Recap of Survivor S32E12

SPOILERS

Dara

• They come back to camp after tribal and Mark, the chicken is on the hammock. That chicken rules the camp!
• “I almost played my idol” – Tai, to Jason
  
• “I can talk. I can preach. I make mother’s rat their sons out” – Jason, I don’t know if that’s something to be proud of, but great that you’re so proud of your performance last tribal. Super great work!
• “Now’s the time to start making changes” – Jason
• Jason tells Michele and Cydney that Tai’s going to be hard to beat and “Aubry will be hard to beat”
• ^ Personally I don’t think Tai is a threat anymore. I think he’s pissed too many people off and just doesn’t have a shot at the win. He’s also not that great at speaking, so his chances of convincing anyone to give him the money will be slim. I think Aubry is the best talker and will be guaranteed the win if she makes it to the end.
• Michele voted for Julia, her biggest ally in the game, to show her loyalty in the game. Hmm … well that kind of doesn’t make sense – but of course, she means to the alliance she’s now with, duh.
• “All three of us stick together” – Tai, to Aubry and Joe
• Tai tells Aubry and Joe that his advantage is an extra vote.
• “We stay til at least four” – Tai, to Aubry and Joe, including Cydney in the four.
• “Tai has so many levels of control” – Aubry, upon hearing about the advantage.
• “We’re a tight group of three already” – Tai, about Aubry and Joe.
• Tai wants to vote Michele out next as he sees her as a threat.
• Tai found “a crazy thing” aka a big grub.
• Tai mentions that they may have to eat something like this in a challenge. Tai says he wouldn’t eat it though. But yeah, where’s the eating challenge this season, Jeff?!
• “It’s fat. It’s kind of nasty” – Tai, on Jason … I mean the grub =P
• Tai gives the grub to Mark the chicken, who runs off with it.
• “Swallowed the whole thing in one bite” – Joe, on Mark.
• “I gave up hope eating that chicken days ago. Everyone loves that stupid chicken. Mark’s guaranteed to see day 39 in this game”- Jason
  
• Jason is angry that “no one will strategize with me”
• Anyone notice that Joe’s in this episode a lot?! Where’s he been this whole game?!
• Joe tries to talk to Jason about how he’s doing.
• “No one’s playing the game anymore! It pisses me off!” – Jason, to Joe
• “I don’t think Jason has any respect for things that don’t go his way” – Joe
• “When things don’t go his way, he’s vulgar” – Joe
• Why did Joe even go and talk to Jason? What was the point? Joe really hasn’t seemed like he ever cared for Jason before. It just seems quite odd.
• Jason says he’s playing the lazy card. Not helping with food or fire etc.
• “Why help the hand trying to kill me?” – Jason
• “He’s not winning any votes. Let’s just keep him around” – Jason, on what his game play has come to.

Reward

• Split into teams of three, the teams must swim through obstacles and then onto floating maze. They then have to move three balls through the maze – one at a time.
• The win gets them a picnic lunch and a trip to Wildlife Hawaiians, who rescue animals from poaches and illegal traders and takes to sanctuary.
  
