The first really big blindside of Survivor Caramoan took place last week when the Favorites sacrificed one of their own, Corinne. Malcolm is sad to see his closest ally pack her bags, but he is outright giddy that the Favorites may believe they “Cut the Head Off the Snake.” He is hoping they think Corinne was trying to orchestrate the takeover, and that they just perceive him as a poor defenseless pawn in the whole matter. Of course, this ruse will only work if Malcolm can actually pull off the “loyal soldier who was temporarily seduced by Corinne’s evil charm” act.
“Stealth R Us” Continues to Grow
It does appear Malcolm was successful in tricking a super secret agent. Phillip seems to have been far too busy coming up with Sherri’s new nickname, Tenacity, to pay attention that Malcolm didn’t vote with the group last time. As he inaugurates Sherri into the elite “Stealth R Us,” a group I’m pretty sure we’ve all now joined just by watching this show, he lists Malcolm as one of his loyal soldiers. Poor Phillip, mentioning Boston Rob every other sentence is not the same thing as having any clue about how to play like Boston Rob. Sherri seems happy to team up with Phillip, because she’s been in market for a new Shamar, aka a goat.
Handball Shootout
The reward challenge is a Survivor version of a handball shootout. There are two teams of five which have four shooters and one goalie. Each shooter takes turns jumping off a deck and throwing the ball towards the net while they plunge into the water. Since there are 11 castaways left. Sherri ends up being the odd person out and can’t win the prize of rappelling down a waterfall and then having a picnic lunch.
The two teams are a purple team consisting of Erik, Cochran, Eddie, Reynold and Michael, and the orange team which is Phillip, Malcolm, Dawn, Brenda and Andrea. Malcolm and Michael take goal for their respective teams.
It starts off with Malcolm blocking Eddie, but Brenda scoring on Michael. Erik proves his lack of strategy is made up for with his amazing athletic skill by scoring a beautiful goal on Malcolm. Andrea quickly maintains the orange team lead by scoring on Michael. Dawn and Reynold both fail, but in a moment that almost makes my brain explode, Cochran actually scores a goal on Malcolm. Is Cochran the Kryptonite to Malcolm, because this is the second week of beating him in a challenge. Eddie and Phillip both score for their teams to make it a 3-3 tie, and now it is down to the next person to score. Brenda can’t repeat her magic from the first time, but Erik can, in order to give purple the win.
Fans Don’t Know Cochran
Cochran returns to the lovable unathletic dork we all remember, by mentioning his fear of the waterfall rappelling since he isn’t used to doing activities not called Twitter. Cochran does do the rappelling, and he describes it as “flying down the waterfall.” I think he mistook his slow stumbling crawl with what Reynold actually did. No worries Cochran, I always confuse myself with a muscular stud too.
It isn’t an award trip without players trying to form an alliance over food. The three Fans try to persuade Cochran to flip over by grunting and screaming “man” a whole bunch. Their pitch is to make it a strength alliance of men over the scheming women. Cochran points out they obviously don’t know him and the promises of smacking each other with towels in the locker room isn’t a great way to entice him to turn.
Don’t Follow the Strategy of the Eliminated
Malcolm tries to do some of his scheming magic while the rest of his alliance is enjoying a picnic. Malcolm mentions in a confessional that this is the time to make the big move and take control of the game. Apparently, Malcolm believes that “big move” means “do the exact same stupid thing that Corinne did.” Malcolm goes to Dawn and reveals his entire plan to her. Um Malcolm, who do you think ratted out Corinne last time? In the defense of Malcolm, he doesn’t totally pull a Corinne, because he also gives up his whole plan to Sherri. This time there are two people who get to rat him out to Andrea. Then Phillip, who just a half hour ago was praising Malcolm, warns in confessional that Malcolm will learn what happens when someone dares to try to blindside a secret agent. Oh yeah Phillip, no one can put anything past you as long as Andrea keeps doing all your work for you.
