In The Biggest Loser 4 Episode 6, the already decimated red team decided to just go for broke and vote for a tie, eliminating the person they considered the biggest individual game threat, Phil, who has remained the only person giving them even a prayer of remaining competitive. Blue team, the winner of the weigh in, was more than happy to oblige.

Lucky for the red team, the teams are being broken up, and they will be divided into new teams of three. The winner of the temptation will configure the teams as they see fit. They will be playing high-low and be betting with calories. Whatever they bet, they have to eat.

Everybody antes up, two vanilla wafers, totalling 36 calories, with the exception of Kae, who’s not only been consistently the biggest loser, but just says it’s not worth it. Bryan gets a 2 and decides to bluff, raising 3 vanilla wafers (to 90 calories total). Bill raises two crackers (to 122 calories total). Amy tosses in a stack of Reese’s peanutbutter cups (to 522 calories total), a ridiculous bet that may have been based more on eating chocolate and peanutbutter than actually winning, but big enough to scare some people. Neil folds. Isabeau with an ace calls, as does Nicole. Ryan folds, as does David. Hollie raises three chocolate chip cookies (to 681 calories total). Julie folds. Jez raises cheese and two chocolate peppermints (to 857 calories total). Despite only having a 2, Bryan raises two cheese and two Oreos (to 1103 calories total). Bill folds. Amy again makes the most ridiculous raise, tossing in her whole pile (to 1750 calories total). At least she’s now gone from saying “Mmm…” to being grossed out, though. Julie, despite having an Ace, folds because she doesn’t think it’s worth it. Nicole also folds, as does Hollie. Jez calls. Bryan finally folds. Why the hell he ate the 1103 calories in the first place is beyond me. It comes down to Amy and Jez. Amy has a 9. Jez wins with an Ace.

Team one: Kae, David, Hollie
Team two: Amy, Julie, Bill
Team three: Bryan, Nicole, Ryan
Team four: Neil, Isabeau, Jez

The trainers come in, and the players get them up to speed. Then Amy starts whining at Kim for wanting to get rid of her. Don’t worry, Amy, nobody’s going to get rid of you any time soon. Amy decides to train with Jillian instead. She couldn’t even handle training with Kim. Other than that, all the teams stick with their original trainers.

Teams must complete 75 revolutions of metal arms. Two team members will be on platforms (adding their weight to what must be pushed), while the third pushes the arm, and they can swap out as needed. The winner will receive a Bowflex home gym. Kae and Hollie come up with the strategy of using their weight to help out, pushing from the platform. Neil’s the first to swap out at about 5 circles. Bill subs out at 12. Bryan and Bill lead their teams and are pretty competitive throughout, but Bill’s team eventually takes a 2 circle lead. Bill, Amy, and Julie win the challenge.

It’s time for the weigh in.

Bill: 261 pounds (-7)
Amy: 265 pounds (no change)
Julie: 192 pounds (-3)
Total: -10 pounds (1.37%)

I don’t think Amy’s numbers necessarily reflect her trainer switch so much as her attitude.

Bryan: 297 pounds (-7)
Ryan: 321 pounds (+1)
Nicole: 244 pounds (-4)
Total: -10 pounds (1.15%)

Kae: 174 pounds (-4)
Hollie: 223 pounds (-2)
David: 315 pounds (-8)
Total: -14 pounds (1.93%)

Jez: 289 pounds (-6)
Isabeau: 255 pounds (-4)
Neil: 372 pounds (+17)
Total: +7 pounds (+0.77%)

What the hell was that? Wow, Jez, great job of picking teams. Neil tries to cover it up, but no matter what his argument is, I find it hard to believe anyone would buy it. Neil finally reveals that he made a promise to blue team he’d do whatever he could to keep them there, including throwing the weigh in to get rid of one of his new teammates from the black team. From the sounds of it, he drank excessive amounts of water, enough to run the risk of death from water intoxication.

