Survivor San Juan Del Sur Recap
Episode 5
Blood Is Blood
By Kim Hollis and David Mumpower
October 23, 2014
BoxOfficeProphets.com
As Hunahpu returns from Tribal Council, Jon is trying to do some damage control since Drew was one of his closest allies. Realizing that his position might be a lot more precarious than he had realized, Jon tells the others about how Drew had crazily insisted, “If you’re not with me, you’re against me.” He tells them that if they had informed him of the Drew vote, he absolutely would have voted with them.
Of course, Jeremy sees right through this little speech, and although he lets Jon speak his piece, the firefighter is realizing that he’s in the driver’s seat. Or at least he presumes that’s the case. Usually, people who start thinking this sort of thing are due for a serious fall.
We visit Koyopa for a few moments, and they are teased with a clue that asks them if they’re tired of trekking to the challenge areas and battling their loved ones, then ends by telling them they’re about to have to do it again.
A funny aside takes place when Alec says that he just doesn’t believe Hunahpu would vote Drew out first because they realize they need him for challenges. Did Alec watch his brother in the last challenge? Obviously not.
Anyway, it’s Probst time. To say that Alec and his tribe members are surprised to see that Drew is gone is an understatement.
“I mean, I don’t get it. I think Drew was one of the best players they had over there.”
That family is hysterical.
If the players were surprised by Drew’s ouster, they’re even more flabbergasted when Probst tells them to drop their buffs. It’s time for a tribe shakeup, which is pretty great since the discussion was just hinging around the fact that the Survivors have no idea what’s going on with the dynamics in the opposing tribe.
The composition of the new groups is pretty interesting. Koyopa has three pairs of loved ones – father/daughter Dale & Kelley, mother/daughter Missy & Baylor, and boyfriend/girlfriend Jaclyn & Jon. The lone player without a loved one is firefighter Keith. He’s probably in some trouble, though at least he’s away from Jeremy, who was definitely angling to eliminate him. Also, he has an idol.
It’s the opposite situation for Hunahpu, which has just one pair of loved ones in Josh & Reed. The remainder of the tribe is Wes, Alec, Jeremy, Julie and Natalie. This is an interesting turn of events as Josh was closely aligned with Wes and to a lesser degree Alec. If we presume that Reed is tight with Jeremy, that gives them a significant alliance right off the bat and gives us hope that maybe Natalie is going home tonight. Of course, the fact that Josh is part of a couple could be tough for him, as on Survivor the players generally like to break apart people who are in a relationship.
So, there’s no challenge. Instead the tribes are sent back home to explore their new dynamic. When Josh and Wes arrive at Hunahpu, they realize that not only is their shelter space smaller, but also that there is almost no food left. They’d been rationing their rice and supplies pretty carefully at their old tribe, so Wes thinks that these Koyopa people are pretty much idiots. Josh obviously can’t say that because his boyfriend is one of those idiots.
Meanwhile, Jeremy is freaked out about his position in the tribe. He worries that these new potential alpha males are going to look at him as a target right off the bat. Josh immediately talks about how excited he is to be able to play with Reed, who gave him the courage to come out as gay to his minister father and the rest of his family. The couple is demonstrating their serious commitment to one another by remaining abstinent until they get married. It’s probably TMI, really. But Josh is super happy and at least we’re not going to be bored tonight.
Over at Coyopa, the idiots from the old Hunahpu tribe who had hogged all the food are thrilled to see that the Coyopa tribe has plenty of stuff left over. Jon and Jaclyn discuss strategy in between canoodling. The PDA annoys Baylor, who is single and more than a little jealous. She does have a funny comment about her mother, Missy, who has been married and divorced three times. “My time will come, and my mom’s… next time will come.”
Back to Hunahpu, and Alec is thrilled that he outlasted his brother. Jeremy and Natalie are scheming about pulling him over to their side. Natalie approaches him and makes a play, but he just shrugs. He’s pretty silent when Jeremy chats with him next to the fire, too. Jeremy says, “He’s just like his brother,” meaning that he’s easy to read and manipulate, and while that does seem true, our sense is that he’d rather be led by Josh than two people who just voted out his brother.
Food is now becoming an issue over at Koyopa, because Dale has been wisely monitoring their portions up to now. Missy just doesn’t think it’s enough, so she cooks up a ton of rice. Baylor tells her mother that Dale has been mean to her, which adds to the tension. Kelley is trying to reel her dad in, because she worries that his getting into a fight with Missy will make him the target of the next vote. Or worse, Kelley herself could be the collateral damage.
Speaking of food being an issue, Hunahpu is pretty much just laying around because they’re hungry and completely out of energy. They basically have a few scoops of food left and it’s just not enough to sustain them.
