Survivor Brains v. Brawn v. Beauty Round 2

[Bernnie Federko]

Well, tonight kicks off another new Survivor season, and they’re doing another Brains vs Brawn vs Beauty edition. Here’s the breakdown for each contestant:



Anna (Beauty - 26): She’s a pro poker player so she’ll probably talk a lot about how well she reads people, and how she’ll hide her sneakiness behind a pretty face. We’ll see, I’m usually dubious of this sort of thing, obviously sneaky is usually rooted out pretty quickly.





Scot (Brawn – 40): Former NBA player for 11 years and has a Championship ring. (Scot Pollard, for those who care). There usually isn’t a lot of sympathy for ex-athletes and it’s been hit or miss for how well they do physically.



Neal (Brains – 38): Ice Cream Entrepreneur??? Guy owns an ice cream company that he started himself. He’s a Survivor fan and looks like a bit of a California dude.



Elisabeth (Brains – 27): Quantitative Strategist, yikes. She also was apparently part of a blackjack card-counting ring that made over $500k. She’s outdoorsy and loves strategic games. She also seems at least as attractive as anyone on the ‘beauty’ tribe, for whatever that’s worth. Seems like a great pick … for anything, frankly.



Caleb (Beauty – 28): Army veteran, so physical and outdoorsy. Very religious, which tends to drive me nuts but probably won’t hurt him any.



Nick (Beauty – 30): Personal trainer so athletic. His bio makes me want to punch him in the nose. Here’s a quote from the bio: I’ll always be a better listener than you. Meaning, I listen to people better than you do, I’m more interested in people than you are, and I accept people more than you do. And yes, sometimes I pretend to do these things, but at least I pretend, whereas you just check out and are narcissistic.





Kyle (Brawn – 31): Bounty Hunter. In Detroit. And the past player he compares himself to is Russell Hantz, ugh. This guy’s already dead to me.



Jennifer (Brawn – 38): Contractor. Cancer and drug addiction survivor, started her own construction company. Calls herself a strategic player. Could be good.



Michele (Beauty – 24): Bartender. Hard to get a read on her because she’s pretty young and hasn’t done much. Says she can read people, so good for her.



Alecia (Brawn – 24): Real Estate Agent. Not much here either. Says she’s tough as the daughter of a boxing promoter, which … I’m not sure how much that translates to anything.



Tai (Beauty – 51): Gardener. Older guy, wants to prove that size and age doesn’t matter, and I’m not so sure of that. Refers a lot to Bob Crowley who was the one older guy who has ever won in 30+ tries. Good luck with this.



Darnell (Brawn – 27): Postal worker. Outdoorsy and a good swimmer, says he’s a hard worker who graduated college while working jobs day and night. Could be good, but is right on the line of overconfidence.



Aubry (Brains – 29): Social Media Marketer. Seems pretty quirky. Her name means ‘leader of the elves’ and talks about her thesis being written as a children’s book, and she’s into astrology. A little of this seems like it would go a long way. I don’t have high hopes.



Julia (Beauty – 19): College student. Have college students ever done well? She just seems way too young to manage this.



Peter (Brains – 34): ER Doctor. Athletic doctor. This is the horse I’m backing, my biggest concern is that he may try to exert a leadership role which usually backfires quickly.



Cydney (Brawn – 23): Body Builder. My assumption is that she’d be hit pretty hard by the lack of food.



Joseph (Brains – 72): Former FBI agent. Outdoorsy and smart, but … he’s 72!!! I don’t see that as working out.



Debbie (Brains – 49): Chemist. Her pet peeve is ‘the idolization of garish, repugnant and supercilious people’ and while I agree with the sentiment, I am deeply dubious that someone that uses this type of phrasing won’t come across as condescending and superior.



There we go, good luck all!

 

[Preroller]

early hate for Debbie! lots of nice boobies

 

[Polymorph]

I'm impressed that some people still own actual TVs in order to watch network television.

 

[Bernnie Federko]

What about ppl who own TV's with an OTA HD Antenna who watched an uncompressed broadcast

Or ppl who stream it thru the network website

 

[KickIT]

Brawn going to regret keeping Blondie over Darnell.

