It seems the weather has settled as we dip into episode three of Survivor Cagayan, but the fowl winds of betrayal are now blowing through the Beauty Tribe. Morgan thought she had a deal with Jeremiah to vote out Alexis and she calls him out on his actions in front of the whole tribe; he explains that he gave his word to LJ and the gang and didn’t want to go back on it. Taking Alexis aside, Morgan apologizes for throwing a vote her way and tells her about the plan she had with Jeremiah to keep Brice. Alexis doesn’t exactly trust her, but she also thinks that Morgan was being real and is now looking to Jeremiah as a threat. Good move, Morgan, good move.
At the Brains camp, Tree Mail has been delivered and the next challenge is purely for Reward. Getting the gist of the clue, the Brains take to an open area on the island and practice giving and following directions while wearing their Buffs as blindfolds. J’Tia really wants to keep winning challenges, she’s lucky she hasn’t been voted out since she threw the rice on the fire – she’s the reason they are hungry! And now is a good time to talk about Rice Gate. Some people are wondering about whether or not the Brains have been given another bag of rice to help sustain them. Throughout Survivor history, when a tribe has lost their food due to natural or unnatural circumstances, accidental or not, they typically do not receive a supplement. Jeff has come in to offer trades for food, but never has a tribe just been given replacement food without a sacrifice. So I doubt the Brains were given extra food and if Jeff was willing to give them more, we would have seen it.
Reward Challenge: Pretty typical “beginning of the season” challenge again. There’s a caller, the rest of the tribe is blindfolded and bound and items must be collected. Once all five items have been delivered to the caller, a flag must be retrieved and hoisted up to win. First tribe to finish wins three hens and a rooster, second tribe gets a dozen eggs. Beauty is the first tribe to successfully collect an item and Brawn is keeping up with their pace, but the Brains are not having any good luck with the pulley system to hoist their items up to Tasha. Not long into the challenge and the bumbling and bumping into things begins, but LJ and Jefra are working really well with Alexis as their caller despite collisions. Before you know it, Alexis is waving the Beauty flag and the battle for second place begins. The Brains tribe has their flag on the platform, the Brawn tribe is searching for theirs on the course, but the pressure is getting to J’Tia – she just cannot slide that damn flag into the middle of the platform! Argh! It was so frustrating to watch! The closer the Brawns get to their tower, the more flustered J’Tia becomes until *Bam*! Brawns have won second place and the Brains will get no reward.
So back at the Beauty camp, everyone is relishing in their big reward and what’s this? A clue to the hidden Immunity Idol that LJ has already found? Jeremiah reads the clue out loud, LJ is glad he has it because the clue was very precise. No one seems to go out to look for the Idol, though because instead, the Beauties are trying to figure out how chickens work. What’s purpose of the rooster? Do the chickens just keep laying eggs? Are they asexual? What makes the chickens lay eggs? LJ just can’t believe what he’s hearing. No one knows how chickens are born?! He thinks they have such a stereotypical Beauty tribe and I agree. My favorite LJ quote this episode: “We all know the egg came first because dinosaurs had eggs and they were before the chickens”. Hilarity at the Beauty camp continues when they decide to go ahead and eat the rooster. “Country boy”, Jeremiah, (remember, he wants to win this one for all the country boys), takes on the responsibility of killing it; he doesn’t know anything about chickens; he’s just a model. Some country boy! All the country boys I know, even the really good looking ones, know a thing or two about chickens.
Moving over the Brawn tribe, Cliff and Lindsey discuss sticking together; Sarah knows they are tight because Tony told her they wanted to get rid of her so she heads off to have a discussion of her own with Woo. On the table is the topic of targeting Cliff. Woo is open to the idea then Tony joins the private party. Tony is so happy with himself, by the way, so happy that his lie is working. Cops-R-Us is strong; he’ll swear on his badge all day long, he came to win this game and I can’t believe this crap is working right now! Tony is totally “Boston Robbing” Sarah and she’s falling for it! For now… I think Tony’s lie is going to be exposed after the tribe switch; the Brawns will most likely not stay together and it’s bound to come up in conversation if any combination of Sarah, Cliff, Lindsey and Woo stay together. Also, Tony is going to have a heck of a time doing the same thing to anyone else in the game; I’d give him a good shot at luring in one of the Beauty girls, but I think they are all pretty tight over there except Morgan – Morgan is Tony’s only hope because those Brainy girls will not, repeat, will not be so easy to manipulate.
