The Tables Have Turned
Last week they re-shuffled the tribes into three, leaving JT the sole original Nuku on his tribe, Caleb & Hali in the minority on Mana and Troyzan the sole Mana on the newly created Tavua tribe. With Mana going to tribal council, Brad was able to rally the team and get Caleb voted out, making him leave the game again on the ninth day.
Mana - Night 9
-They all acknowledge that Tai had the hardest time voting out Caleb and he just hopes they realize that he is totally with them. Playing with his head instead of his heart this time.
Mana - Day 10
-Debbie is playing up to Hali, telling her whatever she wants to hear but still planning to keep the old Nuku strong. Hali would be the next to go.
REWARD CHALLENGE
Only two members from each tribe will take part in the challenge. The first person will have to travel through some obstacles balancing a ball on the end of a pole. At the end of each leg they will add more pole to make it more difficult. When they get to the end, the next person will take the ball to release a key and open a box filled with sandbags. That person will then have to knock down nine targets with the sandbags. First person to knock down all the targets wins coffee, sugar, mugs, iced coffee and cookies (everyone was excited with the chocolate cookies), second tribe just gets a thermos of iced coffee, but better than last who get nada.
Starting out we have: Tai for Mana, Ozzy for Tavua, and JT for Nuku.
Second leg will be: Brad for Mana, Troyzan for Tavua, and Malcolm for Nuku.
Ozzy was a rockstar like he always is and gave Troyzan a huge lead heading into the beanbag throw, and Troy starts out strong knocking the targets down. JT gets Malcolm started next and he quickly catches up to Troy so those two are duking it out and we still have Tai struggling across the balance beam... but he just has to get the ball to the former pro-football player.
Malcolm pulls out the win for Nuku, but it's the come from behind second place finish for Mana that was the story here - leaving Troyzan out in the cold again with his tribe. No Coffee for You!
Tavua - Day 10
Everyone is bummed returning to camp having lost the reward... except for Ozzy. He knows without winning rewards they rely on him for food in this game. He does all the fishing, which he finds therapeutic and he's bringing in protein for the whole tribe, making himself indispensable (until he's not... yes, this keeps him there in the beginning when there are lots of mouths to feed and they're not used to the hunger, but later on, the hunger to win usually takes him out.)
Nuku - Day 10
It's coffee time! Sandra is crowing they are the best tribe ever and she tells the camera that she's the queen there, running the show and nobody really knows it.
-Au contraire, JT knows full well what's going on. He talks to Malcolm and they agree that they need to take Sandra out.
IMMUNITY CHALLENGE
One person is the caller and the rest of the tribe will be blindfolded and tethered together in pairs. The caller will send the pairs out directing them to three towers where they will have to pull a rope which will dump coloured water on them and a bag that they have to untie and return to the caller/mat. Once they have all the bags, they can remove their blindfolds and then they have to use the balls inside the bags on a table maze. First team to get all three balls seated on the table maze win immunity.
Nuku sat Sandra. Tavua sat Troyzan.
Oh, and by the way, both losing tribes will go to Tribal Council. Malcolm, "That's a huge 'by the way' Jeff."
Callers: Jeff Varner, just kept telling them to haul ass the whole time - hilarious - but it also worked as Nuku was the first back with all their bags and quickly runs over to start the puzzle maze.
Cirie doesn't have the loudest voice for this, but she was being heard better than Culpepper - Tavua starts on the puzzle with Mana bringing up the rear.
The table maze has to go slower and Nuku is taking their time thinking they have a huge lead, but then Tavua sneaks up on them and it's down to Varner and Andrea trying to seat the final ball... Jeff says Varner is either the hero or the goat and boom, he drops the ball off the table - leaving it open to Andrea and TAVUA, wins immunity! (Varner started bawling like a baby, I did feel a little bad for him.)
Oh, and another by the way - both tribes going to tribal council tonight will collectively vote only one person out. (WHAT!?? Holy crikey that is crazy!)
Nuku - Day 11
Back at camp they start strategizing, Nuku has six members to the Mana five so they can conceivably decide who is going home tonight. If they stay strong and vote the six together, it could work.