 

[dg0425]

ya, i wonder who changed their vote? She seems useless but that usually buys you time on this show. Maybe they thought darnell and the bodybuilder could become too tight for obvious reasons.

 

[SneakyPete]

ya, i wonder who changed their vote? She seems useless but that usually buys you time on this show. Maybe they thought darnell and the bodybuilder could become too tight for obvious reasons.

I am guessing Kyle(?), the tattoo guy switched the vote. He voted for Blondie the first round. He probably thought the contractor chick was going to switch her vote to Blondie the first round then saw she didn't so he went back to the original plan.

How about that bug in ear shit? I would quit if that happened to me.

 

[Bernnie Federko]

And another season kicks off! We begin with the usual 2 minute scramble off a boat while Jeff tells us about the game, and how the tribes are again divided into Brains, Brawn and Beauty. We also get various interviews from people I don’t know yet talking about how great they are. The tribes land on their beaches and begin the usual process of getting to know each other while beginning work on shelters and fire.



At Brawn, they’re immediately working on a shelter and I like Scot. He’s not trying to hide that he’s a former professional athlete, so points for that. The bounty hunter Kyle is talking about being aggressive and I tune him out. Over at Brains, Debbie is talking non-stop, all about how she’s amazing. In an interview, she’s listing all the jobs she has had, and tops it off with ‘hostess at a restaurant’. Ok, then. She’s also apparently an expert at making fire, so naturally she’s not doing it herself but rather telling Neal how to do it. You know what shows you’re good at making fire? Actually making the fire. Over to Beauty and they’re building a shelter with Tai the gardener clambering up trees, and talking about his life.



Back to Brawn where Kyle is making alliances all over the place with everybody, except maybe Darnell. Over to Beauty where their chickens get loose and they recover 2 of the 3. The girls on Beauty are allying and they’re looking for one guy to join them. Anna talks about Tai or Caleb being possible candidates. What little we hear from Nick solidifies my opinion of him as an idiot. Also, Caleb was apparently on Big Brother for whatever that’s worth. Beauty is also the only tribe to get a fire going through the work of Caleb and Tai, it appears. On Brains, Debbie and Joe are on the outs as the two oldest (and also Debbie is crazy).



Boy, these hour and a half premieres are long. Back around the tribes we go. At Beauty, Tai is looking for an idol in a very unsubtle fashion. He sees three dead trees and finds that suspicious (although it looks perfectly normal to me). He’s tearing the trees up and digging frantically through the dirt. The rest of his tribe catches him in the act of searching, which he cops to and then keeps going. So, now Tai is on the outs of his tribe. Over to Brains, where Aubry is hit by the intense heat and starts melting down (see what I did there?). She is in the shelter crying and babbling about how she can’t think straight, and she’s sorry for being like this, and oh my god, please stop! Elisabeth looks even better as being apparently the only sane woman on her tribe. Then over to Brawn, where Jennifer is visibly freaking out. Because A BUG HAS CRAWLED INTO HER EAR ASKFNJDGNBFRDJBGAGGJRABGLKJERBGA NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO. There aren’t a lot of things that can reduce me to a gibbering idiot, but this is right at the top of the list. Why is medical not doing anything? She is awake all night and through a fair amount of the next day, in apparent agony. Her tribemates are sympathetic, but I think there’s some skepticism too. And then they see it crawl out. I’m going to have the heebie jeebies over this for days.



