KristiTeeVee: Survivor (11/5)
November 6th 2009 15:16
Last Night on. . .Survivor!
Where should I start?! I just want to give a quick shout out. . .I LOVE Survivor. No other reality show makes me as giddy watching as this show and that's because it's so primal in concept yet has evolved into one of the most intriguing and entertaining social experiements. There has been what 19-20 seasons? AND yet, each season brings in a new crop of people and things are never predictable. You can come into the game as a super fan or come in never seeing an episode and your chances of winning are the same.
Enough of my love-spewing. . .Let's get to the recap.
We meet back up with Foa Foa after their last trip to Tribal Council and they're hoping that a merge is next. For now they seem united together, and have plans (under Russell) to befriend some of the Galu members and stir things up
While over at Galu, Laura's back and her canteen is missing. She blames Shambo and we get about 5 minutes of them arguing. I kind of zoned out during this part, it was just too long. I get it, these two don't like each other.
Luckily for me, the tribes found tree mail and the meet at the beach. Inside a treasure chest were their new buffs and they're all off to live over at Galu's beach where they have a feast. We get a mini-montage of everyone happy and eating, before Foa Foa's befriending plan goes into action. We see Jaison and John walking off together, then Dave and Natalie, Mick hamming it up while they eat. . .AND this of course pleases Russell. BUT what was the cherry on top for Russell? Well, Monica decides to feed him grapes. . .like a 'King'. I rolled my eyes when Russell said that, but he kind of had a point.
Then we get more of the befriending plan, Laura shows Natalie around camp. And we get to hear Natalie really strategize for the first time, which I like! She's hoping to find the cracks in Galu in order to bust them wide open.
The tribe picks their own name, Aiga, which means extended family in Somoa. Of course it was squeaky clean Brett that came up with it. There's always one who does some lame research and is really excited to give the merged tribe the new name, so thanks Brett for being that lame researcher this season. (Totally did the vomit-inducing finger manuveur before you did Erik!)
Okay, so we know old Foa Foa's plan is to stay united, befriend Galu members and make alliances to keep them all in the game, right? Well if your Russell, how do you make friends?
SHOW THEM THE IMMUNITY IDOL.
I mean really, if you're Russell, what other way would you make friends? I totally got his reasoning, and even the Babe Ruth reference, but I don't think he picked the best people to try it on. He should have observed at least one day, found out the power players and went from there. I think us as the audience are just as much in the dark about what's really going on at Galu, just as much as the old Foa Foa members are.
His first swing was at Laura. They made what seemed to be a connection when she was sent over to visit them last week. Russell shows her the idol and tries to make a deal to the final 7. BUT Laura's not having it, and I totally agree with her. Final 7 is a suck-tastic deal AND she doesn't have enough trust in Russell to actually believe he'd give her the idol. When Laura rejects the plan, Russell bows out, vowing now to get rid of her.
His second swing was at Monica. (Bad move. What I do know of Galu, is that Monica and Laura are BFFs. . .what made Russell think that Monica would jump when Laura didn't?) He shows off the immunity idol, telling her if she's on the chopping block, he'd give it to her. Again, Monica has absolutely no trust in Russell in order to believe he'd actually give it to her, and therefore she rejects the deal too.
Russell's third swing was for all the marbles. . .and this time he made contact. I'm not sure if it's a homerun or not, but he's rounding first base. (Too much baseball references? I'm not done yet.) He shows the idol off to John and hatches a plan to vote out Laura, while trying to make a super-alliance with the old Foa Foa and the old Galu's Bro-Alliance. I didn't think this would work, but John bit the bait and they shake on it.
Russell then chats up Shambo. He doesn't show her the immunity idol (good move!) BUT finds out that her and Laura are on the outs and makes Shambo believe that she's in charge, telling them (old Foa Foa) to vote Laura out.
WHOA. OKAY. NOW THE IMMUNITY CHALLENGE: TEE BALL?!
I thought that this challenge was super lame. I mean tee ball, really?! Couldn't you have at least made it nine innings or something?! Anyway, we did get 2 immunity necklaces (one for the ladies and one for the gents).
First the MEN:
Dave goes first and he tells Jeff that baseball's not his sport, making love is. . . (mmmhmmm, that's exactly what I want to picture in my head. Dave making love. Awesome, I will have nightmares for the rest of the week at least.) He gets a 3.