• Sounds like something Tai would enjoy the most!
• The teams are: Joe, Aubry and Cydney vs Tai, Michele and Jason.
• I’m pretty confident that Tai, Michele and Jason have this in the bag. I would never put my money on anyone who is in a team with Joe. Just saying.
• And the challenge begins.
• It’s Joe vs Jason.
• Joe is struggling.
• Joe is at his first obstacle. Jason is at the end of the three.
• Michele goes.
• “It’s taking him a long time to get there, but he’s getting there” – Jeff, about Joe.
• “Joe is crawling to this mat” – Jeff
• Tai goes – just as Joe gets to his final spot.
• “Cydney has to make up some time now” – Jeff
• Jason, Tai and Michele are at their maze.
• “Now you have to work together to manoeuvre that ball through the maze” – Jeff
• Such a very very cool maze challenge! I mean those puzzles are hard enough but to have to use their bodies to make the ball go into the whole is just super cool!
• “This is all about teamwork” – Jeff
• Joe, Cydney and Aubry are at their maze. Everyone is back in it.
• “Great leadership by Jason” – Jeff
• “Joe, Aubry, Cydney, not making much progress at all” – Jeff
• “You’re not listening to me” – Joe, to Aubry and Cydney.
• Jason, Tai and Michele have their first ball.
• “They’re working together really well” – Jeff, on Jason, Tai and Michele.
• “Jason very confident. Fully in control” – Jeff
• That’s two balls for Jason, Tai and Michele.
• Joe, Aubry and Cydney have their first! Aubry goes to untie the second ball.
• “They’re going to have to move fast and hope they get lucky” – Jeff, on Joe, Aubry and Cydney’s chances in the game.
• And with that …
• Jason, Tai and Michele win reward!
• Tai looks to be kissing Jason a LOT after the win! Wow. Steady on there, bud!
• “You dumb ball” – Joe, is angry at his lose.
• “Worried, while I’m gone, the team will fall apart” – Tai, is happy to go on the reward but is worried about the people back at camp.

Dara

• “Valiant effort, ladies” – Joe, to Aubry and Cydney.
• “I performed like a six month old” – Joe, on his performance in the challenge.
• Wow, Joe is being very bossy, bossy at camp now!
• “I don’t do orders well. It’s been proven this whole game” – Cydney, is not happy with how Joe is speaking to her.
• “We don’t need no more heat baby” – Cydney, about Joe’s idea that to keep a fire going you need a lot of wood in the fire.
• “I don’t know what Joe’s problem is. He wants to burn the damn place down” – Aubry, on Joe’s fire making skills.
  
• “The last thing I want is Cydney blowing up the game because then we’re screwed” – Aubry.

Picnic – aka the reward

• “To us! We did good!” – Tai, a toast.
  
• Lucky, the elephant is oh so cute!
• Lucky doesn’t want to eat the dragon fruit – he just wants to kiss Tai.
• Jason is happy he’s doing something his daughter would love so much.
  
• ^ It’s a bit rude, I mean, wouldn’t he rather his daughter be here to enjoy it with him. She might get really jealous and maybe won’t be happy by that. Who knows.
• Jason got pounced on by a monkey.
• “Give me a little monkey love” – Jason
  
• “I’m definitely warming up to him a little more” – Tai, on seeing Jason during the reward.
  
• “I think Jason wants to seem a little softer than he is” – Michele
• Michele says how she’s seen Jason’s evil side. She also hopes he’s not acting with the animals and that he really is having a good time and doing it for his kid’s. But she isn’t so trusting either.

Immunity

• “You’re not going to help me at all” – Jeff
  “I met you halfway” – Michele, to Jeff, giving the necklace back.
• So they have to hold onto a rope balancing a wobbly table. Then race out and collect blocks, bring them back and stack out on the wobbly table spelling immunity. If the block falls they have to start again.
• “There will definitely be a leaning curve to this challenge”- Jeff
• “Joe 71, out to an early lead in this challenge”  – Jeff
• Joe is playing aggressively. Michele is in second.
• Cydney is in dead last.
• “Joe is half way through this challenge. Then Michele, then Tai. Cydney still in dead last. Completely out of this challenge right now” – Jeff
  
• “Tai nearly drops. Nice save” – Jeff
• “Joe dumps everything after leading the challenge” – Jeff
  
• Michele drops. Tai drops. Aubry drops.
• “It’s contagious” – Jeff
• “Cydney still out of it” – Jeff
• Tai drops again.
• It is Jason now in the lead.
• Cydney’s in second place.
• “Joe has the wrong letter” – Jeff, on Joe placing an i instead of an y first.
• “You’ve got to remember how to spell immunity”  – Jeff
  
