Survivor Cagayan Week 9: The Cheapening!

This season was going soooo great but from where I stand it really went down the tubes this episode.  Why?  Because unfortunately I was right again.  Here is a quote from my week 6 recap.

Even though I don't like too many idols being in play I'm dying to find what these special powers are.  I'm thinking it might be an idol like the ones from Exile and Cook Islands that could be used after the votes are read, but we will see.

As I said in the quote I don't like so many idols floating around and I really don't like having an idol as powerful as the ones from Exile and Cook islands.  When Yul found the idol in cook islands that he could use after the votes are read and all the way to the final four that basically kept anyone from ever voting for him and he was able to position himself as this great strategic mastermind, which was just enough to steal the game from the far more deserving Ozzy.  What Candis, Sundra, Adam, and Jonathon didn't seem to understand is that it is very easy to make big strategic moves when there is no chance of you getting voted out.  In Brad's case I'm sure he voted for Yul over Ozzy because there complexions were more similar.

The producers saw how unfair it was to have such a powerful tool and how it cheapens the game so they changed the rules after Ozzy's tragic defeat to Yul.  They have kept it that way for 15 seasons.  That's more seasons then had occurred prior to Cook Islands.  But now I guess they are running out of ideas so they brought back a similar idol that can be used after the votes are read.  It's not quite as powerful since you can't give it to another player like Terry and Yul had the option of doing.  But I still don't like it. To make matters worse the guy I want to see get voted out the most ended up finding it.  Vic Mackie himself!

The one thing we don't know is how long this idol is good for.  Is it good until the final 4, 5, 6 or what?  If it's the final 4 or 5 it's an almost an absolute certainty that Tony will make it to the end, which really sucks.
  
So anyway the day after the betrayal of LJ Jefra finally starts talking for the first time in the game and is extremely pissed at Tony.  To my surprise Trish and Kass are not.  Kass says Tony is annoying so it's good to keep him around.  This is the first smart thing she has said in quite some time.  As a viewer I hate seeing annoying people being ridden like goats but from a strategic standpoint it makes a lot of sense.  Just ask Boston Rob.

While Trish is reassuring her, she again reinforces my observation of what a great liar Tony is by saying he went into the wrong profession because he's an academy award winning actor.  While all this is happening Tony is listening to every word under his "spy shack" which is wisely placed in close proximity to the water well.  Got to give him props for this and his acting ability.  As I have said before Tony's ability to lie believably puts Russell Hantz to shame.  But as I've also said, that's what comes from being a cop for over a decade.

At the reward challenge Probst gives an extra hard sell to the prize.  I can't remember a time when he put so much effort into describing the prize before a challenge.  As fate would have it Jefra is paired with the minority alliance and they end up narrowly beating the other team by realizing the winning phrase was "worth playing for" instead of the unheard of phrase in Survivor's dictionary "worth fighting for".

So when Jefra goes on reward with the three most desperate players in the game, guess what chronically paranoid Tony does?  Yeah, he starts freaking out!  So much so that he has to start a sentence three different times before he can finish it.  "They're going to suck in.... they're going to pull in... they're going to talk to Jefra."

This causes him to begin a panicked search for the idol.  It's pretty clear that he will find it from the very start of him describing his search for it.  He does indeed find it and as I said before it's an idol that makes Tony virtually invincible for the remainder of the game.

Meanwhile, much to Tony's chagrin, Trish and Woo are wasting time on the completely useless act of searching for food.  "Lime's and Papaya's" he whines.  Tony is so similar to Russell but unlike Russell, who was clearly an idiot, I can't tell if Tony is actually an evil genius or if he's a moron like Russell who has just been getting very lucky.  When he's doing things like fooling Sarah, blindsiding Cliff and finding idols he seems very smart but then he does stuff like foolishly yelling out "top 5 top5" or taking out his biggest ally for no apparent reason he seems like a typical Barney Fife.  One thing that's for sure though, he is the biggest drama queen in the history of Survivor.

