'Survivor: Philippines' (CBS)
XFinityTV is blowing up their coverage of “Survivor: Philippines.” Every Monday Jeff Probst and I will tackle a wide variety of topics with the “Survivor” Question of the Week. Every Tuesday I’ll be squaring off against “Survivor: One World” favorite Kat Edorsson in this season’s Power Rankings challenge. Every Wednesday briefly after the show we’ll have a full episode recap and every Thursday we’ll have an interview with the latest eliminated player. Follow me on Twitter (@gordonholmes) for all the updates!
Set Your DVR to Record “Survivor: Philippines”
Last Week: RC was set up, Malcolm let Matsing down, the Kalabros invited Carter in, and Russell was voted out.
39 Days, 18 People, 1 “Survivor” Blog
Let’s take a look at the tribes as they currently stand…
The Kalabaw Tribe (wearing red)
Carter – Track Coach, 24
Dana – Cosmetologist, 32
Dawson – Insurance Sales, 28
Katie – Student, 22
Jeff Kent – Former MLB Player, 44
Penner – Writer, 50
The Matsing Tribe (wearing blue)
Denise – Sex Therapist, 41
Malcolm – Bartender, 25
The Tandang Tribe (wearing yellow)
Abi-Maria – Business Student, 32
Artis – Computer Engineer, 53
Michael – Professional Speaker, Author, and Coach, 50
Lisa – Former ‘Facts of Life’ Star, 49
Pete – Engineering Graduate, 24
RC – Investment Banker, 27
This episode starts, as most episodes do, at the super sad Matsing camp. I’m pretty sure when Denise and Malcolm made a final-two alliance, this isn’t what they had in mind.
Malcolm swipes my joke by saying he didn’t expect to be around this small a tribe until Day 39. Of course, he made that joke about six months ago. Let’s call it a wash.
Denise thinks they’re going to be split up and sent to the other tribes. I think she’s probably right. I was debating the merits of pretending like they hate each other. Then people wouldn’t be worried about them coming back together at the merge. Just a thought.
The next morning, mail comes in the form of an invitation to a reward challenge. Malcolm is worried that they won’t be coming back to camp, so he and Denise go on a mad hunt for the idol.
They aren’t having any luck. Denise even says “I’m clueless” in a non-ironic away. Finally, Malcolm figures out that the emblem on top of the rice is the idol. He’s beyond excited and they share their “Spaceballs” handshake.
Reward Challenge Time: Players will square off in one-on-one battles. Each player will be holding an idol on a post. First person to knock off their opponent’s idol wins a point. If both idols are knocked off, the first idol to hit the ground loses. First tribe to five wins a selection of coffee, cookies and other goodies.
Before the challenge starts up, Probst does indeed split up the rest of Matsing. They pull buffs, with Malcolm ending up a Tandanger and Denise joining the Kalabaw Nation.
Round One: Jeff Kent bests Malcolm. Poor Malcolm never wins.
Round Two: Artis beats Dana.
Round Three: Katie tops Lisa.
Round Four: Skupin wins over Penner without mangling himself.
Round Five: Denise dives in and nails RC’s idol.
Round Six: Pete defeats Carter.
I’m running out of words for “beats.”
Round Seven: Dawson grabs Abi’s hair, but still loses. Abi thinks Dawson should play like a man and not a…uh…witch that starts with a B. Ooo…snap.
Tandang leads 4 to 3.
Round Eight: Malcolm throws his own idol high in the air so he has time to knock down Kent’s! That’s actually pretty brilliant. Tandang wins reward.
Back at camp, Malcolm is super psyched to have an immunity idol, a new family, and some breakfast cookies. Aww…poor Angie missed out.
RC, however, isn’t as pleased because she thinks Peter and Malcolm will become BFFs. Her next move is to try to use her feminine ways to get on his good side. Speaking of Angie…
Later, Pete spills the tribe dynamics to Malcolm. Even going so far as to tell him that they have the idol. It’s nice to see that poor Malcolm won’t just become fodder.
Denise looks like she’s in good shape too. Katie wants to bring Denise on-board as part of her Kalababe alliance. I guess that’s the good part of joining a tribe with even numbers.
