Michael Skupin (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!
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Last Week: Penner was better at finding idols than the Kalabaw rookies, if RC and Abi-Maria were Han Solo, then Skup and Pete would be their wookiees, Angie’s plan for improving Matsing involved some Tribal Council cookies, and anyone who picked Roxanne to win owes some money to their bookies.
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)
Angie – Student, 20
Denise – Sex Therapist, 41
Malcolm – Bartender, 25
Russell – Environmental Attorney, 45
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
The show starts off with Matsing after Tribal Council…wait, didn’t I see this episode before?
Anywho, Angie is annoyed that Roxanne threw her and Malcolm under the bus. But, she’s fine with it because the rest of Matsing knows that her and Malcolm are just BFFs and not totally going steady.
CUT TO: Russell doesn’t think they’re just friends.
The next morning at Tandang, RC wants to hunt for the idol while Abi-Maria wants to rest her injured knee. Also, in the understatement of the year, Abi lets us know that she trusts herself more than anyone else there. That’s good, it gets ugly when you can’t trust yourself.
The two eventually get into a weird fight where Abi won’t let RC talk. Gah…you two are winning! Settle down.
Then, Abi lets Pete know about the idol clue. Pete (complete with his knee-high argyle socks) decides that he isn’t going to trust RC because she didn’t share the clue with him.
Pete takes Lisa aside and tells her that she’s the tribe’s main target. However, he wants to keep her around. He asks if she’d be willing to get rid of Mike. Seeing that as a better alternative to going home herself, she agrees.
Lisa then lets us know that she’s had her up days and her down days in the game so far. So, you take the good, you take the bad…
At Kalabaw, Penner is telling a charming story about his posterior. While he’s doing that, Jeff Kent realizes that the logo is missing from the top of the rice box. (Called it.) Kent puts two and two together and figures out that not only was that the idol, but Penner probably now has it.
Quick Aside: I’m loving Jeff Kent. He’s good in challenges and very savvy with his tribe. That, and it seems like he’s having the time of his life.
Carter thinks the smartest move if they lose immunity is if they act like they don’t know that Penner has it. Hmm… Then wouldn’t he be more inclined to play it? Wouldn’t it be better to let him know you think he has it, in the hopes that he doesn’t play it?
At Matsing we learn that the tribe’s raft has drifted off. Of course, I’m wondering how useful that raft is considering the other tribes have turned their rafts into parts of their shelters.
Later, Malcolm makes it clear that Denise is his true alliance. If they lose immunity again they’ll have to choose between Angie and Russell. Denise is leaning toward keeping Russell because they need the challenge strength.
Immunity Challenge Time: The players will dive from a platform into the ocean and release puzzle wheels from a line. Once they have all eight puzzle wheels, they’ll use them to create a word. First tribe to do so wins immunity and a fishing kit, second tribe wins immunity and a smaller fishing kit. Losers have a date with Probst at Tribal Council and no tiny fishing kit.
Abi and Lisa will sit for Tandang, Dawson and Katie will sit for Kalabaw.
We kick things off and Angie immediately has trouble releasing a wheel. Uh-oh…
Then, Skupin shatters his tribe’s scuba mask on his face! As you can see from the pic up top, he’s all kinds of bloody. I hate to see the dude hurt, but it’s a good chance to debut this…
Back in the challenge, Russell has trouble getting back on the platform. As in, he can’t climb a teeny ladder. It might be time to check to see if Matsing beach is cursed.
Dana and Denise are doing a fantastic job. RC swims so well she gets three pieces in a row.
Angie tells Denise that she doesn’t want to go back into the water. That didn’t work out well for Roxanne last week.
Russell goes out, but can’t dive deep enough to get a wheel. He returns empty-handed and still can’t get back up on the platform. Yow…
Kalabaw starts their puzzle first, Tandang is slightly behind them. Matsing finally catches up.
Kalabaw solves the puzzle first, then Tandang. Oof…poor Matsing. At least Russell didn’t freak out, that’s a step in the right direction.
After the challenge, Penner approaches Kent and tells him about the idol in an attempt to win his trust. Kent does a decent job trying to play along, but he talks about working together “for a while.” That would set off bells for me.
Also, Kent shakes on it using four fingers, which is apparently not as good as a manly five-finger handshake. What happens if you shake with four fingers and have your other fingers crossed? Do they cancel each other out?
At Tandang, Artis finally gets a chance to talk, and he is not pleased with Michael for breaking the mask. I’m not sure how that was Michael’s fault. Is that a diver thing? Anyone?
Later, when RC and Michael are looking for clams, Abi finds the Tandang immunity idol. She shares it with Pete and they bury it in the woods. Wow, has any tribe ever had this much drama and backstabbing without having ever been to Tribal Council?
Meanwhile at Matsing, Denise and Malcolm are down in the dumps about how terrible their tribe is. Well, they have a point. Angie approaches them and wants to let it be known that she never said she couldn’t participate in the challenge. She just didn’t want to because she didn’t think she was fast enough. She has a point too.
We meet up with Russell later as he’s praying…instead of looking for the immunity idol.
That night at Tribal Council, Jeff tries to turn their smiles upside down by pointing out that three of them will remain in the game. Jeff’s a glass-is-half-full kind of a host.
Denise is bummed to be away from her family. Malcolm admits that being on “Survivor” is his dream and it’s been heartbreaking so far.
Malcolm calls out Angie and Russell for performing poorly in the challenge, but admits that he and Denise should have stepped up.
Angie is worried that she could be going home tonight. But, she doesn’t think it’s fair to vote her out because Russell gave up.
Russell disagrees, saying he made a strategic decision and that Angie can’t hold a candle to him. She could if that candle was on a platform that had a teeny ladder.
Angie thinks she’s willing to fight more than Russell, but he reminds her that he almost died for the game. Touche.
From there, Angie does a solid Sugar impersonation by breaking into tears.
Voting Time: Russell votes for Angie (duh), Angie votes for Russell (equally duh), and the rest remain a secret.
J-Pro is all like, “Tally the votes? Don’t mind if I do.”
We’ve got one vote for Angie, one vote for Russell, one vote for Angie, and the third person to be voted out of “Survivor: Philippines” is…Angie.
Oh man…Malcolm’s a cookie monster.
Verdict: I’ve got to admit, they swerved me on that one. I thought they’d stick with Angie as an easy vote.
I’m still liking this season. And I’m glad we’re seeing strategy from Kalabaw and Tandang even though they haven’t lost immunity. But, here’s hoping red or yellow buffs make their Tribal debut next week.
Who’s Going to Win: What happens if Matsing loses again? Are Denise and Malcolm split between the other tribes? They’d both be goners. C’mon Matsing, get your act together.
Power Rankings Results: “Survivor: One World” fave Kat Edorsson called it. She had Angie in spot sixteen while I had her in spot fifteen. So, the current score is Team Kat: 26, Team Awesome Thunder 32.
Any Questions? Drop me a line on Twitter: @gordonholmes
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