Survivor Episode 9 Recap

I know my readers that are avid Survivor fans have been waiting for this for quite a while, so I won't make them have to wait any longer. Believe it or not, some people mainly read my blog for the Survivor posts. To all of them, thank you for your patience, and to the rest of you, I hope to post another article on a different topic some time tonight. This past episode of Survivor was one of the craziest and most confusing episodes in the show's history, and that is a good thing for the show. It is also a good thing that I was journaling my thoughts on the show while it was happening, which may help me write this blog and be able to give more insight. So without further ado, here is my Week 9 recap and analysis:

Something that was interesting in the beginning of this episode is where it starts. Normally we see the players returning to camp and talking about what happened at Tribal Council. Instead, in this episode, it opened the day after Tribal. I was surprised by this because you would think they would show them the night of Tribal, especially after a crazy blindside like that one that sent Corinne home in shock.

Also in the beginning of the episode, Malcolm and Reynold were very optimistic about their games moving forward. Stealth R Us never said that they were against Malcolm now. They still thought of Malcolm as one of their own and Malcolm thought he could use this to his advantage. He figured that they would try to split the vote, putting four votes on Reynold and four on Eddie, flushing out any idol that would be played. He looked at this as an opportunity to make a big move. He had three votes on his side in an alliance of four guys. He figured that if he could pull in one more vote, he could outnumber the votes 5-4-3. He could keep himself from playing his idol and Reynold could keep his idol, and they could have five strong moving forward with two idols. This was a bright idea, however it didn't automatically give him the numbers. There would still be six in Stealth R Us after that blindside, and they would still only have five. I guess they could then use their idols, but none of that would come to play unless Malcolm got someone to flip. And in order to get someone to flip, you have to talk to the right person.

Who does Malcolm go to? Why, the very person that three other people came to and put faith in, only to have her turn on them and be voted out as a result of it. Yes, Malcolm went to talk to the one and only Dawn Meehan. Dawn has changed and improved her game from the last time she was out. I guess people keep coming to her and thinking they can trust her because she's one of the nicest people to ever play the game, and maybe because she cries a lot. Nevertheless, Dawn is playing a cold-blooded game and isn't allowing her emotions to get the best of her. I think this is a blunder on Malcolm's part because he was/is in Stealth R Us and he knows what the dynamics are. He's gotta know that the close group of four is calling the shots and running the game. He should know that Erik and Brenda weren't in the core alliance when they were over on the Favorites tribe. Corinne made the same blunder last week and maybe Malcolm didn't know about it. But the second I saw him going over to Dawn, I knew he was screwed.

When Jeff Probst was explaining the Reward Challenge, I thought it looked fun and it looked like a good challenge. Castaways would be separated in to two teams by a school-yard-pick-em and the winner of the reward would get to repel down a waterfall and enjoy a picnic. The teams were Cochran, Erik, Eddie, Reynold, and Michael against the other remaining players minus Sherri (who wasn't picked). I wish they had shown us the school-yard-pick-em draft because I think that would have been interesting to see who picks who, and where people are valued. I was disappointed they skipped this.

The challenge was for the two teams of five to each have a goalie standing out on a post in the middle of the water and have a goal behind them. The teams would switch off trying to score on the other. This looked like a good challenge. However I think they screwed it up. The goalie never really altered the play. There were some missed shots but they were never a result of the goalie. They either threw it short, long, wide left or right. They should have put the goalie's post closer to the net. That would have made the challenge a lot better because then the goalie's would have actually become a part of the challenge. Oh well.

Cochran's team won and went on the Reward. Cochran conquered his fear of going down the waterfall and talked about how much hes growing. He talked about how when he was on Survivor the first time he was afraid of just taking off his shirt because he's weak and pale. But he's growing and gaining more confidence. This was a good confessional and it made you feel good for the guy. Also, the more confidence he gains, the more of a force he can be in this game.

When they got to the bottom of the waterfall, the five guys enjoyed their feast. Cochran and Erik weren't interested in talking strategy, as both of them are in a good spot and need nothing from these other three guys. In fact, they wanted to take a break from the game and just enjoy the food. But that didn't stop Reynold from pitching an idea to the two Favorites. I mean, you can't blame Reynold for trying his best to keep himself alive in the game. However, the pitch itself wasn't the best. Actually, Michael pitched the idea saying, "The last Fans vs. Favorites was dominated by the women at the end of the game. How awesome would it be if this time it was dominated by the men?" and then he said "Seriously Cochran, look, three votes right here. You have three votes in your pocket right here if you ever need them."

