Stephenie LaGrossa Palau Recap

You might be wondering why I haven't updated this blog the last two weeks. I mean, I do tend to update this blog religiously on Wednesdays except for during Advent and Lent, in which case I actually am doing something religious while the episode is first airing. I decided a while ago that I wouldn't update multiple blogs on the same day. Basically, I decided that it would be better to update a different blog those last two Wednesdays. You won't be seeing a lack of Wednesday posts for a while after this. Now, to a long promised blog post.

Okay, I decided to do two versions of this recap. One of them is the better version, which is this one, the one that you are reading now. Later, I will post an extended version that I highly recommend that nobody reads. Why do I say that? Well, if you read the extended post and read all of it, you have accomplished a great thing. I rambled far too much in that post and I decided that the best way to fix that was to make this post with just the important parts while keeping that post will all the excessive ramblings that I’m known for. So without any further ado, here’s my blog post recapping the game that Stephenie LaGrossa played in Survivor: Palau.

This Has Never Happened Before- Stephenie gets her first confessional of the season when she decides to jump out of the boat. She gets a second confessional about it as well. Jumping out of the boat was a mistake as she didn’t get to shore until much later after the boat. According to commentary with the episode, the other contestants eventually brought the boat back to her and Jonathan, who had also jumped out of the boat. She had a planned alliance with Tom, Katie, and Ian, but was put on a different tribe than them. She was chosen by Bobby Jon to be on the Ulong tribe and she picked Jeff to be on the tribe afterwards. At the immunity challenge, she doesn’t like her tribe’s decision to take multiple items at the challenge which contributes to their loss. It is ultimately Stephenie that successfully campaigns to eliminate Jolanda. She gets a third confessional about it. She successfully votes against Jolanda in this episode. Ultimately, she has three confessionals thus far in the game.

Love is in the Air, Rats are Everywhere- Stephenie gets her first confessional of the episode when she talks about how she thinks getting rid of Jolanda was a good idea. She helps score at least two points at the reward challenge that her tribe wins (the third and ninth points, at least). She gets another confessional about how the fire that they now have has helped them cook and eat food. She gets a third confessional about who to vote for at the tribal council. She voted with the majority of her tribe to get rid of Ashlee. So that’s three total confessionals for her in this episode leading to six total.

Dangerous Creatures and Horrible Setbacks- Stephenie previously wanting to vote out Kim was discussed in the recap, even though this ultimately didn’t end up happening. She starts the episode with a confessional as to why they are tired of tribal council. Stephenie competes against Jenn in the second part of the reward challenge. I had previously told you about their rivalry when I talked about Jenn’s time on Survivor: Palau. Stephenie scores a point for her tribe. Ulong wins the reward. Stephenie is the longest lasting woman at the immunity challenge, but her tribe still loses. At tribal council, Stephenie joins the majority of her tribe in voting out Jeff. She has one new confessional this episode. She now has seven total confessionals.

Sumo at Sea- Before the reward challenge, the tribe shows its continued lack of leadership by failing to pick a representative. Stephenie gets a confessional about the challenge. The tribe is still working on the challenge when Jeff Probst returns. She gets a second confessional about how she’s glad how the shelter turned out, even though they don’t end up winning. She gets a third confessional this episode about upcoming immunity challenge and how they can’t keep losing. In the challenge, she fights against Jenn and wins that round easily. There is a rematch of the fight later in the challenge. This one lasts longer, but ultimately ends with Stephenie winning again. However, the challenge is a close loss for Ulong who returns to tribal council. She is mad over the challenge loss in a fourth confessional for her this episode. She then talks in a fifth confessional about trying to get rid of the guys so they don’t gang up against the women. This is interesting as it doesn’t end up happening that the men take control, even though Kim does get voted off tonight. Stephenie even casts her vote that way, joining the majority of her tribe in making this decision. So that’s five confessionals this episode and twelve confessionals total.

