Category: survivor gabon

GC decided he’d had enough and asked his tribe to get rid of him in Survivor: Gabon Episode 5. Apparently, he was surprised by the backstabbing and lack of food (on Survivor). His tribe honored his request, despite having found out that Sugar has the hidden immunity idol, putting old Fang in a rather precarious position, one which goes quite nicely with new Fang’s rather dim prospects as a whole.

Ace is looking for a Benedict Arnold. Shouldn’t be hard to find considering old Fang just voted out one of their own. Matty feels as if he’s in a terrible position within his tribe. Ace approaches him and offers him a deal until merge. Not a very good deal. Anyway, Ace gets to keep Sugar, Matty gets to keep Ken, and they’ll all watch each other.

The tribe is concerned that Dan is eating way too much food, as he’s taking large servings and going back for more. That can be the kiss of death.

Fang also has concerns about food because they’ve failed to ration the rice properly and don’t have much else.

Ace tells Sugar he’s pretty sure they went through her bag. She’s got an idea. She gives the idol to Ace instead. Of all the dumb moves I’ve seen, this was the latest.

Kota’s happy to see GC is out of the game when they arrive at the challenge. Each tribe will be tethered to a snake. Tribes will run and try to catch each other. If someone gets tired and wants to drop out, they can disconnect, but the rest of the tribe will have to pick up their weight. Yeah, it’s a physical challenge. Do we even need to watch to see the results? Reward is a breakfast feast. Corinne sits out for Kota. Fang manages to get an early lead, which lasts for about one lap before Kelly starts struggling. Sugar and Ken both drop, and Kelly is close behind them. Susie is the first out for Kota. Matty starts to get annoyed with Crystal and wants her to drop out, which she does, but the weight is too much for two people to hold. It’s not long before Kota catches Matty and Ace to win reward. Jeff gives them a sample to eat right away, which Randy happily rubs in Fang’s faces, a great way to create unnecessary hostility toward himself. Crystal is getting tired of losing. Sugar will be going back to Exile Island. Again.

You’d think they would just dig in and celebrate, but Kota is worried that Dan will pig out, so they end up more concerned about how it’s going to be divided. While they’re dividing it up, Dan says this is an extra meal and they need to still cook dinner.

Sugar feels guilty that this year Exile offers comfort. She gets to eat while her tribe starves, since she already has (had) the idol.

Fang views Crystal’s crying after the challenge as an indication she’s breaking down like GC did.

Kota’s already got plenty of food it seems, but then they also stumble upon a big turtle.

At the immunity challenge, tribes are divided into pairs. They’ll gather flag pole pieces on an obstacle course. Each leg will add another obstacle, making it more difficult. Susie sits out for Kota. Bob & Randy start off against Kelly & Sugar. Fang gets off to an early lead as Randy drags for Kota, but Kota turns things around on the second half of the leg that involves carrying flag pole pieces. Corinne & Charlie have a good lead over Ace & Crystal (why isn’t Ace on the last leg?). Fang manages to erase much of Kota’s lead as Dan & Marcus go against Matty & Ken. Going over the last obstacle instead of under it, Fang gets a slight lead at the halfway point, and Ken’s looking a lot more impressive than I would have anticipated. On the second half of the leg, Kota retakes the lead as I expected, but it’s pretty close as they go to assemble the flag pole. Jeff says assembling the flag pole will take teamwork. With that said, Kota wins immunity. Jeff has a warning for Fang: if you continue to play like individuals, you’ll be at tribal council every time.

Ace wants to send Kelly home, which they should have done two weeks ago.

Matty tells Ace he wants to flush the idol. Ace tells him Sugar can’t play it tonight, which is true.

Crystal is tired of Ace and thinks Matty is stupid for telling Ace everything without getting anything in return. Ken seems onboard with the Kelly plan, but he believes there’s reason to be suspicious that Matty’s flipping. Matty tells him all they have to know is that Kelly’s next. Because that’s all Ace has told him.

