This week on Survivor… It is props where they are due for Jenn on her well-played Idol when the tribe returns to camp. Rodney is heartbroken that Kelly is gone and blames it on Mike for switching the vote to Jenn to test Will’s loyalty. In the moonlight and alone, Rodney woos for Will’s continued affection. And… UGH! Rodney IS smart… His plan is NOT stupid; it is brilliant. If he really does have Will, Tyler and Carolyn on board to sail to the Final Four that is totally what will happen and Rodney will probably win Survivor because he’s not stupid. It is such a good idea to let Mike think he’s running the show, get rid of Jenn, Hali, Shirin and Joe then go after Mike, Dan and Seirra. It’s a really good plan – if everyone sticks with it because… Villains do win this game and Rodney is a villain. He’s a really good villain. I might even say that he is the show’s ALL-TIME Best Villain. Those that read my blogs know what I think about Rodney, but I give props when they are due.
If no one on the Blue or No Collar alliances sniffs out this plan, Rodney deserves to win because this guy is has definitely been underestimated by everyone in the game. When he was talking to Will, his body language and eye contact, his facial expressions – He WILL flip on the Blues. He’s not going to be wishy-washy when the time comes to snuff their torches. He’ll move the pieces around however he needs to move them to stay aligned with the Final Three. If he thinks someone is going to abandon his ship, they will be walked off the plank. He’s like Russell, but he is not as emotionally tied to the game of Survivor – that was Russell’s fatal flaw. He cares too much; Rodney has turned off his emotions because I suspect it hurts too much to attach himself to anything, but working hard and playing harder. Anyway… Enough about Rodney because I hate admitting what a good player he is! 😉
The next day Rodney… UGH! We can’t escape this guy, can we? So he’s making a big deal about how much rice Shirin and Seirra are making; he wants them to add more and considers himself to be the ultimate authority over the food. He thinks the No Collars came barreling into camp and took charge of the food and he doesn’t like it. Where HE is from respect is earned, not given and you’ll know if he doesn’t respect you! He can’t stand Shirin – all she did was ask him not to remove the edge of the salami because she wanted do it herself and he got all defensive. WEIRD! He was the one making a big deal about Shirin making a request to handle her own food. I was raised to respect others no matter what and that even when disrespected, it is better to forgive and forget… Eventually.
Come on in, guys! Time for Reward! Up for grabs? A visit to the rainforest canopy to zip-line down through the trees to a pizza picnic! Players will walk across balance beams and untie bags of puzzle pieces to collect three bags in three separates passes over the balance beams; the first three to finish move on to the final round. The first person to finish the “rusty anchor” puzzle wins Reward. Shirin just cannot get herself balanced enough in this challenge! The balance beams are all wonky so everyone is falling and having to start at the beginning again, but the Amazing Joe is flying through it and is the first to snag a spot in the final round. Mike is next to hit the mat with three bags and Hali joins them. While Hali and Joe make good and quick progress, Mike gets worked up and has to settle himself down, but it’s okay because Joe and Hali have some pieces to move around. As they move sections around, Mike starts to hit a stride; Hali and Joe pick up the pace and… Joe wins reward!
But who will he take with him? Because we all know how this works. Joe is allowed to take three people and he chooses Tyler, Will and Carolyn then Jeff says five is a nice round number of people to go on a reward! Rodney speaks up about him being the most starving of everyone. Joe tells him he eats more than everyone too. Ha! He says he doesn’t and he doesn’t care if he goes and mentions something about being “seven strong”. So he’s OUT of the contest… He doesn’t care, he keeps it real. Shirin speaks up: Superfan! Joe chooses her and she’s just beside herself – Which is why he chose her. Excellent choices! These are all the people Joe needs to be around to try to strike a deal. After the fab five walk off, Rodney throws some shade Joe’s way; Jenn bleeping hates him. Mike sees Joe winning as a huge upset; he knows there is going to be a clue to a new hidden immunity idol on the reward and he’s mad he’s not getting a chance to get his hands on it.
Of course zip-lining is amazingly fun. Shirin is not happy about Carolyn getting to have pizza and a fun adventure, but she’s still in good spirits. Carolyn thinks Joe’s choices in players to go on the Reward with him were smart and as she’s sipping on her soda, Joe notices the clue in her bottle. After wishing he had some more soda out loud, Carolyn graciously offers up her half full bottle and Joe tries to slide the clue out and into his mouth, but Tyler notices. Quick on his feet Tyler, though, doesn’t make a fuss about it; he and Joe both know what’s happening and Tyler is cool about it, but promises a scolding later. Around Twilight, Joe sees Tyler still awake and they go off to talk; Joe is going to share the clue with him in hopes that it forms a bond, but Mike notices them and follows. After sharing the clue, the boys get to work on doing the dishes and Mike takes this opportunity to join them. Tyler knows Mike knows something is up and doesn’t know what to tell him so… He tells him the truth, the whole truth and nothing, but the truth.
