Survivor: Millennials Vs Gen Xers
Episode 10 - Million Dollar Gamble - Part 1
By Jim Van Nest, Gen X'er
November 30, 2016
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Last time we hung out, Adam got exposed for having a Reward Advantage and everyone said, "Oooh." But that wasn't enough to overlook the fact that Taylor was stealing a hoarding food from a bunch of starving people. And while Tribal Council was electric and allegations and lies were being strewn about, at the end of the day, you steal my food, you go home. And Taylor was sent home. This leaves his alliance mates of Jay and Will at the bottom of a 9-2 disadvantage. Will they be able to stick it out 1 more vote? Maybe 2 more votes? Sometimes being in THIS small of an alliance can be an advantage as the main group will figure they can take you out anytime and start to turn on the threats within their own alliance.
And, previews seem to suggest that we could see a splintering in the Gen X alliance and oh yeah, Jay has an idol and pretty soon everyone will know about it. So, this could be ridiculously explosive, or it could be a diversion to point us away from Adam taking the walk of shame because he has an advantage. We have a lot of show to get to, so let's get right to it.
We begin tonight's episode right after Tribal. Adam tries to apologize for not telling them about the advantage. He's super worried now and he wants Jay gone so badly. Jay tells us that all he wanted was for Taylor to shut up at Tribal because he was taking him down too. He tells us that he's glad to have made it this far, though and he hopes that since he hasn't played an idol, everyone just assumes he doesn't have one. Bret and Chris are happy that Taylor is gone. Chris tells us that while Jay might think he's on the bottom, he'd like to finally vote out Jessica as he thinks that she is a huge strategic threat. He tells us that it'll have to be a small group, but he plans to take her out before he leaves this game.
We come back from the opening to dawn on day 26. Ken and Hannah are enjoying the sunrise. And like, for real, she is looking at him with hearts in her eyes. She has quite the crush, it would seem. And from that touching little moment, we join Zeke and Will discussing the vote from last night. Will tells us that he's done with Jay and he is going to do whatever he can to save himself and he thinks Zeke is his ticket. So, he tells Zeke that Jay has an idol. He also tells Zeke that, whatever he does, he just can't tell anyone. And this takes us to an amazing little montage of Zeke telling David about the idol. David telling Chris and then Hannah. Chris tells Bret and David tells Ken. Next Zeke takes the idol information to Chris. Zeke and Chris come up with the plan to really make Jay feel like he's next. The idea is to get him to play his idol, while they all vote for Jessica. So, Chris gets his person out AND they force Jay to burn his idol.
And with that, it's time for a Probst sighting! Today's challenge is a team challenge. They'll swim out to a raft and then pull themselves back in to a platform. They'll untie a key, slide down a long pole. The keys will unlock some color blocks and they will have to stack the 4 blocks so there are no matching colors on the same side. The winners will win a sweet pizza bar...which will be docked about 50 feet away from the camp, so that the losers can hear them enjoying their reward. Before they draw for teams, Jeff mentions that someone will sit out of the challenge and will not be eligible to win reward. At this point, David volunteers to sit out, because he's such a bad swimmer, he doesn't want to let a team down.
Everyone else encourages him to participate in a pretty touching moment for David. He's really feeling the love from the cast right now and I honestly think it was genuine. So, David stays in and when all is said and done, Jay's string of bad lick continues as he draws the short straw and will not participate in this challenge. The teams are: Ken, Jessica, Chris, David and Will versus Adam, Hannah, Bret, Zeke and Sunday. Not surprisingly, the team of Ken and Chris just power through the first part of the challenge and they have their blocks out ahead of Zeke's team. David and Chris get to work on the block puzzle and it takes them long enough that the other team catches up and Zeke and Adam take on the puzzle. After a few minutes, Zeke and Adam absolutely crush this puzzle and complete a major comeback. Zeke and Adam have won pizza and beer for their team.
As the losing team gets back to camp, they can now see the floating pizza bar off shore. The winning team boards and they just dig in. Lots of pizza and lots of beer. Hannah is feeling pretty guilty that the other people can hear them. She tries to get the group to be quieter, but there's none of that happening. With the beers flowing, Zeke and Bret are bonding over their beers. As Bret tells us that he needs to get closer to Zeke a waiter comes out and delivers letters from home to everyone. Adam has a really touching moment where he tries to describe how important this letter was for him. The letter was from his mom and she's doing just fine...and he is so thankful for that bit of information.
