Oh. My. God. This was seriously the craziest Tribal Council I have ever seen in 28 seasons of Survivor, all of which I have watched at least twice. Let me repeat that, at least twice. Eric doesn’t call me his Survivor Expert for nothing. I’m getting way ahead of myself, but I couldn’t bury the lead in this post.
Upon arriving back at camp from Tribal, Spencer is very happy; getting rid of Alexis definitely bettered his game. Everyone has bought into their “Top Six” and if the tribes merge the next day, they own this game. Sarah suggests that they discuss the pecking order in case the merge is tomorrow and Trish and Jefra are the top names on the list for everyone else, but Sarah. Because Sarah knows what the hell she’s doing in the game. Sure, she was misled by Tony a little in the beginning, but she’s smart and DUH getting rid of the big strong boys is a far better move because you’re playing for Individual Immunity now, kids. The next morning on the beach, Kass and Sarah have a conversation; Kass doesn’t think she would, but she’s worried about Sarah flipping when the tribes merge. Sarah is upset by this because she is loyal to her new tribe; mistrust is what will unravel it. They shake on it, but later alone, Kass says someone giving their word doesn’t mean anything, the hard evidence they give you is more important. Hard evidence like very convincing eye contact during an alliance handshake, like the eye contact Sarah was giving you on the beach that day?
At Solana everyone is waking up and Tony couldn’t be happier to be playing Survivor – like, actually playing Survivor. He says he wasn’t having fun at first, but now he is having fun with his new tribe, but he’s bored because there is no spying and trickery. Uh, Tony, you seemed to be having a lot of fun in the beginning of the season with all your trickery, and what about that “prank” on Jeremiah last week? Was that not fun? When Tree Mail arrives, they are told to pack up everything they want from their camp because it’s time to merge! No one cares, though. It’s early in the morning. Tony is excited, but he’s still apprehensive because his tribe is on the low end of the numbers. He still has that Immunity Idol though, and he’s not afraid to use it, on himself or anyone else in the tribe.
At Aparri, Tree Mail lets them know to prepare for company and oooooh… Spencer isn’t going to let anyone forget that it’s six against five. Sarah is nervous about seeing her former tribe mates and compares their arrival to seeing a friend from high school that you haven’t seen in years. Once they arrive, though, it’s happy faces all around for Aparri – Solana has foooood! Jefra is shocked that Alexis is gone because she was hoping she would be able to reconnect with her Beauty Buddy; she thought Alexis would be someone they could bring over, but oh snap! So did the other tribe. The merge feast reveals a clue to a new hidden Immunity Idol – with special powers and Tony is all about special powers. He will search the island for two or three days to find it.
Okay, so basically before the Immunity Challenge… Spencer is shocked he’s still in the game having been in one of the worst tribes in Survivor history, (but not the worst, Spencer, not the worst, and I’m not even talking about Survivor Palau). Tony is still worried about numbers and Sarah is the Queen of the Swing Vote. The morning after the merge, while the girls are all with Trish on the beach doing stretching exercises, Tony and LJ have a conversation about who the head of the snake is; LJ thinks it’s the Brains and Tony is going to try to sway Sarah back over to their side. Good luck with that, Mr. Top Five. He finds her and says that 100% it’s Trish, Sarah and himself as the Final Three, (he’s lying), and he wants her to swear on her badge that she’s in with them – she doesn’t want to. SEE KASS?! You were all paranoid for NOTHING… There is also talk of who has Immunity Idols, but who cares…
Immunity Challenge: Pretty low budget challenge, endurance-related and typical of post-merge games. Players have to stand on a triangular floation device with wooden notches attached; they have to move up a notch at Jeff’s command until they are on the top then it’s a “last man standing” situation. And it’s blah blah blah until the players have to go to the top rung and as soon as Jeff counts it out, these Survivors drop like flies. Spencer is out, Kass is out, LJ is down, Sarah is down, Jefra, Tasha, Trisha, Jeremiah is in the water. Woo starts to wobble, but he saves it! Morgan hits the ocean next then the wind starts to whip a little harder. Tony nearly falls then starts talking to Woo; Jeff tells them to focus and not get distracted. SHUT UP, JEFF! God! Can you not see that’s what they are trying to do you evil bastard! Another nice save by Tony, Woo gets wibbly wobbly again then Tony jumps in the water and hands the necklace to Woo! Woohoo!
