Category: reality tv

During a doubled up night, first Reed predictably went home in Survivor: San Juan del Sur Episode 11. This was followed by Natalie switching her vote to save Keith and get rid of Alec instead, which we’re told makes a big difference.

Natalie pretends she just got confused while voting, saying they didn’t speak to her enough before Tribal Council. Jon believes her. Keith now believes that Natalie is on his side just like everybody else does.

The reward challenge will pit two teams of three against each other while they are tied together. They will go through a pile of hay, over and under an obstacle, then transport water in a bucket across a giant teeter totter to the other side before concluding with a puzzle. Keith, Jon, and Missy are struggling on the obstacles as Missy injures her ankle. Baylor, Natalie, and Jaclyn have a large lead as they head into the puzzle. Despite that, they can’t put it together, and the other team wins reward.

Jaclyn, of course, pouts. In response, Jon offers his reward to Baylor because he’s not into manacures and massages anyway. That plus he really thinks giving away rewards is going to help. Natalie volunteers to go to Exile Island, which is a very rough experience for her.

Baylor quickly acknowledges that Jon is still her top target.

As much as Missy wants to stay tough, she shows up at the challenge with a walking stick. Jeff doesn’t have faith she’s going to be able to do the challenge and calls in medical to look at her. It is at least significantly sprained, but in order to confirm whether it is broken, they would need to do an X-ray, which would be a game ender. However, because the game is almost over, they can immobilize it and do not require her to leave the game if she does not want to. I guess that’s why they went to a commercial break before giving us the results. She does not want to leave. What this does is makes her a great person to bring to the end because you know she won’t be winning immunity.

The immunity challenge is an endurance one, which Missy could not logically participate in anyway, so she will sit out and get her ankle patched up. They will balance on a wobbling plank while preventing a cone in front of them from falling. Jaclyn is first to fall. Baylor is next. A gust of wind causes Keith to drop. Then Jon follows. Natalie wins immunity as determined by mother nature.

So now Jon is the target again. Jaclyn again raises the concern to Jon that he may be the target, but he won’t consider it.

The split vote plan requires Missy’s support. It’s a perfect plan otherwise. Missy is extremely vocal about how she wants to honor her deal with Jon to the bitter end, perhaps even at the expense of her daughter.

Votes
Keith
Jaclyn
Keith
Jaclyn
Jon
Jon

With a three way tie, they will revote.

Votes
Jon
Jon

With 2 votes, Jon has been voted off the island. He had so many opportunities to steer himself toward another course, including the hidden immunity idol in his pocket, but he clearly chose the wrong path.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Survivor: San Juan del Sur Episode 13, where we will find out who the Survivor: San Juan del Sur winner is, which airs Wednesday at 8/7c on CBS.

Survivor: San Juan del Sur Episode 10 was the typically low rated Thanksgiving week episode, but anyone who missed it missed an awesome Tribal Council. Jon was Reed’s target, and Reed orchestrated a plan that should have worked. Keith opened up his big mouth. Natalie opened up her big mouth. Jon played his idol. Keith played his idol. And in the end, Wes was sent home with just 2 out of the 9 votes.

Natalie wants credit for Jon playing his idol. Jon wants credit for Jon playing his idol. Even Jaclyn wants credit for Jon playing his idol for some reason. Upset that she is giving some credit to Natalie, Jon asks Jaclyn to not give others credit because they can use that ammo for the jury.

Reward challenge is the chopping show of favorites. Reward is a horseback ride for some food.

Who else has a twin sibling? Jeremy. Everybody is correct except Keith. Natalie chops Reed. So does Jon. Alec chops Natalie. Missy eliminates Reed. Jaclyn chops Alec. Baylor does, too. Reed chops Missy for some reason.

Who owns and operates their own tanning business? Julie. Everybody is correct. Jon eliminates Alec. Alec returns the favor and chops Jon. Missy chops Keith. Jaclyn follows suit. Keith chops Missy. Baylor eliminates Keith. Natalie asks everybody else’s opinion before continuing. Jeff says stop wasting everybody’s time. Baylor wants her mom to win, so that’s how Jeff ends it.

Jon goes to Exile. Baylor will join Missy at the reward. Natalie will, too, and Jaclyn can stay behind with the enemy, which makes her realize where she stands in that alliance. During this exchange, Reed calls Baylor a brat, so now we get to listen to Missy whine.

While on Exile, Jon finds another typically poorly hidden immunity idol.

Missy is proud of her daughter. She found an idol. The one Natalie found. But let’s give Baylor some credit.

Alec is now trying to smooth things over with Jaclyn. It’s kind of like cream cheese. It won’t hurt anything.

