Episode 40.13

When I was on the addicted to Survivor facebook group recently, I noticed that there was a discussion that basically boiled down to this: did Sandra quit? I might have commented in the thread, only after seeing someone else say, “This tired discussion again?” I figured that it wasn’t worth addressing there. But it is worth talking about here. Sandra was a great player in other seasons. This season was her worst ever game. It was even worse than the last time. She sat out so much and got blindsided with her own idol. Then, she did quit. It may not have been the same type of quit as other seasons without the edge of extinction twist to it, but she chose to leave the game. She didn’t even last as long as Wendy did two seasons ago and Wendy actually tried to get back in the game once.

Fire token count: Jeremy- 1, Ben- 0, Michele- 1, Sarah- 3, Denise- 6, Tony- 3, Nick- 3; Natalie- 8, Amber- 0, Danni- 0, Ethan- 0, Rob- 0, Parvati- 6, Yul- 2, Wendell- 2, Adam- 0, Tyson- 2, Sophie- 2, Kim- 0; Tony- regular idol, Jeremy- maybe still the coin flip advantage?

In the first segment of the show, we return to Koru. Michele talks about how Jeremy didn’t play the advantage and how everyone knows about it now. She brought a butter knife to a gun fight. Jeremy doesn’t know why people are going after him. Why are most people targeted after the merge? Because they are threats to win, that’s why. Jeremy doesn’t want his game to come down to a 50/50 flip. Denise is done with the old way of doing things. She wants to come up with tattoos. She needs to endure and let go. Both of those things are okay.

Tony and Jeremy have a disagreement on work and what counts as a week. I don’t get this. It is the lions versus the hyenas. Be prepared! Tony talks about his alliance with Sarah and his desire to go all the way to the end with her. She is unsure of how to handle Ben. She also wants Nick voted out of the game next. Ben talks about this plan with Tony. The plan is blowing up. What will happen and who is the target? Will we even know for sure?

In the second segment of the show, we get to an immunity challenge. Already? Michele is emotional over how terrible she did at the challenge. Nick wins with Tony being bested by a puzzle again. Denise needs to figure out what the plan b is.

In the third segment of the show, Ben wonders what to do and tries to figure out who to target. It seems that he is trying to sow discord among the others. Michele wants to play her advantage on herself. Ben tries to play both sides and the target might be him now when Michele and Jeremy figure this out. Tony wants to vote out Jeremy instead. They want to split the votes and hope that it works. Sarah is still a bit worried about Nick. He has to figure out what he can do to win this game.

In the fourth segment of the show, we get to the tribal council at hand. Jeff talks about how Michele struggled at the challenge. Ben talks about how people present themselves on the show. Nick thinks that it is tough to play the game. People have to betray others. What can one do to better themselves as humans when they get home? Michele can’t trust people back at home. In fact, tons of people have all the trust issues after they played. Jeremy thinks that everyone has their own idea of what a group is. It takes this long to bring up the 50/50 coin. Michele claims that this is the last day it can be played. Denise isn’t sure if she can trust her place in the game. Everyone without immunity is nervous. Jeff goes to get the vote and we go to commercial.

In the fifth segment of the show, Jeff asks if idols want to be played or not. Michele decides to play her advantage. Michele plays her advantage on herself and not Jeremy or anyone else. She gets the safe option and votes against her don’t count as a result. Jeremy is voted out, something that would have happened without Michele’s advantage going the way it did still played on herself. He gives his fire tokens to Michele.

Ben talks about how the old Western showdown occurred. I do believe that I put the good, the bad, and the ugly in a previous post in this blog. Nick and Michele talk to each other and they look to form an alliance. Well, she does, at least. She wants to kick it into high gear and go out fighting. She wants to do all sorts of crazy things to survive. She thinks that she is the next target and talks to Sarah about it. She wants to throw a hail Mary, queen of grace, the Lord is with thee. Is that how it goes? Sarah thinks that Michele should be voted out and talks about how Michele is trying to stay in the game.

Back on the edge of extinction, everyone gets a scoop of rice. Jeremy talks about wanting to get back into this game. Yul brings a new message to the group and people run off right after it. Here we go! They all run after the stone in question. Wendell is ahead, but keeps going. Natalie knew where to look and then finds the advantage in question. She has to give this disadvantage to someone in the game and they will give it to someone else once they get it.

