reality tv – Page 164

The Biggest Loser Season 9 Episode 13

The group of non-gameplaying contestants (who are all actually playing the game but refuse to admit it) got rid of Melissa when the opportunity presented itself in The Biggest Loser Season 9 Episode 12.

Alison takes everybody into the gym, where they see change. Each person will balance a tray. Quarters will be added to it until they can’t hold on any longer. The winner gets to keep the money on their tray… times 40 ($10 for every quarter). Daris’ hand is shaking in under 5 minutes. Sunshine has a different strategy from everybody else, sitting at just 10 quarters after 20 minutes. Daris, Sam, and Victoria drop. Once she sees everybody else dropping, Sunshine starts to add some quarters. Ashley’s out next. Koli’s next. Sunshine adds some more. After more than half an hour, O’Neal drops. Andrea drops next. Sunshine is going for $650, while Michael’s going for $1000. Not quite the payoff they may have anticipated. Sunshine’s finally eliminated after more than 50 minutes. Michael wins the challenge and an underwhelming prize. Even Total doesn’t think it was worth it, so they’re going to give Michael $2000, while Sunshine receives $650.

Suze Orman greets the houseguests when they get back into the house, presumably to tell them that credit cards are the root of all evil (a failure to comprehend that available credit does not equal debt). Because he had the highest FICO score, she predicted that Danny would win last season. Speaking of which, he’s back. Danny was over $45,000 in credit card debt, but he just kept putting it off, much like he kept putting off his weight problem. Suze’s advice is to settle any collections they may have outstanding. I hope she went into more detail than that because they may as well just take the money and burn it if all they plan to do is call up creditors and offer to settle for a percentage due.

During their discussion, Koli acknowledges he doesn’t keep track of his calories every day. Really? In week 13? Until she learned that, Suze thought Koli was going to win. Instead, the winner will be Sunshine.

Once they’re done with their chat, Danny heads into the gym with everybody. In this workout, Jillian realizes just how far behind Victoria is. Well, this should lead to some yelling. Today is not the day she’ll have all the answers, but she makes it through the run.

The contestants next meet Alison in the rain. Two people will be getting brand new cars, as 2010 Mazda 3’s are up for grabs. There are 7 balloons, each of which holds 20 keys. There are 140 keys up there. Only two will start the cars. This pretty much is how Ben Franklin discovered electricity. Find a key that works, and you get to keep that car. The pouring rain should create some nice muddy conditions. Speed is all quite irrelevant on this challenge. It’s all about the dumb luck. Shortly after the challenge stats, they then have to deal with the wind picking up. Andrea scores the first car. That reduces the odds in half, but it also means they only have to try in one car instead of two. O’Neal realized that it really doesn’t matter how many keys you try as long as you get the right key. He’s correct in that theory, winning a car for his daughter.

After the challenge, Jillian plans a repeat of the day before with Victoria, except this time she’s going to triple the amount of sprints.

Bob wants to talk to Andrea about her complaining on the scale last time. Despite the complaints, she says she’s changed while on the ranch, learning not to hide.

Back to Victoria. Remember when Jillian said you had to do 30 sprints? Just kidding. It’s actually going to be 35. An exhausted Victoria pushes through all that, but she doesn’t see this as an accomplishment. She just feels beat up. Realizing this may not be accomplishing anything, Jillian decides to put down the boxing gloves and talk, and Victoria acknowledges she never felt good enough.

From the gym, the workout moves outside, where there’s plenty of mud to go around. That means there’s some pretty boy they need to drag through it. Once Bob gets his, he has them ambush Jillian. She’ll be holding a grudge at that last chance workout.

Michael’s starting to see his body get conditioned, even if it’s still big. He manages to jog for a mile without stopping. Bob tells him he should try another mile. So he does a 5k (3.1 miles). With that out of the way, Bob wants 5 miles. Done. But no more.

Sunshine: 192 pounds (-3, 1.54%)
Koli: 270 pounds (-6, 2.17%)
Daris: 226 pounds (-7, 3.00%)
Michael: 363 pounds (-9, 2.42%)
Ashley: 258 pounds (-6, 2.27%)
Victoria: 267 pounds (-5, 1.84%)
O’Neal: 278 pounds (-5, 1.77%)
Andrea: 222 pounds (-3, 1.33%)
Sam: 252 pounds (no change)

That puts Andrea and Sam below the yellow line. Neither a particularly big threat, and both are no stranger to the bottom two.

