Survivor: Cagayan – Season 28, Episode 11 – Chaos Is My Friend

Survivor officially became the Tony show earlier this season, but up until tonight Tony had been portrayed fairly positively. The most recent episode of the show, titled Chaos Is My Friend, starts turning the tables against Tony, and although he survives the episode, the seeds are planted for a possible Tony ouster in the future. Cagayan as a season almost completely hinges on whether or not the audience loves or hates Tony. In that respect, I am quickly souring on this season because quite frankly, I’ve had enough of this guy.

Tony is quickly becoming insufferable.

The episode starts off innocently enough, with an invitation to a Survivor staple: the food auction. In the past few seasons, we have also seen the auction add elements such as Idol clues and challenge advantages, something players like Troyzan and Abi Maria have used to their advantage on their respective seasons. Tony goes into the auction with a similar mindset. He wants to win the advantage no matter the cost. His alliance mates use this as an opportunity to purchase food for an extremely cheap price. Trish, Woo, and Kass make out like bandits, with Woo getting to munch on several comically sized beef ribs, Kass getting a steak sandwich, and Trish getting popcorn and a soda (movie treats!).

Tony’s gamble pays off, of course, as he wins the advantage item over Spencer after blind drawing for rocks. Tasha chooses to sit this auction out, hoping to get food. But host Jeff Probst abruptly ends the auction, and Tasha walks away empty handed. Tony’s advantage is not for the upcoming Immunity Challenge, but instead a clue to the Hidden Immunity Idol. If you recall correctly, Tony already found the overpowered Idol, which he has kept secret. After he finds this new idol, he chooses to make it public. Tony is playing a very big game, and these two idols will basically guarantee he is around until at least the final five.

At the Immunity Challenge, Tasha once again dominates. It’s a classic fetch quest/puzzle combination, and although Woo threatens, Tasha wins her third Immunity Challenge in a row. With Tasha safe from the vote yet again, Tony’s alliance looks toward voting out Spencer instead. Tony has different plans, however, as he wants to blindside Jefra. Convincing Woo is easy enough, so Tony then goes to Spencer to gauge interest. Spencer and Tasha claim that voting out Jefra keeps them safe another three days. Tony once again chooses to avoid telling Trish and Kass about the plan (just as he had done with L.J. two episodes ago). This will surely come back to haunt him.

At Tribal Council, various things are said that really aren’t all that important. Tony pulls out his newest Idol and puts it around his neck in a show of dominance that a vote for him means nothing. Woo, Spencer, Tasha, and Tony vote for Jefra, who loses in a 4-3 Jefra/Spencer vote. Tasha and Spencer have bought another three days on the island to get their game sorted out, and Tony is coming dangerously close to alienating his alliance once and for all. He’s still got his bag of tricks as well as the most powerful idol in the game. He’ll probably be ok, and his story certainly hasn’t been completely told just yet.

-Z-

Survivor: Cagayan – Season 28, Episode 10 – Sitting in My Spy Shack

Tony is nuts, but he’s also surprisingly intelligent. He’s clearly the star of the season and a heavily favored candidate to return to the show as soon as freaking possible. He once again takes center stage in tonight’s episode, and it’s a rather good one. We start the episode off with Tony explaining to Trish, Kass, and Jefra why he felt the need to blindside L.J. last week. He’s able to pull his explanation off rather well for Trish and Kass, but Jefra is more skeptical. She claims she’s ok with the idea of voting L.J. out, but she wanted to be consulted on it. I don’t buy this, but it was the right thing for her to say. Still, Trish and Kass are very obviously back into the fold, with Kass remarking that her five-person alliance is her best shot at the million.

Tony is the major player this season on Survivor.

Tony only gets more entertaining from this point. He builds a makeshift “spy shack” (his second such creation this season) and spies on the conversation between Jefra and Trish. While he doesn’t really gain much insight into the game, he is able to correctly surmise that Jefra is a bit on the fence about Tony’s intentions, and rightfully so. This leads to Tony to assure his alliance mates, over and over again, that he is not going to flip or play these kinds of dangerous games any longer. This is again enough for Trish, who is clearly on Tony’s side. Tony also knows Woo won’t betray him. So again, it’s really just Jefra who is kind of waffling. This will be important to know for later.

