Returning to camp, congratulations abound for Tash who’s over the moon with her victory. You can tell she’d LOVED to throw it in LJ’s face, but she realizes this may only be a 3-day salve for her. She’ll take it, though…
As Spencer and Jeremiah head off together, LJ addresses the Tigers with his plan to split the vote to eliminate one of the Lambs. The others seem receptive to it, but Tony reveals to us that he still needs to work on getting LJ out, since he’s the biggest threat. And with all the work he’s put into setting LJ up for a big fall, he’s not going to let that slip away so easily. Personally, I think Tony’s thinking a bit too much about getting out one specific player, but everyone’s got their own game plan. The big difference is that Tony was on the island and I’m sitting here in my Survivor jammies I bought on eBay typing at 1am…
Tony puts his Tiger VooDoo plan into motion and tells Woo that LJ approached him about blindsiding Woo. Woo is all, “Dude,” and “Whoa,” and “I’m glad Tony’s got my back, man….” And, once again, I’m wondering why Woo doesn’t confront LJ about what Tony said. I guess some people are just so willing to believe anything told to them…in a game where lying and deceit are the rules of engagement. So dumb…
Tony pulls Spencer aside and lets him know what’s going on. LJ is plotting against Woo so you’re safe. That’s all Spencer needs to hear because a) this means the Tigers are turning on themselves, and b) he probably doesn’t have to play his idol. That’s enough for him. He informs Jeremiah that they can let the Romans take themselves out, we Christians will watch from the lions’ den…
In the next few scenes we see:
Tony is telling Trish about LJ wanting Woo out-
But she’s confused because LJ told her that Tony wanted Woo out-
She only wants to keep the 6 together, as promised-
And Kass asks Trish for reassurance that the 6 are still tight-
To which Trish replies that Tony is getting paranoid-
And as we already know, Kass loves a good blindside-
And it occurs to me that Kass has managed to remain out of this entire episode, totally out of the crosshairs, the past few days. How is it possible that Public Enemy #1 is sitting pretty after her major backstab last week…?
So Kass tells us that it would be stupid for Tony to make a big move right now. The Tigers are solid and does not need to mess this up. Just as the tribe is about to leave for Tribal, Tony tells us that with Trish’s revelation about the LJ-Woo situation, it may be the wrong time to turn on his alliance. She’s been with him from Day 1, and now may not be the best time to make his big move against LJ, lest it all blows up in his face.
“Sometime you gotta kick ass, and sometimes you gotta kiss ass. And this may be the time to kiss ass…”
Something tells me that something big may be going down at Tribal. And as I check my DVR time, we’re only 46 minutes into a 60-minute show, so something’s happening at Tribal that’ll take another 14 minutes. Are we gonna pull rocks…?
Jeff opens with the obvious observation that Jeremiah and Spencer (and Tash, if she wasn’t wearing immunity) are on the bottom. He then remarks to Kass that she’s really to blame for the Lambs being on the bottom since she flipped on them. To which she replies that it’s all “part of the game” and you can’t play “without getting a little dirty.”
And then everyone spins around and stares at Jefra’s neck…
Okay, maybe not, but they should have! So Probst queries Tony about “getting dirty” and he agrees that coming onto show, you know that you’re going to deceive/be deceived, and that’s why he’s brought his “bag of tricks.” (Oh, that’s why this episode is called that…). Not sure what Tony means by that, since there’s really no chance he’s got an idol, but more power to him. Maybe he just means that he’s prepared to be voted out tonight…?
Upon hearing this, Jeff says to Tash that “if there’s a tight six,” then what Tony said is “what you wanna hear, right?” Tash replies that she’s just glad she’s wearing her lovely Faberge necklace…
Jeff then moves the discussion over to the subject of loyalty, asking LJ, Tony, and Kass about it. While LJ says he possesses a pretty good gauge for determining people’s loyalties (he obviously doesn’t) and Tony continues on with the lie that he works in construction (to the chagrin of Sarah) and Kass just says when she came on the show she “checked her life at the door.” But whatever anyone’s take is on loyalty, it doesn’t matter because at the end of the day, everyone will lose the game except for one, and almost everyone will be disappointed in the way that they were voted off. So, let’s stop talking about it…it’s time to vote!
