Recap of Survivor S32E7

SPOILERS

Yellow / Gondol

• Everyone comes back to camp all confused over what the “original plan” (in last episode’s tribal) meant.
• Scot wants to pick off the brain tribe because of their indecision.
• Aubry now feels she has put a target on her back because she wrote down Julia’s name, before crossing it out and writing Peter’s name.
• “I think it’s now ever man for himself” – Aubry
• Scot jokes that next tribal he’s voting for Aubry, Joe, Aubry, Joe – and will cross them out until he decides which he wants out first.
• Tai and the Chicken = love. Haha. He wants the food in his lap!
• “Tai’s relationship to the chicken is like a father to a son” – Joe
• “Bye bye brains” – Joe knows he’s on the bottom
• So the real question is, did they make the right decision by voting off Peter? Has it actually crippled the brains on the Gondol tribe or not? It appears so, just because Julia, Scot and Tai make a powerful threesome. Of course, once the merge happens, Scot will more than likely go back to the original brawn tribe. Scot will probably win Tai over as he really has no other strong alliances, that we know of. Julia seems loyal, and I can only imagine that she would go back to Michele if it was a smart move. The all girls alliance from the beauty tribe has been crippled, so really, Julia has room to move – as long as she moves smart.

Blue / Chan Loh

• Isn’t it great that I’ve learnt the tribe names just before the merge. Ugh.
• Cydney sees the idol in Neal’s pocket.
• Turns out I’ve been spelling Neal’s name wrong all season, my bad. That, and Michele too … Hmm. Smart one, me!
• Jason thinks he holds all the power.
• Ooh! A boat is coming ashore!
• “Getting ready to blindside Neal, and then this boat shows up” – Jason
• Michele is happy she made the merge.
• Debbie, on the other hand, never doubted she’d make the merge.
• So the blue camp is heading over to the yellow camp for the merge!

Gondol

• I just thought Julia was Abi – that’s really freaky!
• Scot is happy to have made the merge – and is also happy to see Jason and Cydney.
• Aubry is happy to see Neal and Debbie again.
• “It’s like being separated from your wacky family and them seeing them again” – Aubry, on being reunited.
• There’s now four beauty, four brains and three brawn.
• You would think brawn would be in trouble, but I think with brawn together and brains together, beauty will probably become the swing voters – depending who their alliances lie with. We know Julie and Tai will probably vote with brawn – because of Scot. That leaves Michele and Nick, who we know from last episode, are kind of together. There’s cracks there as Michele doesn’t like Nick telling her what to do – but she also wants to ride his coat tails to get further in the game as well. So really Michele and Nick hold the most power in the game at the moment … of course, things can change. With the tribe merged, it’s a great time to form new alliances.
• “I just wanted to cuddle with you just once” – Debbie, to Nick.
• Nick says he’s watching, always watching, and he sees brawn as an arrogant, physical threat – and mentions how brawn won’t want to work with the brains.
• “Let them bring you information, then just cut them up” – Nick, on his strategy to work with brawn.
• “Toilet paper and toilets” – Debbie, to Aubry on how the brains alliance is still strong.
• Nick seems smarter than I originally thought. Although this may come down to his lack of air time so far. Being on most sides of the winning vote, we haven’t really seen a chance for him to play the game – so maybe he will be a bigger threat in the game, both physically and mentally, than I first gave him credit for. Perhaps, though, he just doesn’t say the right things in the right way. Take his interaction with Michele – he’s saying all the right things but in the wrong way. That’ll be his downfall if he makes it to the final jury and has the chance to plead his case. A good speaker can take the game away from the rightful winner.
• Jason wants to go with Nick – perhaps the brawniest of the beauties, I imagine he too would have wanted to work with Caleb, if he were still in the game.
• Jason wants to focus on voting out Neal first – also due to the fact that they suspect he has an Idol, which he does.
• Scot tells Jason and Nick that Tai has the beauty idol.
• Why did Scot tell Nick this when he’s known him for all of five minutes? Was it a way to build trust straight out of the gate? Also, as far as we know, he hasn’t mentioned the brawn idol – which is smart. It’s better for not many numbers to know. I think by telling Nick it also shows his arrogance and comfort within the game.
• “They’re never gonna expect a blindside on them” – Nick, on taking out Jason and Scot.
• “Tai, I really like you” – Debbie wants to align with Tai. It’s not going to happen. His discomfort was obvious. Besides, he won’t break from Scot.
• “It’s a batter for power and I’m playing to win” – Debbie
• “He’s in. We’ve got him” – Debbie, overconfident brains has Tai.
• “Deb needs to cool her jets” – Aubry, to Neal.
• “Right now we’re showing our desperation” – Aubry
• “Beauty always go with the jock. That’s just how it is. We’re just shoving geeks in lockers right now” – Jason, on working with beauty.
• “Jason probably thinks he’s on top” – Michele
• “I’ve never counted out working with brain” – Michele, is happy to join the brains.
• “Debbie is kind of going off her rocker” – Nick, to Aubry.
• “I’m telling you, Debbie’s awful” – Nick, to Aubry. It seems like no one wants to work with Debbie anymore.
• “People are so turned off by Debbie” – Neal.
• Aubry tells Neal that she thinks Debbie has screwed the game for the brains.
• Neal tells Aubry that he has the idol.
• “The game is on, let’s go!” – Aubry, about having the idol.
• Wow it’s day 19 already! I swear the other episode it was only 13!

