We enter the week following Reba’s
tribal council. If you’re not a baseball fan you may not have noticed that Tai-Chi master Sifu
looks EXACTLY like former Red Sox scum David “Big Papi” Ortiz. Henceforth, Sifu shall be called “Little
Papi”.
Separated at Birth?
On his way out, Sean told the
Tai-Chi Master leaving Papi he did not vote for him leaving Papi a mixture of
angry, paranoid, and worried because someone DID vote against him. When he
confronts Dee, Julie and J. Maya, they all deny it. Little Papi wastes little
time in preparing for the worst though – they believe he has an Idol, so he
creates a fake one to show around camp (Points for “Create a fake immunity
idol” to nobody!)
While he does, Julie, Dee and J.
Maya seethe at Sean for blowing up their games like the Witch’s Coven they
are. The only thing missing is a kettle
over the fire with some eye of newt. How dare Sean do something they didn’t
approve of! Still smoldering, Papi
returns to camp where J. Maya says she voted for him. She didn’t, of course, it
was Dee. But J. Maya wants Little Papi
to believe The Coven doesn’t exist so she’s using this as a wedge. He’s a weird guy and a little wonky sometimes
but Papi has been wise so far. I don’t see him buying this.
At Belo, they are hungry and
exhausted and dreaming of food to the point where Kendra considers eating a worm.
She’s like, a Libra though??? So like she can’t like make up her mind
whether to eat it or not, like ya know?
She eventually eats it…and immediately spits it back out. How very Libra
of her (I think, I’m not into Astrology or Gastroenterology). Napoleon Dynamite
says she’s like a windup toy with endless energy so henceforth she shall be
known as the Energizer Bunny. That said, I want to vote her out after hearing
just 10 seconds of her. I can’t imagine
having to deal with this the second I wake up on every day!
Brando doesn’t trust the Energizer
Bunny and tries to align with Napoleon over Pokémon and other nerd stuff but
the beanpole isn’t interested. I’d have
to think about it but this might be the first time I’ve ever seen someone turn
down a legitimate alliance offer. Rebuffed, Brando returns to align with the
Bunny leaving Emily sitting pretty (or sitting pretty vulnerable) in the middle
with both pairs wanting her on their side for now.
At Lulu, Jake (Your Cousin From
Boston) passes out again but for some reason, medical isn’t called again. We get
his heroic backstory – he was grossly overweight and got into great shape just
to play Survivor and he’d hate that to be the reason he is removed (Points
for “Reference in this game” to Jen!) . Katurah returns from the beach to
find camp empty so she goes Idol hunting. Kaleb catches her and tries to warn
her but it doesn’t happen. She gets caught by Kellie and Bruce who both think
she’s a liability to play with. Katurah,
however, liked how Kaleb handled it.
Then we see Kaleb working it with
both Bruce and Jake, while telling us it’s Kellie that he really wants to
partner with because everyone else wants to partner with her. Kaleb is
likeable, genuine, and authentic but he’s also very, very smooth. Kellie is quickly
won over when Kaleb shares some info about the Sabiyah vote.
At the Immunity and Reward
challenge the castaways go ga-ga over playing for fresh fish. I’m not a
seafood fan, but they say hunger is the best seasoning and Kendra did just try
to eat a worm straight out of the ground so any port in a storm, I guess. They
have to go through an obstacle course to untie sandbags which they’ll fire at
targets with rubber band catapults. In addition to immunity and reward, the first team to knock down all three targets gets to choose someone from each tribe to go on a journey.
Kaleb gets Lulu out to an early
lead in the obstacle course but J. Maya makes up the time for Reba untying the
bags in the obstacle course– she killed that! They’re all quickly tied at the firing line but
it’s Reba and Lulu who take home immunity and reward (Points for “Tribe
immunity win” and “Tribe Reward win” to Jayson, Carol, Brian, Ricky, Marissa,
Dalphyne, Kristyn and me!). Winning tribe Reba chooses J. Maya, Kellie and Austin for the Journey. (Note: This isn’t a scoring category this year. I’ll add it next season).
