Survivor: Caramoan - Episode 6
Operation Thunder Dome
By Ben Willoughby
March 21, 2013
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Among the “favorites” there’s a build-up of the earlier move to switch Corinne out of Stealth R Us, and then nothing else happened for the rest of the episode, but for some reason we all feel much calmer.
The show begins with the “favorites” discussing Brandon leaving the game. “He gave them hope and a pep talk,” complains someone. Malcolm? The discussion pretty much gets taken over by Corinne and Phillip talking about how horrible Brandon was and not understanding why he might have singled them out. Corinne says “I had no idea he hated me,” while Phillip says “he was very hard and he was very cruel and he was very mean” and “I don’t believe I ever had one cross word with him... it was all in his head.” Well, clearly Brandon continually over-reacted because of his own personal issues, but that’s not exactly true.
Phillip interviews that Brandon needs a professional and “Even the Specialist wouldn’t be able to tell you what’s going on with that one." Corinne says to the group that Brandon is “up there with Mel Gibson and... any other crazy person," and in interview she didn’t like that no one jumped in to defend her and Phillip.
Anyway, Phillip says that the tribe has to regroup and move on. Erik really wants to move on: “It just feels good that he’s gone.” So does Cochran, who interviews that it’s great that “Brandon flew out of the cuckoo’s nest and now we’re just left with Phillip.” Phillip’s pep talk continues about how the “fans” are still worn and beaten while the “favorites” are going to stay healthy and “one of us will win this thing.” But in interview, he reveals Operation Thunder Dome to get rid of Corinne when they get to 11, and everyone is totally on board.
After the break, we get Jaws-like music as we check in on the “fans”. Reynold has tree-mail honors and he reads out the stupid poem about what they’ll be doing next. Reynold interviews that it is “over for Eddie and I as far as making any social alliances out here,” and his only option is to “win challenges and hope they survive long enough for something to shift in the game.” Maybe one of the other “favorites” will throw a massive tantrum and leave the game.
Probst sighting! Everyone shows up dutifully at the assigned place and has to put up with some chit-chat from Probst. How are things going after all of last episode’s uncomfortable moments? Michael says that it was good for the tribe to finally feel something positive together. Matt says that it was a relief to realize the other camp isn’t this happy family either, and then he says he feels bad for Phillip, and spilling the rice and beans is the true craziness. Isn’t it interesting how that’s not at all an issue? Sounds like the producers stepped in and provided some replacement beans and rice. Good.
For his part, Phillip was glad to have a regular night’s sleep. He claims he hasn’t really slept in 36 hours because he was worried of what Brandon might do. Anyway, after confirming that everyone feels good about tribe unity - because what are they going to say, my tribe sucks? – Probst announces a tribe switch. He hands out eggs – he has two bowls of eggs, one bowl for women to pick from and the other for the men – and on cue, the castaways smash them to reveal what tribe they are on. Malcolm smashes his right on his face.
The orange tribe is made up of Eddie, Andrea, Malcolm, Reynold, Sherri, Erik and Brenda, while the purple tribe is Corinne, Phillip, Mike, Matt, Cochran, Julia and Dawn. I guess I’m going to have to learn the tribe names now. Thanks a lot, Probst!
First thoughts on the new tribes – they are both four “favorites” against three “fans”, which isn’t good news for the fans. For all of Phillip’s Stealth R Us weirdness, giving names to everyone and not making anyone really feel excluded actually worked out for him as there were no obvious outsiders who would be easy to flip. And within both tribes, only one of the obvious sub-alliances – between Sherri and Julia – was split up. Eddie & Reynold are together on Gota (the orange tribe), while Matt & Mike and Cochran & Dawn are on Bikal (the purple tribe). Phillip’s in a much weaker position, though – Dawn and Cochran are tight and Corinne doesn’t like him.
There’s some dull chit-chat about how different people are feeling with the change. Probst asks Brenda to assess the tribes, and her immediate response is that one tribe has all the young fit people, while the other has all the old and weak who should be staked out in the forest to be taken by the wolves. More or less.