Immunity

• “Talked to medical, you’re pretty banged up” – Jeff is concerned.
• “Mount Saint Neal” – Neal names his infection.
• Eww. That’s so nasty! Look away!
• “If you don’t have one, you’re not worthy” – Jeff, jokes about those who don’t have injuries.
• Ooh what an ugly immunity necklace! It has heads on it =\
• The challenge is – to stand on a log while balancing a ball/s on a disk.
• You would think in this challenge having smaller feet would be an advantage. Saying that though, it would also come down to who is good at balancing. If you suck at balancing, even with small feet, you’ve got no chance. So it really could be anyone’s game …
• And the challenge begins …
• Joe’s out.
• Debbie’s out.
• “Big feet hard to balance on that little log” – Jeff mentions how being big is not always an advantage in the game … although, sometimes it is.
• Jason is out.
• Now on to round 2 – they must add a second ball …
• Michele is out quickly.
• Followed by Neal and Scot.
• “In a matter of 20 seconds, three people are out” – Jeff
• Cydney and Aubry at out.
• It’s down to three beauties – Julia, Tai and Nick …
• “Tai’s balls banging into each other, never a good thing” – Jeff, oh you bring the funny!
• “His balls (are) dancing all over the place” – Jeff, on Nick’s balls.
• Jeff mentions that Julia has been like a statue throughout the game.
• Now on to round 3 – a third ball is added.
• “Now go until the end” – Jeff.
• “Right away, a lot of movement for Nick” – Jeff
• Julia is out.
• It’s a showdown between Tai and Nick.
• Tai drops.
• “Nick wins first individual immunity” – Jeff
• Nick really has been underestimated. Will this put a target on his back? I don’t think it will. I don’t think Nick is showing his true self in the game, meaning that he’s not showing others how hard he’s playing. Physical, yes, but I don’t think that’ll be enough to vote him out, as I believe there’s more physical players than him on the tribe. It’s a very complex group this season. It’s hard to judge/read into people’s motives – and it appears that people are pretty loyal too, this season.

Dara

• The merged tribe name is now Dara. Why – I don’t know …
• “Tonight, it’ll be the four brains going up against the bullies” – Neal, mentions using his idol tonight, giving it to Aubry, or if he can keep it for another day.
• “It’s brawn vs brains” – Nick, mentions how he’s in the middle, and if he’s going to go with the quarterback or the valedictorian.
• “I’ve never felt like a pretty girl before. Feels great” – Nick, feels like the popular girl in class that has everyone coming to him.
• Scot is happy in his alliance. He feels safe.
• Nick is leaning towards going with brawn.
• “Reach into my family jewels and grab the idol” – Neal, mentions he’ll use his idol tonight if he needs to.
• Debbie, Aubry and Michele want to vote out Jason or Scot.
• “They are so tight, they’d be no other way to break them up” – Aubry.
• Michele is figuring out what’s best for her – go with Nick and brawn, or go with the brains.
• “I do believe I can manipulate them just like that’ – Nick, feels he has the power over brawn. Perhaps not Cydney though, just FYI. I’d watch them.
• Nick likes Aubry best out of the girl’s – on a personal level – but he agrees she has to go.
• Oh look. Jeff is on a boat coming to camp!
• “At least one of us is in serious medical condition” – Scot, figuring Jeff wouldn’t come to camp unless he had real medical concerns for the camp.
• Jeff is with the medic to assess the contestants, to make sure they’re all okay …
• Tai has scraps on his legs. Doc says he’s okay.
• Scot has a nasty infection. Doc say he’s okay, but will “keep an eye on it”
• Aubry has an infection and will be put on antibiotics.
• Neal has an infection on his knee and one of his back.
• Eww – the knee looks gross!
• Eww – the back looks gross! It’s black! Wtf is that?!
• “I think he’s out” – Nick, snug, to the others, as they take Neal away for a closer look at his injuries.
• And Neal is being pulled from the game …
• The infection on his back is okay, but the Doc is worried that the infection in his knee could spread to his joints, and within a couple of hours too – so it’s a big problem.
• That’s sad. Poor Neal.
• He’s crying. He doesn’t want to go …
• Jeff says they will be sending Neal to hospital, but he will come back in the game as jury member.
• “My number 1 ally is gone” – Aubry.
• All Aubry can think of is, “What about the idol?”
• Nick mentions that with Neal gone, Aubry has now been saved for at least a couple of days. She lives another day.
• “The idol went home with Neal. That son of a bitch!” – Aubry

No one is being voted out tonight. Poor Neal. What a terrible way to go – especially as he was crying his eyes out and kept saying how he felt fine. This definitely puts brains in a bad position moving forward. I don’t think Aubry, Debbie or Joe could possibly win over any others to join their alliance – they may have a chance at Michele, but the numbers would still be against their favour. And that’ll put a target on Michele’s back. The only way would be to crack the brawn tribe – they must do that!

It would make more sense for Aubry to turn on Debbie and Joe at this point. She has the most potential to form a new strong alliance in terms of her approach to the game. Debbie has alienated everybody and her chances seem slim. I don’t know if Joe is actually doing any solo strategic moves of his own.

Michele is right though – I don’t think anyone would vote for the brawn at the end, but that’s all a matter of who they are up against … if the last three left are all hated, and you have to vote for one of them – who do you choose?

Personally, I’d like to see three beauties at the end, because none of the others really speak to me. That being said, I don’t really like many of the players to begin with. I think they’re all pretty much on par in terms of strategic moves. No one has really made any huge game-effecting changes that I remember. Some powerhouse ties have been cut, but those hardly count for big moves. But, the merge just happened so there’s plenty of room for play.