On the last episode of Survivor: Cambodia, Kelley Wentworth pulled off an epic blindside after playing her hidden immunity idol to negate the nine votes cast against her which then sent Andrew Savage home. But will Kelley and her two allies, Ciera and Abi, be able to turn the majority around to save themselves for another week? Let’s see what the newly-titled “Witches Coven” alliance has brewing in their big Cambodian cauldron.
Post Traumatic Blindside Disorder
Everyone’s still reeling after Kelley’s huge idol play. She’s riding high too, feeling proud of herself for how far she’s come since her first season where she didn’t even make the jury.
Kimmi tells Stephen and Jeremy though that they have to make a point to get one of the three girls out at the next Tribal, otherwise they’ll cause even more trouble. She says she wants to break up the “Witches Coven” (which instantly became the next hashtag as well as episode name).
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Stephen takes it a step further, as he is wont to do, and says they’re like the witches from Macbeth. Abi is Boil (willing to boil over at a moment’s notice) Ciera is Toil (trying to stir the pot) and Kelley is just pure Trouble. But Stephen thinks he might be able to team up with the witches to brew something that will help him not hurt him.
The next day, Jeremy, Keith and Stephen do some more debriefing. They figure that Kelley Wentworth must have had a tip-off to play her idol, but they don’t know who she got it from. They also agree that they all need to spend some time looking for the idol. Even Jeremy, who has one in his pocket, would like to have the extra insurance now that one his main allies is gone.
They’re not the only ones looking for the idol though. Joe knows he needs to find it just in case he can’t win all of the immunity challenges until the end. Even Mike Holloway had an idol to help him along his epic immunity run. Kelley likes that everyone is scrambling for the idol because that means there’s paranoia in the majority voting block.
It’s a Spa Day
For the reward challenge, the Survivors are split into two teams. Each team has to build a puzzle staircase and then come down a slide. Then one person has to maneuver a key through a rope course while the rest of the team has to come through yet another obstacle course. Then, they have to solve a puzzle with numbers. The numbers are a combination and the first tribe to get the combination right, wins the reward. The reward this week is a Survivor Spa. Massages, showers, and lots of food!
It’s a schoolyard pick, which is bad luck for Abi, because she doesn’t get picked. The Pink team is Tasha, Stephen, Spencer, Joe and Ciera and the Blue team is Kelley, Kelly, Keith, Jeremy and Kimmi.
The Pink team basically breezes past the first part of the course, which is a harder puzzle than meets the eye. But as they’re working their way through the rest of it, the Blue team is completely stuck on the first part. Joe winds the key through the course and then the Pink team even lets Spencer work on the puzzle, even though he blew it on his season. He and Ciera finish easily while the Blue team is just finishing the staircase.
Of course a spa reward means a shower scene. And Survivor gives the people what they want: A Joe shower scene.
After they’re all clean, it’s time for some strategy talk. Ciera brings up Jeremy’s name, but Tasha isn’t as receptive to that as she is to possibly voting for Kelly Wiglesworth. Everyone agrees that she shouldn’t be allowed to get to the end because her social game is too strong. That’s weird, because the viewers have seen absolutely nothing from Wiglesworth and have no idea where she stands in the game, besides the fact that she’s somehow still here.
Idol Hunting
Jeremy’s mad at the blow-out at the challenge. He’s trying to raise his spirits by spending some more time looking for the idol. And what do you know, he finds yet another clue. It tells him to wait until everyone’s gone to sleep and follow the path. He sneaks away while everyone’s sitting by the fire and finds his second hidden immunity idol.
He’s overcome with emotion talking about his wife and kids. He wants to win this for them. And with two idols in his pocket and the heroic music playing in his confessional, it seems a likely possibility.
Stephen is irritated seeing how close Joe and Kelly Wiglesworth are and how they just sit around basking in their own awesomeness. He tells the Witches Coven that he wants to work with them, but he doesn’t want to tell them what to do. They all know Joe has to go if he doesn’t win, but the next best thing would be getting rid of Wiglesworth.