Trish and Woo spot a tree that Trish observes resembles Morgan's boobs which makes me miss her even more.  As we saw in last weeks preview when Woo attempts to scale the tree he ends up completely busting his ass.  As he retells the incident he continues doing his best Jeff Spicoli impression as he has been doing throughout the season.  I had high hopes for Woo at the beginning of the season, some said he had the potential to be another Fabio but that is looking less and less likely as he continues to prove himself to be not much more than your average muscle head.     

At the reward Jefra does indeed get pulled in by the minority, at least momentarily.  That doesn't last long.

At the reward challenge Tash is once again in the final three, this time with Woo and Spencer.  It comes down to a rematch with Spencer who barely beat her the last time 2 episodes ago but this time Tash prevails. I have to say I think it would of been much better if this has happened during their last showdown.  I think at that time Spencer could of gotten everyone to vote for him and he could of used his idol to take out one of the majority instead of my girl Morgan getting voted out.  At this point however, he has proven himself to be a dangerous player who is much more likely to have it than Jeremiah.

As far as Tash goes I have to say, the longer she spends on the island losing weight the cuter and cuter she is getting.  I understand she used to be a cheerleader like Morgan and I can definitely see how on this episode.  She was looking mighty desirable with her hand firmly grasping that ahem pole and balancing that ahem ball.

Immediately after Tash wins immunity for the second strait time we see a clip of Jefra talking about taking out Tony, that was clearly shot long before the immunity challenge took place, and I'm starting to think Jefra will be the one going home.  However, Trish sees the conflict in her and eases her mind while pulling her back in.  I have to say that Trish might have missed her calling as well.  With her amazing attention to detail and phenomenal observational skills she could of made a great detective or poker player.

Meanwhile the minority sees they are in trouble and Jeremiah decides to make the amazing revelation that he is actually a fashion model.  OMG!  This is when Spencer decided to make an genuine revelation that he has the idol.  What I want to know is why is it necessary to have the word "male" in Jeremiah's label?  I mean if they just identified him as a "model" instead of a "male model" is there anyone out there that would think that he could possibly be a "female model"?

Right before tribal Jefra admits to Jeremiah that she's flopped back over to the majority.  Not sure if telling him was a good strategic move but I think he could attest to her integrity to be forthcoming.  This is definitely the right move for Jefra.  It would of been really stupid for her to flip even if Tony didn't have the special powered idol.  She may be correct about herself being on the bottom of the alliance but even if she flipped she would of still been on the bottom and she would of pissed a lot of people off.  Right now I think she has the best chance of winning if she can find a way to the end, despite what Spencer and Tash say about giving their jury vote to Tony.  She will have a tough time getting to the end with her current alliance but if she flips she will have almost no chance of winning.

It's an intense tribal as both sides have idols and both sides are trying to figure out who to vote for.  We see the minority vote for Woo and Spencer does a hilarious impression of him.  But we don't see who the majority are voting for before the reading of the votes.  However Woo does kind of tip their hand when he implies they don't want to vote for the person with the idol.  This should of sent out alarm bells to Spencer that they were voting for Jeremiah and maybe it did.  When the time comes to play the idol it appeared as though he considered giving it to Jeremiah but he plays it safe and uses it for himself.  I can't say I blame him.  Even though it turned out to be wrong it's probably what I would of done.  It would just be too risky to give it to Jeremiah.  Tony thinks he bluffed Spencer into not giving Jeremiah the idol but I'm not so sure.  Anyway when the votes come up for Jeremiah Spencer apologizes to Jeremiah who tells him not to worry about it but what he means to say is "don't worry about it because now I finally get to go to Ponderosa and try flirting with Morgan some more".

Next Week on Survivor!  It's auction time!  He will have enough will power to bid on the advantage instead of food?  My money is on Spencer.

Survivor Cagayan Week 8: Vic Mackie Returns With a Bag of Tricks

Ok, so I'm officially back to hating Tony aka Vic Mackie again.  He pissed me off enough last week by voting off Morgan and now this week he just complete lost it and erupted in an explosion of paranoia.  Go figure, a police officer acting paranoid. As I said before I wish Tony's behavior was unique of America's police force but that's quite the contrary.  Most cops are in a constant state of paranoia and like Tony, are incapable of performing their jobs without bulling people. 