After Ken talks to Matty, he wants to have a discussion with Sugar alone. She asks if she should get the idol back from Ace. Why is she asking this? She’s either really ridiculous or a genius at this game. She takes the idol out of Ace’s jacket, and Ken tells her she needs to keep it on her at all times.

Ace accepts some blame for the challenge loss at tribal council, though it’s hardly fair to suggest he needs to be voted out because of it since it’s not like the rest of them contributed to the final stage of the challenge either.

Kelly suggests Crystal is not stable, and Crystal’s response to that is to get loud, which is supposed to prove she’s stable I guess. Kelly says that Ace also talked about Crystal’s crying at the challenge. He doesn’t like that he’s been thrown under the bus “for no apparent reason.” He tries to lie his way out of this, but I doubt anyone’s buying it. Crystal’s classy response to all this is to give Kelly the finger as she’s voting her out.

Votes
Kelly
Crystal
Kelly
Kelly
Kelly

Kelly has been voted out, proving Ace is firmly in control of this tribe. Not that it’s necessarily a good thing to be in control of a tribe that’s falling apart.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Survivor: Gabon episode 7, which airs Thursday at 8/7c on CBS.

After a tribe shuffle, the new physically weak Fang tribe voted out one of its stronger members, Jacquie, in Survivor: Gabon Episode 4.

When she gets back from Exile, Sugar’s disappointed to see Kelly is still around rather than Jacquie.

Randy’s eating good and pleased with his new tribe.

This is Africa, so of course there are some wild animals. Fang spots an elephant near their camp. So obviously they decide to have a staring contest with it. Then Ace and Matty hop in a kayak and see how close they can get.

At the challenge, jaws drop when they find out Jacquie’s gone. Reward is an herb garden, salt and oil, and fruit. It’s a game of fruit baseball. The tribes have to toss fruit past a defender wielding a stick to their partners on the opposite side. Fang gets off to an early lead with Matty and Ken working together well. Dan gets the idea eventually, and they manage to pass Fang. Fang has 16 pounds of fruit. With 18 pounds, Kota wins reward. Sugar’s heading back to Exile.

Dan suggests that new Kota should stick together post-merge and keep going strong. Marcus doesn’t believe his enthusiasm for the new tribe.

Since she’s already got the idol, Sugar gets to opt for comfort when she gets to Exile.

GC decides to argue with Crystal because… he can. Ace sits back and enjoys the fireworks.

Pre-challenge, Matty says their chances are slim. As they’re getting ready to leave, they can’t find GC because he took off on his own. Crystal doesn’t care where he is and whether he got eaten by a monkey. In the nick of time, he returns, and they head off to see Jeff.

One member from each tribe will throw a ball down a hill. A blindfolded member from the other tribe will try to stop that ball from getting into a goal with the aid of a caller. The defender for Fang is Ace; the caller is Sugar. The defender for Kota is Dan; the caller is Randy. In the first round, Charlie scores 2 for Kota, while Matty scores 5 for Fang. Susie scores 2 more for Kota in the next round, while GC’s throw is blocked. Dan blocks his own ball, while Fang scores 2 more for a 7-4 lead. Crystal’s throw is blocked for Fang, as Kota scores 2 more points. Dan blocks Fang’s next ball. Randy yells “Freeze, Ace, freeze,” and Ace listens, although he’s on the other team, so he doesn’t get anywhere near the ball. Kota scores again and wins immunity.

When they get back to camp, GC says he’s ready to leave the game. Crystal’s over him, thinks he’s a loser, and wants to cut her losses and drop him. After some searching through Sugar’s bag and finding out she’s got the idol, though, they want to blindside her.

At tribal council, Sugar acknowledges she keeps her bag out where anybody can go through it if they want.

Votes
GC
GC
Kelly
GC
GC

Per his request, GC has been voted off the island.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Survivor: Gabon episode 6 He’s a Snake, But He’s My Snake, which airs Thursday at 8/7c on CBS.

By some miracle combination of dumb luck and, well, dumb luck, the Fang tribe managed to win both challenges in Survivor: Gabon Episode 3. Kota turned on Paloma as the smallest member of their tribe and voted her out.

