The Biggest Loser Season 8 Episode 10

The Biggest Loser Season 8 Episode 9 brought us a double elimination. First, Daniel fell below the red line and was automatically eliminated, then his partner Shay was voted out, dealing a crushing blow to the young people’s alliance.

Each person will be giving a speech. To help them get ready, Tim Gunn is there. It’s makeover week. Rudy normally wears jeans and T-shirts. He considers a flannel shirt to be dressed up. He wants to retain his beard in order to hide his face, but that’s not happening. Rebecca also wants to hide her face behind long hair (except it’s really not long). Before they give their speeches, they’re surprised by their families. Well, they act surprised anyway, even though this is how it goes every season. Now that they’ve done that, they’re ready to give their speeches in attempt to inspire people, promising that they’re going to finish their journey.

With that bit of glamour out of the way, it’s back to the ranch for some cables going across a canyon 200 feet in the air. They will use pulleys to go from one side to the other side, a distance of 700 feet. The winner will get a two week trip to The Biggest Loser Resort in St. George, Utah. Liz is excessively afraid for her life, while Rebecca flirts with the guy strapping her in. Rudy gets off to a clear lead, with Amanda trying to catch him. Rudy keeps his lead throughout and wins the challenge. Liz keeps her eyes closed the whole way. She just wants to finish, one way or another.

Bob wants to talk to Allen, who he thinks should be winning every challenge. Allen responds that he’s been playing the game.

Rudy revealed during his speech that his sister died of cancer when she was 14. Funny. Jillian didn’t know about that. How’s he been keeping that inside for three months? She pushes him to try to realize his problem, which she is not surprised to find out that he’s an emotional eater.

They haven’t had much time to workout this week, but that’s not going to prevent them from having to head to the scale.

Danny: 304 pounds (-12, 3.80%)

Rudy: 308 pounds (-16, 4.94%)

Allen: 238 pounds (-5, 2.06%)

Allen is disappointed with his weight loss for the week, which has the trainers concerned. They don’t want him doing anything crazy to try to win at all costs.

Rebecca: 206 pounds (-3, 1.44%)

Liz: 203 pounds (-3, 1.46%)

Amanda: 193 pounds (-9, 4.46%)

Liz and Rebecca have fallen below the yellow line. The choice is obvious here. Rebecca’s the bigger threat, and the silly young person alliance is not going to be able to save her. They both hope to swing Rudy and Allen. Rebecca’s pitch is that she’s never been below the yellow line, whereas Liz has been there three times now. If I’m hearing that plea, I’m thinking keep Liz around because she’ll probably fall again. Liz’s pitch is that she’s older and doesn’t have much time to get her act together.

In the event of a tie, the person with the lowest weight loss will be eliminated. By a margin of .02%, that would be Rebecca, meaning she needs the support of both Rudy and Allen.

Votes
Amanda: Liz
Danny: Rebecca
Rudy: Rebecca

With two votes, Rebecca is not the biggest loser. Rudy says he doesn’t like how she tried to play both sides of the fence. She acknowledges that she played the game, even though she was one of the most vocal people against people playing the game. Down 107 pounds from her starting weight of 279, she runs a half marathon.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of The Biggest Loser 8 Episode 11, which airs Tuesday at 9/8c on NBC.

So You Think You Can Dance Season 6 Episode 15

Pauline Mata and Peter Sabasino were sent home in So You Think You Can Dance Season 6 Episode 14.