Votes
Julie, Bill, Amy: Neil
Ryan, Bryan, Nicole: Jez
David, Kae, Hollie: Jez

Jez has been eliminated. He definitely got blindsided by Neil’s over the top actions. What Neil did is completely understandable because it is a game and will buy him more time in the house, but next time try not to make it so ridiculously obvious.

Today, Jez weighs 242 pounds, down 103 pounds from his starting weight of 345.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another recap of The Biggest Loser 4 episode 8, which airs Tuesday at 8:30/7:30c on NBC.

This is a rare unrelated to TV post (except that it does screw up the TV times of shows for night owls), but this is one of those odd things I noticed people are searching for on this site, so I’m making this post to help those who are searching for the answer.

In the US, Daylight Saving Time ends next Sunday November 4 at 2AM.

In the European Union, summer time ended this morning at 1AM.

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.

The Race 2 is a production of ICTV that’s structured similarly to The Amazing Race. Watch The Race 2 online.

In The Race 2 Episode 4, Dave & Matt kept pushing and ended up going too far, receiving a time penalty that dropped them to last for a prank they played. Their actions were enough to get the other teams to form an “alliance” with a common goal of getting rid of Dave & Matt. This all led to one of the best tasks I’ve seen in quite some time, with much drama ensuing, climaxing with a physical altercation. It wasn’t long before the alliance started ditching each other, and all it ultimately did was get them so worked up that they were willing to all rush in the wrong direction. But at the end of the day, unable to get any directions (still not sure why they asked a random person in a gas station rather than the person behind the counter), Dave & Matt were finally eliminated after a strong, albeit perhaps questionable, run.

In episode 5, part 1 of the finale, I’m expecting the alliance to just completely crumble, as there is no basis for it any more, not that using an alliance to complain about one team had basis to begin with.

Teams depart in the order in which they arrived.

First: Hal & Matilda
Second: Daniel & Jeff
Third: Sadie & Ginalola (right behind)
Fourth: Jon & Jenna

They first head to the Side Hill Acres Dairy Goat Farm in Candor. The challenge is to find a goat with a specific numbered tag, holding hands until they do, and milk it. They receive instructions from the kids on the farm how to milk the goats. Hal & Matilda arrive first. Daniel & Jeff arrive second with no trouble. Sadie & Ginalola stop to ask for directions but still get lost. Daniel & Jeff manage to finish first, and Matilda accidentally spilling hers halfway through doesn’t help Hal & Matilda any. Sadie & Ginalola see both Daniel & Jeff and Hal & Matilda driving in the opposite direction as they’re heading toward the challenge, and they arrive in third. Jon & Jenna depart 25 minutes behind the other teams, a huge gap to make up, and if they have a chance will be up to whether there’s another challenge like the one that killed them in the last episode. If the order of the editing is any indication, they arrive at this challenge after the other teams have finished the next one.

The next destination is the only operating flax field in New York state, down the street. They must pick and bundle 5 bundles of flax for each teammate and stack them in the proper formation. Doesn’t appear to be any real trick to this one, so all the teams should finish within a similar amount of time. Daniel & Jeff arrive first, with Hal & Matilda close behind. Sadie & Ginalola arrive third, having finished the previous challenge the fastest of all.

After this, teams must return to Ithaca and go to Gino’s Pizzeria. The task is to deliver pizzas to three different addresses in Ithaca. Hal & Matilda, who aren’t sure where they’re going, take the lead as Daniel & Jeff stop for directions. Sadie & Ginalola are the only team of the three completely aware of where they’re going and catch up to and are behind Daniel & Jeff, hoping they keep going the wrong way and get lost. They eventually just decide to pass them, though, and then figure out how to lose them. When they arrive in Ithaca, parking proves to be a problem for all the teams, so they have to find a spot to park and run from there.

