Updated with Recap below.
Another Wednesday which means that for all the people visiting he Blog for the X Factor Blog hopefully some of you will click on this post and discuss Survivor and read my recap which will be up in the morning.
The end of last week’s episode was crazy. I’m still not sure why Penner chose to vote for Abi so hopefully we will get some insight into his thinking. There is still a lot of game to play so anything can happen in the week’s to come but I like the position Lisa has put herself in. While others may think they are controlling the game she was in the drivers seat last week. It was too bad that Pete was a loud mouth because they may have been able to blindside Malcolm which would have been good for their games but bad for viewers since Malcolm is a good Survivor character. If anyone from this season is invited back I think it would be him chosen first.
I think this episode will really decide how the rest of the season will run. Either Lisa sticks with Pete/Artis/Abi or she goes with Penner and whoever he decides to work with. Skupin and Carter will easily fall in line with the majority. If they were smart they would try to split the votes between Malcolm and Abi and hope one doesn’t play an idol. The upside to this is they may get both to play the idol which would make for great TV and flush both in one tribal council.
Either way it should be another good episode in what has been one of the better recent seasons. I’d even be willing to argue it is one of the best seasons ever.
Recap
We open at camp where Skupin is happy that Lisa chose to play the game and protect him. She made the bold play which put the targets off him and onto Pete and Jeff Kent. Abi confronts Skupin accusing him of voting for him. When he denies it she seems to want to argue until Penner admits he voted for her because of “Plan B.”
Carter then informs Penner that he was the one who cost Jeff Kent the game and not Malcolm as Penner assumed. For such a great player I find it hard to believe that he would make such a stupid blunder at tribal. He’s just too smart to be the only one to vote Abi.
Malcolm then tells Lisa that what he said at Tribal was not personal. He was just playing the game and he knows she was just playing the game. Lisa seems genuinely happy that Malcolm did not take anything personal but admits that she feels the game is too big for her because she hates the lying and backstabbing.
After commercial Renner knows that there is five original Tandang and if stick together they can run to the end but they are split into two Lisa/Skupin as the honest Christian players and Artis/Abi/ Pete playing the Bully type of game. Penner plans on working this divide for his benefit since he thinks if they stick together he’s next. His plan is to focus on Lisa and he starts to work on her insecurities and making it seem that they have the same feelings toward how they live their life. He shows her that she needs to get back to who she really is rather than trying to please others and be liked. It’s either really touching or horrible if he is playing her.
We are now off to the reward challenge. Two teams must make their way through an obstacle course and collect four bags of balls. Once all four are collected they must shoot the 12 balls into a hoop. First team to score all 12 balls win the challenge and win the chance to deliver school supplies and toys to local village and in return village will cook feast. I love these rewards because I like seeing the castaways spending time with the local villiages.
The Yellow team is made up of Skupin/ Lisa/ Pete/ Artis vs the Red team of Penner/ Malcolm/ Carter/ Denise. Abi was not chosen and has no chance for reward. Usually they allow the left off person to pick the winner and if they are right they go on the reward. I don’t think it would have made a difference since she probably would have chosen Yellow.
Skupin takes an early lead but Penner plays it smart and digs out all four bags right away. This allows the other three to breeze through the course as Yellow falls behind. Red is shooting while Artis searches for last bag. Yellow makes a minor comeback scoring 6 balls while Red tries for last ball but Red wins the challenge.
Penner, Carter, Malcolm, and Denise arrive at the village with the school supplies and toys and the kids run up to meet them and lead them into the village. They have the people play a local game similar to playing with a piñata. Malcolm seems to be really good with the kids since he did work in Micronesia, He has so much fun that he questions why he left and bartended instead. Not sure what Carter is doing during the reward since they don’t show him until the food arrives.
Over supper they discuss how they need to work with Malcolm and Lisa and need to work the fact that the evil three treated them like shit. Pete says he needs to keep Lisa and Skupin safe and Abi throws this all out the window as she starts bullying Lisa and calling her gullible.