 So far so good. Michael, an openly gay male who is more booky and less jocky than Eddie and Reynold, is proving his ability to adapt to his environment and do whatever he can to appeal to someone else. Also what I'm saying isn't meant to be labeling or stereotyping gay people. It's just that Michael hasn't shown to be a sports whiz or anything like that, and for weeks Corrine was referring to him as "the gay" and now he is hanging around the young stud muffins. I think it shows that he can try to sell something to someone by adapting to their wants and likes instead of trying to have them adapt to what he wants.

However, Reynold does the exact opposite. Reynold pitches the idea to Cochran and basically says, "Dude, you can become one of the meatheads like us. You can be one of the bros." I expect that Reynold was one of the cool kids in high school, and he thinks that everyone else wants to be cool. Maybe if Reynold had made this pitch to Cochran when he was in high school he would have joined in on it. But the fact of the matter is that Cochran could care less about who he hangs out with or what people think of him. This led to one of his funniest confessionals of the season, saying "I don't want to be engaged in any kind of masculine tomfoolery with these numskulls." Well done, Cochran.

If Reynold wanted to try to bring in Cochran, he should have talked about stuff Cochran is interested in. Try to ask him about how he likes law school or something like that. Reynold did a poor job here.

Back at camp, the losers of the Reward Challenge return. Malcolm pitches his idea to Dawn and Sherri separately. Sherri and Dawn go back to Stealth R Us and tell them what's going on. Malcolm becomes their new target. Dawn decides to pretend she's going with Malcolm's plan but instead wants to blindside him.

The next scene after the commercial break is weird. It opens with soft music and eventually shows Eddie and Andrea out in the water together. In the confessionals, the two talk about one another and make it sound as if they like each other. In my Survivor fantasy league, I have Andrea- as well as Erik- so this made me nervous. Ever since Rob and Amber got to the final 2 in Survivor: All-Stars, "showmances" have become a target. No one wants to play against someone who is that close to someone else. It also gives each of them a boost emotionally as they build each other up and show each other affection. It makes it so neither of them needs a loved-one visit as much as others. Whenever there is a pair that is that tight, you want to split them up. Andrea has been a bit of a showmantic one as she was very tight with Matt Elrod on her original season, Survivor: Redemption Island, which led to Boston Rob, author of the original showmance, to blindsiding Matt, which put Andrea is a worse spot in the game. Andrea also was annoyed when another female contestant, Krista Klumpp gave Matt a Bible on Redemption Island. So it doesn't come as a shocker that she has found herself in yet another showmance. However, I thought she would have learned from her mistake from her previous season. I just don't think it's a good idea to get in a showmance, especially with someone that is on the other side.

Brenda won the Immunity Challenge. I was happy for her, and I was hoping to her what she had to say about her win. But yet, for like the seventh straight episode, Brenda didn't have a confessional. This is something that has annoyed me with recent Survivor seasons is when they significantly highlight certain castaways while some others don't get much airtime. Does anyone ever win the game when they hardly show them? It kinda hints that Brenda isn't going to win. The editing can be frustrating.

Back at camp, Malcolm continues his plan. Reynold shows his idol to Dawn and tries to intimidate her, which leaves her frustrated and it makes her want to screw him over even more. Malcolm wants Andrea out and Stealth R Us' plan is to out Malcolm.

Eddie and Andrea talk one last time before the vote, which is a pivotal scene in this episode. Andrea tries to dig up any information she can from the guy. She does a good job of hiding her information and not giving anything away. However, Eddie tells Andrea that someone in his alliance has an idol and that an idol will be played tonight. This gives her reason to think that either Malcolm or Reynold have an idol, if not both. It makes her nervous because if Malcolm plays an idol, she'll be going home. She then runs around and tries to change the plan to voting for Mike, because they know he doesn't have an idol and they can't picture someone giving him an idol to play. The rest of Stealth R Us is saying stuff like how she is making a mistake and is running around scatter-brained and they want to hit a home run voting out Malcolm instead of going for the base hit. But if the same information was told to them and that they were being targeted, they would probably do the exact same thing. So as the numbers dwindle down, Stealth R Us can split the vote, so now is a good time to go with the safe bet and hope to flush out an idol in the process. Heading in to Tribal Council it is left ambiguous to us what is going to happen. All we know is that we are in for a crazy Tribal Council.

At Tribal Council, Phillip starts talking about how Sherri is the newest member of Stealth R Us. He tells everyone about her nickname and everything. Phil's totally playing it up for fun and to be funny. However, it is a good strategic move. By him saying, "Sherri is one of us now", it keeps the other alliance from scrambling and trying to bring her in to work with them. Phillip goes on a couple long tangents talking about that "if we think you have an idol, we will be voting your way" and "if you're thinking of flipping you will be gone." Throughout these little speaches, the camera shows Malcolm's face as he interprets this. We don't know what's going on. Is Phillip leaking information? Or is he doing this to try to get people to play their idols as they put their votes on Mike?

