This week on Survivor… After Tribal, Jeremy speaks to us about the blindside of Kelly Wigglesworth; the game begins again after each vote and he hopes he can get back in good with his power group – he knows he needs to talk to Tasha. Tasha plays it cool, she “gets” why Jeremy, Spencer, and Stephen had to keep their voting block a secret, but people only get one pass when it comes to leaving her out of the voting loop. Spencer and Stephen join this conversation, then Joe comes up to talk – he’s pretty pissed about Kelly being ousted from the game. One of his biggest allies is gone so it’s more important than ever for Joe to win Immunity. Collectively the group still agrees – they have to get rid of those girls. The next day, rain plagues the group. Ciera is especially annoyed because she can’t get out of the shelter to go talk to people; she feels pretty good about her position, but being stuck “indoors” could really mess up her game.
Come on in, guys! It’s time for a Reward challenge. After a quick chat about how the conditions are taking a toll on everyone, Jeff tells them what they are playing for – the winning five will be taken somewhere warm with a roof and blankets and food and a Cambodian circus. For this challenge, three people will battle each other to gain control of a ball with which they can use to score a basket. First tribe to score three points wins reward. Our teams are Kelley, Kimmi, Stephen, Jeremy, and Keith vs. Tasha, Abi, Ciera, Joe, and Spencer. First round is two men and one woman for each team – It’s Joe, Spencer, and Ciera vs. Stephen, Jeremy, and Kelley. Spencer catches a break by obtaining the ball, but he misses his basket opening up the rebound opportunity to Jeremy while Stephen holds back Joe. Jeremy scores for his team. Next round is Kimmi, Kelley, and Keith vs. Tasha, Abi, and Joe and the battle for the ball is intense in this round. Joe is tossing people aside to get at Kelley who has the ball, but she’s pulled from the group and Keith ends up with the ball, but he tosses it aside and Joe picks up a point for his team, tying up the score. Next round: Jeremy, Stephen, and Kimmi vs. Joe, Ciera and Spencer – after a quick struggle, Spencer scores. Next round: Joe, Abi, and Tasha vs. Jeremy, Kelley, and Kimmi and while Jeremy holds back Joe, the women fight for control of the ball and Tasha finally wins this battle and scores the winning point for her team.
Of course, the Reward is great – being warm is great, the food is great, the Cambodian circus is great. It’s not Immunity, but it feels just as important. Seeing all the kids and families makes Ciera miss home, but it puts things into perspective for her. She’s almost done and she has to stay focused so of course, Ciera is quick to jump on the opportunity to talk strategy. They only need six votes to control the vote and she’s thinking Jeremy, Kimmi, or Stephen because that advantage Stephen has is scary. Joe is all for the five of them voting for Stephen, but he’s not banking on this plan because he knows everyone wants him out too. Back at camp, everyone not on reward is huddled up in the shelter trying to stay warm and keep their spirits elevated. If Kimmi can sit in the hospital with her son during a kidney issue, she can sit through this. Everyone in the shelter is talking about what a threat Joe is and how they are all ready for someone else to have a chance at winning something. Everyone there is on the same page – if Joe doesn’t win Immunity, the five of them are voting for Joe. Stephen feels good about his position in the game, even though he knows you should never say that when you’re on Survivor, but he feels as if he has a lot of wiggle room (no pun intended) moving forward in the game.
That night, Stephen isn’t feeling so well; the lack of sleep, lack of food, and lack of warmth and not being able to get dry have taken a huge toll on his body. He’s scared about his body breaking down. The next day, it’s still raining and Stephen’s stomach is really suffering. He just needs some ray of hope; even fifteen minutes of sunshine would be wonderful. He vows he’s not going to quit. Jeremy really hopes he’ll be okay because he wants Stephen around. Survivor is difficult on everyone; their shelter sucks, it doesn’t keep the rain off of them and everyone is hoping for a little sunshine or some other kind of relief… Cue the Immunity Challenge where Jeff passes out black and white rocks then explains the challenge. Players will have to balance on one foot on a small wooden block, while balancing a ball against an overhanging piece of wood – last man or woman standing wins Immunity. BUT… There is a team of builders at their camp and if five people sit out of the challenge, they will build them a great new shelter with a roaring fire that will be sheltered from the elements and keep them warm even when it’s raining. White rocks means surrender, black rock means you’re playing and reveal – only Keith and Joe hold out black rocks.
