Survivor: Worlds Apart - Episode 6 Recap
Odd Woman Out
By Jim Van Nest, Survivor Analyst
March 30, 2015
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Previews are suggesting that a former White Collar alliance is no more. Um, yeah...that was clear when Max went home. Also, we have a new bromance forming on the Blue tribe. Rodney and Joaquin should be pledging their undying loyalty to each other this week. Wow, can't wait for that.
We begin this week's episode the morning after Tribal and Shirin is feeling quite alone. She had no idea the Max vote was coming. She asks Carolyn if she doesn't want to work with her anymore. Carolyn tells her that she doesn't trust her and that she spent the last three days talking to everyone BUT her. She wants real loyalty, not some fake loyalty brought about by desperation. Shirin is really worried that no one wants to play with her, and she wonders what she has to change about herself to improve her lot in this game. We see her talking to Hali at the water hole. Hali tells her that Max was sent home because he was really annoying. She also tells Shirin straight up that people are annoyed with her as well. Shirin tells us that she's found herself in this game in the same place she was when she was younger - not quite fitting in and not sure how to fit in. She does say that she's going to treat this the way she DIDN'T in high school, by trying to deal with it and adapt.
We come back from the credits to check in on the blue tribe. And we join Dan telling the whole "losing his underwear" story. Rodney is sick to death of hearing the same stories and same people over and over. This leads into the Rod-quin bromance. They're east coast guys and Rodney can't get along with the bible-thumper from Texas and the hick from Maine. He and Joaquin, though, they're both about the chicks and the parties. And now the game is all about them. And Boston Rod wants everyone to open up and pay attention to what he has cooked up for this game. Remember, we're in the process of watching possibly the best player from Boston to ever step on Survivor beach. *Believe it or not, I said that with a straight face.*
And here are, a mere six minutes into the show and it's time for our first Probst Sighting! As the tribes come in and Jeff says that Max was voted out at the last Tribal, Joaquin lets out an audible, "Yeesssss!" Today's reward challenge is actually simple to describe, but not as easy to execute. Each tribe will run through an obstacle course. I know, we've already had like five of them this season, but this one is more like a ropes course really, complete with a monkey bridge and everything. Once everyone gets through the course, one at a time, they'll climb a platform and launch sandbags at targets. First tribe to hit all six targets wins reward. Wanna know what they're playing for? The winning tribe will be picked up and taken for a beef stew, mac-n-cheese and hot chocolate picnic and then treated to one of the coolest rewards I've ever heard of on the show. They will be taken at night to witness the sea turtle migration as the females come out of the ocean to lay and bury their eggs, and then head back out to sea. Seriously, now. That's cool!
To get things started, the Blue tribe will sit out Dan for this challenge. The challenge starts out as you would expect it to. The blue tribe tears through the obstacle course. Rodney, displaying the grace of a bull in a china shop, basically powers through the course. The rest of the tribe is right behind him and they reach the end first, sending Rodney up to launch sandbags. The red tribe is a little behind, with Will bringing up the rear, as expected. They finally reach the end and Jenn is actually able to hit a target before Rodney. Joaquin and Kelly are now launching and Kelly hits target #2 for the Red Tribe. Joaquin hits and we're tied.
Hali is not able to hit a target, but Sierra hits on her first shot. Blue tribe is winning 3-2. Finally Hali steps down and Carolyn takes her shot. At the same time, Mike hits for Blue, 4-2. Carolyn hits quick and Shirin hits on her first shot and we're tied again, 4-4. Joe hits for Blue and it's 5-4. Will steps up and hits on his first shot and we're tied 5-5. Next hit wins. Tyler just misses for Blue and Jenn hits solid for Red...and Nagarote (just so you know I didn't forget the name) wins reward!! As the tribes head back to camp, Shirin tells us that winning this reward is huge as it'll give her a chance to try to make some new relationships within her tribe.
As Nagarote comes back to camp, they find their picnic feast all laid out for them. Hali is on top of the world, mostly because they won the challenge. I'm sure they all knew how seemingly disadvantaged they were, so winning that challenge was epic, in her mind. She compares it to David and Goliath, including the fatal slingshot. She says that the addition of the mac-n-cheese and the beef stew was like giving birth to her first child. Now, I'm not sure if she felt like that before or after the meal. *rim shot* I'll be here all week. Try the veal. Carolyn tells us that it feels good to win and even Shirin is tolerable right now.
Cut to Shirin saying that Rodney is probably over there talking about how he would have crushed this meal and how he needs the protein. Jenn chimes in, "What a tool." So, we learn a couple things here. First, Shirin might be working her way back in. She already had a talk with Hali at the water hole and now she's bonding over stew and hatred for Rodney. Which brings me to the second thing: Rodney is dead man walking. He doesn't know it, but right now Joaquin is all he's got.