Ashleigh di Lello & Jakob Karr
Style: Hip hop
Choreographers: Tabitha and Naploeon Dumo
Song: Whatcha Say by Jason Derulo
Nigel: Jakob comes up to scratch and adds to the choreography every week. Ashleigh’s growing at a much faster pace than imagined.
Mary: Ashleigh is a star tonight. Jakob, too.
Adam: Jakob’s about as sure a bet for the top ten as there ever was. Ashleigh is also a top contender.
Number: 1-888-TEMPO-01

Karen Hauer & Kevin Hunt
Style: Broadway
Choreographer: Spencer Liff
Song: If My Friends Could See Me Now from Sweet Charity (2005 Broadway Revival Cast)
Nigel: Didn’t enjoy Karen’s performance as much as usual. Not enough humor brought to the work. More than Kevin, though.
Mary: Needed to be so much more. Seemed nice and fairly safe. Karen faired better than Kevin.
Adam: A bump in the road but good for the show.
Number: 1-888-TEMPO-02

Noelle Marsh & Russell Ferguson
Style: Foxtrot
Choreographer: Eddie Simon
Song: Baby (You’ve Got What It Takes) by Michael Buble (with Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings)
Nigel: Russell’s vastly improved in two weeks. Noelle’s successful at making herself seen.
Mary: Russell still looked like that was effortless. Noelle looked smooth and elegant.
Adam: Understood the task and stepped up to it. Fantastic.
Number: 1-888-TEMPO-03

Channing Cooke & Victor Smalley
Style: Jazz
Choreographer: Tyce Diorio
Song: Blackbird by Bobby McFerrin
Nigel: First time it looked like Channing actually enjoyed the performance. Victor’s really matured. Not growing much higher as a dancer.
Mary: Victor’s so good but is going to have to dig deeper. Fun to see Channing just let it go.
Adam: Channing will do great if she keeps growing. Victor’s still great but needs to find a way to totally let himself go.
Number: 1-888-TEMPO-04

Kathryn McCormack & Jonathan “Legacy” Perez
Style: Paso doble
Choreographer: Tony Meredith
Song: Pursuit by Ka (Cirque du Soleil soundtrack)
Nigel: Kathryn certainly changed this week and brought fantastic maturity this week. Legacy’s passion and hunger will push him into the top 10.
Mary: Kathryn played that just right. Legacy’s just crazy again this week. The character was just perfect.
Adam: Kathryn killed it. Legacy’s stamina is absolutely spectacular, which shows great growth from Vegas.
Number: 1-888-TEMPO-05

Ellenore Scott & Ryan di Lello
Style: Contemporary
Choreographer: Travis Wahl
Song: Your Ex-Lover’s Dead by Stars
Nigel: Ellenore is one of the sharpest tools in the box this season. Ryan is the best ballroom dancer that has ever done contemporary.
Mary: Ellenore is having star quality moments. Ryan’s timing on catching her in the lifts was perfection.
Adam: SYTYCD has kicked in just now.
Number: 1-888-TEMPO-06

Mollee Gray & Nathan Trasoras
Style: Pop jazz
Choreographer: Laurieann Gibson
Song: Bad Romance by Lady Gaga
Nigel: Dug much deeper with this performance. Mollee is one of the most committed dancers ever. Nathan’s possibly one of the most talented young men, but he has got to grow.
Mary: So good to have the dream team back. No chills, but really good.
Adam: This competition won’t come easy to Nathan. Both need to be more than just cute.
Number: 1-888-TEMPO-07

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of So You Think You Can Dance Season 6 Episode 16, which airs Wednesday at 8/7c on Fox.

Heroes Season 4 Episode 10

After getting his body taken over by Sylar, Parkman got the cops to shoot him in Heroes Season 4 Episode 9.

Samuel wants Hiro to go back in time and save a film.

Tracy’s wondering what life would be like living in a carnival.

Nathan thought he had a handle on things, but the last few weeks, he doesn’t know who he is any more.

Not too many weeks back, Tracy told HRG she didn’t want anything to do with him ever again. So of course this week she’s back to pay him a visit and look for help, inadvertently shattering his doorknob upon arrival.

The Haitian has been sent by Angela to wipe out Nathan’s and Peter’s memories, but he doesn’t want to. Instead, he hands Peter a card and tells him it is up to him to fix things, but that he should go alone.

