We return to
camp with Venus’ insane, and ultimately pointless, scheming gone and even the
Martyr comes down from his cross to celebrate.
Ben admits to voting Kenzie by mistake, which has to be a first, and she
believes him which also has to be a first.
Ben wakes to night terrors and Kenzie is really sweet to him. She’s easy to root for (1 point for “Reference
‘in this game’” to Dalphyne!). The next morning, Liz announces that she’s
finally gone to the bathroom and is now ready to turn this game up to 11.
(1 point for
“Reference ‘in this game’” to Ricky!)
Meanwhile,
Charlie sees himself being able to swing between Maria and the Martyr, or with
Ben and Kenzie. He’s completely
discounted Liz, I guess. (1 point for
“Reference ‘in this game’” to Kristyn!).
At the reward
challenge, they have to race over obstacles, collecting balls, cross a ladder
bridge, and land their balls in a labyrinth maze, with the lure of Chinese food
at the Sanctuary as the prize. Charlie,
Maria and the Martyr take early leads as Ben, Liz and Kenzie struggle to catch
up. They all make it to the labyrinth,
which takes time to learn. Eventually,
it’s Charlie who sinks his ball first winning reward! (8 points for “Win individual reward” to
Kristyn!). We all know he will get
to choose two people, which is a difficult decision at this point, but Jeff
makes that decision even tougher by telling them they get letters from home. I suspect Charlie already knew who he was
taking, but after some “struggle” he chooses Liz and Kenzie to go with him. (3 points each for “Chosen to go on reward
by someone else” to Ricky and Marissa!)
At the Sanctuary,
Liz is ecstatic and everyone’s letters bring predictable tears. We find out from
Kenzie that 1) she’s engaged, 2) she moved her wedding date to be on Survivor and
3) At home, she’s a perfectionist and control freak. We haven’t seen that side of her AT ALL. Even more credit to the game she’s playing. Charlie’s family apparently read
the rules and told him to play to win. There ya go, fam! They talk a bit of strategy, correctly
identifying Maria as a bigger threat than Q.
Back at camp, Maria
tells us she and Charlie had agreed not to take each other on reward but
missing out on letters really hurt. She
cries for quite a while until they all decide to go idol hunting for “Tiffany’s”
idol which she didn’t play, and then Venus had and didn’t play. After some searching,
and complaining that he’s looked unsuccessfully for days, The Martyr finally discovers
it buried in a tree stump. (5 points for “Find hidden immunity idol” to
Jay!). His big question is whether
to tell Maria or not, but my big question is “WILL HE PLAY THE DAMNED THING????” Let’s put a pin in that, k? After some conversation with Maria, he
decides to play it for her if he wins immunity or for himself if anyone else
does. Stop me if this sounds familiar.
The look you have when you realize you're not smarter than the room.
Maria has a
blind spot about Charlie teaming with Liz and Kenzie, which could easily become
a blind spot, and suggests going after Charlie which the Martyr is all for. Charlie and Maria make up back at camp because
the bond they formed will go beyond the game (1 point for “Reference ‘in
this game’” to Carol!). Charlie again references them as a modern-day
Malcom and Denise (5 points for “Bring up a previous season’s player” to
Kristyn!) and doesn’t think Maria
will blindside him. Both of their
offense game (willingness to blindside, turn) is top notch but their defensive
games (seeing vulnerabilities) are lacking.
At the immunity
challenge they have to climb a tower, go over obstacles and solve a puzzle. Charlie
and Q jump out to a quick lead but Maria catches them in stage 2 while Jeff
calls out Kenzie for being in dead last (3 points for “Jeff says something negative
about you in a challenge” to Marissa!). At the puzzle, they’re all cheating
off each other but Maria absolutely destroys it and takes home her 3rd
win! (8 points for “Win individual immunity” to Carol!).
Back at camp, Charlie
and the Martyr are the targets, with Maria rounding up the troops against
Charlie. The question is, who do Ben,
Kenzie and Liz want to play with more? Charlie or the Martyr? Charlie is worried that leaving Maria out of
his vote might hurt his relationship at this late stage so he mistakenly
decides to bring her in. It doesn’t matter
if he knew about the idol or not (he doesn’t).
He knows how tight Maria is with the Martyr. Bringing her in invites problems. It’s a moment to shut up, but Charlie tells
her. This is the moment true allies
would share about the idol but she doesn’t.
The face you
make when you end your game?
It’s high-level
gameplay on her part, and now that she knows Charlie’s after him, she’ll tell
the Martyr to definitely play his idol right? Right? RIGHT?!?!?!?
At tribal, Kenzie
tells us the letters gave her the fuel she needed to continue (1 point for “Reference
‘in this game’” to Marissa!) and
jokes about how Ben wrote her name down by mistake, which Jeff can’t believe
any more than I can, and notes that “Venus doesn’t start with a K”, drawing eye-daggers
from the recently departed.
Meanwhile, everyone
talks about how the votes are more delicate now. Charlie shares that “if you tell the wrong
person the wrong thing, it’s easy for them to flip it”. I’m not sure if there’s a phrase for unintentionally
speaking a truth about yourself without knowing it, but yeesh….Charlie just did
it. Karma is a fit if you squint hard enough,
but it’s not quite right.
This vote clearly
hinges on whether the Martyr play his idol or not. Ensuring we know the idol is all that matters, they show everyone’s votes as they’re cast for the first time in my memory.
Ben, Liz and Kenzie side with Charlie to vote for the Martyr while he
and Maria vote Charlie.
Jeff asks if
anyone wants to play idols or advantages….
AND FOR THE
FOURTH STRAIGHT WEEK, THE TARGET LEAVES THE DAMN THING IN THEIR POCKET!
I am in
complete shock here. Absolute, stunned
shock. Each and every one of them had the
idol. Hunter, Venus and now the Martyr,
said they were going to play it and then
chose not to DESPITE KNOWING THEY WERE TARGETS. They’re so busy meta-gaming that
they forgot to ACTUALLY GAME IT. I genuinely wish they had the live finale
several months later so Jeff could question them on this.
Anyway
The Martyr, like
Hunter, Tiffany and Venus before him is voted out with an idol in his pocket (2
points for “Received vote against” to Jay!), (4 points for “Received vote
against”, -2 points for "The Tribe Has Spoken”, -5 points for "Voted
out with an idol in your pocket” and 2 points for "Jury Member” to Jay!).
Time to climb down off the cross and shuffle off to the Jury House.
As we prepare
for the finale, we have a shakeup at the top of the leaderboard! Thanks to
Charlie’s challenge prowess, incessant chatter about older players, and the
Martyr’s idiocy, Forever Champion Kristyn moves into the lead sporting a 19-point
lead on Ricky and 24 point lead on Carol.
Marissa and Dalphyne finally showed signs of life but it’s likely too
little, too late for this season.
- Kristyn: 104
- Jay: 97
- Ricky: 85
- Carol: 80
- Dalphyne: 63
- Brian: 53
- Marissa: 49
- Scott: 48
- Roberta: 47
- Jen: 41
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