Survivor: Caramoan, Episode #8 – Blindsides are the Order of the Day!

Hello Readers!

Finally, after all this time, the Merge has occurred! Oh, it’s another chance for alliances to strengthen or crumble. Don’t think just because the Favs outnumber the Fans that a Fan will be the overwhelming choice to to be the next to leave the game. I wasn’t sure who was leaving this week until the Vote was revealed. Who was this lucky individual? Read below and you’ll see.

After Tribal Council, Michael was thanking everyone for keeping him in the game. Phillip took Corrine and Dawn aside to let them in on secret that he threw the last Immunity Challenge in order to get rid of Julia.  Dawn and Corrine saw through Phillip’s delusion, stating that if Phillip had decided to throw the Challenge that he would have gotten them together to let them know if his plan, not  right in the middle of a Challenge. Corrine was so ready to dump Phillip, but she had to grind her teeth and bear Phillip until she had her shot to get rid of him.

At Gota, a boat came to their shoreline to deliver their Tree Mail. It informed them to gather their belongings and to get on the next boat that will bring them to their new home. Yep, Readers, you’ve guessed it, it was the Merge! Once the boat dropped the Gota tribe on Bikal’s beach, they celebrated with a chest full of food, and Malcolm renamed the tribe Enile Dam. Why Enile Dam? The sweet boy that he is wanted to let his momma know he was thinking of her. The rest of the tribe was unaware of this, but accepted their new tribe name.

Phillip and Andrea separated themselves from the rest of the group, and caught each other up on what has happened. They both agreed that the Favs had to stick together to make it further in the game. Corrine and Malcolm have their own discussion, only their talk about their new alliance and how to get rid of Phillip and their Favs alliance. She wanted to do this by combining her and Malcolm’s Fan minions (Reynold, Eddie, Erik and Michael).

At the Individual Immunity Challenge, Jeff Probst announced that this contest was a throwback to one Survivor ran many seasons ago. The Castaways had to eat a series of local delicacies. They had to eat quickly in order to make it through each round. The winner of the final round would gain Individual Immunity.

The players of Part 1 of Round 1 were: Malcolm, Corrine, Sherri, Erik, Eddie and Andrea.  The players of Part 2 of Round 1 were: Dawn, Reynold, Brenda, Michael, Cochran and Phillip. The first dish the Castaways had to eat was beetle larvae.  Malcolm, Eddie, Phillip, Michael, Cochran and Erik made it through to Round 2.  The second round found the Castaways eating ship worms. The top three, being Malcolm, Cochran and Eddie, made it to Round 3. These three lucky guys got to battle it out by eating balut,or duck embryos. Cochran and Malcolm were the only two that were able to stomach this dish to make it to the Final Round, which saw these boys eating pig brains. It was a close one, but Cochran shocked everyone by beating “golden boy” Malcolm to win Individual Immunity!

Back at Enile Dam, everyone was congratulating Cochran for his first Individual Immunity win. Malcolm was also a bit sore for coming in second, and went off to lick his wounds to make himself feel better.  The only thing that was bringing Cochran down was the fact that the feeling of triumph would fade away with the craziness of this game. Boy was he right!

Malcolm and Corrine went into action, rallying their troops to set their plan into action. They augmented their plan by setting their target at Sherri, since they thought she was expendable. Then they would go after Phillip and control the rest of the tribe for the remainder of the game.

Corrine had to keep up appearances, so she went to the Favs to discuss getting rid of Sherri. Phillip didn’t like this plan, thinking that they should get rid of either Reynold or Eddie because of their strength. After Phillip stomped his feet to have his way, Corrine was more motivated than ever to get rid of Phillip.

Corrine corralled the Lady Favs together and told them of her new plan. At first, they were in board. Then a light bulb of recognition went off in Dawn’s head. This scenario was what got her voted out the game.  She didn’t want to go down this path again.

Dawn then shared this information with her confidant, Cochran. Cochran pieced together Corrine’s end-game of taking control of the tribe, leaving Cochran and Dawn in the cold, and he wasn’t a fan of that at all! They knew that they had to get rid of Corrine to stay in this game longer. Cochran went to Andrea with this information. As much as she disliked Phillip, she couldn’t let Corrine get away with her plan, either. They needed Erik and Sherri to flip the shift of power to make their plan work. Andrea then Phillip in on what was happening, and he became angry at Corrine’s betrayal.  The big question was whether Sherri and Erik were going to believe them and work with them or against them.

