reality tv – Page 73

Survivor: Philippines Episode 11

Abi was forced to burn her hidden immunity idol in Survivor: Philippines Episode 10, while her somewhat more stable ally Pete ended up getting eliminated instead of her.

We continue with tears of Abi. The problem with this story is that once you feel even a little bit sorry for her, she opens her mouth again and inserts both feet.

It’s Survivor auction time. Each contestant is given $500. Pancakes, bacon, and orange juice starts them throwing money around quickly. Denise starts with $200, is outbid at $320 by Malcolm, then immediately ups it to $500, so she wins but is out on the very first item. Not allowing Probst to even describe the next item, Michael shouts out $500, which he pays for cheese and wine, despite not being a drinker. Iced coffee and donuts scores a bid of $200 from Malcolm.

Jonathan bids $100 for a covered item, as Abi says she’s going home next anyway, so she doesn’t plan to bid on this stuff. For $100, Jonathan gets a plate of fried chicken and fries, which is easily the best item so far.

Malcolm and Carter get into a bidding war over the next covered item, which Carter wins for $200. He wins a potato with toppings, which he can either eat or trade for a sack of rice and beans for the tribe. Rice and beans is much smarter, and that’s what he takes. Lisa and Carter get into the next bidding war for another covered item. Surely they can’t all be good, but Lisa goes up high enough that Carter can’t outbid her at $320. Her reward: a huge sandwich. The next item is an advantage in the game. Abi only needs to hear those words before promptly spending her $500. Lisa and Carter go at it again for a covered item, and Carter goes to $200 when she runs out. Veal shanks for the entire tribe for 60 seconds of eating, as once again his money goes to help his fellow contestants in addition to himself. Auction over, and everybody leaves happy.

When they return to camp, they’re all smiles and floating. So Abi thinks this would be the appropriate time to tell Jonathan he needs to apologize to her for destroying her at tribal. He tells her she’s too honest and blunt. He’s not wrong. She just says whatever thought comes into her mind without taking time to consider it. Most adults have learned to control this child-like impulse at least by their 20s.

Abi’s advantage that she purchased at the auction is to move directly to the final stage of the immunity challenge. Additionally, she has a fake hidden immunity idol (or at least a fake story about finding one), which she would not need if she didn’t waste the first one by revealing it for no good reason.

The immunity challenge is a ropes course with each one progressively harder. In addition, they will have to answer trivia questions, and if they get any wrong, they will have 5% of their body weight added for each one.

Lisa and Denise get the first question wrong and must carry additional weight. As Denise dominates the first round, Lisa and Penner are lost causes, with Penner narrowly edging her out for the fifth and final spot in the second round.

Denise misses another question, while Skupin and Carter also miss one. In a reversal of fortune, Carter and Jonathan are the top two finishers, rounding out the final round competition with Abi.

Carter answers a second question wrong, so he is saddled with 10% of his body weight, while Jonathan and a fresh Abi are not carrying anything. This round will involve knot untying rather than being tethered to something. Itwill also involve a bit of climbing. Abi is in the lead from the beginning, and Carter’s striking distance is not going to be close enough. Abi wins immunity, as a very annoyed group of onlookers, mostly Denise, expresses frustration.

Everybody else may be complaining, but Malcolm appreciates the convenient excuse to get rid of a real threat in the game rather than just somebody annoying. The alliance of four wants to get rid of Jonathan, though Lisa feels guilty turning on him and Carter. She tells Jonathan that because he was stupid (a good word, albeit not the one she used) and did not agree to an alliance, he’s now the target. His plan is to vote out Denise to eliminate Malcolm’s partner, so he needs one more vote, which would be Michael. If Malcolm’s such a big threat, why not just vote for him?

Back against the wall, Penner tells Lisa and Michael at tribal council that he wants to make an alliance with them. A little late for that, dude.

Abi sticks her tongue out at Denise when she goes to vote, while Jonathan says Denise’s name loud enough so that everybody can hear his vote.