And thus, Idol Paranoia sets into the tribe. Joe is out looking for the idol and everyone makes a mad dash to go find him. Mike is really on the case because he knows he’s target number one if Joe is running the show. Since it looks like Joe hasn’t found the Idol, he heads to the river where a small group of Survivors have gathered, including Joe. Rodney and Carolyn watch as Mike saunters out of the jungle congratulating Joe on his “find”; he makes a big show of letting those around think that Joe has found the Idol. Joe denies it, but he knows there is no way to play it off; Mike won’t let him. So Joe’s plans are ruined; Hali doesn’t really know what to say or what to do. Mike is intent on finding the Idol then we visit Shirin talking with Dan; is he worried about the Idol? Nope! He’s more surprised that Shirin, a fan like himself, can’t do basic math… Let the strong-arming begin! Basically, Dan tells Shirin she’s stupid for siding with the No Collars since his alliance has the numbers – her game is over. He says her game is done. I will say it again: Insulting the people that you need to get votes from is no way to win Survivor unless you’re really clever about it. Did no one from this season learn anything from Boston Rob? Anyway… Mike is determined to find this Idol. He says you can’t just go out and find one that easily, but hmmm… Didn’t Jenn do that? What about Carolyn? They didn’t even have a clue for the Idols they found! Mike DOES find the Idol, though and he’s not going to share it.
Come on in, guys! Time for Immunity and it’s a series of slide puzzles. Players must move a piece through three puzzle boards and use that piece to finish a fourth and final slide puzzle. UGH! I hate slide puzzles and Sudoku. I suck at them both, but Shirin is excited. These are challenges she should be good at completing; she’s got so much energy! She’s still so excited to be there! Joe is again moving quickly along with Tyler and Mike. Joe is the first one to the final puzzle though and soon everyone is working on the final puzzle except for Rodney and Hali. Dan is flying through the puzzle, but when he thinks he has it, he doesn’t. Everyone gets back to it, Dan thinks he’s done again, Jeff comes over to check his work and NOPE! Wrong again. Joe raises his hands soon after and JOE IS RIGHT! This dude is on FIRE! Dan, Mike, Rodney and the rest of the Blue Collars are NOT happy. Rodney just knows that if Joaquin was still in the game that they’d all be eating rice and beans and everything would be peachy keen and none of them would be so worried about Joe.
Back at camp, Shirin isn’t mad that Joe won, but she would love to win a challenge. Everyone thinks she’s weak, though, which she’s not too upset about because if no one sees her as a threat, she’ll be able to last just a little bit longer. She’s not too concerned about going home this week. Elsewhere on the island, Mike, Tyler, Carolyn, Dan and Seirra are discussing who they should send home and Shirin is mentioned then the subject turns to who has the Idol from the White Collar camp. Tyler is pretty sure she doesn’t have it, even though he knows she was scrambling to find it while she was still at their camp. Dan doesn’t think that Shirin is good enough to keep her mouth shut if she does have it. They all agree she’s never going to win anything so they talk about targeting Hali to try to knock the legs off that No Collar tripod. Mike acknowledges that everyone wants to vote for Shirin and he reiterates that no one thought Jenn had an idol.
Later, Shirin is telling Hali, Jenn and Seirra about how Dan was talking to her – that they are all Joe’s puppets and she’s a big fan that can’t do basic math. The other girls are shocked. Hali would leave her kids with Rodney before she would leave them with Dan. Seirra doesn’t even know where to start as far as things Dan has said to her and she would really like to side with the girls. She would love to see Dan go; she likes that the other girls feel the way she does – she’s not crazy! Hali would love to put Dan’s ass in line for getting all misogynistic with the girls. Shirin has a talk with Tyler later and he wants to know what happens after Dan is gone. Well, that’s easy, reassement, but with Dan gone, it evens out the playing field and takes the Blue Collars down a notch – otherwise it’s just the Dan and Mike show. Tyler agrees. He really wants to target Mike and Dan; Shirin reminds him that he’s a threat to them and they will target him eventually and it’s off to Tribal Council…
Let’s just get this over with, shall we? People were definitely bummed out about Jenn pulling that Idol out of her bag of tricks and the line wasn’t drawn very well last week. Mike knows what he is doing, but he knows he’s with a bunch of gamers and they all know what to say; he doesn’t think a pizza party is as good as providing food for the tribe all the time. Dan says flippers never win, but Shirin speaks up; Tony flipped all the time and won and Dan is just trying to be aggressive to keep people from voting against his alliance. Hali says that if the American colonist hadn’t flipped on their alliance, ‘Merica would not be what it is today so flippers do win sometimes. And it’s time to vote! Will the chainsaw be revved up this week? Are we going to see some flip-flopping, back-stabbing action? Let’s tally the votes: Dan, Hali, Dan, Hali, Dan, Hali, Dan, Hali, Hali aaand Hali… DOH! It seems that Seirra and Tyler are the people who don’t know how to do basic math…
So next week! Jenn is getting discouraged and supposedly talks of quitting. NO! Please no, Jenn. Don’t be a Survivor Quitter! You’re better than that. And it looks like it’s another Bruise Cruise during one of next week’s challenges. Hopefully next week some of these players will put on the flip-flops and make some big moves or we’re going to get down to the Dan/Mike vs. the Rodney show. If you like The Amazing Race… If you like Hell’s Kitchen… Bravo! If you like reality TV and if you like to laugh and make light of the world’s problems, stick with me and with Your Reality Recaps. And use this link to buy stuff on Amazon! It really helps us out!
