This is recap part two of a double shot of Survivor, to read part one: click here, and follow the link at the bottom of the first post to be brought back to this one. Now let’s get to it!
So Reed has joined his boyfriend Josh, Jeremy and Wes on the Jury and it was a unanimous vote, (besides his own vote for Missy). When the remaining seven return to camp, Tribal Council Couples Counseling seems to have done the trick for Jon and Jaclyn. The lover’s quarrel is officially over because Jaclyn apologizes, Jon apologizes, again, professes that her opinions are valid and kisses Jaclyn on the top of the head while he holds her hand. Awww. Isn’t that sweet? Alec doesn’t know why he was made out to look like a pig/flirt at Tribal; if he wanted to flirt with someone, he would, but… It does bother him to see the two pairs of loved ones because he doesn’t have anyone around to talk to. Survivor life really sucks right now for Alec, but he’s still holdin’ on. The next day, Alec approaches Jon and asks if he’s going to be the next voted out of the game. Jon is “straight up” with Alec about how much he trusts the people he’s aligned with – Jaclyn (duh), Natalie, Missy and Baylor. He doesn’t think Alec or Keith are capable of breaking through that. Jon hasn’t misread anything yet and he’s confident that he’s the one in the driver’s seat of his alliance.
Time for Reward! Each player must stand on a wooden block and balance a ball between a post and a football-looking thing with handles coming out of the sides. If a ball drops, that person is out of the challenge. What’s up for grabs? Italian dinner complete with wine and desert in a king-size canopy bed, which the winner can sleep in that night! The challenge begins and just like that, Alec drops the ball and takes a seat on the bench. After twenty minutes, Jon isn’t looking so good, Keith and Missy are having issues. Missy is next out, then Keith slips and his feet hit the sand. Jon is still hangin’ on, but his ball is sooo- Baylor’s ball slips away from her and she’s out leaving Jon, Jaclyn and Natalie to battle it out for Reward. And slowly, slowly, slowly, Jon slips beyond the point of recovering and he hits the bench. So it’s down to Natalie and Jaclyn, but Jaclyn’s ball slips away from her and Natalie wins! Natalie selects Alec to go to Exile and who’s she going to share her Reward with? Jaclyn and Jon! Natalie is so smart. Missy and Baylor aren’t happy since Missy took Natalie on a Reward, but Natalie needed to solidify trust with Jon and Jaclyn so they won’t suspect Jon being blindsided and ensure that he will go home with a souvenir Immunity idol.
Upon returning to camp, the grand canopy bed has been delivered. Jon is really excited about enjoying the reward until he realizes that, oh, yeah… Everyone who didn’t win is going to be sitting right over there watching the winners indulge themselves. After settling in a bit, Missy, Baylor and Keith take off to collect water, which the others find a bit odd, well, basically just Team JJ: Jon and Jaclyn are very paranoid. Natalie is pretty sure Keith will try to talk them into something, but it’s not going to work – they need to stop being paranoid! They are the worst! Everyone just needs to hang out with Natalie; Natalie land is a very chill land. Jon confesses that he really trusts Missy and he feels good with Natalie too; they are nearing the end of the game, anything can happen, but he believes in the strength of his alliance. Food is finally served to the winners and to Natalie this Reward isn’t all about good food, wine and a comfy bed to sleep in that night. For Natalie, it’s all about making Jon and Jaclyn feel good; she even lets the “wine snob”, Jon, have the rest of her wine… Probably so he would shut up about wine. They talk strategy a for awhile then Jon tells Natalie that he found the idol at Exile, which makes Natalie very happy because it means that he does trust her and now she can better plan her attempt to backdoor him.
The next morning, while Team JJ relaxes in the bed, Natalie and Baylor talk near the fire. Natalie really didn’t enjoy her Reward that much; Jon is so fake and he talks like he’s already won the million dollars. Both agree that JJ are completely driven by money; it’s all they seem to care about. And Jon thinks he is sitting so pretty right now. According to Jon, he’s got Missy, Baylor isn’t a threat, Jaclyn is putty in his hands and soon they will have their perfect life complete with a check for a million dollars. Natalie doesn’t want that to happen. She says she’d kill herself if she went to the Final Three with him and he won so, she proposes to Baylor that they vote him out and they can’t tell her mom. Missy need to remain in the dark because she won’t vote Jon out of the game. Baylor agrees that her mom is blinded by Jon, her mom is blinded by men in general so Baylor is on board with her #survivorsister. Baylor has watched her mom be “blindsided” by men in the past and Jon will be no different so he’s got to go. And Baylor doesn’t feel bad about getting rid of Jon behind her mom’s back because it’s the best move for her to make to get them to the end with a shot at the prize.