At Tribal Council, Jeff Probst spoke with the Castaways about whether it was ideal for a Fan to be the next to leave the game. Corrine confessed that she was open to suggestions if the right plan came along. Reynold pretty much said the Favs shouldn’t count their chickens before they’re hatched. Andrea was paranoid because she has been burned by trusting people in Survivor.

The Castaways were nervous as the votes were cast and read out by Jeff. It was 7-5 vote for Corrine to leave the game! It was a huge blindside for her. She was so sure her plan was going well, that she was too cocky that others wouldn’t catch on to what would happen if her plan was successful.

Good work, Cochran! He totally read that plan and cut it off before it got too bad. I know the way I described what happened in this episode made it seem as though Corrine was the one to go, but the way the show was edited, if was really touch-and-go up until the Vote. It really could have gone the other way if a few people had voted another way. The next episode should be interesting, as it will show the fallout of this Tribal Council, as well as seeing how some of the Castaways will react to this blindside. Come on back, Readers, to see how all of this plays out, or check out my other posts or my Facebook page for other fun Reese Speaks tidbits!

Until my next post, Readers!

Reese.

Survivor: Caramoan Fans vs. Favourites 2, Episode #7 – The Best Made Plans…

Hello Readers!

It time for another installment of Survivor: Caramoan! As we become closer to the Merge, the Castaways are scrambling to create new alliances and see where they stood with each other.  How you decide to play this game will determine how far along you will go in it.  One Castaway learned that their game plan of sitting back and then trying to back stab another player will get themselves a one-way ticket out of Survivor: Caramoan.  Who was this lucky person? Read on and find out!

At Bikal, after Tribal Council, Corrine takes Michael aside for a pep talk. She advised him to get through the next few Tribal Councils because she doesn’t want him to leave the game yet. Phillip saw what was happening and went berserk! He pulled Cochran aside to tell him that Corrine has to go because Phillip doesn’t trust the bond being formed between Corrine and Michael. Cochran reminded Phillip that in order for the Fans to have the numbers, the Favourites (or Favs)s have to stick together.

Bikal received Tree Mail that told the Castaways that the strong will carry the weak.Phillip,being a secret agent and all, believed that, since he is also a power lifter, he felt that he would breeze through the upcoming Challenge. Phillip then challenged Cochran to an arm wrestling competition to prove his manly strength (Ha! Ha Ha!).  Cochran then threw their “competition” in order to fluff up Phillip’s ego.

At the Reward Challenge, the Castaways all had to wear belts that attached them together.  They were each given a twenty pound bag to carry with them throughout this Challenge.  Each tribe had to race around an oval course while carrying the with them.  If a member of a team became too tired, they could opt out of the race, giving another member of their team their weight to carry.  The tribe that catches and  tags the other tribe won.  The prize?  Well, that team would by choppered over to an island where a Survivor: Caramoan coffee shop with all of the baked delights they could desired were awaiting them.  With Phillip’s strength and leadership, Bikal literally walked throughout this Challenge, allowing for Gota to catch them and easily win this Reward.

While Gota used their Reward experience as a time to create bonds or feeling these new tribes mates, Bikal was busy licking their wounds. Phillip was mad (and probably embarrassed after all of his boasting) over losing the Challenge.  Once the commiserating was done, Corrine set out to damage Phillip’s character some more to get him out of their tribe. Cochran was keeping his eyes in the prize, and was working as a peace-maker.  What he didn’t want to happened was for the Favs to begin creating bonds with the Fans. Why would this be important? Well, if the Favs began liking the Fans, they would want to change their game plan and keep that particular Fan around, lessening the Favs’ chances of making it to the Merge intact. Unfortunately for Cochran, it was already happening with Corrine (with Michael) and Phillip (with Julia).