Votes
Denise
Denise (or Denies as Penner writes)
Jonathan
Jonathan
Denise
Jonathan
Jonathan

With 4 votes, Jonathan has been voted off the island. He hugs Carter but states he does not plan to hug anybody else. No need to be like that. You sunk yourself.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recape of Survivor: Philippines Episode 12, which airs Wednesday at 8/7c on CBS.

The Amazing Race 21 Episode 9

In the most anticlimactic episode ever, James & Abba were eliminated in The Amazing Race 21 Episode 8 following their brief reprieve the leg before after losing a passport.

Teams depart in the order in which they arrived.

First: Jaymes & James – 7:32PM
Second: Trey & Lexi – 7:49PM
Third: Natalie & Nadiya – 9:15PM
Fourth: Abbie & Ryan – 5:28AM
Fifth: Josh & Brent – 8:11AM

Teams are given a red, white, and blue flag, which they must figure out is leading them to Amsterdam, The Netherlands (or Holland… where the Dutch live). Jaymes & James figure it out by going online. Trey & Lexi ask their cab driver, who incorrectly identifies their destination as France. That was my initial reaction as well, though I wouldn’t have just assumed the answer to be right, but the stripes on the French flag are horizontal rather than vertical. Lucky for them, the Chippendales tell them the right country, or this could have been the end of their race.

The first and only direct flight arrives at 12:15 the following afternoon, but it only has three seats available, which will now go to Jaymes & James, as Trey & Lexi settle for the 1:05 arrival.

Natalie & Nadiya somehow are told about a plane arriving at 11:30, but the ticket agent refuses to sell to them because there is only a 1 hour connection time in Rome, which could spell disaster. Not having learned from the trailing two teams and their earlier problem that is still plaguing them three legs later, the twins insist, and they receive the tickets after some begging.

After booking their tickets, the twins come up with a plan in the event of a double U-turn. The first team to arrive U-turns Abbie & Ryan, and the second team U-turns the team that already passed (making that second U-turn a waste, aside from preventing Abbie & Ryan from using it). Jaymes doesn’t want to use the U-turn because it’s not like they need to anyway.

Abbie & Ryan will be returning to Frankfurt, where they last almost lost the race. They’re so far behind the other teams that they don’t have a lot of choices, so they’re going to head to Frankfurt and see what they can get of their multiple connecting flights (one arrives at 12:45, the other at 2:05, either one putting them the closest they have been to the rest of the pack since leg 7). When they land, they are denied at check in, but they are able to book a flight that will still keep them well ahead of where when they started the day. The bad news? The aircraft is having mechanical difficulties.

More than 12 hours behind at the start of the leg, Josh & Brent are scheduled for arrival at 4:35PM. When they land without delay, Josh & Brent run into Abbie & Ryan at the airport, putting them again neck and neck for last. They agree to run the leg with them again. If both of the double U-turns are used, this goes from easy win to desperate scramble.

The twins make their connection no problem after an unnecessary and dangerous gamble pays off. This further allows them to know for sure they can take advantage of the fast forward. Their task is to eat 5 herring each within 7 minutes before their floating bus returns to shore. Undeterred by the twins’ early arrival, Jaymes & James will also go for the fast forward, but it’s too late because Natalie & Nadiya finish on their first attempt.

The detour is a choice between back in time or organ grind. In back in time, teams must recreate a Rembrandt painting using live characters. In organ to grind, teams must operate the organ and collect tips.

Organ grind: Jaymes & James, Trey & Lexi
Back in time: Abbie & Ryan, Josh & Brent

Jaymes & James see that it’s getting slow, so they strip down into their Chippendales gear. This generates more interest from men than women, but then a grandma with her grandkids comes up and gives them the balance of what they need to finish.

Never having arrived at the U-turn, Natalie & Nadiya do not get their wish to U-turn Abbie & Ryan. Despite being in second place and hours ahead of them, Jaymes & James U-turn Abbie & Ryan as planned. At least they are doing this as part of the game to take out the stronger team, rather than because they are evil like the twins. Trey & Lexi then use their U-turn on Jaymes & James so that Abbie & Ryan can’t use it. I can’t imagine the producers will let this one go without a rule change.