Jaison is next, swings and gets a 0 for his ball being off the course.
Russell goes and gets a 4, putting him in first place.
Brett gets a 0, Mick gets a 2 and Erik swings for the 10 but ends up with a 0, therefore they're all eliminated.
John's the only one left to beat Russell, and he does just that by getting a 5. (Dang that Foa Foa curse!)
Now the WOMEN:
Natalie's up first, and looks like she's never swang a bat before. She gets a zero.
Monica's next and swings for 2.
Then Kelly swings and gets a 3, putting her in the lead. (Who's KELLY!?)
Shambo's up and I don't think her ball came close to the playing field, she gets a zero.
Laura's up (and I'm sitting on the edge of my seat. . .will she or won't she?) and she gets a 4! (AGAIN DANG, that Foa Foa curse is strong! Maybe it's the bad juju from Russell's hijinks on the first night - discuss amongst yourselves.)
So with Russell's plan to vote out Laura no longer available, everyone's left to scramble for the newest scapegoat. AND one of my favorite sequence of events in Survivor history went down. . .
Russell goes to Shambo, to start the plan to switch from Laura to Monica, BUT Shambo tells him it will be Erik and Laura who decide, and Monica won't be a choice.
Then we see exactly that, Erik and Laura talking, deciding who's out. Laura tells him that Russell has the immunity idol and they decide they want to 'flush it out.'
Erik then goes to John to tell him their plan, but John wants Monica out and convince Erik to switch his plan. (#1 GAME changer of the episode)
Erik takes it on himself to relay the message (DUMB! Spread the blame out baby.) Him and John go to Dave and tell him to vote for Monica, but not to tell Russell because they still want to flush out his idol. This makes Dave suspicious of Erik. . .
Erik then goes over to Jaison, Mick and Natalie and tells them all 'principal style' (that's what I thought of when I saw him standing over the three as they sat on a log) that they should vote for Monica and not tell Russell, or they'd be in BIG trouble. . .Which didn't sit well with Jaison (especially) and he hatches the plan for the old Foa Foa to unite and vote for Erik (# 2 GAME changer of the episode)
Natalie plays to her strengths and reaches out to the girls of Galu (Laura and Kelly to tell them that Erik wants all the girls to go, starting with Monica.) AND that was the snapping point, they all decide Erik's got to go.
Of course then Kelly goes straight to Monica and Laura goes to Dave. Then Dave tells Shambo (who doesn't even know who Erik is)
Russell's not sure what's going on. Although he did set things in motion, he really only played a small part this episode. . .He ready to use his immunity idol. . .
Erik is a little uneasy, just because his plan went down all too easily. (RED FLAG BUDDY!) And tells us if he feels he needs to use the idol he will. . .
AGAIN, I'm VERY GIDDY at this point. I'm sitting there, almost knowing that Erik will have the most votes against him this week. BUT, what I don't know is if he'll catch a wiff and use his idol, basically sending whoever he votes for home (Unless of course he votes Russell-who may also use his idol. . .THEN WHAT!?)
The beginning of Tribal Council was a snooze-fest. Jaison feels helpless and Monica tells us you can't trust anyone. THEN, Erik goes into a whole ego-driven speech about how Foa Foa has nothing to offer and that if they could get a Galu member to switch sides, he'd be surprised.
SUPER-FAN ALERT: WHEN YOU GET CONFIDENT IN THIS GAME, IT'S USUALLY WHEN THEY SLIT YOUR THROAT.
AND those executions - I mean, Tribal Council votes- are the MOST fun to watch as a viewer. BUT a small part of me was thinking, what if Erik is super-smart, and is putting the target on himself, knowing he'll use his own immunity idol and kick off the person he wanted?!
When Jeff Probst rattled his vote tallying speech. Russell gets up and says, 'they know I've got it, might as well use it.' ALMOST TAUNTING Erik to stand up and use his too. . .BUT he doesn't! AND Jeff reads the votes.
I don't think Erik was surprised to see his name read 4 times. But that 5th one, that changed everything. That 6th and 7th was just a kick in the gut. AND I relished in him sinking in his seat just as much as the people sitting next to him did.
In the end it was 7-2 (actually 10-2: Shambo's still really out there, even though she knew the plan, she looked shocked at the results. . .) and Erik is the first member of the jury.
Next week on. . .Survivor: Russell's in trouble.
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Comment by Raoul Duke
Style of Eye
admit it.