-Malcolm and JT had wanted to take Sandra out but with this twist that may have to wait.
-They speculate that they'll try and get JT to vote with them, but JT says he's solid with this new tribe.
-Sandra wants to vote out Sierra, JT is thinking Tai.
-JT thinks that Brad Culpepper will target Sandra and if he wanted to he could be the swing vote for them to change the course of this game.
Mana - Day 11
Brad knows that the four of them will vote together but Hali was on death row and who knows what she'll do. Instead of trying to convince her she should stay with them, Brad is aggressive and vaguely threatening calling her Blue Eyes to get her attention and then telling her that voting five strong will speak volumes to her loyalty to them. (Really? I thought Culpepper was playing smarter but he still doesn't know how to get women on his side obviously.)
Brad speculates that JT will target Sandra and Sierra agrees but she thinks they should target Malcolm, in the long run she thinks he's more of a threat. Everyone agrees that whatever they do they have to vote five strong and they feel it will come down to what JT is going to do.
Tai doesn't want to leave his fate in JT's hands and he goes looking for an idol. He finds a clue which shows him where to dig and he ends up finding a Hidden Immunity Idol! And then he goes and tells the whole tribe (except Hali) that he has an idol - right away Culpepper tells him if one of the four is going to go, it has to be played. (Tai has refused to be bullied into playing his hidden idol for someone in the past... just saying.)
TRIBAL COUNCIL
The tribal started off normal, Jeff asking them questions - Malcolm says they had to run every scenario as this has never been done before.
-Culpepper says they potentially have a Mexican stand-off with all their guns pointed at each other but what if one of their guns is pointed at themselves (hinting JT) and is one of our guns pointed at ourselves (Hali) - and Sandra cuts him off, "All our guns are pointed at them." (Oh, ho, Culpepper has a wicked side-eye, hahaha.)
-Debbie says JT used to be really close with this tribe but Sandra again, "she said the magic words, 'used to'." (Ugh, Sandra you are not endearing yourself to anyone.)
-JT says he feels like they are expecting him to do something to put himself completely at risk when it would be a shot in the dark for him to land in the right place and Culpepper almost rolled is eyes.
-Brad says he thinks there are more threats on the other tribe, Malcolm and the two time winner, that's the biggest threat.
-Sandra, "I'm not worried. I know I'm not going home tonight, how bout that?" (Oh, that makes me want her to go home so bad... come on Survivor Karma!)
-Malcolm says that sounds like the kind of thing you say when you're scared (Brad did not like that), but if they sent me home I'd be cussing my way down the ramp.
-Getting down to it, Debbie says her only worry is if JT flips or if Hali flips.
-Brad full on threatens Hali, she knows if she doesn't vote with us she is public enemy number one.
-Hali says, "Well that's not a good speech to groom me in." (Exactly! What a doofus.) Hali puts it out there that they are in a potential rock drawing situation and she is willing to help them if they have any concerns.
-Sandra of course says, no, we don't have any concerns. To which Sierra mean girls her, "sounds like they don't need you Hali." Debbie tries to salvage it, saying that they do need her but Michaela piles on from the other side, "Yeah, right on the outside where they put you."
-JT puts his head in his hands and while Jeff is asking him a question - Sierra is talking to Hali, Malcolm is eavesdropping. Hali puts up her hand and says they should be trying to take out physical threats so then Sandra starts whispering to everyone around her that Hali wants to take Culpepper out.
-Then JT is whispering to Malcolm that he thinks they're voting for Sandra.
-Aubry thinks she showed up to the wrong wedding.
-Debbie gets up and whispers to Brad wondering if they just switched their votes to him, he says no, it's the original plan and Sandra has settled down to saying it's the original plan. And then...
JT jumps up and goes over to whisper to Brad that they are voting Sierra.
-Hali, "well if that's the way its going to be..." and she jumps up and goes to talk to Sandra saying that she will vote Brad with them - so now Nuku is having a powwow and Mana is having a powwow with Brad telling them that the vote is for Sierra.