Abbie & Ryan finish the detour first as expected, putting them in fourth, but they now must complete the other task as well. At least they are stopping this stupid let’s work together nonsense, far too late. Josh & Brent have a debate about what they should do, but for a shot at a million dollars, the answer is obvious.

They glossed over the road block so much that I didn’t even notice there was one. They must use poles to vault across a ditch. The task is so simple that it will not be the savior for Abbie & Ryan. The only potential impact of this challenge is that Josh stumbles in the field and hurts his ankle, which may hinder them in the future.

Road block (in order of arrival): James, Trey, Josh, Ryan

The pit stop for this leg of the race is the house of Rembrandt’s mistress.

First: Natalie & Nadiya (win $5,000 each)
Second: Jaymes & James
Third: Trey & Lexi
Fourth: Josh & Brent
Eliminated: Abbie & Ryan

As much as we can blame bad luck and an unnecessarily aggressive top three, Abbie & Ryan eliminated themselves from the race. Both at the swimming pool and again today, they insisted on staying with a team that was competing with them for the last spot.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of The Amazing Race 21 Episode 10, which airs Sunday at 8/7c on CBS.

Survivor: Philippines Episode 10

Skupin finally got tired of being told what to do and helped the opposing tribe vote out Artis in Survivor: Philippines Episode 9.

I was expecting a typical Thanksgiving week recap episode, but instead it looks like we’re getting the full treatment tonight.

Abi’s shocked that the people she was trying to screw over didn’t all keep their word.

Each team at the reward challenge will have three drums (one in each circle spread out on the sand) which they must get face up at the same time to score a point. Reward is a spa day with some food. Abi, Carter, Malcolm, and Pete are on the red team; Penner, Denise, Lisa, and Skupin are on the yellow team. Each round is one on one between two competitors. Carter scores a point against Jonathan. After Malcolm forgets to flip his over, Michael ties it 1-1. Abi apparently does not understand the rules because she flips both hers and her opponent’s over, giving Lisa a point. Pete beats Denise to tie it 2-2. In a rematch, it’s Skupin who makes a mistake, giving Malcolm and the red team the win.

Malcolm hopes they don’t talk strategy. He wants to make a final three or final four deal soon, but he doesn’t want it to be anybody who won reward with him. The others agree not to discuss the game.

Upon her return, Abi keeps going on and on about how amazing an experience she just had. Nobody wants to hear it, and being aware of others around them, none of her fellow winners want to talk much about it either. After she’s done rambling without realizing how badly she is coming off (and probably not caring even if she did), she informs them she’s done with the kitchen because she is leaving soon anyway.

Malcolm wants to get a deal done today right before an easy vote. His proposal is himself, Denise, Lisa, and Mike as the final four. Mike’s possible alternative would be Penner and Carter, and Lisa says she trusts Penner more than Malcolm. No surprise considering Malcolm’s hidden idol antics. However, Jonathan declines to enter into an alliance, not until the final six after they get rid of Abi and Peter. This was Mike’s line of thinking earlier as well. It was Malcolm who was pushing for a deal. Immediately after that, Lisa and Michael accept Malcolm’s offer, though neither is comfortable with it.

At the immunity challenge, they will maneuver buoys along ropes. Malcolm, Jonathan, Denise, Michael, and Carter proceed to the second round, which adds a balance beam to the equation. Michael, Carter, and Denise advance to the final round, a water stage. Carter wins immunity.

They come up with a better plan than voting out Pete, which to me seemed foolish seeing as Abi has an idol. They’ll split the votes 3-3. If she does not play the idol to save herself, they vote her out, and she goes home with it.

Pete and Abi hope they can save themselves by convincing somebody that Malcolm is too big a threat to keep around. Lisa says this is a great plan… if she were still in an alliance with them. Carter says he’s in a pretty good spot. Jonathan would like to keep the trust he’s earned from people he realizes have already tried to screw him over. Mike is the only one who at least appears to be considering this.

