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

[Day 36] Later, Kass is still unwilling to let it go. She tells Tony that she did what she did for strategic reasons. Tony could care less and only wants her to shut up and get away from him. Fine, he says, he’ll go check on “that tree over there” just to get away from her. Trish decides to go with him. Kass takes the opportunity to plant a few more seeds of doubt in Woo’s head. She repeats the deal that Tony made with her, and knows that he probably made the same deal with Woo. Kass confesses she thinks she could beat Tony at the end, but she’s delusional, and everyone’s got to play their own game, I guess.

She knows her best chance is to pull in Woo and Spencer to try something, since she knows Tony has one, if not two, idols. All she can do is try to convince Woo that Tony is playing both sides. With Spencer acting as moderator (because why wouldn’t he want to be a part of this or ANY alliance?) they ask Woo if he would entertain a split from Tony. Woo knows that he would sit favorably with the jury, so he needs to put some thought into this. Kass tells him that Tony wants to take her to the final because he thinks he can beat her, to which Spencer adds, “after I’m gone, Tony and Trish are gonna have to decide who to take to final 3. So, if you wanna guarantee yourself final three, you need to take out…”

“Trish,” they all agree. Kass then compares Trish to a goat, which she overhears, so now she’s really pissed off. Trish is furious since she’s been bending over backwards trying to be nice to Kass. Looks like we’re finally going to see the big dust-up from last week’s tease! Before we get to that, Spencer tells us that while he knows Immunity is important for him today, at least now he’ll have some cracks to work with, if he happens to come up a little short. Off to the Immunity Challenge!

At first glance the Immunity Challenge looks like a beast. Anything involving puzzles and ladders and stairs at this point in the game is bound to be a killer. Look for players in the best shape to do well here. Jeff brings the players in and sets them off on this 4-stage monster.

Stage 1 – Tony is the first to untangle the ropes and release his key. He’s followed by Trish, Kass, Spencer and Woo.

Stage 2 – Tony begins placing his ladder rungs and I’m reminded that Tony is not a puzzle guy. To my amazement, he seems to be making better progress than anyone else, placing rung after rung in the frame. He moves on…

Stage 3 – Tony begins placing steps onto a staircase and immediately gets a couple. He’s then joined by Spencer, who finishes stage 2 in 2nd place… Tony finishes his staircase and moves onto the slide puzzle.

Stage 4 – Tony is sliding pieces around feverishly as Woo finally finishes his ladder and Spencer is halfway done with the staircase. Kass and Trish are virtually out of it. As Tony slides away, Spencer finishes his staircase and runs up to build his puzzle. While Tony continues to slide tiles around, seemingly without a plan, Spencer just takes his time, slides about 5 pieces around and somehow pulls it out. Spencer wins immunity again! And as Jeff places the necklace around him and announces that “someone’s going home tonight,” I can’t help but notice that Woo is shown. I still haven’t determined if they’re playing games with us.

As we head to break, Tony confesses that his worst nightmare has come true and Spencer won immunity, so now his alliance must begin to turn on themselves. I wonder how that dust-up between Kass and Trish is going to affect tonight’s vote…?

As the players return to camp, Spencer is congratulated for his victory and then Trish decides it’s “Go Time.” She asks Kass if she thinks Trish is stupid, “or is it deaf?” Since she heard everything that was said between Kass, Woo and Spencer. Trish then proceeds to go bat-s**t crazy on Kass, attacking her in ways that I haven’t seen in quite a few seasons. Is Trish’s last name Hawk? I need to check the cast list because she’s coming across, in the immortal words of Ron Carey in History of the World, Pt. 2, as “NVTS…nuts,” right now.

Kass is just looking at Trish like, “why is this freakishly Skeletor-like horse-face” losing it at me?” Because telling lies and spinning stories is part of the game, and didn’t Trish sign up for that? Tony’s heard enough and tells Trish to take a walk with him and Woo. While they’re gone, Spencer tells Kass that she’s done if the other three are conspiring right now. They have one goal right now; they need to talk to Woo…

Away from camp, Tony, Woo and Trish plan their pre-Tribal strategy. Tony confirms that he did indeed have the conversation with Kass about final 3, but since she spilled the beans about it, she’s done in his eyes. He asks Woo if there’s anything he needed to ask Tony, and Woo’s big contention seems to be that Tony swore on his wife and baby girl to Kass, and not to him. Oh jeez, are we really concerned about that on day 36…? So Tony says, “Ok, fine, I didn’t swear in the canoe, but I’m swearing now,” and shakes on it and swears on everything he can that it’ll be the 3 of them until the end.