Hal & Matilda arrive first, with Sadie & Ginalola right behind. Daniel & Jeff have absolutely no idea where they’re going and have to keep stopping for directions, but they do arrive in third. This is the break last place Jon & Jenna were hoping for, and as Daniel & Jeff are leaving to deliver their pizzas, Jon & Jenna see them. Sadie & Ginalola get off to an early lead with their first delivery. Daniel & Jeff decide to make the initial delivery by foot, which is Sadie & Ginalola’s second stop shortly thereafter, and after leaving, Daniel & Jeff decide to just follow them… briefly anyway. Jon & Jenna, who know the area and have developed a strategy instead of just driving aimlessly, manage to work their way up to first place. Sadie & Ginalola get to the last apartment second and ask whether a blonde arrived there, not being able to figure out what the response actually meant.

The pitstop is the top of the parking garage nearby.

First: Jon & Jenna
Second: Sadie & Ginalola
Third: Hal & Matilda
Fourth: Daniel & Jeff (eliminated)

This leg ultimately came down to familiarity with the area, or lack thereof, but it did keep things interesting, even if what seemed like a predictable Jon & Jenna boot was merely replaced by a predictable Daniel & Jeff boot. They remain upbeat as they’re being eliminated.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another recap of The Race 2 Episode 6.

CBS won the night as usual. Deal or No Deal kept NBC competitive. Smackdown, one of the The CW’s consistently strong performers, was good enough to give the network a rare fourth place. Fox, meanwhile, has been struggling to find something to work in the Friday night slot, having cancelled their other reality show Nashville for low ratings, which makes me wonder whether Next Great American Band ever had a chance to begin with. Regardless, it’s back to the drawing board.

CBS
Viewers: 9.37 million
18-49: 2.6/8

8-9 Ghost Whisperer
Viewers: 9.87 million
18-49: 2.7/10

9-10 Moonlight
Viewers: 8.56 million
18-49: 2.4/7

10-11 Numb3rs
Viewers: 9.68 million
18-49: 2.7/8

NBC
Viewers: 8.18 million
18-49: 2.2/7

8-9 Deal or No Deal
Viewers: 10.50 million
18-49: 2.3/8

9-10 Friday Night Lights
Viewers: 5.88 million
18-49: 2.0/6

10-11 Las Vegas
Viewers: 8.18 million
18-49: 2.4/8

ABC
Viewers: 6.57 million
18-49: 1.7/5

8-9 Grey’s Anatomy (rerun)
Viewers: 4.31 million
18-49: 1.3/5

9-10 Women’s Murder Club
Viewers: 8.90 million
18-49: 2.0/6

10-11 Men in Trees
Viewers: 6.51 million
18-49: 1.7/5

CW
Viewers: 4.61 million
18-49: 1.4/5

8-10 Friday Night Smackdown!
Viewers: 4.61 million
18-49: 1.4/5

Fox
Viewers: 2.87 million
18-49: 1.2/4

8-10 The Next Great American Band
Viewers: 2.87 million
18-49: 1.2/4

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for continued Nielsen Ratings coverage.

Fast National data is preliminary. Source: Nielsen Media and PIFeedback.

Here is the official NBC description and promo video for Heroes Season 2 Episode 6 The Line. As usual, I’ll work on getting a second preview up prior to the episode airing, which will be followed by a live recap when the show does air.

HEROES
THE LINE
10-29-2007 9:00PM

AT SCHOOL, WEST CONVINCES CLAIRE TO TEACH A BULLYING CHEERLEADER A LESSON — West (Nick D’Agosto) convinces Claire (Hayden Panettiere) to teach head cheerleader Debbie (guest star Dianna Agron) a lesson after she deems Claire too ordinary to join the squad. While Suresh (Sendhil Ramamurthy) faces a serious moral dilemma with the Company, H.R.G. (Jack Coleman) pays his Russian mentor a visit in an effort to locate Isaac’s last prophetic paintings. Meanwhile, nearing the U.S. border, Alejandro (Shalim Ortiz) becomes increasingly uneasy about Sylar’s (Zachary Quinto) intentions, especially towards Maya (Dania Ramirez) . Peter (Milo Ventimiglia) and Caitlin’s (Katie Carr) search for a mysterious doorway he painted ultimately leads them to a surprising place. In feudal Japan, while attempting to repair history, Hiro (Masi Oka) struggles with his feelings for Kensei’s (David Anders) ‘princess’ Yaeko (guest star Eriko Tamura). Noah Gray-Cabey, Dana Davis, Greg Grunberg, Ali Larter, James Kyson Lee and Adrian Pasdar also star. Jimmy Jean-Louis, Adair Tishler and Stephen Tobolowsky guest star.