The next segment of show is nothing short of amazing. A guide comes to get the tribe and leads them to where the turtles are migrating. Seriously, even if you hate this show and all the people on it and you only read this recap because I'm insanely charming, you owe it to yourself to watch this clip. It's so cool. We watch one turtle choose her spot, dig the hole for the nest, actually lay the eggs and then bury them up. The guide tells them (and us) that the turtles will lay around 120 eggs and that it's likely only one will survive. Jenn tells us how cool the whole thing is and also relates it to Survivor. "Ya know, I do have a one in 14 chance of winning a million dollars as opposed to a one in 100 chance at...living. So, that's cool." Seriously, the producers have to be loving this girl. She is confessional gold. I'll be interested to see how they arrange it so she can stay in the game as long as possible.
Time to check in on the Escameca tribe for the first time after losing reward. As they lament not having any mac-n-cheese, everyone decides to head out to get some food. Joe is checking some traps they have set, and Dan, Rodney and Mike head out to go fishing. Everyone leaves camp except Joaquin and Sierra, which is great for Joaquin. He's been wanting to talk to Sierra to see what the lay of the land is in this tribe. She tells him how she hates all the guys in her tribe and was so excited by the switch. He tells her that he wants to give her the opportunity to give it back to them. He tells us that the Blue Collars were in shambles when he got there. Sierra is the odd woman out and he's happy to take her in.
This is an easy layup for Joaquin. He tells her that he and Tyler are tight from the White Collar tribe. He says that Tyler is the most trustworthy honest person in their camp. He says they don't want to let Joe get too far into the game and that she and Rodney must be close, right? She goes on a nice little rant about how she is most definitely not with Rodney. She even says to him, "So I gotta suck up to Rodney?" He tells her that he can handle Rodney.
Sierra tells us that she doesn't trust any of the guys from her tribe. She only trusts Joaquin right now, but she doesn't like that he's tight with Rodney. She thinks Rodney is a terrible person and wants nothing to do with him. We cut to Joaq and Rod trying to talk her into an alliance. Rodney tells her that he knows she's mad at him and they've had their problems, but if they can put that aside, they can go to the Promised Land together. #primetimestory
Rodney tells us that he's in such a good place right now. He's got so many things going on that he can already see his hand raised like Rocky Balboa. Do you suppose we should tell him that in the first movie - Rocky lost? Nah, he's on a roll.
We come back from break to join Rodney sharing his amazingly brilliant strategilogical plan with Mike. The plan is to throw the challenge so they can vote out Joe. He has Joaquin like a yo-yo, so they need to do what they have to do to get Joe gone. Mike tells Rodney that he's on board with this plan and tells us that rarely in the history of this game does it ever work to throw a challenge. He goes on to tell us that in this case, though, an exception might have to be made, but not for the brilliant reason Rodney's thinking of. Mike's "real" alliance is with Kelly and she's all alone on the other tribe. If he can make sure his tribe goes to Tribal, sure, they can vote off Joe...but more importantly, Kelly lasts one more vote. And that is the perfect setup for another...
...Probst sighting!! Today's immunity challenge is a good old-fashioned memory challenge. In pairs, the tribes will stand in front of a platform with a curtain over it. Jeff will lift the curtain to show a string of items. When a player thinks they have it, they pull a lever which drops the curtain and both players run back to the start and have to recreate the lineup of items they just studied. First person to get it right wins a point for their tribe. First tribe to three points wins immunity. I can't help but think that this is the absolute perfect challenge to throw without letting it be known that you're throwing it. I mean, the memory stuff is really hard for some people and it's really easy to fake that you don't remember. And it's a one-on-one challenge, so if a couple guys decide to tank, the rest of the tribe can do nothing about it. Before we get going, Blue has to sit someone out. Joaquin is going to sit this one out for Escameca.
First round is Rodney against Carolyn. I know Rodney's throwing the challenge, but he would have lost this round anyway. Carolyn wins a point. Next up is Sierra taking on Hali. It doesn't appear that Sierra is in on the plan, but Hali still wins the point. 2-0 Red. Next up is Joe against Will. We KNOW Joe isn't in on the deal and he easily wins the point over Will. Next up is Shirin against Dan, and Dan must not be in on the deal as he wins the point and we're tied 2-2.
Next round will be the last round and it's Mike versus Kelly - the guy trying to throw the challenge against the girl he wants to save. Kelly drops the curtain and Mike actually hesitates for a few seconds looking at the curtain. Mike arranges everything wrong and steps on his mat. When all is said and done, both are wrong. Let's reset and do it again.
As they stand up in front of the curtain, Mike tells Kelly that he's giving it to her and to listen to what he says. He actually tries to help her remember where everything is. Probst tells them that if they don't get it this time, he's dropping it from six items to five for the next attempt. And wouldn't you know it, they're both wrong again.