He does this as soon as they get back to camp and throws a very nonstrategic shit fit about getting worthless votes thrown at him.  He makes a big production about voting for Morgan because she didn't deserve to be here, which is complete bullshit.  He went after her because she was the least likely to have the idol. 

Then the next morning after all his talk of getting rid of the least deserving players he immediately decides to target LJ.  This is the same LJ that almost completely unnecessarily sacrificed his idol for Tony.  As I said before I believe that gesture by LJ demostrated how much allegiance he had to Tony.  Why you want to get rid of someone who will always have your back in a game where people are constantly trying to cut your throat is beyond me.  Tony may not be quite as retarded as I first thought but this proves he is still a moron. 

His plan is to plant seeds of Woo's deadliness.  To appease Tony LJ asks Tony if he wants to take out Woo, with absolutely no intention of actually targeting woo.  But this all Tony needs for ammunition to go after LJ.

At the reward challege, gasoline is poured onto Tony's fire of paranoia when he is teamed with two people from the minority alliance, Spencer and Jeremiah, and end up winning.  Tony is so anxious to make another move that this temptation is far to great for him to resist so at the reward he starts wheeling and dealing, telling his challenge partners he's not quite ready to turn on his alliance but will keep them safe for the next vote.  Tony dubs himself the opportunist because when he sees an opportunity he grabs it.  I just hope there's a huge cliff near camp that he'll have the opportunity to jump off of.  So now Spencer and Jeremiah just have to hope Tasha doesn't win the next immunity. 

Speaking of Tash she isn't going down without a fight.  She's either cunning enough to actually see Tony's ridiculous gameplay or is just grasping at straws when when she tries to warn LJ about Tony and recruit him and Jefra to mutiny.  LJ doesn't want to blow off Tash to her face but he's also ver weary of Tony's paranoia so he does end up snubbing her.

Karma comes back to bite LJ when it's Tasha who beats out LJ for individual immunity.  Unfortunately his bad karma doesn't end there.  I think Tony was planning to vote off Tasha for this round but when she wins immunity he shifts gears and decides to advance his plan to take out LJ.  He first enlists Woo who like Sarah falls for his game hook line and sinker.  In Woo's and Sarah's defense I will say the Tony may be the most believable liar in Survivor history.  Russell Hantz could learn a few things from him, but as I said before that's what being a cop for so long does for you.

Like Kass I had really high hopes for Woo but he's proved himself to just be a typical musclehead. Got to give the editing department probs on this.  They fool me a lot in this respect.  I remember thinking Jed from Survivor Thailand was a favorite to win.  Talk about embarassing. 

Tony then goes to enlists Trish in his plan but she is not so easily swayed.  And I don't think it's just because she has a huge crush on LJ.  She can see the holes in Tony's story that Woo fails to notice.  This gives Tony second thoughts and I'm hoping Trish's lust for LJ might be enough for her to lead a revolt against Tony.  Unfortunately this is not to be. 

At tribal Tony whips out his "bag of tricks" which I guess was some kind of bluff that he may have an idol and not get voted for again.  Speaking of idols am I the only one who is wondering about the idol with different powers.  No one seems to be looking for it and I wonder if anybody ever will.  Perhaps they think the clue that Spencer had last week was for that idol and it's already been found.  If it's not found I hope Probst will explain it's powers at the reunion show.

Back to the vote.  As I said before Karma is not done with LJ.  Tony sticks with the plan and LJ who earlier made the cardinal sin of saying how he felt comfortable for the first time gets blindsided.  I was a little blindsided too.  Since the whole episode seemed to point to LJ's exit I was sure the editors were just trying to fool us and Jeremiah or maybe even Tony would get voted out.  That would have been amazing. 

So now I'm thinking Spencer is now the favorite to win.  I think Tony will probably make it to the end and will take Spencer along or Spencer will use his idol to get there.  I also think Trish will be in the final three but I doubt she will win. 