Show Cast: Milo Ventimiglia, Ali Larter, Hayden Panettiere, Greg Grunberg, Sendhil Ramamurthy, Masi Oka, Adrian Pasdar, Noah Gray-Cabey, Jack Coleman, James Kyson Lee, Dana Davis, Dania Ramirez, Zachary Quinto, Kristen Bell, David Ander

Fox won the night with its World Series coverage. CBS had a typical night and would have won as usual otherwise. Grey’s Anatomy kept ABC close.

FOX
Viewers: 15.64 million
18-49: 4.8/14

World Series Game 2
Viewers: 15.64 million
18-49: 4.8/14

CBS
Viewers: 13.89 million
18-49: 3.9/12

8-9 Survivor: China
Viewers: 14.16 million
18-49: 4.4/12

9-10 CSI (rerun)
Viewers: 14.76 million
18-49: 3.8/12

10-11 Without a Trace
Viewers: 12.75 million
18-49: 3.3/12

ABC
Viewers: 11.96 million
18-49: 4.6/10

8-9 Ugly Betty
Viewers: 9.84 million
18-49: 3.2/9

9-10 Grey’s Anatomy
Viewers: 17.95 million
18-49: 7.3/15

10-11 Big Shots
Viewers: 8.08 million
18-49: 3.3/7

NBC
Viewers: 8.17 million
18-49: 3.8/7

8-8:30 My Name Is Earl
Viewers: 8.23 million
18-49: 3.6/7

8:30-9 30 Rock
Viewers: 6.53 million
18-49: 3.1/5

9-10 The Office
Viewers: 8.98 million
18-49: 4.7/7

10-11 ER
Viewers: 9.12 million
18-49: 3.7/8

CW
Viewers: 3.88 million
18-49: 1.1/2

8-9 Smallville
Viewers: 4.50 million
18-49: 1.8/4

9-10 Supernatural
Viewers: 3.27 million
18-49: 1.3/3

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for continued Nielsen Ratings coverage.

Fast National data is preliminary. Source: Nielsen Media and PIFeedback.

In Survivor South Africa: Malaysia Episode 8, Hein was injured, but it doesn’t look like it’ll amount to much since his tribe won immunity, giving him time to heal. Angie gladly accepted defeat because it allowed her to vote off her former tribemate, Irshaad. Not the brightest move in the world for them to get rid of Irshaad but, well, let’s leave it at that.

As expected, it’s now time for the merger. Following people turning on their own on more than one occasion, we’ve got 4 ex-Iban and 4 ex-Bajau members left.

At the reward challenge, they must use a lasso to grab a stake, and the first two will move on. Mandla and Hein continue to the next stage, where they will again lasso, this time multiple stakes, followed by an idol. Both grab the three stakes in the same amount of time, but Mandla gets the idol first and wins reward. His reward is a camper bed to take back to the island.

Now that they’re a new tribe with a new name (Empu), they head to a new island, a tropical island. With great scenery and lots of food (bananas, pineapple, coconut, tapioca, etc.), they’re pleased. Angie’s so pleased that she says they don’t need Dyke and Hein any more. As expected, Dyke should have made a deal with Irshaad and tried to get rid of her. The old tribes rejoin together for the most part. Lorette and Angie seem like the most likely swing votes, either of which working nicely for ex-Bajau, and both potentially making for a girl power alliance to ultimately take out Dyke and Hein or a swing vote willing to float with them to the end.