After Phillip was beginning to let Julia into his “inner sanctum,” she decided it was time to kick her Survivor: Caramoan game up a notch. She thought it was a good idea to gain the trust of other Favs members by telling divulging to them everything Phillip had told him. Big mistake! This was one of the biggest mistakes anyone can make in this game. You should only give information to another person if you can trust them enough to keep it to themselves. Well, Julia gave Dawn, of all people, all of the details Phillip shared with her, and guess what Dawn did? Yep, you guessed it, she ran straight to Phillip to inform him of his “double-agent.” Phillip became upset with Julia, and would try to get rid of her the first chance he gets.

Once Gota returned from their Reward, the guys of the tribe went for a dip in the ocean, and agreed upon forming an alliance between them (Malcolm, Reynold, Eddie and Erik). Malcolm also let Reynold know that he has the Immunity Idol to solidify their trust in him. Malcolm thought that this alliance was more beneficial for them because he doesn’t really need their protection due to his deals with the Favs, and because of his possession of the Idol. As well, Malcolm knew that Reynold and Eddie would be all over this alliance because of the bad position those two guys put themselves in at the old Gota tribe.

At the Immunity Challenge, three members of each tribe had to paddle out into the ocean in a canoe to retrieve a heavy statue. Once back on the shore, one other member was then responsible for using a grappling hook and rope to drag five keys laid out in the sand several meters (or feet) away. The last two members then had to take those keys and unlock the locks to release a flag to win. This time, it wasn’t only Phillip’s fault, but also the fault of those paddling the boat who lost the Challenge for Bikal. They were facing another Tribal Council…oh joy!

After the Immunity Challenge, Phillip, maybe trying to defend his poor performance, pulled Cochran aside and told him that he threw the Challenge so they could go to Tribal Council. Cochran almost laughed, but kept it together to hear Phillip out. Cochran confessed that he thought that Phillip was becoming delusional to believe that Phillip would do such a thing, and then to admit it to another person.

The Favs then huddled together to decide which of the Fans they were going to send home. Phillip wanted to get rid of both Fans as quickly as possible because he felt they were not needed to get them through the Merge. The rest of the Favs felt that, since they were not sure what was happening over at Gota that it may not be the best idea to count out the usefulness of the Fans just yet. This enraged Phillip, so much so that he began yelling and stomping around the camp, upsetting the rest of his tribe mates. He also began saying that Boston Rob would never do what they were doing. The Favs had to tell him that he was not Boston Rob, and that Phillip’s plan from the Boston Rob Playbook may not work in their situation. This angered Phillip even more. Phillip then confessed that he wanted Michael gone because of his new found closeness with Corrine.

At Tribal Council, Jeff Probst asked Bikal about which of the Fans they were going to vote out, Phillip taking on the “hero” role for tribe, and of the approach to the game that Michael and Julia were using so far to stay. I’m not sure if Phillip heard Jeff Probst properly when Jeff suggested that maybe Phillip should step back a bit from taking on this role because he had been unsuccessful at it since the shake-up of the tribes, but Phillip answered Jeff by saying that the tribe was going to forget the past and move on to the next Challenge. Michael said his game plan was to be social and create bonds. Julia said her approach was to lay low and observe what was happening before making a major move. This made some of the Favs give a face because they were not fans of Julia, and were all aware of what she had already done.

This week’s vote was an interesting one. The Favs decided to make it a split vite between Julia and Michael (Julia – 3, Michael – 3). With the second vote, where the Bikal could only vote for Michael and Julia, the tribe made it crystal clear who they wanted gone…good ol’ Julia.

Oh, boy, Readers, it was another fun-filled time on Survivor: Caramoan. Poor Julia, one of the people I thought would do well is now out of the game. Maybe she shouldn’t have lads so low, only to make such a big move. She was described by many people on Bikal as having a “vanilla personality.” Maybe she should have opened up some more to those in Bikal. Well, since another person has been shown the door in this game, it must mean that the Merge is close at hand. How will the Castaways deal with this possible new predicament? Will Phillip try to use another page out if Boston Rob’s playbook to further himself in the game? Will it backfire again? Find the answers to these questions when I check back in with more Survivor: Caramoan news.

Until my next post, Readers!

Reese

Survivor: Caramoan, Episode #6 – Switching Things Up!

