Corinne's leaving has not put a damper on Malcolm's game. He is now the only one who knows about his Idol, & he still has his Fans. Somehow, he still has his Faves, too - they thought he was just going along with Corinne, I guess, because Phillip introduces him as The Enforcer to Sherri & nobody on Stealth R Us treats him like a traitor. Phillip assigns Sherri the nickname of Tenacity after expressing how hot she is & OMG is this all role-playing foreplay for Phillip?
Sherri resists the urge to point to the ocean & ask "Is that a Hantz?" before running in the other direction. She called Shamar her "Phillip" back in episode 2, saying "I get along with my Phil...I can stroke him, & I can put him back in place." Now she has the real Phillip to be her Phillip, & she's looking forward to manipulating him. Me too! The one good thing about all the Shamar drama was watching how deftly Sherri the Shamar Whisperer handled him, & I have hated how invisible Sherri has been since the tribe swap.
Off to the Reward Challenge, where Survivors will be divided into 2 teams via schoolyard pick. First team to get 4 balls into a net defended by 1 person wins a picnic lunch at the base of a waterfall they will rappel down. That sounds like another challenge to me. I'll just take the lunch, thanks.
The schoolyard pick results in super-uneven teams, but it doesn't matter because as long as the aim is high, the defenders have no chance of stopping the ball. Maybe if the defenders were placed closer to the net, they would have been useful. But we do get some great photos out of the challenge:
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| Planking! |
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| Jazz hands! |
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| Unfortunately no Colton-esque toe touches. |
The team of Reynold, Eddie, Erik, Michael, & Cochran wins. Ecstatic to finally get a reward, Michael tries to celebrate with his best Esther Williams.
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| Will no one join him for a synchronized swim? |
Malcolm is sad that for once, he had released The Hair for naught.
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| But is releasing The Hair ever really for naught? |
At the waterfall, Cochran is out of his element. "This is not something I do. I rarely leave my apartment. I rarely leave twitter." That's right. Cochran doesn't just promote Survivor on Survivor, he promotes his twitter on Survivor. Inspiring. After rappelling down the waterfall, the guys talk about how great it would be to make Survivor a sausage fest. Reynold says - & I had to watch this several times to make sure I was getting this right - "Hope's gone, so there's nobody worth fucking anyways."
If this is incorrect, someone please let me know. Otherwise, wow. Douchey McTools of past Survivor seasons, I'm ready to bestow this season's title unto Reynold. He then says something even more offensive to my ears: "let's bro down". Cochran isn't having any of it.
"They think that emphasizing the testosterone unity between us, & We're men. We're men & we hate women & we're gonna you know, slap each other with towels in the locker room, & chug beer...that doesn't work with me, that doesn't appeal to me at all. I don't want to be engaging in any sort of masculine tomfoolery with these numbskulls."
Usually Malcolm is savvy regarding tribal dynamics, but those frat parties with Alpha Beta must have weakened his abilities. He has plans to scoop up those on the bottom of Stealth R Us, but incorrectly assesses one of the bottom players to be Dawn. How has she managed to stay so close to Phillip without anyone else knowing? First Julia, then Corinne, & now Malcolm have all confided their plans to Dawn, thinking her likely to want to improve her position. Well done, Dawn. Malcolm actually gets it all wrong, as he approaches Sherri as his other bottom player, not realizing that she has game, & he thinks Andrea is running the game behind the front that is Phillip. Time to lay off the keg stands.
Sherri & Dawn discuss Malcolm's revelations with Andrea, & they decide to blindside him. Phillip plays along too, assuring Malcolm they're splitting the votes between Eddie & "Reynolds".
Andrea & Eddie have a lagoon date, with both playing the other. Eddie says: "I just need to be dragged 2 or 3 more votes before I can get up on my own feet & start punching people." All this, while romantic guitar plucking is going on in the background. It's very soap opera.
Off to the Immunity Challenge, where Survivors are in the water underneath a grate while the tide rises.
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| No thank you. |
Brenda, owner of a paddleboard company, wins this challenge without even knowing it. She's so comfortable immersed in water I now suspect she's part mermaid.
