SURVIVOR: BRAINS VS BRAWN VS BEAUTY – 4/9/14

So beginning tonight’s episode, we recap the drama of last week but who cares about that?! Let’s get to tonight’s drama. The Solarrion tribe returns from Tribal and Spencer is leading the cheer for how awesome that Tribal was. Even though his alliance lost a member AND Kass flipped on them, he’s just a fan of the game and knows that was an insane tribal. He tells Kass he’s not mad – personally – at her, but he just thinks it was a bad move strategically. He asserts she’s playing based on estrogen and not with her brain, which, seems like a back-handed way of saying she was on period and making an emotional decision and not a strategic one (come on, we’re all adults here…). I’m guessing that smart mouth may actually bite him in the a$$ if he’s not careful, but Kass just wants him to know that she’s playing with her gut.

“I’m well aware that all you’re playing is your gut…” he tells her. Ouch…

Trish and Woo want Kass to know they’ll have her back moving forward, but Spencer doesn’t want to let it go. He keeps yammering that she made a bad move (an “embarrassment,” even), but she’s defending it by calling it a hat trick (Sarah gone, 2 idols out), and after all is said and done, she’s now a free agent, 4 people hate her, and 5 people MAY welcome her into their alliance. We’ll see…

The next morning (Day 20) while a few of the castaways are busy around camp, the question of who can get water comes up. Someone asks if Morgan is going to do it and Kass says that Morgan’s in her “usual place” meaning she’s lying on her a$$ in the SpyShack. While last night’s drama could have drifted away with a good night’s sleep, Kass doesn’t want to let sleeping dogs lie. Oddly, she goes on to compare Morgan to an old dog that you don’t mind when it pees on the floor because she’s so old, but then Morgan theorizes that Kass has been “ignored and made fun of her whole life so maybe she should be used to this.” Clearly, these two don’t like each other.

Whether what Morgan said is true or not, to hear something like that from a 21-year-old boobie princess who doesn’t know a lick about Kass’s past is more revealing about her than Kass (I’ll use the pejorative since her comment warrants it). As Coconuts picks up the pots to go fetch the water, she tells us:

“Kass is just a bitter, ugly old lady…(she’s) stupid and she needs to go…”

But we’ve got a reward challenge to do first! It’s something we haven’t seen before so that’s always good. The tribe will split into teams and maneuver over some obstacles in the water, come to shore and then carry a large treasure chest to a huge wooden tower. They then have to scale the tower, and then pull the chest up the tower. Once it’s up, 2 castaways on each team assemble a tower puzzle for the victory. Winning tribe gets an Outback Steakhouse feast. The teams are:

Spencer
Jeremiah
Coconuts
Jefra
LJ

vs.

Trish
Kass
Tony
Woo
Tash

In the obstacle portion, both teams handle the teeter-totter easily but on the balance beam, everyone makes it across except for Woo, whose aqua-shoes seem to slip on the beam.

Side bar: Funny how in a few comments this week we discussed how well Woo did last week in the Immunity Challenge because of his aqua-shoes. A few readers thought he had an unfair advantage, but this challenge proves that they may not be such an advantage. I even read a tweet that Jeff Probst wrote this week about wearing shoes in competitions.

Someone asked Jeff the following:
I don’t understand how Woo gets to wear those shoes, please explain?

Jeff replied:
They can wear shoes or not. Their call.

So there you go. Case closed…

The challenge is fairly even throughout with each tribe leading or trailing at various points. As they get to the puzzle section, it’s Woo and Kass against LJ and Spencer. We already know about LJ and puzzles, so let’s see if he can pull this one out for the orange team. And, of course he does! (BTW, I really like my early pick of LJ. Let’s see if that holds out…). It’s steak, potatoes and margaritas for the orange team. Purple team can go suck eggs…

