"Survivor: Second Chance" (CBS)
Quick Note: Just because the season is over doesn’t mean the fun will be stopping. Starting Thursday we’ll have interviews with the final six players. Be sure to follow me on Twitter (@gordonholmes) for up-to-the-minute news and info.
Watch Full Episodes of “Survivor: Second Chance”
Previously on “Survivor”: Vytas? Vamanos. Shirin? So Long. Peih-Gee? S.O.L. Varner? Sent Outback. Padilla? See ya. Dietz? Fortunately everything worked out OK. Woo? Gone too. Kass? Didn’t last. Savage? Outcast. Wiglesworth? The vultures took her and did whatever they wanted with her. Ciera? Sayonara. Stephen? Sent bach. Joe? Had to go. A-bi? Abye.
39 Days, 20 People, 1 “Survivor” Blog…
Let’s take a look at the tribe as it currently stands…
The Orkun Tribe (wearing orange)
Jeremy – San Juan del Sur
Keith – San Juan del Sur
Kelley W. – San Juan del Sur
Kimmi – The Australian Outback
Spencer – Cagayan
Tasha – Cagayan
Rejected Headlines: “Cash DiSpencer?” and “Jeremy CollWins?”
Note: Probst has promised something we’ve never seen before. My money is on a reward not worth playing for or someone digging too deep.
Let’s get this thing started!
We kick things off after Tribal, and Keith is shocked that they booted Abi because he thinks she couldn’t win at final three. Spencer points out that if everyone was trying to take Abi to the end, they wouldn’t want to take him. Oh…
Kimmi thinks all of this is her chance to swoop. She tells Kelley that she wants to get Jeremy, Tasha, and Spencer to split the votes so they can get out Jeremy. Lookit Kimmi playin’ “Survivor!”
Immunity Challenge Time: The players will collect puzzle steps, then put them in place to build a staircase. The first person to complete the slide puzzle at the top of the staircase will win immunity.
Probst says there are no more repeat challenges going forward.
Note: Well, this challenge is fresh to these players, less fresh for “Boston” Rob.
We start off and there isn’t much to describe except for sweatin’ and step placin’. Spencer is off to an early lead. Wentworth and Jeremy are behind him.
Spencer is the first to reach the slide puzzle. Wentworth and Jeremy eventually join him. Keith, Tasha, and Kimmi make it up too.
They battle it out for a bit, but Spencer’s lead was too much for the rest to overcome. He claims his fourth immunity.
Before we head for commercial, Kelley says they need to make a move now. Dude, you have an idol. You could flip it!
Back at camp, Keith and Kimmi go out for a chat. She pitches her vote-splitting plan and tells him that they’re targeting Jeremy. Kelley eventually joins them. Oof…too intricate a plan for Keith?
Meanwhile, Spencer and Tasha are totally wondering what the threesome is up to.
Later, Kimmi pitches the boys voting for Keith and the girls voting for Wentworth to Tasha, Spencer, and Keith.
As soon as Kimmi walks away, Tasha and Spencer tell Jeremy that she’s “a rat.” Jeremy isn’t sure if he believes it.
Jeremy confronts Kimmi, and she turns on the fake tears. Wow…go Kimmi.
Spencer and Jeremy chat about idols. Spencer is positive that Wentworth doesn’t have an idol. He also doesn’t think Jeremy has one. Heh… The producers must’ve been high-fiving when they got that footage.
That night at Tribal, Savage wears that hat again.
Jeremy admits that there are alliances.
Kelley thinks it’s her and Keith against Kimmi, Spencer, Jeremy, and Tasha.
Tasha isn’t so sure about that.
Keith is ready to lie, cheat, and steal. Lovin’ the Eddie Guerrero reference.
Spencer says there was a plan to split the votes, but they aren’t going to do that anymore. He says he’s voting with Tasha and Jeremy and they can draw rocks if they have to.
Keith points out that Spencer can say that because he’s safe.
Spencer whispers to Kelley, “You’re good.”
Kelley doesn’t trust him because they said she was safe last time.
Eventually it breaks down with both sides trying to convince Kimmi which way to vote.
Oh boy!
Voting Time: No votes are shown.
Oh man, I think Keith is totally tuk-ed.
Probst tallies and returns. He asks if anyone wants to play an idol and…Kelley does!
And then…Jeremy plays his idol!
Oh boy again!
We’ve got one vote for Kelley, one vote for Jeremy, one vote for Kelley, one vote for Jeremy, one vote for Kelley, and the last vote is for…Jeremy! No votes count!