For some reason, Kelly decided to vote against the group and was the lone person to go against Ace rather than Paloma. Ace thinks she voted for him and hopes to make her the next victim.

Randy had previously been pitching two meals a day. Now he wants to cut it to one meal a day. Probably won’t make him any friends.

GC, Crystal, and Ken appear to be the tightest group, which is not going unnoticed by the other four who make an alliance to get rid of them.

When the tribes arrive for the challenge, they have to go about ranking the tribe from top to bottom according to importance.

Kota: Marcus, Ace, Bob, Charlie, Jacquie, Corinne, Sugar, Kelly
Fang: Matty, Dan, Randy, Crystal, Ken, GC, Susie

It’s not a challenge, though. Jeff says the words you typically don’t want to hear unless you’re pretty close to toast: drop your buffs. Marcus and Matty will be captains of the tribes for which they were voted most important. They’ll get started with the team selection, picking from rotating old tribes in no apparent logical order.

New Kota: Marcus, Dan, Charlie, Randy, Corinne, Susie, Bob (4 Kota to 3 Fang)
New Fang: Matty, Ace, Crystal, Jacquie, Ken, Kelly, GC (4 Fang to 3 Kota)

Since she was not chosen, Sugar will go to Exile island and join the tribe that loses a member at the next tribal council.

Marcus and Charlie remain together, along with Corinne and the guy who had been their fifth, Bob. Their other ally Jacquie is alone on the other side. Crystal, GC, and Ken stick together. Ace and Sugar are up in the air, but it seems she’s in trouble either way.

New Kota has four close allies, whereas new Fang has three close allies plus on additional person who was preparing to stab them in the back.

Kelly doesn’t like her old tribe, and Crystal hopes to swing her over and take advantage of that.

Marcus is concerned about Randy and Susie in the challenges.

In the immunity challenge, all the contestants get into boats with paddles. The object is to simply score three goals on the other team. Marcus dominates the other team, and Kota scores the first point. The second goal is the same story. And again for the third. Kota wins immunity. Marcus driving downfield and passing to Randy proved quite effective, and the complete uselessness of multiple Fang members didn’t help them any.

New Fang is reminiscent of old Fang from episodes 1 and 2.

Their original plan was to be morons and target Ace or Jacquie. After the challenge, they begin discussing getting rid of Kelly, who was apparently their new ally like a day ago. Then the immunity idol comes up. So they suggest Jacquie instead because they’re worried that if Sugar has the idol with her, rather than Kelly who she hates. Matty agrees to the plan, then goes up to Jacquie and tells her about it. She approaches Ken, who tells her it doesn’t matter how he votes because he’d be outnumbered. He tells her to go to Crystal. She does a good job of begging and agrees to take them to the end with her.

Votes
Jacquie
Kelly
Kelly
Jacquie
Jacquie
Jacquie

Jacquie has been voted out of the tribe. While Kelly is more likely to be loyal to them, it could become a bumpy ride if they’re faced with any more physical challenges. Sugar will become a member of Fang, which is probably not good news for anybody except the other tribe.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Survivor: Gabon episode 5 This Camp Is Cursed, which airs Thursday at 8/7c on CBS.

Last week was a special two hour premiere event. In Survivor: Gabon Episode 1, the tribes started off with a school yard pick ’em. Kota led by Bob did not bad. Gillian, meanwhile, started Fang off on the wrong foot and ended up with one of the worst tribes ever. Following her complete inability to do anything useful at a challenge, her less than bright tribe voted out their physically fittest woman and kept Gillian around instead. Then in Survivor: Gabon Episode 2, they continued to get beat down in the challenges, and voted out Gillian a week too late.

Randy says his tribe sucks and that they’re complete idiots. Sadly, he’s pretty much right.

Fang is running out of rice. The tribe is willing to cut back to two meals a day, but GC isn’t interested in cooperating. He and Randy pretty well hate each other at this point, which is entirely intentional on Randy’s end.

Charlie hopes to get Bob as a fifth. Sugar and Ace appear to be working on a showmance.