After the commercial break… You know what… Let me just give you the break down real quick because I really want to get to talking about this Tribal Council, I have a lot of things to do for the Nerd Army before tonight and I still have to put together pictures for this post so…
First of all, I’m sooo excited at this point in the show to see what happens at Tribal since there are two Immunity Idols in play and neither Tony nor LJ, who possess the Idols, have that necklace around their necks. Sarah is butting heads with Kass again about who should have their torch snuffed and now she doesn’t trust Tasha either for leaning towards supporting Sarah’s argument that Jefra is not a threat and the strong boys are, Tony specifically because he’s sneaky. LISTEN TO HER KASS! She was on a tribe with him, DUH! Tony, meanwhile, is talking to Trish about pulling Kass over to their side and Trish goes to have a talk with her – it goes well. Kass is on board with their plan to vote out Sarah. If Sarah is going to destroy the game, Kass wants to destroy it first… I think by “the” game, Kass meant “her” game… No matter – Chaos Kass will be making an appearance at Tribal.
And to Tribal Council we go, ladies and gentlemen! LJ is first to chat and says he’s in the hottest seat in town and that if he is voted out tonight he will be flattered because he knows it’s because he’s a threat. Jeff says that’s an open invitation for the rest of the tribe to snuff his torch. Tasha agrees that LJ should be worried. Tony chimes in at this point saying that you don’t move forward with numbers, you move forward with an alliance of comfort; he knows he is a threat too. Tony may be old, but he’s got fire and you know what else he’s got? An Idol and he pulls it out to show everyone, which causes a flurry of activity within the former Aparri tribe. “The other one, right” “Yeah, the other one.” Right there in front of everyone. Seems like everyone is ready to vote! Vote they do and before Jeff does his tallying Tony stands up to play his Idol – FOR LJ. Then LJ stands up and plays his Idol – FOR TONY. Awww, aren’t they cute, guys? Do we have a little bromance in the making here?
So LJ, Tony and Woo are in no danger at all of being voted out of the game, but when Jeff reads the first vote it is revealed that the “other one” is Jefra and she is scared. Sarah is the next vote and it’s back and forth until there is only one vote left and the score is tied. Last vote: SARAH! I totally called this, by the way, on Twitter. Shocked faces are shared by the former Aparri tribe. Tony claps his hands. Bang, bang! Jefra is shaking and thanks Kass for what she did. So does Tony. All Spencer has to say is “Kass. Zero chance at winning the game”. I love Spencer now. I was on the fence about him at the beginning of the season, but LOVE this guy. LOVE. And, where was Chaos Kass? I didn’t see her causing any chaos at this Tribal with the exception of her vote. I think the real Chaos Kass is going to be unleashed when they get back from Tribal.
So… We all definitely need to tune in to CBS next Wednesday at 8/7c to see the backlash of this Tribal. You can recap every episode of Survivor here at Your Reality Recaps via our comedic shows that air live with edited versions posted later. Don’t forget to “like” and subscribe on YouTube and check out all of the other awesome content by the other bloggers for the site. We all love reality television; we are addicted and now, you have a support group to help you manage and enable your addiction because we love to talk and interact with all of you. Feel free to comment below! I also write about The Amazing Race and please, please, please… If you love Survivor and Big Brother, check out my King of the Nerds blogs! It’s a wonderful show and I’m on a mission to recruit more fans so TBS will renew it for a third season.