As they dive into the water and scream and laugh, we check in with the kids at camp. Ken and David have a little talk about how they were really looking forward to some pizza. This seems to be the first time they've checked in since the merge. They reconnect and reconfirm their alliance. They talk about sitting next to each other at the final 3. As they talk, David tells us that the threesome of Chris, Bret and Sunday are just too strong. He and Jessica decide to vote for Chris. Ken is on board but is worried that Zeke won't be on board. David seems to think that he can get Zeke on his side. As we head to break, Jessica tells us that Chris has been after her for weeks, so she's glad to be taking him out this time.
And we're back to another Probst sighting!! Today's challenge is another balance and test of wills challenge. This time, they will hold a little statue steady on a sloped rail, with a long pole. Jeff sure does love his poles. Anyway, as time goes by, they'll have to step backward making the pole longer and standing on a narrower piece of board. Everyone makes it through stage 1. A couple seconds into Stage 2, Hannah drops out. Ken is right behind her. Everyone else makes it to stage 3. Shortly after, Sunday, Chris, Will, Jay and Bret all drop out. Jessica, David, Adam and Zeke all make it to the final stage. They're 10 feet away now on the narrowest piece of balance beam. The wind kicks up and knocks Adam out. Out of nowhere, Jessica drops. And we're left with Zeke vs David. After wobbling for a very long time, Zeke finally bows out of the challenge and David wins immunity. As we head to break, David tells us that if he has any say in things, Chris will be going home tonight.
With that in mind, I guess we're back to play "It's Anyone But Chris." Everyone congratulates David on the big win. Jay, on the other hand, is not happy at all. He knows he's on the block and no one will talk to him. Hannah won't tell him anything. Chris, Bret, Sunday and Zeke all talk about making the move on Jessica...but the plan is still to try to get Jay to play an idol, so no one will be talking to him. The next thing we see, David and Zeke are talking. Davis makes his pitch to Zeke to take out Chris. Zeke likes hearing this, because he wants to be in control of turning the Gen X-ers against each other. Zeke tells David that Jessica is the play from Chris. Naturally, David tells all his people that Jessica is the vote and she takes this info to Adam. Adam confirms that he, Jessica, David and Ken are all on the same page. They just need 2 more people and that's going to come down to Zeke and Hannah. They are the swing votes between Chris' 5 person group and David's 4 person group. Before we head to Tribal, Zeke and Hannah talk it out. Both sides are trying to pull a blindside. Zeke is having a hard time making a decision. He likes and trusts both David and Chris, so he needs to figure out, really quickly, the best way for him moving forward. Should be interesting.
Jeff begins Tribal Council still talking about the stolen food situation and whether or not he still feels on the outs. He says that no one talked to him all day, so he's feeling pretty out there. I think it's amazing that the food issue, Adam's reward and Jay in general are barely even blips on the radar of the tribe right now. Jeff asks how everyone is feeling about alliances, etc. Zeke suggests that they have smaller groups that could be forming now, but they're based very much on trust. Hannah coins a new term #trustcluster and she actually does a really nice job of defining it.
She says "voting blocs" will break up at any time and alliance will never break up, and what she sees is something more in the middle. Lots of talk about trust from everyone. Chris is feeling very comfortable with the vote tonight. Sunday says the vote is more about who you can't trust than who you can. Jeff asks everyone how they feel about the vote tonight and they all say they feel 100% about the vote tonight. Jay, of course, makes a little fun of this as he has no idea what's happening tonight. And with that, it's time to vote.
We see Jessica's vote for Chris telling him that she knows he's still holding that grudge against her. We also see Chris' vote for Jessica telling her she's too much of a threat. Jeff goes to tally the votes and asks about hidden idols. Long pause....and no one wants to play their idol. Here come the votes. First vote: Chris. Second vote: Jessica. They alternate back and forth until we have a 4-4 tie. Then the rest all come up: Chris. As he walks out, the last of my final 4 picks is now gone. This has to be the absolute worst prediction season I've ever had. Just terrible. I mean...13 people made the merge. Out of 20. I picked 8 of them. Just awful. Oh well, it is what it is. When the votes are revealed, we see that David's alliance with Ken, Jessica and Adam picked up Zeke, Hannah and Will for the vote tonight, while Jay went with Chris, Sunday and Bret and voted for Jessica. There are no previews for the second episode; we're just going to go right into it. I'll be back tomorrow with that recap. So, don't you fret - you'll have me back on your laptop first thing tomorrow. 'Til then, take care!