Votes
Sunshine: Andrea
Ashley: Sam
Victoria: Andrea
Koli: Andrea
Michael: Andrea

With 4 votes, Andrea is not The Biggest Loser. She’s now a spin instructor and plans to become a personal trainer.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of The Biggest Loser Season 9 Episode 14, which airs Tuesday at 8/7c on NBC.

Survivor South Africa: Santa Carolina Episode 12

In yet another tie vote, this time designed specifically to get rid of one player, Izak was voted off the island in Survivor South Africa: Santa Carolina Episode 11.

Ashley makes a final two deal with GiGi, the final piece of the puzzle she’s been putting together.

The reward challenge is to hit a ball. The further it goes, the more points they get, as long as it stays in bounds. They get the highest score if they hit it through the net in the middle. Visitors from home arrive: GiGi’s husband, Kaseran’s mom, Sade’s father, Ashley’s husband, and ProVerb’s wife. The winner will get a whole day with their loved one. Hitting her ball all of two feet, Ashley scores 1. GiGi also scores 1, a little more convincingly. Kaseran scores 6. ProVerb scores 4. Sade scores 2. Ashley’s second hit is much better, bringing her to 3. GiGi scores 5 for a total of 6. Kaseran scores 6 again for a total of 12. ProVerb scores an 8 to tie the lead at 12. Sade gets 5 to bring her score to 7. Ashley’s final hit brings her to 6. GiGi adds 3 for a total of 9. Kas gets another 6 for 18. That eliminates Ashley, GiGi, and Sade. Pro’s final hit goes for 5 for a total of 17. Kaseran wins reward. He can forego this reward in exchange for giving it away. Without any thought, he lets everybody else have the reward. In addition to the earned brownie points, he also gets to join in the family lunch.

Now Ashley feels a bit guilty about her plans to stab Kas in the back, but her husband tells her it’s a game and she should go with whatever gives her the best chance of winning.

Considering all the digging that’s been done, you’d think somebody would have found the idol by now, but it’s still out there for the taking. Ashley manages to find it right under their crest as the clue said, further solidifying her power base.

At the site of one of the cannons that defended the island, the immunity challenge is to lift a cannon ball between two stakes and hold it in the air for as long as they can. Kas opts for an underhanded grip, whereas everybody else goes for an overhanded grip. It would seem underhanded is wiser considering their arms are going to get tired. Pro’s ball slips, but he stops it from falling. His options would be to leave it where it is or take the risk of stabilizing it. While he’s thinking, Kaseran’s ball slips, and he fails to catch it without it touching his body. Shortly thereafter, Pro is out. GiGi is next to drop. Sade’s getting shaky, and it appears Ashley will win yet another immunity challenge. She does.

The obvious plan now is to get rid of Kaseran, news that Ashley plans to break to him rather than blindsiding him that night. His only hope now is to find that hidden immunity idol. He’s digging in the right area, where he should have dug previously. Too bad he shared the clue with Ashley, who already found it earlier in the morning. Unable to find the idol, his last ditch effort is to talk to GiGi.

GiGi and Sade are completely delighted at the way things are unfolding. Ashley’s turned herself into the villain. Either people will respect her for playing a strong game, or they’ll be angry at her for being a backstabber. Their best hope for a win is the latter.

Votes
Sade
Kaseran
Sade
Kaseran
Kaseran

By a vote of 3-2, Kaseran has been voted off the island, pulling the knife out of his back as he goes. Nico tells Pro he might need to be worried.

Stay tuned to dingorue for another recap of Survivor South Africa: Santa Carolina Episode 13.

Survivor South Africa: Santa Carolina Episode 11

The inevitable next boot in line, Gys, was eliminated in Survivor South Africa: Santa Carolina Episode 10. In casting his vote, ProVerb decided to stir the pot some more, voting against Izak just because he could.

With the departure of Gys, somebody’s going to have to take his place as the fisherman. Izak goes out with the spear and grabs a fish on his first try. Sade as well manages to catch a fish the old fashioned way. Ashley, however, has no interest in trying.