Back at loser’s camp, Belo breaks into rotating pairs of dizzying
1-1 conversations to decide who gets to have a boyfirend/girlfriend and who;s going home alone. At GenCon, Brian, Jay and my friend (and winner!) Evan called this speed dating and I never argue with a perfect term. Speed dating it is!
Energizer Bunny wants Brando out. Emily wants
Napoleon Dynamite Out. Brando doesn’t feel safe so he offers his shot in the
dark to Napoleon and is rebuffed again.
He’s just not that into you, kid. Emily runs into a conundrum when Napoleon
and Brando blame the other for saying Brando would flip on the Energizer Bunny.
The Bunny’s reaction to Emily sharing this information has me questioning if she’s
off her meds but she’s convinced Brando and Emily will team with her to vote
out Napoleon Dynamite. So if you’re scoring at home (or even if you’re alone),
Brando has:
- Tried to align with Napoleon and failed
- Claimed he will re-align with Energizer Bunny
- Lied to Napoleon that’d flip on Energizer Bunny
- Offered his shot in the dark to Napoleon and failed again
This kid is desperate to align somewhere
else. A good player would see him as a
useful tool – something he can use now and down the road to accomplish his goals.
This means despite his Empire building reach, Napoleon is not a good player. Lastly, Emily wonders which duo’s got her
best interests at heart, Brando/EB or ND/Austin? The answer, of course, is C: None of the
above. No one’s looking out for you,
kid.
At the Journey, they need to climb
a mountain – after a challenge and with no food - and my ankles hurt just
looking at it. That’s some serious
punishment. At the apex, the threesome is
given the choices of food (heroes, or subs, or hoagies, or grinders depending
on where you live) or an amulet that gives varying powers depending on how many
others with amulets remain in the game.
J. Maya wants the amulet. Austin is DROOLING over the food but relents
before Kellie is forced to choose. They create
an alliance but as Austin reminds us, if he takes them down he gets their powers
and….they came between him and his food.
I feel ya, kid. 100%
This is Brando’s first time at
tribal and he’s nerding out as a superfan.
Asked about how he handled the swap, Brando says his relationships with
old Belo makes him valuable but Napolean thinks they are blockers since they’re
relationships that might get in the way of his game. The Energizer Bunny hates tribal council
because she (wisely) doesn’t trust people much. Jeff asks Napolean if he could
lie to the Energizer Bunny even though she’s sitting here vulnerable. He could, but he doesn’t want to. As unexpected as it seems, they pair have
bonded. Emily notes that the game
requires people to get to know each other and then backstab them (Points for
“Reference in this game” to Brian!) and the fact that we’re still talking
about our old tribes and not this one display lack of trust. To cement her
point, she uses a stock trading analogy no one understands. I’m going to add
this as Greengold’s Rule #4: Know your
audience. They didn’t get it
meaning at best, it did no harm. At worst, it hurt you. Speak in words the people you’re talking to understand.
At the vote, Austin has an
immunity idol that lasts longer if he sacrifices his vote, which he does (Points
for “Use a secret advantage” to Jayson!) and then he uses the goodwill
advantage Napoleon gave him via Kaleb to restore his vote (Points for “Use a
secret advantage” again to Jayson!). The big question is, which way did Emily
feel safest? In the end Brando’s attempt
to bond over nerd-dom with Napoleon fails, and his scattershot attempt to align
with everyone paints him as a target. He’s voted out by a vote of 3-2 with Napoleon
Dynamite receiving the other two votes. (Points
for “Received vote against” to Marissa and Carol!) but (Points deducted
for “The Tribe has spoken” against Marissa).
As Brando was voted out, Marissa has chosen the Energizer Bunny Kendra as her lifeline!
Jen picks up a point on everyone but
Jay who gains five this week! And while everyone else maintains relative pace,
I’m languishing in last place in the current scores:
- Jen: 20
- Ricky, Carol: 12
- Jayson, Marissa, 11
- Roberta, Kristyn: 10
- Brian: 9
- Scott: 8
- Dalphyne: 7
View the scoresheet here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1o3xil1TASvf7OwAttqr8cBDm9gLCtvX2/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=103598532985683889571&rtpof=true&sd=true
No comments:
Post a Comment