Category: survivor caramoan

Finding out that people don’t want to go to the end with somebody nice, Brenda was voted off the island in Survivor: Caramoan Episode 13. Whether a lot of people were annoyed by this move or not, it was a move that made sense, particularly for Cochran, who snuffed someone out before she could get him.

That brings us down to the final five: Dawn Meehan, Eddie Fox, Erik Reichenbach, John Cochran, and Sherri Biethman. Perhaps because the first half of this season was a disaster (between the favorites who really weren’t favorites, hapless fans, Shamar, and Brandon Hantz), I struggle to find someone to root for, even though the last half of the season has been awesome.

Speaking of Brandon, it appears he has been banned from the finale, a Survivor first. Good riddance. He shouldn’t have been cleared to be on the show in the first place.

For starters, Sherri is completely useless. I can’t imagine anyone on either tribe even giving her so much as a pity vote. As for Erik, I’m not sure he has even figured out what game he’s playing, but at least he hasn’t been a complete idiot like he was last time. Dawn’s emotional breakdowns aside, she has played a somewhat competent game. The problem is she’s played right into Cochran’s hands, setting him up for the win while everybody (both on the island and at home) hates her. This has made him a big threat, though he has not dominated challenges like Probst claims. Then there’s Eddie, the ultimate underdog who gets points just for surviving this long. If they can’t/don’t/won’t get rid of him, he’s a major threat, not just because of his story of being an outsider since the first day but because he refuses to make this personal.

Immediately after Tribal Council, Erik’s head is spinning. This started during Tribal Council, but he just ignored it until they returned to camp. They put an IV in him in attempt to get him to recover, but he won’t be returning to the game. Here we are day 36 in the final five, and he is being medically evacuated because his body has entered a starvation state.

The biggest potential benefactor of this is Eddie. Now he needs to survive one Tribal Council rather than two, and he’s a big challenge threat. Cochran immediately makes a deal with him. They agree to get rid of Dawn and bring Sherri with them to the finals.

At the reward challenge, they will balance a board with one hand while stacking tiles with another. Reward is an advantage at the final immunity challenge. Hopefully it’s just a reasonable advantage and not a guaranteed win like last time. Even just stacking these on a flat surface is bad enough, let alone having to balance them on an unsteady platform. Cochran falls first, then Sherri. Dawn gets one away from the top and has to start over. Eddie’s lead collapses as well. Cochran does not seem to be getting anywhere, falling over and over. Sherri starts to take off but loses it near the top. After multiple failed attempts, Cochran ends up winning.

Now we get to hear Cochran talk more about how he’s the challenge beast. I hope he’s kidding, but it comes off as annoying, primarily because it’s just not based on reality. Though he has won three challenges (a gross eating challenge, a strength challenge won entirely because of an advantage that he bought, and now this), across both this season and his last, his performance at challenges has generally been lackluster.

Sherri does not want to sit next to Dawn in the finals either.

For the last time, immunity is up for grabs. They will race up a three story tower, untie a bag of puzzle pieces, slide down a slide, and repeat. They must then build a fire puzzle when they have all their pieces. Cochran’s advantage is that he will not have to untie his bags of puzzle pieces. This does not seem to be nearly as big a deal as his last advantage was.

As minimal as Cochran’s advantage may have seemed, he’s lapping people already even just as he grabs his second bag. He also gets to unload his puzzle pieces well ahead of the others, and I suspect he’s the biggest puzzle challenge threat. For all the advantage, though, by the time Eddie and Dawn reach him, Cochran does not have any pieces in place. Dawn manages to take the lead, and even Sherri leapfrogs Cochran. Eddie quickly falls way behind. Of all the things he was hoping for, a puzzle was not one of them. Cochran eventually retakes the lead. Eddie finally gets on the board, but he’s still several behind. Cochran wins immunity.

Now Cochran has to decide between Eddie and Dawn. Sherri’s spot is secured because nobody will vote for her.

The safe vote here seems to be Eddie. Although he really hasn’t done anything strategically, the jury loves him and smiles at everything he says. He is really the only likeable one left, with Cochran being the only with a chance to claim that spot after his elimination.

Votes
Dawn
Eddie
Eddie
Eddie

With 3 votes, Eddie has been voted off the island.

Malcolm does not pretend he plans to vote for Sherri, but he just wants to address Dawn and Cochran. Dawn is cold-blooded, and she needs to own it. Cochran says his heightened level of insecurity is the quality he had that helped.