Back at camp, Phillip throws things at Sherri's head while she tries to sleep. In the woods, where Dawn seems to always be, she tells Malcolm she'll vote with him as long as she has proof of Reynold's idol.
"It's nuts! The fact that I'm coming back after Corinne's vote when I'm the person that gave the information on Corinne tells me that he's not dialed in." Reynold shows Dawn the idol with a menacing warning to not screw him. He says if he has reason to doubt her, he'll play it for himself. Dawn does not take kindly to this & IMO, Reynold just made it a little easier for her to be cutthroat.
Eddie & Andrea talk about which way the votes are heading, whether or not Reynold has an idol, & if Andrea's name has come up. They talk over each other & it goes on for a comically long time & it made me think of this:
Then suddenly Andrea is convinced she's going home & is in tears.
Knowing that her name has been mentioned, Andrea correctly assumes Malcolm is targeting her & scrambles to change the vote back to Michael, who for sure doesn't have an idol. Dawn is frustrated because she did so much work to make this Malcolm blindside happen, & now they might not have this chance again.
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| More pressing: where did these headbands come from? Malcolm's spares? |
At Tribal Council, Michael says having a Fave voted out at the last TC gives him some hope. Erik picks a bug out of Andrea's hair, which must have freaked her out even more. Wouldn't you assume that's a signal for how to vote? Maybe not, since it's coming from Erik, but I imagine it would be as nerve-wracking as a Boston Rob shoulder touch. Speaking of Boston Rob - after mentioning Redemption Island several times, Phillip makes a statement directed at anyone thinking of flipping right now: "I think they're gonna find that they actually erred in their judgement because there's enough numbers still left, & enough smart people still here, & they'll figure that out, so what you thought was a brave move, you're gonna get flushed out. Goodbye."
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| Malcolm tries not to vomit. |
When everyone has voted, Probst asks if anyone wants to play an Idol. Uh, yeah. Malcolm would like to...but does it have to be his? Reynold stands up, & from behind him comes one lone call. It is the call of the bro.
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| "Hold up, bro." |
Malcolm tells Reynold, "They all voted for me. You can tell. That was what that whole story was about. Give it to me, & we're in good shape. I'm being dead serious right now." Reynold pauses a moment, then does what he does best: he tosses the Idol right into Malcolm's waiting hands. Malcolm gives Probst a look like he can barely believe he pulled it off.
Other reactions are varied.
Reynold seems unsure at first, but then remembers that he is "ironclad" with his guys. They are "unwaveringly trustful to each other".
Probst reads the votes, & it's 3 for Andrea, 1 for Reynold (thanks, Bro!), but it seems Andrea made the wise decision with her scrambling to have votes changed to Michael, because he is voted out, & she remains safe. Like last week's vote, I loved Michael & I'm sad to see him go. But what a Tribal Council!
I have to say, with all the monkeys in this episode, I thought Malcolm would be going home because of the Matsing/Monkey connection. This stunt ultimately didn't matter on this vote, but going forward, nobody will suspect that Malcolm has an Idol of his own. He remains on solid ground with Alpha Beta, & while the Stealth R Us "operatives" must be affirmative on his treason (why else would Reynold give him the Idol), he has his own Idol to get him through at least 1 more vote. If Reynold's Idol goes back into play now, Malcolm could potentially have 2 Idols at his disposal again, given that he is an Idol magnet. Great episode.
This season has already led to an all-meme recap, & I'm excited that my all-LEGO Survivor recap is happening next week! In the meantime, check out my past LEGO Survivor recaps, & I'll be posting a few pics on Facebook in advance, so don't forget to "like" the page. You can follow me on twitter while you're there looking for Cochran, because he would want you to. No tomfoolery.
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2 comments:
The idol won't go back into play. Survivor rules say that after the merge there is only one idol in play at a time. So if there are 2 or 3 pre-merge idols, the will only re-plant an idol if all of them are played.
My family was PANICKED Malcolm was going home! I have been rooting for Dawn and Malcolm all along but now with this episode and the promo for next week I'm scared for both of them! On another note I feel like Sherri is going to pop out of no where and be the sneaky snake that takes over. Something tells me her edit isn't doing her a proper service.
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