Nine weeks ago in India, Suresh is going through a box when he finds a film made by his father, in which he says that people with abilities gathering together exponentially increases the force generated by each of them. Then there’s a baby being born.

Tracy’s next victim as she continues to freeze things without meaning to do so: Claire.

Peter doesn’t go alone. He drags Nathan with him. This lets Nathan be the one to make the discovery of his own body inside a coffin.

Maybe it’s a shapeshifter. Perhaps if Nathan touches the body. Doing so gives him bits and pieces of the story. They’re off to find Parkman to get some answers.

Tracy wants to drag the now frozen Claire into the tub. She breaks off her foot in the process. It’s a good thing she heals.

Parkman’s been located. He’s in a hospital in Texas, after having tried to commit suicide by cop. If they can get in, Peter thinks he can save him since he heals people now.

Using his father’s formulas, Suresh has created a compass. His concern is if the child on that film is still alive and surrounds himself with a large enough number of specials.

Peter and Nathan go to visit Parkman, and Peter heals him. When he wakes up, he tells them to run. Then he tells them the crazy story about how Sylar’s inside his head and Nathan’s dead. Sylar takes control and asks for one simple thing: Nathan to take his hand. It all adds up to Nathan. The new powers are Sylar’s. He doesn’t exist. There’s a touch and a flash. Where is Sylar? Whatever the answer, Nathan flies away with Peter over his shoulder.

Suresh arrives at the carnival, compass in hand, looking for Samuel, who may or may not even exist. He believes that Samuel can multiply his powers simply by being near others.

Parkman’s wheeled away and then proceeds to use mind control on the guard to convince him he’s dead.

Samuel’s brother Joseph has made it his life’s work to keep him in the dark about the true nature of his power. He probably didn’t count on Samuel overhearing this conversation. Suresh believes this was all a mistake and that he should have left that film in the trash. That said, he wants to burn it. Cue Hiro. He grabs the film and replaces it with another one.

Tracy met this man named Samuel. Yeah, Claire met him, too. Tracy’s considering joining him. Claire’s advice is maybe she should.

Evil butterfly man shows up and attacks Suresh. Bulletproof vest. Unlike the future Hiro comes from, Suresh is now no longer dead. Hiro wants him to just go away for eight weeks until Charlie is released. Nonetheless, Mohinder wants to keep fighting. Since he refuses to disappear, Hiro will have to make him disappear by locking him up in a psych ward in a padded room, where he just gets jabbed with needles at the first sign of revealing his real identity.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Heroes Season 4 Episode 11 Thanksgiving, which airs Monday at 8/7c on NBC.

Survivor: Amazon Episode 5

Against Shawna’s wishes, her tribe kept her trapped, opting instead to vote out JoAnna in Survivor: Amazon Episode 4.

Deena feels as if she’s in control now that she’s eliminated JoAnna.

Jeanne thinks her tribe consists of a bunch of idiots, having eliminated their strongest member in favor of keeping around their weakest member. Speaking of which, Shawna’s going to be whining for a while. She’s falling apart and can’t take it any more. Well, quit, then. You always have that option if you really want out. This ain’t Big Brother where you’re trapped until you destroy property or get violent.

The next morning, Jeanne decides to confront Deena. She overheard her saying “Your problem is that you weren’t part of the team.” She was talking about Christy about the first few days, not about the person lying in bed. Jeanne’s sure not making them want to keep her around by being confrontational about something she thought she heard.

Treemail tells them to send the youngest for wine and laughter. That means Dave and Jenna. If this comes down to a battle of wits, it goes without saying the rocket scientist wins against the model. Upon arrival, they are given plenty of food, bottles of wine, an outdoor shower (that’s partially see through), and a bed. Jenna says that her tribe is boring. She’d rather talk more. She’ll take that opportunity now, spilling all about what’s going on at camp, unafraid to reveal alliances and strategies in the process. When she’s done rambling, she says she probably shouldn’t be saying all this. No kidding. Dave realizes this and doesn’t want to reveal too much.