Their immunity challenge is to balance six balls into six dimples on their paddles. It quickly becomes a battle between Keith and Jon. In due time, Keith runs away with it and wins immunity.

Now that Jon is back, Jaclyn can reveal to him that they are putting themselves in the middle again. This really was not what he wanted to hear. So now she’s mad at him. Again. After this, Reed approaches them. As Natalie joins the conversation, Jon says he can’t trust Reed. Wink wink. Then Jon reveals his idol to Missy, and Jaclyn wants to know why he’s talking to her instead. When he does go try to talk to Jaclyn, she doesn’t want to talk any more. When they do talk, they fight some more.

Votes
Reed
Missy
Reed
Reed
Reed
Reed

With 5 votes, Reed has been voted off the island. The alliance is clearly in shambles, but Reed sunk himself last week.

Jon and Jaclyn say they resolved everything at Tribal Council. I’m sure we haven’t heard the last of this. As for Alec, he feels like more of an outcast, and Jon, who says he is in control of the game, tells him he’s going home next.

The reward challenge is to hold a ball above their heads between a platform and what they are holding. Alec falls within about five seconds. Missy drops next. Then Keith. Baylor is next. Jon follows. Jaclyn is last to fall, and Natalie wins reward. After all of Jaclyn’s complaining, I assume she’ll take her.

Alec will be going to Exile. Reward is a king size bed at camp and food delivery, which as expected she will be sharing with Jaclyn. Jon will be receiving the treat as well. Natalie’s explanation is that she wants them to trust her more before she stabs them (or at least Jon) in the back.

Adding to Natalie’s fuel of wanting to get revenge against Jon for Jeremy is the fact that Jon tells her he has an idol. He seems to trust her so much that she could probably take him out right now and send him home with a souvenir in his pocket.

Natalie shares her plan to get rid of Jon with Baylor, but she won’t be telling Missy.

Jaclyn and Jon are starting to get a weird vibe. She thinks Keith is the ringleader, trying to sway Missy and Baylor. Little does she know the whole tribe is plotting against them, and they have enough for a split vote to take her out instead if he does play his idol.

For the immunity challenge, they will pull on a rope, balancing a wooden table, while stacking ten blocks. Keith takes an early lead, but it’s all meaningless in this challenge because you can get almost to the end, dump your blocks, and have to start over. Slow and steady, Jon wins immunity.

That pretty well screwed over everybody’s plans. Now they can either get rid of Keith or Alec, or they can just take out Jon’s girlfriend, which is the logical move if they want to weaken him.

Jon proposes a split vote. The target is Keith because he has won immunity twice and came so close to beating Jon in the last one. Natalie is thinking about flipping this and surprising them with an Alec vote instead.

At Tribal Council, Jon starts talking about his father dying of brain cancer. This may not be the intent, but that story is a good one for the jury to see.

Votes
Keith
Alec
Keith
Alec
Keith
Alec
Alec

With 4 votes, Alec has been voted off the island. Jaws drop. Joining Natalie in her mischief is Baylor, who was playing her mom’s game but now seems to have shifted toward Natalie.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Survivor: San Juan del Sur Episode 12, which airs Wednesday at 8/7c on CBS.

Natalie gave her reward away to Jon, and Jeremy followed her lead, giving his reward to Jaclyn in Survivor: San Juan del Sur Episode 9. The net result of this was that Jon turned on Jeremy, whose alliance voted him out.

Having voted out Jeremy for finding out that he has an idol, Jon’s strategy right after Tribal Council is to tell Natalie that he has an idol. Her reaction to this is that he’s the ringleader and needs to go. It’s an interesting turn of events considering two episodes ago I was pretty sure he was just the puppy dog following Jaclyn’s lead, which he was.

The reward challenge will have them jumping off a platform for keys to collect puzzle statue pieces. Reward is to be ambassadors of goodwill to deliver baesball gear to kids who need new equipment. While watching the game, they will get baseball food. Reed, Alec, Jaclyn, and Jon (blue) go against Missy, Natalie, Baylor, and Wes (yellow). Keith is not picked. It’s not apparent to me what might be the way to either gain an advantage or screw up in this challenge, and there is no real difference between the teams heading to the puzzle. Blue takes a long time getting their pieces unlocked, and that’s the difference as yellow wins reward.

I hope nobody gives their reward away again. Ugh. Baylor starts crying because her mom hasn’t won anything. Try harder then. So Reed gives his reward to Missy. Lesson learned, just shed a few tears. In his defense, Reed says this is strategy. So was last week’s give away, and we saw how that worked. His plan is to plot against Jon while he’s gone. Wes will be heading to Exile.