Nick gets it, but it will cost him 8 fire tokens, 2 more than he has. Why does Nick think that Tony has no tokens? He got them from winning the challenges in the game. He wants to ask Michele for two of hers. They have to figure out who to play it on in the end.

In the sixth segment of the show, we get to the next immunity challenge at hand. This is the last time that fire tokens can be played and the last time people in the game will get it. Ben gets the disadvantage in the game. Jeff thinks that you can go from last to first in this challenge. Doesn’t he mean that the other way around? I guess that character is character. Michele wins the challenge. She is glad that she can win since everyone wants to target her or thinks that she can’t win.

In the seventh segment of the show, they have to go with plan b again. Denise wants to go a good will gesture since she thinks that she is the target. She wants to make sure that there are no other surprises. Ben wants to vote out Nick since Nick is causing chaos around camp. Ben feels safe and doesn’t want to play an idol. Since when did he have an idol? Nick wants to work together with Tony. Tony wants to get rid of Ben himself. He hides in his spy nest when Sarah and Denise talk to each other. He wants to get rid of Denise now as a result. They can’t do a logical plan this season. Denise slayed queen Sandra. I don’t think that the queen remains queen.

In the eighth segment of the show, we get to the next tribal council in the game. Michele talks about her win and how she felt that she needed it. One should never let one know when one is in trouble, at least according to Jeff. He talks to Ben about his disadvantage and wonders who did it. The very next person that he talks to about who to target is Nick. Sarah wonders what will go on with the game. The fire tokens changed the game a lot, but also, not as much as they could have. I don’t yet hate the twist at this moment, but don’t know what else it could still do.

Ben thinks that fear that takes over is like a lion coming out of the cage. Denise talks about her food gesture. She doesn’t want to go, but can only do so much in the game. She doesn’t want to do the cat and mouse. Neither do Survivor producers. They banned that challenge after it appeared the first and only time in Micronesia, causing the injury that lead to Jonathan being evacuated. Jeff goes to tally the votes and the show once again goes to commercial.

In the ninth segment of the show, no one plays an idol and Jeff reads the votes as a result. Nick is then voted out of the game. Someone will win their way back into the game next. Everyone talks about what they hope to be their last day on the edge of extinction. Amber hates this place, yet is going to miss leaving it in the end. Things are simple there. Rob points out that the idol he purchased is still good. They want to use their fire tokens for an advantage in the challenge. They can get whatever they want to with the fire tokens that they can spend. Natalie got all of the advantages that she could and bought an idol for Tyson in case he gets back in the game. He isn’t sure that he felt that type of motivation from anyone in the game before.

Jeff gives more of a promo of what is going on, talking about who is in the game thus far. Natalie was the first out of the game. This is a recap. Apparently, since they went without one for so long, that means that they have to play one at some point. All of the old school players were voted out. Those who lived on the edge had to deal with a ton of hardships. I don’t even know what to write now so I might as just let this weirdness happen. Next week is the finale of the show.

On the next Survivor, there are more problems with players. The battle isn’t over. We end this by having the players not on the edge talk about the fact that others are coming back to compete with one of them heading back into the game next.

Total confessional count: Michele- 21, Sarah- 23, Denise- 15, Tony- 35, Nick- 16, Jeremy- 25, Ben- 28; Natalie- 16, Amber- 16, Danni- 13, Ethan- 13, Rob- 24, Parvati- 17, Yul- 14, Wendell- 12, Adam- 26, Tyson- 21, Sophie- 17, Kim- 13. New confessionals this episode: Sarah- 5, Denise- 4, Tony- 5, Nick- 4, Jeremy- 3, Ben- 6, Michele- 5; Natalie- 3, Amber- 1, Danni- 1, Ethan- 1, Rob- 1, Parvati- 1, Yul- 1, Wendell- 2, Adam- 0, Tyson- 3, Sophie- 0, Kim- 0.

Since fire tokens aren’t important after this episode, I won’t be talking about them in the finale or again in this post. I won’t remind you of the count of it as a result. I think that the most important thing to note going into this finale is the confessional count going into it. The highest of those in the game is Tony with 35. The highest of those on the edge of extinction is Adam with 26. The lowest of those in the game is Denise with 15. The lowest of those on the edge of extinction is Wendell with 12. Going back into the reentry competition, only Adam, Sophie, and Kim had no new confessionals this episode. I do not know what else there still is to gather from this so I will let you go until the finale. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.