Perhaps the three best words in any Survivor fan's vocabulary were said in this week's episode: We are merged. And finally, we are getting to the craziness that Jeff Probst had been hinting at befofre the season started. This week's episode was by far the best of the season, and one of the best in recent seasons. I'm going to break it down, tell you where our Survivors screwed up, and talk about why "Stealth R Us" is one of the most cohesive alliances we've seen on the show.
We wasted no time in this episode getting to the merge. The episode started with the Gota tribe arriving on a boat at the Bikal beach. Right away it became clear what Corrine and Malcolm had planned. They wanted to take out Phillip and the rest of the Favorites. But they didn't have enough numbers yet. Corinne had Michael, while Malcolm had Eddie and Reynold. Malcolm also believed he had Erik as a piece of his alliance. They believed they had a strong six, however with twelve people left, that still only gives you a tie. So the plan was for them to try to get everyone to vote out Sherri, which would make things look good and all for Stealth R Us and then when they got to eleven, their six would blindside Phillip and send Stealth R Us in to a state of shock. The plan sounded good, all they would have to do is convince the rest of the Favorites to cast their vote towards Sherri and then in the next round they could make their move.
On the other side of the beach, Stealth R Us was in no state of panic. They had no idea what Malcolm and Corrine were cooking up and their idea was to put their votes on either Eddie or Reynold. Phillip was talking to Corrine and he pitched his idea for them to split their votes, assuming they had all eight Favorites' votes and perhaps Sherri's and Michael's. He wanted four votes to be put on Reynold and four on Eddie, in case either of them played an idol. Corrine immediately argued with Phil. She hated the idea and said they had to go after Sherri. This was a terrible move by Corinne. She must not have thought things through, because if they had split the vote, that would have helped her plan work even better. Let's say that four of the Favorites put their votes on Reynold, and then only one or two of them put their votes on Eddie. That would open things up wonderfully for Corrine's plan, and she could blindside Phillip right now at this time, rather than waiting. She had five guaranteed votes, and that would outnumber any split vote. Ever since Tyson made what I think was the dumbest move in Survivor history in Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains, I've been very weary of split votes. Someone could screw it up. Let's say Corinne didn't want to completely screw over the Favorites yet, she could have had people that weren't supposed to vote Reynold vote for him, and then have told Reynold to play his idol. This split vote idea could have worked beautifully to her advantage, but instead she just argues with Phillip as always.
As the episode continues, Cochran shocks everyone and wins immunity, and the editors keep showing us scenes and confessionals of Malcolm's new alliance talking about this great move they were going to make. Right before a commercial break, Reynold says, "If this vote goes as planned and Sherri goes home, I'll be in an alliance that's calling the shots and I'll definitely be back in business." Something we've learned from the Survivor editors is that whenever a confessional starts with "If", or whenever someone says something along these lines, it is often foreshadowing what won't happen. For example, last season, when they kept saying "As long as Penner doesn't win immunity today, Tribal Council will be easy tonight", what happened? Penner won immunity. In the first episode of this season, Francesca said if she was the first one to be voted out first again, she would eat the rock that was in front of her. The editing can foreshadow things. When I heard Reynold say that, I grew suspicious that this masterful plan that Corinne and Malcolm had worked wasn't going to work out. Something might happen.
Everything was in place, until Corinne for reasons unknown to us, told Dawn her plan and wanted to bring Dawn in to an alliance that already had six and a plan that was going to work. Dawn takes the information and goes over to Cochran, who talks to Andrea, who talks to Phillip. The four of them know they need to hatch a plan at the last second to save their games, otherwise they will picked off one by one in the coming episodes by the new power alliance. The Favorites make sure they have Brenda on board, and then try to sway Erik from the bros alliance. They tell Sherri the only way she'll stay in this game is if she votes with them. As we head to Tribal Council, we don't know which way Erik is leaning.
We get to Tribal Council and I felt that the bros alliance is doing a poor job of keeping things under wraps. Reynold says "I don't think tonight's vote is going to be a shocker, but there are going to be some shockers on the way." It was a bad idea for Reynold to say this, because it makes the Favorites more suspicious. Something that was funny and ironic was when Corinne quoted Mike Tyson and said "Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face." This quote is great once you find out what happens in a couple minutes. Yep, Corrine is the ninth person voted out of Survivor: Caramoan.
So what do I take away from this episode? Corrine overplayed and ruined her own game. She had been putting herself in a bad spot over the course of the last few episodes. Corinne and Malcolm had it all planned. Perhaps Erik was never on board, but the plan was there. They should have focused everything on voting out Sherri that night AND THEN plotted their blindside. Malcolm put himself in a bad spot now, however he still has his idol so he will probably last another three days. I don't think he can work his way back in to Stealth R Us. If he can go on a bit of an immunity run, he might be able to team up with someone like Cochran or Andrea then, but for now he's a target. Phillip's not going to want anything to do with someone that was planning to betray him and was targeting him. As for the Fans that are left, they're all very vulnerable. Reynold has an idol, so if he's smart he'll be there for another three days at least. The thing that worries me for Stealth R Us is the fact that the minority has two idols. If they try to split their votes and put them on both Malcolm and Reynold, they can both play their idols and blindside whoever they want. The Favorites alliance might not have the numbers right now to do such a thing. I think it might be smart for them to vote for Michael because they know he doesn't have an idol, but at the same time that keeps the three young guys together scheming and looking for a crack. This season is far from over.
I think the main thing to take away from this episode though was how well Stealth R Us worked together as a unit. All four of the core alliance played big roles in this blindside. Dawn got the information and was the one that got the wheels turning. Dawn has been a cold-blooded killer this season. This the second or third time where someone has trusted Dawn and told her something and she's gone and used that information against them to oust them from the game. Dawn's playing a mighty fine game. Cochran was the one to suggest voting out Corrine, a plan that ended up working and saved their lives in the game. Andrea was the one that got Erik on board, a key vote they needed to maintain the majority. And Phillip has done a good job of keeping their group together, similar to the way his hero Boston Rob kept the Ometepe tribe together in Survivor: Redemption Island. This alliance is working so well together and is truly a force to be reckoned with. But as I was saying before, this season is far from being over.
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