Finally on to the challenge. The tribes have to get into a boat, dive for 4 paddles, paddle the boat to shore, convert the boat to a cart and drag it up the beach and then there’s a choice between a puzzle or a dexterity challenge. That’s a novel idea that goes nowhere. We begin, and immediately Darnell loses the diving mask for the Brawn team. Oof, that’s bad. Beauty is in an early lead followed closely by Brains where Aubry dives for all 4 paddles herself. Oh thank god, she’s useful. Brawn is way behind but they manage to catch up at the beach as the other tribes have a hard time getting the boats in their cradle. Brains are first to the end of the track and they choose the puzzle with Liz and Aubry working on it. (Aubry is really on top of this challenge). Brawn has moved into second place and they also pick the puzzle with Jennifer and Alecia doing it. But Alecia is terrible and switches out with Scot. Finally, Beauty chooses the puzzle with Julia and Anna. Brains finishes first and wins immunity and a firemaking kit. It’s down to Brawn and Beauty, with Beauty managing to claim second place for immunity and a flint. Brawn is heading to tribal council, where it’s clearly down to Darnell for losing the goggles, or Alecia for being generally terrible. Scot and Kyle are targeting Darnell while Cydney is targeting Alecia. Alecia is mostly annoying Scot with her scrambling.



At Tribal, Kyle calls out Alecia and Darnell, and both of them are trying to plead to stay in the game. I have to say I’m more sympathetic to Darnell who made one catastrophic mistake, but will almost certainly be able to contribute more than Alecia going forward. Alecia says she’s ‘not a puzzle person’ and if you’re the weakest person on the team, that is not a good admission to make. During tribal, Jennifer is moved by Darnell and whispers to Scot and Kyle that she doesn’t want to vote for him. On to the vote where it’s a tie 3-3! There’s an immediate revote and it appears all the votes have switched to Darnell and he’s out. Poor guy. Team Braeme loses their first and pick up the only decent replacement Cydney



In next week’s preview, Debbie and Tai continue to struggle to fit in with Tai deciding to try and kiss Caleb. Huh. That’ll probably go over well.

 

[Preroller]

Horray, its boobie night

 

[Bernnie Federko]

In the premiere, there was a throwaway line from Jeff where he said this season was the most difficult ever in terms of surviving the elements. From last night’s episode, my assumption now is that it’s through their own stupidity. We begin with the brawn tribe where Alecia has survived tribal council, but it’s just made her more paranoid. Mind you, she should be paranoid because the rest of her tribe is still out to get her. Over on the beauty tribe, Tai is once again looking for an idol … and he finds it! Except it’s locked in a box and the key is way up a tree. Tai decides he’s going to try to climb the palm tree and gets a significant way up, but he’s cutting up his chest, thighs and feet and eventually he bails. This can’t possibly be what the producers intended, since I don’t think there’s a single person out there capable of climbing that tree successfully. Anyway, Tai is still idol-less for now.



After the opening theme, we’re off to the brains tribe, where Debbie continues to be nuts. Remember how they won the last challenge which had a big firemaking kit as a reward? Well, part of that reward was a sealed bottle of kerosene, which they used half of in one shot. And then lost 90% of the rest of it through leaking out of the seal. Good job! As a result, they no longer seem to be able to start a fire, even with flint! Which means they’re not boiling water. Debbie doesn’t care, because she can tell the quality of water just by looking at it. I do not believe this at all. The lack of boiled water is causing Liz to break down, which is sad. Fire troubles continue because brawn is also unable to get a fire going. What is going on that tribes can’t make fire with flint? While the rest of the tribe relaxes and naps in the shelter, Alecia sets out to make fire. One hour. Two hours. On and on for FIVE HOURS! And she’s successful! Good for her, but seriously why is this happening?



On to the challenge which involves carrying a heavy log through an obstacle course and then firing a ball with a slingshot. Brains falls behind early but ultimately all three tribes get to the slingshot. Beauty wins, getting a big fishing kit as well as immunity. It comes down to Brawn vs Brains, and after a few misses, Brains gets it, winning a small fishing kit and immunity. Oh, and the whole time Debbie (who was sitting out) was shrieking encouragement at the top of her lungs. That’s probably why they won.



Poor Brawn has lost again and is going back to tribal. To try and save herself, Alecia is desperately looking for the idol, but makes no progress. All of a sudden, though, Jennifer is discussing making a big move with Alecia by taking out one of the guys (specifically Kyle, who’s a bit of a pig). They bring Cydney into the discussion, and she seems to be on board too. But a bit of time passes and Jen is less sure about this plan. It would mean turning on Scot who she likes, and would probably weaken the team. Cydney doesn’t look thrilled by Jen’s wishy-washiness. To Scot, Jen says there’s no problem and the original plan (voting out Alecia) is still a go.