In other news, Dana is in pretty bad shape. It seems like the cold is getting the best of her and she’s feeling sharp pains in her stomach. Medical and Jeff are eventually called in. And that’s not a quick trip from base camp to the Kalabaw beach. It’s like an hour by boat. So, she must’ve been in agony for a while.
Fun Fact: The doctor refers to Dana’s mid section as her “tummy.” I’m almost positive that isn’t a medical term.
It’s decided that her stomach is irritated, but they don’t know if it’s an infection. He thinks she can stay in the game, but they’d check on her in another 12 hours.
Jeff asks her if she’d like to stay in the game, but Dana’s had enough. The rest of Kalabaw comes out to wish her well on her way out.
A medical evacuation on the medical evacuation season? How cliché. And she didn’t even wait until the sixth episode…
Immunity Challenge Time: The players will race through a series of obstacles. Then they’ll untie ropes to release a drawbridge. From there, they’ll chop through a piece of rope to release lettered bamboo puzzle pieces. First tribe to complete their phrase wins immunity.
Abi will sit out for Tandang. She lets us know that she’s only competed in two challenges. Look out, Courtney Yates. Someone’s coming for your record.
Tandang jumps out to big lead. Kalabaw is behind due to Katie’s problems with some obstacles.
Kalabaw makes up some ground at the drawbridge, but Tandang is still in the lead.
Malcolm cuts through the ropes and Pete and Lisa pull puzzle duty.
Kent has trouble chopping through the ropes, so Penner tags in. They release their pieces and Penner and Dawson go to work on their puzzle.
Lisa figures out the phrase and Tandang wins it by a single second. Wow. That was ridiculously close.
Back at Kalabaw beach, Katie feels bad for letting her tribe down. It probably didn’t help that Probst drew attention to it forty times.
Dawson doesn’t think she should worry though, because Denise is the obvious boot.
Kent shows everyone how wrong Dawson is by bringing Denise into the Kalabro alliance. I guess I’m going to have to rename that quartet.
Politicking around camp comes down to Katie or Dawson. Both have targets on their backs because of how badly they did in the challenge.
Later, Dawson starts messing with Jeff Kent by bringing up sports. She says that football is better than baseball. That’s pretty funny, although she’s very wrong.
Kent thinks she might know something about his previous career, and that’s a reason to get rid of her.
That night at Tribal Council, five people are visiting the Tribal set for the first time. That’s amazing.
Penner thinks it’s bad luck that they’re going to lose two people in two days. And, he thinks they would have won if Dana was around.
Katie owns up to how badly she did in the challenge. She hopes everyone remembers how well she did in previous challenges.
Dawson thinks Denise should stay because she’s a competitor.
Jeff Kent is going to vote for the tribe’s weak link.
Voting Time: Oooo…no votes are shown. I’d bet that means it’s five votes to one.
J-Pro leaves for a bit, reads a few votes, then returns. We’ve got one vote for Denise, three votes for Dawson, and the sixth person to leave “Survivor: Philippines” is…Dawson.
As Dawson takes her torch to Probst, she somehow resists the urge to turn around and yell, “He’s Jeff Kent! He played second base in the World Series! He’s super rich!” Instead she gives Probst a hug. Can’t say I blame her…
Verdict: Alright, now we’re talking. Nice to see Kalabaw finally make their way to Tribal. Also nice to see Denise and Malcolm not become their tribes’ obvious boots. Good times.
Who’s Going to Win: Call me crazy, but I really like Lisa. She isn’t rubbing anyone the wrong way. She knew the right thing to say about Matsing. Instead of saying they were decimated, she said that Malcolm and Denise must be survivors. If mergeville is right around the corner, she’s the least aggressive member of the dominant alliance.
Power Rankings Results: Kat killed it this week. She had Dana in spot fourteen and Dawson in spot thirteen for a total of twenty seven points. I was right behind her with Dana in fourteenth and Dawson in twelfth for a total of twenty six. The current score is Team Kat: 68, Team Awesome Thunder 73.
Any Questions? Drop me a line on Twitter: @gordonholmes
Tags: jeff kent, jeff probst, jonathan penner, Lisa Whelchel, michael skupin, survivor, survivor philippines
More Whatnot 