At tribal council, Abi finds out that nobody likes her. Denise tries to explain why, but Abi does a better job of explaining by continuing to interrupt. Denise just gives up.

Abi plays her idol.

Votes
Abi (does not count)
Abi (does not count)
Abi (does not count)
Pete
Malcolm
Pete
Malcolm
Pete

With 3 votes, Pete has been voted off the island, and now Abi is completely defenseless, though she would make an excellent final three contestant despite their desire for her to go home.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recape of Survivor: Philippines Episode 11, which airs Wednesday at 8/7c on CBS.

The Amazing Race 21 Episode 8

We left off with a cliffhanger in The Amazing Race 21 Episode 7. Having made a bad flight decision, Abbie & Ryan and Josh & Brent were several hours behind everybody else. But their potential saving grace came when James & Abba lost their belongings, including a passport, the biggest mistake you can make on a show about going around the world.

From last week, we already know the order of placement of the first three teams. It’s just a question of how the other three finish. For James & Abba, though there may be some very slim chance, the phrase needle in a haystack doesn’t even begin to describe the situation they are in.

Back at the swimming pool, Abbie & Ryan continue to watch the hapless Josh & Brent attempt to finish the swimming task. The library closed at 4, so that’s out of the question, forcing them to swim. Now the pool is closing, too, leaving Josh & Brent with a 4 hour penalty. Because the penalty will be assessed later, Abbie & Ryan will utlimately be safe no matter what, even if they continue to waste all night waiting for the other team. The good thing that comes out of this for Ryan is that it changes his character arc, potentially making him likeable to people who otherwise did not like him.

Josh and Abbie perform the road block. Josh easily finishes it, and he pays forward the other team’s waiting by helping Abbie figure out what she was doing wrong before she sat down and cried. Both teams step on the mat at the same time. It would have been interesting to see what would have happened had they been in last, though in this case I assume the penalty would have determined the result.

First: Trey & Lexi
Second: Jaymes & James
Third: Natalie & Nadiya
Fourth: Abbie & Ryan
Fifth: Josh & Brent
Non-eliminated: James & Abba

It’s still not over, though. Having exhausted their efforts to find a passport and come up empty, James & Abba have been saved by non-elimination. Of course, they still need to find a passport in order to proceed to the next country.

Teams depart in the order in which they arrived. We are not provided with any starting times so that we don’t know just how far apart they are. Josh & Brent have their 4 hour penalty assessed at the start of the leg. We eventually find out that this penalty is still not enough to kick them out of fifth place.

The first two teams are greeted by an hours of operation with an 8AM opening. It seems as if they may well be sticking around Russia for another leg, which should extend James & Abba’s lifeline, if they can ever catch up.

The road block involves calculating the time of day in 5 different Russian cities. The country has 9 time zones, and they must get the answers based on a series of slides.

Road block (in order of arrival): Jaymes, Lexi, Ryan, Brent

After taking the test 11 times, Lexi finally figures out what she and Jaymes are doing wrong, and they finally get it. Natalie & Nadiya have been dying to use their express pass, and they use it now, not even bothering to attempt the road block. Ryan makes the same mistake the first two teams did. He neglects to factor in the fact that Moscow is +4 (as in 4 hours ahead of GMT), but something +6 is just 2 hours ahead of that, not 6 hours. He has figured out that he’s being misled, yet it takes him two dozen attempts to figure out why. Brent gets it on his first try.

The detour is a choice between movers or shakers. In movers, teams must learn and perform a Russian soldier dance. In shakers, teams must identify 7 historic Russian leaders.

Movers: Trey & Lexi, Jaymes & James, Natalie & Nadiya, Abbie & Ryan
Shakers: Josh & Brent

Despite James’ sprained ankle, the Chippendales opt to dance anyway, and they still finish it first, though I don’t imagine that was a smart move if they just hurt him even more for the rest of the race.

The pit stop for this leg of the race is Sokolniki Park, and it has come very quickly, far too quickly for anyone’s luck to change. As we watch James & Abba spend the entire leg time trying to find a passport, their lack of hope keeps getting more obvious.