At the Reward Challenge, the tribe is divided into two teams. Jefra, Spencer, Jeremiah, and Tasha are on one team, and they face off in a classic Survivor maze/puzzle/obstacle course race against Tony, Woo, Kass, and Trish. Jefra’s team ends up winning the reward, which means she gets to go on a BBQ lunch with the other three. This is terrible news for Tony, because it means Jefra will get a chance to bond with the outsiders, and potentially flip on her alliance. This is exactly what Spencer intends to do, and he pleads his case over lunch with Jefra. An emotional Jefra seems receptive to a flip, and even shakes on it. It appears she will ditch her alliance for Spencer’s group.

At the Immunity Challenge, the tribe faces off against each other on a balance beam while also simultaneously balancing a small rubber ball on a handheld post. It is a difficult-looking challenge, and indeed four tribe members drop out fairly quickly. It eventually comes down to Spencer vs. Tasha once again (it feels like they’re up against each other for the necklace every week). Tasha is able to hold out long enough and beat Spencer, winning immunity for the week. Back at the beach, Jefra once again decides to flip, this time back to her original alliance. She informs Jeremiah of her intentions not to vote with his group. Now Jeremiah and Spencer realize they are vulnerable. Meanwhile, Tony is on an all out search for the super idol (the one discussed last week). Of course, he ends up finding it. We find out that it can be played after the votes are read, but that it cannot be transferred to another player. Tony, therefore, must play it on himself.

At Tribal Council, Spencer calls Tony out in front of everyone, announcing that Tony is playing the strongest game and making all the right moves. Spencer indicates that he would vote for Tony for a million dollars if Tony makes it to the end of the game. The tribe then votes, and Tony pulls out a “fake” idol, which is actually the real all-powerful idol he had found earlier. He intends to bluff, but it just ends up looking kind of silly. Spencer, however, plays his idol, because he knows the vote will be either for Jeremiah or himself. Spencer’s move to play his idol was right (always play it if you believe you’re in danger), but Jeremiah gets sent packing from the game. He’ll join two other ex-Beauty’s as well as Sarah on the jury, and maybe he’ll vote for Tony in the end as well. We’ll see.

-Z-

Survivor: Cagayan – Season 28, Episode 8 – Mad Treasure Hunt

The Immunity Idol hasn’t been this overpowered since Yul Kwon won the game way back in Survivor: Cook Islands (something like 15 seasons ago – I’m not going to check on the math on that, by the way). Under the old rules, the idol would be played after the votes are read, meaning anyone who had it could use it upon a blindside. It was overpowered and mucked with the strategy so much that the show’s producers changed the rules to better accommodate idol play. After the overpowered Cook Islands idol, the rules changed so that the idol must now be played before Tribal Council votes are read. Every season since Cook Islands (including the pre-merge half of Cagayan) has been played with these modified idol rules.

Morgan provided very little in terms of Survivor gameplay.

The new, post-merge Cagayan idol, however, reverts back to the Cook Islands rules. The new idol is almost all-powerful, and only superb vote-splitting and absolute trust in your alliance will eliminate the all-powerful idol from the game. It is nuts, and I hate it. I fear it will break the game, and I’ve greatly enjoyed Cagayan thus far. Though tonight’s episode is something of a stinker, Cagayan has provided some fantastic characters (Tony, Woo), interesting strategic movies (Kass and Tasha keeping Spencer, Kass flipping her vote), and even a woman (Trish) whose very presence caused a player to quit (Lindsey). But this new idol threatens to wreck the game completely. Luckily, the over-powered idol merely looms over the season. It hasn’t appeared just yet.

Let’s start where the episode begins, however. Morgan and Spencer are pissed at Kass, and reasonably so. Last week, Kass flipped on her alliance, voting with Tony’s crew and helping to eliminate Sarah from the game. Spencer calls her out, and Morgan refuses to get out of the shelter and go get water, opting instead to argue with Kass. To her credit, Kass seems to shake off their criticisms, and then Spencer even later apologizes to Kass for his choice in words. I don’t particularly care for Kass’ gameplay, and I think her flip was dumb and unnecessary, but I also get uncomfortable when players treat each other the way people were treating Kass.