Abi is crazy with how she plays the game and how she treats people other than Pete and Artis. This has Lisa questioning why she is working with them. She wants to flip but she doubts since she made a grand gesture to work with Tandang but it makes more sense for the game she is playing to work with the other side.
Back from commercial and right into the Immunity Challenge. Each must hold a paddle and roll a ball to land in one of six spots. First to land a ball in all six spots wins immunity and a 1 in 8 shot at winning the game.
Skupin and Pete off to an early lead with two each and no one else with any. Pete and Skupin extend their leads as everyone else has trouble. Pete loses his balls and Skupin wins Immunity. There’s atleast 15 minutes of show time left after commercials so I’m hoping for some more fireworks.
The Evil Three wants to target Penner but for some strange reason Abi wants to vote off Skupin even though she needs the numbers. She calls Penner smart and says he needs to go since she can’t vote for Skupin.
Denise says to target Artis since Abi will either be greedy and keep idol or give it to Pete. They think there is no way she gives it to Artis. I think she’ll be greedy and just keep it.
Penner is playing Lisa again and says that Survivor is a story. People will like the story of her playing loyal to Tandang but they’ll hate that she helped the Evil Three. Penner not sure on Lisa so tries to bring in Skupin. Skupin is wisely staying loyal to Lisa since she saved him and they had an alliance to go to the end together.
It comes down to which side takes her farther. She wants to be able to make it to the end and say she stayed loyal but she realizes that the Evil Three are most likely not staying loyal to her so why should she stay loyal to them. Also since Abi stupidly planted the seed that Lisa is gullible she wonders if she is being gullible by staying with the original Tandang.
It’s now time for Tribal Council. Lisa is happy that people showed her grace but states that she had more grace from the people she worked against then the people who she helped. Abi is pissed and thinks that Lisa is wrong.
Artis isn’t surprised that Tandang has stuck together since they had one of the strongest tribes ever in the game. Denise points out that you should never feel that secure in a game with so many twists and turns and Artis clarifies that he knows he can be blindsided at any time just like anyone else.
Penner says that there can a way to flip the scale and we will see how It plays out tonight. Skupin says he came out to play for the money but the game became bigger. Lisa has learned that her life is bigger than the game but the game is bigger than her. The game is changing her and she doesn’t know if she can leave her heart out of the game.
Penner and Denise are both hoping that the numbers can flip. Penner wants the numbers to flip so he can stay in the game. Denise believes that Tandang does not believe that the numbers will flip. For her part Abi wants the numbers to stay the same. She does not agree with Denise as she feels that Tandang is not convinced that they have the numbers. She again does the wrong thing by saying she is not confident in Lisa’s vote. It makes it seem like Lisa is questioning her vote again since Tandang never seems to trust her.
With that it is time to vote. Pete says he is voting for Penner not because he is a returning player but because he is a strong player and he respects that about him. Denise votes for Artis and reinforces that she doesn’t think Abi will be selfless enough to give him the idol. As expected no one plays an idol.
It comes down to the final vote and it is for Artis in a 5-4 vote. Abi looks shocked. If someone was going to flip I was expecting a 6-4 vote since I figured Lisa and Skupin were a packaged deal. In the vote reveal Skupin was the one who flipped.
Next week Skupin tries to pull Lisa away from Tandang but for some reason Lisa continues to feel connected to Tandang out of loyalty regardless of the fact that Abi doesn’t trust her.
This season continues to be crazy with the twists and turns. Lisa seemed surprised that Artis was voted out so she may not have known that Skupin was flipping. It was the smart move by Skupin since if they go final five with the Evil Three they would be 4th and 5th unless it someone ran the table on the final few immunity idols. Lisa needs to realize this at some point or Skupin will need to cut her lose. The only smarter thing would be to go to final six with Tandang and then grab whoever is left on the other side for the final three. The problem with this is if Lisa is truly dedicated to staying loyal to Tandang she would have wasted the attempt at the final six. I like Lisa as a player but I don’t think she is dedicated to how the game is played and if she doesn’t accept that Survivor requires some lies and backstabbing then she won’t have a chance to win the game.