Sherri denies that she was carried to the final three, which draws laughter from the jury. Eddie discusses Dawn’s breakdowns. Cochran says he’ll be at the bar with the three amigos.

Phillip kicks Sherri out of Stealth R Us. He then returns to Dawn’s emotional problems.

Erik complains about Dawn’s vote against Brenda. Then he tells Sherri she did not do anything, so she attacks right back. Good for her. If he’s not going to vote for her, no need to sit there and be attacked.

Michael knows that Dawn and Cochran played the same game, so he wants to give her an opportunity to explain why Cochran is getting off scot free. She says she developed the relationships that allowed them to obtain the information they did. Her opinion is that all he had to do was show up and ask how to vote.

Reynold never liked Dawn. What does she think about him? Chauvanistic, great sense of humor, and vulgar.

Andrea declines to attack anyone (other than herself for being voted off with an idol in her bag), so she just says she’s proud of them.

Brenda complains about the family visit that she willingly gave away. Then she continues complaining about Dawn backstabbing her, which leads to her asking about Dawn’s missing retainer. She asks Dawn to prove herself and take out her teeth, which Dawn agrees to do. Apparently, the point of this is that Brenda wants to embarrass her for revenge.

I agree with Dawn that she worked harder. The problem is that she was too emotional, and Cochran is more likeable. No way the jury votes for her.

Votes
Cochran
Cochran
Cochran
Cochran
Cochran

In a landslide, presumably 8-0, the Survivor: Caramoan winner is John Cochran. Of all the favorites, for lack of a better term, he was the only one I was looking forward to returning, a little bit.

71% of the votes cast this season for the Sprint player of the season were cast for Malcolm and Brenda. By 1%, Malcolm wins the $100,000 prize. Though Brenda brought nothing to the game, the only reason this thing got interesting for a few weeks was because of Malcolm and his two amigos. Before that, it was dragged down by terrible casting. Still, this is a silly award that they could have just as easily decided when the cast was announced and received the same result.

Survivor will be returning once again for season 27. It will be dubbed Blood vs. Water. I guess the rumors are true, but at the very least I really don’t need to see another Hantz, let alone more than one.

A double elimination Survivor: Caramoan Episode 12 saw the obvious boot of Reynold followed by an Andrea blindside.

Cochran’s name comes up as the person to go next. Eddie even tells him he’s probably the target.

Erik starts to talk about how he wouldn’t mind falling out of a tree because then at least he would end up in a nice warm hospital with coconuts to eat.

The family visit is here. The crying begins early as they watch videos at camp. Erik says he no longer wants to accidentally disable himself because he saw a video. Even Probst is crying.

For the challenge, they will compete alongside their loved ones. They will spin to unscrew rails then launch bolos on those rails. Reward is a floating backyard barbeque visit.

Cochran’s mom starts dragging right away. Erik and his brother are the only duo of young guys, which seems to make them the odds on favorite. But the tossing makes it anyone’s game. Sherri’s husband is even keeping her competitive. Brenda, who had been competitive alongside her father in the first phase, manages to win reward. She chooses Dawn and her husband to join them.

Then she is given a choice. Each person has two loved ones visiting. So double the crying. If I’m understanding Jeff’s confusing way of putting this correctly, she can either take the reward with Dawn and their loved ones, or she can give it up and grant it to the rest of the tribe. She chooses to give it away, a fairly simple choice.

Time for another Dawn meltdown. I miss those. It’s been almost a whole episode or two.

Cochran has a warning. Likeability is a liability this late in the game. If people thought Brenda was a threat before, wait until he starts talking about her being selfless.

At the next challenge, they are standing on a ledge holding a handle, and they will slowly be lowered toward the water until they can’t take it any more. Probst will not be offering them any temptations. After 15 minutes, Cochran falls first. 10 minutes later, Eddie is out. Erik follows in this challenge clearly not designed for men. Sherri’s next. Dawn suggests that she just hand it to her because she needs to share, but Brenda, who went 3-4 hours with Andrea previously, declines. In the end, Brenda ends up losing anyway, and Dawn wins immunity for the first time. Brenda tells us she threw it. Considering the match up, I think I can believe that.

Brenda’s plan is to get rid of Eddie first and Cochran next. Cochran, however, would prefer to get rid of Brenda first so that he can benefit his main allies, Dawn and Sherri. Holy useless final three that would be, which I guess is his point.