Woo, on the other hand, is now suddenly concerned with Tony’s frequent lies, and says now may be the right time to make that “big move” everyone’s always anxious to make. We know that can’t be against Tony, unless he’s thinking a blindside would work, but then what really confuses me is that Woo said he feels Tony may take Trish to the Final 2 without Woo. Huh? According to my research, there hasn’t been a final 2 in 9 seasons (J.T. over Stephen). So…what the heck?

Woo heads back to camp and indicates he wants to help Kass cut open a coconut, which is just an excuse to get close enough to chat with her. As Trish heads down to the water, Woo and Kass break away from camp to have a real chat. He tells her he’s ready to take out Trish considering Tony was thisclose to blindsiding Woo. Spencer walks up to find out where their heads are and the three discuss the move on Trish. Woo knows he’s a swing vote, so while he’s trying to figure out what move to make behind Tony’s back, unbeknownst to him, Tony is actually behind Woo’s back! eavesdropping on their conversation and may have heard what was being discussed.

Later, Tony grabs Woo and the two of them head down the beach to discuss what just went down. He needs to know the deal they just made with Trish is still valid; otherwise he may have to switch it up again (and presumably vote Woo out). Since Tony’s already discussed blindsiding Woo, we know that may be something on the table, sworn promises be damned…

Finally, we’re at tribal and we know it’s going to be a serious affair because Jeff is wearing a green shirt instead of a blue one. That’s how we tell, right…? The jury enters and Jeff makes the observation: Spencer won immunity, so one of the Tigers is finally going home. He asks Kass what the vibe at camp was after the challenge and Kass is quick to point out how Trish went off on her once it was clear Spencer was safe. The vitriol she spits out can only be matched by Trish, who tells everyone how Kass likes to be the agitator in the room, but then falls back and plays the victim. It’s really quite amusing, these two…

A number of other points come out, far too ridiculous to relate in depth, but here’s the Cliff Notes:

Spencer’s glad there’s tension on “that” side.
Woo points out that Kass is back to the Brain tribe.
Kass thinks Trish is a “psycho bitch.”
Kass reveals the Tony “2-step.”
Tony says that Kass can’t keep a secret, thus sealing her fate.
Kass says it’s all part of her master plan since Tony’s outburst was very revealing to Woo.
Tony hates that Klonopin-induced grin on Kass’s face.
Spencer says it’s like One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.”
Woo says they’re one big dysfunctional family where he’s the sane foreign exchange student.
Tony pulls out his bag o’ tricks, and Mr. Tyler Perry is finally in the house!

And with that, it’s time to vote.

Spencer votes for Trish
Trish votes for Kass

Tony ponies up his “normal” idol to Jeff even though he doesn’t need it, but we need to cover that for the Wikipedia page…

Jeff reveals the previously known votes for Trish and Kass. The others…

Trish
Trish (voted out)

And as Jeff snuffs her torch, Trish wishes the remaining players “good luck” and walks off. And incredibly, Kass flips her the bird as she departs. Mind you, this is done in clear view of the jury, so I’m guessing Kass doesn’t really care about garnering ANY votes from them or ever being invited to a future reunion show. Is this woman seriously an attorney? Would you really put your faith in her hands? I wonder if there’ll be any repercussions after tonight? True, there may have been something that Trish did to warrant the “bird,” but that wasn’t shown…

Trish’s final words show us that she’s starving, and the biggest surprise is seeing that Tony actually voted Trish out too. I’m sure that came as a surprise to many of you. And as we tease next week’s 2-hour finale, looks like somebody gets hurt and requires the medical boat, Woo is ready to start a Disco Inferno, and Tony’s crying like a baby. Don’t know what any of this means, but it looks to be like one hell of a finale. I can’t wait. I hope you all join me next week for the recap and the reveal of the TOP 4 PLAYERS OF ALL TIME. If you’re a fan of the show, you can probably guess who they are, but in which order? Stay tuned to find out…

Enjoy your week, guys!
Fish

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