Probst is just sitting back speechless and smiling like the cat that ate the canary - he's loving it.
-They kind of settle down, looks like everyone is back where they were before - but then JT is over whispering to Culpepper to vote Sandra and Sierra is telling Hali that JT told Brad the vote is for her, Hali said she was trying to change it...
Jeff asks if they are all done, is it time to vote? And Sandra says they're ready so Jeff tries to send Hali to vote and I think she said, "I ain't consent." (not sure, I did rewind it a couple times) anyway, Sandra tells her they are ready to vote (because she is the Queen and has final say after all.)
So Hali says, "Okay, you may regret it though."
Finally Time to Vote:
While Hali is voting Michaela asks Sandra why Hali didn't just tell them who has the idol and Sandra says, "no one has an idol, girl please." (oh boy, she's going to be mad.)
They don't show us how anyone voted.
Tallying the votes:
Jeff asks if anyone has a hidden immunity idol and wants to play it, now is the time. Brad tells Tai to play it and he stands up and gives the idol to Sierra. (I kind of wanted him to keep it for himself and tell Brad, nope, not playing it - but I know it wasn't the time for him to do that.)
Votes:
Sierra - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 - none of them counted
Sigh, I was sad to see Malcolm leaving, even though he's not my favourite, it did seem too soon, and it also takes: Julie T., Lynne B., and Robert L. out of the pool.
Next week: JT is on the hot seat with Nuku and Debbie is on a tear screaming at Culpepper and scaring Tai, "She's like a crazy lady." (Oh man, what did he do?)
Malcolm's final thoughts were of utter devastation; at least he can say he went out in the most ridiculous tribal council in the history of tribal councils. He was fighting back tears saying that JT isn't getting a Christmas card, "stupid kid couldn't keep his mouth shut" and the greatest experience of his life just came to an extremely premature end and it's a bitter pill to swallow.
It was a bit of heartbreaker this one.
Have a good rest of the week everyone,
Coleen
Last week they re-shuffled the tribes into three, leaving JT the sole original Nuku on his tribe, Caleb & Hali in the minority on Mana and Troyzan the sole Mana on the newly created Tavua tribe. With Mana going to tribal council, Brad was able to rally the team and get Caleb voted out, making him leave the game again on the ninth day.
Mana - Night 9
-They all acknowledge that Tai had the hardest time voting out Caleb and he just hopes they realize that he is totally with them. Playing with his head instead of his heart this time.
Mana - Day 10
-Debbie is playing up to Hali, telling her whatever she wants to hear but still planning to keep the old Nuku strong. Hali would be the next to go.
REWARD CHALLENGE
Only two members from each tribe will take part in the challenge. The first person will have to travel through some obstacles balancing a ball on the end of a pole. At the end of each leg they will add more pole to make it more difficult. When they get to the end, the next person will take the ball to release a key and open a box filled with sandbags. That person will then have to knock down nine targets with the sandbags. First person to knock down all the targets wins coffee, sugar, mugs, iced coffee and cookies (everyone was excited with the chocolate cookies), second tribe just gets a thermos of iced coffee, but better than last who get nada.
Starting out we have: Tai for Mana, Ozzy for Tavua, and JT for Nuku.
Second leg will be: Brad for Mana, Troyzan for Tavua, and Malcolm for Nuku.
Ozzy was a rockstar like he always is and gave Troyzan a huge lead heading into the beanbag throw, and Troy starts out strong knocking the targets down. JT gets Malcolm started next and he quickly catches up to Troy so those two are duking it out and we still have Tai struggling across the balance beam... but he just has to get the ball to the former pro-football player.
Malcolm pulls out the win for Nuku, but it's the come from behind second place finish for Mana that was the story here - leaving Troyzan out in the cold again with his tribe. No Coffee for You!
Tavua - Day 10
Everyone is bummed returning to camp having lost the reward... except for Ozzy. He knows without winning rewards they rely on him for food in this game. He does all the fishing, which he finds therapeutic and he's bringing in protein for the whole tribe, making himself indispensable (until he's not... yes, this keeps him there in the beginning when there are lots of mouths to feed and they're not used to the hunger, but later on, the hunger to win usually takes him out.)
