This time on Survivor… When the tribe returns to camp, Tai tells everyone that he was so scared at Tribal and almost played his Idol; he even asked Aubry if he should play it. Jason is happy with his performance during the tribe’s date with Jeff– everyone knows that he knows how to talk and now’s the time to make some changes. After he congratulates everyone on making the Final Six, he takes advantage of a moment alone with Cyd and Michele to try to sway them to his side. His argument? Tai and Aubry are going to be hard to beat in the end; he’s a good guy, and now’s the time to start scheming and playing for yourself. Michele sees Jason’s point, but she doesn’t want to rock the boat with her alliance; she voted out Julia, her biggest ally, to prove her loyalty to the five since they didn’t include her in the Scot vote. Elsewhere, Tai is alone with Joe and Aubry so he takes advantage of the opportunity to solidify a Final Three deal with them. Tai lets them know about his extra vote; if the three of them stick together, they can use the extra vote at the next Tribal Council and his Idol at the one after that – pretty solid plan. Tai also doesn’t see Jason as that much of a threat. Noope! In Tai’s five, Cyd is number four… He’s got his eye on Michele because she’s such a well-rounded player, but he doesn’t mention that to Joe and Aubry just yet…
The next day, Tai finds a big grub and, after showing it to everyone, tosses it to the ground for Mark the Chicken and Mark goes NUTS on the thing. Everyone is very amused, except for Jason. He gave up hope on eating that chicken days ago – everyone loves the damn chicken too much and has no love left over for Jason. No one wants to play with him, no one wants to listen to him, and it’s frustrating. And for the first time in weeks, we get to see a confessional from Joe so he can voice his opinion that when things don’t go Jason’s way, he gets a certain way and starts trying to bulldoze people. What a great observation from Joe to highlight in this episode towards the end of the game after not hearing anything from him personally in weeks! Sooo anyway… Right now, Jason’s strategy is to be lazy – why help the people that are gunning for him? He’s also hoping that they will get the idea that no one would vote for him in the end and might be a good idea to keep him around… Instead of, oh, I dunno, maybe getting off his ass and using his social skills to sell himself as a sure fire way to get votes at the Final Tribal… 😉
Come on in, guys! It’s time for Reward. Up for grabs is a trip to the Wildlife Alliance – an animal sanctuary for rescued animals in Cambodia, where they will get to enjoy an afternoon picnic, a tour of the facility, and they get to play with the animals. In this very cool take on similar puzzle challenges from Survivors past, the tribe will be divided into two teams and will swim out into the ocean, and race through a series of obstacles to a floating maze. It’s like one of those little plastic things you’d get a grade school carnival where you have to roll balls around a maze to nestle them into divets in the middle – ya’ll know what I’m talking about. Well this floating version is huge and it reminds me of Bowling Ball Pool on Jimmy Fallon – they have to walk around the outside to maneuver the balls. It’s awesome. Obviously, the first team to put all three balls in the middle wins. Our teams are Jason, Michele, and Tai vs Joe, Aubry, and Cyd. Survivors ready? Go! Jason jets away from the starting platform and Joe… Well… The man ain’t no spring chicken. Jason is to the maze, and getting a feel for how she moves in the water, and Michele is in the water – they arrive at their mazes at the same time. So Jason’s team has a HUGE lead and the advantage of Jason’s smart thinking of walking around the maze while everyone else swam up – OH YEAH! They have to untie the balls they have to use too. I don’t think Jeff mentioned that in the – whatever. Doesn’t matter. Jason’s team wins and Tai is excited, but he’s worried about what could happen back at camp…
Back at camp! Joe congratulates the ladies on their valiant effort then they all put their attention on the fire and eating and we get more commentary from Joe! OMG! lol So, while Cyd is trying to eat a bit before gathering firewood, Joe instructs her to go get some firewood and OH HELL NO. Cyd does not like this. She does not like to be ordered around and she’s not sure how long she can put up with Joe. When Aubry and Cyd return from gathering firewood, Aubry is trying to help Joe and he is frustrated with her trying to understand his instructions. She’s not sure what Joe is trying to do with the fire – neither does Cyd. For some reason he wants this huge fire. Aubry is also nervous about all this frustration between Cyd and Joe because she can’t have that blowing up in their faces at camp or they are screwed. Meanwhile… Our Reward winners couldn’t be happier with their picnic and after awhile, the Wildlife Alliance workers bring out Lucky the elephant. Jason can’t wait for his daughter with Autism to see him with all the animals – she really connects with animals so she is going to love seeing her dad with Lucky and the monkeys they get to visit later. It’s a really nice Reward for Jason and Tai is really warming up to him, despite the way he can talk at Tribal; Tai is still thinking Michele is a bigger threat. And Michele also sees Jason’s softer side, but she also remembers the machete and the ax so as far as she’s concerned – he’s out next.