At the reward challenge, one member of each tribe will be stationed at a post. Two members of the other tribe will take them from the post and drag them to try to score a point. Players can swap each round. They’re playing for blankets, a hammock, pillows, and a mat. Fang will sit out Ken. Kota will sit out Corinne, Jacquie, and Kelly. Dan is first on the post for Fang to be attacked by Charlie and Marcus; Ace is on the post for Kota to be attacked by GC and Matty. Dan is yanked off the post, but Ace ain’t budging. Kota scores a point, as Fang didn’t even get anywhere. Susie is on the post for Fang to be attacked by Bob and Sugar; Paloma is on the post for Kota to be attacked by Randy and Crystal. Paloma has no prayer here and is manhandled to tie the game. It’s back to the original matchup, except Marcus and Bob will attack for Kota, while Crystal and Matty attack for Fang. By some miracle, Fang wins the challenge. They send Sugar to Exile. She says they picked her because they think she’s dumb.

Kota’s not even waiting for the immunity results here. They’re already crossing Paloma’s name off the tribe.

Sugar opts for the clue instead of comfort. At least she gets a lot closer than Dan did, though. She grabs a clue, then uses it to find another clue, then uses it to find another clue, then uses it to find another clue (yeah, this could go on for a while)… eventually, she does end up finding the idol. Oh bloody hell. How easy is this thing to find anyway that the second person gets it? Just so we can see it used half a dozen times (to be immediately replaced).

Bob’s concerned that Ace is going to protect Sugar. Corinne offers Bob a deal: join them to make 5, and get rid of Paloma and Sugar, in whichever order.

The immunity challenge is for 6 people to slide down a slide, grab a puzzle piece, and bring it back. The remaining tribe member will solve the puzzle. Paloma and Sugar sit out for Kota. Bob and Ken will be solving the puzzle. Because of her height advantage, Crystal pulls ahead of Kelly to give Fang the lead. Corinne manages to pass Susie on the next go, though, giving Kota the lead. Charlie and GC go next, and Charlie extends the lead. Jacquie and Charlie are next, with Kota still dominating. Ace and Dan go fifth, with no change. For the final leg, it’s Marcus and Matty, with Kota a good half a leg ahead. It all comes down the puzzle, and the game geek beats out the physics teacher on this math puzzle. Fang wins immunity. Pretty unimpressive physical performance as usual, but at least they’ve got one team member with a brain.

Sugar, who may or may not be an actress, pretends she didn’t find it, but she tells Ace, who decides “This is ours.”

Everybody seems onboard with the Paloma boot. Paloma wants Corinne on her side, and just mentioning that she doesn’t trust Ace is enough to get her going.

At tribal council, Paloma doesn’t hold back, letting it be known Ace is not her hero and that she basically hates his guts and liver.

Votes
Paloma
Ace
Ace
Paloma
Paloma
Paloma
Paloma

Would have made a lot more sense to vote Sugar first, Paloma next to ensure the numbers, but the Paloma boot is hardly surprising.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Survivor: Gabon episode 4 It Was Like This Christmas Morning, which airs Thursday at 8/7c on CBS.

Following an abysmal job of constructing a tribe in Survivor: Gabon Episode 1, the lackluster Fang tribe got beat badly in both challenges, and then foolishly decided to vote out Michelle, a negative but relatively strong part of the tribe.

Marcus and Charlie have a strong bond, but Marcus would like to add some additional players to the fold, so they’re looking toward the women.

GC’s growing into his leadership role, but Randy hopes to sabotage him and let the tribe self destruct, as if that will take a lot.

Marcus approaches Corinne to see where she’s at. She likes Jacquie, and he was already thinking about that. She’d like to be in an alliance with them and Charlie. They all gather together to discuss their strategy, including who should be the fifth (lesser) partner.

GC was awakened early by all the snoring. He decides to do laundry, then a few people join in. Gillian lets him and the others know she doesn’t want to hear them talking that early in the morning. GC (Golden Child) hands over his leadership because he doesn’t want to be the leader any more. Nobody else wants to be the leader (still). Dan tells the camera he’d like to be the leader, as long as he’s a silent leader and nobody knows about it.