The next morning, as they’re chowing down on breakfast, they see Jeff. Uh oh. It’s good they just shared all that information about their tribes because they’re in charge of picking new ones. In his first pick, Dave immediately screws over Jenna, taking her most trusted ally. Dave also keeps the somewhat questionable Roger. As for Jenna, she keeps around the sickly Shawna rather than being stuck with hard working Jeanne, not that she can be blamed because Jeanne would have tried to get rid of her sooner or later.

Tambaqui: Dave, Heidi, Butch, Christy, Roger, Jeanne
Jaburu: Jenna, Alex, Deena, Rob, Shawna, Matthew

When he returns, Dave says that he strategized to get the best possible outcome for the tribe. Rob’s not buying and not happy.

Like Jenna, Heidi is upset to be split up. Jeanne, however, is thrilled to get away from that tribe.

The boys come into the Jaburu camp. All of a sudden, Shawna, who was at her lowest lows and wanted to get voted out because she was too sick to continue, is now doing just fine and can’tstop smiling. I hope somebody slapped her upside the head. If not on the island, at least at some point after she got home. This is a thoroughly pitiful display. At least we won’t have to watch her acting as if the end of the world’s coming any more, though.

Christy appreciates that her new tribe is making an effort. Unlike how it was with the girls, now she’s being included.

Deena, who believed last week when she got rid of JoAnna that she became the queen of the world, is now worried.

The first immunity challenge for the new tribes is in two stages. The first stage is a word scramble. When they solve that puzzle, they will paddle out and retrieve the corresponding flags. Tambaqui’s got a bit of a lead throughout, but they lose that lead trying to figure out the final word. Jaburu solves their fifth word as Tambaqui continues to work on their final one. Now they need to get the flags that match the words in their tribe color. Jeff tells Tambaqui that they can catch up, but it’s not looking like it, although it’s pretty close. Jaburu wins immunity.

Jeanne, Christy, and Heidi are the least likely combination. They’re only working together because they don’t see another option. Working together translates to drawing straws. Butch gets the short straw.

Dave then goes to Heidi, and he pitches an alliance with the guys. They intend to get rid of Jeanne, who was going home when she was on Jaburu anyway. She knows that, if they lose the next two immunity challenges, she’s gone. He doesn’t even attempt to deny that.

Votes
Jeanne
Butch
Jeanne
Butch
Jeanne
Jeanne

As Heidi switches sides, Jeanne has been voted off the island.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another recap of Survivor: Amazon Episode 6 More Than Meets the Eye.

The Amazing Race 15 Episode 9

Following the dumb luck clue in a haystack task in The Amazing Race 15 Episode 8, Gary & Matt came in last but were non-eliminated.

Teams depart in the order in which they arrived.

First: Herbert & Nathaniel – 2:23AM
Second: Meghan & Cheyne – 4:12AM
Third: Brian & Ericka – 4:37AM
Fourth: Sam & Dan – 5:04AM
Fifth: Gary & Matt – 6:29AM

Sam & Dan and Flight Time & Big Easy are looking to get rid of the other team, realizing that the they are each good competition.

Teams will cross the Baltic Sea by ferry to Tallinn, Estonia, where they must figure out how to open a door to a secret lair. The next boat is at 5:45PM. Well, that’s a hell of a lot of time to kill. So much for the Globetrotters’ lead and for Gary & Matt’s 4 hour disadvantage. Meghan & Cheyne and Sam & Dan get into the door first, quickly slamming it shut before Brian & Ericka can arrive. Those two are greeted by the two trailing teams, but Gary & Matt are going to be the ones bringing up the rear after Brian & Ericka and the Globetrotters get through. Before they can proceed with this task, Gary & Matt must first complete their speed bump. They must find a saunabus, strip down, and take a 5 minute sauna with a group of locals.