Come on in, guys! It’s time for Immunity! In this challenge, each player must stack letter tiles to spell out “Immunity” on a wobbly platform connected to a rope that they must hold to balance the platform as they walk back and forth from the platform to the table on which their letter tiles are placed. Survivors ready? Go! Sooo Joe takes an early lead, but everyone except Cyd is right on his heels. Cyd is taking the slow and steady approach while everyone else is playing it a bit more aggressively. Joe, Michele and Tai are in the first three positions until Joe hits Unity and his tiles fall, then Michele drops, then Aubry’s table teeters too much, then Tai is out and Jason has the lead with Cyd in second. Joe’s brain starts freaking out about now because he can’t seem to bring the right letter tiles over then Jason’s tiles fall and Cyd has the lead. As Cyd continues her slow pace, the others catch up, but Joe can’t stop misspelling the word, then the others start dropping tiles again. Aubry has to start over, Michele has to start over and blah blah blah it’s down to Cyd and Jason. Cyd is reaching for the “I”, Jason grabs his “I”, then they are both on their way to the table, they both place their blocks and Jason is in the lead to the end, but he DROPS! Cydney wins Immunity!
Back at camp, Tai has decided that to try to convince the group to vote for Michele and as soon as he has a moment alone with Joe, Cyd, and Aubry, he tells them that he thinks it should be Michele. Joe disagrees – it should be Jason – then Michele walks into the water to join them and the discussion ends. After a short while, Tai is alone with Aubry and she agrees – Michele is the bigger threat. Later, Tai approaches Jason who is lounging alone and tells him to vote Michele, but Jason doesn’t trust it. Jason is going to play it by ear, but he wants to vote for Joe. Elsewhere, Joe and Cyd are on the same page – They are voting for Jason and they have no idea what’s up with Tai targeting Michele. Cyd doesn’t like Tai’s approach either – she feels like he’s being all dicatory. So! Cyd tells Michelle what Tai is doing and says that she is going to do what she can to keep everyone else’s votes on Jason. With Aubry, Cyd again voices that she doesn’t like Tai dictating what she will do and Aubry stands firm on her opinion that his idea is solid. When Cyd asks Aubry who she will side with all we are shown is a very distressed Aubry confessing that she doesn’t know what she’s going to do.
To Tribal Council! After all the pomp and circumstance is over, Jeff digs into the Survivor stew that he loves to stir so much – by bringing up the lead changes in the Immunity challenge. Pffft! Thumbs down! Yeah sure, it’s symbolic of how quickly things change in the game and how the blocks will only stay for one person. In this case, Cydney – who MUST be feeling a little powerful because it kind of gives her some sway, according to Jeff, then Cyd brings up how some people feel more powerful, Michele pipes in to say that it’s Tai then Tai tries to protect himself. Apparently he told people he has two Idols, but he might be lying… Then Tai says something about not having private time with Cyd, which surprises Aubry because she thought everyone was all worked out as a group and it’s just kinda chaotic now. Michele is defensive because she knows Tai is targeting her, then Tai brings up a smaller group within the larger group, Michele thought everything was groovy, yada yada yada… Michele brings up that Tai is a flip-flopper and she’s proven her loyalty to the group; Tai says the last vote wasn’t a flip vote then Tai says he doesn’t even know why she’s involved in this alliance.
And yes, Aubry feels like she’s in the middle of chaos. Jeff then asks Jason how he’s feeling with all this chaos within the majority alliance – he’s LOVING it and that’s why he’s keeping his mouth shut. It’s exciting, he might get to stay, but he could leave and if he does, he knows who will be following behind him and it’s time to vote! After Jeff says he’s going to tally the votes, Tai stops him – he wants to use his advantage, which, he tells the group, is an extra vote and Jeff confirms. So. Tai casts his second vote for Michele then Jeff goes to tally the votes, Tai doesn’t play his Idol, then the votes are read: Jason, Michele, Michele, Jason, Joe, Jason… Jason. So! Tai burned his extra vote, but still has his Idol. Aubry sided with Joe and Cyd. And I’m just left thinking… If Jason had just did what Tai said, and Aubry went with her gut and voted Michele – That would have been four. And THAT is why Survivor is a SOCIAL game. Tai should have pulled Jason and Aubry together to solidify the vote – not Cyd. It’s a shame Tai isn’t better at strategy. I love the guy, but he’s not a very good player. He should have went with the group and focused on Michele next week, BUT, what’s done is done. Next week on Survivor. Tai and Michele are… teaming up? What the what?
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