Category: reality tv

As her tribe continues to get decimated, Katie was the next obvious boot choice in Survivor: Philippines Episode 6.

Jonathan believes he’s built trust with Jeff, who plans to stab him in the back eventually.

This marks the day Michael fell into the fire in Australia. I’m guessing that won’t happen, though he looks like he’s been through a battle with all the wounds he’s sustained.

The tribes are given 10 minutes to gather their belongings so they can move to a new merged beach.

Down by 3 people, the awful Kalabaw tribe hopes the merge will bring them better luck. They need to get 2 to flip. Denise wants one of those to be Malcolm, her key ally regardless of having merged into a new terrible tribe from her old even worse tribe.

Pete, the ass that he is, is more than willing to throw away his tribe’s numbers advantage. He hates both RC and Mike. Abi, just as bad as Pete but with a bigger mouth, now has a favor to ask RC: get information from the other tribe. RC tells her straight that they aren’t one big happy family.

Jeff is pretty sure nobody on the new beach knows him either. Lisa, however, has another fan, Jonathan. Anybody under the age of 30 doesn’t care about some 80s sitcom, but the older people on the island will immediately recognize Blair Warner.

Lisa has decided to do a nice thing for everybody. While they’re making the shelter, she’ll just hang up everybody’s clothes so they don’t go to sleep with wet clothes. So of course she picks up Malcolm’s bag, the one with the idol in it. He realizes he waited a little to long to find a new hiding place, but he thinks he can trust the nice church lady. Welcome to your new three person alliance and a final three promise from Malcolm with Lisa and Denise.

Jeff, who pointlessly rambled last episode about getting rid of Jonathan, starts the same thing again, this time with the other tribe. While everybody else on his tribe wants to pull in two people, he’s going the other way and instead trying to join the majority tribe, putting himself at the bottom of their totem pole.

The first individual immunity challenge is as always endurance. They will hold a handle with a rope attached to a bucket, which contains 25% of their body weight. It’s nice to see Abi participate in a challenge for a change. Mike’s the first one out after 5 minutes. Pete immediately follows. Jonathan’s next. The good news for the men as they drop like flies is that they don’t have to outlast the women… they just have to outlast each other. Lisa’s next, and then Malcolm. RC’s out, then Abi. Denise wins the women’s immunity. After 15 minutes, Artis is out, leaving the young buck against the pro athlete. At 25 minutes, Jeff starts talking to Carter about making a deal. Though he never actually receives an okay, he drops anyway. Carter wins immunity.

Jeff’s plan is a 4-4 split between Jonathan and RC, which would require everybody other than them and Mike to go along. Unbeknownst to RC, she’s potentially one of the targets, which may not bode well for her belief that she’s in the majority with Kalabaw. Luckily for her, Mike’s planning on going down swinging, so he makes a deal with Jeff that he’ll get rid of Jonathan before him. This leaves Jeff with a lot of power. He can determine the fate of tonight’s vote, though either way he’s going to earn himself some new enemies for talking so much.

For Tandang (Malcolm notwithstanding), this marks their first visit to tribal council, which has never taken this long in 25 seasons. On the flip side, Denise has been to every single tribal council.

RC finally finds out why Abi’s been such a bitch to her all this time, which she would have found out a long time ago if Abi were capable of having a rational adult conversation. Anyway, it was something about an idol clue and hiding it or something. I still don’t know.

Not as in the dark as some may have hoped, Jonathan decides to play his idol, though the others did plan to split the vote specifically just in case this happened.

Votes
Jonathan (does not count)
Jonathan (does not count)
Jonathan (does not count)
RC
Pete
Jonathan (does not ocunt)
Jonathan (does not count)
RC
Pete
RC
RC

With 4 votes, RC has been voted off the island. Having received the majority of the votes and only voted the same as the person who just went home, Jonathan knows he can’t trust anybody. The fifth vote to put him over the top: Mike.

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

First a sick Dana left the island in Survivor: Philippines Episode 5. Then Dawson talked her way out of the game by not so cleverly dancing around Jeff Kent’s fame and wealth rather than just blurting it out.

Odd woman out Katie has found herself a target: returning player Jonathan.

Tandang is running out of rice, and they blame Mike. They already wanted to get rid of him anyway, so this is just another easy reason to justify it.

The reward challenge will have them pushing a large ball through the mud. Reward is food. RC and Artis sit out for Tandang. The physical challenge quickly becomes a mud wrestling match, one in which nobody moves very far or very fast. The first set of teams of three is sitting on the ground after an hour.

Mike and Jonathan finally start talking deals. Mike’s willing to trade the sandwiches for the rest of their rice. The other tribe is seriously considering this deal. They say they can get by without rice. Artis, who was whining about Mike eating all the rice earlier, doesn’t want any part of this deal. But the rest of his tribe is onboard. Deal struck, the challenge is over. Kalabaw wins reward in exchange for all their rice.

Despite the fact that giving away all their rice was clearly insane, Kalabaw does have a couple of things going for them. As the tribe down by two people, they may have just received some much needed momentum. They should also have more energy when they compete for immunity.

In addition to the food, they receive letters from home. They claim this is better than food.

Back at the other camp, Artis has a new problem with Mike. He doesn’t like that he got them rice and “is making decisions for the tribe” (that the tribe voted on and agreed to). Pete and Abi, who also were loudly complaining that they did not have enough rice before, are complaining just as much about their newfound bounty of rice.

Jonathan’s confident that his tribe can get fish, despite the fact that they apparently have not had much luck so far. His confidence does not translate into results. The couple of guppies does not help their spirits.