OK, the rules state that they’re going to re-vote. Spencer, Kelley, and Jeremy are all immune.
Voting Time (Once Again): No votes are shown. (Once again.)
Probst tallies and returns. (Once again.) We’ve got one vote for Tasha, one vote for Kimmi, one vote for Tasha, one vote for Kimmi, one vote for Tasha, and the final vote is for…Kimmi. A tie!
The four people who weren’t voted for have to discuss who should go home. If they don’t come to a unanimous decision, they draw rocks. But, in this scenario, Tasha and Kimmi are safe and Keith would go home because he’s the only one who isn’t immune. Whoa.
They talk it over and Keith offers to give up his spot because Kimmi is a single mother. Wow.
Kelley wants Keith to stay, so she changes her vote to Kimmi. Keith does too. Kimmi is the fifteenth person eliminated from “Survivor: Second Chance” and the eighth member of the jury.
Ugh…they should’ve just pulled rocks from Savage’s hat.
Again, this all could’ve been avoided if Kelley had done something more constructive with her idol.
Back at camp, Spencer geeks out because this has never happened before. Whew…I hope it never happens again. I’m exhausted.
Immunity Challenge Time: The players will race along a six-pronged obstacle course. They’ll gather six bags of puzzle pieces. The first person to return with all the pieces and complete the puzzle wins immunity.
Note: I saw a drawing of this challenge in Challenge Producer John Kirhoffer’s office. It looked awesome on a dry-erase board. Even better in real life.
Another Note: It’s very similar (or maybe even identical) to the final four challenge in “South Pacific.”
We start off and it’s pretty even to start, but Jeremy has a slight lead. Kelley intentionally tries the hardest prong first. Will it pay off?
It totally does! Kelley is the first one with all of her pieces. She’s followed by Jeremy and Keith.
Tasha and Spencer eventually join them.
Wentworth is cruising on the puzzle. Keith almost catches up, but he’s too late and Kelley wins it.
Back at camp, Tasha, Spencer, and Jeremy want to target Keith, but they’re scared to death of immunity idols.
When they’re away from camp, Kelley makes a fake idol for Keith. I’d give it a solid eight on the Runaround Bob scale.
The ploy seems to be having an effect on Jeremy, because he’s getting a bad vibe from Keith and Kelley.
Jeremy hilariously tries to get Keith’s attention, snapping and waving in his direction. Keith finally realizes what’s going on. Jeremy alludes that they should vote for Spencer.
That night at Tribal, Wentworth says she knew her back was against the wall.
Keith thinks it could be him unless things change.
Spencer believes that a straight-forward vote would be a big move in this season of crazytown votes.
Kelley wants to vote because her vote doesn’t count and Keith is going home. Sneaky…sneaky…?
Keith admits that there are some tricks left to be played.
Voting Time: No votes are shown.
JPro tallies and returns. He asks if anyone wants to play an idol…and nobody does.
We’ve got one vote for Spencer, one vote for Keith, one vote for Spencer, one vote for Keith, and the sixteenth person eliminated from “Survivor: Second Chance” and the ninth member of the jury is…Keith.
Whoa…no messing around. Check the clock cause it’s…
Immunity Challenge Time: The players will place a ball at the top of the track. It’ll spin around the track and drop out of the bottom. They’ll have to catch the ball and put it back in the top. They’ll add more balls as time goes. Drop a ball and you’re out. Last person standing wins a trip to the final four.
We start off and there isn’t much to describe except for ball spinnin’.
Kelley is the first one out when they get to four balls. She is not pleased.
Tasha’s out next. We’re down to Spencer and Jeremy for immunity.
They go to five balls and…it…is…intense! Spencer finally drops one, giving Jeremy immunity.
Jeremy breaks down, telling Jeff that it’s all about his family. He doesn’t mention the family member on the way.
Kelley tears up too because she knows she’s on the outside looking in.
Back at Orkun Beach, Jeremy realizes that he said he’d be loyal to his three, but now that he has the necklace he can switch it up.
Spencer asks Kelley who she’s targeting. She doesn’t say. He tells her he’s writing her name down because he thinks she can beat him.
Kelley tells Jeremy that she thinks people respect him, but people who appreciate sneaky gameplay will like Spencer. Jeremy considers the idea of making Spencer and Kelley do a fire-making challenge.
That night at Tribal, Jeremy says he couldn’t control his emotions after the challenge.
Spencer hopes he’s set himself up to stay in the game.
Kelley knows the trio is close, but they should be considering who they can beat at the end.
Jeremy is thinking about himself and his family’s future.
