Special Late Edition Blog Post:
Hey there Survivor fans. If you're anything like me, the holidays may have messed up your schedule enough to cause you to fall a little behind. Now this is very atypical of me, but stuff happens. So I am finally getting around to posting a summary and thoughts about the episode from 11/19. You should be made aware that the Wednesday before Thanksgiving was likely a new episode as well. Check your DVR and don't forget to watch that after you read this and remind yourself of what was going on last time you were watching.
Previously On...Survivor:
Recall that in the previous episode, Jon and Jaclyn had to decide to either work with the Jeremy/Natalie/Missy/Baylor alliance or side with the Josh/Reed/Wes/Keith/Alec alliance. Thanks to Alec/Wes/Keith treating the Huyopa camp like a frat house while some were away at a reward, and simultaneously treating Jaclyn like she's either a slave or non-existent, Jaclyn felt ostracized and convinced Jon to side with Jeremy's alliance, voting out Josh.
Tribal Council Fallout:
When they get back to camp, Jon asks a few people how he should talk to the people he just blindsided because he "really, really led them on". Missy says don't worry about it because they all know that's the game. There's obviously some bad blood, with Keith feeling rather betrayed, but life moved on.
Reward Challenge:
They are split up into 2 teams of 5. Jeremy/Natalie/Alec/Baylor/Reed vs. Missy/Keith/Wes/Jon/Jaclyn. They do a series of head-to-head battles, standing on a wobbly bridge while trying to knock over their opponent into the mud before they fall in. First team to 5 victories gets reward. Thankfully for us fans, it goes all the way to 4-4. I don't remember all the match-ups, but I do remember that Jaclyn lost twice, Missy lost twice against Baylor, Jon won twice, and ultimately Jeremy/Natalie/Alec/Baylor/Reed won reward. Reward is sandwiches, champagne, cocktails, and soft drinks on a yacht.
Unscripted Twist:
Natalie suddenly asks if she can give up her reward to someone on the losing team. Jeff allows it, and Natalie gives up reward to Jon in order to thank him for siding with her at the last tribal council. Jeremy immediately gives up his reward for Jaclyn with the same idea. The new 'winning team' then decides to send Jeremy to Exile Island so he can search for the hidden immunity idol that everyone assumes is there.
Exile Island:
Jeremy searches and searches using an even more specific clue to the idol. He knows it is on the rocky island, up above sea level. He looks around the exact place it should be, but can't find it because Jon already claimed it last time without telling anyone other than Jaclyn. Jeremy suspects Jon must have it and wishes Jon would have said something so they could have sent one of their foes to get weaker.
Immunity Challenge:
Jeremy returns for the challenge and he looks weak and dejected. Today's challenge is to untie a rope that is holding up puzzle pieces, then use the pieces to build a 3-tiered circular tower. Once the tower is constructed, a flag must be placed in the bottom center. It doesn't look too tough, but Jeff then reveals the true challenge. For the first time ever, the contestants must complete a challenge using only their feet.
Fairly quickly it becomes a race between Reed, Baylor, Jeremy, and Wes. All the others are struggling too much. If a piece falls to the ground, you can pick it up with your hands and put it back into the starting basket, but all placements must be done with your feet. Reed and Baylor end up the likely potential winners. Reed keeps accidentally tipping a few blocks over. Baylor finishes her tower, grabs the flag, and carefully lowers it down the center and into its hole. Baylor wins immunity!
Back To Camp, Back To Scheming:
Jeremy wants to find out if Jon found the idol. He shows his clue and asks where Jon would have looked. They agree it must be on the rocky island. Jeremy says he looked for hours and didn't find it so thinks Jon must have it. Jon denies it. Jeremy still suspects, but knows his best move is to trust Jon. Jon, meanwhile, had already figured out that Jeremy was going to look for the idol, not find it, and assume Jon had it. He felt that sending Jeremy to Exile was the best move, but nearly instantly realized this problem would develop. Jon starts thinking he may need to get rid of Jeremy. Jon decides to share news of the idol to Missy while explaining to her that Jeremy is suspecting him and they may need to vote him out. Missy seems open to the idea, but needs to assess what course of action will be best for her and Baylor.
Idol Threats:
Adding to the drama, Reed has decided he needs to do whatever he can to advance in the game now that Josh is gone. He starts snooping through Keith's bag and discovers the instructions for what to do with a hidden immunity idol. He tells Missy and Jaclyn what he found and pledges his allegiance to work with them. To prove the story, he stole the instruction sheet to show to them. Keith naturally realizes that this item was taken and knows that everyone must suspect he has the idol. He isn't very happy about this as he figures nobody should be looking through other people's belongings. Sadly, he forgot he was playing Survivor, where just about everything is within the rules.
Tribal Council:
Keith and Wes are accused of having an idol since they haven't been talking to Jaclyn so must feel comfortable. A bit of a verbal fight ensues between Keith and Jon over how things have gone for the past 3 days. Plenty of talk about trust and alliances. But let's get to the vote. After the first 5 votes there are 3 for Reed and 2 for Keith, and nobody seems overly surprised because there was talk about splitting the votes between Keith and Reed in case Keith plays an idol. But...the next vote is for Jeremy. Did the minority alliance target him? The next 2 votes are for Jeremy and now he seems concerned. Did someone in his alliance change the plan? As the final votes are read, we find out that the 2nd member of the jury will be Jeremy.
As they show the votes being written while Jeremy gets his 30-second farewell time, we see that Jon, Jaclyn, Missy, Baylor, and Reed were the 5 votes for Jeremy. It was Keith, Alec, and Wes who voted for Reed. Jeremy and Natalie were the 2 votes for Keith.
Next Week (actually a few days ago, but on the next episode):
With the most powerful power players removed, suddenly it is Jon who may be getting targeted. We see Jon trying to find out if Alec is on board for some sort of plan, which would be a departure from Jaclyn and Jon's previous 2 alliances. My guess is that anything could happen in the next episode.
Musings:
What has been bugging me is that the original plan that Jeremy was part of was to split the vote between Keith and Reed. This makes sense since he voted for Keith and he was not surprised by the votes placed against Reed. But how do you split the votes to ensure your safety in case Keith plays an idol? You have 6 people plus Reed, making 7 total. So you could vote 4-3 against Keith and Reed so that if Keith plays an idol then it will be a tie between Reed and whoever the other side voted for. But Reed can't vote for himself so he must need to vote for Keith. But wouldn't Reed know the plan would be the split vote since they are outwardly suspecting Keith has an idol? In this case, Reed would be voted out in a revote, so he would have incentive to vote with the minority and ensure he stays in the game. Alternately, it could be a 3-3 split vote with Reed being told to vote for the wrong person and not in on the plan to split the vote. The problem here is that Reed isn't stupid so he would likely figure out that being told all the votes are for Keith is too dangerous. Based on this, Jeremy should have known something was wrong. If the plan has this much chance of failure, you need to change the plan. Perhaps he and Natalie needed to talk to Wes, Keith, and Alec to set up a counter-alliance. Hindsight.
Separately, I'd like to congratulate myself for coming up with Jon and Jaclyn's best move to get rid of Jeremy. I would also like to say that they did it all wrong. The safer way of doing this would have been to switch back and side with Keith, Wes, Alec, and Reed to remove Jeremy and then Missy and maybe even Natalie before altering course again. Instead, the way they did it just results in a majority of people remaining who can realize that Jon and Jaclyn are the power players and are the best new target in the game. Certainly the previews make it seem that this is the case. At least it looks like Jon is attempting to adapt.
Now I need to get around to watching the 11/26 episode so I can recap that. Hope it's a good one.
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