Survivor Week 11 Discussion and Recap *Updated*

It’s that time of the week again. Another episode of Survivor. I’m not expecting any fireworks this week but I wouldn’t be surprised if Abi finds a way to last another week.

But if I was betting I would bet on Abi leaving the game. Discuss below and look for my recap later.

Recap

We start with Abi lamenting how she didn’t know the rest of the tribe felt like that toward her and that everyone else was mean to her.  Denise says that Abi needs to go next unless she wins immunity. Which, for those who have watched 25 seasons of Survivor, totally means she is going to win immunity. Denise  says the backup plan is to vote out Penner.

We come back from commercial and Abi and Malcolm head to get tree mail. The find letters with everyone’s names on them and it causes Abi to break down crying. They head back to camp and hand out the cold hard cash for the Survivor Auction. Always a great challenge watching people bet on food when there is always a special prize that can actually help someone stay in the game.

Abi goes in vowing to keep her money for the advantage. Everyone else bids with their eyes rather than their minds. Denise drops her $500 on Pancakes, Bacon, and OJ. Skupin follows that by dropping $500 on Wine and Cheese even though he doesn’t drink wine. Malcolm spends $200 and Iced Coffee and Donuts. Penner spends $100 on blind item which ends up being fried chicken. Carter then spends $200 on blind item and ends up being baked potato. Jeff offers to trade the baked potato for rice and beans for the tribe to last rest of game and he accepts.

Lisa drops $320 on gigantic sandwiches as Abi keeps her vow by dropping her $500 on the challenge advantage. It amazes me how people never seem to remember that somewhere in the challenge an advantage will be available to purchase. The auction ends with Carter spending $300 on Veal shanks which is gets to share with the rest of the tribe for 60 seconds.

After the challenge Penner and Abi start discussing what happened at the last tribal shutting down everyone’s the high from the auction. Abi wants Penner to apologize and he refuses since he has nothing to apologize for. It was actually pretty funny with Penner and Abi talking it out and everyone else looking the other way looking awkward.

Abi opens her advantage and it shows that she gets to skip to the last round of the next challenge. She devises a plan of making everyone think she has an idol and starts it by telling Malcolm she has the idol. For his part Malcolm compares her to an ex-girlfriend who continues to stick around after you have broken up with her. You can’t get rid of her and her bitterness and you don’t get the benefits of having a girlfriend. I can see where he is coming from.

To the Immunity challenge where there will be three rounds. Castaways must lead their way through three rounds of obstacles attached to a rope. The first five in round one get though followed by the first two in round two. At the start of each round they will be asked a question and if you get it wrong you have 5% of your body weight added to you to carry through the maze.

When reading the advantage out loud Abi played it like there was two parts to the message and after reading that she got to skip to the last round ripped up the note so no one could read it. I didn’t know she was that smart but it was a brilliant move.

After the first question Denise and Lisa get the first question wrong and get weight added. Denise, Carter, Skupin, Malcolm, and Penner move on to the second round. This time Denise gets it wrong again and now is carrying an extra 10% of her body weight. Carter and Skupin also got it wrong  extra and they are not carrying 5% extra. This time only Carter and Penner move on. Carter gets the next question wrong so he has to carry the extra weight. Abi uses her fresh legs to win Immunity, Maybe Denise should have kept quiet earlier.

The bright side of things is that things will now get interesting. The Final Four alliance agrees to vote out Penner. This doesn’t sit well with Lisa since she has gained a trust with Penner and Carter and feels a connection to them. She approaches Penner and tells him that she isn’t made for this game. Penner tells her to cut the crap and takes her for a walk.

She fesses to making an alliance with Malcolm and Denise for the final four. Penner tries to get her to change her mind but she is dedicated to the new alliance. Penner is an amazing talker but once Lisa aligns with someone she sticks with it.

He approaches Skupin and starts blowing smoke up his ass saying Skupin is a smart player and knows what needs to be done. He makes it seem like Skupin has a better chance of beating Penner then Malcolm or Denise and Skupin acts like this is an opinion he came up with himself.

For his part Penner easily convinces Abi and Carter to write down Denise’s name. Penner says that not choosing a side is his mistake and gives Malcolm and Denise credit for jumping on the opportunity.

It’s time for Tribal where we start with Jeff getting Abi to admit she waited for the chance to bid on the advantage and celebrate that it helped her get three more days in the game.

We then move on to rehashing last week’s fireworks. Denise says what is seen as brutal is just a group of people reaching their breaking point. Penner calls out Lisa for having a bond with him and making an agreement with Malcolm and Denise of which Malcolm correctly counters that he also has gained a trust with Lisa. Lisa says that no matter what happens she hurts someone she cares for. Jeff asks her if she can relate this situation to something in her life and she says yes but it is too personal to talk about.

Penner lets everyone know that he knows about the Final Four alliance and pleads with Skupin and Lisa to flip. Malcolm plays it calm and says he trusts Lisa. With that we are now ready to vote. Abi votes for Denise and Penner takes the time to yell out his vote for Denise bring smiles to people’s faces.

In the end Penner is sent packing in a 4-3 vote and he gives Carter a hug. Abi asks for a hug and he declines saying he’s not hugging anyone else. He whistles as he walks down the trial of doom.

It sucks to see Penner go because he is one of the best players ever and the way he convinces people to believe what he is saying is amazing. But we are close to the end of the season and we had him for most of the season. Plus he should be entertaining for the final tribal council.

At this point Malcolm is guaranteed final five at best since I believe next week is the last time he can use the idol. I could be wrong and if so then he will probably still be safe since I can’t see Abi lasting another week and then the idol will guarantee him final four. At this point I can’t see Lisa flipping away from Malcolm and Denise because they won’t give her a reason to jump ship. But with everything else that has happened this season nothing would surprise me.

Next week we get visits from the survivors’ loved ones and it looks like Malcolm’s brother is a douche. Looking forward to it.