Dyke and Hein, while discussing how the tribe already ate way too much of the food they found, decide they should take Angie with them, and Hein says to promise her final three. Angie, who got her way when they got rid of Irshaad, who she couldn’t stand, now decides she doesn’t like Angela or Amanda either and continues to whine.

At the first individual immunity, they will need to free themselves from a post but remained shackled. Angie and Amanda are eliminated. At the next obstacle, they must free themselves from their shackles with knives. Angela is eliminated there. The remaining Survivors must cross a balance beam and grab keys. Lorette and Grant have been eliminated. The final three comes down to Mandla, Hein, and Dyke. They must dig for a treasure chest. Dyke finds his chest first, with Hein closely behind. Hein loses his key, and Dyke wins immunity.

Grant tells Mandla he’ll be targetted because he’s a threat. Since he doesn’t have immunity, Hein is Grant’s target. Angie tells Dyke she can’t go against Grant because he was her first alliance, letting him know she’s not interested. Stupid move. Grant also tells Lorette Mandla’s the target, and says they need to get rid of Hein. The actual plan, however, is not Mandla. Rather, it’s Lorette. Makes more sense to try to swing her to me. After all’s said and done, the discussions seem pretty firm to accept a tie.

Votes:
Hein
Lorette
Hein
Lorette
Hein
Lorette
Hein
Lorette

Nobody budges from the original tribes. We have a 4-4 tie. The elimination game is called the skull. Mark pulls out two stopwatches and will time them. They must count down 30 seconds from when he says go and touch a skull. The person closest to 30 seconds will be safe. Almost as random as the purple rock.

To be continued…

Damn, they know how to do a cliffhanger right.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another recap of Survivor South Africa: Malaysia Episode 10, and don’t forget the live recaps of Survivor: China.

Fox easily won with the start of its World Series coverage. CBS did well, and even Kid Nation, which is still getting low ratings, saw a bounce to near its highest ratings of the season. Private Practice did well for ABC, and America’s Next Top Model continues its strong performance for The CW.

FOX
Viewers: 16.87 million
18-49: 5.6/14

World Series Game 1
Viewers: 16.87 million
18-49: 5.6/14

CBS
Viewers: 12.20 million
18-49: 3.4/9

8-9 Kid Nation
Viewers: 8.03 million
18-49: 2.5/7

9-10 Criminal Minds
Viewers: 14.93 million
18-49: 3.9/9

10-11 CSI: NY
Viewers: 13.64 million
18-49: 3.8/10

ABC
Viewers: 9.93 million
18-49: 3.6/9

8-9 Pushing Daisies
Viewers: 9.45 million
18-49: 3.0/8

9-10 Private Practice
Viewers: 11.77 million
18-49: 4.5/11

10-11 Dirty Sexy Money
Viewers: 8.56 million
18-49: 3.2/6

NBC
Viewers: 7.69 million
18-49: 2.9/7

8-9 Phenomenon
Viewers: 8.35 million
18-49: 2.9/8

9-10 Bionic Woman
Viewers: 7.78 million
18-49: 3.3/8

10-11 Life
Viewers: 6.85 million
18-49: 2.5/6

CW
Viewers: 3.63 million
18-49: 1.8

8-9 America’s Next Top Model
Viewers: 4.72 million
18-49: 2.3/6

9-10 Gossip Girl
Viewers: 2.55 million
18-49: 1.2/3

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for continued Nielsen Ratings coverage.

Fast National data is preliminary. Source: Nielsen Media and PIFeedback.

In Survivor: China episode 5, Peih-Gee pulled off one the best strategic moves I’ve seen in years (albeit still a somewhat risky one), intentionally losing a post-shuffle immunity challenge to avoid being Pagonged. Granted, I haven’t seen much in the way of good strategic moves on Survivor in years, but even with that aside, I’d still say that regardless. Many people probably hated this move because it may seem like a chicken’s way out, but it was really her only logical choice. Following the loss, Aaron was voted out because he’s a better schemer than James. However, unlike Aaron, James can win a challenge single handedly if the opportunity presents itself. So tonight’s ultimate question becomes whether he can save himself given the situation.

