Survivor Recap: Dead Man Walking Indeed

Canoe Rendezvous

Hello Survivor Fans! Wow, what an episode we have this week. Last weeks episode ended with RC being voted out in tribal council and becoming the first member of the jury. Penner was wise enough to play his immunity idol or he would have been gone. Back at camp Penner wants to know of course who voted for him. Denise admits to voting for Penner. Jeff tells him that he and Carter were trying to protect their own game. Penner in his reasonable Alan Alda voice says he understands. But this man is never down and out. You can tell he loves this game whether he’s at the top or the bottom. He’s always thinking and never throws in the towel. Skupin tells him to hang in because there are definitely cracks in the recently merged Dangrayne tribe who wear black buffs.

In other conversations Pete and Abi, the perceived masterminds have a conversation where Abi immediately becomes defensive and contrary. She has just spewed a lot of confidential information and Pete knows she is a liability. He wishes he could vote her out but knows that the only people more disagreeable than he and Artis is Abi and that if she gets to the final 3 she won’t get any votes.

Survivors Enjoying Reward

REWARD CHALLENGE:

For the reward challenge the tribe is split into two teams. Malcolm, Denise, Jonathan, Lisa, and Jeff on the yellow team, with Abi, Artis, Pete, Mike, and Carter on the blue team. They will run out to the water to collect fish traps, then come back to dig for a key to unlock their pieces to solve a scroll puzzle. The reward will be a river cruise where the team will enjoy barbecued ribs, cornbread, potato salad, apple pie, iced tea and lemonade. The challenge is really close. The lead goes back and forth between yellow and blue and back again. Skupin has trouble unhooking the fish trap and Lisa does a very slow crawl out to the trap, which slows down the yellow team. Blue is in the lead when Denise makes up major time by quickly completing her portion. Jonathan (Penner) and his team are amazingly fast at the scroll puzzle and yellow wins the reward! The blue team goes back to camp to eat rice and beans while the yellow team enjoys a lazy drift down the river in a really cool boat set up with their BBQ lunch. It’s not even raining! Penner discusses the unlikeability of Pete, Artis and Abi. Although they all agree that these are unlikeable characters and would much rather sit with people they like at the end of the game, Lisa gets real and reveals in an interview that she doesn’t want to sit with likeable people at the end because she is there to win.

Lisa wants Skupin to stay although she agrees she doesn’t want a previous player to win, she has been aligned with Skupin since early on. She knows everyone wants Penner out and she does as well. She tells Skupin that Malcolm has the immunity idol, which she accidentally found in his bag on merge day.

Going into the immunity challenge everyone is on board with voting out Penner. Even Penner knows it’s him, hence the “Dead Man Walking” title of this episode.

IMMUNITY CHALLENGE:

The three “targets”

Penner knows he must win this to stay in the game however he’s never won an individual immunity challenge before. Survivors must untie bags of puzzle pieces and crawl over and under railings in order to get to the finish line. The first three over the line will move on in the challenge. Pete, Jeff and the third Penner move on to the final round. The final round consists of taking those collected puzzle pieces and completing a snake puzzle. Pete and Jeff start off quickly and seem to be far ahead of Penner who looks confused. All of a sudden the tables are turned and Penner is flying through the puzzle. You guessed it! Penner wins immunity! Everyone else looks crestfallen especially Skupin who knows now the target is on his back and he’ll probably be voted out tonight.

Back at camp a few half-hearted congrats are thrown Penner’s way. He’s elated and proud, as he should be. He knows he just saved himself for three more days.

The scrambling begins. First Lisa has another idea and tells Pete about Malcolm’s idol. Pete is shocked and goes to Malcolm who denies having it. Malcolm lies to Pete, Pete lies to Lisa. Oh what a web we weave. Lisa says they should blindside Malcolm tonight. Pete tells Malcolm. Although he’s upset Malcolm is lying to him, he wants to keep him. Pete decides he wants to take Jeff out and follows Lisa’s lead in keeping the old Tandang together. This spreads like wildfire. Jeff and Malcolm talk about voting out Pete who thinks he’s in control of the game. All of a sudden it’s paranoia pandemonium! Who will go home? Skupin, Malcolm, Pete, Jeff? All we know is that Penner is safe and loving it.

TRIBAL COUNCIL:

Jeff Kent voted out

Wow, what ever happened to the old Survivor where the plans are under wraps? Everything is now spewed out at tribal. Lisa admits to outing Malcolm who shows his idol. Jeff Probst than asks if anyone else wants to show an idol. Abi pulls hers out of her bag and says it’s for Tandang although she doesn’t noticeably give it to Pete who is in jeopardy. Everyone is blown away. Lisa makes a last ditch effort stating that they can go to Plan B: which is really like Plan D or E and keep the old Tandang tribe together. That would mean voting off Jeff Kent, the ex-professional baseball player. She says that although she’s played both sides her allegiance is still to the original Tandang tribe.

It’s time to vote! Penner votes for Abi, which is a throw away. The votes are split between Jeff and Pete! Malcolm and Abi both choose NOT to play their idols. Malcolm really took a chance on that one. The second member of the jury is …..Jeff! Malcolm looks really upset, as he knows that he’s in big trouble with Pete now. Jeff is pretty much blindsided mouthing “WOW” and is truly shocked that he’s getting his torch snuffed.

What will happen next week? This is getting really interesting and there is a lot of strategy flying around right now. Alliances to be made and alliances to be broken!

Until next week Survivor Fans, Outwit, Outplay, Outlast!!