Keys to Survivor Worlds Apart Ep08

Survivor: Worlds Apart Episode 08 quick recap:
 
Reward Challenge:  Walk a series of balance beams, stopping to untie bags of puzzle pieces.  Each of 3 bags must be brought to the finish individually as the contestant starts at the beginning of the balance beams before retrieving the next bag.  First 3 people to finish compete in the puzzle making challenge.  This ends up being Mike, Joe, and Hali.  The puzzle is wooden pieces of an anchor that looks simple, but some pieces are very similar and could go in multiple places.

Joe is the winner (2 individual wins in a row).  Jeff tells him he can choose 3 other people to go on reward with him.  He wisely chooses Carolyn, Tyler, and Will.  Jeff then lets him select one more person.  Rodney makes a scene about how it won't be him.  Sure enough, Joe chooses Shirin.

Reward:  Zip-lining through the forest with a meal of pizza, cinnamon rolls, fruit, and soda at the end.  Joe notices that Carolyn's soda bottle has something in it.  He works in a comment about wanting more soda, and she gives him the rest of her bottle.  He chugs it to get the item, but Tyler sees it come out of the bottle.  This leads to drama later.

Scramble:  Joe shows the clue to the idol that he found in the soda bottle to Tyler.  Mike followed them and saw it happen.  Tyler later tells Mike what the clue said.  Suddenly everyone is out looking for Joe and the idol.  Eventually Joe is back at the water with others, so Mike decides to play it up like he saw Joe get the idol.  Now everyone thinks Joe has it.  He doesn't.  Mike later goes out looking around some more.  He seems exhausted - to the point of tears.  Mike finally finds the hidden idol.

Immunity Challenge:  Work a puzzle piece in one corner of a no-image slide puzzle and out the other.  Do this for a 3x3, a 4x4, and a 5x5 puzzle.  Then insert your puzzle piece into a 4x4 slide puzzle with the phrase OUTWIT, OUTPLAY, OUTLAST written on it across 3 lines.  Outwit is in yellow and should occupy half of rows 1 & 2.  Outplay is in blue and should occupy half of rows 2 & 3.  Outplay is in red and should occupy half of rows 3 & 4.  People get to the final puzzle at various times, but ultimately they are all trying to solve it simultaneously.  Dan thinks he has it.  He does not - his 2nd & 3rd pieces on row 2 are swapped and make it so there are no legible words.  Dan thinks he has it again.  Again, the same 2 pieces are swapped and it makes no sense.  Joe is done next, and he has it solved correctly.  Joe wins immunity and it is his 3rd straight individual win.

Tribal Council:  There seems to be 2 likely outcomes to this vote.  Either the swing votes stick with the former Blue and probably vote out Hali, or a new women's alliance forms and kicks out Dan.  Several women had joined forces at the beach and Sierra seemed quite in favor of kicking out some people that annoy her.  The resultant vote came out 7-4.  7 votes for Hali, 4 votes for Dan.  The alliance from last week holds, Hali is voted out, and becomes the 1st member of the jury. 
 
Editor's Rant:  After the reward challenge, back near camp, Dan berates Shirin for being a fan who can't do basic math.  He wonders why she would side with Joe when the numbers aren't there.  He then points out his lack of math skills by saying there are only 2 people in this game:  People who don't do anything and get voted out because of it, and people who do too much and annoy everybody and get voted out.  Apparently Dan hasn't watched Survivor, because there are always 2-3 people who DO NOT get voted out.  Not to mention that 1-2 of those 2-3 people often fit into his 2 categories, and sometimes win.

Best Moves:
Best #1:  Joe sees a possible clue in the soda and manages to secure the bottle so he can get the clue.

Best #2:  Joe brings all swing votes with him on reward.  Much better than bringing Hali, Jenn, Will, and Shirin.

Best #3:  Mike convinces everyone that Joe found the idol, allowing him to look for it alone.

Best #4:  Mike searches for, and finds, the hidden immunity idol.

Worst Moves:
Worst #1:  Joe shows the clue to Tyler in hopes that Tyler will work with him.  Trust is one thing, but trust with a very important piece of information is another.

Worst #2:  Tyler tells the idol clue to Mike.  He misses a perfect opportunity to relay the wrong clues so that Mike won't be able to find it himself.  The wrong clues wouldn't get realized as a lie because Joe won't be revealing them.  It would also allow Tyler to possibly find the idol later.

Worst #3:  Dan comes into the immunity challenge either without enough food or sleep.  Somehow he couldn't tell that his puzzle didn't look like words, despite his last word reading just fine.

Worst #4:  Mike hasn't played out his lie about Joe into the future.  How will you vote Joe out if everyone thinks he has an idol?  How will everyone react when Joe doesn't play it during a vote where it makes sense to play it?

Top 4 Prospects: Last week I listed Carolyn, Tyler, Shirin, and Hali.  Hali was voted out.  I even said something about feeling safe she would survive this time but that feeling safe is a bad thing in Survivor.  That logic works again.
1) Carolyn - former White Collar and Nagarote.  She's still a swing vote even if she hasn't been swinging yet, and she still has a hidden immunity idol - one of two in the game.

2) Tyler - former White Collar and Escameca.  Same swing-vote reasoning as Carolyn.

3) Mike - former Blue Collar and Escameca.  He's finally in my top 4 after some lovely maneuvering concerning the hidden idol, which he now posesses.

4) Sierra - former Blue Collar and Nagarote.  Going out on a limb here.  She was willing to lie to the other girls about forming a girl alliance to remove Dan.  She might yet have plans to move forward intelligently, and she isn't on anyone's major hit list yet.

Bottom 4 Prospects: Last week I listed Joe, Mike, Jenn, and Will.  Hali was voted out in a move I predicted, but the target changed.  Here's my new bottom.
10) Joe - former No Collar and Escameca.  All those individual wins and no hidden idol for a backup plan.  His only hope is winning immunity again.

9) Jenn - former No Collar and Nagarote.  If Joe wins immunity, it's either her or Shirin in this next vote.

8) Shirin - former White Collar and Nagarote.  If Joe wins immunity, it's either her or Jenn in this next vote.

7) Dan - former Blue Collar and Escameca.  If, and that's a big if, the non-blue-collar folks realize this is one of their last chances to all band together and break up the former Blue Collars before they hold an absolute numbers advantage over everyone, I think he's a fine choice to vote out.  He's been targeted already, is generally unlikable, and probably doesn't have an idol.