At the immunity challenge, they must launch and catch balls. Whether they catch their own or intercept the opposition’s, it counts as a point. bi, who is completely useless in all aspects of this game, sits out for Tandang yet again. Losing the battle of rock, paper, scissors, Mike does as well.

Jonathan scores for Kalabaw. Pete and RC score for Tandang to take the 2-1 lead. Jeff scores to tie. Jeff takes the 3-2 lead for Kalabaw. Jeff scores again. Taking Mike’s advice to go for Malcolm, Lisa targets Malcolm, who scores to make it 4-3. Malcolm scores again. Carter’s completely ineffective, so he swaps places with Jeff. Malcolm scores again, and Tandang wins immunity.

Now they have a choice between Katie or Jonathan. Katie’s useless, but Jonathan is a veteran. They’re discussing the merge as if it matters. With this loss, they’re now outnumbered 7-4.

Denise and Katie say they feel like they are in trouble.

Votes
Katie
Jonathan
Katie
Katie

With 3 votes, Katie has been voted off the island, an obvious conclusion from a tribe that desperately needs a win based on something other than a willingness to give away food.

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

The Russell meltdown concluded in Survivor: Philippines Episode 4 when he was finally eliminated.

Is there going to be a tribe shuffle today, or do we keep watching the losers and see the other tribes sit out four members each?

At least Malcolm finally finds the idol, making their tribe the last to find it.

Probst tosses them each a buff. Malcolm goes to Tandang, and Denise goes to Kalabaw.

Reward is coffee and baked goods. Each contestant holds an idol, which they must force their opponent to drop. Jeff beats Malcolm to take the lead. Artis stomps Dana. Katie (who are these people every week that nobody ever heard of?) beats Lisa. Mike beats Jonathan to tie it again. Denise beats RC. Pete beats Carter for another tie. Abi beats Dawson despite her hair pulling attempt. Malcolm beats Jeff, and Tandang wins reward.

Malcolm’s tribe is a lot happier to have him than Denise’s tribe is to have her, except for RC, who feels she has one more enemy.

Pete quickly tells Malcolm he has the idol. Of course, Malcolm does not volunteer the same information in return.

For Kalabaw, it’s men against women, and it will be up to Denise to decide whether she wishes to continue that trend.

Dana is struggling with the cold, and she is having sharp pains in her stomach. The medics will allow her to continue for another 12 hours if she wants because her life is not in danger. Given the choice, Dana decides to quit because she doesn’t think she’s going to get any better.

The immunity challenge is an obstacle course followed by a bamboo word puzzle. Abi sits out for Tandang. Again. She says she’s only participated in two challenges.

Tandang is first across the first set of obstacles. Katie has to be dragged up the hill. This allows Tandang to build a large lead. The rope untying portion in which Katie becomes moot allows Kalabaw to gain a bit of ground. Jeff struggles in the chopping task, so Jonathan bails him out, further extending Tandang’s lead. Both tribes have figured out the puzzle. It’s just a matter of who can get the pieces in place first. By seconds, Tandang wins immunity.

Without Dana, the women’s alliance is done. This makes Katie an easy target seeing as she sucked at the challenge. Her only hope is that Denise, who still has not won anything, will be voted out because she is new. But Denise agrees to be the fourth vote for the men.

Though Katie is the most logical vote considering how pathetic she was at the challenge, Dawson’s not out of the woods just yet. She’s not a great performer either, and being the only one who knows Jeff Kent’s secret is not helping her because he gets the sense she knows.

Votes
Denise
Dawson
Dawson
Dawson
Dawson

With 4 votes, Dawson has been voted off the island.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recape of Survivor: Philippines Episode 6, which airs Wednesday at 8/7c on CBS.

With her tribe unable to ever win anything, Angie was voted off the island in Survivor: Philippines Episode 3, allowing Russell to again narrowly escape.

Abi stumbles upon the clue to the hidden immunity idol in front of the rest of her tribe, the clue for the idol she already has. RC didn’t do anything, though. Pete was the one who put it in her bag. This provides Abi, the least pleasant ally ever, the ammo to pretend like she’s been wronged, as if she needs any. Meanwhile, RC is left wondering what she did wrong.

Jonathan makes deals with Jeff and Carter, putting the girls on the chopping block. In turn, the girls are plotting against them.

Realizing he’s the odd man out and doing himself no favors in breaking that trend, Russell continues his search for an immunity idol, which his tribe now suspects he has.

At the immunity challenge, they will carry two pots of rice on a bamboo pole through an obstacle course, collecting a total of six pots, then smash the pots with a wrecking ball. The first tribe to finish will receive steak, veggies, and spices. The second tribe will win that minus steak. Either tribe can opt for a tarp instead. Both Kalabaw and Tandang sit their three women out of the challenge to even things up against the decmiated Matsing.

Carter gets behind right away when he breaks a pot. Malcolm does something strange: he gives Matsing the lead. Even Russell doesn’t suck for his tribe for a change. The lone female in the competition, Denise, starts to fall behind as Tandang takes the lead and finishes retrieving their pots first. All tribes make their way to the pot smashing portion in what could still be anybody’s game. Tandang wins immunity. Kalabaw narrowly overcomes their disastrous start to place second. Matsing loses. Again. Time for another Russell tantrum.

As the second place team, Kalabaw ask for the tarp rather than the food.

Though Russell’s the most likely option, he’s been a high priority twice before as well, both times escaping because he is stronger. They’re already talking about who’s a threat to win the game, and it’s day 9.

Votes
Russell
Malcolm
Russell

With 2 votes, Russell has been voted off the island.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recape of Survivor: Philippines Episode 5, which airs Wednesday at 8/7c on CBS.