With all this talk of the Tigers staying strong, I’m just wondering if Spencer has decided to play his idol. No one wants to be the guy who gets voted off with an idol in their pocket, and with the precedent set this season of playing idols unnecessarily, I’m wondering if Spencer will just guarantee himself another 3 days at least.
And…no, he’s not playing it. Let’s see how that works out.
Jeff reads the votes: LJ, LJ, LJ, Jeremiah, Jeremiah, Jeremiah, Spencer, LJ (uh-oh, someone flipped!) and the final vote…LJ. Boom! goes Spencer’s dynamite! Seriously, dude, you’re 21 years old, no need to react like you’re in middle school… And just like that, another of my early favorites is gone…
Shock is pretty evident on everyone’s faces. Tony and Woo flipped, and now the game is truly afoot. Jeff reminds everyone that it’s an individual game, and that’s never been more evident than tonight. I’m left pondering some things…
I wonder how Jefra feels now that she’s virtually alone in this game, left to wash herself.
I wonder if this will all work out to be Tony’s advantage.
I wonder when this damn Tyler Perry idol will come into play.
And I wonder if LJ is going to hook up with Morgan (who’s looking mighty fine) at Ponderosa…
(Actually, I don’t think there was much chance of that as Morgan told Parvati. Evidently, she found Mr. LJ quite the boor, so I’m guessing they didn’t knock the proverbial cowboy boots…)
Next week, we see that Tony is losing his mind even more. He’s spying on the girls through the vines, listening in on their conversations, and really beginning to creep me out. Let’s hope he’s not one of those cops who breaks the rules to enforce his own version of the law. Not that one can be judged purely by their actions on Survivor, but I’m a big believer that we’re judged by all of our actions, not just the ones we do outside a reality TV show…
Wow, that was a big episode. Thank you, once again, for all your support. As always, I look forward to your comments, emails, and Twitter support.
Until next week,
Fish
Email: bryan.fish.fischer@gmail.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BF_TheFish
Enjoyed the recap as always. 🙂 Do you watch the Ponderosa videos? I watched the one where LJ got to Ponderosa and the look of hate Morgan was giving him was really weird. I wonder what that’s all about. Can you clarify how he was boorish? I doubt Morgan used that word herself. Ha Ha. Anyway, as much as I hated to see him go, he had a weird video. He got all Zen-ish at Ponderosa (doing yoga on the beach) and said he was going to be the most influential person in Boston, to paraphrase. Maybe he and Vytas should be buddies. Kinda funny.
Thanks, kinb! I do watch the Ponderosa videos. There’s usually some very revealing info in them. Not just how much weight was lost, but since it’s the first time the players are “out of the game” but still dealing with people “in the game,” (who oftentimes have a lot of unanswered questions!) it’s neat to see how those interactions go. And I totally know what you mean about Morgan’s hate look. As I mentioned in the recap, in her After Show interview with Parv, she mentioned that she didn’t like LJ at all. I don’t wanna go back and watch their whole video, but she mentioned something like, “his stories were very boring.” I get the feeling that either A) she tried to work her magic on him and he just blew her off, which pissed her off, or B) she liked him enough to want to pursue an alliance with him and he just blew her off. As we’ve heard, she’s a girl who usually gets her way based on her looks, and since that didn’t work on LJ, he’s “boorish” (my word) and she’s a bitch.
Yeah, I think he went a little bonkers on the island. I wasn’t kidding when I was saying that he started to look very tired. Not just physically, but mentally. Maybe the weight loss, sleep deprivation, and PTSD got to him. Sometimes, saying crazy big things seems like a good idea, but after some thought, he probably realized that sounded kinda dumb. But hey, more power to him if he’s aspiring to do great things. I just think he’ll try to milk his 15 minutes, and either find someone to spend his life with (or 6 months) or just go back to his farm. And I’m not trying to rip him, as I said, I liked LJ from the get go… Good luck to him!