'Survivor: Blood vs. Water' (CBS)
Quick Note: We’re going to be bringing you all kinds of “Survivor” fun this season including episode recaps, exit interviews, and Power Rankings with Malcolm Freberg. And, we’re inducting three members into the “Survivor: Hall of Fame” starting Wednesday, December 11, 2013. Be sure to follow me on Twitter (@gordonholmes) for up-to-the-minute news and info.
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Last Week: Laura helped Tina arrange her cubes, Ciera turned her back on the newbs, and Caleb and Tyson’s idol went down the tubes.
39 Days (well…technically 39.5), 20 People, 1 “Survivor” Blog
Let’s take a look at the tribe as it currently stands…
The Kasama Tribe (wearing purple)
Ciera – Cosmetology Student, 24
Gervase – Cigar Lounge Owner, 43
Hayden – Real Estate, 26
Katie – Hedge Fund Support, 25
Monica – Homemaker, 42
Tyson – Store Manager, 34
The show kicks off after Tribal and Hayden smartly congratulates Tyson on the strong move. He then lets everyone know that they’re playing for second place if they go to the end with him. Gervase takes exception to this statement, saying that Tyson has been his puppet.
Tyson tries to laugh it off, but he’s not happy that Hayden blew up his spot. Is that how that slang works?
Tyson, Gervase, Monica, and Ciera sit together and decide that Hayden is going home if he loses immunity, and if he wins, it’s Katie’s turn.
Redemption Island Time: Players will stack wooden cards as high as they can. The first two to reach the designated height marker will stay. The loser will go home. If the height marker is not reached, they’ll go by who has the highest stack after thirty minutes. The person to reach the top first will also get to give away a clue to a hidden immunity idol.
Before the challenge starts off, Caleb lets the remaining players from Utah and Philly know they’re in trouble. Oh c’mon, Caleb, isn’t being from Philly bad enough?
Gervase points out that he’s a man of his word, but Caleb and Hayden were going to stab them in the back first. He’s got a point.
The challenge starts off and there isn’t much to describe. You know, some stackin’ and whatnot. Laura gets a huge lead, and wins it easily.
Caleb and Tina are neck and neck (or stack and stack) at the three-minute mark. Caleb takes a slight lead, but his stack falls at the last second. Tina wins, Caleb’s done.
Before Caleb takes the long, lonely walk, Probst asks what he has in common with Colton. Caleb responds, “We’re both guys.” That’s hilarious. Let him stay.
Laura decides to give the clue to Ciera and she keeps it. Yay! Buck trends! Fight the power!
Back at camp, the dominant alliance chooses to read the clue together. Hayden and Katie try to Boehlke Block them by following them around, but are unsuccessful because…
In a touching moment, Tyson breaks down as he tells us that it will only be worth not swapping in for Rachel if he can get to the end. This is, of course, paired with footage of him finding the idol. Boom, indeed.
Later, Hayden approaches Gervase about teaming with Ciera and Katie to vote out Tyson. Gervase says it’s an option if they can get those two on board. But seriously, if Gervase was worried about Tyson, why wouldn’t he just try to be a final three with Monica and Ciera?
Immunity Challenge Time: Players will race through obstacles while they balance a ball on a pole. They’ll add sections to the pole as they go along. When they get to the end they’ll use a key to open a box of sand bags. They’ll use those sand bags to knock over targets. First person to knock over all the targets gets immunity and ice cream.
Quick Aside: I love Jeff Probst. I hate the word “belly.” It’s like the dude can’t discuss a reward challenge without telling you you’ll have a belly full of something.
The challenge starts off and Monica, Tyson, and Gervase are off to a solid start. Hayden isn’t far behind.
Monica’s the first to get to the sand bags, Gervase is right on her tail.
Gervase absolutely destroys the bean bag portion. He knocks down three targets at a time! Gervase wins immunity.
Our favorite Eagles fan gets to share his ice cream and chooses Tyson and Monica. Oh…that might be a mistake.
Back at camp, an “Iced Cream” cart shows up to deliver the diary goodness. Man, that’s just mean to make Gervase, Monica, and Tyson enjoy their food in front of everyone else.
Later, Hayden pitches his plan to Gervase and Ciera. He wants to boot Tyson and then go to the final three together. Gervase is reluctant because he thinks he can beat Tyson. That seems highly unlikely based on what we’re seeing.
Tyson wanders over and Hayden fesses up to trying to get people to turn on him. That’s kind of awesome. Tyson seems to respect the honesty.
That night at Tribal Council, Hayden says it’s Team Tyson vs Hayden and Katie.
Ciera says she’s comfortable with her alliance even though she wasn’t chosen for the food reward.
Gervase says he picked original Galang. Wow, way to out your final three there, Gervase.
Hayden tries to paint Tyson as the mastermind, but Ciera points out that it was Hayden and Caleb’s idea to vote out her mother.
Monica thinks Ciera turning is a bad idea because final four is better than six. Hayden jumps on this, saying that she called Ciera “four.” Tyson doesn’t think Ciera is four.
Gervase says that his alliance is honest. The jury laughs at this. That’s not a good sign.
Tyson tells Ciera that he’s protected her while Hayden has written her name down.
The arguing breaks down when Tyson and Hayden discuss the differences between “Rustling feathers” and “Ruffling feathers.” I prefer “Russelling feathers.” That’s when you place the feathers in Jaison’s socks and then set them on fire.
Voting Time: Gervase votes for “Haydone” and he does it loudly, Tyson votes for Hayden, and the rest aren’t shown.
JPro tallies and returns. He asks if anyone wants to play the idol and Tyson does not. Doh…
We’ve got two votes for Hayden, two votes for Monica, one vote for Hayden, and the last vote is for Monica. We’ve got a tie.
Tyson asks Ciera what she’s doing. She doesn’t respond.
Now Monica and Hayden won’t vote and the other four will.
Voting Time Part Deux: No votes are shown. Dun…dun…dun…
Probst tallies and returns a second time. Too bad he doesn’t get paid by the tally. We’ve got one vote for Monica, one vote Hayden, one vote for Monica, and the fourth vote is for Hayden…we’ve got another tie!
Note: The exclamation point at the end of the last sentence isn’t genuine. The double tie was spoiled by the CBS promo.
Tie Breaker Time: OK, Hayden and Monica are safe because they got votes. Gervase is safe because he has immunity. Ciera, Katie, and Tyson will draw rocks. The person to get the white rock goes home.
And the person with the white rock and the fifteenth person to be sent to Redemption Island is…Katie.
Everyone congratulates Katie on the gutsy move…but what was so gutsy about it? She was on the bottom anyway.
Verdict: Wow, that was a wild one. I wish that CBS promo hadn’t spoiled most of it.
Who’s Going to Win? If we saw our final three eating ice cream tonight, I’m thinking Tyson’s our next champ.
Power Rankings Results: Malcolm had Katie in spot five. I had her in spot three. So, the current score is Team Glamour and Glitter, Fashion and Fame 124, Team Real American Heroes 130.
Any Questions? Drop me a line on Twitter: @gordonholmes
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