On to Tribal, and it’s a doozy. Jeff throws out a typical line about how it can be hard to decide on who to vote for. Jen, apparently thinking she’s in a confessional, jumps on the question and admits she hasn’t been sure which way to go. Cue big surprise from Kyle and Scot who as far as they knew, were in a four-person alliance with Alecia on the outs. Kyle and Scot are unhappy with the reveal, and immediately Alecia throws Jen under the bus, revealing the all-female alliance discussions and blaming Jen entirely. Jen says it was all Alecia’s idea, and seems to really believe that even though that doesn’t seem to line up with what we saw of events. Jen is now desperately backpedaling, apologizing and begging her alliance to continue trusting her over Alecia. Kyle says he’s never heard of a case where an alliance member openly contemplates rebellion and then expects that to be ok with the rest of the alliance. There’s more arguing between Alecia and Jen, and Jen is just openly falling apart here. It’s pretty rare to see someone take themselves out at tribal, but that’s exactly what’s happened. Jen gets 3 votes to Alecia’s 2 and she’s out.

 

[basketballjones]

what a pile of maroons on the brawn tribe

 

[R4V4G3D_SKU11S]

I'm generally all about not judging other people's tattoos, they are so personal.


But Kyle has some of the worst tattoos known to man. Especially the one that is the anus flavoured tie-dyed air freshener hanging from his armpit. WTF.

 

[Bernnie Federko]

So, I’ve spent the last two recaps saying that Debbie is crazy. Well, I stand by that! It turns out, though, that she’s still capable of playing this game. But that’s getting ahead of myself. We begin the episode with Brawn returning from tribal and Scot explains to Alecia that he only voted for her because he’d promised Jenny he wouldn’t write her name down, and Scot knew that Jenny was going to lose anyway. Alecia doesn’t understand this explanation. Hey, you might not be strong but at least you’re not smart either! Sigh. Alecia thinks she’s in an alliance with Cydney and that therefore she’s in control, which doing the math puts her at 2 vs 2. On the other hand, the alliance with Cydney isn’t real so it’s all moot.



On Beauty, Tai is going after the key to open the previously discovered locked box with the idol. He’s crafting a big long stick with a small pointy end because he’s lost the tool he was supposed to use. He manages to pop out the key from the top of a tree, then runs over to the box and gets the idol. And now there’s a twist. On its own, it works just like previous idols, but combined with another idol, it becomes SUPER IDOL!!! It can be used after the votes are read, which is pretty big.



On Brains, things have changed dramatically. Although Debbie and Joe were originally on the outs, Peter and Liz have decided that Neal is the real threat and Debbie and Joe are goats that can be dragged along. Their master plan involves telling Debbie and Joe to vote for Neal, Liz and Peter to vote for Aubry and then in a tie, they’d re-vote all for Neal. Remember that plan, it’s a good one. Liz and Peter are congratulating themselves for how well they’re playing the game and how much in control they are. Oh boy, I sense a big comeuppance coming. Debbie, meanwhile, is willing to say she’s going along with Liz but in fact Liz is Debbie’s target. Debbie is talking about flying under the radar, and opening the bomb bay doors, and she’s still crazy … but with a purpose now.



On Beauty, they kill a chicken, Tai is sad and Nick is a target for the women. That’s really all that segment is worth. Meanwhile, back to Brawn, where there’s an elaborate idol hunt. Alecia finds a clue that says the idol is at their feet, and she shows it to Cydney and they start digging. Cydney fools Alecia into going to get a digging tool, and then finds the idol, but it’s also locked in a box. Kyle has seen the digging, so Cydney shares the clue for the key with him and Scot (and Alecia who has returned). Kyle runs off for the key, then he and Scot fashion a similar long pole that Tai did, and the key pops loose, then Kyle grabs the key before Alecia can get it and Kyle ends up with the idol. Phew! Not surprisingly, Alecia is confused at what happened. Jason and Scot discuss the SUPER IDOL concept and they’re pleased. Scot also gives a “Wonder Twin powers, activate!” quote from the Super Friends cartoon way back when, automatically making him my favourite Survivor of the season.