The Best and Worst Reward Ever- Stephenie gets the first confessional on her tribe this episode. People are exploring the camp area and she gets a confessional about it. She gets a second confessional about how it is raining all night. Ulong took an early lead in the challenge, but it is blown when Ibrehem doesn’t get a bottle in his turn. Stephenie is close to winning the challenge, but that doesn’t end up happening, although it probably didn’t matter as Tom says that Koror was still ahead. Stephenie is hoping for an early merge in her third confessional of the episode where the tribe complains about losing all the time. Ulong is disappointed by their loss at tribal council and get kind of screwed by when Koror votes to give people from their tribe immunity. My records say that Ian and Coby voted for Stephenie to have immunity. There isn’t an official record of this, so it’s unknown if my information is right. Ibrehem wins immunity, thus throwing a wrench in the plans of Ulong. This leads to a bit of scattered votes. At first Stephenie votes against Bobby Jon, but there is a tie. It’s one of the few tie votes (possibly the only one) where we know for sure that there isn’t a possibility of a tie at the revote. Stephenie votes out Angie at the revote, joining the rest of her tribe in doing so. She now has three confessionals this episode and fifteen total.

Jellyfish ‘n Chips- Stephenie’s vote change from Bobby Jon to Angie was mentioned in the recap. She gets a confessional about the tribal council and twist that it brought. Stephenie helps bring her tribe to a win at the reward challenge. She gets a confessional about it. They mention various Survivor facts that are printed on the Pringles. She gets a third confessional about the reward. Preparing for the immunity challenge, she gets another confessional. When confronted about the vote from the previous tribal council, she lies to Bobby Jon about her vote. This gets her another confessional. At tribal council, she doesn’t know who to vote for at first. Originally she votes against Ibrehem and causes a tie. But she then votes against James and he gets voted out. So she has five confessionals this episode and twenty total confessionals.

The Great White Shark Hunter- Stephenie starts the episode with a confessional about the fact that her tribe keeps losing challenges. It is only now on my fourth time watching this season that I’m able to catch the foreshadowing. Both tribes build a distress signal for the reward challenge. The challenge is actually an interesting point given the huge number advantage that Koror has. They are the only tribe to sit out the same people in back to back challenges as the other tribe had less than half of their members. You can tell that the edit favors Koror and not Ulong because Ulong sucks so much. Ulong loses the reward. Stephenie gets a second confessional about why they want to win a challenge. Sadly, they won’t ever win a challenge again on Ulong. Stephenie originally helps with one part of the immunity challenge and then switches to the other. Regardless, her tribe loses again. She gets a third confessional when she was worrying about the upcoming tribal council. Stephenie seems to be considered for the vote against Ibrehem and she tries to get Bobby Jon on her side. She gets her first vote against her from Ibrehem. She votes against Ibrehem and Bobby Jon does as well eliminating him. This means that she has three confessionals this episode and twenty-three total confessionals.

Neanderthal Man- Stephenie starts this episode with a confessional. It has always bothered me that there wasn’t a merge in this episode. I guess that producers just wanted to see a tribe of one for a change. At the reward challenge, it comes down to a tie-breaker that Ulong loses. Nobody could root for the members of Ulong. Koror had the sit-outs all rooting for the tribe. Stephenie believes that Bobby Jon is the strongest on their tribe. She gets another confessional about their tribe’s constant losses and she seems at first that Bobby Jon is taking it too well. Some members of Koror talk about wanting Stephenie to survive longer since she was originally part of the Tom, Katie, and Ian group that I will mention later.

Recap continued- Stephenie talks about how Bobby Jon is like a cave man (or Neanderthal man?) in another confessional. I’m wondering if some of what she is saying is actually from the next episode but put into this one. She is at around five confessionals so far this episode. She gets yet another before the upcoming immunity challenge. Ulong loses the immunity challenge and will thus never win again. Stephenie gets another two confessionals after the loss. She puzzles over what might happen in the future. She is also concerned over Bobby Jon being too good at the game. She gets yet another confessional about it. At tribal council, she wins the intense special immunity challenge. I do wonder why it was a fire making tie-breaker, but I guess that anything else would have been anticlimactic. Do you know how random a rock draw would have been? By winning this challenge, she causes the elimination of Bobby Jon. If my count is corright, Stephenie has nine confessionals this episode. She would then have thirty-two total confessionals.