At the Reward Challenge, the tribes are divided into two teams and must face off in an obstacle course/maze/puzzle race that is so typically Survivor. Though L.J.’s team falls behind to the one-two combination of Tony and Woo, they pull off an upset win when L.J. and Spencer are easily able to complete the puzzle. Their reward is a trip to a makeshift Outback Steakhouse, a corporate sponsor that hasn’t appeared on the show since Heroes vs. Villains. At the reward, Spencer happens to find a clue to a Hidden Immunity Idol (but not *that* hidden immunity idol) in his napkin. He is able to keep it hidden, but back at the beach, all hell is about to break loose…

After a quick rainfall, Spencer treks off into the jungle to find the idol. Woo immediately suspects he is up to something, and uses his “steal ninja skills” to track Spencer, and then spy on him. When Spencer realizes he is caught, he backs off. But, he leaves his pants behind (he had taken them off to be in his bathing suit and get in the water). Woo notices this, and finds the clue accidentally among Spencer’s belongings. Woo then shares the clue with everyone, and they all dash off to find the idol. After all this trouble, Spencer is the one who ends up finding it anyway, avoiding letting Kass see him with it as well. This was a whole lot of chaos for a predictable result. It’s fun to watch, but also a bit anti-climactic.

The Immunity Challenge is a balance/endurance test, much like last week. The tribe must stand on an elevated platform and keep a block of wood balanced on top of their head so it won’t fall away. After an hour and a half of battling, L.J. drops out, losing his block. Tasha and Spencer remain, and Probst notes their prowess in this particular challenge. Though it appears Spencer runs out of juice, it is actually Tasha who falters, and Spencer wins the Immunity Challenge. This means he gets both the idol and individual immunity in the same episode, a huge boon to anyone who plays Survivor fantasy!

At Tribal Council, it appears as if Kass may flip once again. This is going to be Monica Culpepper all over again, I guess. Spencer points out that Kass can rejoin her alliance and still gain potential jury votes, but it never really feels in doubt that Morgan is the one who will go home. Tony receives four votes, but Morgan’s five send her packing, where she will become the second member of the jury. Morgan had great potential to be a new Parvati or maybe even a Brenda (who is like a second-tier Parvati), but her laziness and generally negative disposition towards anyone and everyone (as well as her spoiled, entitled attitude) made her one of my least favorite Survivors in quite some time. I can’t say I’ll miss her.

-Z-

Survivor: Cagayan – Season 28, Episode 7 – The Head of the Snake

The Aparri and the Solana tribes merge after a weird week wherein Lindsey quit and Alexis was voted out via some odd editing choices. The new tribe, Solarrion (what a dumb name, by the way), merges with 6 former Aparri and 5 former Solana, each tribe having plans to eliminate someone on the other side. The ex-Aparri’s plan to target Jefra, Trish, L.J., or Tony. The ex-Solana look first at Kass, but then change their minds as the day goes on. We’ll get to that in a bit, but first let’s jump into the rest of the episode.

The former Aparri tribe plots its move on the latest episode of Survivor on CBS.

This was one of the odder tribe merges in Survivor history. I wasn’t sure we were even ready for one just yet. Honestly, we could have gone another three days – and thus another eliminated contestant – and merged at ten. The way it was handled was a bit unexpected as well, as tribes are notified via Tree Mail, rather than at a Reward Challenge, for example. The Solana tribe is told to pack up their gear and head to Aparri, and then they take a motorboat to the Aparri beach, where the tribes merge and have a feat of bread and rum. We also learn of a new Immunity Idol on the beach, one which is rumored to be more powerful than the current idols (more on this next week I’m sure).

Both sides immediately jump into strategy, with the former Aparri’s deciding to target Jefra, reasoning being that her allies won’t “waste” an idol on her. The problem is that Sarah, the female police officer who had a “Cops R Us” alliance with Tony previously, would rather target one of the stronger power players, like Tony or L.J. Kass disagrees with Sarah, and eventually Sarah even gets Tasha, Kass’ strongest ally, on her side. A disgruntled Kass begins to see Sarah as a threat, which doesn’t go unnoticed by the ex-Solana tribe. Meanwhile, the Solana’s can’t figure out who to target exactly, setting sights first on the ex-Brains tribe, who are seen as a strong threesome in the game. But the Kass opportunity jumps their way, and it seems like they could lean towards voting Sarah out of the game.

The Immunity Challenge is a mixture of balance and endurance, which seems tailor-made for Trish, the yoga/pilates instructor. She does last far into the challenge, but it surprisingly comes down to Woo vs. Tony. Ok, I expected Woo to do well, being that he’s a Southern California surfer dude and martial arts instructor, but who honestly saw Tony lasting that long in this challenge? The dude is just so top-heavy. Tony does give way, and Woo wins the first individual immunity. This sets in motion a plan for Sarah to target Tony. To his credit, Tony recognizes this and says in a confessional he will not be going home with an idol in his pocket.