Pro has decided his vote was cowardly, and he apologizes to Izak for it.

Each contestant starts the reward challenge behind a corkscrew, which they must unscrew by running around it. They will continue through multiple stages until they are the last one standing. Reward is a helicopter ride to a lighthouse for a picnic, or some deep sea fishing where they can keep what they’ve caught and get treated to a spread. In either case, they get some Hunter’s Dry, which apparently refreshes like nothing else on Earth. A dizzy Sade is off to the next stage first. She is followed by Izak, ProVerb, and Kaseran. GiGi and Ashley are out. Sade is also the first person to complete the second stage, and she’s followed closely by Izak. Izak wins reward by a few seconds. He opts for the fishing. Rather than taking the runner up, he takes Ashley. It seems she promised her daughter she’d catch a fish, though she has not yet tried to do so in the three weeks they’ve been on the island.

GiGi tells Kas and ProVerb they should get rid of Izak because he’s a threat to them. Granted, she tells us that Kaseran is another target of hers. Ashley thinks Izak’s next in line.

When they’re done with their reward in which they ate as much as they possibly could, Ashley decides to break the rules and stash as much food as she can. They’ve also caught some huge fish.

Kaseran has been digging holes all day. He’s done looking for that idol. Whoever finds it finds it.

Ashley reconfirms the all female alliance. Obviously, the other two are still onboard because it’s not like they have any other choice. The problem for Ashley is that if either of the other two win that final immunity, their loyalty would be to each other rather than to Ashley. Then again, given the irrational voting from some of the guys, how trustworthy they can be is questionable.

Each person will start behind a table and must familiarize themselves with masks using their hands because they will be blindfolded the whole time. They must then recreate their masks using three bags of puzzle pieces, which they will take through the obstacle course one bag at a time. Kaseran is the first one to grab his second bag. Ashley’s behind him. ProVerb and GiGi join Kaseran and Ashley in starting their puzzle. Having made three trips was not enough for Kas, who returns for another feel. Before he gets back, Ashley wins immunity.

Of all the people who were in danger, Ashley was not one of them, so that leaves the playing field wide open for whoever they want to get rid of.

Pro doesn’t want to vote for Izak this time since he apologized to him for doing that already. Kaseran, however, wants to target Izak. They can pull this off without Pro’s vote, but with would at least demonstrate a unified front.

Ashley suggests an alternate strategy so that they don’t get their hands bloodied. Split the vote: 2 Sade, 2 GiGi, and 2 Izak. Thanks to Pro’s vote from the previous tribal council, Izak would go home. This would also mean that Ashley’s the only person on the tribe without any previous votes. The dicey part of this is getting Pro and Izak to fall in line. One or two people flipping could mess up everything, but it appears Ashley’s got all her ducks in a row as they head off to tribal council.

Votes
Sade
GiGi
Sade
GiGi
Izak
Izak

This three way tie brings us to consider previous votes. With his 1 previous vote from the last tribal council, Izak has been voted off the island. He realizes he’s been set up, but nonetheless, he seems to be rooting for Ashley and Kaseran, who he blames for his downfall.

Stay tuned to dingorue for another recap of Survivor South Africa: Santa Carolina Episode 12.

The Celebrity Apprentice 3 Episode 5

Unable to text or use a computer, Rod Blagojevich was eliminated in The Celebrity Apprentice 3 Episode 4.

Michael Johnson, who nominated Rod as project manager last week out of spite (a terrible decision), comes back to the loft doubting another of his teammates, Bret Michaels.

Sharon Osbourne is not there due to illness. Cyndi Lauper will also be away since she has to go meet the President. Those two out of the picture should give Holly and Summer less reason to be snippy. This makes for 4 girls against 4 guys.

They will be working with Right Guard to introduce their “best line of products ever.” They will create a 30 second television commercial and a 10 second Internet commercial. Their focus will be on young male sports enthusiasts. They will be judged on creativity, brand integration, and overall presentation.

Holly Robinson Peete will be the project manager for her team. Curtis Stone wants to be the PM for the guys.