Immunity’s back up for grabs. The tribes will push a large boulder through a series of gates, retrieve keys, and use their keys to open the locks. They’re playing for fishing gear and one person to go to Exile. Kota will sit out Paloma. Steep hills and heavy boulders doesn’t bode well for Gillian, who the tribe tells to get out of the way and not bother pushing (and we go back to the really great decision of keeping her in the game last episode). Kota is the first to get their first key, but it’s pretty close. Kota is also through their second key first, but it’s still a close race, as both Bob and Ken are doing a good job with the knots on the keys. There are six keys but only three locks, so it may come down to dumb luck. It’s a much closer challenge than the last two, but Kota still ends up winning immunity and reward. Dan has been sent to Exile Island.

Kota, which is flying high after their three wins, puts the new fishing gear to quick work.

Dan has a choice between clue or comfort. He takes the clue. The first very vague clue. He has no luck finding it.

Some of Fang is demoralized. Some are just happy they sucked less worse than they suck normally. They are finally starting to realize that Gillian is weighing them down, though. Duh.

Gillian hopes to get the older people together against the younger ones. She wants to target Ken.

Randy and GC have constructed a fishing line out of Randy’s glasses and GC’s shoe strings. They’re hoping that a bit of protein will help them out. The makeshift fishing line works, and they manage to catch five small fish.

Dan realizes he made the wrong choice on Exile. The tribe believes he’s acting strangely and has the idol. They’re considering voting him out instead of Gillian. Are you kidding me? Even if he has the idol and is shifty, lack of strength is their biggest problem.

Dan, perhaps the first person to wear a tie to tribal council, empties out his bag there and says he doesn’t have the idol. He tells the tribe he’s not a liar and isn’t lying to them. He asks them to not be dumbasses and try to flush out the idol.

Votes
Gillian
Ken
Gillian
Gillian
Gillian
Gillian

Talk aside, at least they ultimately turned out to not be complete morons. One tribal council too late, Gillian has been voted out.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Survivor: Gabon episode 3 She Obviously Is Post-Op, which airs Thursday at 8/7c on CBS.

Last year, a half all-star cast proved to be the recipe for success in Survivor: Micronesia. After years of poor casting, seasons 15 and 16 were a nice turn around for the aging series. Now, a new Survivor cast heads back to Africa with Survivor: Gabon. This marks the first return to Africa since season 3 Survivor: Africa, which ended up being one of the harshest environments Survivor has ever been to.

Unlike the dustbowl in Kenya last time they were in Africa, the area where they’re shooting in Gabon, a small nation of 1.5 million people in western central Africa on the equator, appears to be a lush green environment.

In Gabon, the elders typically make the big decisions. The two oldest people Gillian and Bob are in charge. They will be choosing tribes and can pick either a man or woman, without having to rotate like they usually do in these situations. Then each person picked will be able to choose the next tribe member.

Bob (Kota): Ace, Sugar, Marcus, Charlie, Paloma, Kelly, Jacquie, Corinne
Gillian (Fang): Crystal, Susie, Matty, Randy, Dan, GC, Ken, Michelle

The picking order makes pretty much no sense.

Now that the teams are selected, it’s time for the first challenge. There are two individual immunity idols at the top of the hill, a bag of rice, and an extra bag of corn and beans (the first tribe across will get this). GC and Marcus rush ahead and get individual immunity. Michelle, the last one picked, is the first woman across (and not happy with her new tribe). Try as he might, Matty can’t push (literally) his tribe fast enough, and Kota wins the challenge and the extra food. It’s not even close, and Fang looks in trouble when it comes to physical challenges. Their first three picks (Gillian, Crystal, and Susie) were not the way to build a good strong team in that respect.

When they arrive at camp, they see there’s some shelter (more or less) already established. As with the last time, there are supposed to be some wild animals roaming around.

Bob’s turning out to be the leader, potentially a dangerous strategy, but as long as he keeps everybody happy with him and doesn’t get bossy, it should work out to his benefit.

Gillian tries to maintain a positive attitude in the face of her team sucking. She wants to find some elephant dung and eat the edible parts remaining in it (oh, c’mon, this is even too much for Survivor).