Todd tells Amanda he has clues to the hidden immunity idol, which I would hope has been burned by now. He’d previously called people suckers for sharing this type of information.

Reward is to go to a tea house, get pampered, and have tea and a light snack. They must go from room to room and find and untie planks, which will then form a puzzle, a phrase made famous by Confucius. During the challenge, Peih-Gee uses the time to strategize, waiting for a moment alone with Sherea. Brilliant again. She tells Sherea to tell Frosti they’re still there for them. The challenge is pretty much even all along. Fei Long easily wins because Zhan Hu sucked at the puzzle, begging the question just how much difference it would have made if they actually tried at least week’s puzzle. James’ old tribemates are happy to kidnap him, especially Todd because he wants to get another clue for the HII from him.

Courtney still wants to see Jean-Robert go. She couldn’t care less what that means in terms of numbers.

Peih-Gee, Jaime, and Erik start to get concerned that Frosti and Sherea aren’t still with them. So they decide they have to win immunity. Not sure how that increases their odds.

At the first chance he gets, Todd tells James there’s something in the tube that can save him if he gives it to him. James agrees because he doesn’t have another choice. With this fourth clue, Todd figures it out. While Todd and Amanda are searching for the idol, Frosti comes up and starts trying to find it himself. Because of this, he sees the idol when they get it, and they tell him they have to trust him. Todd gives it to James and tells him that he has to throw the challenge and use the idol to get rid of Jaime.

Did I say Peih-Gee was brilliant? Todd’s giving her a run for her money. This plot is also strategically one of the better ones I’ve seen in a long time, not to mention great use of a hidden immunity idol (much better than a weak plot like using it to sway an idiot on the outskirts, then being praised for months as the Yulfather). Todd said he wanted to show us Survivor’s still Survivor, and this is hopefully a sign of things to come.

The immunity challenge is a gross food eating challenge. Frosti beats Peih-Gee on the chicken hearts. Jaime and Courtney eat eel (lame for a challenge like this), with Jaime coming out ahead. Erik beats Amanda eating baby turtles. Despite an early and lengthy effort by James to throw the challenge, Denise can’t get down whatever it was they were eating with that had feathers, so James won to take the lead 3-1. Erik takes the next point and wins the challenge for Zhan Hu. Oddly enough, this was the right thing to do. Unfortunately, it means the damn hidden immunity idol lives another day. Hopefully that will lead to more than just someone being carried to the final three, perhaps another strategy like tonight (minus the anticlimactic part).

Back at camp, todd and Amanda want to get rid of Sherea and hope to form an alliance of Todd, Amanda, Denise, Frosti, James, and Courtney. Courtney would rather eat one of her own and get rid of Jean-Robert, and she tells Sherea. Jean-Robert gets the sense something’s up. Todd, who fears a negative reaction from people if they don’t do what they want, suggests that maybe Jean-Robert’s not such a bad boot, but Amanda doesn’t think now’s the time to get rid of him.

At tribal council, people start attacking Jean-Robert, not caring that they’re just alienating him even further than they already had to begin with. Don’t give him an excuse to flip when the merge happens. For some unknown reason, though, Courtney opens her big mouth and lets Todd know she doesn’t trust him either.

Votes:
Jean-Robert
Jean-Robert
Sherea
Sherea
Sherea
Sherea

As much as I won’t miss Sherea, it’s almost too bad they didn’t have time to plot and discuss getting rid of Courtney. It wouldn’t have been smart, but it would have been well deserved. Granted, watching Sherea’s goodbye video makes me completely sure I won’t miss her. Delusion, party of one.

The vote gives Fei Long a very shaky 6-4 advantage going into what is presumably a merge next week. Jean-Robert, Courtney, Frosti, Erik, Jaime, and Peih-Gee all appear willing and able to stab at least one person on their old tribe in the back.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Survivor: China episode 7 I’m Not As Dumb As I Look, which airs Thursday at 8/7c on CBS.

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