Tonight on Survivor 2012 Philippines the big question was what would happen to the decimated Matsing tribe and it didn’t take long for host Jeff Probst to reveal the plan. But before Matsing could get to the big event they had one last chance to search their camp for the immunity idol which Malcolm finally discovered.
Arriving at the luxury challenge Tandang and Kalabaw greeted the last two members of Matsing. Jeff announced that Matsing was to be disbanded and each of the remaining castaways would be sent to opposite tribes. Malcolm draws Tandang’s buff while Denise pulls out Kalabaw’s. The new tribes are formed and immediately put to the test.
Two castaways enter the ring and must be the first to knock the other’s idol to the ground. It was easy to see the strategy to use would be to throw your own idol high in the air and rush to knock the other one down. Sure enough this comes in to play quickly and works well. The tribes are tied and it comes down to Malcolm and Jeff with Malcolm bringing home the win for his new tribe. Denise’s new tribe may have lost, but she did win her own round so both orphan castaways may be in a good spot at least for now.
We get our first elimination a little early in the show. Just as we were teased there was a medical emergency involving Dana. The doctor tells Jeff and Dana that she’s okay to go on for another 12 hours for another evaluation but Dana doesn’t want to continue. She bails and leaves the game.
Time for the next challenge and it’s a great big team effort obstacle course. Over the mud pit and up the hill we see Tandang take the lead and keep it all the way through the remaining climbing, untying, and hacking to reach the puzzle portion. Tandang just barely outreaches Kalabaw for the win. That means Kalabaw is about to lose their second player in one round. Ouch.
Now we’ll see which castaway is the first to leave Kalabaw. Going in Katie is very worried that she’ll be the one to go after her performance and is rightly concerned. Meanwhile Dawson tells her not to worry and that she won’t be a target, but she doesn’t express concern over who might be in trouble. We also find out that Dawson knows Jeff was a baseball player but never seems to apply that pressure despite Jeff expressing concerns to the camera over just that happening.
When the votes are revealed there’s one against Denise and four against Dawson before Probst confirms Kalabaw’s second loss of the week. Dawson is shocked and gives Probst a goodbye kiss on the check before heading in to the jungle.