So Joe wins Immunity again. Valiant effort by Keith to take that necklace from him, it even looked like he might win it for a second, but his ball slipped and he was out of the contest. Stephen is bummed the Joe won, but he is really excited about having a new shelter, and they are dry – they can start playing again, finally. And Stephen wants to target Ciera because she’s fighting to stay in the game, which makes her very dangerous. When they return to camp, the Survivors come home to not only a kick ass shelter and crackling fire, but tea, coffee, and cookies as well. Keith is quick to point out that he just wanted to take down the Golden Boy and I think everyone is pretty much giving him a pass on not holding out a white rock with the rest of them, which means, as Spencer says, one of the eight of them that sacrificed their chance at Immunity will be joining the Jury. Away from the shelter, Jeremy, Kimmi, and Stephen discuss voting out Ciera. In the shelter, Joe, Ciera, Kelley, Abi, Tasha, Spencer, and Keith are talking about Stephen. They want to flush out his advantage. Just in case he uses it, Ciera says that she and Wentworth will vote for Kimmi; everyone else should vote for Stephen.
Later, Tasha is talking with Spencer. She wants to unhinge Ciera’s crew. She doesn’t want this game to turn into the Ciera show and that’s sort of what it’s becoming. As soon as Ciera threw Stephen’s name into the air, everyone was on board. Spencer is a threatened by Ciera too, but that advantage that Stephen has is really threatening as well. Better to just focus on getting Stephen out now; they can go after Ciera next. Even later, Tasha, Spencer, Joe and Jeremy are sitting on the beach talking about how the girls want to go after Stephen. Jeremy doesn’t like this idea at all. He thinks it’s a bad move because Ciera is a free agent, she’ll drift wherever the wind takes her, but Stephen is loyal – to Jeremy and Jeremy needs Stephen around. Sure, he has two idols, but having Stephen still in the game gives Jeremy even more safety because he knows Stephen has his back. He doesn’t want to give Ciera anymore traction. So Jeremy is out of this whole vote out Stephen thing, but it seems that everyone else is right on board.
Time for Tribal Council! Jeff talks about the weather for awhile; the rain has been brutal. Everyone reached a really low point during the non-stop rain. Jeff also brings up the offer he made of having a new shelter built – For Tasha it became a question of who is going to be selfish and who isn’t. Joe is quick to interject that if he didn’t show a black rock, he was going home tonight – He had to play in the challenge. Talk turns to the clusters of power and the shifting voting blocks and Stephen’s advantage. No one knows who does or does not have idols so Stephen’s advantage is sort of a disadvantage. Then Jeff brings up voting and how people are voting. Since no real alliances have been established, who you vote for is who can get you through the next couple of days and with that it’s time to vote. Jeff retrieves the urn and asks the question he always asks – If anyone has a hidden Immunity idol and would like to play it… And Jeremy reaches into his bag!!! And shocked faces fill the Tribal Council area. He’s playing the Idol for Fishbach so none of the votes for Stephen will count and let’s get to those votes! Fishbach, Fishbach, Fishbach, Fishbach, Fishbach, and at this point, Stephen turns to Jeremy and says “I’m with you”, Fishbach, Ciera, Ciera, Kimmi, Kimmi, and the final vote… Ciera. And after the votes are read, Jeremy tells Spencer he would do the same thing for him… Continue this double episode by clicking here. 🙂