Hey Readers!

I know, I didn’t write about Episode #5 last week, but I did happen to catch what happened.  This week, though, Survivor decided to switch things up a bit to keep the Castaways, as well as the viewers, on their toes.  What was the switch-up? Read on and you’ll find out.

Back-tracking a bit, here’s what happened on Episode #4:

Reynold and Eddie were worried about their lives in the game because they knew they had no one to reach out to on the Gota tribe. On Bikal, Brandon went banana crazy, lashing out on Phillip and dumping the tribe’s only supply of rice all the beach. At the Immunity Challenge, Corrine announced that the majority of the tribe was going to forfeit the Challenge in order to go to Tribal Council to get rid of a tribe mate. Jeff Probst accepted Bikal’s resignation, and decided to have Tribal Council right then and there. Brandon explained why Phillip angered him, and Phillip tried refuting what Brandon was saying, but it only fanned the flames under Brandon’s butt.  After all the drama was dialed down a bit, Jeff Probst asked Bikal who they wanted out of their tribe. Brandon said Phillip, while the rest of the tribe said Brandon. Cursing all the way, Brandon left the Challenge area, and the tribes went back to their camps.

Back to Episode#6…

Bikal was all a-twitter when they returned back to their camp from their explosive and impromptu Tribal Council. Phillip confessed he wanted Corrine to be the next to leave, while the rest of the Favourites wanted Phillip out of their tribe.

At Gota, Reynold and Eddie were happy about being spared due to Brandon’s exit, but were still stuck on how they were going to survive to the merge when they no longer have a social game.

Jeff Probst called both tribes together to announce that the game wpuld be shaking up by changing the faces on both tribes. This made some smile (Reymond and Eddie), and others grimace (Phillip). After having the Castaways break an egg with a coloured center on their body to reveal which tribe they were to be on. Here are the line-ups of the new tribes:

Gota                             Bikal
Malcolm                     Phillip
Brenda                        Cochran
Andrea                       Corrine
Eddie                           Matt
Sherri                          Julia
Erik                              Michael
Reynold                     Dawn

Each of these new tribes got new tribes received a container of rice, a new piece if flint, and new buffs. They were then sent back to their camps to bond and strategize.

At Gota, Reymond and Eddie have thrown away their “feud” with Malcolm, as they sought him out to gain his trust, and maybe create an alliance with him by telling him their story of woe of how they ended up at the bottom of the totem pole at the old Gota. Sherri had the same plan, and tried becoming friendly with Brenda and Andrea, giving her every bit of gossip about what happened within her old tribe.

Andrea and Malcolm compared notes on their new tribe mates, happy they were not close. Andrea also asked Malcolm if he had an Immunity Idol, and he boldly lied to her, telling her that he didn’t have one.

At Bikal, Phillip was acting like he was Cock of the Walk again by trying to flip Julia to do his bidding.  Julia just let Phillip flap his gums, taking in any bit of information he was giving her so she could try to use it in the future.

Corrine and Dawn were shaking their heads at Phillip and his attempts to try and turn Julia because they didn’t care about getting new recruits, they wanted the Immunity Idol to protect themselves against one of.the Fans possibly using it against them at Tribal Council.

At the Immunity Challenge, the tribe mates had to go in pairs to roll six crates across the beach.  The tribe then had to create a set of stairs out of the crates to a platform.  The winning tribe would be granted Immunity.  It was pretty much a blow-out for the Gota tribe as they rolled by Bikal to win Immunity.

When Bikal returned from the Challenge, Phillip was playing Papa Bear by giving a pep talk to the tribe about how well they worked together despite their loss.  Corrine was thoroughly annoyed with Phillip’s antics, but knew to remain in the game meant to keep Phillip around.  So she, along with the rest of the tribe, bared down and let Phillip run his mouth.

Phillip then took Matt and Michael aside to tell them Julia was going to be the one to go.  They agreed because they both wanted to stay on in the game. Phillip then felt they were worthy enough to be inducted into Phillip’s Stealth-R-Us group, giving them code names to seal the deal.

Julia spoke with Matt and Michael in the jungle about who they were going to vote for.  They lied to her, telling her they were going to vote for Dawn to leave. She was happy with this, and let them go.

