Survivor Phillipines - November 14/12

Thank you Donna, for doing the update.



Well, there is no Saskatchewan Roughrider football and so without anything else to do, Pat has given me the daunting task of doing the Survivor review. How does one follow up after such a tough act? Pat does them so well! Anyway, mine will be more factual but at the very least I will try to summarize it all. Pat please feel free to edit and forward on to the group!



We begin at Night 22 after the last tribal council. There’s the usual gibber jabber about who voted for whom but at one point Penner realized there really was ‘no plan’… he screwed it up by voting for Abi! Abi, needless to say, wasn’t happy, but then I don’t find Abi very happy any of the time anyway.


Lisa and Malcolm talked and made up. Big hugs all around a warm and fuzzy moment. He realized she was just doing her best to ‘play the game’.


On the morning of Day 23 Penner is still worrying about being the next to go home. He recognized that there are a lot of crack in the alliance though. His plan is to play on divisions and get in with Lisa and Mike. So, he shmoozes Lisa to get into psyche. He tells her all about her ‘trying to please’ ways and why she is the way she is and he comments that it’s his business to know these things about people. He comments to her that she is a ‘pleaser’, avoiding confrontation, being loyal and just generally trying to place people and be a good person. There are more hugs… more warm and fuzzy moments.


The challenge consists of two teams. Team Yellow is Skupin, Artis, Lisa and Pete, Team Red is Denise, Malcolm, Penner and Carter. Nobody chose Abi so she sat on the sideline, looking miserable, no reward for her!


Each team must crawl through mud, over an A-frame finding bags of balls hidden in the mud, then through a sandbox size container of rice (all I kept thinking is why don’t they stash some for lunch?) But I digress. Anyway, the 1st team to gather all the bags of balls, 12 in total, and sink them in a metal ‘basket’ wins reward. It’s a Give and Receive reward. Survivors go to a local village to bring school supplies and toys for the kids. In return the villagers will cook them a feast.


Penner is the first up for the Red and Skupin for the yellow. Penner gets to the mud pit and digs up all the bags of balls for everyone, so they don’t have to dig themselves. He takes one bag and completes the course behind Skupin. However, since he’s dug up all the bags of balls the other members of his team fly through the course and they end up with a huge lead. The yellow team does make an effort to catch them, but in the end it’s Red that wins reward.


The winning Survivors go to the local village where they are met by all sorts of happy children. Malcolm has discovered something that is missing in life. “Why am I pouring drinks for young women, when I so enjoy working with children?” Apparently he taught English in Micronesia for a year. That said, I wouldn’t mind seeing him as a bartender! More warm and fuzzy moments.. it kind of was a warm and fuzzy show tonight.


While at the village of course some strategy was discussed. The plan was to try to get Skupin and Lisa to join forces with Denise, Carter, Johnathan and Malcolm. Penner talks to Lisa and says he isn’t trying to get into her head… but really.. he tries to get into her head. Why is she in an alliance with people who don’t trust her, come over to the dark side.. he tells her. Change the game, make it your game, that’s what the audience wants to see.


Meanwhile.. after one of Abi’s rants to Lisa about disloyalty, the next words out of her mouth are that still want to get her and Skupin to stay with Abi, Artis and Pete. But then they say they don’t trust her, Abi does need to learn to shut up and as Artis said, she’s a loose cannon.


The Immunity challenge is to roll a ball, one at a time, down the end of a paddle to the end where there are six divits for the ball to rest in. The idea is to get the ball to rest on the paddle in one of the divits. First person to have 6 balls secure on their paddle wins immunity. At first it didn’t look like anybody was going to get this, then all of a sudden Skupin has 1, then 2… 3 and 4 quickly. Peter runs a close second, but loses a few and in the end Skupin wins immunity.


With the vote comes more discussions of course. Johnathan feels that they need to ‘break up Tandang’ and that hinges on if he can convince Lisa and SKupin to flip. He talks to Lisa to flip and get rid of either Artis, Pete or Abi. Then Lisa and Skupin talk. Skupin brings up a couple of good points. Who do you go further with? And who would you rather play the game with? During that conversation it seems like they are both convinced, but due to clever editing we never really know, do we?


At tribal council Denise said that big moves come at any point in the game and it naïve to sit comfortably with your perceived numbers thinking that everyone is on board. Abi confesses that she is not sure about Lisa at this point, she’s afraid Lisa will flip. At that point it’s time to vote. After everyone has voted in a 5-4 decision, it’s ARTIS who goes home, and with Artis goes one of our own, but because I don’t have the list handy I have no clue who that is. Whoever it is stand up and wave or something. (Editor-on-vacation's note: That would be Rick who is leaving the pool this evening.)

Ironic thing is, Lisa did not flip on Artis, it was Skupin who joined forces with Penner, Malcolm, Carter and Denise! Lisa better get on board with them cause that other ship is sinking!

Until next time, what does Pat say??? Oh ya.. outwit, outlast, outplay


Donna (a.k.a. Sarah, I know my baseball players, but don’t know when to keep my mouth shut, Dawson)