After the break at Gota, Reynold is saying that he doesn’t see the other tribe beating them at anything. He probably said that when he first saw the “fans” like him and Shamar and Eddie face off against the “favorites” like Phillip and Erik and Cochran. Eddie thinks the switch is great because they have a “young, good-looking tribe." It must have been tough for poor Eddie, looking at all those ugmo “fans”. But he admits that theoretically the “favorites” can do whatever they want because it’s 4-3, but he thinks that due to the high levels of buff-ness and hot-ness, they won’t be going to Tribal Council soon.
Reynold and Eddie immediately start dishing the dirt to Erik and Malcolm, and Erik gets a rare interview, saying they were pushing to immediately get Sherri off the island, which “raises red flags,” especially as “Reynold is like a used-car salesman.” Eddie, talking with Reynold, Malcolm and Erik, talks about how Sherri is probably over there getting a new alliance already. Like that’s not what he is totally doing. Chicks, right Eddie?
Sherri is over there trying to form a new alliance, talking with Andrea and Brenda and completely dishing the dirt, including all the stuff about the hidden immunity idol. She describes Eddie as “a wonderful guy, when he’s not with Reynold.”
Over at Bikal, we learn that Corinne likes “her gays,” referring to Mike. She goes on to say that “if I was a moron who hadn’t played this game before, I would turn on my alliance to align with a gay.” That’s how much she likes gays. Yay for stereotyping!
Meanwhile, Phillip is talking with Julia and saying he would like to make a big move, and he was ready to be a double agent. He describes Julia as very, very smart, but not college-educated like him. Julia asks what Phillip sees in her to approach her. “I tend to like people who do things that are extraordinary.” Have we seen Julia do anything extraordinary? Julia looks very unconvinced, because she knows she’s the Ann Veal of her tribe.
Phillip also tells Julia that most people underestimate him because of his pink underwear. Does he strut around wearing nothing but those fuchsia Y-fronts in his normal life?
Malcolm and Andrea go into the jungle and swap notes, including that Reynold had an idol. News to Malcolm. “So far, I couldn’t ask for more from a dysfunctional group of people,” interviews Malcolm. Also, Andrea had a dream that Malcolm had the idol. Malcolm, who probably spent his break between seasons staring into a mirror practicing the line “No, I don’t have an idol” says that he doesn’t have an idol. In interview, he says that Andrea is a smart girl, but he’s an accomplished liar when it comes to women. Smooth.
Back on Bikal, Phillip fills in Corinne about his chat with Julia, and says that he thinks she could work with Stealth R Us. It takes a lot of willpower for Corinne to calmly say “I’m not concerned with getting a flipper,” instead of “how many freaking people are you going to give names to? We don’t need more people.” Maybe it’s not a bad move from Phillip’s perspective to make everyone think they have a chance to move forward with him, but it plays hell with his real alliance’s nerves. Corinne wonders if the country is in such a mess because of Federal agents like Phillip.
Corinne then tells Dawn, who gives such a big double-take that the Amazon probably got flattened by the resulting storm. “I’m just glad he’s with us,” Dawn says, her face scrunched up with disbelief, “he can’t be left alone.” “Phillip needs a warm glass of shut the hell up,” agrees Corinne.
Probst sighting! Immunity challenge! It looks a lot like the box challenge they didn’t use last week because Brandon decided to chuck a massive wobbly. Waste not, want not I guess.
Anyway, tribes send members out in pairs to roll the heavy crates back to where they started. Then they use the big boxes to build a stair that says “Fans vs. Favorites”. After a minute to strategize, they are off.
Eddie and Erik go out for Gota, and Phillip and Julia for Bikal. Gota is ahead with “a nice rhythm going,” and they get their box across the line and tap in Malcolm and Andrea. “Phillip and Julia really falling behind,” but they get across the line and Matt and Corinne go out. I noticed this episode that Matt has flame tattoos on his legs. Is that because he thinks he’ll run faster? Because it’s not working.
