Survivor Cagayan: Brawn vs. Brains vs. Beauty – Episode 12 – Recap and Discussion (UPDATED)

Previously on Survivor: Tony blindsided his own alliance, found all the idols, then blindsided his alliance again, voting off Jefra.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Those words are probably running through Kass’s mind all the way back to camp. She is mad enough to pick a fight with Tony that night. She does a late night interview with the producers and declares that she’s done with Tony. Done.

In the morning, Kass sleeps in with the girls, while the boys sit around the fire, listening to Tony tell his cop stories. At one point, Tony notes that Kass is still sleeping in and wonders if she’s feeling unwell.

As it turns out, Kass is awake and listening to their conversation. She mishears Tony, and thinks he’s talking crap about her. “He talks crap about ev-er-y-body,” Tasha says. Trish just covers her face with her buff.

Once she’s up, Kass tells Tony that she heard him talking crap about her. Tony gets offended, insisting he said nothing bad. She doesn’t believe him. Spencer notes all this strife with great satisfaction. He doesn’t bother to clear up the misunderstanding, since it benefits him and Tasha.

The sniping continues through the day’s chore. (Kass’s chore is apparently picking up small rocks on the beach and piling them into short piles.) Trish advises Tony to let it go, but Kass keeps on picking until he tell her he’s got the Special Idol. No one believes him. Kass tells me he better bring out his idol at Tribal Council if he wants to stay. Since she’ll be writing down his name.

“And just like that, Spence and Tasha, you two move up another notch,” Tony says.

The reward this week is to take a goodwill ambassador trip, delivering supplies to a local school. There will also be a goodwill meal of American food: hotdogs and hamburgers.

The players divide into purple and orange teams again. Purple is Kass, Spencer, and Woo. Orange is Tasha, Tony, and Trish. The challenge is to throw sandbags at the other team’s wall of puzzle blocks. Once one wall is down, both teams race to rebuild the wall (with the correct picture on it.)

It’s very close on the throwing part. Purple knocks the Orange wall down, but they only have two blocks left, so it’s not much of an advantage. Tasha is rebuilding for Orange and takes the early lead. Spencer is rebuilding the Purple wall, and, even with open cheating, he can’t figure out the first rows of blocks. However, Kass directs him and he soon over takes Tasha, who isn’t getting much help from Tony or Trish. Purple wins.

They ride a painted bus to a simple school filled with delightful children. Woo is delighted and does a whole martial arts demonstration for the kids — who love it. Kass is impressed by Woo’s energy. He’s talking more in an hour than he has the entire season. Spencer is not a kid person. He’s initially overwhelmed by the “little monsters,” but soon relaxes and enjoys himself.

And, they get from valuable strategy time. Kass has a whole plan to flush the idol by vote splitting. If they can get Tasha onboard, they can vote Trish and Tony. If Tony plays the idol, they vote out Trish. Woo is reluctant, and thinks a long time before he says yes. But he eventually agrees. Kass interviews that she’s glad he took the time to think it through.

Spencer tells Tasha about the plan. He warns her that’s hard to lie to Tony. Which Woo is currently trying to do. And not really succeeding at. After hearing that Spencer and Kass want to take out Tasha, Tony starts wondering about Woo’s loyalty.

The Immunity Challenge is surprisingly tense. The challenge is to run down the beach to six stations of various objects (fish traps, bamboo poles, stones, etc.) The players have to count each set of objects, then enter that number into a combination lock. The one who gets the entire combination first releases a pipe and uses that to break a piece of glass.

They all run and count and think like mad, but it takes several trips and thirty minutes before Spencer finally releases his lock. He breaks the glass and falls to his knees, completely exhausted. Jeff, who noted Tasha’s three-challenge run, tells her she was only one number off for the longest time. She shakes her head sadly, knowing the target is on her back today.

Back at camp, Spencer and Tasha re-confirm the plan with Woo. He’s quiet, but he promises to go along. Tasha goes back to camp, acting like she’s going home, but Tony doesn’t buy it. He talks over his concerns with Spencer, Trish, and Woo, saying he’s going to bring his Idol to tribal.

Meanwhile, Tasha and Kass spend a little quality time talking crap about Tony. Tasha notes that he runs the alliance through fear. She calls him the “Jersey Russell Hantz.”

Unfortunately, this clues Kass into something new. Nobody likes Tony, she realizes. Therefore, he’s the best person for her to bring to the final three. Maybe, just maybe people will dislike him more than they dislike her. Kass runs to Woo and tries to get him to flip and vote for Tasha instead of Tony.

The jury arrives at Tribal Council looking pouty and beautiful. Jeff starts with Tasha, as the obvious target for tonight. Tasha agrees, but hopes that people realize what a threat Tony is. Tony counters that he brought his bag of tricks, just in case anyone tries anything. He tells Jeff that Tasha wasn’t scrambling enough — there has to be a blindside coming, but he thinks his alliance is loyal.

Kass points out the contradiction in saying his alliance is loyal and bringing his bag. She agrees with Jeff that Tony is disingenuous. Trish points out that Tony was honest about having an idol and his willingness to use it.

Spencer notes that Tony regularly blindsides his alliance, and then scoops them back in with his loyalty talk. But he is excited to see if Tony pulls anything out of the bag tonight. Tasha is still hoping for a blindside and eager to stay, even in the rain.

The vote is taken. The first three votes are for Tony, Trish, and Tasha. The next vote is Tasha, and then the next is… Tasha. She doesn’t say anything as she brings the torch up for snuffing, but she’s smiling bravely.

In her exit interview, she’s proud to have lasted as long as she did — given the mess of a tribe she started with. The happy ending is that the producers were probably waiting at the van with a contract for the next season of All-Stars. Tasha is one great player and I can’t wait to see her play again.

Next week: “Chaos Kass is back!” Did she ever go away? The twist is that this time she’s pissing Trish off. By the way, next week is that last time Tony can use either idol.