So here’s the plan: Natalie has Baylor, they need Keith and Alec, which shouldn’t be too difficult since their lives in the game are dangling by threads. As long as Jon doesn’t win Immunity, that’s four votes for Jon and that’s enough to send him over to Jeff to have his torch snuffed. Later, as Team JJ lounge in the shelter, Keith asks why Missy, Baylor and Natalie why they are keeping “them two” around. They don’t do anything. Smiles are shared between the Survivor Sisters. While the sleeping beauties rest their eyes, Natalie, Baylor, Missy and Keith gather wood, so much wood that when they wake up, Jon and Jaclyn are immediately on the task of collecting water. On their way to and at the well, the couple discusses who they trust; Jaclyn doesn’t trust anybody. Jon has better relationships with people. She questions his trust in Natalie and Jon defends that he’s been out there a long time with her. Jaclyn is just worried because Jon thinks he’s got it in the bag and when he gets like this in real life he gets really disappointed when things don’t work out the way he wants. She’s afraid Keith is rallying the rest of the girls to vote out Jon…
Come on in, guys! It’s time for Immunity. Remember that challenge from the first Blood vs. Water season where they had to balance blocks on a table that was connected to a rope? Tyson won it and I’m pretty sure it was played during the finale episode. This challenge is the same as that one and guess who wins! Jon. Yeah. Jon wins Immunity. Oh yeah, and before the challenge, Jeff provokes some emotion by poking at the emotional states of the players and he targets Baylor. Baylor confirms they are all feeling the stress and fatigue, which makes Missy cry, which evokes emotion within Baylor and then it’s time to play and blah blah blah. So Jon wins Immunity, ruining Natalie’s plans to blindside him and she has no plan B.
The tribe returns to “home sweet home” and Jon feels incredible, especially since he was a little worried about his alliance, even though he was probably just being paranoid. While Keith and Alec are out doing chores, Jon suggests they split the vote just in case one of them has an idol with the majority of the votes on Keith. Natalie reluctantly agrees. Jon explains that Keith wins challenges so he needs to go. Missy is also down with the plan to split the votes to send Keith home. She knows Jon has her back. Natalie has a chat with Jaclyn to confirm the “plan” then Natalie and Baylor vent their frustrations alone together about Jon winning Immunity. Baylor was sooo down for their plan. Why couldn’t Keith have won Immunity?! Later Baylor and Alec have a chat. Alec is feeling really lonely, he doesn’t have anyone to talk to, well, he has Baylor. Alone, Alec says his back is against the wall and he’s willing to flirt and talk to whoever he has to flirt and talk to. Baylor is in shock that she’s actually getting “true feelings” out of Alec, she thinks she’s seeing a different side of him and she’s kinda glad he’s not going home tonight.
Alone on another part of the island, Natalie and Keith are having a little chat. Natalie tells him that it’s either him or Alec, but she would rather see Keith stay in the game, even though he’s a little scary to keep around. Since Keith is good at Immunity challenges, the rest of her group wants him out; Alec isn’t very good at the challenges. Keith expresses his opinion about Jon and Jaclyn again; Natalie really should be worried about those two. Natalie assures him that she’s smarter than she looks and not to worry about her. Natalie has her plan B. If she flips and votes for Alec instead of Keith, and if Keith votes for Alec, there will be four votes for Alec, which is enough to send him over to have Jeff snuff his torch. This will also mean that she’ll have Keith on her side in case he wins the next Immunity. She’s nervous about dealing with the backlash back at camp, but this is a good plan B. She approaches Baylor with the idea; she’s not a fan. Baylor would rather keep Alec around; he’ll stick with them too. As the tribe heads off to Tribal Council, Natalie still hasn’t really decided what she’s going to do.
Time for Tribal! The players take their seats, the Jury takes theirs and Jeff dives into the drama. So, there’s the group of five, Jon and Jaclyn, Missy and Baylor and Natalie and then there’s the outsiders, Alec and Keith. Fair assumption, Missy? Yuuup! And the vote tonight will be based on challenge performance. Jon confirms the strategy, which Jeff points out makes Keith the target. Natalie says it’s not that simple, buuut, someone who performs well in challenges is pretty scary; there’s just a lot more to consider and OMG! A rat! There’s a rat at Tribal Council. Alec wants to eat it. He totally would have eaten that at Exile, which… We didn’t get to see Alec at Exile! Anyway, talk of the rat somehow gets around to Jon and wine and how his dad taught him how to drink and really appreciate wine, which leads into his dad’s terminal illness, and how the game reminds you of what is important… And Reed’s face says it all for me. After Jon is done talking about his dad, Jeff asks Keith if it’s far to let Jon’s tragedy influence decisions in the game. Jon rolls his eyes at this. Keith thinks the four people sitting on the Jury are smarter than that and that the other people that join them will be smarter than that.
Jeff points out why this vote is so critical; if someone makes a move tonight it can show the Jury that they are in it to win it, no matter what. Natalie agrees, but is careful to remark that no matter what, everyone is in it to win it. For tonight, Natalie is confident that there will be no surprises within the alliance of five. And it’s time to vote then it’s time to tally them. Jeff asks for an Immunity idol and no one plays one so… Onward to the votes: Keith, Alec, Keith, Alec, Keith, Alec… One vote left… ALEC! Jon is shocked. Missy is shocked. Jaclyn doesn’t know what to think. Keith winks at Wes and Wes nods approvingly. Natalie is looking around like, uh, who switched their vote? Baylor is disappointed. And it looks like next week she’s going to be even more disappointed because for some reason, medical says that Missy will need to be pulled from the game to do X-Rays. Ugh! It sucks when people get pulled for medical reasons so close to the end! Don’t forget to check out our other reality tv coverage, including The Amazing Race and Bravo shows aaand… Holiday shopping through Amazon – click here first to show us a little support! You don’t spend anymore and it really helps us out!
