SURVIVOR: BRAINS VS BRAWN VS BEAUTY – 5/7/14

First off, we know the s**t’s going to hit the fan between Tony and Kass tonight. Maybe all his games have caught up to him, but even if he becomes Public Enemy #1…he ain’t goin’ nowhere for a couple weeks unless he pulls the dumbest mistakes in Survivor history. But I think he may be on cruise control to the finale. I know his alliance will need to break up at some point, but with that damn idol, the best laid plans of mice and Kass are rather pointless…

Jeff recaps the eliminations of LJ, Jeremiah and Jefra, setting us up for tonight’s episode. The tribe returns from Tribal (Night 30), and as always, Tony wants to explain why he did what he did. Personally, I don’t see why he needs to pull these pop-quizzes on his tribe, I guess it’s only because he wants to control their “take away” from the events at Tribal. Trish passes the quiz, but Kass is a bit more suspicious of Tony’s teaching methods.

“Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me,” she tells Woo.

Kass is clearly pissed off at Tony’s mafioso ways. “I don’t like to be the one slack-jawed at Tribal Council, and that’s happened twice now,” she confesses. She then confronts Tony for being condescending and a jerk, but Tony simply plays the victim, “…she was going to send me home,” he says in his defense. Uh, yeah, you were not going home so stop the whining. I get it, it’s a game, but there are many ways to play it, and I just don’t like Tony’s way just then.

Day 31 and the guys (Tony, Spencer, and Woo) are awake and the girls (Tash, Trish, and Kass) are still in “bed.” Spencer asks Tony some things about being a cop, like how many times he’s been shot at, and if he’s ever scared. Tony answers his questions (I guess) honestly, and doesn’t appear to be milking it either way, but who knows whether he’s lying about EVERYTHING now. Spencer tells us the same thing in confessional, because he knows Tony’s a lying sack of potatoes. Spencer was all too happy with Tony and Kass’s blow-out the night before, since it plays into his strategy of NOT GETTING VOTED OUT again.

Spencer wonders why the girls are all still sleeping and Tony comments that Kass is usually up by that time, so she must not be feeling well. Innocent enough, right? But Kass is actually faking being asleep, since she wants to overhear everything being said. She heard Tony mention her name, so she’s going to lay there and see what else he says. Now, truth be told, we’re not privy to EVERYTHING Tony said, but one thing he didn’t say in the footage we see is that Kass is a bitch. However, Kass takes the opportunity to tell both Tash and Trish that Tony is talking crap about her and called her a bitch. So, I guess two can play that game, and Kass tells us she hates Tony even more now.

A while later, everyone’s hanging out together and Tony asks Kass about her sleeping in and whether she’s feeling okay. Instead of keeping anything secret, Kass goes into attack mode again and tells Tony (and everyone) that “I heard what you said about me.” Tony is clearly dumbfounded by this accusation and tries his best to explain that he/they weren’t talking about her, but she wants none of it. And Spencer wants none of helping to clear things up, because, once again, any agitation between Tony and Kass is good for him. When all is said and done, nothing is resolved and Kass compares the people helping Tony (Spencer and Tash, and possibly Woo) to cult members. And she wants to “kill the cult leader.”

Later, Tony tries to clear the air again with Kass about their argument but Kass is still not budging. It’s just two people who are convinced they’re both right and neither is willing to concede. But in this case, two very large egos are also battling, in a game based on strategy, so the tension is really starting to build. While Tony rants, Kass plays the cool bitch, and thinks the fact she’s more composed means she’s right. Whatever. Neither one is letting this go. The “battle royale” cranks up even more when Tony dares her to write his name down. She takes the bait and says, “maybe I will.” This sets him off again, and his retort is “if you write my name down, you’re going home.”

Once again, that isn’t such a terrible threat, but he keeps hammering at her, and she keeps biting and daring him to “play his idol.” Which, again, is not such a big deal in the context of this argument. But Tony, being Tony, has to reveal a bit more than he needs to when Kass accuses him of “running the show”:

“No, [I’m not] because I have a special idol…”

Boom goes the dynamite. That perks up everyone’s attention. And, dare I say, why must you reveal that? He makes sure that EVERYONE heard what he said, which prompts Kass to dare him to show it to them. “I don’t have to,” he barks.

Kass is convinced that he’s lying because…that’s what Tony does. And right now all that reading of body language that Kass was doing of Spencer last week doesn’t amount to squat, because she’s clearly wrong here. And as Tony so colorfully remarks,

“…and just like that, Tash and Spencer move up another notch.”

So I guess Tony’s whole plan of taking Kass to the final is off?

The Reward Challenge is up next and it involves two teams of 3 throwing sandbags at a puzzle made of giant cubes. Once all the cubes are knocked over, one player must scramble to put the puzzle back together. The winning team will get to visit an elementary school with gifts and food. The teams are:

Purple
Woo
Spencer
Kass

Orange
Tony
Trish
Tash

The Purple team knocks over the puzzle first (in a virtual dead heat) and both teams start collecting pieces. Tash is assembling the puzzle for Orange and Spencer for Purple. Tash takes a bit of a lead as Spencer struggles to find his method. With a bit of guidance from Kass, Spencer starts placing blocks and begins to pick up ground on Tash. With steady progress, and a bit of panic by Tash, Spencer overtakes her and Purple wins the challenge!