When they return to camp, Reed approaches Keith. He knows he has an idol because he searched his bag, and he wants to use that information so that they can work together. The assumption is the other alliance will split the vote. He wants his old/current(?) alliance to trust each other for one vote, even though there’s no reason they should.

Meanwhile, Natalie and Baylor go and find a hidden immunity idol. Natalie has decided she does not want to get rid of Jon yet. Rather, she is more afraid of Reed and wants to vote him out instead, then Jon next so that the girls have the numbers.

Their immunity challenge is to balance on a narrow perch while holding a handle above their heads. The first temptation is a plate of candy, and that is enough to get Jon out after 7 minutes. Missy is out next. Jeff brings out a plate of cookies and milk, and Baylor and Jaclyn quit within about a second each before Wes even has the chance to think about it. After 45 minutes, the next temptation is chicken wings and beer, and this time Wes is the first to respond. Keith points out that Natalie is the only one on her team who is actually trying. That begs the question why Wes was so easily convinced to drop out. As his feet are turning purple, Keith steps down. Then Alec. 3 hours have passed. Jon and Jaclyn are sleeping by this time. Natalie asks if there’s any more food coming. She asks for pizza, wings, cookie, ice water, and beer, and Jeff delivers. Natalie drops. Reed wins immunity, though Jeff will be giving him his necklace on the ground as he recovers.

Reed’s win blew Natalie’s plan away. His plan, however is alive and well. He proposes a split vote where everybody will turn on the father and son because one of them has an idol. Missy completely buys this, but Jon is not so sure, as he and/or Jaclyn are not in control for a change.

During Tribal Council, there is much whispering as Jeff attempts to conduct a discussion. Nobody seems to know what is going to happen.

After the vote, Natalie tells Jon to play his idol. He does. In response, Keith plays his idol, offering it to his son, who declines. Well, this is certainly interesting.

Votes
Jon (does not count)
Jon (does not count)
Jon (does not count)
Keith (does not count)
Keith (does not count)
Jon (does not count)
Keith (does not count)
Wes
Wes

With 2 votes, Wes has been voted off the island. That split vote plan just backfired, and now Reed is in more danger than he had been, though splitting up that couple still makes sense.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Survivor: San Juan del Sur Episode 11, which airs Wednesday at 8/7c on CBS.

Jaclyn took control of the game in Survivor” San Juan del Sur Episode 8, turning the tide against the oh so offensive Josh.

For the reward challenge, they divide into teams and will have to knock the other person off the beam into the mud. Reward is a cruise on a fishing yacht. Reed beats Wes. Jaclyn knocks herself off to give Natalie’s team the 2-0 lead. Jon knocks Jeremy in to make it 2-1. Baylor beats her mom Missy for a 3-1 lead. Keith beats Alec to make it 3-2. Wes shakes Reed into the mud to tie it 3-3. Jaclyn once again beats herself against Natalie. Jon beats Jeremy again to make it 4-4. Baylor beats Missy again.

Reed, Natalie, Baylor, Alec, and Jeremy win reward. Natalie offers her reward to Jon. Jeremy offers his reward to Jaclyn. I don’t think they’re going to fall for that. In return for offering up his reward, Jeremy will be going to Exile. He’s happy to go look for the idol that his new ally already found but nonetheless sent him there to look for anyway. Jon eventually realizes that the clue is very obvious and everybody is going to know he already found it.

Their immunity challenge is a block stacking task using only their feet. Reed and Keith jump out to the lead and get to the third and final row first. Reed’s pieces crumble somewhat, but he recovers. Disaster strikes Keith. Out of nowhere, Baylor enters the competition. Reed keeps failing on the final piece. Baylor wins immunity.

A desperate Reed decides to start going through Keith’s bag. Smart move, though it’s crossing a line. He doesn’t find the idol, but he does find the clue to the idol. So he goes to Missy and Baylor. Perhaps that buys him another night, but it’s hard for me to believe that this is a good long-term strategy.

Jeremy, who spent a rough two nights alone, confronts Jon about the idol. He doesn’t go so far as to accuse him of anything, but he says enough to let him know he knows. After this, Jon approaches Missy because he wants to eliminate Jeremy.

The plan here is a split vote, which means that all Reed, Keith, Alec, and Wes need to do is stick together. Of course, if Jon flips as he has said he wants to do, none of that matters.

Votes
Keith
Reed
Keith
Reed
Reed
Jeremy
Jeremy
Jeremy
Jeremy
Jeremy

With 5 votes, Jeremy has been voted off the island. As for the Reed votes, they all came from his allies. That sure just flipped everything upside down.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Survivor: San Juan del Sur Episode 10, which airs Wednesday at 8/7c on CBS.