First: Jaymes & James (win a trip to Costa Rica)
Second: Trey & Lexi
Third: Natalie & Nadiya
Fourth: Abbie & Ryan
Fifth: Josh & Brent
Eliminated: James & Abba

After briefly delaying the inevitable, James & Abba have been eliminated.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of The Amazing Race 21 Episode 9, which airs Sunday at 8/7c on CBS.

Survivor: Philippines Episode 9

Jeff overplayed, and it cost him the game in Survivor: Philippines Episode 8.

When they get back to camp, Abi’s not happy with Skupin because he voted against her. Penner informs her she should not be happy with him because he’s the one who cast that vote. Of course, he now realizes his vote was the one that caused the end result to not at least be a tie, which is likely to cause him to be the next target. Not that he wasn’t going to be the target regardless.

I don’t know that it will ultimately end up meaning anything, but we get a very lengthy discussion between Jonathan and Lisa about… something that makes her cry. Her dilemma is whether to stick with the bullies or go an alternate route.

They are greeted by a muddy obstacle reward course. The winning team of four will be Survivor ambassadors to a local village, who will share a feast with them. Michael, Artis, Lisa, and Pete (yellow) go against Jonathan, Carter, Denise, and Malcolm (red). Abi is unsurprisingly not wanted by either team. Penner digs up all of his team’s bags, which causes them to be behind at first but pays off when only one person has to do the searching, giving them a huge lead. Once they have four bags, their task is to score 12 baskets. The red team has 10 before yellow even starts. Red team makes it a little interesting by missing again and again, but they finally land the last basket to win reward.

How the teams were split is interesting but not coincidental. It’s all Kalabaw sitting there at the reward, talking about how they need to get Skupin and Lisa on their side.

Why does Abi open her mouth? Now she’s being rude and insulting to Lisa, whose vote she needs to stay in the game. Is acting like this somehow supposed to help her case? I get the sense she just does not care. She just says anything that comes into her mind, and has not yet grown a filter that would allow her to think before speaking, something most people learn at least by their 20s, let alone 32.

At the immunity challenge, they will balance balls on a paddle. The goal is to land 6 balls in the circles on their paddle all at once. Skupin starts off well. Pete’s his only hint of competition. Mike is within striking distance of the win at 5. Pete looks to be making this interesting, but he knock two balls out of their spots, dropping him back out of contention with everybody else. That’s all moot because Skupin had a steady path right toward the immunity necklace, never looking back from the beginning.

Abi wishes she could vote out Mike because she does not like him, but she’s willing to keep him around for the numbers.

Because Abi has the hidden immunity idol, Kalabaw needs to be careful of who they vote for. They figure there’s no way she’d give it to Artis, so that’s who they want to vote for. If Parvati were here, she’d give it to Artis, specifically for that reason.

This will ultimately come down to Lisa and Mike, who have agreed to a final two. Either way, they’re on the bottom, but the fact is they cannot trust Abi, Pete, and Artis no matter what, whereas there’s a chance they may be able to trust the others. Of course, should one of them squeak through into the finals with any of those three, they’re guaranteed a win because nobody likes them.

At tribal council, Abi says she’s not very sure about Lisa at this point. Why would you say that? Despite that, she does not use her idol, nor has she given it to anybody.

Votes
Artis
Jonathan
Artis
Jonathan
Jonathan
Jonathan
Artis
Artis
Artis

With 5 votes, Artis has been voted off the island. Good riddance to this alliance. For whatever reason, Lisa stuck with them, but Skupin was the one to flip.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recape of Survivor: Philippines Episode 10, which airs Wednesday at 8/7c on CBS.

The Amazing Race 21 Episode 7

Rob & Kelley continued marching to the beat of their own drummer in The Amazing Race 21 Episode 6, right out of the race.

Teams depart in the order in which they arrived.

First: Trey & Lexi – 12:35PM
Second: Abbie & Ryan – 12:56PM
Third: James & Abba – 1:03PM
Fourth: Natalie & Nadiya – 1:44PM
Fifth: Jaymes & James – 1:55PM
Sixth: Josh & Brent – 2:07PM

Teams will now fly to Moscow, Russia. There are multiple options available.