• Jason dumps.
• “It is now Cydney in the lead. Unbelievable” – Jeff.
• “Say what you want about Cydney’s approach. Dead last the entire challenge, now in the lead” – Jeff
• ^ It’s the ‘slow and steady wins the race’ mentality. Less chance of dropping. It’s a clever approach. She might not win but at least she won’t drop. In theory.
• Joe has the wrong letter again. Idiot.
• Cydney is going at a slow pace, so at least she can be caught by those rebuilding their stacks.
• “I keep misspelling the word” – Joe. Again. Idiot.
• “It’s funny until you go to tribal” – Jeff, on Joe. But don’t worry Jeff, Joe isn’t a threat.
• Michele drops. Tai drops. Aubry drops.
• “It is now Cydney’s 6th block” – Jeff
• It’s now between Cydney and Jason.
• Jason has two blocks left. Cydney has one block left.
• “Jason has almost caught Cydney” – Jeff
• “Cydney’s going extremely slow” – Jeff
• “Jason now in the lead” – Jeff
• “It is Jason and Cydney both coming back with their 8th block” – Jeff
• “It’s going to be a race to get back to the start without dropping” – Jeff
• Jason drops.
• Cydney makes it back to the start without dropping.
• “Cydney wins” – Jeff
• “Nicely done” – Jeff, to Cydney.

Dara

• “That was my favourite challenge so far” – Tai
• Tai has decided that Michele is a bigger threat than Jason.
• Tai wants to convince the group to vote out Michele.
• Joe wants Jason out.
• Wow Tai is really being quite forceful and tactless during this chat with Joe, Aubry and Cydney. He’s kind of acting like Jason and Scot did to him. You’ve got to listen to your alliance sometimes and bend when the time calls for it. You just don’t talk to people like that.
• “Unfortunately Michele joined us four” – Tai, on Michele ruining the conversation.
• “But most likely it’s going to be Michele” – Tai, is confident he convinced the others.
• “I feel like there’s no need to scramble” – Michele, to the four.
• “I think she’s a bigger threat” – Tai, to Aubry.
• Tai goes to Jason and tells him to vote for Michele.
• “But I can’t trust Tai” – Jason, “I want to vote for Joe”
• ^ Why vote for Joe? He’s harmless. It makes more sense to vote for Michele, even if Tai is lying because if votes do go Michele’s way – maybe there will be just that one extra that’ll send her home over Jason. You know?
• “I’m not going to fight city hall. It’s not worth it” – Joe, is going to vote with the majority.
  
• Cydney sees Tai as trying to bully people into voting how he wants, and she doesn’t like it. She is reminded of why she got out of her alliance with Scot and Jason to begin with.
  
• Cydney tells Michele that Tai wants her out.
• “I got your back as much as I possibly can” – Cydney, to Michele.
• Michele plans on doing some damage control during tonight’s tribal.
• “Tai’s been pushing so hard” – Cydney to Aubry.
• Aubry agrees with Tai though, and sees Michele as the bigger threat and she wants to vote her out.
• Aubry thinks everyone likes Michele and she hasn’t pissed anyone on the jury off, making her a bigger threat.
• “It wasn’t the most democratic thing I’ve ever seen” – Aubry, on Tai’s approach telling the group to vote for Michele.
• Aubry feels like she’s in a tough spot.
• “If it came down to it – would you vote with me or vote with them?” – Cydney, to Aubry on if she will vote with her or Tai.
• “It’s like Sophie’s choice” – Aubry, on tonight’s vote.
• Aubry doesn’t know who to vote for. She mentions that she feels emotionally exhausted. And cries.

Tribal

• “Don’t recall seeing that many lead changes ever”- Jeff – compares the challenge to how the game is. So many leader changes during the game.
  
• “It’s just been unpredictable” – Jason
• “Immunity can just give a little more sway” – Jeff, asks Cydney if having the necklace has given her a bit more power aka sway this vote.
  