The lair door leads them to the Brotherhood of the Blackheads. The road block is to join their ranks to uncover a mystery. They will descend into the cellar and find a candelabra with a room number attached. They must locate that room, where they will be given what appears to be a blank scroll (until they hold it over the lighted candle).

Road block (in order of arrival): Sam, Cheyne, Ericka, Flight Time, Matt

Flight Time is the first person to find his scroll, but he starts scribbling on it as if it’s going to uncover something. Cheyne, however, realizes that all they have is the candle, so he uses that. The other two also figure it out right away. It takes a while, but Flight Time eventually figures out what needs to be done. As for Matt, the first trick is to figure out what the heck a candelabra is. “Are you a candelabra?” Once he cracks the code and gets into the room, he also believes that you have to use the crayon to see the message.

The clue takes them to Pikk Hermann Tower Garden, where they find a detour. Well, they find it once they get the clue anyway. Gary & Matt run around and want to climb the tower, rather than just going to the clue box right out front.

The detour will take place in wetlands called bogs and is a choice between serve or sling. In serve, teams will play a game of volleyball submerged in the mud until they score 5 points against a local team. In sling, teams plant themselves in the mud and fire assorted vegetables at a moose target with slingshots. If they wish, they can strip down to their underwear on either detour.

The first two teams hail a cab. It looks as if Brian is closest to it, but he lets Meghan & Cheyne have it, telling the cab driver to call another taxi. Once they have that taxi, rather than being grateful for Brian letting them in, Meghan sabotages him, telling the cab driver to not call for assistance. There’s a fine line between smart gameplay and making enemies for no reason, and she’s flirting with that line. Ultimately, it proves to be a moot point because they find another taxi anyway, but Ericka wants to keep Brian in check so that he’s not giving stuff away.

The next two teams run into a cab problem as well. Sam & Dan try to sweet talk their way into a cab with a fare already in it, but the guy says he can’t walk, so they ask the driver to call for another one. After they tell the Globetrotters to go find their own way, they do. They see another cab approaching and run toward it. In Sam’s & Dan’s minds, this cab is the one the other driver just called for. They agree to get into the cab together, where Sam & Dan whine about how the Trotters are not doing anything for themselves. If they’re that unthreatening, why are Sam & Dan so obsessively threatened by them?

Ultimately, I’m wondering about this whole sharing a cab thing. Say one team finishes first and the detour’s an out of the way place. They may decide to leave the other team behind, which could completely screw them over.

Serve: Meghan & Cheyne, Herbert & Nathaniel, Sam & Dan
Sling: Brian & Ericka (switched from serve because only two teams can go at a time), Gary & Matt

Thanks to Brian letting them have the cab, Meghan & Cheyne arrive first and complete their detour after a tiresome romp through the mud. While they’re finishing, the three trailing teams go off on a wild goose hunt, looking for a marked path. That would be a path with markings, not just something that looks like it may be a path. After they find the path, Brian & Ericka lose the foot race, so they’re forced to do the slingshot detour.

The pit stop for this leg of the race is Keava Raba Overlook Tower, which they will run to as they trudge further through the bog.

In the showdown between the two remaining all male teams that can only heat up from here, Flight Time & Big Easy finish the detour first but go the wrong way. Sam & Dan go the right way, and as Flight Time slips in the bog, they win the foot race. At the mat, it’s looking like they may have to throw down. Dan says Flight Time tried to push him. Flight says he was elbowed, which appears to be what Phil saw as well.

First: Meghan & Cheyne (win red cedar saunas)
Second: Sam & Dan
Third: Herbert & Nathaniel
Fourth: Brian & Ericka
Eliminated: Gary & Matt

In the thoroughly anticlimactic conclusion, Gary & Matt have been eliminated from the race.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of The Amazing Race 15 Episode 10 We’re Not Working with Anybody, Ever, Anymore! (Czech Republic), which airs Sunday at 8/7cish CBS.