Nuku - Day 10
It's coffee time! Sandra is crowing they are the best tribe ever and she tells the camera that she's the queen there, running the show and nobody really knows it.
-Au contraire, JT knows full well what's going on. He talks to Malcolm and they agree that they need to take Sandra out.
IMMUNITY CHALLENGE
One person is the caller and the rest of the tribe will be blindfolded and tethered together in pairs. The caller will send the pairs out directing them to three towers where they will have to pull a rope which will dump coloured water on them and a bag that they have to untie and return to the caller/mat. Once they have all the bags, they can remove their blindfolds and then they have to use the balls inside the bags on a table maze. First team to get all three balls seated on the table maze win immunity.
Nuku sat Sandra. Tavua sat Troyzan.
Oh, and by the way, both losing tribes will go to Tribal Council. Malcolm, "That's a huge 'by the way' Jeff."
Callers: Jeff Varner, just kept telling them to haul ass the whole time - hilarious - but it also worked as Nuku was the first back with all their bags and quickly runs over to start the puzzle maze.
Cirie doesn't have the loudest voice for this, but she was being heard better than Culpepper - Tavua starts on the puzzle with Mana bringing up the rear.
The table maze has to go slower and Nuku is taking their time thinking they have a huge lead, but then Tavua sneaks up on them and it's down to Varner and Andrea trying to seat the final ball... Jeff says Varner is either the hero or the goat and boom, he drops the ball off the table - leaving it open to Andrea and TAVUA, wins immunity! (Varner started bawling like a baby, I did feel a little bad for him.)
Oh, and another by the way - both tribes going to tribal council tonight will collectively vote only one person out. (WHAT!?? Holy crikey that is crazy!)
Nuku - Day 11
Back at camp they start strategizing, Nuku has six members to the Mana five so they can conceivably decide who is going home tonight. If they stay strong and vote the six together, it could work.
-Malcolm and JT had wanted to take Sandra out but with this twist that may have to wait.
-They speculate that they'll try and get JT to vote with them, but JT says he's solid with this new tribe.
-Sandra wants to vote out Sierra, JT is thinking Tai.
-JT thinks that Brad Culpepper will target Sandra and if he wanted to he could be the swing vote for them to change the course of this game.
Mana - Day 11
Brad knows that the four of them will vote together but Hali was on death row and who knows what she'll do. Instead of trying to convince her she should stay with them, Brad is aggressive and vaguely threatening calling her Blue Eyes to get her attention and then telling her that voting five strong will speak volumes to her loyalty to them. (Really? I thought Culpepper was playing smarter but he still doesn't know how to get women on his side obviously.)
Brad speculates that JT will target Sandra and Sierra agrees but she thinks they should target Malcolm, in the long run she thinks he's more of a threat. Everyone agrees that whatever they do they have to vote five strong and they feel it will come down to what JT is going to do.
Tai doesn't want to leave his fate in JT's hands and he goes looking for an idol. He finds a clue which shows him where to dig and he ends up finding a Hidden Immunity Idol! And then he goes and tells the whole tribe (except Hali) that he has an idol - right away Culpepper tells him if one of the four is going to go, it has to be played. (Tai has refused to be bullied into playing his hidden idol for someone in the past... just saying.)
TRIBAL COUNCIL
The tribal started off normal, Jeff asking them questions - Malcolm says they had to run every scenario as this has never been done before.
-Culpepper says they potentially have a Mexican stand-off with all their guns pointed at each other but what if one of their guns is pointed at themselves (hinting JT) and is one of our guns pointed at ourselves (Hali) - and Sandra cuts him off, "All our guns are pointed at them." (Oh, ho, Culpepper has a wicked side-eye, hahaha.)
-Debbie says JT used to be really close with this tribe but Sandra again, "she said the magic words, 'used to'." (Ugh, Sandra you are not endearing yourself to anyone.)
-JT says he feels like they are expecting him to do something to put himself completely at risk when it would be a shot in the dark for him to land in the right place and Culpepper almost rolled is eyes.
