The anticlimactic conclusion to a very eventful Survivor: Caramoan Episode 9 saw the Favorites choosing the safe vote, Michael, for elimination.
Everybody other than the two remaining outcasts from the other tribe plus Malcolm (who just dug himself in an even deeper hole, if that’s possible) heads off for a meeting immediately after Tribal Council.
The next morning, Dawn is having a breakdown. She lost her retainer that has some teeth in it, and she says she’ll pull herself from the game if she can’t find it. Brenda goes looking in the water for her, and seconds later she ends the drama by finding it.
For the challenge, they will be divided into two teams of five to run through an obstacle course, collect bags, and shoot the balls inside into a basket. Reward is a trip to a resort for some lunch. The purple team is Reynold, Erik, Dawn, Cochran, and Phillip; the orange team is Eddie, Malcolm, Sherri, Andrea, and Brenda.
Malcolm’s strategy is to find all his team’s bags so they don’t have to. This gives the purple team an early lead, but it may pay off later. The second person to run, Reynold, has decided to copy Malcolm’s strategy. Reynold has now found his team’s bags in addition to having a one lap advantage over Malcolm, who has a good strategy, but he’s just too slow to make it work. A very slow Sherri allows the purple team to extend their lead even further, now close to two full laps. Purple has all their balls in before orange can even start shooting.
Unlike the typical reward, we don’t see any strategizing this time. Instead, the focus is Dawn’s continuing paranoia. She says she needs a break. That can be arranged. The next morning, she wakes up and says she’s normal again. So now they can strategize. Reynold is the target.
At the immunity challenge, they will race across a platform, jump into the ocean, swim under the platform by pulling themselves along a rope, grab a ring, move it to the second post, and repeat.
Reynold takes a very large lead in the first heat, and Andrea gets the second spot in the finals. Phillip says he’s sitting out because he’s afraid of the water, giving the others 50/50 odds of advancing. You’d think this would come down to Eddie and Malcolm, and it does. Until Eddie somehow fails to put his second ring on the post, which allows Brenda to take the final spot. The final round consists of five rings instead of just two. It’s obviously going to be Malcolm against Reynold. Half way through, and Reynold overtakes Malcolm. Reynold wins immunity. Their plans just went all to hell.
The simple solution is to just replace Reynold’s name with Eddie with Malcolm still receiving the remainder of the split votes. The question is: who’s the target? Malcolm doesn’t seem overly concerned about that question, though, as he hopes to not play his idol tonight.
As multiple people sit around back at camp, the boys go hunting for an idol, and so do Andrea and Dawn. Unlike his other idol that nobody knows about, Malcolm now has a second one, which half the tribe sees.
They intend to continue their plan anyway. 4 for Malcolm, 3 for Eddie, then Eddie on the revote if Malcolm happens to play it.
If he’s willing to burn two idols here, Malcolm has the chance to make a huge move. He could send any Favorite of his choice packing. Of course, he’d still be hugely outnumbered in that case, but at least it’s something. Or he could be a complete dumbass and be dismissed with two idols in his pocket.
Before they even get to the vote, Malcolm gives his other idol to Eddie. I’d just go ahead and vote as if they weren’t going to play them because it’s not like it matters. If somebody else is going home anyway, the revote will seal their fate.
To give them some further incentive to switch, Malcolm says the three of them are voting for Phillip.
Erik would like to make a point. What if these idols don’t get played? At least somebody is considering that very real possibility. Phillip says they need to just vote how they planned.
Eddie plays his idol that he just received minutes ago. Malcolm pretends he’s not going to play his, but he does.
Votes
Malcolm (does not count)
Malcolm (does not count)
Eddie (does not count)
Eddie (does not count)
Eddie (does not count)
Eddie (does not count)
Phillip
Phillip
Phillip
With 3 votes (plus one from Erik), Phillip has been voted off the island. I don’t suspect anyone on the island will miss him, even if he would not have been their ideal target.
Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Survivor: Caramoan Episode 11, which airs Wednesday at 8/7c on CBS.