Eddie assumes that tonight will be his last, but he plans to go out with his head held high, offering nothing but kind words about his fellow castaways and his experience.

Votes
Eddie
Eddie
Erik
Brenda
Brenda
Brenda

With 3 votes, Brenda has been voted off the island. Nice move, but I can’t force myself to get behind an alliance of Cochran, Sherri, and Dawn. A crying Brenda says she knew it, yet she just got done throwing an immunity challenge.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Survivor: Caramoan Episode 14, where we will find out who the Survivor: Caramoan, which airs Sunday at 8/7c on CBS.

Malcolm’s poor but nonetheless very interesting game came to an end in Survivor: Caramoan Episode 11.

They wake up the next morning to find out it’s already time for another immunity challenge. They will balance on a triangular platform in the water. In addition to immunity, they are playing for reward: information in the game.

The first temptation is donuts and milk. Erik takes it, which is lame, but I can sort of understand. However, he’s joined by the guy near the top of the chopping block, Eddie. After 15 minutes, those who remain move to the next perch on the platform. Three hot dogs and a soft drink are enough to tempt Cochran, a move that receives no love from anybody else. After 30 minutes, they move to the top of the platform.

Dawn drops. Then Sherri. Reynold makes a couple big recoveries, but it’s obvious that the person with the biggest feet isn’t going to win this. He eventually falls. Neither Andrea nor Brenda want to deal despite their goal now having been accomplished. They stay there for 3 hours and then agree to make up their own rules about standing on one leg only. That lasts a few seconds before Brenda falls. Andrea wins immunity and reward.

Part of their deal was to share the information, not surprisingly a clue to the hidden immunity idol, with each other. Andrea decides to tell her whole alliance. Erik is the one who finds it, but he just hands it over to Andrea. He’s probably the only one who would do that.

Andrea begins discussing Brenda as a possible target. That immunity challenge scared her, and she wants to see some blindsides start happening to someone else before it happens to her. Although there are a lot of people pulled into these conversations, it doesn’t seem to get back to Brenda.

Makes more sense to me to just follow the original plan. If you want to use someone for a vote, make it Eddie or Sherri next time. 8 is an unusual time to flip.

Votes
Erik
Sherri
Reynold
Eddie
Reynold
Eddie
Reynold
Reynold

With 4 votes, Reynold has been voted off the island. What was the point of him voting against Erik? Eddie at least made a smart throw away vote rather than one of the Favorites.

Immediately after Tribal Council, Andrea returns to talking about blindsides. She mentions Brenda again and also now Dawn. Since she’s mentioning Cochran’s biggest ally, now he’s concerned, and he tells both of them. Dumb move, Andrea. Going after Brenda probably made sense, but pick a target and stick with it.

Once again, immunity is back up for grabs. They will push a buoy through obstacles along a rope then complete a ladder puzzle. Erik takes an early lead. The others, except the hopeless Sherri, are roughly tied for second when they get to the knot untying. Erik retains his lead, but Andrea has pulled within seconds of him. Cochran and Dawn join Sherri at the back of the pack. Erik loses his lead on the puzzle for the first time, but he regains it before long and takes a huge lead. Erik wins immunity. He says he won’t give it away this time.

Placing second again, Brenda gives Andrea even more ammo.

Cochran doesn’t like being the number three person on Andrea’s totem pole behind Eddie, so he is working to get rid of her.

Now both of them are competing for Erik’s vote, which may well be the deciding vote if they decide to split the vote between Andrea and Eddie.

Why does Reynold have a moustache?

Votes
Brenda
Andrea
Eddie
Eddie
Andrea
Brenda
Andrea

With 3 votes, Andrea has been voted off the island. The tribe played this really dangerously, but they’re lucky she did not play that idol. Eddie just lost his only hope of an ally.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Survivor: Caramoan Episode 13, which airs Wednesday at 8/7c on CBS.

Falling victim to the fact that hidden immunity idols are now pretty much just falling out of trees, Phillip was voted out in Survivor: Caramoan Episode 10 after Malcolm burned both his idols to keep his alliance alive for one more week.

Now it’s time for Brenda to have her breakdown. She says she’s afraid they lost control of the game. Don’t you still have a 6-3 advantage?

