Survivor: Cagayan - Episode 9
Sitting In My Spy Shack
April 24, 2014
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Those of you who are tired of Tony seem to be in for a painful episode as the #spyshack comes into play tonight, so it figures to be a Tony-centric episode. Previews suggest Jefra really takes LJ's ousting hard and we might finally see some kind of emotion out of the laid back country girl. The bummer for her is that when you come back from Tribal pissed AND without numbers, you could be the next to go. However, when the episode title is so squarely about one person, it could signal the beginning of the end for #teamtv Tony. So, I guess what I'm saying is that we ought to watch the episode and see what happens.
We join the players as they arrive back in camp after the LJ vote. As expected, emotions are running high. Especially with Jefra. Woo and Tony fess up to flipping. Tony tells them that he just couldn't tell them about LJ because they like him too much. Trish tells us that she thinks Tony did the right thing by keeping it to himself and Woo and that she still trusts him completely. I'm sorry...I had a blindside in my ear...did she say she trusted Tony? I rewound and yes, she said it. He goes on to tell them that this was a one vote thing and the alliance is fine. Jefra is concerned about being on the bottom of that alliance, but Tony says there IS NO bottom of the alliance. Spencer starts chiming in about how every time people are promised the final six, it never seems to work out. He tells us that he likes people he can predict and that Tony is the ultimate in unpredictability. He, Tasha and Jeremiah are three strong and he plans to track down a couple stragglers to bring along with them to take out Tony.
The next morning finds Tony out in the woods creating a new spy shack around the water well. He says that people always go to talk strategy by the water well. So, he now has a setup to hear what everyone is saying. And just like that, Trish and Jefra are "caught". Jefra doesn't trust Tony one bit and she doesn't want to be blindsided by him. Trish calms her down by saying that the alliance is still strong and she shouldn't worry about it. Jefra pushes that she just doesn't trust the way Tony went about the LJ boot. Tony hears all of this and tells us that he trusts Trish, Woo and Kass. Otherwise, he doesn't trust anyone else.
After break, it's time for a Probst sighting! Today's Reward challenge will have the players divided into two teams of four. They'll race out in the water to collect paddles with letters on them. Then two people will come back and spell the correct phrase with the paddles. First team to spell the phrase wins Reward. They'll be swept away to one of the more beautiful sites where they'll have ribs, cookies and a feast. The teams are broken down like this: Tasha, Jeremiah, Spencer and Jefra vs. Trish, Kass, Tony and Woo. No matter who wins today, Spencer and Co are going to have a whole bunch of time with Jefra.
The Tony/Woo team jumps out to the early lead and has a couple more paddles than the Spencer/Tasha team. But wait, Tony drops a couple paddles in the water and has to jump out to get them. They cannot continue until he gets back in the boat. Both teams are neck and neck as they get to the last couple of paddles. Tony makes up all the time he lost and his team gets all their paddles first. Once Spencer gets the last paddle, they're both headed back to the beach. Woo and Kass will solve for their team against Spencer and Tasha. The teams are almost exactly tied at this point. Kass thinks she's figured out the phrase "Worth Fighting For." Spencer and Tasha see what they're doing and start to copy them. But something changes. They realize that this is Survivor and at every single challenge, Jeff says, "Worth Playing For?" And with that, Spencer, Tasha, Jeremiah and Jefra win reward. As they head out to reward, Tony tells us that he does not like the split up at all. He's already lost Jefra and no she's going to go spend a bunch of time with the other alliance. He's in trouble.
As the losing team returns to camp, everyone is concerned about Jefra. Kass tells us that her only chance to win right now is to stick with the five she has. She's not offended by Tony's move. She thinks Tony is annoying, but she wants to keep the annoying people. She wants Spencer to be the next to go. As Kass and Tony are trying to talk strategy, Trish comes over but doesn't want to talk strategy right now. She is more interested in some lime and lemon trees she found. She wants someone to come help her and then she'll come back and talk strategy. So, Woo jumps up to go help her, while Tony strategizes with himself. He decides to go look for the riverbank idol that Spencer had the clue for. He thinks maybe Spencer found that one, but he remembers the clue about the special powers idol hidden near camp, the Tyler Perry idol. So, he's decided to search for that one.
We catch up with Trish and Woo getting some papayas. Woo is up in a tree shaking a bunch of papayas that, as Trish explains, "look like Morgan's boobs." Really? She left two weeks ago and we're still talking about her boobs? Um...okay. Anyway, as he tries to move down the tree, a branch snaps and the scene we saw in last week's previews comes to fruition. Woo drops about 12 feet down to the ground. Luckily, the only injury he seems to have suffered is a charlie horse in his butt. SO, we have a little bit of the goofball music while Woo works out his butt cramp. Then, we're back to celebrating all the wonderful papayas. "I'll break my ass for papayas any day."
