Episode 27.11

So I don't know if this will be a recap episode or a new episode. Either way, I will probably blog about it. I will hopefully be able to record it, provided that it needs recording at all. Of all the things that I want to talk about and haven't yet, I will probably talk about a history of the hidden immunity idol. When it first appeared in Guatemala, Gary found it without a clue. The idol had to be played before the votes are cast. I actually liked this better than after the votes are cast and before they are read (originally at least because second thought makes me think that it would not help an alliance if those were still the rules) and they saved Gary and eliminated Bobby Jon, although most people don't count that due to the rules at the time. In Panama, after the votes were cast and read, you would play a hidden immunity idol if you had it and were voted out. This made it no good at eliminating someone with an idol. You'd think that someone would give the idol to an ally that was voted out, but no, that didn't happen either. So the idol was more or less worthless this season and the next season. At least Cook Islands had a player think about splitting the votes for different targets, even though it wouldn't actually happen until the next season. In Fiji, the votes were cast and the idol was played before the votes were read. This lead to some players wasting an idol, but it did lead to successful split votes. Yau-Man officially saved himself with his idol once and introduced the world to fake hidden immunity idols, though his was never found. China brought the first player who had an idol (or, in this case, two), didn't play it, and got voted out with it in his possession. Neither was rehidden and people wouldn't play idols when they should have in future seasons. Someone tried to play a fake idol this season as well. In Micronesia, it became a huge power source again when two people got voted out after not playing it and another person got someone else voted out when she did play it. This is also the first season with a failed spilt vote. Gabon had a sort of wasted idol with someone who did get votes against them. That would happen a lot. A spilt vote was also tried but didn't really fail despite not happening as planned. There would also be players who would have lost to a tie vote revote if they hadn't played their idol when they did. In Tocantins, someone failed to play an idol and got voted out with it in his possession. In Samoa, someone would play it and get rid of a record number of votes against him due to playing the idol. Someone else found it and didn't play it. In Heroes versus Villains, Tom would use it to save himself and so would Parvati and Jerri, when someone else gave them an idol to use. This season also marked the first time that two idols would be played at the same tribal council. Nicaragua had mostly unused idols for most of the season. I think this resulted in the first time were a split vote was used, the person had an idol but didn't play it, and he still wasn't voted out after the revote. I'm not sure why that happened, but the player in question still had to give the idol to a different player. Nobody who gave up the hidden immunity idol to someone else has ever won the game, but only one person (JT) and no one else had an elimination caused by giving up the idol. Giving up the idol started in Gabon and allies sharing an idol that only one could claim started in Nicaragua (I think). The twenty-first season also marked the only time when two people play different idols when they were not possessed by the same person either time. What's also interesting is how neither of them originally had the idol. In Redemption Island, one would be found earlier than any other season. It helped cause the best first tribal council in Survivor history (in my opinion). Nothing new and interesting happened in South Pacific regarding the idol. One World had an idol that had to be given to the other tribe if you found it for that tribe and not yours. I'm not sure how they'd enforce that rule if people didn't do it. What would they do? I don't know. I'm not sure if anything interesting happened with hidden immunity idols in other seasons since, although Blood versus Water is the first time it was first found after the merge unless you count Guatemala, which you shouldn't. That's all the information I have right now, although wikia has a great page about it. Meanwhile, I have made a paragraph that is way too long and will look much longer on the blog when it is posted and I have no idea how to break this up into multiple paragraphs.

So there might be a new alliance this episode and either Tyson or Ciera is the threat that might be voted out. Not sure if either of them will get voted out or not. I think that I want Laura to win Redemption Island (again). Not sure who I want to lose. Hayden is my favorite to win this season, although my favorite has changed so many times, I don't really care that much anymore about who wins and who doesn't. Panama is the next season to be eliminated. What will happen in the next episode? We'll find out soon. But enough of my ramblings.

