Wednesday, 1 May 2024

Survivor Update - Week 8

 

 

 I forgot to mention in last week’s update:  As Tevin was voted out, Jay gets Q (AKA The Martyr) as his lifeline. There are no more lifelines. From here on out, we play for keeps!

 We return to a camp united….in anger….and in believing The Martyr’s “vote me out” spiel was nonsense.  For his part, he doesn’t feel bad about it (1 point for “Reference ‘in this game’” to Jay!).  Tiffany is especially chapped at him because he announced her idol to Maria (and everyone else, by proxy).  Venus and Liz are ticked off because their big move to get Tevin out was completely overshadowed by Martyrdom. Liz reacted as you’d expect a glory hound denied to react:



 The Martyr is her #1 target. Hey Liz, the line forms behind Tiffany.  (1 point for “Reference ‘in this game’” to Ricky!)

 The next morning, Ben and Charlie see no reason to get rid of The Martyr now as it doesn’t build the resume.  Tiffany and Ben are still mad and having slept on it, they all still agree that he’s an idiot.  He plays like a non-strategic person trying to imitate a strategic person.  He makes big plans but they don’t come from the benefit of solid logic and grounding, so they all fail. 

 Meanwhile, MacGyver is a self-proclaimed idiot for being on the wrong side of the vote but Venus is happy for the chaos. That’s my girl! (1 point for “Reference ‘in this game’” to me, myself and I!).  The irritation between the two comes to a head, when he says she’s constantly mad and unlikeable. She thinks he’s a rude meathead. Sounds like the beginning of a Survivor Rom-Com.  

You’ve Got Tree-Mail? 

There’s Something About Venus? 

No. Wait. I’ve got it.



 Not yet done wrecking his social game, MacGyver also tells the Martyr he’s out of the alliance and he should respect that decision.  Spoiler alert: he doesn’t.  (1 point for “Reference ‘in this game’” to Roberta!).  MacGyver is now done with The Martyr, Venus and Liz if you’re scoring at home (or even if you’re alone) (h/t Steve Somers [google it]).  He’s far and away the best at competitions but that social game is a mess.  If it weren’t for The Martyr, Venus, and our dear, departed Jelinsky and Bhanu he’d be at the absolute bottom.

 Tree-mail announces the next Immunity comp will be in groups of 3 and no one wants The Martyr, meaning he’s stuck with Venus and Liz. Or they’re stuck with him. Hard to say.   They’ll compete in three stages. One team will be eliminated at the end of stage 1 and 2, and the final 3 will compete against each other for individual immunity.  The other two teams are: MacGyver, Charlie, Maria and Tiffany, Kenzie, Ben. 

 He admits offering himself up as a mistake but that they made a mistake not getting rid of him.  Ok, guy.  He then tries to convince Charlie to throw the challenge (!) so they can get rid of MacGyver.  Not being a Bhanu-level dolt, Charlie doesn’t bite. Along with Maria, they’d rather work with MacGyver.

 At the immunity challenge, Tiffany says she wanted “away from the chaotic energy” that was The Martyr when Jeff asked how teams were picked, leading to a back-and-forth on why everyone hates him worthy of Jerry Springer.  In another stunner, Jeff openly predicts that everyone at home is saying The Martyr, Liz and Venus will be first out.  That’s a level of being part of the game we’ve never seen from our host, but I like it!

 MacGyver’s team makes short work of phase 1, but Kenzie’s ineptness destroys Jeff’s prediction, leading Jeff to admit he was wrong. MacGyver then finishes Phase 2 so fast he has time to go help Charlie and Maria with their portions and their threesome moves on to the final, knocking The Martyr, Venus and Liz out.  In the final, they have to hold on to a cross as long as possible and it looks REALLY uncomfortable.   Maria drops early enough for Carol to scoff at her, while MacGyver struggles and tries his best to hold on, but this time he can’t do it meaning Charlie takes home the victory. (8 points for “Win individual immunity” to Kristyn!)

 Back at camp, Kenzie kicks off the whirlwind asking if anyone wants to volunteer to go home.  Best line of the season! Kenzie wants no part of The Martyr’s pleas to stay, and pitches a Q / MacGyver blindside to Charlie, Maria and MacGyver.  She then gets Tiffany and MacGyver on board, swearing them to secrecy because that ALWAYS works.   Charlie and Maria would rather go after Tiffany, and Ben is down for that too.  Tiffany pitches MacGyver and that she’s DEFINITELY playing her idol because it's a threat, but she tells us that she doesn’t want to because it will come back into the game if she plays it and she doesn’t want MacGyver or The Martyr to get it (1 point for “Reference ‘in this game’” to Brian!).

 Ben and Maria don’t see The Martyr as a rush and would go after MacGyver despite saying they’d rather work with him, and then go after Tiffany.  Ben also pitches MacGyver to Kenzie who now thinks it’s a boring vote despite telling us she wanted to do it just a few minutes ago. For his part, MacGyver is, once again, DEFINITELY playing his idol because he’s playing to win (1 point for “Reference ‘in this game’” to Roberta!)

 He's been so smart about the idol.  But given too much time to think, people eventually think themselves into stupidity.  MacGyver demonstrates this when he breaks Rule #1 (STFU), and tells everyone about the idol so he can “use it for more than just keeping myself safe”.  For God’s sake, man. How many dumb things can a smart man do in 24 hours?

 At tribal, Jeff whips out a cushion and some popcorn “on the off chance Tribal goes crazy again”. Tiffany and the Martyr (new band name, I called it!) go back and forth about how he tried to ruin her game talking about the idol, and she ruined his by not sticking with the alliance.   He says he’s been on the beach all day, not talking to anyone to which Ben responds “yeah, it’s been nice”.  WOW.  They do agree on one thing though:  Venus and MacGyver are the targets.  

 When asked if The Martyr is playing a “sophisticated game of crazy”, Maria says “not really”. Tribal then devolves into side conversations, none of which involve The Martyr.  


 Venus tells MacGyver that the vote is obviously The Martyr so he doesn’t need to play his idol.  He doesn’t believe this, right?  RIGHT?

 At the vote, neither Tiffany or MacGyver play their idols and I’m yelling at my TV.  Think about it this way:  Genius and Idiocy are opposites. If MacGyver had told no one about his idol and then played it, saving himself he’d be hailed as a genius, right?

 The votes come in: 4 for The Martyr, 4 for MacGyver and 1 for Ben.  (4 points for “Received vote against” to Jay and Roberta!) and (1 point for “Received vote against” to Dalphyne!)

 At the revote, the tribe smartly follows Rule #3 (Play to Win) and votes out the now-vulnerable MacGyver by a vote of 6-1 leading him to become the 3rd member of the jury and ending Roberta’s game. Sorry Roberta!  (1 point for “Received vote against” to Jay!), (6 points for “Received vote against” to Roberta), (-2 points for “The Tribe Has Spoken” against Roberta!), (2 points for “Jury Member” to Roberta), and finally (-5 points for “Voted out with an idol in your pocket” against Roberta!)

 As great as he was at challenges, he was a beautiful idiot when it came to gameplay.


  How does this impact our game? Thanks to the Martyr never shutting up and Charlie taking home the individual immunity, Jay and Kristyn both move into a  3-way tie for first with Ricky!   Everyone else gained a point here and there but right now it’s a three-way race to the finale in the current scores: 

  1. Jay / Ricky / Kristyn: 75
  2. Carol: 49
  3. Roberta: 47
  4. Dalphyne: 46
  5. Jen: 41
  6. Brian: 39
  7. Scott: 36
  8. Marissa: 34


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