Since Right Guard is the official deodorant of the NBA, Clyde Drexler and Scottie Pippen will be working with them. While they’re in the gym, the first contestant to score a basket gets $10,000 for their project manager’s charity. After almost everybody else misses, Maria comes up in her six inch stilettos and sinks the shot.

Holly’s immediate thought is of her funky smelling 12-13 year old son. The execs tell them they need to make sure they appeal to the target demographic, rather than the purchaser.

Bret has a lengthy pitch, of which his team likes some elements once he finally gets to the point. They’re learning to be patient with him.

Scottie Pippen is working with the women; Clyde Drexler is the NBA player for the men. Michael played on some Olympic teams with Clyde, so he knows him pretty well. Curtis, however, wasn’t even in this country then, so he doesn’t know who he is.

Holly calls Chris Paul, the spokesman for Right Guard, who says their idea is on the right track.

Cyndi calls from the White House wanting to help, so Holly gives her some busy work to get rid of her.

Bret received a text to call his daughter. He finds out that she is getting tested for diabetes, which he has had since he was a kid.

Scottie has to hop on a plane less than 4 hours after they arrive at the location, so the girls are going to need to work quickly.

When the men arrive, they find out that it’s just a blank room. Bret suggests rethinking everything, but they haven’t got time to do that. They’ll have to make do with whatever props they can get. After speaking with the guy handling the shoot, they’re back to rethinking perhaps shifting gears. Curtis agrees to go with Bret’s new ideas, but Bret begs him to back over him tomorrow if this fails. What this also means is that Goldberg and Michael will have to get different supplies than they were originally sent out for. After making a call to Goldberg, Curtis wants to go back to the first plan. So Bret’s got a third idea.

Maria arrives carrying everything including the kitchen sink. Where’s Selita during all of this, while George is watching? She’s talking on the phone and getting Scottie a Snapple.

When Ivanka arrives, Curtis drags Bret away from her and lies to her so he can keep moving and get her out of there.

Cyndi calls once she’s done listening to the President speak. Summer puts the phone down and just lets her talk, ignoring every word.

After the men are done shooting and get everything they wanted, Bret admits he was wrong, and that Curtis was right for sticking to his guns.

When the women are done shooting and Scottie leaves, Holly’s worried that maybe they didn’t get what they needed to get.

As the men head over to the editing bay, Bret breaks down crying, still unsure what the status of his daughter is.

The next morning, Cyndi is back for the last two hours of editing. Holly’s worried that Cyndi will have suggestions now that they’ve aleady made all the decisions. Holly is threatened by having a singer in the building to improve her jingle, but the end result is she’s pleased that Cyndi has managed to do just that.

For the first time, the men have finished before the task ends.

Holly trusts Maria to cut together the 10 second spot while Holly puts together the presentation. As for Selita, she’s sitting their yawning. Since she’s not doing anything, she probably could help Maria, but nobody wants to be bothered. They’re sure it’s great. When they’re just about done, Holly finally comes back in like Maria asked her to do earlier, and she’s immediately got a complaint. Too late. Leaving the room, Holly says she doesn’t care any more because nobody else does. Oh, somebody slap her please.

Bret says that, if the executives’ reaction during the presentation is any indication, they just got their butts kicked.

Unlike the cohesive men’s presentation, Cyndi trips over her words during the presentation, but the commercial gets more emotion from one of the execs

The executives say that the men really got what they were going after, with a message that it’s all about high performance. However, the women had an entertaining commercial. The problem is that they were thinking about this ad as moms, whereas the men focused on the target audience of 13-18 year olds. Their 10 second commercial was also just an abridged version of their 30 second one.

Michael has arrived to see Donald Trump. He will be heading back to San Francisco to take care of his son, but does not elaborate. He’s hoping he can come back but won’t know until he gets on the ground. Trump says that it would not be fair for him to return, so good luck.

Holly takes the blame for not using a second ad, and instead just using the first ad twice. The execs were not particularly impressed with what the men did for their 10 second spot either, though, saying it was not funny enough to go viral. What the execs on this show never seem to realize is that you can’t force something to go viral. Either it happens or it doesn’t, although something that’s 10 seconds long has an uphill battle regardless.

This has been coming since the women met with the executives and Holly disregarded their advice regarding target demographic. The men win for a change.