It’s the Survivor auction. Reacting in about 1 second, Malcolm buys beer and nuts (plus a surprise of 2 more beers and pretzels) for $20. He immediately chugs his beer that he potentially just threw the game away for.

Multiple people are interested in the covered item, which Reynold wins for $180. He can trade it for one of two other covered items, but he keeps the one he bought originally, a slice of pizza. Better than the rotten coconut but not as good as the rest of the pizza he gave up. Sherri offers $500 for the rest of the pizza. Can she do that? Apparently she can.

Dawn opens the bidding for a roasted chicken at $500.

Malcolm bids $480 for information in the game, which luckily for him nobody else wants to top. He gets directions to a hidden idol, as if that’s really necessary.

Andrea really wants the next covered item, and she wins it for $280. Spaghetti, meatballs, bread, and wine. Plus a dilemma. Not a real hard decision, though. Either her meal or a sack of rice and beans for the tribe. She takes the rice and beans.

Cochran wins an advantage in the next immunity challenge for $340.

Brenda has been wondering whether she should take a risk this whole challenge. So she does it now with a $300 opening bid for a covered item: pig brain. She takes a bite then remembers she doesn’t eat pork.

Letters from loved ones are $20, which means Malcolm, Sherri, and Dawn are left out. Then they start crying. Surely anybody who watched and/or played this game before knows that letters from home are one of the prizes. If a letter is more important than food or safety, just don’t bid on anything else.

Eddie buys a covered item for $200, and the entire tribe will share a giant bowl of peanutbutter.

Reynold starts talking to Sherri. Is she really going to join them? She never trusted them to begin with, and she clearly can’t beat them in challenges (not that she can beat anyone else).

Malcolm’s idol is actually hidden. This one is 6 inches deep. He heads to the well early in the morning, but it’s not early enough to prevent Andrea and Cochran from busting him digging. Cochran goes to the bathroom, but she’s going to just sit there and wait him out. As the sun comes up, he realizes she won’t be leaving him alone any time soon.

At the immunity challenge, they will hold on to a rope connected to a very heavy log (1/3 of the body weight they started the game with). Cochran’s advantage is moving the knot up two knots at any time. After 5 minutes, they move to the second knot, making things more difficult. Then the third, and Cochran uses his advantage. After half an hour, everybody (but Cochran) moves to the final knot. Brenda is out. Then Erik. The final position is no knot, except for Cochran, who will have a knot the whole time. Sherri is out. Then Malcolm somehow. And Andrea. Dawn puts up a strong effort, but she eventually slips. Reynold is next. Eddie drops. Thanks to his advantage, Cochran wins a strength challenge. He tells us this win that was handed to him (though in his defense, he earned it by buying something nobody else wanted) makes him the biggest challenge threat in the game.

Malcolm tells Sherri he has an idol, and he makes a final three deal with her. He wants to get rid of Andrea.

Erik also agrees to vote with them. They’re both wishy washy about which way they go, and they both fancy themselves all powerful.

Cochran doesn’t want to split the vote in order to avoid a disaster (Andrea being voted out and a 4-4 tribe split), but Andrea argues it’s safer to split. She asks how dumb Erik would have to be to flip right now. Did you see his first season? He is considered by many to have made the dumbest mistake in the history of Survivor.

Tonight the power begins to shift, as Tribal Council will be viewed by first jury member Phillip.

Despite putting fear into Malcolm that she’s going to haunt him if he goes looking, Andrea still says she’s 80% sure he has an idol.

As the voting begins, we can tell that they split the vote, banking on nobody flipping.

Votes
Reynold
Malcolm
Andrea
Reynold
Malcolm
Andrea
Reynold
Andrea
Malcolm

The three way tie proves that everybody kept their word, a lucky break I’d say, and now they can get rid of who they really want, Malcolm

Votes
Malcolm
Malcolm
Malcolm
Malcolm

With 4 votes, Malcolm has been voted off the island. He didn’t play a very good game, but he certainly kept things interesting.

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

The anticlimactic conclusion to a very eventful Survivor: Caramoan Episode 9 saw the Favorites choosing the safe vote, Michael, for elimination.

Everybody other than the two remaining outcasts from the other tribe plus Malcolm (who just dug himself in an even deeper hole, if that’s possible) heads off for a meeting immediately after Tribal Council.

The next morning, Dawn is having a breakdown. She lost her retainer that has some teeth in it, and she says she’ll pull herself from the game if she can’t find it. Brenda goes looking in the water for her, and seconds later she ends the drama by finding it.