The Vampire Diaries Season 1 Episode 9

Stefan’s oldest friend visited him in The Vampire Diaries Season 1 Episode 8… so Damon killed her. Meanwhile, Bonnie had a dream that “it’s coming.”

Dozing off in class, Bonnie has another dream. She receives a request for help from Emily, the ancestor to whom the amulet belonged.

They get a new history teacher, Alaric Saltzman, seeing as the old one was eaten.

Damon feels that getting the town off their backs was worth the sacrifice. So what happens next time he needs a bite and the secret society of vampire haters starts asking questions again?

It turns out the old teacher had a jackass file, with documents of troublemakers in it. Well, mostly, one troublemaker: Jeremy. Since he’s trying to turn himself around, Jeremy agrees to do an extra credit report.

Caroline wants there to be something there with Matt. He did, after all, cuddle with her when she was a drunk mess.

Stefan comes to school to tell Elena that he didn’t kill his brother, and that he will be backing off from school. School or her?

Damon’s also hanging out at school to talk to the little witch. No matter how much she may deny it, she doesn’t want the necklace, nor its consequences of having Emily on her back.

On the ride home from school, Bonnie abruptly pulls over and throws the necklace on the side of the road. Problem solved, right?

Elena decides to ask Stefan for help. He knows the necklace well. It belonged to Katherine.

After Bonnie gets done telling Caroline what happened to the necklace, she finds out that it’s not true. Sure doesn’t seem true anyway. The necklace is in her bag. She blames Emily, the ghost. As if that’s a believable explanation. Then Bonnie tells her that she’s a witch. Nope, not buying that either.

Aunt Jenna and Alaric conveniently end up bumping into each other. He’s got a sad story, too. His wife died, so he decided to move for a change of scenery.

After some consideration, Caroline decides to humor the whole witch/ghost thing. She suggests having a seance. This plan works, but Bonnie can’t handle it. She tosses the necklace to the ground, and when the lights come back on, it’s gone.

So what does Damon want with Katherine’s crystal? He’s gonna bring her back. Yeah, she’s not really dead. Just stuck inside a tomb for the last century and a half, protected from being burned alive. In order for the crystal to work, a celestial event must happen. There’s a long time in between comets, though.

When Bonnie spots the crystal in the bathroom, she ends up trapped inside. Much screaming ensues. The door opens. She’s fine. The reflection in the mirror: Emily’s. As she runs out of the house, she says she won’t let him have it. It must be destroyed.

Jenna brings Alaric home. He’s going to need an invite to be able to enter, but she declines. Jeremy’s there.

What part of the story did Damon leave out? To save her, she had to save them. Everybody in the church has been trapped inside a mystical holding cell for 150 years. Refusing to free the 27 trapped vampires, Emily destroys the crystal. Then Damon attacks her/Bonnie, but Stefan heals her. As long as she doesn’t die with his blood in her system, she won’t become a vampire.

Matt doesn’t like Caroline and never has, but the cuddling felt nice.

Now that he’s saved Bonnie’s life, Elena has decided that she can be with Stefan now. Obviously, he can’t. He has to leave.

Logan comes to pay Jenna a visit. Not so dead after all.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of The Vampire Diaries Episode 10 The Turning Point, which airs Thursday at 8/7c on The CW.

Survivor: Samoa Episode 9

Not liking his belief that he was in charge of the newly merged tribe, everybody flipped on Erik and voted him out in Survivor: Samoa Episode 8.

Russell, who no longer has his hidden idol since he burned it last time, is pretty sure he’s next.

Natalie spots a rat and kills it. Dinner time.