There’s a lot more box-rolling, and there’s nothing really noteworthy until Gota is on Box 5 while Phillip and Cochrane have rolled back Box 4 for Bikal, and then Mike runs out and calls out for Phillip to come after him. There was obviously some confusion about who was supposed to go out, with Phillip thinking that he would be bringing back the sixth block, not the fifth. Which makes sense, because why would a 59-year old run two consecutive legs of this course? But no one agrees with him and he has to run out.
Anyway, both teams get their boxes back, and while it looks even from the air, on the ground Gota had a big lead and was able to get better organized to see where the boxes fit. Julia is going the direction-giving for Bikal, and she wants to work one block at a time and from the top. So her plan is to catch up to Gota by going slower. And then when they get their box at the top, they realise it is upside-down and it should go at the bottom. So they didn’t even look over at Gota, which had their top block in place.
“Bikal appears to be on some sort of medication, they are so slow!” says Probst. “Put this one in the deep freeze, this one is over!” Gota finishes and wins immunity. “That was pathetic,” is Probst’s verdict, before telling his new favorite tribe of Gota to enjoy the night off.
Phillip – as though we’re all not tired of more and more Phillip – interviews that Corinne is inept, but the “favorites” must dominate. He says something about strong men advance boldly, weak men grow agitated, while superior men stand their ground and wait for better chances. Because Phillip thinks he’s superior, he takes that option.
When Bikal gets back to camp, Phillip wants to give a speech about how they all did their best and worked well together, and everyone has to listen politely like he’s Bill Lumbergh. Corinne lets off some steam in her interview about how annoying Phillip is and how everyone thinks he’s the ring-leader because he does outrageous things and everyone lets it slide. Hey, that’s just how Brandon felt too. Of course, the speech wasn’t anything outrageous, it was just Phillip being Phillip. But having to toe the line for 39 days must be so tiring.
“On a scale from one to on an airplane next to a baby annoying, he’s on an airplane next to a baby annoying and the baby has diarrhea." But she knows he’ll vote with her so she won’t be flipping. Now we know Corinne isn’t going and Phillip isn’t going, there’s absolutely no tension for the rest of the episode.
With Matt and Mike, Phillip is saying that Julia has to go, because she got “flustered” and Mike and Matt are bigger assets on a strength vs. strength basis. Philip then talks about maybe having a potential Stealth R Us initiation if they’d like to hear about it. “Sure,” says Matt, not quite keeping a straight face.
And it really is like joining Skull and Bones, because someday, someone might come up to the initiate and tell them to do something, and unless told otherwise by Phillip, they have to do it. And if they do, they pass their first test. “Understood,” says Matt. When do the Stealth R Us paddle-spankings begin?
Anyway, Matt basically interviews that he’ll do as much slobbering over Phillip as necessary if it gets him to the merge. Phillip’s big finish is that they can become Stealth R Us members, together with the other six. Matt and Mike both say “Seventh and eighth sounds great to us!” and then do big cheesy double thumbs-ups. Not really.
Matt, Mike and Julia go off into the forest to figure out what to do. Should they all vote for one of them? Mike suggests Cochran. Julia suggests Dawn, and Mike goes right along with it, which is the sign that he’ll be voting for Julia.
Cochran and Corinne talk in the jungle with Mike and Matt, about she would like to build an alliance with them, but everyone’s playing Survivor, and if she divulges any information and someone has the idol, then everything is blown. Which is all true. Cochran interviews that it’s one of the fans going home, and Mike and Matt are openly close, so it makes most sense to break up the power couple. He’s also worried about the idol, but he knows Matt doesn’t have it because he “reeks of desperation”.
With the other “favorites” Cochran makes his pitch for either Michael or Matt and repeats his certainty that Matt doesn’t have the idol. Dawn is on board, “Matt’s got to go”. But Phillip wants to keep them around, because he thinks he can turn them both. Why would this be a good thing for the group? If they get rid of Julia and induct Mike and Matt into Stealth R Us, then all six people on Bikal are members of the same alliance.