Oh yeah, and some people are having a once in a lifetime reward. They are being led through this amazing cave. As they reach the middle of the cave, they find their lunch. Tasha describes it as a hometown barbeque. Spencer sees this as the time to get Jefra on board with him, Jeremiah and Tasha. She tells them that she's worried about her alliance, if there even is one. She says that she thinks Tony needs to be the next to go. Spencer asks her if she thinks she could work with them. And as she reaches for another rib "to think about it", their guide comes back with envelopes for all four of them. Through tears, Jefra reads the letter from her mother telling her to not let her kind heart hurt her in the game. Her mom tells her she may need to lie, even though that's not her character.
Jefra sees this as a sign that it's time for her to jump ship and right then and there, the first Final Four alliance is reached. Everyone shakes hands, even though Jefra reminds Jeremiah that he shook her hand once before. But as it is, it appears that this final four is pretty solid and the rest of the group should be worried. Of course, everything will hinge on what happens when they get back to camp. Can they play this right and actually make the move on Tony? I guess we'll see!
We come back from break to the second Probst sighting of the night! Today's immunity challenge is a balance challenge. Each person has a pole with a flat circle on top of it. On top of that circle will sit a ball. They will stand on a narrow beam. As time expires, they will move down to a narrower beam and move their hands down the pole their ball is perched on. Last one standing with the ball on their platform wins immunity and a one in seven chance at one million dollars. Right as the challenge starts, the wind kicks up and everyone’s' balls start wobbling. And let's face it; the last thing you want on national television is wobbly balls.
As I was scraping bottom of the barrel for the "wobbly balls" joke, Jefra, Trish, Tony and Kass all dropped out of the challenge. At the 10 minute mark, Jeff calls time for them to move down the bar and move their hands down the pole. Right off the bat, Jeremiah starts to lose it and his ball tumbles to the ground. Spencer, Tasha and Woo are the only ones left in this challenge.
At the 20 minute mark, Jeff counts down to the end of this round. They all move down to the narrowest portion of the bar and move their hands to the bottom of the pole. This is as hard as it gets. Now it's a battle of wills. Woo starts to shake and drops his ball. And as we have been with a couple challenges, we're down to Spencer and Tasha. And just like that, Spencer wobbles and loses it. Tasha wins her second consecutive immunity challenge. Seriously, someone REALLY wants to be at the top of my Power Rankings. Nice work, Tash! As we head to break, Jefra tells us that it's time to get rid of Tony now.
As we get back to camp, it's time to play "it's anyone but Tony." Didn't think we'd get to play this game so soon, but it's looking like Tyler Perry is the only thing to save him now. Tasha tells us that Tony is the vote for now. She's worried about the even number and the possibility of a tie. Tony goes right to work searching for the Tyler Perry idol. He tells us that idols are usually hidden around very recognizable objects and there's a tree he wants to search again. As he searches for Madea in the tree, we join Trish talking to Jefra down in the water. Trish asks her if she's okay and Jefra's response is that she knows Trish and Tony get along really well but that she doesn't feel safe with the alliance anymore. By now, Kass has joined them and Jefra continues that she's tired of his fakeness and his lies and she feels like she's next, since he took LJ out last time.
As they continue to talk, we join Tony on his search. He finds nothing at the tree he wanted to check. He decides to just walk the path and look for something that would seem landmark-ish. He finds a tree with some crazy looking roots and as he digs around them, whadaya know...the Tyler Perry idol. #specialidol
He reads the clue about the idol and as suggested all over the interwebs, the special power is that it can be played AFTER the votes are read. Kinda sounds all powerful. However, he cannot give the idol to anyone else; it can only be used by the person that found it. So, he can keep himself safe, but if they decide to target someone else, he can't help that person. It is a very powerful save your own ass idol, but can be worked around if anyone were to know anything about it. He folds it back up and rushes off to hide it so he can get back to camp.
Back down at the water, Kass is doing her best to talk Jefra out of booting Tony. She and Trish are trying to talk her into getting rid of someone else tonight and then Tony. They are worried about Spencer, Tasha and Jeremiah having too much power. Tony joins them and Trish point blank asks him if they can trust him. He tells her to not insult him. She explains that the whole double agent thing he's got going on is messing with their heads. He tells them, in typical Tony fashion, that essentially, he was lying those other times, but for really real this time he means it. He tells them that the five of them (as Woo joins) will take out the other three. Trish tells us that she trusted Tony, but Jefra needed to see her call him out in front of everyone. Talks turn to voting out Spencer, but Kass feels pretty sure he has an idol.
They ask Woo what he thinks and he says that if Spencer has an idol, they're screwed. He tells us that Spencer is a no-brainer vote tonight. He's also worried about Jeremiah as he's a pretty solid athlete. He says that he's worried about where the idol is. As they come back to camp, Jefra finds Jeremiah to tell him that she will not be voting with them tonight. Okay, okay, okay... Jefra, you're a beautiful, charming, slightly naive young lady... but this was the dumbest move (in a season that's been littered with dumb moves) of the year. You told the minority alliance, who you think controls an idol, that you will not be voting with them. Wait, what? You NEVER tell them to scramble. You make them feel comfortable, and then you lop off their head. Wow...that is gonna kill someone's game. Probably her own.