In the first segment of the show, people talked about Ciera voting out her mother. Then the opening credits happened. The people came in for the duel. Laura is proud of her daughter for turning against her. I also hear that Christmas starts in September. Still no flying pigs or anything, but that has already happened in a Survivor challenge. It looks like the duel is the one that Edna almost won in South Pacific. Whoever wins is giving an advantage to the second place person since they have an already solved puzzle to refer to. It's unknown if the puzzles all solve the same way or not. Jeff does continue his constantly annoying commentary and the challenge is close. I don't think that this is a fair challenge with more than one player in it. Laura totally helped someone win too! Oh well. We'll see if this affects the future game or not. Tyson wants to get Katie out of the game, so there are three possible people who could get voted out. Anyways, a lot of drama happens again on the show. The alliance that may or may not be newly formed this episode. They might vote out Tyson or fail miserably during the tribal council. I forgot to mention that Vytas lost the duel by one freaking second. That doesn't seem fair to me. Candice earlier this season lost what could be considered an unfair duel as well. This can seriously affect the game getting messed up, although I have yet to hear a backlash from people saying that they think certain duels are unfairly decided and the wrong winner is declared.

In the next segment of the show, the immunity challenge is going to happen this episode. That means that a lot of shit is going to happen at both camp and at tribal. The challenge looks like the one that both Denise and Carter won in the 25^th season. I'd have to say that's an interesting challenge to repeat since it marked the only time Denise was immune in the game. Gervase, Tyson, and Ciera all decided to eat instead of competing in the challenge. That could backfire for any of them, but we don't know if it will happen or not. The ten minutes that seemed like an hour was edited to less than one minute. Monica is turning into a strong competitor this season. Katie is the first out of the challenge, of those who participated at least. Caleb is next out of the challenge. It comes down to Hayden and Monica. Monica won the immunity challenge again. What will happen next?

Hayden didn't like the people who sat out of the challenge. My phone reminds me that an SNL Thanksgiving special is airing soon. Tyson thinks that Ciera is playing both sides and should get voted out tonight. Is that what will happen? Does anyone remember when Shane threw his chance to be saved as the swing vote when Aras first played? We'll see what happens. Jeff says Aras's name wrong, but I didn't realize that I was saying it was wrong anyways. Caleb thinks that Ciera sitting out of the challenge was predictable. I wonder if only one person decided to do an immunity challenge where you could sit out for food, what would happen next? The food rules wouldn't be the same and the one person who's playing would win by default. They'd probably redo it and make more people do the challenge (although I'm not certain that they can do that anyways. Ciera thinks that she has been too honest and that might be her famous last words like Kat's "blindsides are fun!" Not sure why people are voting against Caleb. Will Tyson play his idol? He did! I guess he'd rather risk wasting an idol than get voted out with it in his pocket. It was funny how he had it hidden in his bags so far that he didn't know where it was. I have the feeling that he did waste it. He did because Caleb was voted out. When was the last viewer blindside? I know that one happened tonight.

Next time on Survivor, Hayden is finally focused on some more. Will his floater strategy that he might have used during Big Brother play off again? Can he avoid being an eviction night nominee? Will Julie never tell him that he's been evicted from the Survivor game? Actually, I think that I'm confusing two different games here.

Confessional counts of players on Redemption Island: Laura- 12, Tina- 10, Vytas- 20. Confessional counts of players in the game: Monica- 15, Ciera- 16, Hayden- 12, Gervase- 9, Tyson- 24, Caleb- 11, Katie- 12. New confessionals this episode: Ciera- 3, Hayden- 3, Gervase- 2, Tyson- 4, Caleb- 2, Katie- 2, Monica- 1; Laura- 1, Tina- 1, Vytas- 0.

So I'm not certain why Caleb is surprised that Ciera flipped since they were all voting against her. I guess he was referring to earlier in the episode. Hopefully Tyson's wasted idol doesn't come back to haunt him like it has for Ozzy in South Pacific. He could always find it again, although I actually hope that someone else does. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.