Andrea then works some magic with Eddie by taking him to the lagoon. The plan appears to make Eddie smitten with her, while she then plays him to find out about the opposing alliance. Eddie then mentions in a confessional that he thinks he is winning Andrea over and that she must like him now. He then proceeds to grovel and beg for Andrea to keep him around, and promises he’ll do anything she wants. I can see how Eddie thinks he is in total control here.
Don’t Freak Out for Immunity
The immunity challenge is one that I’d probably last 30 seconds at. The castaways have to swim under a grate, then they need to stay under the grate while the water rises, and essentially avoid panicking and drowning. The last person to remain under the grate wins the challenge. Everyone lasts an hour, which is impressive because the water is high enough where people are only able to peek out a bit of their face. Secret agents apparently aren’t the masters of water, as Phillip is the first to bail. He is then followed in order by Sherri, Erik, Dawn, Malcolm, Michael, Eddie, Cochran and Reynold.
Brenda and Andrea have both been amazing as neither move the entire time. Andrea starts to panic and submerges herself under the water. She comes back under the grate rather than bailing. Brenda is a fish and Andrea has to bail out the second time she goes under. Brenda wins the challenges which is awesome, but that apparently isn’t enough to give her time to talk, which is a bummer. Why is the best person from her original season not getting any significant time, other than to occasionally show her smile?
Everyone Plays Stealth
Malcolm continues his strategy of “do exactly what Corinne did, because that went so well.” He tells Dawn to vote out Andrea, since he knows she is actually controlling the alliance. Though Malcolm does do a fine job of lying to Andrea when she tells him they’re going to split the vote on Reynold and Eddie. Unfortunately, Andrea is lying too, since she now wants to vote out Malcolm. Dawn becomes a totally new player by pretending to go along with Malcolm, and promises to vote with him as long as she sees Reynold’s idol.
Reynold plays along, and reveals his idol to Dawn. This shouldn’t be a big deal for Reynold, since he’s proven he’ll whip it out any time he even hears the word “idol.” Reynold continues to prove what a strategic mind he has by threatening Dawn that she better not screw him over. It doesn’t really make sense to power play when you’re in the minority. His threat works with Dawn instantly not liking him.
Eddie finds out the plan is now to vote out his new sweetheart, Andrea. He runs to her, and tries to find out who her alliance is voting out. Andrea plays it cool and refuses to tell him anything. Eddies plays it less cool, and immediately reveals it will be her for his alliance. This causes Andrea to freak out, and decide the plan to vote out Malcolm must be scrapped. Dawn is less than impressed with this switch, since it means all her undercover work has been a waste. It never was going to be a long term undercover job, since they’d have figured out she betrayed them with this vote anyway. They can’t risk voting for someone with an idol, so it does make sense to shift to Michael who has proven not to have anything. Dawn pleads with Andrea not to change, and promises that she knows Malcolm doesn’t have an idol.
Tribal Council Secret Plan
At Tribal Council, Phillip starts off brilliantly by revealing Sherri is his double agent. Was it typical practice for secret agents to reveal to the enemy that they were on the other side? Sherri is now effectively pointless as an undercover operative. Michael seems to be freaking out, and lets the Favorites know he is always willing to vote with them. I am sure that makes his alliance happy.
It then gets interesting as Andrea mentions how she can understand how people at the bottom of her alliance may want to flip to control the game. Phillip then mentions how they will flush out any traitors and that person will now be the target. Malcolm is noticeably squirming, and realizes they’re talking about him.
The votes get tallied, and Reynold is ready to play his idol. Malcolm stops him, and he wants Reynold to let him use the idol instead. Reynold is persuaded, and Malcolm gets away with keeping his own idol.
The plan backfires as the Favorites switch their votes to Michael, and he is now out of the game. I believe, he is the first person on the jury now. This was a brilliant move by the Favorites. I am assuming all the talk was to get Malcolm nervous. They got the idol flushed out, and whittled down the opposing alliance to three people. Malcolm is now officially exposed as flipping. The one thing that saves him one round is that he still has an idol, because everyone will assume the only idol has been played. It now looks like the Favorites will be picking off the remaining male fans, unless Malcolm’s crew can find someone actually daring enough to flip.
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(Image courtesy of CBS)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