And… whoa! Reed speaks! We weren’t sure he could do that. He talks about how the food situation is pretty dire. They’ve got to figure out some way to acquire some food. Too bad Drew isn’t around to play Let’s Make a Deal with Probst. Maybe Alec can step in!
Oh, hey! Cue Alec! He’s talking about bartering with Jeff for more food. Frankly, we like Josh’s idea of killing a vulture and eating it better, but Alec says, “the juice isn’t worth the squeeze.” We suppose he’s sampled a lot of vulture in his lifetime.
Probst returns for the Immunity Challenge, which has the tribes digging in the sand for a bag containing some keys. Coyopa is digging “conservatively,” as Jeff puts it, while Hunahpu goes absolutely crazy with the digging. Hunahpu quickly finds their keys and are off and through the mud portion of the challenge.
Coyopa still hasn’t dug up their bag.
As Hunahpu unlocks their gate, Coyopa finally gets their key.
Hunahpu is over at the big container that has some beanbags to toss, and they bend it back and forth to hurl the contents all over the place. Koyopa is working their way through the mud.
It’s the end leg for Hunahpu as they throw their beanbags at the platform target. Coyopa has no idea how to get the beanbags out of the container/basket. Hunahpu has eight out of 10 beanbags on the target before Coyopa gets it sorted out, and basically they are able to leisurely lob their final two beanbags to win immunity.
It’s a pretty embarrassing loss for Coyopa, really. And they’re all covered in mud and sawdust to boot.
Jeff sends the tribes away, but Reed asks Probst if they can have a word. Get ready for the snark. Reed asks if they can make a trade to get more rice. Wes and Josh appeal that they were rationing their food well at their former camp, but that big guys like Drew were eating all the food. Probst says he’ll come visit them “tomorrow” to see what he can do. We assume he just wants to consult with the producers to find a way to humiliate them for good TV. In the interim, they’re going to go hungry today. Stuff like this reflects poorly on Survivor as a concept.
Anyway, it’s time to play “It’s anyone but Dale.” Keith worries that he is a target, but it seems that Dale is instantly looking to work with Jon and Jaclyn (and of course his daughter) to vote for either Baylor or Missy. Jon isn’t sure this is the best play, and he and Jaclyn both decide they need to get to know people better before they make any sort of determination on a vote.
When Jon and Jaclyn approach Baylor and Missy, Baylor tries to explain away her prior alliance with the guys of Coyopa. Of course, this makes Jaclyn worried about working with the mother/daughter pair. On the other hand, she thinks Dale is pretty mean (which seems to be a consistent opinion from a lot of people in the game). They don’t really talk about why they’d choose to work with one pair over the other, but really more about the demerits for each one. We suppose you might choose to work with Missy/Baylor because they seem more clueless and easy to manipulate, while you would select Dale/Kelley because they’re smarter and Kelley might theoretically be better at challenges.
Keith is an island unto himself, and he’s probably relieved to hear so many other names up for consideration. He seems to be allied with Missy and Baylor, so this may be the way the wind is blowing. Angry Dad could be headed to Ponderosa.
At Tribal Council, Keith says that he doesn’t believe it’s him even though he is the only singleton in the group. Probst points out that even if they do vote out Keith tonight, at some point two couples will have to gang up on another one. Jaclyn acknowledges this to be true, and also notes that you still have to maintain relationships with the lone person remaining if you do vote out part of a couple. Jon says that he is looking to go with a couple he can trust. The Dale/Baylor rift widens as they argue a little bit about past votes.
The happiest person in the tribe is probably Jaclyn, who had a pretty good chance of being voted out of her tribe in its old configuration. The unhappiest may be Kelley, who calls her father’s baggage a “50 pound backpack” that is dragging her down.
There’s more arguing amongst the mother/daughter and father/daughter teams. It’s generally unpleasant, and is capped off with a warning from Dale that no matter who you vote out, you have to be at camp with that person’s loved one and it will not be fun.
Jeff asks for the idol, and Keith doesn’t play it. (People do look at Kelley as if to see if she has one to play. Uh oh. Fifty pound backpack, indeed.) When Probst reads the votes, they go to Baylor, Kelley, Baylor, Kelley, Dale, Dale and Kelley. The votes were split between the two in case of an idol.
For her part, Kelley is barely even able to hug her dad. He is truly responsible for her elimination. What’s probably worse is that he seems happy he wasn’t eliminated. If Rocker, Nadiya and Natalie hadn’t been on this season, Dale probably would have emerged as the guy everyone hates. In her closing remarks, Kelley says that she regrets being separated from her old tribe, because the enemies her father had made were just too much to overcome.
Next week, Dale breaks out his fake idol, while Probst tells the Hunahpu tribe that they will have to pay a steep price for food. Since they have nothing, we wonder what it might be. The only thing we can figure is that they may be forced to go to Tribal Council. Should be interesting.