Curtis wins $20,000 for his charity, Feeding America.

Ivanka says it almost seems like Holly was a one woman show.

Who was the weak link on their team? Maria says Selita.

Summer says fire the people who weren’t there, Cyndi and Sharon. Trump wants to leave them alone. Holly’s dying to bring Cyndi back, but Trump warns Holly he won’t fire her.

Selita and Maria will be going back to the boardroom. Maria’s blamed for the editing.

Cyndi would like to say something, to which Holly responds that she should just be grateful she’s surviving and shut up.

Summer says that her buddy Holly is the strongest. She will not pick the weakest.

Holly doesn’t know who should go, as long as it’s not her.

Selita’s not willing to be a pitbull, although George wants her to be.

Selita would fire Maria for the editing.

Because she’s not interrupting everybody and making up nonsense so she can stay, Selita has been fired. If you’re gonna fire someone, come up with a better excuse.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Celebrity Apprentice 3 Episode 6, which airs Sunday at 9/8c on NBC.

The Amazing Race 16 Episode 9

Steve & Allie got lost and never recovered in The Amazing Race 16 Episode 8.

Teams depart in the order in which they arrived.

First: Jet & Cord – 10:02AM
Second: Carol & Brandy – 10:12AM
Third: Louie & Michael – 10:31AM
Fourth: Brent & Caite – 10:50AM
Fifth: Dan & Jordan – 11:09AM

Teams must now travel over 400 miles by bus and train to Singapore, where they will search for Allan Wu, host of The Amazing Race Asia.

First bus (10:47AM): Jet & Cord
Second bus (11:00AM): Carol & Brandy
Third bus (12:00PM): Louie & Michael, Brent & Caite, Dan & Jordan

On their bus ride, Dan & Jordan realize that the two teams they’re with have it out for Carol & Brandy. They believe they want to get rid of them for personal reasons, rather than because they’re threats, which it would seem is a valid criticism.

The train does not depart until 9:30, so it was pretty much pointless showing us the buses. All teams get on the same train that doesn’t look as if it’s been cleaned in a while.

The Singapore Flyer, the tallest observation wheel in the world, is the fast forward. Once they reach the top at 541 feet, they must exit and walk along the metal beam to the next capsule over. The first team to arrive, Dan & Jordan, will be doing it. Nobody else even seems to consider it.

The detour is a choice between pounding the drums or pounding the pavement. In pounding the drums, teams must learn a complex routine on traditional drums. In pounding the pavement, they must pick up various supplies and ten boxes of ice cream, which they will use to make and sell 25 ice cream sandwiches.

Louie & Michael decide they can’t get the drums detour. Rather than going to the other detour, they decide to just go to the fast forward instead. A little late to be making that decision. They won’t be told who’s upstairs until they get up there. When they do arrive, they find out that the fast forward is in progress, so they head to the ice cream detour. After much drama about Jordan being afraid of heights, he and Dan complete the fast forward, easily guaranteeing themselves first place.

Here’s a change of pace. This time, Carol says she can’t do something. She leaves the decision to stay at the detour up to Brandy, and since it was Brandy’s decision, their failure at this is her fault. At least the name of the game’s still the same for these two, just with the names reversed.

The good news for Louie & Michael is that their cab driver buys 10 of the 25 ice creams they need.

Pounding the drums: Jet & Cord, Brent & Caite, Carol & Brandy
Pounding the pavement: Louie & Michael (switch from pounding the drums)

The next stop is Istana Park. Since a U-Turn is ahead, that would presumably make detour completion critical. Having completed the detour first, it goes without saying that Brent & Caite will be U-Turning Carol & Brandy. This all apparently stems back to day 1 when everybody was making fun of Caite for her claim the fame, the fact that she gave the dumbest answer in the history of beauty pageants. Their response: she’s an idiot, and the proof is on Youtube. Now Carol & Brandy have to go off and pretend to be nice to customers, although they won’t be nice to each other any time soon.