On to the immunity challenge where tribes must maneuver three bags of rice through an obstacle course in the water, then find three balls in the bags and use a pulley device to navigate each ball through a vertical board with holes to the top and placing each ball in the holes at the top. That’s the best you’re getting from me as a description. Brains is last through the obstacle course, and Beauty easily wins the challenge. Besides immunity, they also win comfort items. It comes down to Brawn vs Brains with Cydney vs Debbie and it is amazingly close as both tribes appear to have their ball right at the final spot, but Cydney wins and finally Brawn wins immunity (and their item from home).



Back at the Brains camp, Liz tells Debbie their plan and Debbie agrees easily. Instead, Debbie reveals the plan to Neal and the question now is whether Liz or Peter should go. On to Tribal where there’s the usual vague hinting at plots and schemes … until Peter outright tells Neal the plan to vote him or Aubry out. Good god, that’s so dumb, especially in your first tribal when you don’t have any idea if your allies are really on your side. Peter spends the entire tribal council talking up how awesome he is and he just wants to vote. So they do, and there are 2 votes for Aubry … and then 2 votes for both Luz and Peter. Hey, look at that, it’s your own plan being used against you! Peter appears incredulous. They re-vote without Liz, Peter and Aubry and it’s 3 votes for Liz. Debbie just ousted Liz directly, so there we are.



In next week’s preview, we’re getting a serious medical incident. I’m talking on the level of Skupin’s-burned-hands-from-Australia serious. There’s IV’s and an immediate medevac. The only person I can say for sure is ok is Tai because we see him crying.

 

[basketballjones]

[YOUTUBE]giT4-7VpyiM[/YOUTUBE]

 

[SneakyPete]

Liz and Peter were so rattled when they saw their names. lol

 

[basketballjones]

pete should learn to shut the hell up

 

[Preroller]

wow, what a crazy episode!!!

 

[Bernnie Federko]

Last night’s episode was absolutely nuts, and definitely proved Jeff’s earlier comment about this season being possibly the harshest conditions they’ve ever faced. The episode begins as they usually do, with the losing tribe returning from Tribal Council. Peter is off sulking and Debbie comes over to stroke his ego, which shouldn’t ever work, but always seems to anyway. And then we get the first notion that this is not a normal episode, as we immediately go to the reward challenge less than a minute or two into the episode. We also get little throwaway comments like ‘boy, it’s hot’ and ‘this will be fun’. Between this and last week’s preview, I’m on high alert anticipating who’s going down.



The challenge involves an obstacle course, then digging up bags of balls and rolling balls into holes. Joe is dragging, so I’m thinking it might be him, but as we get to the digging portion, all of the tribes are clearly majorly affected by the heat. They continue digging for the next 45 MINUTES! Finally, Brains gets their final bag and tears through the last portion to win the reward (coffee, spices & stuff). While the other two tribes are still digging, Debbie is down on the ground and Joe is calling medical for her. Debbie is being treated for heat stroke and getting water poured on her, while first Beauty then Brawn get their last bags and race to finish the challenge. Beauty finishes 2nd with Brawn last, but that hardly matters as now Caleb is down and needing medical attention. And then shortly after that Cydney goes down too. Fortunately, by this point, Debbie is ok but Caleb is barely responsive and then wheezing in a very disturbing fashion. He’s being hooked up to a monitor and getting an iv and an oxygen mask. Cydney is comparatively less affected, and she’s getting the same treatment that Debbie had, with Kyle watching over her. While Jeff is looking over Cydney, the doctor comes up and tells Jeff they need to evacuate Caleb so the chopper is called and his game is over. His tribe is distraught as Caleb is flown out. Even though the episode is only half over, we get a title card saying that Caleb has fully recovered and is hoping to play again. This was pretty unlucky for him as his tribe was going strong and he seemed to be well liked by everyone on his tribe.