Once again, Mike tries to direct Kelly at the curtain. Even as they're placing the objects, he's helping her. He purposely switches the two types of bottles and tells her to reverse them. Once they step on their mats, Mike is wrong - Kelly is right and Nagarote wins immunity! As we head to break, Kelly tells us that Mike threw the challenge to her and that it's the first time she felt like someone actually had her back. She can't wait to get back to her Blue Collar Tribe now.
We come back from break to play a thrilling game of "It's anyone but Joe." As the tribe arrives at camp, Mike is apologizing to the tribe for blowing the challenge. Joaquin is telling him not to worry about it and that he could have done the same thing. Mike tells us that by throwing that challenge a little something inside of him died, and that it’s making him really not trust Rodney. He tells us that he's watching Joaquin just pull Rodney in and that they're becoming a power couple in this game, and power couples have to be broken up before they can make power moves.
Hey, future Survivor players, listen up - power couples have to be broken up before they can make power moves. This is why Mike orchestrated Lindsey's ouster. I'm not sure that Lindsey would have been a decent member of a power couple, but the point is still there. She and Sierra were too close, have to split them up. Same here and Joaq-ney is way more dangerous than Lindse-rra were. We cut to a scene of Mike asking Rodney what's up for Tribal tonight. Rodney tells him that it's Joe and that everyone is on board with that. Following the first rule of Survivor, Mike is down with that, they shake hands, bro-hug and it's all good. Joe is toast. Rodney breaks down for us how they threw the challenge and Mike looked like an idiot. And this was all part of the plan to get rid of the biggest threat out there, Joe. Everyone's down with this and Joe will be the next one going home.
The next scene we see is Joaquin and Rodney starting their victory lap. Joaq makes the point that they really need to make sure they don't lose Sierra. Rodney tells him that it's all about the two of them and they have this all the way to the end. Joaq agrees that this is going to be way too easy for them. Okay, we all see where this is going, right? Wasn't Max in complete control just last week?
Joaq tells us that he really thought it would be him and Tyler to the end, but now he's got Rodney as his right hand and Sierra owes him one for saving her from her old tribe. FINALLY, someone talks to Joe. Mike is asking him where his head is at. Joe says he's down to do ANYthing at this point. We pan back to see Dan is also part of this conversation. Joe goes on to say that he's tried to talk to Joaquin, but he always has a little puppy dog following him around. Mike says he's concerned about the two white collars and how they've pulled Rodney in, and he's worried they'll do the same with Sierra.
Mike goes on to tell Joe that Rodney is planning to get rid of him at this tribal. Joe tells us that he's tried to get in on the bromance, but they won't talk to him at all. Joe tells the guys that when they first got there, it was all about Sierra because they thought she was on the outs. Mike tells him that she was, and it was mostly because of a beef with Dan. Dan seems to think that she'll go with whomever as long as her name doesn't get written down. He also seems to think he's done nothing but grovel since their big blow out.
Ya know, I think Dan's probably an ok guy, but he really lacks self-awareness. If he thinks he patched anything up with Sierra, he's nuts. Further, if he thinks that she'll just vote with them because it's them...he's more delusional than I thought. Joe tells us that his options are not looking good right now, but he's gonna keep fighting. As they continue to talk, Mike makes the case that if they get Sierra; Joaquin is the one that needs to go. Dan tells us that Joe is totally on board with them and everything will hinge on Sierra. He goes on to say that he totally screwed up with her and they really need to do whatever they can to get her back into the fold. Okay, maybe he's not as delusional as I thought.
We cut to Dan and Mike making their pitch to Sierra. Dan tells her that Rodney and Joaquin are too close and they need to be split up. He goes on to say that he screwed up and he really wants to earn her trust back. Good start, Dan. Now, you should probably let Mike take over.
Mike points out that they got rid of Sierra's best friend for this same reason - they were too close. He tells her that the plan is for Joaquin to go first. Sierra finally speaks and tells us that she has two alliances coming at her and she's excited to be wanted in the game. She goes on to say that it makes her sick to her stomach for her old tribe to treat her like they did and now come back begging for her vote. Dan goes on to tell her that Joe is with them. He goes on to say that if they take out Joaquin, Rodney's going to explode. "Let him explode," is Mike's response. YES! Do what's best for you and don't worry about the repercussions from the minority alliance. Sure, you want their vote at the end, but let's be honest here: if Joaquin goes now and Rodney's next, neither of them is on the jury so they have no say in the rest of the game. So, he's right. Who cares if Rodney loses it?