From there, they will head to the shipyard. The road block is to inspect an enormous anchor chain. They must count all the links in the chain. Phil says this sounds simple enough, but counting tasks are rarely simple. This is further complicated by lots of noise and a guy saying numbers on a loudspeaker. Brent gets it on his first try. Michael’s got a pitch counter, so he just hopes that will do the work for him, which it does. Cord also has no trouble with the task. As they’re leaving, Carol & Brandy show up. Louie & Michael, not having a cab driver any more, try to sabotage Carol & Brandy, but their driver sticks with them. So they pay someone else to wait and take another cab.

Road block (in order of arrival): Brent, Michael, Cord, Carol

It’s still not over. The next clue is at MegaZip, where they will take a zipline more than 1200 feet on one of Asia’s longest and steepest ziplines.

The pit stop for this leg of the race is the Marina Barrage, which can be seen from the Singapore Flyer. By this point, the outcome is obvious. It’s just a question of whether it’s a non-elimination leg.

First: Dan & Jordan (win motorbikes that they won’t use)
Second: Brent & Caite
Third: Jet & Cord
Fourth: Louie & Michael
Eliminated: Carol & Brandy

Carol & Brandy have been eliminated as a result of the U-Turn. Their final statement is that Brent & Caite were idiots for eliminating perhaps the least threatening team.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of The Amazing Race 16 Episode 10, which airs Sunday at 8/7c on CBS.

Survivor South Africa: Santa Carolina Episode 10

Izak swung back to his tribe’s side in Survivor South Africa: Santa Carolina Episode 9, and another tie vote resulted in the elimination of Okkert.

When they return from tribal council, Gys has a lecture for ProVerb in front of the rest of the tribe. He needs to contribute more on finding food. This attitude probably isn’t going to win him any friends, but what may work is that Gys is now the one catching the fish since Okkert is out of the way.

The reward challenge is to make fire. Let’s hope the winds have died down. They have to fill a bucket with holes to raise their fire to burn the rope. Reward is a Volvo Xc60, worth around half a million rand. Gys strikes matches almost immediately and is the first one to start his fire. Pro takes his time to get his fire ready before lighting it. He’s the last one to light his fire, but he’s confident that it’ll last, so he is the first person to head to the water. Gys and GiGi join him. Nico warns Pro that he might want to consider moving a little faster. Ashley later heads for the water as well. Sade finally joins them. Izak and Kaseran bring up the rear. GiGi seems to have run out of steam. Gys’ bucket is the first to move. Gys wins reward.

Izak in his little red speedo is drawing negative attention from the others. Sade’s a bit jealous. GiGi finds it amusing that he spends so much time posing. Ashley’s worried that Izak seems to be getting stronger and more confident as time goes by.

If Gys doesn’t get immunity, he’s the target. If he does get immunity, Ashley doesn’t have a plan.

The question becomes: if Gys does go home, what are they going to eat? In the meantime, Kaseran is catching crabs, while ProVerb will try his hand at fishing.

Apart from the remains of the hotel, there is also a prison dating back even further to the days of pirates and slavery. The immunity challenge is based on a method of torture that was used. They’ll stand with their arms raised until they drop. The first position is crouching with their hands out straight. Nico offers a chance at the hidden immunity idol. Kaseran drops out and takes it. Not long after, Izak drops out, followed by ProVerb. After 5 minutes, the four who remain move to position two, a standing position with their arms out straight. All four move to the final position, which is standing with arms raised above their heads. Gys has been struggling for a while and is the first one eliminated. This leaves the girls, as is often the case with these kind of endurance competitions. Sade is the next one to drop. After 20 minutes, GiGi is out. Ashley wins immunity.

Chibudu wants to vote for Kaseran because he doesn’t have any votes against him, a decision the girls are making at Ashley’s instructions. Gys decides to approach Izak because he’s got nothing left to lose.

Kas enlists Ashley to help him look for the idol, something which ProVerb has still not found. The clue says that the idol is under the crest, which they have since moved. He’s not too careful about his surroundings during his search because Sade sees him digging. She assumes he has found it. With that, she’d like to vote for someone else instead, ProVerb. Their other hope is to convince Izak to vote against Kaseran, making it 3-3-1, and Pro would go home.

Votes
Kaseran
Gys
Kaseran
ProVerb
Izak
Gys
Gys

What a weird tribal council. With 3 votes, Gys has been eliminated. His last act was to vote against ProVerb because he doesn’t want him to win, rather than hoping somebody would make a strange vote with the potential to save him. And speaking of strange votes, ProVerb threw one Izak’s way.