For the challenge, they will be divided into two teams of five to run through an obstacle course, collect bags, and shoot the balls inside into a basket. Reward is a trip to a resort for some lunch. The purple team is Reynold, Erik, Dawn, Cochran, and Phillip; the orange team is Eddie, Malcolm, Sherri, Andrea, and Brenda.

Malcolm’s strategy is to find all his team’s bags so they don’t have to. This gives the purple team an early lead, but it may pay off later. The second person to run, Reynold, has decided to copy Malcolm’s strategy. Reynold has now found his team’s bags in addition to having a one lap advantage over Malcolm, who has a good strategy, but he’s just too slow to make it work. A very slow Sherri allows the purple team to extend their lead even further, now close to two full laps. Purple has all their balls in before orange can even start shooting.

Unlike the typical reward, we don’t see any strategizing this time. Instead, the focus is Dawn’s continuing paranoia. She says she needs a break. That can be arranged. The next morning, she wakes up and says she’s normal again. So now they can strategize. Reynold is the target.

At the immunity challenge, they will race across a platform, jump into the ocean, swim under the platform by pulling themselves along a rope, grab a ring, move it to the second post, and repeat.

Reynold takes a very large lead in the first heat, and Andrea gets the second spot in the finals. Phillip says he’s sitting out because he’s afraid of the water, giving the others 50/50 odds of advancing. You’d think this would come down to Eddie and Malcolm, and it does. Until Eddie somehow fails to put his second ring on the post, which allows Brenda to take the final spot. The final round consists of five rings instead of just two. It’s obviously going to be Malcolm against Reynold. Half way through, and Reynold overtakes Malcolm. Reynold wins immunity. Their plans just went all to hell.

The simple solution is to just replace Reynold’s name with Eddie with Malcolm still receiving the remainder of the split votes. The question is: who’s the target? Malcolm doesn’t seem overly concerned about that question, though, as he hopes to not play his idol tonight.

As multiple people sit around back at camp, the boys go hunting for an idol, and so do Andrea and Dawn. Unlike his other idol that nobody knows about, Malcolm now has a second one, which half the tribe sees.

They intend to continue their plan anyway. 4 for Malcolm, 3 for Eddie, then Eddie on the revote if Malcolm happens to play it.

If he’s willing to burn two idols here, Malcolm has the chance to make a huge move. He could send any Favorite of his choice packing. Of course, he’d still be hugely outnumbered in that case, but at least it’s something. Or he could be a complete dumbass and be dismissed with two idols in his pocket.

Before they even get to the vote, Malcolm gives his other idol to Eddie. I’d just go ahead and vote as if they weren’t going to play them because it’s not like it matters. If somebody else is going home anyway, the revote will seal their fate.

To give them some further incentive to switch, Malcolm says the three of them are voting for Phillip.

Erik would like to make a point. What if these idols don’t get played? At least somebody is considering that very real possibility. Phillip says they need to just vote how they planned.

Eddie plays his idol that he just received minutes ago. Malcolm pretends he’s not going to play his, but he does.

Votes
Malcolm (does not count)
Malcolm (does not count)
Eddie (does not count)
Eddie (does not count)
Eddie (does not count)
Eddie (does not count)
Phillip
Phillip
Phillip

With 3 votes (plus one from Erik), Phillip has been voted off the island. I don’t suspect anyone on the island will miss him, even if he would not have been their ideal target.

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

Corinne unnecessarily blew her plan in Survivor: Caramoan Episode 8 by telling it to one too many people, and the idiots playing with her finally woke up and stopped doing everything she wanted them to do, blindsiding her instead.

Reynold’s ally may have just been voted out, but he looks at it as a victory. A Favorite went home, and he did not go home.

As for Malcolm, he views himself as the rebel leader, not Corinne.

Phillip has decided that the newest member of his organization is Sherri. Of course, there’s only like three people not in this alliance.

For the reward challenge, they will divide into two teams of five. One member of each team will be the defender while the others leap off a platform and attempt to throw a ball past the defender into the net. Reward is rappelling down a waterfall for a picnic lunch.

After the schoolyard pick, the purple shooters are Erik, Reynold, Eddie, and Cochran, and in this seemingly most mismatched challenge ever they will square off against Dawn, Phillip, Andrea, and Brenda on the orange team. At least the orange team has a decent defender, Malcolm, against Michael for purple. Sherri was not picked by either team.