If you have ever, ever thought that Phillip is actually a secret genius who everyone underestimates because of his pink underoos and improbable stories, your theory is blown right there. It’s one thing to string people along with a maybe-promise about joining your alliance, it’s another to say that your alliance of six or more which is in control of the game needs two more members.
Anyway, Corinne is happy that “my gay gets saved, God save the gay” especially as Julia is “really boring and cost us the challenge,” though she is not keen to vote for Matt because he is honest and why punish him for that? Also, notice how Corinne’s editing has turned on a dime since Brandon left? Suddenly we have the Corinne we were all expecting from Episode 1.
Tribal Council. Probst’s hilarious first question to Matt is “what’s it like for you as a fan?” as though Matt has ever seen an episode. Matt’s just as hilarious response is to claim that he was a fan of Phillip and Cochran and Dawn and Corinne, and he couldn’t be happier. I wonder if he knew all their names before the switch?
Probst asks if the “fans” are in trouble, and Julia agrees they are in the minority, and Probst confirms with Mike whether one of the fans is going tonight. No doubt? “Not in my mind.”
Probst asks Corinne if any bonds have formed in the short amount of time they have spent together, most of which has been spent figuring who to vote off. Corinne highlights Mike because she likes “to play with a gay.” It doesn’t seem to matter what the gay is like as a person, just so long as he’s gay, which I’m sure Mike feels great about. Also, “there are three people I’d replace in my own alliance, so it’s hard.” Only three? That statement makes her even more trustworthy!
Probst asks Phillip about his vote, and Phillip says that the number one thing he’ll be looking for is “are you loyal, are you trustworthy, will you do challenges and do what you are asked to do.” That’s four things, Phillip. You promised one.
Probst asks Corinne how she assesses who to vote out, and Corinne admits that she is paranoid about the hidden immunity idol, because while the “favorites” have four votes, it only takes one idol to ruin that, and giving out any information is dangerous.
Probst thanks Corinne for her honesty and then asks Matt what he can do in this situation where there’s really nothing he can do. He says that they talked earlier, and he doesn’t have the idol, and he would have told Corinne if he knew who did. But Corinne points out that that’s exactly what an alliance down in the numbers who have one shot would say. It doesn’t matter that it’s actually true.
Phillip is also concerned about the idol, and confirms that’s what tonight’s vote is about. If someone has it, they have to play it.
Probst then asks Cochran about the other tribe because they don’t know what’s happening over there. Cochran confirms that Bikal can’t keep losing because it gives more time for Gota to bond as a new unit of seven. Cochran describes it as a “the bold and the beautiful” group and Cochran does not see himself “penetrating that group.” Phrasing, Cochran.
It’s time to vote, and we see Julia vote for Dawn, and Matt and Mike voting for Julia, so we know the “favorites” pressure tactics on the “fans” has worked. No one has a hidden immunity idol, which confirms that it’s not in play on their tribe.
And the votes are for Julia, Julia, Dawn, Matt... Julia, learning that she might not be going home, licks her lips. And the rest of the votes are Matt, Matt, Matt you need to bring me your torch. Probst does the snuffing ritual and informs Julia and Michael that they are in trouble and have to win immunity. “No kidding, Sherlock,” they do not say.
Next time on Survivor, Phillip talks about his upper body strength, but falls at the challenge. So it looks like Phillip’s challenge-hero edits are at an end and he’ll be 100% joke from now on rather than the 75%-25% we’ve seen so far this season. And it seems Malcolm is striking out by making a move with the bro alliance. “I can’t wait to see the look on some people’s faces when I take control of this game in just a few short days,” he says. Sorry Malcolm fans, but this means he is utterly doomed.
Matt’s final words are pretty boring. I played Survivor. I played it all out. I don’t regret anything. Etc. So long, Matt. I’m guessing we won’t see much of you at the reunion.