Ken is a geeky professional gamer who’s not too good with women, but he seems to be getting along well with Michelle.

Ace believes he’s already got the game won, but he’s rubbing people the wrong way already.

Charlie has found a connection with Marcus, which may or may not be primarily based on his “deep blue beautiful eyes.”

The very first night, the promise of wild animals comes true. There are elephants right near them.

Randy gets a “scratch” on his head (aka something gushing blood). Nurse Gillian is no help, but the medical team comes out. They stitch him up, but he is warned that there’s a risk of infection.

Michelle is wondering where the sun is since they’re on the equator and all. She’s also still not happy with her team, apparently forgetting that the other team didn’t want her either.

At the immunity challenge, 6 tribe members will be belted together. They’ll race through a swamp, over a cargo net, and through an obstacle course to collect three bags of puzzle pieces to bring back to their puzzle solvers. Susie, Gillian, and Randy will solve the puzzle for their team, while Bob, Paloma, and one of the blondes (Kelly?) solve theirs. Kota is the first to find a bag of pieces and then their second and third. Fang’s still digging, having found their first. They were pretty close during the rest of the task, but finding the pieces is proving problematic. It’s not even close. Again. Kota solves the puzzle before Fang even gets their puzzle pieces, and Kota wins immunity.

Fang lacks a leader, and they’re worried about it.

Michelle’s name is the first one to come out as a boot pick, since she’s too negative. Considering they’re so weak as it is, though, there are much more sensible options. Randy wants to push for Gillian to go because she’s weighing them down the most. He will be able to get Michelle and Ken on his side. He’ll need more than that, though.

Dan tells Probst they did okay. Jeff calls them a disaster and says they’re in denial. Michelle tells the truth, which won’t win her any friends. Apparently, though, it’s all her fault for not yelling at people to motivate them.

Jeff wants somebody to step up and be the leader. No volunteers. GC, however, is wishy washily open to be the leader after he is volunteered by someone else. The tribe votes and elects him as leader.

GC retains his individual immunity, not that he was in any danger anyway, but everybody else is fair game.

Votes
Michelle
Gillian
Michelle
Michelle
Michelle
Michelle

This team made a lot of stupid decisions this episode, and that’s a really nice way to cap off the stupidity. Michelle has been voted off the island. At least they’ve got fire.

Survivor: Gabon Episode 2

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Survivor: Gabon episode 2, which airs next on CBS.

A new Survivor cast journeys to Africa for the first time since season 3. Survivor: Gabon premieres on Thursday at 8/7c on CBS. In this video, we get a preview of the new season, as the first three minutes are now available to watch online.

Susie Smith
47
Charles City, IA
Hairdresser

CBS Bio
Susie Smith, a Mexican American mother of one, has always allowed others to dictate her life and she’s ready for a change. Born into a Mexican immigrant family of crop field workers, Susie and five of her siblings began working alongside her parents at a young age and the other three siblings were raised by Susie and her siblings. She has struggled ever since, but has overcome many personal challenges.

Tired of working hard and being poor, Smith vows to devote the rest of her life to her needs. After years of allowing others to influence her life, she’s decided to stop and dedicate this next chapter to herself, and taking part in SURVIVOR was the first step and second was showing her son, family, friends, and students that all it takes to change any part of your life is to just TRY.

Smith has been married for 25 years. She currently works as an assistant teacher and hairdresser. She teaches English to non-speaking English children from kindergarten to 8th grade. When Susie is not teaching, she enjoys working as a hairdresser where she has many wonderful clients. Her hobbies include photography, watching movies, eating out, sewing and gardening. She describes herself as encouraging, moody and talkative but with a big potty mouth.

Bold and brassy with a huge zest for life, Smith believes SURVIVOR will finally be the opportunity she’s needed to turn things around. She has a huge desire to win and won’t let anyone get in her way.

Smith currently lives in Charles City, Iowa with her husband, Todd, son, Trent, and two dogs. She is a graduate of the Marshalltown Cosmetology School and a graduate of North Iowa Area Community College.

Her birth date is October 24, 1960.