Author: Shane

Realizing she had no chance to win anyway, Julie quit in Survivor: San Juan del Sur Episode 7, denying the people who were counting on her as a number the opportunity to use her and pretend to be nice.

Jon & Jaclyn had decided to take out Jeremy. The lack of a vote frees them up for the time being from having to openly choose a side. It also means we’re stuck with Jeremy.

At the challenge, they will build a temple like the Mayans (you know, probably). They toss the heavy puzzle pieces on a platform and push it back and forth. Reward is a taco bar. Keith, Natalie, Reed, Jeremy, and Wes (yellow) are against Alec, Josh, Baylor, Jon, and Jaclyn (blue). Missy was not picked. The yellow team is ahead for the whole initial part of the challenge, and they never give up that lead. They send Jon to Exile. Oh, now that’s not funny at all. I half expected them to send Missy after not letting her play.

The group of people who go on the reward are in opposite alliances, and they don’t have any interest in talking strategy. Josh, however, does make an effort with Baylor, who was his ally until her mother told her not to be. She’s not budging.

As the lone person on Exile Island, Jon gets the clue all to himself. There is a new idol there with him. He can search without interruption or anyone knowing. After climbing a rock formation that is sticking out like a sore thumb (what does that mean anyway?), he finds it.

The girls seem to be going out of their way to be offended by the guys, whose personalities are probably those with which it is easy to get easily offended. Baylor at least admits that she’s easily bothered. Jaclyn assumes that Jon will do whatever she tells him, so she can get rid of them if she wants.

Immunity is a memory challenge using a series of symbols and cubes. Jon is eliminated on only the second symbol. Reed drops next. Then Wes and Alec. Natalie is eliminated on the first symbol in the second round. Then Baylor. Jaclyn follows. Keith and Missy are next. Jeremy beats Josh to win immunity.

Jeremy’s win screws over Josh’s plans once again. That makes Baylor the new target, proposed by Josh, who she refused to even pretend to maybe be considering as an ally. Keith reveals this plan to Missy.

Now comes Jaclyn’s pitch to Jon. She doesn’t like the guys any more. Oh, and they may be good at immunity challenges (she wants to keep Jeremy, though). Jon’s not sure he wants to do as he is told.

Votes
Baylor
Josh
Baylor
Josh
Baylor
Josh
Baylor
Josh
Baylor
Josh
Josh

With 6 votes, Josh has been voted off the island, as Jon follows orders. He seemed to be playing a great game, but I must have missed the part where he became a rude fratboy in need of disdain from the women.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Survivor: San Juan del Sur Episode 9, which airs Wednesday at 8/7c on CBS.

Dale followed his daughter right off the island in Survivor: San Juan del Sur Episode 6.

The following day, Missy explains their plans to Keith. He did not suspect he would be receiving votes, as nobody bothered to tell him. However plausible their justification (to flush out the idol), he is not happy.

The tribes receive treemail informing them of a merge. After meeting for a feast, they return to their new camp, the former Coyopa camp.

Jeremy hopes to form an alliance with himself, Natalie, Julie, Jon & Jaclyn, and Missy & Baylor. Great. I hope they don’t take over because I’m hard pressed to find someone on that list to root for.

Josh has an alternate plan: couples against singles. The dilemma here is Baylor’s. Her only ally is Josh, while her mom is allied with that list of people who Jeremy wants to join. Missy seems to be pulling the strings here. Realizing that is a lost cause, Josh approaches Jon and Jaclyn instead. That makes them the swing votes again.

Josh wishes Wes a happy birthday. Then Keith remembers what day it is.

They know that the trail mix was packed before leaving the feast. Julie has it and intends to keep it a secret, perhaps sharing with people she likes. Don’t hide food on Survivor. That is one of the worst mistakes you can make. This is very basic Survivor 101 that we learned even during the earliest seasons.

For the immunity challenge, they will balance balls on a disc attached to ropes. Jeremy is out quickly. Just before the end of the first round (10 minutes), Missy and Julie drop. The next round will require them to move further back. Reed drops. Baylor is next followed by Alec and Jaclyn. The wind is playing a huge role here. This seems to be more about luck than what you would think is an endurance competition. Natalie is next. After 25 minutes, they add a second ball. Josh drops. Then Jon. Keith beats Wes to win immunity.

