There was a lot of speculation last week about what would happen to Malcolm and Denise. Would they have to compete in a challenge, like Stephanie and Bobby Jon, and build fires if sent to Tribal Council? Personally, I hoped not, since that’s a lame way for a tribe to fizzle out. I figured either Malcolm and Denise would be sent to opposing tribes, or all the players would be shaken up into two new tribes.

I was kind of hoping for the latter (because there’d be a chance that Malcolm and Denise would be able to stay together) but it was the former. Before the Reward Challenge, Malcolm was sent to Tandang and Denise to Kalabaw.

Malcolm and Denise knew it was very likely that they’d be leaving the camp forever, so before heading out they tore it apart looking for the Hidden Immunity Idol. Russell had already gotten the clue, so when they looked in the bag of rice nothing was there. Eventually (I’d love to know how long they looked) Malcolm got it. Denise celebrated with him, but she knew it likely wouldn’t benefit her.

Even though I figured it would be the case, I’m bummed that Denise and Malcolm are now on separate tribes. I want to root for both of them, but no matter what one of them would be going to a fifth consecutive Tribal Council this week. I really hope they reconnect after the merge.

Idol Gets Knocked Down

The reward challenge this week was pretty cool. Players would face off holding pedestals with idols on them, trying to knock his/her opponents off before their own. No one was smarter than Mike Skupin, who threw his own idol up in the air and then knocked Penner’s to the ground, so that Penner’s would hit the ground first. Brilliant.

Tandang won, so Malcolm got his first taste of sweet, sweet victory as well as some delicious breakfast goods and coffee. At the Tandang camp, everyone wanted a piece of Malcolm – RC really needed to recruit him as an alliance-mate and she knew it, but Peter was quicker. He was palling around with Malcolm immediately, and told him about the Hidden Immunity Idol as soon as he could. He says the alliance is him, Abi-Maria, Lisa and Artis – and now that they have another big dude, he’s OK with voting Skupin out. I really hope this doesn’t happen, because I like Skupin and RC, but Peter made a pretty good case for why Malcolm should team up with him.

If I were RC, I would have pulled Malcolm aside and told him that Peter and Abi-Maria are definitely going to the end together, and that they’ll keep him around until the merge but knock him out as soon as he’s a threat, keeping weaker links like Artis and Lisa. She should have promised Malcolm final two with her, saying that Skupin’s her third. Then they could have tried to pull Lisa back over. I think Lisa would rather be with RC and Skupin, as long as she knows her head isn’t on the chopping block.

Sick Twist

Over at Kalabaw, things weren’t going nearly as well. Katie was really hoping she’d be able to pull Denise into her lady alliance with Dana and Dawson, but she never had the chance. Dana was sick. The poor girl was feverish, throwing up, and couldn’t even sit up – all in the torrential rain. When the doctors were called in, they said they could let her stay for another 12 hours to see if she’d improve, but Dana wasn’t up to it. The girl did look like she was in a ton of pain, and she took herself out of the game.

Two things. First of all, can we discuss what a nice dude Penner is? I’ve always really liked him, and thought his villain edit was unfair. (He was supposed to be a Villain in Heroes vs. Villains until Russell Hantz stole his spot.) Anyway, I thought he was very sweet to Dana in her time of need, even though her leaving the game would benefit him in a way. Second of all, Dana leaving the game really screwed ME over, because I have Katie in the Survivor office pool. She was at a loss after Dana left, since Dana was apparently her closest ally in the game.

Live To Play Another 3 Days

At the Immunity Challenge, Abi chose to sit out again. She has participated in two challenges so far. Two! I can’t believe she sat out and Lisa Welchel participated in that big obstacle course.

The first part of the challenge was a huge, awesome obstacle course, and unfortunately for me, Katie slowed down the Kalabaw tribe by quite a bit. It was awful. But not as awful as Jeff Probst’s commentary, which went something like this.

“Katie, slowing down the entire tribe!”
“Kalabaw is way behind, and it’s all because of Katie!”
“Kalabaw is making a comeback, but they’ll never quite get over what that jerk Katie did to them at the beginning of the challenge!”
“Hey Kalabaw, Katie kind of sucks, do you want to go ahead and vote her out now?”

I’m being facetious because he was picking on my girl, but seriously, it did get to be rather excessive.

Interestingly, Penner didn’t think it was Katie who lost them the challenge. He made up a ton of ground on the final puzzle, and lost by only seconds. (This didn’t surprise me. Penner is Boston Rob levels of awesome when it comes to puzzles. Because of this, I find him rather attractive even with his extra Survivor weight.) And what slowed Penner down on the puzzle? Dawson’s grabby, grabby hands.

“Send Her Up Dawson’s Creek”

I’ll admit, I was pretty sure Katie was toast following the Immunity Challenge. Katie obviously thought she was toast. She knew she sucked in the challenge and couldn’t argue differently. Dawson tried to tell her that Denise would be voted out, but it was obviously not true. Denise is a challenge machine, there was no way Kalabaw would let her go.

But two things turned the tide. First of all, as discussed, Penner blamed Dawson for the challenge loss. He also considered her to be generally the weakest member of the tribe.

But the second thing is even more interesting. Dawson was the one person who recognized Jeff Kent as a pro baseball player, and she was having some fun with that. I totally get it – it’s boring out there, and it was probably really fun to mess with Kent’s head by talking about what a joke baseball is. But it was a red flag for Kent, and he said that if Dawson did know who he really is, he’d be better off voting her out before she says anything.

I wonder how much that played into the final decision? I really thought Katie would be voted out, but instead they went for Dawson. Penner is a pretty convincing dude and I’m sure his beef with Dawson was a major factor, but you have to wonder what Kent’s say in it all was.

I was shocked that Dawson didn’t drop that truth bomb before making her exit. Wouldn’t you be like “Yeah, thanks a lot guys. Good luck, and if you get bored ask Jeff Kent how much money he made when he played for the Dodgers.” But instead, she was too busy staring into Jeff Probst’s eyes and, presumably, wondering if she could get away with planting that kiss on his lips instead of his cheek.

Usually Survivor is boring when one tribe gets completely obliterated, but so far I’m really enjoying this season. The returning players are fun, the cast is interesting, and people are actually playing the game already. I can’t wait to see where things go. What did you guys think of the episode?

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Couchtime/~3/9rzSXKe9Eqc/