For the challenge, they will divide into teams of five and race to collect poles threaded with white and black coconuts. They will arrange them so that the coconuts form a 4 digit number. A blindfolded tribe member must then find the same number. The winning team will be taken to a rockslide for lunch. Natalie is the odd woman out, who must choose one team to support. The teams are: Jaison, Laura, Brett, Mick, and Russell (yellow) vs. Shambo, Kelly, Dave, John, and Monica (purple). Natalie supports the yellow team, which contains her three fellow Foa Foa tribe members. Kelly and John start off with a lead, but Jaison and Russell reverse that and give yellow the lead. John and Kelly then erase that lead to tie things up. Russell and Jaison retake the lead, as Shambo drags behind. The yellow team is the first to start the puzzle, but the purple team is the first to solve theirs. They pass it on to Monica to solve it while blindfolded using only her fingers. Yellow also gets theirs solved and passes it off to Laura. Monica solves it first, and purple wins reward. Since she backed the wrong horse, Natalie will be joining the losers back at camp.

In addition to their promised reward of a day at the rockslide and lunch, the winning team also gets the first clue to the new hidden immunity idol. Yeah, we haven’t seen the last of that, even though both of them were burned last week. Without anybody from Foa Foa there, they decide to keep it to themselves.

This is also time to strategize. Kelly wants to take out Russell because he’s strategic. Shambo doesn’t want him to go. He sucks at challenges she explains. Really?

Back at camp, Russell hopes to find the next immunity idol. This time, he doesn’t plan to tell anybody. That would certainly be different. With the belief that it must be some place obvious, he checks all the obvious spots and finds the hidden idol without a clue. Again. I’m impressed.

Russell has decided to share his find with Shambo. Well, that didn’t last very long. She’s been aligned with Foa Foa for two weeks, something her own tribe has been stupid enough to ignore. They were just saying that they don’t need her because they’ve got the numbers. She flips, it’s 6-5. Russell plays the idol, it bounces back on the person with the next highest votes, and we’re then left at 5-5. Works out perfectly and would completely negate Galu’s 8-4 lead that they would have effectively thrown away.

Only one immunity idol is back up for grabs. They will use a grappling hook to retrieve two bags containing puzzle pegs. The first three will move on to the final round, where they will place pegs on the board. First person to get all pegs in the right spot wins. Shambo’s got the first bag. Mick and Kelly also have their first bags. Brett follows. Mick is the first person to get both bags. Jaison gets his first bag, and so does Laura. Russell does, too. Shambo’s the second person into the final round. Russell and Laura are in a race to get their final bag, and Laura wins that race to move on. Laura, Mick, and Shambo will compete in the puzzle portion of the challenge. For Laura, just opening the bags proves to be a challenge. Shambo’s getting a bunch of pieces and takes the lead. It’s not long, however, before Laura starts to run away with the challenge, as the others for some reason seem quite stumped. Laura wins immunity.

Well, there goes that plan. No chance of voting out Laura now.

Shambo suggests getting rid of someone close to Laura, which would be Kelly.

Russell tells Jaison that he’s got the idol, which Jaison then shares with the rest of the tribe. Jaison wants to ensure they vote Russell. If they don’t, Foa Foa’s rescrewed.

Monica suggests planning for just in case someone has found the idol, but it’s a moot point because they don’t have the votes to split it between two people. Dave insists that they not worry. Laura is quite keen on getting rid of Russell, so she’s pushing for that vote as well.

Walking by the other tribe, Russell overhears them pondering voting for Natalie. Now he’s not sure whether to play the idol or not. He really doesn’t have much choice. Now is the time to play the idol. If he doesn’t, the numbers become pretty hopeless anyway.

Jeff asks whether there’s weakness within the Galu tribe since they got rid of one of their own. Dave responds that the tribe was weakened from within by the presence of Erik (the first jury member, who’s sitting there unable to defend himself but clearly wanting to do so). Kelly then calls Erik a snake.

After they vote, Russell plays his idol. Awesome. Erik is quite thrilled by this, as Dave’s jaw drops.

