Last week on Survivor: Worlds Apart, Jenn played her hidden immunity idol in order to save herself from being the first person voted out after the merge. While it was an exciting Tribal Council, it may have only bought a little extra time for her and the “no collar” alliance; especially considering they voted out Kelly instead of Mike. Let’s see what their next move is.

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We all witnessed Rodney’s dumbfounded reaction to what happened at last week’s Tribal Council. (To be fair, his resting state seems to be “dumbfounded.”) He pulls Will aside and says they have to get Carolyn and Tyler to team up with them to get rid of Mike. But only after they get rid of Joe, Hali, Jenn and Shirin first. Good plan dude.

He’s also not getting along well with people around camp. He snaps at Shirin for how many scoops of rice she’s cooking, a decision she did not come to on her own, I’m sure. He’s not worried about the social aspect of this game though because he’s sure that he’s in control.

Jenn is not sorry for still being here and sending “blue collar” paragon, Kelly home. She hopes to stir the pot as much as possible on the majority alliance before going home, if that’s her fate.

Reward Challenge

For this challenge, the survivors have to race over balance beams to collect three bags of puzzle pieces one at a time. The first three to collect all the bags move on to the final round and the first of them to solve the puzzle wins the reward, which is an afternoon of ziplining and picnicking.

On the balance beams, both Dan and Shirin take hard falls face first onto the beams. Joe and Mike take an early lead and finish first, followed by Hali.

Mike falls out of the puzzle portion of the challenge almost right away, so it’s between Hali and Joe. But Mike gives himself a little pep talk and suddenly pieces start falling into place. It’s too little too late though and Joe wins his second challenge in a row.

To go with him, Joe chooses Tyler, Will and Carolyn. When Jeff tells him to pick one more person, Rodney tries to make a case for himself by saying he’s been starving more than anyone. When Joe points out he’s also been eating more than anyone, Rodney makes an even bigger ass of himself than usual by basically saying, “I didn’t want to go anyway.” Joe decides to take the superfan, Shirin, who can’t believe her good luck. Carolyn thinks it was a smart move for Joe to not choose any “blue collars.”

On the challenge Joe notices something in the bottom of Carolyn’s soda bottle. He asks her if he can finish it and she obliges. He tries to be discreet when finishing the drink, but he’s not so slick. Tyler notices him taking the clue and says that they’ll talk about it later.

Merica

Back at camp, Joe sees no other option than to share the clue with Tyler. He hopes it will be a way for the two of them to bond and build trust. Mike notices them sneak off while he’s pretending to be asleep. He follows them down to where they’re washing dishes.

This puts Tyler in an awkward position. He doesn’t want to be on the outs with the people he’s aligned himself with, so he decides to share it with Mike. So, Mike has the “blue collars” try and find where Joe is looking.

He finds Joe himself looking for the idol. He can see that he hasn’t found it, but he decides to confront him in front of everyone in the tribe like he does have it. It’s a pretty smart move because now not only does everyone think Joe has the idol, but Joe is also happy to let everyone think that and just stop looking.

While Joe leads the “no collars” (and Shirin) in a beach yoga session, Mike hustles his butt off looking for the idol. He eventually finds it and does his happy dance. (You gotta give it to Mike for playing really hard today. He tricked Tyler into telling him the clue then he tricked Joe into not looking for it. A+ Survivor work right there.)

Dan pulls Shirin aside and basically calls her stupid for being a superfan who can’t do enough basic math to realize she’s on the losing alliance. He is so condescending and his whole diatribe was completely uncalled for. I’m so irritated that this piece of crap has even made the merge. The worst thing about him are his personal attacks on Shirin, and his constant belief that he’s not only superior in the game, but also intellectually. He actually just passed Rodney for me on this season’s most infuriating.

Immunity Challenge

In this challenge, the survivors have to move a puzzle piece through three slide mazes and then take that same puzzle piece and complete a puzzle to win immunity. Shirin thinks that this is a challenge that she can excel in if she can just reign in her nervous energy.

Everyone moves through the first part of the challenge pretty well. When it comes to the puzzle though, things aren’t so easy. Dan thinks he has it and raises his hands in the air triumphantly; but nope. (A few seconds later) This time he has it for sure! Nope again. It gives me pleasure to see him look so foolish.

But it’s Joe who comes out on top once again winning his second immunity and third challenge in a row. Like Jeff points out, if he wasn’t a big threat already, he is now.

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Loser Camp

Shirin wishes she could have pulled it together to win the challenge, but she’s also glad that no one is seeing her as a threat right now. She thinks that might buy her a couple extra days in the game.

The “blue collars” want to vote out Shirn, especially Dan, who uses this opportunity to make another personal attack on her by calling her an idiot-savant. Go pound sand Dan. But Mike thinks the best move would be to go with last week’s plan and split up Hali and Jenn by voting out Hali.

Shirin tells Jenn, Hali and Sierra how Dan was being giant ass to her. Sierra can commiserate and says she still hasn’t forgiven him for how she spoke to her. The girls conspire to vote for Dan, but they’d still need another vote to pull it off.

Shirin approaches Tyler and tries to convince him. She tells him he’s at the bottom of that alliance and they won’t be loyal to him. She says now is the time to get rid of a “blue collar” while they still can. 


Tribal Council

Tyler says that last week they talked about drawing a line in the sand, but things still aren’t that clear.

Dan says, as a fan of the show, he knows better than to feel safe. You have to trust in your alliances and remember three words: “Flippers. Never. Win.”

Shirin is quick to point out that that’s a complete lie. Smart flippers win all the time (most recently Tony). She says Dan is just using that as a fear tactic to keep his alliance together.

“And besides, this is Team Merica,” Hali points out, and that Dan should know not to mess with Merica. If the colonists flipping on the greatest empire in the world, there would be no Merica, so Dan should watch out.

Unfortunately, Hali’s patriotic plea is not enough. Sierra wusses out of voting with the girls (shocking) and Tyler votes with the “blue collars” for Hali. She’s the first member of the jury. At least the four times Dan saw his name seemed to make him sweat. That’ll have to hold us over until he’s voted out for real. Which I hope is soon.

(Image courtesy of CBS)

Gina Pusateri

Contributing Writer, BuddyTV