After the hoopla, we’re back at Brawn’s camp where Alecia is arguing with both Scot and Kyle over how they treated her during the challenge. Considering she was mainly just kicking at the dirt in the challenge, I’m not very sympathetic. And we’re right into the immunity challenge which pretty much guarantees it’s Brawn and Alicia who are doomed. The tribes retrieve segments of a rope puzzle and then complete the puzzle. Even though Brains is way behind in getting to the puzzle, they still figure it out and win, followed by Beauty (who has yet to go to Tribal Council). After the challenge, there’s more arguing between Alecia and the guys on her tribe and Kyle asks if they can just vote right there. Jeff says sure, but Alecia would have to agree. She does not … and we cut straight to the tribal council that night. There is zero suspense in what is going to happen as Alecia is unanimously voted out.



So, two players are out (and we had the potential for even more). In next week’s preview, not surprisingly we are facing a tribe switch, probably consolidating down to two tribes.

 

[Bernnie Federko]

The episode begins with Peter on the Brains tribe finally aware that he’s on the bottom of his tribe. He’s trying to make himself useful by helping Joe with what looks like an infected finger, or something. I tuned that out, blech. Meanwhile, Neal the ice cream guy is on a quest to find the idol, and in the space of 5 tv minutes, he successfully finds the clue, then the locked box, then the tree with the key which he retrieves and then the idol itself. So, that’s Neal, Tai and Kyle all with idols, and both Neal and Tai have kept it quiet, while the entire Brawn tribe (all three of them) knows that Kyle has it.



And now we get the tribe switch. It was intended to have two teams of 7, but with Caleb’s evacuation, it’s now uneven. So, they’re going to have two tribes of 6 and 1 person off on their own for a couple of days until the next person is voted out and then that lone person will join that tribe. Bear in mind that to this point, the Beauty tribe has yet to go to tribal council and only lost a player to medical emergency. Everybody draws new buffs and we have a blue team with 2 members each from Brawns, Brains and Beauty; a yellow team with 3 brains, 2 beauty and 1 brawn … and poor Julia the Beauty all off on her lonesome. This in fact screws over the entire Beauty tribe because both tribes quickly realize that if they don’t take out a Beauty in the next vote, Julia will join that tribe and the Beauties would end up in a power position.



On the blue, Debbie is looking to work with the Brawns to target a Beauty. On the yellow, Peter is thrilled with the switch because it gives him new options, while Scot is worried being all alone as the lone Brawn. He quickly fits in with the rest of the tribe though. Anna, realizing the Beauty dilemma is trying to throw Tai under the bus by revealing his idol search.



On to the challenge where Scot single-handedly gives his tribe a lead up to the puzzle … which is promptly lost as Neil and Debbie fly through the puzzle and win for the Blue tribe. It’s going to be down to Anna or Tai. Tai reveals to Scot and Anna that he has the idol, and they come up with a possible plan to use it to get rid of Peter (who, with his usual tact, has revealed that the Beauty folks are being targeted). Meanwhile, Scot knows the rule about the super idol and wants Tai to keep his idol until they can join up with Kyle. Scot tells Tai that Anna is the one who’s going so there’s no need to play the idol.



At tribal, Anna and Tai are both pleading their case, while Peter continues to act terribly believing that he has all the power. Does he not remember what happened the last time? Anyway, they vote and Tai does not play his idol. Anna looks unhappy at that, knowing what that means. It means she’s out. And she is. In next week’s (i.e. tonight’s) preview, Peter is being targeted once again, this time by Joe.

 

[Jeffsus]

I'm impressed that some people still own actual TVs in order to watch network television.

I'm with you except how do I get in!

I own a newish smart TV but I don't have cable... How do I get over the air channels or watch this kind of TV trash?

All I have is netflix and what I DL from the interwebs.

-jM
A&D

 

[Bernnie Federko]

Get an over the air antenna for under fifty bucks

Get a proxy service for fifty bucks a year to improve the options available on netflix

 

[Jeffsus]

Get an over the air antenna for under fifty bucks

Get a proxy service for fifty bucks a year to improve the options available on netflix

Well it's now 9:00am.