Votes that don’t count
Russell
Russell
Russell
Russell
Russell
Russell
Russell

Votes that count
Kelly
Kelly
Kelly

With four votes, Kelly has been voted out of the tribe. I was the first person to really, really, really hate the hidden idol, but in recent seasons, it’s been used quite wisely to actually make things interesting.

Before they leave, this time Jeff tells them that the idol will be going back into the game once again, despite the fact that it’s already been played (twice).

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Survivor: Samoa Episode 10 The Day of Reckoning, which airs Thursday at 8/7c on CBS.

Survivor: Amazon Episode 4

As the second person getting on Roger’s nerves, Dan also became the second person to be voted off the men’s tribe in Survivor: Amazon Episode 3.

On the morning of day 10, Jeanne and JoAnna wake up early and start working. The younger girls are offended by the fact that these two are doing this work and expect some work to be done by the others in the tribe as well. Heidi’s excuse: she has less fat to live on.

The men continue to have no luck fishing, so they finally decide to use worms as bait. Matthew feels as if he’s being excluded from the group on the basis of his friendship with Dan and Ryan (or lack of relationship with anyone else in the tribe).

Shawna, who’s really not doing very much, says she feels bad that the others are doing the work while her and her two buddies just lay around all day. Heidi and Jenna, however, feel no guilt at all and just say the other women are jealous of them.

Because Shawna is close to Deena, she decides to go to her and form an alliance of four. Deena readily agrees. While this gives her an alliance of four, it puts her at the bottom. Her logic is that she can influence them better than she could someone who’s been around the block.

Back to the boys. Having taken a week and a half to start using worms, they now catch a fish worth bragging about. Matthew says fishing is his forte.

The reward challenge will test their ability to make fire. Each tribe will be given flint and steel and must burn through four sections, transferring as much fire from each section as they can. Reward is a fully functioning refrigerator stocked with Coke. Jenna sits out for Jaburu. The women strike flame first. They get sections 1 and 2 first. The men complete their first section next. Then their second. After that, they take their first lead. Tambaqui wins reward. Ultimately, they functioned as a unit, while their opponents did not.

When the reward challenge is over, Shawna’s crying and pretty well giving up. She feels like she’s a blubbering idiot. Well, that’s accurate. If they go to tribal council next, she wants to be voted out.

Over at the other camp, they’ve got that big fish they caught, which they chow down with their Coca Cola. They’re doing quite well.

With Daniel and Ryan gone, Roger seems to have a new target. He calls Rob pathetic. Right on down the age line.

For the immunity challenge, the tribes will be fishing. They are given one hour to catch as much fish as they can. The most common (and most likely to bite them) is the piranha. Whoever gets the most fish by weight wins immunity and all the fish they catch. Shawna sits out for Jaburu. Both tribes load their fish on opposite sides of the scale. Doesn’t look close. Tambaqui wins immunity and a whole lot of fish.

Shawna feels relieved that she could be the one going home. She’s definitely the weakest link and feels like she has been bumped from the alliance anyway. The alliance, however, doesn’t want to get screwed by some quitter. They’ve decided to get rid of JoAnna regardless (she’s too strong), but they do want to pull in Christy just in case they need to get rid of Shawna next time.

Jeff points out that the long winning streak came to an end when the challenges were both based on survival.

Deena says that she assesses the tribe as the leader and knows what’s going on. Christy’s doing better than ever, while Shawna’s not doing well and cannot contribute as much as everybody else, making her a liability against the boys.

Votes
JoAnna
Shawna
JoAnna
Shawna
JoAnna
JoAnna

With 4 votes, JoAnna has been voted off the island. Get rid of the strong and trap the weak against their will. Certainly an unusual strategy employed there. As for Shawna, she opted to vote for Christy.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another recap of Survivor: Amazon Episode 5 Pick-Up Sticks.