"Survivor: Second Chance" (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 Jenn Brown and Max Dawson. Be sure to follow me on Twitter (@gordonholmes) for up-to-the-minute news and info.
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Last Week: Varner spilled his M.O., Abi got P.O.’d, and Peih-Gee was K.O.’d
39 Days, 20 People, 1 “Survivor” Blog…
Let’s take a look at the tribes as they currently stand…
The Angkor Tribe (wearing yellow)
Abi – Philippines
Andrew – Pearl Islands
Jeff – The Australian Outback
Tasha – Cagayan
Woo – Cagayan
The Bayon Tribe (wearing pink)
Jeremy – San Juan del Sur
Kelly W. – Borneo
Kimmi – The Australian Outback
Monica – Samoa
Spencer – Cagayan
Stephen – Tocantins
The Ta Keo Tribe (wearing teal)
Ciera – Blood vs. Water
Joe – Worlds Apart
Kass – Cagayan
Keith – San Juan del Sur
Kelley W. – San Juan del Sur
Terry – Panama
Tonight’s fun kicks off after Tribal and Jeff can’t believe he’s still there. You and me both, buddy.
He tells Savage and Tasha that he’s always been loyal to Abi. Yeah, some people are loyal to their cigarette brands, and it doesn’t work out for them in the long run either.
Later, Tasha tells Woo that it should have been Varner that went home due to his rat-like activities after the challenge. She tells Woo that he isn’t going anywhere…which Abi takes issue with.
Abi then calls Tasha out in front of everyone, saying that she doesn’t like her partnering up with someone who just voted for her. Here we go…
You know, people say Abi is erratic, but she always does the same thing…which is make people regret aligning with her.
The next morning at Bayon, Jeremy shows us his idol and it looks like an actual idol. Not a stick or a crayon or Barbie doll with one closed eye and missing hair. When Stephen asks if he has the idol, Jeremy says he hasn’t found it yet.
Reward Challenge Time: One player from each tribe will race out into the water and retrieve a sand bag. They’ll then try to teeter-totter the bag into a net. First person to score three bags gets a cookout. The second person gets some kitchen implements.
Hey, I remember reward challenges!
We’re going to have Savage going for Angkor, Jeremy for Bayon, and Terry for Ta Keo.
Leaving Joe on the bench?! Blasphemy!
We start off and Terry jumps out to an early lead due to his awesome teeter-totter skills. Savage manages to catch up on the second round.
Quick Aside: The trips to get the bags must be grueling. These guys look beat.
It comes down to Deitz and Savage with Andrew managing to pull out the win. Deitz claims second shortly after.
Back at Casa de Angkor, Andrew is truly a real American hero. Forget, Snake Eyes and Shipwreck.
They chow down on their dinner and craft their own Angkor chant. The food and merriment keep Abi from killing anyone’s face to death.
At Ta Keo, Kass admits that she was probably on the top of most people’s elimination lists coming in. But, she’s turned over a new leaf and is using self-help methods. Good for her. Strategically she has always been sound, it was her social game that needed work.
Kelley catches Kass playing arts and crafts on the beach and Kass shoos her away. Kelley thinks Kass was making a fake idol, but really she was making Kelley a birthday gift. Wha-huh? Shiny new Kass! Charismatic Kass?
That was seriously like in “Mortal Kombat” where you expect Sub-Zero to pull your spine out and instead he gives you a little doll of himself as a “Friendship.”
…that joke wasn’t for everyone.
At Bayon, Spencer starts the process of throwing Kelly under the bus. He tells the classic Bayonians that she’s close with Terry and Woo.
Monica doesn’t buy it though. Which is interesting, because I had forgot she was on this season.
Immunity Challenge Time: Blindfolded players will stumble across a field looking for heavy puzzle pieces. A caller from each tribe will try to send them in the right directions. Once they have all of their pieces they’ll try to build a giant cube. The first two tribes to complete the puzzle will win immunity.
Fun Fact: Those puzzle pieces have been cursed to hit people in their most vulnerable parts.
Monica and Ciera will sit for their respective tribes.
Our callers are Jeff for Angkor, Kimmi for Bayon, and Kass for Ta Keo.
We start off and it’s pretty even. But Kass seems to be having trouble communicating. She’s screaming at Keith, but he can’t quite hear her.
Then the injuries happen. Pieces in the face, in the leg, in the crotch…they should play “Wacky Sax” over the montage.
Angkor gets all of their pieces back first, but all three teams are pretty close.
Bayon manages to fly through the puzzle and win it. And Angkor…is…just…drained. It’s like they’re not even trying. Ta Keo takes second place.
That was weird.
When it’s over, Savage admits that he had nothing left and has never experienced anything like it before. He is zonked. They’re all zonked. I think it’s obvious at this point that the twist of having a tribe that has nothing is simply too much of a disadvantage.
At camp, Tasha is debating aligning with Abi because she’s…you know…Abi. She wants to target Jeff because he could win Abi back.
Woo takes Abi aside and tells her that he’s worried that they’re losing all the old Ta Keons. He wants to target Varner, but Abi is still stuck on that whole him-voting-for-her-twice thing.
She asks Woo to put himself in her shoes. Don’t do it, Woo. She’ll accuse you of stealing them.
Later, Jeff tells Abi that he misses their buddy/buddy time. This actually seems to sway Abi a bit.
Oh man.
That night at Tribal, some flying insect scares the crap out of everyone. I swear, production must have an animal wrangler there to mess with the players.
Woo knows it’s between him and Varner. Abi agrees, but she doesn’t know who she should vote for.
Savage doesn’t think Varner is good at challenges, but he doesn’t want to face Woo at the merge.
Woo argues that the merge isn’t for a while. Savage, always expecting a terrible twist, says that they don’t know that.
Varner points out that he was loyal at the last Tribal Council. He then tells Tasha that they haven’t been talking, but he’ll stay loyal. He then pledges total loyalty to Abi.
Woo parries by saying that Varner has relationships with all of the classic Ta Keons.
Voting Time: Woo votes for Jeff, Jeff votes for Woo, and the rest are secret.
JPro tallies and returns. We’ve got one vote for Woo, two votes for Jeff, and the fourth person voted out of “Survivor: Second Chance” is…Jeff.
Aaaand…my curse is intact. Sorry, Varner.
Verdict: Jeff just played too hard and too fast and too high profile and too going to Tribal every stinking week. Man…I’m going to miss him.
That being said, making a new tribe start from scratch is just too much. I’ve never seen a tribe just stop during a challenge.
Who’s Going to Win? Gotta be Abi, right? Just kidding. Is there room on the Team Kelley bandwagon?
Power Rankings Results: Jenn and I called it this week. We both had Varner in spot seventeen. Max had him in fifteen. So, the current score is Team Jenn 48, Team Max 44, Team Gordon 36.
Any Questions? Drop me a line on Twitter: @gordonholmes
Tags: jeff probst, survivor, survivor cambodia, survivor second chance
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