Stay tuned to dingorue for another recap of Survivor South Africa: Santa Carolina Episode 11.

Survivor South Africa: Santa Carolina Episode 9

With his tribe firmly in control, Izak decided to make it a tie game again in Survivor South Africa: Santa Carolina Episode 8 by voting for somebody random, thereby ensuring his own tribemate Louw went home as a result of a tie. Now the tribes are even again, this time with 4 each.

When they get back to camp, Izak says that all promises he’s made are now gone. He intends to vote for Okkert at some stage. It’s a little late for that.

Kaseran’s not too heart broken that Louw is gone. It allows him to step up. This doesn’t sit too well with ProVerb, who views his attitude as if he’s trying to take over.

Izak knows that nobody should trust him, which he views as a good thing. Nobody trusting you can only get you so far. You have to have some trust, unless you can just run the table with the last few challenges. However, he does say that their alliance still stands, although it may not stand if he changes his mind. Once again, their plan is to vote out Okkert.

The reward challenge is called the knife quiz, a pecking order challenge. They will be asked questions about their fellow tribe members. If they’re in the majority, they will stick a knife in the post of someone else.

Who is the most difficult person to sleep next to?
ProVerb. Everybody except Pro gets a knife. Ashley targets Gys. GiGi goes for Pro. Gys goes for Ashley. Izak goes for his ally Kaseran. Kas hits Sade. Not to be outdone by Izak, Okkert also targets an ally, Gys. Sade goes for Izak.

Who is the most untrustworthy?
Harsh question, but the answer is obvious. Izak. Sade, ProVerb, Gys, and Gigi are correct. Despite him having saved them last night, Okkert’s the only Chibudu member to not answer Izak (I wouldn’t trust him either, though), although Pro filled in the gap. GiGi goes for Kas. Gys targets Okkert. ProVerb targets Gys. Sade hits Izak. Gys is the first person eliminated.

Which tribe member is acting or pretending the most?
Kaseran. GiGi goes for Izak. Sade gives GiGi her first. Ashley goes to Kas. Izak and Kaseran have been eliminated.

Who does the least amount of work around camp?
Izak. Ashley goes for ProVerb. Okkert stabs Sade.

Who is the most likely to stab you in the back?
Obviously, Izak. GiGi goes to Ashley. Sade goes to Okkert. ProVerb goes to GiGi. Ashley has been eliminated.

Who is the most underestimated player?
ProVerb. Okkert goes to Pro. Sade goes to GiGi. Pro gives it to Okkert. GiGi is eliminated. Okkert is also eliminated. And ProVerb joins them.

Sade wins reward. She will go for a day of pampering, and she’s allowed to take one person. She chooses Ashley. Interesting. As the first person eliminated, Gys can pick someone other than himself to go with them. He chooses GiGi so all the girls go off for some spa treatments while the boys remain behind.

Kaseran did not fail to realize the obvious. The other tribe views Izak as a lazy, untrustworthy backstabber.

Gys suggests voting for GiGi. Okkert doesn’t like this plan. He’d rather get rid of Izak, retaining the lead. Sure, that works out great for Okkert, but what does it do for Kaseran? He plans to wait until he finds out what Ashley will do because he knows she won’t stab him the back.

While they’re off on their reward, Ashley tells the other girls that she wants to join them in an alliance to the end. All they have to do for now is just vote as they otherwise would, then flip when the time’s right.

Like Izak, Okkert says he’s all alone in this game.

The immunity challenge is an elimination obstacle course. They will grab stakes, dig up bags, which they will use to hop, grab some puzzle pieces, head across the balance beams, and solve the anagram puzzle. GiGi is eliminated on the first stage. Okkert has a huge lead. Izak and Gys head to the puzzles next. Ashley is the last one to arrive at the puzzle station. This poorly planned stacking challenge is taking place in the middle of a windy storm that keeps knocking over the blocks. At least it’s not a fire building challenge. Ashley seems to be getting somewhere with the puzzle, if only she could stop the wind. Attempting another strategy, her stack crumbles again, striking her in the face and causing her to bleed. This is a really stupid challenge. Izak wins immunity.