I Will Not Give Up- If there were ever an episode about Stephenie, this is the one. We begin with her returning to camp alone and getting a confessional about it. I guess I would call this a really long confessional in a way. She gets another confessional while still alone on Ulong. She then gets the treemail about joining Koror. She calls this a merge, but it isn’t actually considered one. Stephenie gets a third confessional in the episode by talking about her new tribe Koror. Jenn talks about Stephenie and Jenn considers her a threat.

Recap continued: Coby ends up making a possibly fatal mistake by telling Stephenie all that is wrong with Koror. Some Palauans teach Koror members how to fish which Stephenie is happy about in a confessional. In another confessional, she’s concerned about being the next one to go. Coby does air Koror’s dirty laundry to Stephenie, a move that got him voted out later. Everyone talking to Stephenie confuses her and makes her wonder if she’s safe or not. Jeff tells Tom that they can vote out Stephenie and make it an easy vote. She loses the challenge for pizza, which is the last of the food temptations. (I just lost the game.) At tribal council, Jenn talks about her rivalry with Stephenie. She talks about possibly feeling bad for herself if she got voted out tonight. She only gets one vote against her from Janu. Meanwhile, she joins the rest of the tribe in voting out Coby. She has six confessionals this episode. It wasn’t as much about her as I thought. She then has thirty-eight total confessionals.

Exile Island- We begin with a recap of Stephenie’s time alone on Ulong. For the reward challenge, Stephenie is put with a group of Ian, Katie, and Jenn. Her team or tribe loses the challenge. She gets a confessional before the immunity challenge. There is talk about voting out Stephenie. She gets a second confessional about thinking that she’ll be the one who is voted out. She only has two new confessionals this episode. Stephenie gets upset at the tribal council due to Janu wanting to quit the game. In the end, Janu decides to quit the game so there’s no vote. This puts Stephenie at forty total confessionals.

I’ll Show You How Threatening I am: Stephenie starts the episode with a confessional. She gets another confessional wondering what happened to her alliance on this tribe. There’s even a third confessional about it. There’s yet another confessional about what might happen next and how Stephenie wants to show others that she’s a threat. At the Survivor auction, Stephenie joins Caryn to buy an item. They originally get cheese and crackers, but trade it for hamburgers and fries. After Tom sets the price for the letters from home, Stephenie is allowed to buy hers at the same price he bought his at. Stephenie gets a confessional about the letters from home that she got. Stephenie talks about a possible all women’s alliance after she loses the immunity challenge. She’s at seven confessionals before tribal council happens. She votes against Caryn in the episode, but the rest of the tribe votes against her and she’s eliminated. This gives her forty-seven confessionals.

We’ll Make You Pay: Stephenie’s last stand is covered in the recap. That’s pretty much all the airtime she’ll probably get this episode. I am right about that. I’m not sure how I should be doing the recap part right now, but we’ll see.

It Could All Backfire: It appears that there is no importance of Stephenie to the story of this episode, which seems appropriate as she is on the jury right now. I’m surprised that there wasn’t a mention of how the previous episode started with only contestants from the original Koror tribe.

The Ultimate Shock: Stephenie is mentioned a lot in the really long recap leading into the finale. On the rites of passage, Stephenie talks about how much stronger she is now because of Survivor. Her jury speech is first addressing Tom about how he might have done something to save her in the game. She also asks Katie what she might have done better than Tom. Katie thought that whoever came from Ulong would be voted out, but Tom retorts that he thought that Stephenie was an ace in the hole. Ultimately, Stephenie gives her vote to win to Tom.

Reunion show: Stephenie gets a segment of the reunion show to herself. Jeff Probst wonders how it felt to be on a tribe on her own. She is considered one of the most popular women to play the game. She only gets a small amount of airtime as they were much better at doing the reunion show back then.

That’s it for this blog post. I will do another recap about Sue Hawk from Survivor: Borneo next, but it could be a long while before you see that. In the meantime, you’ll have to wonder why the recap is in a different font until you see the extended version of this post. I don’t know yet if I’ll do that this summer or wait until winter. I’ll probably do it next week. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.