Challenge Beasts Gonna Beast
It’s another simple endurance challenge this week for immunity. The Survivors have to stand on triangular platforms and move their feet to narrower foot holds as time passes. The last stage will end with the finalists on one foot until one person is left.
The rain is really coming down. About ten minutes into the challenge, Jeff tells them that they have an instant to decide if they want to change their situation in the game. He chops a rope and a buoy for each person floats to the surface. (Very dramatic!) The first person to their buoy gets an advantage in the game, but has to sacrifice their chance at immunity.
The only two people who jump (and they both do it instantly) are Stephen and Spencer. Stephen makes it there just before Spencer. Way to go, Stephen! You finally won something!
Once the remaining competitors have to move their feet to the narrower foot holds, five people drop out. It’s just Keith, Abi, Kelly Wiglesworth and Joe left in the challenge.
Twenty more minutes pass and Keith and Kelly Wiglesworth fall in. Then it’s Joe versus Abi standing on one foot. Abi puts up a good fight, but Joe is unbeatable. He wins his third challenge in a row. Again, he buys himself another few days, but increases the size of the target on his back.
Cursing the Witches
Kimmi wants to make sure one of the three Witches gets voted out, but she doesn’t want to be suckered into any funny business again, so she says that they need to split the vote. The majority alliance agrees to split the vote between Kelley Wentworth and Ciera, with Wentworth getting the most votes to be sent home.
Stephen opens his advantage, and it’s fairly complicated, but let me try to explain. He’ll get to use it at Tribal Council where he’ll announce to Jeff that he’s using it. Then he gets to steal a person’s vote. So he’ll pick a person who won’t vote and then he’ll vote in their stead. He remembers Dan Foley’s blunder from Survivor: Worlds Apart and how he wasted his advantage, and he doesn’t want to make the same mistake. He feels safe enough tonight, so he buries his advantage to be used at a later Tribal when he feels like he might be in danger.
Then he makes his rounds with the Witches. They’re still on board for getting rid of Wiglesworth. So he in turn pitches the plan to Jeremy and Spencer. They both see the advantages of getting rid of Kelly Wiglesworth, but they’re worried about what it will do to the rest of their relationships in the game. Jeremy still trusts Stephen more than anyone else, but he wants to keep his alliance tight. Stephen urges him to look at it in terms of “voting blocs” as opposed to “alliances.” In my opinion, voting blocs are simply temporary alliances, while in practice may sound appealing (and definitely make for more interesting television) they may not be as smart of a game move as a solid, more permanent alliance.
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Tribal Council
These poor people are getting absolutely soaked. (Well, maybe not so poor. One of them will walk away from this a million dollars richer, I suppose.) Kelley says that she’s hoping her idol play will make people want to play with her. Ciera says at least it should scare some people to “play or get played.”
Jeremy talks about the game being fluid and brings up the “voting blocs” again. While Spencer agrees that they have to make decisions based on what’s good for overall game play, they still have to build trust.
When Jeff asks who is worried about going home tonight, nearly everyone raises their hand. But Kelly Wiglesworth says she’s confident. She has no idea that her name has even been brought up. Sounds about right.
Stephen says that alliances aren’t as clear cut and defined as they usually are on Survivor. But Tasha says you can talk about “voting blocs” all day, but the block with the strongest alliance in it will win out at the end of the day.
To the Vote!
Tasha, Kelly Wiglesworth, Keith, Joe and Kimmi split their votes between Ciera and Kelley Wentworth. But Spencer, Jeremy and Stephen vote with the Witches Coven to give the majority of the votes to Kelly Wiglesworth.
So, it is as nature intended; the snakes have eaten the rat. The token season one Survivor is blindsided. At least she’ll get the new experience of being on the jury. And she’ll probably talk as much there as she did on the show all season.
Survivor airs on Wednesdays at 8pm on CBS.
(Image courtesy of CBS)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