Do I get proxy service, amphetamines, crack cocaine, or a nice meal to keep this morning rolling?

I planned ahead and have three cases of beer here.

My tennant, an ex-prostitute, had to go to sleep... but I'm sure I can wake her up as needed.

-jM
A&D

 

[Bernnie Federko]

Amphetamines

The rest flows from there

 

[Jeffsus]

Amphetamines

The rest flows from there

Agreed. I am going to attempt a nap, then wake her up for her connections, make lunch, and continue from there.

-jM
A&D

 

[Bernnie Federko]

we begin with Tai happy that he’s still in the game and with his idol. Peter is immediately discussing with Tai the idea of targeting Joe for elimination. On the other side, Debbie thinks Nick looks like a greek god, and whatever, shut up, Debbie. Debbie’s new job designation #432 is part-time model.



Moving on to a reward challenge, we get Julia joining the yellow tribe. The tribes have to retrieve little round buoys from the ocean and then one person shoots them into a basket. Um, this seems like an insane challenge to have when one of your competitors is a past-NBA champion. But what do I know? Anyway, Michele screws up in retrieving the buoys putting her tribe behind. And the other tribe has the aforementioned basketball professional. But then Nick gets on a shooting tear against Scot and is up 7-5. So, I guess I retract my previous statement. Except then right at the end, Nick folds under pressure and misses a bunch allowing Scot to win 10-8 and the food reward.



Julia is glad to join a tribe after being segregated all alone, and it’s even better that it’s the winning tribe. Peter wastes no time roping Julia in to his anti-Joe group. Aubry and Joe have seen Peter holding discussions and they are deeply suspicious. Meanwhile on the other side, Michele is unhappy with her performance and is looking to work with Debbie to cement her weak position in the tribe. But when she discusses with Nick, he shoots her down in the most condescending dismissive way ever. Nick’s an idiot.



Meanwhile, Peter is now talking to Scot about targeting Joe, and Joe has had enough. He’s a former FBI agent, don’t you know so he gets in Peter’s face and starts bad-cop interrogating him. ‘I’m going to ask a question and you’re only going to respond yes or no’. Joe asks if Peter is trying to get out Joe, and Peter is acting confused. They’re both being pretty silly, frankly. Peter eventually says no, but Joe doesn’t really believe him. Meh to the both of them.



On to the immunity challenge. There’s a bunch of retrieving blocks, but it becomes irrelevant as the final stage is stacking 20 blocks on top of each other, and there are different sized blocks. Peter suggests to his group that they start by stacking the smaller blocks and then lifting them to put the larger blocks underneath them. It’s a stupid idea and it doesn’t work. But it does get Joe hit in the head with a block so there’s that.



So, yellow is going to tribal, and we have Joe looking to target Peter while Aubry, his ally, is instead looking to get rid of Julia. Her rationale is that even a weak ally like Peter is still good to make use of at this point. And even though Peter has spent the entire episode lining up support to get rid of Joe, he’s apparently caved and decided to stick with his Brain allies. Which is really really dumb, since he’s now burning his bridges with the people he tried to bring to his side. Joe makes peace with Peter and they’re targeting Julia, while Scot, Tai and Julie are now targeting Peter (although Scot and Tai are also willing to take out Julie). Tai talks to Aubry about taking out Peter, and she broaches the subject with Joe. Joe is annoyed that Aubry is being wishy-washy and he says they should stick with the plan to take out Julie (even though he originally did want Peter out). Whew, a lot going on here.



On to tribal, where Peter takes responsibility for the loss. There’s a lot of talk about trust where it’s clear that no-one particularly likes Peter. Aubry is especially up in the air, so Scot calls an audible and he and Tai decide right there to vote against Peter. Scot tells Julia ‘original plan’, presumably meaning to vote for Peter as well. Aubry is having another side conversation with Joe, where Joe is still telling her to stick with the plan. Now we’re voting and we actually see Aubry vote for Julia which seems crazy since she’s obviously the vote that’s most in play. But then Jeff reads the votes … and we see Aubry’s vote with Julia crossed out and Peter written in instead. I think that’s a first.



Next week … MERGE!