Or return to camp and make extra large bowls of rice and coconut because the other “team” is eating steak! As the 5 losing players return to camp, they decide to eat a little extra today and not worry about how much the others are feasting. While preparing their food, a few are discussing who should go next, whether it should be Spencer or Jeremiah. Trish and Tony are basically asking Kass who SHE wants out, but Kass doesn’t want to make that decision. They tell her that since she knows them better, it should be her call. Kass is still feeling like a free agent since no one’s invited her into the “other” alliance yet. A little later, she and Tony discuss that what she did wasn’t really a flip, it was a “move.” Semantics! She pissed off her old alliance. That’s a flip…

Over at the steakhouse, the winners are welcomed with margaritas, salad, loaded baked potatoes, steak, and then tall shakes. Spencer looks like he’s overindulged on the margaritas, because it looks like he’s about to blow his cookies. Ahhh, to be 21 again…

So, having thrown caution – and manners – to the wind, he tells us he’s neglected to use his napkin throughout the meal, but when he picks it up, he notices a clue is tucked into it. He quickly hides it in his pocket before anyone notices, since they’re all as drunk as he is and probably wouldn’t remember if he said, “hey guys, I just found this clue in my napkin…” Nevertheless, Spencer needs a game changer, and “this could be it.”

Later, the victors return to camp during a downpour, and the few seconds of Morgan’s chest bouncing as she runs back made the episode for me. I really wish they would have played that in slow-motion, but that’s probably not the kind of show people tune in to see.

While others are huddling in the shelter, Spencer is solely interested in keeping his clue dry and escaping the camp to go look for the idol. After reading the clue, he knows where to go look, but he’s about to have some company. Woo knows how the game works after 27 seasons, and tells us that reward challenges oftentimes introduce clues to hidden immunity idols. As people are beginning to wonder, “Where’s Spencer…?” Woo realizes he needs to go find him…

Woo breaks out into #NinjaStealthMode and tracks Spencer down to a stream. As Spencer is digging in the dirt bank on one side, Woo spies him through some bushes nearby. However, Spencer is coming up short in his efforts, so as he returns to where he left his pants and shirt AND THE CLUE!?, he stumbles upon Woo, who acts like he’s just out on a walk. For the record, neither of these guys was very believable in claiming what they’re doing, but whatever…

As Woo goes to throw Spencer’s clothes back to him, the clue falls to the ground – why wouldn’t you keep the clue safe and on your person at all times! Spencer immediately says, “I think you’ve got something of mine, dude…” but Woo has already made like Sonic the Hedgehog and high-tailed it back to camp.

Now, I seem to recall reading somewhere that castaways can’t steal each others’ belongings (personal items, luxury items, immunity idols…and yes, Russell burning Jaison’s socks should have disqualified him from the game, in my book) but I guess stealing clues from another player is fine. Seems kind of shi**y to me…

Spencer realizes the sh*t’s about to hit the fan, so he might as well just accept it.

Woo gets back to camp and spills the beans about the clue. He enlists LJ to help him find it, who gets Tony involved, and it’s time for a mad dash. As Spencer returns, he tries to gather his troops (Jeremiah, Tash) to help look for it, because he knows that whoever finds that idol is going to be sitting pretty. It’s odd that some of the castaways (Jefra, Trish) couldn’t give two sh*ts about the clue, as they’re content to just sit there and let the kids have their fun. Tony’s even surprised that Morgan – the “pillow” as he calls her – is off her a$$ looking for it!

With some of the players looking, and others keeping an eye on each other so no one finds it secretly, the groups are getting divided. Woo goes to find LJ, so he tells Kass to keep an eye on Spencer. As they stand in the muddy river, Kass tells him that while she’s not cool with what Woo did, anything that happens to Spencer is karma for how he handled himself after last tribal. And while Kass is standing on her muddy soapbox, Spencer is trying to hide the fact that he just found the idol. He stuffs it in his shorts and takes off…

A short distance away, Spencer reads that the idol he’s found is just a “normal” idol, and not the Madea Idol that everyone’s freaking out about. Still, he’s stoked that he’s found a little more power, and Kass and her karma can k*ss his lily-white a$$…!