We join the minority three down at the water. He tells them that Jefra is not with them. Also, he tells them that *gasp* he's a fashion model. Spencer tells us that he doesn't see why that was so important it was kept a secret all this time, and decides to use this tie to also confess something to his alliance. He tells them he has the idol. He then tells them that he thinks Woo (Nooooooooooooooooooo) should be the vote tonight. He says that Woo is the most dangerous player in the other alliance and they should vote for him. As we head to Tribal, the questions are huge. Who will Tony's alliance vote for? Will Spencer and Jeremiah choose wisely? Will we actually have to say goodbye to our best island buddy, Woo?
Jeff starts Tribal with Spencer. He says they looked like they were in trouble and then LJ was blindsided. Spencer says the game was shaken up for a minute, but they realize that they're the three in a 5-3 situation. Jeremiah says that he tried to talk to Jefra about possibly joining them and she let him know that she went back the other way. Jeff asks her if she was very impressionable. She says that she was not sure about her own alliance because of the LJ blindside, but that Kass and Trish didn't know about it either, so she decided she'd rather take her chances with being blindsided by her alliance than risk going to the end with Spencer and Tasha.
Spencer, buddy, don't ever, EVER play poker my friend. You have the worst poker face ever. He is visibly disgusted by these remarks and naturally, Jeff asks him about it. He says that if he were on the bottom of the alliance, he wouldn't go back to camp wondering where he stood. He would go where he knows where he stands. He says that she's a fool for continuing to believe Tony as he's promised on his wife and kids and lied to them all.
Tony asks for specifics on when he broke promises. To his credit, Spencer tells him that he's not holding it against him because he's lied in the game too. Tony says that he didn't break promises but that he had to make moves. Spencer says, "I'll put it this way: if Tony and any combination of you guys is in the end, my vote goes to Tony because Tony has been steering this game and you all haven't." As he was talking, Tasha chimes is that she would also give her vote to Tony.
BOOM! That's how you hit them where it hurts and give them something to think about. Let them know that on their current course, none of them will win the money. Tony, probably as soon as next week, will now become target numero uno. Trish says that what they and Spencer don't know is that the power alliance called Tony out on all his stuff and he promised that he was done doing all that. No seriously, I can't make this shit up. Trish is so bound and loyal to Tony because...snicker...he said he wouldn't do it again. BWAHAHAHAHAHA! No really, that's what she said. I know, right?
Tony says that there are times in the game to make big moves and times where you need to stick to your alliance to move forward. Now, what Tony is really saying is, "The time to make a big move is when I want to make it. When YOU'RE thinking about making the big move...yeah, that's not the time." I actually agree that now is not the time to make the move. I hate making a move on an even vote. The seven is where a move should be made. I just get a kick out of the way Tony is playing this because every single thing he does is 100% self-serving and these people actually think he's got their best interests at heart. It's crazy, really.
Jeff then asks Woo whether Jeremiah or Spencer should get the vote. He's worried about the hidden idol and they need to be careful about whom to vote for. Jeff asks Jeremiah about that and he says that Spencer is the bigger threat to win this game. Spencer counters that the social game is an issue as well and Jeremiah is one of the most likable people he's ever met.
Jeff asks Tasha how they decide who to vote for. She says that Tony got so angry about the votes last time that they aren't voting for him tonight. He says that's a good thing since he has his bag of tricks with him. (The bag of tricks has a totally different feel to it when there's actually something in it.) Spencer laughs at the bag of tricks saying that he'd like to get a look at what's in that bag, but he hasn't yet. I'll say this, bringing up the bag of tricks again this week is pretty smart. Last week, it was just nonsense and everyone knew it. But now, when he actually HAS an idol, he knows that no one is going to believe him. He's practically daring them to vote for him. And if they do, they are 100% screwed. And with that, it's time to vote.
The only vote we see is Spencer voting for Woo, "Bro, this vote is a total bummer dude." Jeff's gonna go tally the votes and we need to see if Spencer chooses wisely. Jeff asks for an idol and Spencer gets up. As he does, Tony pulls out his idol and says, "It's not real." For a split second, Spencer stops and considers. But he gives the idol to Jeff and uses it for himself. Tony catches the hesitation and calls him out for inexperience. That he was going to give his idol to "Jeremy" because he thought Tony was gonna play his. "This is a fake idol, by the way."
And it's time to read the votes. The first three votes are for Woo. Vote #4 - Jeremiah. Aw, damn! Spencer, you chose poorly. All votes come up Jeremiah and the Spencer/Tasha alliance takes a huge hit as they lose their third member AND their idol. I still say the eight is a bad time to move. Seven is the time. Spencer and Tasha have a couple days to figure out who's at the bottom of the alliance (Jefra and Woo) and try to flip them to their side and take control of the game. It's gonna be real hard without an idol, though. I have to say that I think my Power Rankings will be in for a major shakeup next week.
Next time on Survivor: it's Survivor Auction time!!! And while everyone else is thinking about food, Spencer is using his brain. We see a scene of Spencer telling Tony that "she" really wanted to vote him out. He says that if he can get Tony paranoid, it plays into his game. Tony then says something about total chaos. Oooh...maybe Spencer has one last trick up his sleeve. Guess you'll have to come back next week to find out! ‘Til then, take care.
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