Now that she knows she’s been busted for stealing food, Julie is talking about quitting again. Missy tells her she needs her. She wants her to stick around. Julie knows exactly what this means. For one more vote anyway. Then she can quit.

As Josh seems to be the puppetmaster, Jeremy’s vote tonight will be for him. The other side wants to get rid of Jeremy. Jon has decided he does not trust Jeremy.

For all the talk about how they are going to vote, it’s all irrelevant, at least for tonight. Julie asks Jeff to come to the island. In addition to missing her boyfriend, she acknowledges that part of it is that she thinks she has already lost the game anyway. As she had discussed, she quits. One of the weakest reasons to quit I have seen, though I do like that she bowed out now rather than having people pretend to like her just because they were using her as a number to be chopped down later.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Survivor: San Juan del Sur Episode 8, which airs Wednesday at 8/7c on CBS.

When given the choice between the two pairs, Jaclyn and Jon went with Missy and Baylor in Survivor: San Juan del Sur Episode 5, helping to vote out Kelley.

Dale pulls out his fake idol. He informs Jon that he won’t be going home next time. More than once. He’s a little too adamant about it, but that doesn’t seem to prevent the rumor from being believed.

Jeremy’s angry about the proposed trade. Even though they have nothing to eat, he doesn’t care. Of course, he was part of the problem of eating too much rice originally.

As promised, Jeff shows up at camp the next day with a bag of rice. He can only think of one other time that someone has needed this sort of help, back in Australia (season 2) when perhaps people did not know any better, and they also had some other hardships that contributed. This is the first tribe of gluttons who suck at planning.

In order to receive enough rice to last the rest of the game, he wants the tarp, hammock, bed roll, hatchet, hammer, one of the pots, and the extra flint. Basically, everything they have won so far during their winning streak, aside from the fishing gear that they already gave up so they could replace the lost flint.

For the reward challenge, one person at each tribe will be blindfolded, go across obstacles to stations and collect puzzle pieces (while avoiding the similar dummy pieces), then go to the other station to complete the puzzle. Reward is chicken and steak. Reed and Baylor are nominated by their tribes as the strongest competitors for this challenge. They are both in about the same place when they get back to the station with all their pieces. Reed places a single dummy piece, which he correctly replaces before asking for confirmation, and he wins reward for Hunahpu as usual.

Baylor will be going to Exile Island. Reed wants to send Julie with her. Then Natalie pipes up and volunteers to go instead. I’m not sure what she gains from this, but what she does not gain is a meal, as she will not participate in the reward. Her explanation is that she wants Missy and Baylor to take care of her after the merge. When they do arrive, Baylor volunteers the idol clue.

Jeremy views Josh and Reed as threats. I’m losing track of how many people are his targets.

As fate would have it, the day they give up their tarp, it starts raining. Julie is the most shaken up about this and is talking about quitting.

For the immunity challenge, they will race up and over a wall, move a large wooden cube, and get puzzle pieces by unwinding them from a spring. Then two tribe members will put together the puzzle. Julie sits out for Hunahpu. Hunahpu takes the lead as usual, but Jon manages to overtake Jeremy when he is retrieving puzzle pieces. Jon’s dominance continues and gives his team a large lead heading into the puzzle. With 8 pieces in total, Jon manages to place 3 of them before the other tribe even places any. As Coyopa falls apart on the last half of the puzzle, however, Hunahpu retakes the lead and wins immunity.

Dale has a new strategy. He offers his fake idol (at least he’s pretty sure it’s fake) to Jon if he is not voted out tonight. This is a much more interesting strategy. They could just split the vote and get rid of Keith in case Dale plays an idol, but now Jon has incentive to keep Dale.

Votes
Dale
Keith
Missy
Keith
Dale
Dale

With 3 votes, Dale has been voted off the island. Given the ties Missy and Baylor have on the other side, whereas Dale has nobody, I’m not sure this was the right move, although it beats trying to play a fake idol and having it backfire.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Survivor: San Juan del Sur Episode 7, which airs Wednesday at 8/7c on CBS.