Survivor 2012 Philippines Episode 12 Recap: Loved Ones Refresh Perspectives

This week on Survivor Philippines, it all came down to Abi-Maria and Carter. Who should stay and who should go? The choice is obvious, right? Not so. When it gets down to this point in the game, there are a lot of factors to take into account and the Survivors did just that this week.

The episode opens on last week’s Tribal Council aftermath. Abi continues to pretend she has a hidden immunity idol. And everyone is tense and eyeballing each other, trying to figure out who they can and should trust.

And then we jump right into the reward challenge but that’s because they’re being paired up with their loved ones. Skupin’s son comes out first. Then it’s Carter’s mom. Denise’s “man” pops up next, followed by Lisa’s brother. Out next comes Abi-Maria’s mom.

And then we get Malcolm’s brother Miles. I was expecting him to go on some sort of racist, homophobic anti-Survivor rant from the previews we saw, but it turns out he’s just kind of crazy.

The reward challenge starts and the castaways are paired up with their loved ones. The winner of the challenge gets to spend the night at camp with their loved one. That’s cool and all, but what about dinner and a bath? Come on, Survivor!

Malcom and Miles win. So maybe this is when Miles will put Malcolm’s reputation on the line?

He gets to pick one other Survivor to spend the night with their loved one. He goes with Lisa. Jeff surprises them with one more pick. Malcolm pucks Skupin and totally shuts out Denise. What a shocker. I mean, hasn’t she been his main ally this whole time? What a douche move.

The castaways then get to spend some time filling their loved ones in on what has been going on and they get to recharge their emotions and strategy and they’ve got a new set of ears to bounce ideas off.

Skupin, Lisa and their loved ones start hatching a plan to oust Malcolm and work to get Carter in for a three-persona alliance. But Lisa is still stuck on holding on to her word with Malcolm. She continues to play with too much integrity, but her brother is trying to get in her head that this is a game and that she needs to play it for what it is.

And he gets through to her. So the plan at that moment is to blindside Malcolm.

The loved ones head out and this week’s immunity challenge gets under way. It’s your typical Survivor obstacle course/relay/skill game.

Malcolm wins immunity so there goes the big blindside idea.

Let the scrambling begin. So it’s either going to be Carter or Abi. Denis seems to not be an option. So it’s either peace on the island (ditching Abi) or strategy (ditching Carter). And Abi continues to threaten to use her imaginary immunity idol, but I’m not sure if anyone is buying it.

Let’s just head off to Tribal Council and find out what happens. Well basically, Jeff tells the Survivors they’d be crazy to not vote out Carter. Way to be impartial, Jeff. So there’s going to be no surprises here tonight.

Here’s how the votes played out:

• Carter: 5
• Abi: 1

So Carter is out and Abi lives to see yet another week.

What did you think of this week’s Survivor 2012 episode? Was keeping Abi and voting out Malcolm the way to go or no?