Episode 39.12

While I will have to see the end of the season to know for sure, I think that Island of the Idols might be the best of the island twists on the game thus far. It doesn’t allow for continued stupidity like Ghost Island, just more of the same amount we normally see. It doesn’t change too much about the game like Redemption Island or Extinction Island. And it has more of a point then Exile Island. What do you think? Do you like the twist? I do. But enough of my ramblings.

In the first segment of the show, Tommy talks about getting votes. I don’t think that he has much to worry about. He’s set to have a show at midseason on CBS. Tommy is still glad that he lasted. He must have come back from fan support. He doesn’t like Noura. Noura puts his shoes on the tribe flag. This is where others who have gone have had their clothing put. Elaine goes out looking for an idol and so do many others. Janet finds an idol. Dean and Elaine see Janet and Tommy with the idol. They may not have the idol, but they have the information of who has it.

In the second segment of the show, Noura is acting strange by spinning around, but Elaine knows that she is the target. She tells Lauren that there might be an all male alliance going on. Tommy wants to gain Lauren’s trust but still vote her out. Dan admits that he’s part of a final three with himself, Dean, and Tommy. A boat then shows up and a name is drawn. Dean is chosen to go and he thinks that this might be the last time there will be a trip here. Dean talks about the legacy advantage. I thought that was played and revealed to be fake. It turns out that he played his own fake one at nine. He thinks that he should make himself the target. Rob thinks that this is a bad idea.

Today’s lesson is in jury management. He has to play the story right in order to convince the jury that they should vote for him. There will be three advantages. He will get an extra vote, an idol nullifier, or a onetime hidden immunity idol that can’t be used on himself and has to be used at the next tribal council alone. The game of chance is a simple coin flip. He decides to go with the idol nullifier. He also decides to play the coin toss. He wins the coin toss and gets the advantage.

In the third segment of the show, Dean lies and says that he lost the coin toss and his vote. He then tells his trusted allies about what happened. Tommy is worried that Dean has too much power. Tommy is now the target of the others as they think he is too powerful. But has he made it to Zeo power yet? We then get to the immunity challenge. Dean wins the challenge. Elaine didn’t solve the challenge quickly enough even though she knew the answer. She is voting for Noura.

In the fourth segment of the show, the camp returns to the tribe after the challenge. Elaine doesn’t want to go home and works on figuring out what to do with the vote. They want to split the votes between Noura and Elaine with Elaine as the main target. Lauren doesn’t want to stick with the plan. She talks with Elaine about possibly voting out Noura. She is wants to build her Survivor résumé. Janet thinks that Lauren and her are in charge of making the decision.

We then get to the tribal council. Elaine is upset that she lost while Dean plays to the jury. There are less people in the game now and this makes the numbers tighter. Dan wonders if people are prepared with the earthquake. Elaine thinks that they need to get rid of wildcards like Noura. Elaine thinks that other threats should be worried if they are considered a threat. Jeff thinks that Elaine is pessimistic. She gets very emotional over what has been going on in the game and other stuff in the game. Janet thinks that there is light on the other side. Dreams are still alive until you snuff a torch. The voting then happens. Did I miss a commercial break at some point? I did not.

In the fifth segment of the show, Jeff returns with the votes. Nobody plays an idol. Elaine gets voted out of the game. Lauren is sorry about how the vote went. Elaine gives Jeff a hug. That’s better than when he gets a surprise kiss. We then return to the camp and Jeff arrives at the camp. There is news. Dan has been taken out of the game and won’t be heading to the jury. We didn’t even see him leave. This just happened sometime later and I feel that I need to see more of the post show stuff to see what might have gone on. It was something that happened off camera and didn’t involve a player. But this seems to be quite a strange event. He is the first official expulsion from the game.

On the next Survivor, the season finale happens. There are tense moments as someone grabs a knife and it could be a bad idea considering what just happened with Dan. There will also be one last lesson as it seems that maybe now everyone will learn of Rob and Sandra in the game.

Total confessional count: Noura- 16, Tommy- 26, Dan- 15, Elaine- 26, Lauren- 22, Janet- 18, Dean- 20; Sandra- 10, Rob- 13. New confessionals this episode: Janet- 2, Dean- 3, Noura- 1, Tommy- 6, Dan- 1, Elaine- 4, Lauren- 4; Rob- 2, Sandra- 1.

I’ll have to find more information about what happened with Dan somewhere else and maybe put it in the next post. It seems so unusual and I guess they had to edit it out especially since it might not have been on camera. Did the others know what was going on? I might have to see if the next episode might have more of this or what else might be going on. Like I said, it is highly unusual. If I don’t have the info in the next post, I might put it in my posts on Gabon that I haven’t finished writing yet. There may be a lot that you see in those posts later. I’ll explain more about when they are coming back later in the next post of this blog. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.