At Tribal Council, everything is nuts. L.J. expresses concern that he, as an alpha male, is on the chopping block. Tony shocks everyone by pulling out an Immunity Idol and says he will use it to further his tribe. Jeff sends everyone to vote, and before the votes are read out loud, Tony does indeed play his idol for L.J. In turn, L.J. shocks everyone by pulling out an idol of his own and playing it to protect Tony. Though they strategy is sound, it is actually Jefra who is targeted by the ex-Aparri tribe members. However, Kass changes her vote in frustration at Sarah, and votes Sarah along with the ex-Solana. Sarah is shockingly voted out of the game 6 to 5. Another week, another Survivor blindside. Where the game goes from here is anyone’s guess.

-Z-

Survivor: Cagayan – Season 28, Episode 5 – “Odd One Out”

At the end of last week’s episode, officially the fourth episode due to the premier being a two-parter, the Brains tribe chose to keep Spencer and dump J’Tia, mostly due to J’Tia’s complete lack of ability to compete in challenges. A grateful Spencer promised his loyalty after the vote, relieved at having been saved from an early exit. The first treemail the tribes receive tonight indicates a Reward Challenge for food, and when the three tribes show up, they are shocked to find out that there will be a tribe swap. The Brains tribe will be no more, and all three will be shuffled into two new tribes, Aparri and Solana.

The three tribes line up for a surprise swap on tonight’s episode of Survivor on CBS.

For the new Aparri tribe, Sarah is the sole ex-Brawn member on a tribe of Jeremiah, Spencer, Tasha, Kass, Morgan, and Alexis. On the new Solana tribe, Cliff, Woo, Lindsey, Tony, and Trish are joined by L.J. and Jefra, and L.J. is clearly on the outs as an alpha male. Eventually, they get to the Reward Challenge, which is a strength match-up where two tribe members attempt to pry an opposing tribe member from a perch and drag him or her across a line to score a point. Tasha puts up a valiant effort, earning a point for Aparri. The rest of the tribe, however, does not fair well, and the Solanas win the reward, various assortments of pastries and coffee.

Back at the Solana beach, L.J. immediate recognizes he is a threat to the rest of the tribe, particularly to Cliff and Woo, who have a strong bond. L.J. resolves to form an immediate relationship with Trish, who is from the same state as him. This new friendship doesn’t escape the Cliff/Woo/Lindsey power triangle, and Cliff immediately becomes annoyed. Jefra and L.J. see the potential to overthrow Cliff with Trish on their side. The plan rests with Tony, however, who is paranoid, likes to stir the pot, and doesn’t exactly seem on the level.

On the Aparri side of things, Tasha, Kass, and Spencer are starting to feel very secure in the game. They’ve gone from the bottom ranks of Survivor to being in comfortable position. They have to feel good considering the Brains tribe will go down in history as one of the worst tribes of all time. Alexis immediately pleads her case to them, letting them know that Morgan cannot be trusted. Jeremiah also lets them know as much, and Morgan tries to get on their good sides as well. Sarah is insecure, being the only Brawn tribe member placed with a new group.

Tonight’s Immunity Challenge is a combination of brute strength and puzzle prowess. After a bit of a kerfuffle, Morgan sits out for the Aparri, who seem disheveled and totally unprepared for the challenge. The Solana members, on the other hand, seem to be completely up for anything. When the actual challenge begins, however, it seems the Aparri are extra motivated, and keep step with Solana throughout the game, eventually pulling off an upset victory. A flummoxed Tony wonders out loud how they could have possibly lost to the Aparri tribe.

It is the first opportunity that most of the Brawn tribe will have to attend Tribal Council. Cliff expresses excitement at the opportunity to vote out L.J. For what it’s worth, L.J. won’t go down without a fight. He uses his new bond with Trish to form a counter-attack, which once again, rests on Tony. Tony doesn’t immediately see a need to turn an easy 5-2 vote into a messy situation, but he does want Cliff out of the game, going way back a few episodes to his scheming with Sarah. In a tense session of Tribal Council, L.J. decides to put his faith in his new alliance, and they vote out Cliff, as a shocked Woo and Lindsey look on. Now they just have to figure out where to go from here.

-Z-