Abbie & Ryan have opted for a flight with a 1 hour connection. Josh & Brent end up on this same flight after flipping a coin. 1 hour to get through one of the top 10 busiest airports in the world for an international connection? Having been through the disaster that is Frankfurt, I sense danger. Their alternative would be to take a flight that arrives 1 or 2 hours later. Seeing as these flights are all landing before the sun comes up, I’m not clear why it would be worth the risk. What are the odds a task begins before 8AM?

Trey & Lexi are looking for some airline that sounds funny, so they decide to just eat because they don’t know what it’s called. When the twins come along, the four of them book together. Chippendales and the rockers both get on the earliest flight by just dumb lucking into ticket agents that give them better options than others happened to get.

Before they can even get to Frankfurt and run through the airport, Josh & Brent and Abbie & Ryan already find out they are screwed. An announcement is made that their flight will be an hour late, essentially guaranteeing them a missed connection.

It gets worse. The earliest flight will arrive at 3:10PM, a full 11 hours behind the flight that left third, and even accounting for an hours of operation of 9:30 puts them over six hours behind the rest of the pack. At least there are two teams in this boat, or otherwise this would be a very boring leg.

The detour is a choice between synchronize or alphabetized. In alphabetized, teams must find books in a library based on a list in Russian. In synchronized, teams must go synchronized swimming with a future Olympic team.

Alphabetized: Trey & Lexi
Synchronized: Natalie & Nadiya, Jaymes & James, James & Abba (switched from alphabetized), Abbie & Ryan, Josh & Brent

As frustrating as the Russian alphabet is likely to be, I wouldn’t think the second detour is even possible. The good news is it doesn’t need to be pretty, but it does at least need to be in sync. For any struggles the lead four teams may be going through on either task, it’s all moot. Even if they quit the task and take a penalty, they’re still ahead of the bottom two.

The only occurrence of any relevance is Natalie & Nadiya continuing to discuss wasting their express pass, which they’ve been thinking about since before the task even started. The Chippendales tell them not to be stupid. I’d let them go ahead and do it.

The road block requires them to unlock all ten locks securing a ribbon to the Trees of Love.

Road block (in order of arrival): Trey, James, Natalie, Abba

This fairly simple task is nothing like the nightmare lock challenge from The Amazing Race 6. That does not prevent Natalie and Nadiya from calling each other the worst partner ever as a result of it.

Still at the airport, Josh & Brent and Abbie & Ryan make a pact. They will run this leg together. I’m not sure exactly what that entails, but it sounds silly. Ryan has the perfect opportunity to screw them over when they suggest going to the library, but he declines to take it and tells everybody that it closes at 4, meaning both these teams have no choice but to do the swimming task. It seems, though, that this task is much more suited to Abbie & Ryan, which would still allow them to squeak through.

With the two last place teams having spent the past day together, we find out what their pact means. Abbie & Ryan, finishing the detour easily, stick around to watch Josh & Brent hopelessly flail about.

But wait. There’s more. James & Abba left their stuff in a cab. If that’s just their personal belongings, they’re hurting, but they can get through it. However, if either of them let his passport out of his sight, that would automatically mean elimination. That’s exactly what happened. They have several hours to locate that cab, but we now have an unforeseen scenario that may not make things so predictable after all.

What is it with Russian cabs taking off with people’s stuff (and passports)? Toni & Dallas were eliminated in this exact same scenario in The Amazing Race 13.

The pit stop for this leg of the race is The Bolshoi Theater, the picture on the back of the money they are given as a clue.

First: Trey & Lexi (win a trip to Maui)
Second: Jaymes & James
Third: Natalie & Nadiya

After all the drama of the evening, we’re left with a cliffhanger. The most likely conclusion is that James & Abba cannot find their passports in this city of 10 million, but if they pull out a miracle, that leaves the other two teams battling for survival.

