Survivor Cagayan: Brawn vs. Brains vs. Beauty – Episode 8 – Recap and Discussion (UPDATED)

Previously
Tony and LJ bonded by covering each other’s butts with hidden immunity idols. Tony’s crew was the new majority. The special hidden idol was not found, but after a wild search, Spencer found a normal one. Tony got four votes at Tribal Council, but Morgan was voted out.

The Aftermath
Tony confronts Spencer about targeting him. Spencer calls it a compliment. Tony declares that Morgan was voted out because she wasn’t worthy. He chides Spencer and Tasha for not voting with the majority. Tasha replies that they would have been happy to vote out Morgan — but nobody consulted them.

This is what Tony wants to hear. He knows the numbers are six to three, but it’s never that simple. He’s not going to take anything for granted. And he’s not happy being a target.

The next day, Tony’s mind is going a mile a minute. He takes a walk with LJ, trying to plant a seed about Woo having an idol. He’s not actually worried about Woo as much as trying to trick LJ into a conflict with Woo. That way, he can vote LJ out without looking like a jerk.

This strategy doesn’t go very far with LJ, who quickly tells Trish and Jefra. He thinks Tony is just panicking. They all agree to stay strong and Trish offers to speak to Tony and calm him down. Interestingly, no one is talking to Kass right now. They aren’t avoiding her, but I guess they figure she’s solid.

The nine survivors are divided into three teams for a spa reward challenge. The challenge itself involves a lot of throwing ropes and sandbags and bouncing things off trampolines. Tony, Spencer, and Jeremiah dominate the challenge the entire way. When they win, Tony is happy because he’ll be able to strategize with two people outside of his alliance.

Jeremiah is still taking his shower when Tony starts. He doesn’t say anything concrete, but he asks if Spencer and Jeremiah are willing to go with him when he makes his “big move.” Spencer replies that they are both pawns, and at his disposable. (Privately, he doesn’t trust Tony, but this might be a way to survive the next few rounds.)

We get to see them receiving foot massages, but we don’t see any of them find, or even look for, a hidden immunity idol clue. Was there one that got overlooked? I guess we’ll never know. You’d think the producers would be antsy at this point, since no one is even looking for the “special” idol.

Back at camp, Tasha the Accountant has crunched the numbers and has a plan to oust Tony. All she needs is to convince LJ. She whispers to him to meet her on the beach. LJ, however decides it would only alarm Tony if he tried to leave the camp, so he stays put. Poor Tasha! Stood up by LJ! How she supposed to play this game when nobody will sneak off with her?

The Immunity Challenge is a memory game. Jeff shows a series of colored tiles to the players. They have to drop their own tiles into a narrow column in the correct order. What makes it especially hard is that he asks for each tile slowly, which means the players have to remember the sequence for several minutes.

Mind/body experts Trish and Woo are the first two out. Everyone else remembers the first four-tile sequence. The second sequence is six tiles long. By the fifth tile, it’s down to LJ, Tasha, and Jeremiah. Tasha is the only one to remember the sixth tile and wins a “lovely necklace” to wear at Tribal. “In your face, LJ!” she crows in an interview. That’s what he gets for standing her up!

So, LJ’s plan is to split the vote between Spencer and Jeremiah. The girls will vote for Jeremiah, and the boys will vote for Spencer. As he proposes this to his alliance, you can see Tony’s mind spinning. Losing either Spencer or Jeremiah takes away one of his pawns. He can’t have that. He’s got to make his big move now.

So, Tony goes to Woo and tells him that LJ’s going to blindside him. Woo buys it hook, line, and sinker. He’s down to blindside LJ. Tony then activates his pawns.

After this, Trish comes to have that conversation she promised LJ that she would have with Tony. Tony, of course, tells her that LJ came to him to blindside Woo.

“What do you want to do?” Trish asks warily.

“I don’t know,” Tony replies, as innocently as he can.

Finally, Trish confides in Kass. Kass says they need to stick together.

“It’s too soon for a blindside,” Chaos Kass tells the camera. “It would be stupid.” Right, Kass. Why break ranks when you have the majority, right?

Now Tony isn’t sure, because Trish wasn’t buying his LJ story. Maybe he shouldn’t be rocking the boat just yet.

Tribal Council

Jeff asks Jeremiah if the alliances have shifted at all. Jeremiah says the six seem strong, which doesn’t look good for him or Spencer tonight. Jeff asks Kass if she feels empathy for any of her former alliance. She replies that there are going to be many betrayals before the end; you can’t play the game without getting dirty.

Tony admits there’s a lot of confusion in the tribe. He brought his “bag of tricks” (a literal bag that he holds up), and that people might be surprised at what he’s got in there.

Jeff comments to Tasha that she’s got to be happy that Tony is worried enough to bring a bag, let alone tricks. She’s just happy to have her necklace.

Jeff asks LJ if anyone from the minority approached him. He admits that he was “vaguely approached,” but since he’s in a strong alliance, there was no need to discuss it. He tells Jeff that loyalty is important in his profession, and that he’s pretty honed into whether it’s there or not.

Tony starts to add something about his “construction” career — and the importance of loyalty in that field. Sarah’s rolling not just her eyes, but her entire body at that remark. Seriously, what an unnecessary lie.

Kass, on the other hand, checked her ethics at the door. She believes you have to be selfish in this game to win. The question they all have to face is: Are you a player or a person?Woo offers that everyone gets paranoid, but they all need to stay together.

Jeff turns to Spencer, asking who is on the bottom of the majority alliance. Spencer answers honestly that he doesn’t know, but he does know that somebody is. Trish says they are going to become dysfunctional soon, but she doesn’t think it will be tonight.

And it’s time to vote. Spencer chooses not to play his idol, but you can see he’s not confident about that decision.

The first three votes are for LJ. The next three are for Jeremiah. The next one is for Spencer. And the final two are for LJ. Who ruefully acknowledges that he waited too long to make his move.

Next: Tony is spying on everyone and Woo falls out of a tree.

The interesting thing is that, for all his conniving and sneakiness, Tony is now completely exposed. The three-three split in LJ’s plan made it transparent that Tony and Woo broke the alliance.

Can Tony possibly talk his way out of this? Or will he and Woo simply align with Spencer, Tasha, and Jeremiah for the next vote? Can anybody be counted out on at this point? What do you think?