The episode begins with a boat coming in with some exciting news and we get a great shot of RC bouncing toward the beach. I swear she gets hotter with every episode. The big news of course is that the two tribes are merging and they have ten minutes to gather whatever they can to take to their new camp site. Skupin is especially happy to make the merge in one piece.
This merge has one of the most interesting dynamics of any one in recent memory. You have one tribe that is down three members against another tribe that is larger but totally divided. Lisa Welchel's tribe does indeed make it to the merge undefeated. Only the second tribe in survivor history to do so and the first to never have to go to tribal council (Koror from Palau also never lost an immunity challenge but did have to go to tribal council on an episode where both tribes had to vote someone off). Never before has a tribe been so successful while being so completely dysfunctional. RC points out this dysfunction to Lisa and Abi in the middle of a plotting session, which in my opinion was a very bad move. I see no upside to this whatsoever. The only thing I can think of, is she was hoping for some reassurance that she wasn't on the outs. Unfortunately said reassurance never comes.
While the guys are building a new shelter Lisa discovers a big secret about Malcolm. In effort to make herself look useful Lisa innocently decides to hang everyone's wet clothes up (without telling anyone). Of course when she gets to Malcolm's bag she finds an idol. Awkward.
Malcolm sees his clothes hanging up and realizes he's got some tap dancing to do. He pulls Lisa aside and she plays it perfectly. Before he says anything she immediately confesses and begs forgiveness. Not only does Malcolm forgive, he tells her she reminds him of mom and reluctantly offers her final three with himself and Denise (Malcolm's mom must be quite a MILF). However, not long after he shows signs of wavering in the alliance due to his uncertainty of being able to beat Lisa OR Denise in votes. Lisa also suspects this might be the case. On my part, I really hope this alliance holds up. Malcolm and Lisa are definitely my two favorite players at this point.
Lisa gets involved in some more drama soon after when Penner calls her out on her secret identity. Unfortunately they don't bother to show this. We only see the aftermath, which happens in private, so the only ones who know about Lisa is Skupin and Penner.
As if that wasn't enough drama, we see Kent scheming with Pete and Artis. Despite Kent giving Penner a full five fingered man shake he starts planning Penner's re-movement right away. Meanwhile Mike is scheming with Penner to take down Pete and Abi. One tangled web is being woven into place. Kent agrees to split the vote against RC and Penner, but is still on the fence for the time being. Oddly enough Malcolm and Denise, who were so close to decimation on Matsing, seem to be the safest players.
Immunity Challenge
Tibal Immunity is no more. The challenge is hold on to a spool to keep a bucket with 25% of your body weight from crashing down on a tile. For this challenge there will to winners one man and one woman. Mighty Mouse Denise and Jeff Kent would appear to be the favorites to win. Pete and RC also seem to be threats but they both drop out quickly along with the two returnees. Denise does indeed win with Kent, Carter and Artis still fighting it out. In the middle of the challenge Artis starts making out with his muscles, but apparently his muscles just want to be friends because he soon drops out of the challenge. Now it's down to Jeff and Carter (who could barely move at the last challenge). Jeff decides he's had enough soon after Artis is eliminated and gives the win to Carter.
Back at camp RC is completely oblivious that she's on the chopping block but Skupin decides to see how solid Jeff is. Of course he's not that solid but after talking with Mike he starts to realize that if he flips over to Tandang he "might" be on the bottom. Might? I don't think there's any "might" about it. So he and Carter struggle on which way to move. The choice to me would be obvious. If he goes with Skupin and Penner he has a much better chance of taking control of the game. If he goes with Tandang he's still outnumbered, even though they are willing to take RC out. However, Jeff is hell bent on getting the veterans out of the game, even if that means settling for a weaker position.
In the middle of all of this is the variable of Malcolm and Denise. They want to stick together so if Penner and Jeff side with RC and Mike they're also going to have Malcolm to deal with if they want Denise's vote. Same thing for Pete, Abi and Artis. So I think what Jeff should do is use RC and Mike to take out Tandang, then use Denise and Malcolm to take out RC, Jonathon, and Mike. Leaving a final four of Malcolm, Denise, Jeff and Carter. Unfortunately Jeff doesn't see it this way and he goes after Penner, but we have no clue of this until after the vote.
At tribal council more drama occurs. For the first time since the game began Denise is completely safe. Abi and RC get into one last cat fight. Then Lisa gives a great speech on why people shouldn't flip, even though that's exactly what her alliance is trying to get Jeff and Carter to do. Apparently Lisa has gotten over her introvertness. Jeff debates right back with Lisa which suggests he's decided to stick with Penner, but maybe that was his plan. To try to make Penner feel safe. If that was the plan it doesn't work because Penner smells a rat and wisely plays his idol. Even Mike votes for Penner and only Penner and RC vote for Pete. The result is RC bouncing out of camp and the last of the hotties is gone. As her torch is snuffed out Abi gives her a gruesome look that's reminiscent of the goblin from the Leprechan movies.
I'm so sad that there will be no more explicit T&A shots of RC but I think that may of been her undoing. She comes on the show wearing a leopard print teeny bikini that probably threw up all kinds of red flags to her tribe. Women can be extremely competitive and that may be the real reason Abi turned on her. It's a shame because I know she was a big fan of the show and other then that seemed to be a very strong player. Let this be a lesson to future survivor hotties. Show some skin but don't be careful of being too flamboyant.
With his idol gone Jonathon is a dead man walking. In his two previous seasons he never won a single individual immunity challenge and I don't think he's going to be able to do so against all the strong players left in the game, even once. At first I thought the same thing about Jeff and Carter but they still have a good chance if they can get Denise and Malcolm on their side, which is very possible. After next week they'll be down to nine players so Lisa could be the swing vote in that scenario. I have a feeling that the scrambling and backstabbing has just begun.
NEXT WEEK ON SURVIVOR! Penner does his best to create some chaos before getting the boot.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI somehow wished penner was not in the outs this time. in his previous 2 seasons he was always one man versus the rest and now he got screwed over again. He is my favorite survivor player and I really had hoped he would at least make it to the final 6 this time. Well he is a smart guy and might convince other players that there are other people out there who are more threatening to them.
ReplyDelete