What we do know based on the preview is that Abbie & Ryan survive. Whether that means someone else was eliminated or non-eliminated is the question.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of The Amazing Race 21 Episode 8, which airs Sunday at 8/7c on CBS.

Survivor: Philippines Episode 8

Jonathan saved himself with his hidden immunity idol in Survivor: Philippines Episode 7 leaving RC in the path of the elimination vote.

Jonathan may have survived the vote, but still his alliance screwed him over. He now hates everybody.

The plan is to get rid of the veterans. Once their second shot has been ended, they will then target the obnoxious people: Pete, Abi, and Artis. Do us a favor and go after those guys first.

At the reward challenge, they will divide into two teams. One person from each team will be tied to a rope, swim out, dive and collect a fish trap, and be reeled back in by their team. Two people will then solve a puzzle using the retrieved pieces. Reward is a river cruise with food. Skupin, Pete, Abi, Artis, and Carter go against Jeff, Malcolm, Penner, Lisa, and Denise.

Jeff easily establishes a lead over Abi, which Penner narrowly retains over Pete. A very slow Lisa gives up the lead to Carter. Skupin’s inability to dive returns the lead back to the other team as Denise pulls ahead of him. Both teams are close enough that it comes down to the puzzle. Penner and Jeff go against Skupin and Pete. The puzzle goes very quickly, particularly for Jonathan and Jeff, who finish it to win reward for ther team.

Pete finds Abi annoying like everybody else does, but he’ll keep her around because nobody’s going to vote for her if she’s in the final three. Logically, since nobody likes either of them, they should be thinking along these lines. Of course, keeping them around would mean trusting them, which can’t be done. They can only trust each other, at least until another of Abi’s mood swings kicks in and she stops talking to Pete for two weeks without telling him why.

Though Penner remains the immediate target, there are multiple people thinking that flipping at 9 and keeping Skupin around might be a better move than getting rid of him. Lisa’s the first to get to him, and she tells him that Malcolm has an idol.

The two stage immunity challenge will have them untying puzzle bags and racing over a series of obstacles, then working on a snake puzzle. Pete, Jeff, and Penner are the three to advance to the second stage. Seeing as they were three of the four people who participated in the puzzle in the previous challenge, I assume they are all fairly comfortable with them. The main thing the onlookers are rooting for is just that Jonathan does not win. Penner wins immunity.

Oops. It doesn’t sound to me like anybody has even considered a plan B. Now they’ll have to come up with one.

This will make the other veteran, Michael, the target. But nice church lady Lisa isn’t about to let that happen. She tells another person, Pete, that Malcolm has an idol. Like I said, though, you can’t trust Pete. He asks Malcolm whether he has an idol. After their conversation, Pete is convinced that Malcolm does not have an idol because he freaked out (perhaps because his secret has been discovered?). Malcolm’s reaction is to tell everybody else about how Lisa’s saying he has an idol.

In any event, during their conversation, Pete proposed eliminating Jeff, which is the plan most people are now supporting. When he finds about this (good luck keeping a secret on this tribe), they toss around Pete and Abi as potential targets.

Not content dropping the issue, Malcolm brings it up at tribal council. As the questioning gets redirected to Abi, she’s upset. Oh, this again. She says she didn’t care if Skupin went home anyway because he was always on the outside with RC. During this discussion, Malcolm pulls out his idol and shows it to everybody, telling them it’s getting played tonight because there’s too much chaos. Probst has a follow up question: does anybody else want to reveal they have an idol? Yes, Abi does.

Now Penner would like to know whether everybody’s onboard to go with plan B, which would be voting out Pete. Lisa counters by saying they should go with her own plan B, which would be Jeff. This has gone from dull and predictable to revealing and suspenseful.

One more piece before the vote is revealed. Now that he’s played them all for fools, Malcolm declines to play his idol. Granted, with the tribe split right down the middle, voting against him with even the chance that he might use it would have been too much of a risk. The good news for him is that he should be safe until they have enough votes to split the vote. The bad news is either if they get rid of him to flush the idol or view him as untrustworthy because he’s told the entire group at least two lies already.