More Tree Mail! This time the Brawns are shown reading the clue and “everyone is really happy” they have pro-baller Cliff around since they are convinced there will be a basketball element to the Immunity Challenge. And this is when Sarah starts tossing the word “throw” around in conjunction with the challenge; she doesn’t want to go into a merge with Cliff still in the tribe plus, you know, Cliff is targeting her so off with his head! Woo is not so sure about throwing the challenge – because Woo is smart and knows that you never throw a tribe challenge in Survivor! You give all your momentum to the other tribe! Every time I’ve seen a tribe on a winning streak throw an Immunity Challenge they fail to regain that momentum. Every time! All you future Survivors remember that…
Immunity Challenge 4: From platforms on the water, players must dive down to release five buoys then must shoot them into baskets at the opposite end of the course. If they miss a basket, another tribe member must retrieve the buoys for them. Okay, so basically in this challenge, the Beauties breeze through the it, quickly gathering buoys and sinking baskets. The real action is with the Brawns and the Brains. Participating for the Brawns: Woo, Cliff, Trish and Sarah. In the Brain lane, well, there are only four of them, but for the sake of things: Kass, J’Tia, Tasha and Spencer. While Kass and J’Tia struggle in the water, the Lady Brawns also “struggle in the water” retrieving buoys. The boys and Tasha are all are doing well… Sorta… In on the “plan” to throw the challenge, Woo is good about making an effort to win in spite of it; maybe this was part of his strategy, maybe it’s just because Woo didn’t really want to throw the challenge. And then Spencer goes into beast mode.
While the Beauties are sinking baskets, and the boys of Brawn are gathering the last of their buoys, Spencer rapid fire retrieves the rest of the buoys for the Brains. Then J’Tia and Kass get in the water to help gather the buoys that don’t make it into the basket?! Why are you Brians putting J’Tia in the water?! She’s clearly not well suited for swimming!!! Really, though! Pretty soon it’s a shoot-out; Cliff is closing the gap Spencer helped create between Brains and Brawn; J’Tia is not helping the situation at all. She can’t even keep the buoys inside the swimming lane. Cliff and Spencer are near-missing shot after shot so J’Tia has her work cut out for her – Why Tasha didn’t jump in to take her place is beyond me! Cliff finally sinks the last buoy for the Brawns and the Brains have lost yet another Immunity Challenge. I guess I was wrong last week in saying that you never throw a tribe challenge in Survivor; @MissCleoBB helped me realize it by Tweeting: “YOU CAN’T THROW A CHALLENGE WHEN YOU’RE COMPETING AGAINST J’TIA!”
Spencer is obviously bummed out; the girls have the power and they’ve run the tribe into the ground. He knows he’s probably doomed so it’s time to throw J’Tia under the bus! Spencer appeals to Kass and she agrees they, (she and Tasha), should keep him – he’s a strong guy. Alone together, Kass and Tasha agree that they aren’t going to tell J’Tia about ditching the Brainy Girls alliance; they want her to feel good and safe. Later, Tasha is worried about loyalty. J’Tia will be loyal in a merge/tribe switch situation, Spencer probably won’t. Kass has no idea which way Tasha will swing at Tribal and Kass is right in saying that no matter which way they vote, it’s a risk and she’s okay with either Brain getting their torch snuffed.
Tribal Council 4: J’Tia is quick to point out that swimming is not her thing; I agree and the only rising she was doing in this episode was back up to the surface of the water. She says she’s weakest at challenges, but not in the game, which I don’t agree with, but I’ll let Kass put her two cents in first. Kass gets the whole rice thing; it was an emotional response and since Kass says she’s a hothead too, she gets J’Tia’s actions. That’s all well and good, I get it too, but part of the game of Survivor is being able to keep your emotional responses in check – throwing the tribe’s rice into the fire because you think you’re going to be voted out is not a sign of being able to keep your head in the game.
Spencer must have been thinking the same thing because when Kass defends J’Tia he snaps his gaze her way. He says unpredictability is just as dangerous as disloyalty. At this point, Kass and Tasha are opening whispering in front of their tribemates, which Jeff, of course, is quick to point out to the others. They are aware, Jeff! Spencer is scared and Kass loves the drama – she can see herself at home, talking to herself on the screen. While Spencer is answering question, Jeff interrupts him to point out, again, that Kass and Tasha are still chatting back and forth. Spencer asks them for a chance and then it’s time to vote. J’Tia obviously votes for Spencer and Spencer obviously votes for J’Tia so when Jeff is ready to tally the votes, those are the first two pulled and the next one is for J’Tia as well so it’s down to one vote. Will we have another tie?! Nooope! Kass and Tasha stuck together and the Rice Queen of Survivor has kicked off the island.
And guess what’s happening in the next episode! Tribe switch! I totally called it during the commercial break too. I love tribe switches so I’m really looking forward to seeing what happens on the next Survivor, which airs on CBS on Wednesdays at 8/7c. Don’t forget to either tune in live or watch the edited versions of the Your Reality Recaps Survivor Recaps. You are free to watch and “like” both on YouTube as well! (Don’t forget to subscribe).
There are also my Amazing Race blogs to enjoy in addition to my King of the Nerds season two recaps. Even if you didn’t watch King of the Nerds, if you’re a Survivor or Big Brother fan, you should definitely check out those blogs to see if it’s something you’d watch. It’s a great reality show, full of underdogs with great personalities, and I’m fighting to make sure TBS renews it! If you dig the blogs, you can check out the show at TBS.com to watch old episodes. Be sure to let them know how much you love it!