-Brad says he thinks there are more threats on the other tribe, Malcolm and the two time winner, that's the biggest threat.
-Sandra, "I'm not worried. I know I'm not going home tonight, how bout that?" (Oh, that makes me want her to go home so bad... come on Survivor Karma!)
-Malcolm says that sounds like the kind of thing you say when you're scared (Brad did not like that), but if they sent me home I'd be cussing my way down the ramp.
-Getting down to it, Debbie says her only worry is if JT flips or if Hali flips.
-Brad full on threatens Hali, she knows if she doesn't vote with us she is public enemy number one.
-Hali says, "Well that's not a good speech to groom me in." (Exactly! What a doofus.) Hali puts it out there that they are in a potential rock drawing situation and she is willing to help them if they have any concerns.
-Sandra of course says, no, we don't have any concerns. To which Sierra mean girls her, "sounds like they don't need you Hali." Debbie tries to salvage it, saying that they do need her but Michaela piles on from the other side, "Yeah, right on the outside where they put you."
-JT puts his head in his hands and while Jeff is asking him a question - Sierra is talking to Hali, Malcolm is eavesdropping. Hali puts up her hand and says they should be trying to take out physical threats so then Sandra starts whispering to everyone around her that Hali wants to take Culpepper out.
-Then JT is whispering to Malcolm that he thinks they're voting for Sandra.
-Aubry thinks she showed up to the wrong wedding.
-Debbie gets up and whispers to Brad wondering if they just switched their votes to him, he says no, it's the original plan and Sandra has settled down to saying it's the original plan. And then...
JT jumps up and goes over to whisper to Brad that they are voting Sierra.
-Hali, "well if that's the way its going to be..." and she jumps up and goes to talk to Sandra saying that she will vote Brad with them - so now Nuku is having a powwow and Mana is having a powwow with Brad telling them that the vote is for Sierra.
Probst is just sitting back speechless and smiling like the cat that ate the canary - he's loving it.
-They kind of settle down, looks like everyone is back where they were before - but then JT is over whispering to Culpepper to vote Sandra and Sierra is telling Hali that JT told Brad the vote is for her, Hali said she was trying to change it...
Jeff asks if they are all done, is it time to vote? And Sandra says they're ready so Jeff tries to send Hali to vote and I think she said, "I ain't consent." (not sure, I did rewind it a couple times) anyway, Sandra tells her they are ready to vote (because she is the Queen and has final say after all.)
So Hali says, "Okay, you may regret it though."
Finally Time to Vote:
While Hali is voting Michaela asks Sandra why Hali didn't just tell them who has the idol and Sandra says, "no one has an idol, girl please." (oh boy, she's going to be mad.)
They don't show us how anyone voted.
Tallying the votes:
Jeff asks if anyone has a hidden immunity idol and wants to play it, now is the time. Brad tells Tai to play it and he stands up and gives the idol to Sierra. (I kind of wanted him to keep it for himself and tell Brad, nope, not playing it - but I know it wasn't the time for him to do that.)
Votes:
Sierra - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 - none of them counted
Malcolm - 1 (Holy Hell), 2, (and Sierra had the gall to kiss him on the cheek, I would have wanted to smack her for that) 3, 4, 5 - and it's Malcolm going home. He just sits there stunned, as was I. He says, "I think I'm going to vomit." JT looks just as wrecked because Brad just destroyed JT's game as well. Looks like Culpepper is turning into a villain. And as they head back to camp, Michaela whispers to Varner that she thinks JT just set them up.
Next week: JT is on the hot seat with Nuku and Debbie is on a tear screaming at Culpepper and scaring Tai, "She's like a crazy lady." (Oh man, what did he do?)
Malcolm's final thoughts were of utter devastation; at least he can say he went out in the most ridiculous tribal council in the history of tribal councils. He was fighting back tears saying that JT isn't getting a Christmas card, "stupid kid couldn't keep his mouth shut" and the greatest experience of his life just came to an extremely premature end and it's a bitter pill to swallow.
It was a bit of heartbreaker this one.
Have a good rest of the week everyone,
Coleen
