SURVIVOR: BLOOD VS WATER – 11/26/14

So let’s get to tonight’s episode, curiously entitled, “This Is Where We Build Trust.” After last week’s show, we know we’re getting into a very peculiar situation with the alliances, as there are 4 separate factions to consider:

The Power Couples – Jon, Jaclyn, Missy, Baylor
The Honey Boo Boos – Keith, Wes, Alec
The Natalie
The Reed

I’m guessing that Natalie and Reed either have to team up, split up, or pick a side. So let’s just see what unfolds…

Jeff’s recap provides us with what looks like the theme of the night: no immunity idols have been played yet! So it looks like something big is going down tonight. Besides Jon’s and Keith’s idols, there’s a third – yet unfound – idol somewhere at the Huyopa camp. And I bet that’s what last week’s tease showed Natalie chicken scratching tonight. With 9 players left, and no majority alliance in power, a lot can turn tonight.

As the tribe returns on Night 24, the bold move of taking out Jeremy is being celebrated. It seems we always get the best Keithisms late at night after Tribal, and it seems he’s holding court again. He was sure that Reed was going home but that means nothing. Reed is still here so let’s sing “Kumbaya,” put it all behind us, and figure out how to stay in the game. Keith is so dadgum impressed with Reed’s mathematical abilities and all the permutations of dividing nine, that’s he’s back on the Reed bandwagon. And Reed is just trying to hang on for dear life – but not show it – so he’s decided to just play “remora” to Jon’s shark and pick off the Honey Boo Boo’s one-by-one…

Natalie is sitting with the Power Couples and feels the need to tell them how shi**y it was what they did to Jeremy. This is not what I would call her best move in Survivor, but we understand she’s pissed. However, she could be pissed and say, “That was a bold move, who are we gonna take out next?” and then hopefully target Reed, Honey, Boo or Boo, but forgive her, she’s a bit emotional right now. Jon takes this time (oh, NOW he tells her what’s up!) that he has an idol and says that he wouldn’t have told her this unless he still trusts her. Yeah, whatev, Jon, you’re in Natalie’s crosshairs now, and payback’s gonna be a bitch! But to accomplish that, she’s gonna have to find that bloody idol!

BTW, tonight I actually took the time to play the opening theme of the show, and I’ll be damned if it didn’t give me the chills. Funny how after all these years that track can still elicit a visceral response. Do you folks ever get that? The chills of hearing that music. Does it bring back years of watching with your viewing parties, your friends, family, or…like me…alone all these years? Yeah, I don’t wanna get too melodramatic about it, but no one I’ve ever known has really liked Survivor like I do. Not one. No family, friend, or colleague has ever said, “Hey, you wanna watch Survivor with me?” Truth be told, I’ve always preferred to watch it alone, because I want to hear every single spoken line. So to guarantee that, it’s just me, a drink, and my DVR…and now my laptop… But I digress… Send me an email with your experiences…

And 6 minutes in and we’re already having a Reward Challenge! What the what? Something big must be happening later for them to squeeze everything in, right? This challenge (I recall seeing a video months ago where Jeff was saying it may have been scrapped based on weather, I think) takes place on platforms out in the bay. The players will split up into 2 teams and retrieve floating puzzle pieces after sections of swimming, climbing, jumping and grabbing keys. The winning team will serve as “ambassadors of baseball” for a local youth group and then enjoy a ballpark feast. The schoolyard pick divides the teams thus:

Yellow Team
Reed
Alec
Jon
Jaclyn

Blue Team
Missy
Natalie
Baylor
Wes

I would assume that Yellow, with 3 strong guys would have the advantage, but that’s just me being a chauvinist (that’s a theme this season). And Keith the fireman is evidently less valuable than Baylor or Missy, so he “ain’t gonna eat no ‘dogs, today!”

The challenge gets under way and Wes takes a tiny lead on Jon, which holds up until the third leg when Reed overtakes Baylor. In the last leg, a strong swim by Alec lengthens Yellow’s lead which is then furthered by Blue’s inability to find the right key to unlock their pieces. By the time they finally get it, Yellow is already thinking about what to put on their hot dogs.

Jeff spies an emotional Baylor and asks her what’s up, and she tells him that she really wanted to win for her mom because Missy hasn’t won a reward. I’m thinking this is all a put-on by Baylor – you know how emotional singer’s are! – but it works and Reed immediately offers to trade places with Missy. Have these players learned nothing this season!? Seriously, dude, is there a better way to say you’re going home tonight than this? Why don’t you simply write your own name down at Tribal? Holy smokes, the trading on this season is mind-boggling…

The only other order of business is choosing someone to go to Exile and Wes is selected. I’m sure there was some debate that we didn’t get to see, but what can you do, Boo Boo? And as everyone heads in their separate directions, Reed confesses that yeah, he wanted to give a reward to Missy, but he also wants to get the ball rolling in taking out Jon. So, with a wink, he says, “he’ll suck it up.” Oh myyy…

Over at “Chichen Itza Field presented by AT&T in cooperation with Los Charcones” the winning players show up with huge bags of baseball equipment and uniforms for the happiest bunch of little boys you’ll ever see. Everyone is stoked. Mostly Missy, who enjoys nothing more than being a mom…except discounted legal fees. Seriously, she’s having a great time and you can see how refreshed she looks from this interaction with the kids.

While they play a game, our four heroes are enjoying snacks and playing with some kids in the stands. Jon is moved by one kid in particular, which prompts Jon to remind us of his and Jaclyn’s situation not being able to have kids, so this experience is dredging up some real world emotions. Later, when Jon joins the kids on the field, Jaclyn also shows us how powerful their desire is to become parents. And from the looks of it, I think they’ll do just fine.

Returning to camp (Day 25) the 4 losing players immediately split up to attend to some chores. Reed uses this opportunity to speak with Keith about his next “go big or go home” move, which is to vote out Jon when/if the Power Couples split their votes against Wes/Keith (because they know he has an idol). I don’t see why Reed thinks they’ll split the vote now, and possibly get played, but that’s the only move he’s got, and when speaking to Keith, you don’t need to go, shall we say, too deep into the layers and intricacies of the game (well, that’s what Reed said!).

Meanwhile, Natalie and Baylor never left camp because Natalie is on a rampage to find the idol. Baylor is not even sure there’s one still out there which kinda tells you the game she’s playing. Natalie remembers the clue (that Baylor showed her at Exile in episode 6) and starts counting out 10 paces from the tribe’s flag. After a couple futile attempts, Natalie suddenly locates it in the sand and the girls celebrate their find. They run off and you can tell this is another one of those “game-changing” moments. Could this spell the end for Reed? Alec? I’m almost tempted to say that EVERYONE is a potential candidate to go home tonight, based on how stupidly these people have been playing… Regardless, this is Natalie’s moment of rebirth, now that she has a new “twinnie” to play the game with… And that twinnie may also be Baylor, who Natalie calls, her “new number one.”

Yet, as much as she wants to take out Jon, she knows she needs to take out “one of the boys” first, and then they can focus on Jon. So it looks like the plan is to take out Reed next, since “he’s so sneaky and makes up stuff and is good at challenges.” Sounds like the perfect Survivor rationale to me…