One last thing I'd like to get off my chest.  I don't have cable so I watch Survivor on cbs.com.  I have to say I am so sick of that Windows comercial with the nerdy girl coffee shop owner.  "Honestly" she is the most annoying spokesperson since Jacko.  She must be making a fortune off the comercial with the amount of times it's show.  If 1,000,000 people a day watch one show on cbs.com and she makes just 1 penny everytime it's played she would be making 100 grand a day since they show it 10 times during every show.  Or at least they were.  They have seemed to lessen the amout from last week but I would still love to strangle this annoying bitch. 

NEXT WEEK ON SURVIVOR! Tony continues to unravel but no one will have the guts to take him out.

Survivor Cagayan Week 7: So hard to say goodbye

HERE

I feel like shit not just because my girl got eliminated but have a vicious cold so I'm just gonna say I'm seriously bummed to see her sexy ass leave but looking forward to seeing her prettied up on the jury. Maybe I'll add to this post when I'm feeling better. 

Go here to see where Morgan falls on my list of hottest survivor women.
http://ultimatesurvivorcountdown.blogspot.com/2010/06/hottest-survivor-women.html

Survivor Cagayan Week 6: Chaos Kass Strikes Again!

The following is a paragraph from my week 2 recap of this seasons Survivor.

Note to self.  When you get on Survivor do not trust short stocky bald guys who speak with an accent.  Unfortunately after he confided in his fellow cop, I think her name is Sara, she is pulling a major Shambo and falling for his game hook line and sinker.  "I trust Tony 1000 percent." Didn't Shambo say the exact same thing about Russell before he fucked her?

And guess what happened this week?  Tony fucked Sarah over and ocrchestrated her exit from the game.  Looks like I called that one pretty good but I might of been wrong about the casting department doing a lousy job again because this has turned out to be one of the most exciting seasons ever and we're just to the merge.

Speaking of Tony he is no longer the outsider and has gelled with his new tribe very nicely.  Solana is all getting along very well and then are told to head over to Appari.  This of course is so the tribes can merge.  Along with the traditional tribe feast they are given a note that there is another idol with special powers hidden in the camp.  What could these powers be?  Even though I don't like too many idols being in play I'm dying to find what these special powers are.  I'm thinking it might be an idol like the ones from Exile and Cook Islands that could be used after the votes are read, but we will see.

Soon after the merge Trish gives Pilates instructions to most of the tribe including Morgan and I've never wanted to be a Pilates mat so bad in my entire life when I see her mashing her chest down towards it. Tony, however, is sitting out the lessons and is trying to figure out his next move.  

Even though Vic Mackie's alliance is in the majority I couldn't help but think they were in the best position.  They are much more united then the former Appari, they don't have three members who came from the worst tribe in Survivor history AND they have two immunity idols.  So once again I'm a bit worried about my girl Morgan's position in the game.

Most of the dissension  from the former Appari comes from Kass and Sarah.  As I see Kass push Sarah's buttons I can't help but think I was wrong about her strategic ability.  Sarah is the obvious swing vote between two groups of five players so Kass and everyone else should be kissing Sarah's ass like it's going out of style at least for this first vote.  I did really like it when Kass said don't trust a cop, no question about that.  Of course Lawyers aren't any more trust worthy.

Tony tries to get back into Sarah's good graces but she's not sure which way to go because she made a pact with Appari and she doesn't want to lose their jury votes.  Meanwhile Appari wants to vote out Woo or Trish but Sarah still feels a bond for them and wants to take out Tony.
   
The immunity challenge is the classic balancing one's self on this floating triangle structure with very small foot holds to stand on.  Even though I'm pretty sure no man has ever won this challenge because it is so advantageous to women since they have smaller feet which it makes it easier to stand on the foot holds, but despite all this my gut tells me that Trish and Woo are the favorites to win this challenge.  I figured Trish because she is a Pilates instructor and Woo because he's a martial arts expert, both of which I would guess would help with your balance, especially the martial arts.