The Favourites then got together to talk about who they really wanted to vote out. Corrine wanted Julia gone because she felt Julia brought no value to their tribe.  Cochran brought up the idea that Michael and Matt should be split up because they seemed too close, as though they had an alliance. This interested the other Favourites, but also made their decision harder.

At Tribal Council, Jeff Probst asked the Castaways about how the switch effected them and whether the Fans on Bikal felt as though they were in trouble.  All three Fans admitted they were sure one of them were going to be voted out. Jeff Probst also asked the Favourites what would it take to keep a Fan in their tribe. Corrine said that she had to be convinced of their intentions, and that none of them had or would use the Immunity Idol to save their numbers. Phillip added that if any of them had the Immunity Idol, that they should use it to save themselves because the three of them didn’t know which of them would be the one to be leaving the game.  It was also a way to flush out the Immunity Idol if they did happen to have it.

After the votes were cast, Matt was the Fan that was chosen to leave the game by a vote of 4-2 (Julia)-1 (Dawn).  I thought either Michael or Julia would be the one to go because Matt had more muscle than the other two.  They’re going to be sorry for getting rid of him when they are destroyed over and over again by the new Gota, who has just about every strong player in the game now.

Yes, Readers, it was another shocking episode of Survivor: Caramoan. Phillip is so lucky the Favourites have the numbers on their tribe, or else he would have been the one to go this week. Reymond and Eddie must also be thanking their lucky horseshoes because of this shake-up in the tribes.  All of the Castaways are hoping they can make it to the merge, then all bets will be off.  Will Bikal be desecrated with most of the stronger players being on the Gota tribe? Will Phillip notice that everyone is placating him and change his strategy? Come back to get the latest update on the Castaways and this season of Survivor: Caramoan.

Until my next post, Readers!

Reese.

Survivor: Caramoan, Episode #3 – That Was a Close Shave, Shamar!

Hello Readers!

The Castaways on this season of Survivor: Caramoan are very explosive. They continue to allow their emotions get the better of them, clouding their better judgement.  This is especially true of the Fans, or Gota tribe. This is especially true of Shamar and Reynold. Reynold sees the errors of his ways, but Shamar seems as though he’s a lost cause. How do they fair during this episode? Read on, and you shall see!

With the loss of Allie to their band of four, Reynold, Hope and Eddie were still reeling from Shamar still being a part of the Gota tribe.  Reynold began trying to make concessions with Matt, telling him how important he thought he was, and how needed Matt was for numbers to get rid of Shamar.  Shamar, not learning from the close shave he just had at Tribal, began going off on anyone around him, telling them how awful they were for treating him so badly.  Laura and Michael commented on how they liked Shamar, but he needed to cut down on the crazy.

The next day, Laura took it upon herself to take Shamar aside and let him know that he was wrong about how the whole tribe hating him. Shamar was so defeated by the blowout at Tribal, that he was on the edge of wanting to throw in the towel and leave Survivor. Laura told him that the reason some people may not like him was because he was so explosive.  In a nice way, Laura told Shamar he should not rise to Reynold’s attempts to provoke him.  Shamar continued to mope, telling her nothing will change because he was the black sheep of the tribe, and the money for winning the game was not worth bringing both the tribe and himself down.

Reynold and Eddie were trying to see how to get the numbers back in their favour while getting Shamar out of their tribe. They realized that if they could get Shamar to blow up a few more times around camp, while keeping themselves cool may make other tribe members see what liability Shamar was to them.  They then set out to fulfill their plan.

Shamar got some counseling from Sherri as well.  She said she was used to dealing with guys like Shamar, and decided to try to talk him out of wanting to stay in the game. Sherri also thought that if Shamar did quit this game, that he would regret this decision and be angry at himself for doing so.  The talk made Shamar feel a little better about himself and his place in the tribe.  He even apologized to the tribe for his actions, and told them he didn’t want to leave the game yet.  This turn of events made Reynold even more determined to send Shamar packing if Gota should have to go back to Tribal Council.

