If you tuned in at the wrong moment on “Survivor: Caramoan” Wednesday you might have thought the show had become “Survivor: Guantanamo.”
The immunity challenge involved staying under a metal grid as the tide comes in and eventually covering you with water. The key is not to panic, host Jeff Probst kept reminding them (which must also be the key to surviving waterboarding).
Anyway, they stayed like this for more than an hour and while Phillip, the self-styled “Specialist” was first to give up (no doubt he was saving his strength for a future challenge!), it was Brenda, who kept cool the whole time (or who may have silently drown) who got the necklace.
And then it was off to one of the weirdest tribal councils for a while.
Since last week’s merge, you’d think the the Favorites would have it easy, as they outnumber the Favorites more than 2-1. But those who feel they’re at the bottom of Philip’s “Stealth R Us” alliance – a name so stupid nobody can keep a straight face when they hear it — are trying to figure ways to bond with the low-numbered Fans as a way to make some “Big Moves.”
Last week Corinne tried and was crushed, this week it seemed that that Malcolm would be similarly crushed, but then enough machinations changed so that nobody voted for him. Which was strange, since he insisted everyone was going to go after him, so just after Reynold stood to give up his hidden immunity idol, sure that his time had come, Malcom said nobody’s voting for you, they’re all voting for me, so give the idol to me.
Which, amazingly, Reynold did.
As he did so, Eric rolled his eyes as if to say, dude I did that very thing once in what was called the stupidest move in the history of Survivor.
But nobody knows about history on Survivor. Except Philip who can recall every thing that happened in his previous season, making everybody smirk again.
The other odd thing is that Malcolm has his own immunity idol, which nobody else knows about; he wouldn’t need Reynold’s. So he was in it to flush it out from the beginning.
As Malcolm was also the only one to vote for Reynold (chew on that a while), the Stealth crew were as one in voting out another Fan – the blindsided Michael, and three of the Fans went unanimously to get rid of Andrea (even Eddie, the guy who admitted hitting on her and promised to vote any way she told him to).
Obviously there were a couple of rounds of conversation within the tribe that were omitted from the final cut, as often happens on Survivor.
Earlier in the episode, during the reward challenge between two groups chosen in a schoolyard pick, one side with all the dudes won after throwing balls past a goalie on a perch in the water (they didn’t show who did the choosing in this schoolyard pick, but how exactly did all the young athletic guys end up on one team and all of the women and the old guy end up on the other team? One possible answer: Phillip did the choosing on his losing team).
At any rate, they ended up at a waterfall and had a picnic and Reynold started talking about bro-ing it up. “Let’s bro-down!” he said to the other guys there – Eddie, Eric, Michael and Cochran — encouraging a testosterone alliance.
“They must not know me so well,” Cochran tells the cameraman later, leading to the single greatest line in the episode, if not the season: “I don’t want to be engaged in any sort of masculine tomfoolery with these numbskulls.”
Next week: They’re promoting a breakdown for Dawn. Which figures, since you can’t be an enforcer and tattletale every week without it taking a toll. Plus there’s the cold and the bad food.
I’m sort of sad to see Michael go. He seemed a decent player and an honest enough guy. I was hoping his Corinne connection would take the two of them farther, but that shows you how much I know about the game.
It’s amazing that Reynold and Eddie are still in it after all this time (or Phillip for that matter). I’m looking forward to the conversation between Andrea and Eddie when they get back to camp.