Brenda scores. Erik ties it 1-1. Andrea makes it 2-1. Cochran ties it at 2. Phillip retakes the lead 3-2. Eddie makes it 3-3, and the next point wins. Erik scores to win for purple. That was a lot closer than I expected.

While they’re at their reward, Reynold, Eddie, and Michael take the opportunity to try to pitch a bro’s alliance to Cochran. Did they just meet him? He has no interest in this sausagefest.

While at camp, Malcolm wants to scoop up the people on the bottom, Dawn and Sherri. Seeing as Sherri already called Phillip her new Shamar, this seems like a lost cause to me. Then he tells Dawn, who thinks he’s going to be a problem.

After getting wind of this, the Favorites decide to vote out another of their own, but they tell him they’re doing a split vote between Eddie and Reynold.

Since the other women who got close to them are gone, Eddie and Reynold are looking for a new victim. Andrea thinks Eddie’s really hot. She tries to pull it off like she’s playing him, but that’s not what I’m seeing. He tells her he won’t vote against Reynold, but he’ll vote out Malcolm if she wants.

The immunity challenge will test their ability to hold their breaths while partially underwater as they slide under a grate and wait for the tide to rise. After 1 hour, they’re about an inch away from being covered. Phillip is the first one out. Sherri is next, followed by Erik. Dawn is fourth, surprised she beat anybody. Malcolm is next. Then Michael. The water is now above the grate. Eddie’s out, and he is closely followed by the two remaining guys, Cochran and Eddie. Andrea drops after recovering a couple times, and Brenda wins immunity.

Malcolm wants to take out who he views as the real leader, Andrea, rather than prince Phillip.

Dawn, who can’t understand why Malcolm would trust her since she’s the reason Corinne went home, lyingly agrees to go along with him if Reynold shows her his idol. He does just this and tells her if she burns him, he’s going tonight, which she interprets as meaning there will be hell to pay. Is she listening to a different conversation than I am?

Andrea refuses to tell Eddie who to vote for. Does he want to be saved or not? As she stands there being difficult with her supposed new ally, she finds out that she’s the other target at tonight’s vote. So she suggests the safe vote, Michael, a plan that nobody likes, especially an emotional Dawn, who insists Malcolm does not have an idol.

During Tribal Council, while Michael is speaking, Erik starts playing with Andrea’s hair. It was a bug. Or was it a signal?

Phil warns against anybody making brave moves because they’re going to get flushed out and sent home. This speech sends a message to Malcolm, who says he now knows everybody voted for him. Reynold goes to play his idol, and Malcolm (who just voted Reynold) asks if he can give it to him instead. Very smart move. He keeps his own idol while getting the one everybody knows about out of play.

Votes
Andrea
Andrea
Andrea
Reynold
Michael
Michael
Michael
Michael
Michael
Michael

With 6 votes, Michael has been voted off the island. And here I was expecting something else. If she hadn’t changed things up, Andrea would be gone. As the person who just gave her the idea to go with the safe vote, Eddie ended up voting against her anyway.

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

In Survivor: Caramoan Episode 7, we found out there was somebody named Julia on the island. Then she was voted off it.

Phillip tells his challenge throwing story to Corinne and Dawn, who don’t buy it either.

They are told to gather up their things to head to a new home. I haven’t heard the word merge yet, but everyone assumes that’s what’s happening. They name themselves Enil Edam, which Malcolm doesn’t tell them is his mom’s name (Madeline) backwards.

Phillip and Corinne continue their battle against each other despite supposedly being on the same side. Phil goes to Andrea, while Corinne (who’s allied with Michael, who the others stupidly did not get rid of last time) goes to Malcolm (who has an alliance of sorts with Erik, Eddie, and Reynold).

The first individual immunity challenge is a gross eating challenge. They will race to get down local delicacies. The first group of six is live beetle larva. Andrea, Malcolm, and Eddie advance, while Sherri, Erik, and Corinne are eliminated. The next group eats the same thing. Cochran, Phillip, and Michael advance, while Reynold, Dawn, and Brenda are out. The remaining six will eat shipworms, the ocean’s equivalent of a termite. Malcolm, Eddie, and Cochran (beating Andrea by a second) move on to the next round, balut (duck embryos). Cochran and Malcolm move to the final round, pig brains. By about a second again, Cochran finishes first to win immunity.

