On the last week’s promos for Survivor: Cambodia, the producers left us with the feeling that someone would be medevaced this week. But it’s not quite as cut and dry as that. And this week’s episode wastes no time getting to the bottom of what really happened out there on the beach.
Survivor: Cambodia Recap: Second Chance Gets its First Big Blindside >>>
It’s the middle of the night and Jeff pulls up to the Ta Keo beach. He wakes Terry up to deliver some bad news. His son Danny is in the hospital and both his son’s doctor and Terry’s wife think that the situation is serious enough to involve him.
Terry doesn’t even need to consider it. He grabs his bag and breaks the news to the rest of the tribe. They’re all sad for him but they understand why he needs to go. Kass says as a parent she understands how devastating it must have been for Terry to get that news. They send him off with the best of wishes.
We find out at the end of the episode that Terry’s son was dealing with a heart condition. He was put on the transplant list and got a new heart and is now doing well. All the best to the Deitz family. Hopefully Terry won’t have to wait another ten years to get another chance.
Reward Challenge
Everyone on the two other tribes is shocked to see Terry gone. The parents in the group (Andrew Savage, Kelly Wiglesworth and Ciera) all get especially emotional. Ciera says she loves this game, but she loves her family more, and she knows she would have done the same thing Terry did.
Now that the numbers are even though, it seems like as good a time as any to drop your buffs. Again! Now the Angkor tribe is no more and the new tribes are Kelley Wentworth, Joe, Stephen, Tasha, Jeremy, Keith and Kimmi on Bayon and Spencer, Woo, Andrew Savage, Kass, Ciera, Kelly Wiglesworth and Abi are on Ta Keo.
The challenge this week is an old favorite one where two members of each tribe face off on a long slip-n-slide to reach a ring. Then they have to toss the ring on the pole. First person to get the ring on the pole scores a point for their tribe and the first tribe to five wins. The winning tribe will have a Survivor picnic delivered right to their beach.
Savage gets salty when Jeremy beats him by inches. Jeremy tries to give Stephen a pep talk about having confidence in himself after he loses his match-up to Kass. Abi thinks the challenge is over, but didn’t notice that Kimmi’s ring didn’t stick, but she runs back to her mat and scores for Ta Keo. Joe and Woo get oiled up and zip down the lane, which is a treat for us all, but Joe ultimately scores the point. And it’s between Kelley Wentworth and Kelly Wiglesworth for the game-winner, and the OG Kelly comes through with the win for Ta Keo.
Ta Keo
Spencer isn’t sure how things are going to work out being on the same tribe with his arch-nemesis, Kass. He thinks that the interactions between the two of them are awkward at first, but then he just tries to treat her like everyone else.
Andrew Savage thinks he is all set with this new tribe. He has his Angkor buddies (Abi and Woo) along with his old Bayon buds (Kass and Ciera). With this new group, he thinks that Spencer would be an easy first target considering he’s on the outs. He tells his group his plan and says that they’ll just tell Spencer that Ciera’s going home and then vote him off instead.
But guess who isn’t on board with that plan? Ciera! She doesn’t appreciate Savage coming in and putting her name on the chopping block instead of Woo’s. Sorry Savage, this isn’t some flop you’re dealing with from the Morgan tribe in Pearl Islands. This is the badass who voted her own mom out of the game. Maybe you shouldn’t underestimate her.
Bayon
Kelley Wentworth knows that she’s in trouble after the swap, because now she’s the only former Ta Keo here. But at least she has Joe on her side.
In a conference with Stephen and Tasha, Joe tries to convince them that they should keep Kelley instead of Kimmi. He doesn’t know how obsessed Stephen is with staying Bayon strong.
He tells Jeremy about what Joe said and now he can’t be trusted. He says the next move should be to get rid of Joe, but Jeremy is hesitant to agree to that because he wants Joe to be his meat shield going into the merge.
Stephen gets emotional talking about his second chance in his confessional. He doesn’t want to wait too long to get rid of Joe, because on his season, he never had the guts to get rid of the golden boy and it cost him in the end.
Immunity Challenge
Speaking of old Survivor challenge favorites, the immunity challenge is a good, old fashioned, disgusting, food eating contest! They’ve done it 14 times in 30 seasons and of course they just had to bring it back for an all star season.
Kass and Ciera have the most trouble eating the nasty food for Ta Keo. And Jeff is quick to point out that Ciera had trouble with it on her season too, so she pretty much blew her chance at redemption. (I’d probably blow it too if it meant eating a whole scorpion.)
Kimmi refuses to eat the pig brains once again. She says that she hasn’t eaten pork in 30 years and she’s not going to do it now., but it doesn’t matter in the end. Tasha comes through with the tie-breaker, eating a duck embryo, to win immunity for Bayon.
Loser Camp
Woo finally feels like he’s found his footing in this game now that he’s in the majority alliance. He says that if everything goes according to plan, Spencer will be the one going home tonight.
Spencer and Savage really seemed to have formed a tight bond over the last few days. So when Savage looks Spencer in the eyes and tells him that it’s Ciera going home tonight, Spencer believes him. Although it pains Savage to lie to Spencer because he already “loves him like a son,” he’s not letting his emotions get in the way of his second chance.
Ciera talks to the girls about Savage’s attitude problem. She doesn’t like how he walked in like he owned the place and then brought her name up. She also doesn’t like how close he is with Woo, so she suggests to Kass and Abi that they vote out Woo tonight instead of Spencer.
Kass is torn at first. Since the beginning of this game, she wanted to vote Spencer out. But she wants to stay loyal to Ciera, the person she feels closest to in the game. She pulls Spencer aside and tells him about Savage’s plan. He’s shocked to learn that Savage wants him out tonight, but it looks like he has to bunk with the devil and vote with Kass to save himself tonight.
Tribal Council
Savage tells Jeff that he’s working on his personal game this time around. He’s trying to work with only trustworthy and loyal people, which is funny because he’s acting like he’s one of those people himself.
Woo says that for him, he’s learning that he has to be more cut throat this time around, and he’s made his peace with that.
Kass says things are getting complicated now that there have been so many swaps. Not to mention, previous relationships built with people she knew on her season. She says Chaos Kass is always a threat to come out, but Savage says he’s known Kass to be nothing but loving and loyal.
Ciera says that navigating people is one of her strengths, and she noticed how Savage came back to this new tribe closer to Woo than most of the other people in the tribe. Savage isn’t nervous hearing this because he’s an arrogant SOB he’s confident in his good judgement and his alliance.
To the Vote!
Spencer votes for Woo. Savage, Woo and Kelly Wiglesworth (shock) vote for Spencer. The rest of the votes are for Woo. He’s got his infamous blindside face on once again, only sadly, this time it’s his own blindside he’s reacting to. While I respect this move, especially because Spencer is the more interesting player, I have to wonder if it was a missed opportunity to get rid of Savage, who has way more connections on the other side than Woo.
Next episode: Time for the merge!
Survivor airs on Wednesdays at 8pm on CBS
(Image courtesy of CBS)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