Everyone makes it through the first two rounds no sweat, but the moment that they move to the third round where you have to stand on the very top of the triangle, the bulk of the tribe starts falling like dominoes including Trish.  The only three that manage to hang on after the first minute are Vic Mackie, my girl Morgan and Woo!  Unfortunately when a strong gust of wind hits the players Morgan is knocked off.  Fortunately though, we get to see her soaking wet again :) So astonishingly enough it comes down to two men fighting it out.  Tony gives Woo a good run for his money but in the end can't hold on.  However, he does prove he's nearly the scum bag Russell Hantz is and congratulates Woo as he is falling into the water.  So now Solana have individual immunity in addition to both immunity

After the challenge most of Appari wants to vote for Jefra because they wisely figure there is no way she has the idol.  However, Sarah still wants to go after her blue blooded brother Tony because she if finally starting to wake up and see how shady he is.  She wants to get the strongest players out first before they can start winning immunity and do too much damage.  Unfortuantely she is also certain that he does not have an idol.  I guess she figures because cops are so honest and forthright that he would of showed it to her if he did.

So obviously Sarah is way off about Tony having an idol but I can see the wisdom in both arguments.  On the one hand Jefra would be a safe vote but people with idols normally don't use them on the first vote after the merge.  So if they were to vote Jefra out and whoever has an idol is left with just 4 people in their alliance that would make it more likely that they would use it on the next vote which puts your alliance more in jeopardy.  Appari does defer to Sarah's wishes since she is the swing vote but Kass isn't happy about it.

Through the entire episode Sarah is bragging about being in such a great position, and I can't help but shake the feeling that she is going to be pulling a Dolly and swing herself right out of the game.  Her cockiness is what is annoying Kass so much.  It also annoys Tony who tries very hard to swing her back to their side.  Sarah stupidly won't even pretend to commit to him so Trish goes to work on Kass.  When Trish tells her they want to vote out Sarah it's music to Kass's ears.  With each passing moment it's looking more and more like Solana is the alliance with their heads in the game and Appari is just bumbling around. 

As thrilling as this episode has been it jumps to mach 5 at tribal council.  The subject of idols comes up and when it is directed at LJ he tries to deflect any thoughts of him having one by saying they could be a big joke this season which Probst takes to mean that there are no idols this season.  It is at this moment that Tony makes a move that puts Russell Hantz to shame, and not in a bad way.  He confidently announces that there are idols and he know this because he has one.  Spencer calls him out and Tony reaches into his bag puts the idol around his neck and says he using it tonight but not necessarily for himself because it is a community idol.  He then smugly suggests how panicked the six former Appari are and he is so right.  The look on Appari's faces, especially Sarah's is priceless and suddenly my respect for Tony has increased by about 1000%.  All of them are in a panic and Spencer initiates the action to "vote for the other one" clearly telegraphing that they will not be voting for Tony.  

After the vote Probst asks if anyone wants to play an idol.  Tony then does something that is a little puzzling and asks Probst to confirm that the idol is genuine.  I can't believe Tony could possibly think it wasn't real so maybe there was some other motive behind this move that I'm not getting.  Tony then tells Probst he wants to use if for LJ.  The surprises don't stop there though.  LJ then jumps up and shocks everyone including Tony but pulling out his idol, which obviously no one was aware of and announces he wants to use it to protect Tony. 

Tony is on top of the world at this point and actually starts rooting for his name to come up but his euphoria quickly disipates when he sees Jefra's name come up and it is now Appari who are looking smug.  The big question is will Kass flip?  Even though it wouldn't be good for Morgan I'm actually hoping she did.  The last vote is read and it is in fact for Sarah and now it is Appari who are now shocked and depressed.  Except of course for Kass who like Morgan last episode is looking like the cat that ate the canary as Sarah realizes she's been had.

As she's leaving Sarah asks who flipped as if there was any question to the culprit but Appari quickly realizes it was Kass and Spencer announces she now has zero chance of winning to which Kass replies, "there's still a long way to go".  I have to agree with Spencer though.  Even though I'm glad Kass did what she did, historically whenever someone pulls this move it ends there game.

It may seem like LJ and Tony wasted their idols but even though they turned out to be irrelevant I still think playing them was a great move especially for Tony.  After Tony's selfless act, which I am still completely stunned by, I think that group will now be more solid then any alliance Russell ever had and I think LJ will now follow Tony through the gates of hell.

NEXT WEEK ON SURVIVOR! I was happy to see Morgan looked in danger in the previews because that probably means she's is safe as a kitten.  My money is on Tony to find the special powered idol.