The castaways go to write down their votes. Malcolm changes his vote to Reynold saying, "The idea was this is a throw-away vote, after Phillip's little speech, I don't know what's going on anymore. Hopefully all things will still go according to plan." Why did he vote this way? We don't know. Maybe it was so that way in the next episode he can say that he voted with the alliance and didn't turn on them. Everyone else votes and then Jeff goes to tally the votes.

Jeff asks if anyone wants to play the hidden immunity idol and that's when things get even crazier. Reynold gets up, and then Malcolm says, "Hold on, brother. They all voted for me. You can tell. That's what that whole story was about. Give it to me, and we're in good shape. I'm being dead serious right now." Reynold gives it to him. The votes are read and Michael is voted out.

So what happened? Malcolm thought they were coming for him so he asked for Reynold's idol because he thought Reynold would do whatever he told him. Regardless of the outcome, this was a good move because he was able to keep his own idol and give reason for people to think that he doesn't have an idol. Putting his vote on Reynold makes it so that he can say, "hey look I didn't vote against you guys and I stuck to the plan the last two votes." However, the way he talked to Reynold makes it apparent that he has jumped ship. He has betrayed the Favorites and he is now working with Reynold. Everyone knew that before, but this was confirmation and a public display of it. If the votes were for him, this could have been an all-time great move. But now Malcolm is a huge target. Stealth R Us should continue to vote out the safe bets so that they can split the votes and flush the idol. If Malcolm can get the votes on him and use his idol for a blindside, that will put a Favorite in danger, but I don't think it will win him the game. He's gonna need to go on an immunity run now, something he is capable of doing.

Malcolm shouldn't have played so hard this week. He should have decided to stick with the Stealth R Us plan, and then when they get down to the seven Favorites and two Fans, he could try to get two of the Favorites on the bottom, and add the two Fans who don't have any other options to shift the power and take out the top four in Stealth R Us (Phillip, Cochran, Dawn, Andrea). Malcolm played it too hard and now I don't think he will win the game.

Stealth R Us is really a successful alliance. Phillip's doing a good job of keeping everyone together and taking out the other tribe. Only time will tell if someone flips, but right now the unit is functioning very well together, something I talked about in my last week's article. The core four is doing great.

It's interesting to think how Tribal Council might have played out if Eddie didn't give the plans away to Andrea. Eddie was also stupid to not go back and tell his alliance what Andrea might have given away. If Andrea didn't change the plan, maybe she goes home. Or maybe not. I don't think Phillip's little spiel was unintentional. Phillip gets too much hate from Survivor fans. He wasn't giving away information. He was trying to flush an idol, and it was smart of him to talk like that because it worked. I think one of the strong parts of his game is his ability to get in people's heads. Like when he's doing a challenge, he's always the one talking trash to the other team. But going back to what Andrea did, Malcolm might have already talked to Reynold about having Reynold give him his idol, but Andrea was a game-saver in this episode. One good thing came out of her showmance. But this should and will probably end now (after Eddie voted for her).

Some of the comedic moments in this episode include Cochran's confessional that I talked about earlier, as well as others. Phillip's conversation with Sherri at the beginning of the episode was funny. "The first time I saw you I was like, 'd***, she's hot." Another funny Phillip moment was when he was calling Reynold "Reynolds". I'm fully convinced that one of the things that happens to Phillip's brain when he's on Survivor is that he can't get names right. We saw that when he called Andrea "AnDREa", someone he's known for a couple years from his own season. He couldn't remember Julia's name and started referring to her as "the girl". And who could ever forget his first episode ever on the show, calling Francesca "Francessqua". Yes, even The Specialist has trouble on Survivor. The funniest part of the episode in my opinion was when in the middle of Tribal Council, Erik reaches across and touches Andrea's head, pulls his arm back and then just says, "BUG". That was great. Definitely an all-around entertaining episode with even some funny moments.

This was definitely an interesting episode because it was kind of a cliff-hanger. Everyone that was a part of the craziness in this episode will be a part of the craziness in the next episode. This season just keeps getting better and better. I apologize that this post was so so long but this was a crazy episode with a ton going on and I had to air out my thoughts and break down every angle. I apologize for keeping you all waiting for this, but I hope you enjoyed it now that it is here. Thank you to everyone for reading and let me hear your thoughts on my Facebook fan page, on Twitter @vellvita7, or in the comments below. What do you think about the showmance? Or what about Malcolm's crazy move? Also, would you like me to post a running journal of this next episode? Let me know!