Kelley admits she’s voting for Spencer because he probably has his final Tribal speech planned. I hope it’s “I love you all!”
Spencer believes that Kelley will get a ton of votes if she gets to final three. He even says he’d try to get people to vote for Kelley. Hmm…if Spencer survives, I wonder how the jury will feel about that.
Voting Time: Spencer votes for Kelley, Kelley votes for Spencer (and says that it’ll be the last time she writes his name down), and the rest are secret.
Probst tallies and returns. We’ve got one vote for Spencer, two votes for Kelley, and the seventeenth person eliminated from “Survivor: Second Chance” and the final member of the jury is…Kelley.
The next morning, the final three is greeted by a mirror and a scale. Best diet ever.
They then devour the Day 39 breakfast. Worst diet ever!
Spencer hopes getting in touch with his feelings is the story he needs to win it all. Yeah, but do you have a mystery baby on the way like Jeremy?
Mystery Baby > New Feelings.
That night at Final Tribal, Savage starts us off by saying the answers have to be impactful. He tells Spencer that he’s arrogant, calling him out for threatening to bury Jeremy. Spencer says he was arrogant the first time, and it’s a mask for his insecurities. His mask slipped at last Tribal.
He then asks Jeremy why he verbally attacked Kimmi when she was voted out. Jeremy says he was hurt because Kimmi flipped.
Fishbach goes second. He asks Tasha why she did Jeremy’s dirty work. She says that she’s a strong, independent woman and nobody dictates anything to her.
Stephen then asks Spencer why he was willing to betray people. Spencer says he had to jump between blocs because he didn’t have the best relationships.
Ciera is next. She says that flippers rarely make it to the end, and the jury feels very betrayed. Jeremy thinks the season was different because of the caliber of the players. He then throws it back at her saying she encouraged everyone to make big plays.
Tasha claims it was because of all the swaps.
Spencer thinks there were so many different types of relationships and he had to take advantage of that to get rid of threats.
Wow, all three are doing pretty well.
Keith bats clean-up. He asks Jeremy why Spencer should win. Jeremy says he thinks Spencer made good moves and survived being on the bottom. Spencer gets the same question and says that Jeremy was in a powerful position through most of the game.
Abi wants to know about everyone’s subtle moves. Tasha admits she was closer with Spencer than Jeremy due to Cagayan. Spencer played Joe by pushing distrust on him. Jeremy says he was hunting for idols when people were at rewards.
Wait, Abi knows what the word “subtle” means?
Kimmi calls Spencer a bully for how he treated Jeremy at the previous Tribal. She then calls Jeremy out for replacing her in the pecking order with Spencer. Jeremy claims that he never replaced her with Spencer and that his feelings were hurt when she voted for him.
Joe is dreamy. He also says his vote is open. He doesn’t think Tasha was aware of what was going on. He wants to know when she was able to turn it around. She says when they voted him out, Jeremy and Spencer were confused and she stepped up and voted him out.
Kelly reminds everyone that she lost “Survivor: Borneo” by one vote. She asks everyone to pick a number between one and ten. Hilarious! Greg Buis represent!
Kass reminds Spencer of when he said she had 0% chance of winning. Spencer knows he’s said dumb things, but he wants her vote because he believes he’s changed. Kass congratulates him for trying to change.
Wentworth finishes it up, asking what their second chance stories are. Tasha says it was to build and maintain relationships. Spencer’s was teetering between who he was and what he’s become.
Finally, Jeremy admits that he’s here for Val and his two kids…and the mystery third kid!
Hmm…will people like that or think he’s Fairplaying them? He was already going to win without it.
Voting Time: No votes are shown…so all ten for Jeremy?
Probst snatches up the urn and the next thing you know we’re in Los Angeles.
Tallying Time: Five votes for Jeremy and the winner of “Survivor: Second Chance” is…Jeremy!
Whoa…and his wife Val is mega pregnant.
Verdict: What can you say about a season where most people brought their A-games, there were a billion surprises, and the right person won? I’ll have to let it settle before figuring out a final placement, but it’s got to be one of the greatest seasons of all time.
Power Rankings Results: (Note: Tasha and Spencer tied for second.) Jenn had Jeremy, Kimmi, and Keith in the right spots for six points. Max had Jeremy, Spencer, and Kelley in the right spots for six points. And, I had nobody in the right spot for zero points. The final score is Team Jenn: 136, Team Max: 130, and Team Gordon: 119. Congrats, Jenn on becoming the “Survivor: Second Chance” Power Rankings Champion!
Any Questions? Drop me a line on Twitter: @gordonholmes
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