Votes
Abi
Jeff
Pete
Jeff
Pete
Jeff
Pete
Jeff
Pete
Jeff

With 5 votes, Jeff has been voted off the island. He got what he deserved. He had total control and gave it up to jump to the other tribe because he so desperately wanted to get rid of one of his allies (and failed). Speaking of which, the swing Abi vote that prevented it from being a tie? Yeah, that came from Penner.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recape of Survivor: Philippines Episode 9, which airs Wednesday at 8/7c on CBS.

The Amazing Race 21 Episode 6

Josh & Brent trailed the entire leg in The Amazing Race 21 Episode 5 but were saved by non-elimination.

Teams depart in the order in which they arrived.

First: James & Abba – 8:30AM
Second: Abbie & Ryan – 11:04AM
Third: Natalie & Nadiya – 12:10PM
Fourth: Rob & Kelley – 12:31PM
Fifth: Trey & Lexi – 12:53PM
Sixth: Jaymes & James – 1:30PM
Seventh: Josh & Brent – 3:04PM

Ryan seems to have decided he hates every other team on the race.

At the travel agent, the twins find a wad of American money, which obviously belongs to one of the other teams. Lexi is standing there as well, and they make a deal to split it. It turns out the money belongs to James & Abba, who realize it’s missing before they leave, but by that time it’s too late. They’ll have to go begging in downtown Bangladesh, and the locals in the business district come together to give them enough to move on.

Teams will now fly 3700 miles to the European side of Turkey in Istanbul. With all the teams on the same flight, the stupidly big lead James & Abba were allowed to retain by last week’s poor leg planning will now evaporate, despite their 7 hour lead over the terribly performing last place team.

When they land, they have to choose between the potentially faster taxis that may hit traffic or the slower metro that will not have that same problem. The cab rides prove quicker, leaving Jaymes & James and Rob & Kelley at the back of the pack. Part way through the ride, the Chippendales get a tip from a fellow passenger that the subway’s slow, so they get off and take a cab the rest of the way. Rob & Kelley see them get off, but they keep doing what they’ve done all along: insist they don’t need to follow anyone and will run their own race, for better or worse.

Arriving at the ferry, they will take it to the Asian side of Turkey.

The detour is a choice between simit or scrub it. In simit, teams will transport Turkish bagels on their heads to three different addresses. In scrub it, teams will be scrubbed squeaky clean in a bathhouse.

Before they can get to the detour, Josh & Brent must first tackle their speed bump. They must eat an ice cream cone. Really, that’s their punishment for coming in last? This is made slightly harder by the fact that they just go to some random ice cream stand, which means they’ll have to do it a second time at the one marked by a race flag.

Scrub it: Trey & Lexi, James & Abba, Natalie & Nadiya, Abbie & Ryan, Jaymes & James
Simit: Josh & Brent, Rob & Kelley

The scrub it detour may sound like it has the potential for some painful scrubbing, and although they get a relaxing wash at first, that’s exactly the path they go down eventually. Still, this is the more relaxing and straightforward task of the two. The teams that did the more physical bagel task end up in last.

The road block requires teams to serve Turkish sherbet, regarded as the world’s first soft drink, until they have sold 40 and earned about $20.

Road block (in order of arrival): Lexi, Ryan, Abba, Natalie, James, Brent, Kelley

Lexi’s strategy is to be loud and obnoxious, which no doubt the twins will emulate. Ryan takes a different approach: he gets one of the locals to help him sell and offers a commission. Regardless, it doesn’t really seem to matter because there are two teams that are clearly trailing.

The pit stop for this leg of the race is Savarona, one of the world’s longest yachts.

First: Trey & Lexi (win a trip to Australia)
Second: Abbie & Ryan
Third: James & Abba
Fourth: Natalie & Nadiya
Fifth: Jaymes & James
Sixth: Josh & Brent
Eliminated: Rob & Kelley

Rob & Kelley lost this leg when it began. I can appreciate their desire to be independent, but there are times you have to accept that it makes more sense to follow the crowd.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of The Amazing Race 21 Episode 7, which airs Sunday at 8/7c on CBS.