We left Survivor South Africa: Malaysia Episode 9 with a cliffhanger. Leading up to the merge, people were stupid and voted people off based on personality clashes rather than trying to navigate the waters and try to make more sensible decisions. What this eventually led to was a merged tribe with 4 original Iban members and 4 original Bajau members, none of whom were willing to budge. That led to a 4-4 tie vote between Lorette and Hein. In episode 10, they are participating in a challenge to determine who goes home. Both must count down to 30 seconds and touch the skull closest to 30 seconds. The person further from that mark will be eliminated.
The longest 30 seconds ever. Lorette touches the skull first, followed by Hein way too long after. With 26 seconds, Lorette is safe. With 47.8 seconds, Hein has been voted off the island. Aw hell. So basically I have to hope for at least one of three things to happen here. 1) There’s some sort of ghost twist like last year. 2) Dyke can keep winning immunity. 3) One of the members of ex-Bajau can weasel their way into the other camp when we get down to 5. Angie’s way too emotional, and Grant dragged Lisa along for weeks too long for no reason and to his own detriment. I do somewhat like Mandla and Lorette, however, even if neither have really stood out in the game thus far.
When they get back to camp, Lorette says she thinks Hein threw the challenge, as does Amanda. Dyke can’t figure out what the heck happened. Angie takes the opportunity to remind ex-Bajau they’re going to be voted off. She says she was irritated by them voting by Lorette. Yeah, there’s a shock. This coming from the girl who’s been irritated for two weeks straight.
The reward challenge is the mean question challenge where majority rules. Reward is a trip to a spa.
Who’s most difficult to sleep next to? The group votes for Dyke, and Angela and Dyke get it wrong.
Who smells the worst? The group votes for Mandla. Mandla, Dyke, and Angie get it wrong.
Who is the most untrustworthy? The group votes for Dyke, including Dyke, the only person smart enough to vote for himself. Lorette, Angela, Angie, and Amanda get it wrong.
Who talks the most? The group votes Amanda. Lorette, Mandla, and Amanda get it wrong, voting for Angela.
Who does the least work around camp? Votes are split between Amanda, Angela, Angie, and Dyke (obviously a throwaway vote not to offend anyone), with Amanda being the one who receives the most votes. Angela, Lorette, Mandla, Amanda, and Angie are incorrect. This eliminates Angie, Angela, Amanda, and Mandla.
Who has had the easiest ride into merge? Angie receives a majority vote, including one from her ally Lorette. Interesting. Let’s see how long this takes to irritate Angie. Grant is incorrect.
Who is the biggest charmer? Lorette again with an interesting vote, as she and Dyke vote for Dyke. Grant is incorrect. This is bringing me back to his time with Lisa. He just keeps voting how he thinks he can kiss up to Angie best.
Who is the biggest whinger? The majority votes for Amanda. Lorette has been eliminated.
Whose life would the million change the most? All the eliminated people get to vote as well. Angela, Lorette, and Dyke receive votes, with Dyke being the majority answer. Except for the two Angela votes, most of the votes were along tribal lines.
Dyke wins reward. He gets to choose one person to bring along with him. Some good potential strategizing time, but he opts to live up to his promise of taking one of the girls, so he chooses Amanda. At the spa, they start off by having some tea and taking a bath. Dyke shaves for the first time in weeks. Then both get a massage. This is followed by a hottub and drinks.
Lorette didn’t know what the word whinger meant, which explains why she voted for Dyke. I saw that one coming, as I had to look it up as well.
Angie pretends she didn’t even notice Hein was gone because things are still getting done. This confessional is immediately followed by a scene of people scrambling about trying to figure out what the heck they’re doing.
The immunity challenge is called the ring. The tribe will start behind one of the evenly spaced skulls around the circle. When they step into the ring, it’s every man and woman for themselves. Their hands will be bound with shackles to their belts. This is a very easy challenge to gang up on people, so Dyke has his work cut out for him. Mandla and Grant immediately target Dyke but fail to get him further down than one knee (the only acceptable body part to be able to touch the ground). Grant and Lorette are eliminated first. Dyke and Amanda target Mandla, but he just bowls them both over and eliminates them. Angela is eliminated by Angie in the process. So it’s between Angie and Mandla. Obviously Mandla wins immunity.
It’s a foregone conclusion who will be eliminated tonight. All Dyke can do is try to stir things up and warn the guys about a potential girl power alliance. But there’s a ray of hope from Lorette. She says her game, which she’s played the whole time, is to compete against the strongest people. Strategically, there is certainly much potential fault in this, but it’s commendable. Amanda chimes in about how Angie over on the other island said she hated Lorette, and now she’s pretending to like her. This is the reason why I thought voting for Lorette was a mistake previously, as she’s the most likely to be swayed. She says, however, that Angie is not her current problem.
At tribal council, Grant bluntly states the goal in the immunity challenge was to make sure Dyke didn’t win, and he didn’t care who won as long as it wasn’t Dyke. Lorette essentially acknowledges that her theory about wanting to compete against only the strongest has passed, and follows this up saying that Mandla is her next target. Hmm. When asked if keeping her word is important, Angie reiterates her position that she’d be willing to screw over her alliance when the need arises. Completely valid gameplay, but that’s the kind of thing you keep to yourself.
Votes:
Dyke
Angie
Dyke
Grant
Grant
Dyke
Dyke
What a horrible end to this episode. Hein and Dyke both voted out. Who the heck do I root for now?
Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another recap of Survivor South Africa: Malaysia episode 11.