• Cydney responds by throwing Tai under the bus.
• Michele joins in, throwing Tai under the bus.
• Tai gets defensive, and says it’s up to him whether he wants to share what his advantage is or not.
• “It’s Tai’s way or the highway” – Cydney
• “There’s a bigger group. There’s a smaller group within the group” – Tai, revealing the alliance within the alliance – putting fear into Michele and Cydney that they are on the outs. Well Michele, more so, but Cydney is definitely fourth – at least in Tai’s mind.
• “There’s a peaking order” – Michele, clears up what Tai is saying.
• Michele is doing well. Definitely fighting hard and throwing Tai under the bus – but everything she is saying is true. She’s just better as speaking than Tai. And Tai’s on the defensive. He’s let out too many secrets as is.
• Jason can only just sit there and grin. Good plan.
• Michele points out that she’s in an alliance with Tai.
• “So Michele, you know, where you sit in the group” – Jeff, points it out.
• “I’ve proven my loyalty over and over again” – Michele.
• “One vote, you didn’t flip!” – Michele, to Tai.
• “I was more original in this alliance than you were” – Michele, to Tai.
• ^ I think that’s true. Michele was part of the alliance before Tai. I think Tai has gotten that cockiness that Scot and Jason had. It’s like a power trip. You get a taste of it and then you think you’re in control of everything. It’ll be the downfall.
• “Why do we have an extra person?” – Tai, on why Michele is even in the alliance.
• “Not only are you at the bottom, you’re not even wanted” – Jeff, tells Michele want Tai is really trying to say.
• “Sounds like Cydney and Michele have some mistrust in Tai” – Aubry
• ^ And so they should. Aubry went to Tai to get him to vote for Scot and Jason. Nothing more. He was never actually part of the alliance until that. And, as I can see, he really only has a thing with Aubry – and Joe is tried to Aubry – who also had Michele and Cydney has baggage. So Michele is right in that she technically is in an alliance with Tai – but they probably never actually made any kind of deals at all.
• “Yeah. That’s why I’m being quiet” – Jason, to Jeff, during tribal, so the focus is off him.
• “All these fractures in the concrete start happening” – Jason, on the alliance.
• “It might mean I’ll still go out tonight and then who’s following me next time” – Jason, on the possibility of him going out tonight followed by Michele – or maybe Michele will go out first and he’ll stick around until another vote.
• Let’s get to the vote …
• “You’ve got to go first” – Tai, while voting for Michele.
• “Wait, Jeff. I want to use my advantage” – Tai, to Jeff.
• “My advantage, I can use another vote” – Tai, explains what his advantage is.
• “Tai, go cast your second vote” – Jeff
• “Here’s number 2. You gotta go home” – Tai, while voting for Michele a second time.
• And the votes are …
  2 for Michele. 4 for Jason. 1 for Joe.
  ^ which should be obvious. Tai voted Michele twice. Jason voted Joe.
• Scot shakes his head hearing the results.
• “You got rid of Jason, sounds like you got rid of the one person swimming alone” – Jeff, on now how the alliance will have to, officially, turn on each other.
• “I’m proud of the game I played” – Jason, you shouldn’t be.

It’s definitely not a good time to be Tai. I think this’ll be a wake up call to him – I also think it’ll make him feel alone in the game. Basically the alliance chose Michele over him. He’s in a bad place – at least, that’s what he will think. And rightly so! But he still has his idol – which I think he can only play when it gets to final five. So either way he will have to play it. I think it would be clever if he says how much he plans on using it and then gives it to someone else. What a great twist! But I think he’ll use it for himself to send someone else home.

I personally think it wouldn’t have made a difference sending Michele or Jason home. Neither of them had that much sway in the game, so you would think that it makes no difference – except maybe camp life will be more pleasant now.

Not really sure. I think Aubry has won – unless they’re smart and they vote her out. But I’m pretty sure she has Joe and Cydney with her. And there’s a three majority. But Survivor is fickle. Until next time …