They are making one helluva a sales pitch, until Dan says, "Just close your mouth, open your ears and watch what happens." Nope, I was right. He has no idea. Dude, you could have said the same thing without the "close your mouth" part and you would have been okay. Tell her to listen close and watch closer to see what's going on. That's great. But the second you tell her to close her mouth, you've just killed your entire alliance and your game. Oh yeah, you've pretty well killed Joe and Mike's game too. Way to go. The next words out of Sierra's mouth to us, "I hate Dan." Yep, that went well. She knows the blue collars only want her for a vote and will get rid of her as soon as they have the chance.
Our next discussion - wow, there are a lot of discussions tonight - is Joaquin telling Tyler that everyone is voting Joe tonight. Tyler throws in on that plan. And can I just say that I think it's interesting the game that Tyler is playing. I really feel like he might be the smartest guy out there, but he's letting Joaquin stand out front and be the point man for all this nonsense. When all is said and done, no matter how the vote goes tonight, I think Tyler is in the best spot to still have options available to him.
HERE'S the talk I've been waiting to see. Joe and Sierra are hanging out on the beach. She tells him she's not sure where she's at because she's the kind of person that will play with her head and her heart. She tells us that she still, right before Tribal, is not sure what she's going to do. She knows that this decision will change the course of the game. I'll tell you what this is coming down to. She hates Dan and she hates Rodney. Who does she hate more? Who has offended her the most? Who would she most like to see out of this game? That's what her decision will come down to and she'll have the couple hours of Tribal Council to help make that decision. I'd wager she's waiting to see which of them is the bigger ass at Tribal and she'll flip the other way.
Tribal starts, and Jeff gives a recap of how the split affected this tribe. He starts with Joe. He asks if the four Blue Collars seemed like one big happy family. Joe says that they did, but every family has issues and he, Joaquin and Tyler did what they could to find and exploit those issues. Dan admits to having some dysfunction in his tribe and he was concerned that the three outsiders would find something. Jeff asks Tyler if they were able to find anything. Tyler says they really didn't even have to look for the crack, it was right there and it all revolved around Sierra.
Sierra tells Jeff that after the last Tribal, when they got back to camp, she was told how she sucked at challenges and wasn't necessary. Mike interrupts to say that "not everyone" picked on her like that. She admits that Mike did tell the guys to stop, but goes on to say she felt better in 24 hours with the new guys than she did in 11 days with the Blue Collars. Jeff points out the obvious to Mike saying that if Sierra decides to flip, the Blue Collars are in trouble. He says that they've been together for 16 days, but he doesn't consider them a "foursome of inpenetrableness". #inpenetrableness
Mike's definitely concerned about tonight's vote. Rodney decides to chime in here and talk about how that's the beauty of "droppin' your buffs." New people come along with new opportunities. He says now is a chance to see what's best for him. Jeff gets to Joaquin and asks him if he feels better about his place now than he did a couple days ago. He says that he does and he didn't expect it to go this way. But when people come up and tell him why they hate each other, "It couldn't have been any easier for me."
Back to Joe, do you worry at all that they're just telling you what you want to hear? He says they definitely could be. He also mentions that he's on the bottom. "At least Joaquin has Tyler. I got nobody."
Probst asks Sierra about the Blue Collar mentality of taking care of their own. She reiterates that it wasn't he name being written down that got to her; it was being attacked back at camp after the vote. Jeff asks a different way whether it wouldn't just be easier to stick with her tribe and vote out the new guys. She says that she's made some genuine friendships out there and she's not stupid. She's going to weigh who she can trust the most. Jeff talks to Mike some more, but I didn't really get the analogy and Mike's answer was essentially “you never know who you can trust until you leave Tribal and that's pretty scary.”
And with that, it's finally time to vote. We see Joaquin's vote for Joe saying, "Sorry, buddy." We also see Joe's vote for Joaquin saying, "...it looks like it's me or you tonight." Then they show Sierra writing her vote: J - O...wait a minute, they BOTH start with J-O. Those tricksey Survivor editors!!! Jeff will tally and read the votes. First vote: Joe. Second vote: Joaquin. Joe. Joaquin. Joe. Joaquin. Sixth person voted out of Survivor Worlds Apart - Joaquin! Whoa! I'm actually pretty shocked by this one. After all the talk of hating her tribe, Sierra stuck with them. I can only assume that the bond she has with Mike is the strongest of all – or that she hates Rodney more than anyone ever and refused to align with him. Either way, that's six votes down, and I actually agree with all of them so far. That's a rarity.
Next time on Survivor: Rodney is feeling betrayed by the Blue Collars and is gonna make everyone pay. But wait, both tribes show up for a challenge with NO PROBST! Duh-duh-duuuhhhhh! It's a merge!! Already? Oh yeah, and Rodney still feels disrespected by the Blues. So, that'll be fun. Until next time, don't forget to check out Ben's Power Rankings. And please, I'd love to hear what you think. Hit me at vannestjc@gmail.com or on Twitter: @vannestjc ! Take care!