At Bikal, home of this year’s Favourites, Malcolm and Corrine were talking strategy while searching for the Immunity Idol in the jungle. While they were talking about what they would do at the merge, Malcolm had the Survivor gods smile on him by finding an Idol! After celebrating, Malcolm hid the Idol close to where he found it, decided they should work secretly together in an alliance, and returned back to camp.

Their alliance may not be a secret for much longer, though, as Cochran spied Malcolm and Corrine chatting to each other off to the side of their shelter away from everyone else.  Cochran then shared his concerns with Andrea, who was not keen to hear this bit of news.  She then concocted a plan to get rid of Corrine, as Andrea felt threatened by how strong of a player Corrine was.  As she began recruiting other tribe members to her cause, Andrea was also worried about Corrine finding out about her designs against Corrine.

Brandon was not gun-ho about Andrea’s plan. In fact, he didn’t trust Andrea at all.  He confessed that he didn’t trust anything anyone on his tribe tells him.  I think some of Brandon’s paranoia around good-looking aggressive women may be rearing its ugly head again. He went so far as to say if anyone double-crossed him, he would go crazy on his tribe mates.

At the Reward/Immunity Challenge, all members of both tribes had to swim out to a sunken cage, open its door, then retrieve a very heavy trunk that would require all of their efforts.  Once out if the water, they had to take turns using a rope with a hoop tied to it to gather three pieces of a bridge to push their trunk across to the finish line.  The winners not only gained Immunity from Tribal Council, but they would gain some comforts for their camp, such as lounge chairs, cushions and and a tarp to keep warmer and drier.  It was a close one, but the Favourites were able to squeak out another win, leaving the Fans out in the cold with a trip to Tribal Council.

Oh, Shamar has listened to nothing his fans on his tribe have told him. While the tribe was assessing where they went wrong during the Challenge, Shamar starting yelling at Reynold for not giving him a pair of goggles.  Laura was also worried about her performance during the Challenge because she swam so poorly, costing them time during that competition.

Once the shouting match ended, the tribe members not a part of the fractured mini alliance came up with a plan to get rid of Reynold by splitting the votes between he and Hope.  Since there were more men than women on their tribe, Reynold would go.Shamar, being smug, alluded to Hope that she was not the intended target for the vote.  She caught on to what Shamar was telling her, she told the rest of her alliance what was happening.  They then went around camp, telling everyone that Shamar spilled the beans on their plan, and this was a good reason to cut him loose.

When this news hit the rest of the tribe, they were upset to this new development.  Laura was so upset that she went to Reynold, suggesting that herself and Julie would flip, adding the much needed numbers to their cause.  Reynold was over the moon, and couldn’t wait to see Jeff Probst at Tribal.

At Tribal Council, Jeff Probst and the players started the meeting off with what happened at the last Tribal. Again, Shamar had his pity party, saying he was a scapegoat for anything that went wrong for their tribe, and that some tribe mates were lying about what he said. Hope felt the need to try to save her butt by binging up her conversation with Shamar. This set Shamar off, again! Come on, Shamar, have you learned nothing? You never go crazy at Tribal. You have to keep your crazy pent up inside of you until the game is over.

It was a wacky vote, Readers, as the Gota tribe had a three-way tie for Shamar, Hope and Eddie.  Jeff Probst advised the Castaways that they would have a second vote where they could only vote for the three aforementioned tribe members, and that these people were not allowed to vote.  Once these votes were cast and counted, another shocking decision was made…Hope was voted out four to one against Shamar. Reeling from the decision, she gave Jeff Probst her torch and watched as her life in game was snuffed out.  Jeff Probst also warned Shamar to shape up or ship up if he didn’t change his ways towards his tribe, as I guess even he though Shamar was on his way out of the game.

Shamar was a lucky ducky, narrowly getting by this Tribal Council with his torch still on fire.  Due to his theatrics, it could have very well been him leaving the game. Hopefully, he will get the message and start being more friendly towards the rest of the Gota tribe.  I have the feeling he doesn’t, though.  Now that another explosive episode of Survivor has come to an end, will my prediction come true?  Will the Favourites be in for any bad luck soon? Will the weather hold out for these Castaways, or will it become wet and wild for them? All you have to do to find out is to come on back to my blog!

Until my next post, Readers!

Reese.