Survivor San Juan Del Sur Recap
Episode 12
Still Holdin' On
By Kim Hollis and David Mumpower
December 8, 2014
BoxOfficeProphets.com

The dude no longer abides.

After Tribal Council, everyone is talking about the fight between Jon and Jaclyn at Tribal. Now that it’s all over, they’re hugging each other and huddling around the fire.

Alec is a little bit annoyed that he’s been accused of flirting. If he really wanted to flirt with a girl, he’d flirt with a girl – and she’d know it. He’s also bummed out that he really doesn’t have anyone to talk to now. Reed asks Jon if he will be the next vote at Tribal Council, and Jon tells him that he just doesn’t see his alliance cracking. He figures he is totally in control of the game. Never mind the fact that we effectively established in the previous hour that he and Jaclyn are bottom of the heap in the group of five.

We jump right into another Reward Challenge, which means that it’s time for even. More. Probst! Today’s challenge has Survivors standing on a small block while balancing a ball with a piece of wood. The winner will receive a canopy bed delivered to camp. They’ll eat spaghetti, chicken Parmesan, and wine in bed. Sounds messy.

While Probst is talking about the challenge requiring concentration and balance, Alec falls off his perch. He’s in serious danger of checking out emotionally. After another 20 minutes, Jon is barely hanging onto his grip, but he still beats out Missy, who loses focus. Keith is out next (spit). Soon, Baylor is out, which means that our final three are Jon, Jaclyn and Natalie. The couple has a great shot at reward… except for the fact that they are the two who are struggling to keep their ball balanced. Jon loses his grip, and Natalie and Jaclyn are both fighting it hard. Ultimately, Jaclyn can’t keep it going, so Natalie is our winner.

She chooses to send Alec to Exile Island, which probably isn’t going to help his morale any. Natalie also gets to choose two people to share the reward – and the bed – with her. Naturally, she picks Jon and Jaclyn. Threesome! Oh, wait. She tells them not to get freaky with her. She says that she chose Jon because she’s been wanting to vote him out, so he’ll trust her when she’s ready to backstab him. Of course, she’s had every opportunity to eliminate him without taking advantage so far, so we’re not really getting her strategy here.

Missy and Baylor both seem a little bit annoyed about being excluded, but not like Jaclyn was with the last challenge.

There’s something ceremonial about the tribe leading the threesome to their bed. They definitely feel weird about enjoying the challenge in front of them. Missy and Baylor, who are pouting a bit, head off with Keith to get some water. It freaks Jon and Jaclyn out.

While she eats with Jon and Jaclyn, Natalie is plotting Jon’s demise. Of course, Jon just thinks that he and Natalie are the best buddies ever, and then he talks about being a wine snob. In fact, he wants to be a sommelier in Las Vegas. Natalie gets even more annoyed with him.

Natalie talks a lot more about how aggravated she is with Jon and that she wants her vengeance on him for the Jeremy vote. Never mind the fact that Missy was the one who betrayed her hardest in that situation. Anyway, we’re back to hating the twin. When she doesn’t talk much, she’s a lot easier to take.

The next segment continues her chatter. We can’t believe she doesn’t shut up. Natalie and Baylor plot to vote him out. Baylor thinks that Jon is taking advantage of her mom because he’s a man or something. Keith wonders why they’re keeping Jon and Jaclyn around. At some point, he figures the alliance of five has to split.

Jaclyn asks Jon if he really trusts Natalie, and he says yes. We can’t believe people at camp think he’s playing a good game.

Fortunately, Probst shows up to interrupt what is probably the worst Survivor segment so far this year. Missy and Baylor cry about being physically and emotionally exhausted and we roll our eyes. Just start the challenge already.

The challenge has the Survivors using a rope to turn a table, where they will balance some blocks in a row. It requires a delicate touch and extreme concentration. A lot of the players get off to a pretty good start, but it’s not long before everyone except Jon and Jaclyn knock their blocks down. Keith starts to catch up, but Jon has taken this game slow and easy. He comes back with his 10th block and ruins Natalie’s big plans for the day. If she really wanted to “get revenge” against Jon, she’d move the vote to Jaclyn tonight. She won’t do that, though. Thus…

It’s time to play “It’s Anyone But Keith or Alec.” Jon says that they should split the vote between Keith and Alec, and you can see that Natalie is annoyed with him for acting like he’s running the game. She’s also irritated with Keith for not winning immunity. How dare he not do exactly what she needs him to do!

Alec keeps up with the quitter talk as he tells Baylor that he doesn’t feel like anyone will even talk to him. She blah blahs something about how they have a weird brother/sister, boyfriend/girlfriend relationship (yes, that is weird, Baylor). She’s glad that Alec is not being voted out.

But…

Natalie has decided to sort of team up with Keith. She and Keith will vote for Alec. She also suggests to Baylor that she should vote for Alec as well. Baylor isn’t happy about this, but she seems to be as closely allied with Natalie as she is with her mother.

At Tribal Council… well, nothing interesting happens. Keith talks about his precarious situation, and Jon talks about wine some more. He also cries about his dad, which reminds us that we should point out that he’s totally getting the winner’s edit.

With that short discussion ended, it’s time for the vote. Keith gets three votes, while Alec gets four. Jon is totally and utterly shocked that his instructions for the vote were not followed. Missy feigns shock as well, but it shouldn’t be hard for Jon to figure out the math. He and Jaclyn voted for Keith along with Alec, which means everyone else went against him. And really, we’re not sure why he cares so much other than the fact that Keith is semi-decent at challenges.

Now that the episode is complete, we see why this was a two-hour show. The second half offered absolutely nothing of interest. It was pure filler. The only way it would have been worse is if there had been no elimination.

Next week, it looks as though Missy may be a medical elimination. We’re sure it’s just a tease, but we’ll keep our fingers crossed anyway.