Phillip proposes a split vote between Eddie and Reynold so that one of them goes home. He wants a big fish gone first. Corinne counters that they should just do an easy first vote and get rid of someone who nobody likes, Sherri. Phil completely disregards her. What would Boston Rob do? Cochran doesn’t understand why Corinne so vocally wants to keep Eddie and Reynold, but he’s willing to play along anyway. If he gets burned, he’ll deserve it because this would make two weeks in a row he just did as she said with no benefit to himself.

Corinne reveals her real plan to Dawn. She wants her to be the seventh member of their alliance and get rid of Phillip next, which I’m not sure I understand the need for since 6 out of 11 is already a majority. Afraid of repeating mistakes of the past, she Dawn shares this information with Cochran.

Their question now is whether they can get rid of Corinne instead. They should have 5 votes easily. Sherri and Erik are their hopes for a majority, a desperate player and a guy who doesn’t talk strategy and previously made one of the dumbest moves in Survivor history. This could go either way.

Despite the reserved optimism from the rest of the tribe, Sherri tells Probst she doesn’t think the fans have a shot.

Votes
Sherri
Sherri
Sherri
Sherri
Sherri
Corinne
Corinne
Corinne
Corinne
Corinne
Corinne
Corinne

With 7 votes, Corinne has been voted off the island. Confident until about 15 seconds ago, she sunk herself by unnecessarily revealing her plan to one too many people.

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

Following a tribe shuffle in Survivor: Caramoan Episode 6, Matt was eliminated.

Michael’s all alone without Matt, so now he wants to work with the Favorites at the merge. Corinne is the most willing to jump at the chance of partnering with him. Phillip wants to get rid of her next, but Cochran steps in to prevent him from doing anything rash. So who’s going to prevent her from going after him?

Phil is convinced that he can win anything involving strength, easily outmatching the young bucks from the other side. To prove his strength, he challenges Cochran to an arm wrestling match.

For the reward challenge, they will be clipped to a rope and carry a 20 pound sand bag. They will run around a course in knee high water, and the first tribe to catch the other tribe wins a feast of sweets and coffee. Brenda sits out for Gota. Bikal puts Phillip in the front at his insistence, while Gota puts who Jeff calls their fittest guy (Erik is fitter than Malcolm, Reynold, and Eddie?) in that position. Phillip tires very quickly, and his own team starts to pass him, let alone the other team. Dawn is the first to drop and hand her 20 pounds to Corinne. Cochran and Julia drop next. Andrea’s the first to fall for Gota. Despite his sucking, Phil refuses to bail, and his fall is the last straw.

When they get back, Phillip starts talking about going to Tribal Council tonight. Oh, wait, this was a reward challenge?

Cochran would say that Julia has a vanilla personality, but he doesn’t want to offend the flavor vanilla.

Malcolm is concerned that the four young guys will be the first targets when the merge comes, so he approaches Reynold to try to form an alliance. Reynold tells him he has an idol. So does Malcolm, but he’s not going to share that information.

Phillip is about the only person willing to keep Julia around, or at least he was until she told Dawn she’s working with him, a conversation Dawn repeats to him.

At the immunity challenge, three members of each tribe will paddle into the ocean to dive and retrieve a statue. Then three other tribe members will use a grappling hook to retrieve keys to raise their statue. Sherri sits out for Gota. Gota gets off to an early lead, but they row off course and let the other tribe pass them. The diving should easily restore their lead, and it does. Phillip’s keeping the ring tossing interesting, but Reynold manages to retain the lead. Gota wins immunity. This is even more predictable than when the pathetic Fans tribe was still intact.

When they return to camp, Phillip tells Cochran that he threw the challenge, which they were going to lose based on the performance of the first set of three people no matter what.

The other three tribe members want to split the votes, but Corinne doesn’t want to vote against Michael going into the merge. They are not going to put her interests above their own rational logic that they have the numbers and can afford to split the votes just in case there is an idol. Because of this, Phillip wants to flip the plan and vote out Michael instead. Keeping Julia doesn’t seem like it would help or harm anybody, but getting rid of Michael would throw a wrench into Corinne’s plans.

Votes
Michael
Julia
Michael
Julia
Michael
Julia

After a tie, the people receiving the votes will not be allowed to vote again, while those who did not receive any votes must choose between them.

Votes
Julia
Julia
Julia

With 3 votes, Julia has been voted off the island.

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