Survivor Philippines made history this week with the most confusing and entertaining Tribal Council ever. Even host Jeff Probst agrees with that.
Before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s start at the beginning. At the top of the show the Dangrayne Tribe is still reeling from Penner’s near blindside, which would have happened had he not played his hidden immunity idol. Penner is mad and Jeff is trying to explain to him what happened to make his alliance turn on him. A bunch of nothing happens here and the plan to get Penner out next remains in tact. For now.
Lisa and Jeff are doing a lot of talking and Lisa has a plan spinning in her head, but first it’s time for the reward challenge.
The tribe splits into two teams to compete for the chance to win a jungle cruise fully equipped with barbecued ribs and all the fixings. The Blue Team is Skupin, Pete, Artis, Abi and Carter. Team Yellow is Jeff, Malcom, Denise, Lisa and Penner. There’s a little physical mixed in with mental, you know, your typical Survivor run and retrieve some puzzle pieces then put the puzzle together challenge. The Yellow Team wins the reward.
During their little barbecue picnic, the winning team is discussing Pete, Abi and Artis. They’ve decided they’re the bad guys and the rest of them are the good guys. Lisa realizes those three are the ones to go to the end with because no one will vote for them to win the game.
Lisa isn’t done with her planning yet, though. She pulls Skupin aside and tells him that Malcom has a hidden immunity idol and that they have to blindside him tonight while he thinks everyone will be voting Penner out. Skupin seems intrigued. But before that can go any further, we head off to the immunity challenge.
At the immunity challenge, we find out there’s only one idol in play this week. The challenge is an obstacle course/puzzle and only three people will be eligible for the idol after the first round. The three making it to the end were Pete, Penner and Jeff. So who assembles the puzzle first? Penner. So Penner will not be shipped out tonight. Lisa continues setting her plan in motion.
She decides to tell Pete about Malcom’s idol and her idea to blindside him. Pete is skeptical about it, so he tells Malcom everything. So Lisa’s plan is foiled. Malcom convinces Pete he doesn’t really have one, so they decide to work on getting Jeff sent home. Skupin has officially gone off the radar.
Jeff then learns his name is being tossed around so he scrambles to talk enough people into sending Pete out. At this point it seems no one knows what’s going on! And things get even crazier at Tribal Council.
So they’re off to Tribal Council and Jeff P starts his awesome condescending interrogations. He asks Skupin if he’s worried. Skupin was but feels better now that there are other plans in motion. Then Malcom calls out Lisa. Lisa explains her plan to blindside Malcom. Then he pulls out his idol and waves it at everyone. Most people are shocked.
Then Jeff asks if anyone else has one. And even though I don’t really think he meant for anyone to reveal it at that moment, Abi pulls hers out and everyone is shocked once again.
So then people start speaking in code and throwing out phrases like Plan A and Plan B. Then Pete says he thinks they’re talking about him and says he will probably be going home. Then Jeff P says that this is the most complicated and entertaining Tribal Council in history. Agreed.
So with that, it’s time to vote. When the voting is done, Jeff asks if anyone wants to play their idols and Malcom and Abi both say nothing. So despite all the uncertainty, they at least feel confident enough not to play their idols. So the votes play out like this:
- Abi: 1 Vote
- Pete: Four Votes
- Jeff: Five Votes
Jeff has been eliminated and Jeff P calls it a missed opportunity because two people who have idols could have been eliminated from the game.
What did you think of this crazy episode of Survivor 2012? Do you think Lisa put a huge target on her back (especially now that Jeff isn’t there to work on getting the vets out)?