Unable to vote for Izak, Chibudu will now be targeting ProVerb, who they say is not working.

Ashley comes to the conclusion she should have come to last week. They can count on Izak voting for Gys, but they can’t be sure about whether he’ll vote for Okkert. When she approaches Izak about this, he says that he’d feel more comfortable getting rid of Okkert.

Because the other tribe has voted for Louw every single time, nobody from Timbila has a vote against them. However, Okkert and Gys both do, so as long as Izak sticks to the plan, his tribe will regain the lead.

Votes
Okkert
Okkert
ProVerb
Okkert
Okkert
ProVerb
ProVerb
ProVerb

It’s another tie. Taking into account previous votes, Okkert has 4, so he has been voted off the island. He believes Kas will do very well in the game.

Stay tuned to dingorue for another recap of Survivor South Africa: Santa Carolina Episode 10.

Survivor South Africa: Santa Carolina Episode 8

The merged tribes voted to a tie in Survivor South Africa: Santa Carolina Episode 7. The skull challenge sent Hanna home rather than Louw, putting Timbila back in the driver’s seat.

There are still two tribes, and it does not seem as if Chibudu will be doing anything to change it. It’s rare we see any tribe get Pagonged, so there’s always a chance. But if they just roll over, they may as well just leave now.

At their first reward challenge as a new tribe, they’re split up into teams of three. Blue: Kaseran, GiGi, and Okkert. Yellow: Ashley, Louw, and ProVerb. Red: Gys, Izak, and Sade. The game consists of three ropes, a ring, and a ball. They must use the ropes to lift the ring and carry the ball. The first team to get to the other side wins a brai. Fastest will not necessarily win. The trick is to get there first. If you drop it, you’ve gotta go all the way back. Red team drops their ball to give up their lead, allowing the blue team of Kaseran, GiGi, and Okkert to win the BBQ.

Kaseran doesn’t deny that they’re both in trouble. He says, though, that it would be exciting if one of his tribe goes off track. All he can say to them is that tonight’s going to be a toss up between Okkert, Gys, and Sade. That would mean he believes GiGi is going to be safe, presumably for quite some time.

While Kas is off eating, Izak, Ashley, and Louw discuss how they want to get rid of him eventually, taking themselves to the final three.

Everybody gets letters from their charities, an emotional reminder of what they’re competing for.

The immunity challenge is to sift through the sand using a sorter to find a slinghshot and marbles, then they need to break three plates. GiGi is the first to take a shot and miss. Izak hits his first plate. Ashley is next on the board, followed by Louw. Louw then breaks his second plate. Gys strikes his first. Ashley gets her second. ProVerb strikes his first plate. Okkert hits his first. Then ProVerb joins the leader board with his second. Kaseran is next on the board, and then he hits his second. Sade finally gets on the board, then strikes her second plate as well. Gys is the sixth person to break his second plate (Okkert and Izak have 1, while GiGi has yet to score). A lot of people have a shot. It’s just a matter of who hits that final one. Following his slow start, Kaseran wins immunity.

Ashley says that their plan is to whittle them down so that they can’t influence the end game in any way. The flaw in that theory is that two Timbilas in the final two would mean four Chibudu jury members.

Louw seems to be outdoing Okkert on the fishing front, with a catch including an octopus. Being the fisherman is a good way to stick around to the end, although Chibudu does their best to say they’re unimpressed.

Okkert is the obvious target. Izak’s going to have to get over himself on this front and make the sensible choice. GiGi and Sade pretend they’re going to vote for Okkert, too.

At tribal council, Kaseran tells the other tribe they need to start thinking of a way to change the game in their favor. They don’t take kindly to this.

Votes
Okkert
Okkert
Okkert
Louw
Okkert
Louw
Louw
Louw
Gys

We have a tie. Uh. What? Taking into account previous votes, Louw has 5 votes. Okkert has none. Louw has been voted off the island by Izak. Way to throw away the lead, dude. I hope Okkert kicks his ass in some more challenges. To be fair to him, his tribe should have just voted out Gys like he wanted to, then gotten rid of Okkert later.

Stay tuned to dingorue for another recap of Survivor South Africa: Santa Carolina Episode 9.