Survivor: Tocantins
By Jim Van Nest
May 8, 2009
Probst Sighting! Aside from that, it's Survivor Auction Time!!! Each player has $500 to buy items with. While this is usually the same every time, some rules have changed this time around. No sharing money or food. So, once your $500 is gone...it's gone. And we will have no repeats of the Randy and Sugar cookie fiasco from last season. And let's get to it...
The first item is some French fries. After explaining to Debbie what "$20 increments" means, she finally buys them for $120. The next item is chicken Parmesan and JT raises Coach up to $320 and the meal is sold. Third item is a mystery item. JT and Stephen go against each other and JT wins out for $160. Lift the lid and we have a big plate of nachos. Next is another covered item and again it's Stephen and JT. Stephen wins it for $100 and he is now the proud owner of a skewer of chicken hearts. They're cooked; so overall, it's not a bad item. Especially when you consider the supposed protein content in chicken hearts. That may turn out to be not too bad for Stephen. Final item is a recorded cell phone message from a loved one. On this one, Jeff says, people can pool their money. As soon as he says that, JT takes the lead and then everyone takes their money and hands it over to Taj. Cue the waterworks. After many tears and a few more mentions of Sprint, Taj finally gets to see her message. Overall, it's the typical message from home, except her message is from a future NFL Hall of Famer. Another mentionable is how the message ends. Eddie says, "See you back at the camp." And amazingly enough...no one catches it. Jeff finally asks Taj if she heard that last line. Taj still doesn't get it and as Jeff continues the light bulb goes on and so do the waterworks, all over again. Jeff tells Taj that she has a decision to make. She can either go back to camp with Eddie or she can make a sacrifice so everyone gets to see their loved ones. The decision is really not a decision and the sacrifice is not really a sacrifice as Taj can go to Exile with Eddie and everyone will have a loved one back at camp. Naturally, that's the choice she makes and everyone excitedly hurries back to camp.
We come back from break to see Taj greeted at Exile by Eddie. After much crying, hugging and stuff, we head back to camp to meet Stephen's brother, Debbie's husband, JT's sister, Erinn's dad and Coach's...um...assistant coach? Of all of the family visits, it's all pretty much standard stuff, except for Coach. He's telling his guy that everyone calls him the dragon slayer and that he's running the game. Then they do some stretching and back popping. So, um...yeah. That concludes the visit from loved ones...back to the game.
We come back from break the morning of Day 32 and there's more talk of booting Coach. Debbie is basically trying to tell JT how to run the game and he's feeling a little uncomfortable about that. Next up, Coach joins the conversation and targets Taj. JT plays a masterful hand right here as he makes Coach feel like he's with him, but he never does actually lie to him. He then tells us that he's not on the same page with Coach and that he feels a couple steps ahead of him. Next we see Debbie bringing Erinn into the fold on the Coach vote. She tells them all about how it has to be a blindside and how Coach will completely feel betrayed by her.
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