid on the block and would be an easy vote while Katie worries she is the other woman and is the weakest member left but argues that she is loyal. Jonathan doesn’t want to show vulnerability by saying he doesn’t feel vulnerable so he didn’t raise his hand.
Jeff says this games sucks because it gets complicated and you get close to each other so have to do blindsides. This brings up the discussion of why blindsides happen and Penner states they happen because it makes the time before tribal more peaceful. Penner notes that if he is blindsided it is more power to the rest as if he had known he would have gone out swinging. Everyone knows a blindside is coming but just not who is heading home.
They show Katie voting for Penner and Penner for Katie. After the rest of the votes are shown Katie is the one blindsided and is the one sent packing. Next week it looks like we may have a merge with everyone scrabbling to get all their things, including hidden idols, together. I look forward to what the merge brings as it usually opens new storylines and at this point there is still no concrete alliances.
