COME ON IN, GUYS!! Beginning of Mini-Recap I walked into this episode expecting to be mad at the end... bu it turned out to be quite an entertaining ride. I despise many of these new advantages - but I love that some players are finding ways to dilute them. I'll try to remember details enough to paint a picture - a bit muddled a picture, but a picture nonetheless - of Survivor 41 episode seven. The show opened with a "Previously on" moment (!) for the first time in a long while. Why? Because they KNEW they have thrown so much at their audience there is no way we could have kept track of it all. A reminder of that "three way idol" that would only wake up after the three holders all said a series of silly sentences at the same immunity challenge (Xander, Naseer and Shan are the holders). The extra votes (DaShawn and Xander). The "Knowledge Is Power" idol held by Liana, which allows her to ask any player: "Do you have an idol" or "Do you have an advantage" at tribal council; if the answer is yes, the person must then hand it over to Liana. This all lead to the suspenseful (#SarcFont) question "What will Erica do?" Stuck at Redemption Island for two stormy nights, she had a choice to make: crush the hourglass to go back in time to reverse the results of the last challenge (the winning team would be stripped of their victory; now THEY would be the ones to compete in an immunity challenge. Only one player, not the whole team, would now have immunity at tonight's TC). The former losing tribe would now all be safe, being handed this gift by Erika, not by earning it. Or she could NOT crush the hourglass and keep everything the same. D'uh. It wasn't hard for us to figure out what her choice would be: of course she would crush the hourglass. Seriously, why WOULDN'T she? She knows the only reason she is sitting at Redemption Island is because those Luvus who won the challenge consider her their easy boot. Instead, she now has an easy way to save herself - AND finally rid the game of a Luvu player she's had a rivalry with from the beginning: namely Sydney. We all knew she would be the Erika target. Back to the beach to meet the tribe. The news of Erika's choice was certainly met with confusion. Suddenly, instead of sitting out and watching the challenge, Danny, DaShawn, Naseer, Evvie, Ricard and Sydney were the ones fighting for immunity, even though'd the won that privilege last week (so unfair! Not at all a fan of this. In fact, it makes me mad.) And the losers last week - Heather, Tiffany, Liana, Shan and Xander - are now safe and through to merge (even though they didn't earn the right to be there). Challenge Time: From Dalton Ross: "The immunity challenge this week had the players using their feet to release a rope and then stack blocks in a circle with a flag in the middle." It was very close.. and fun to watch. Always love watching a great "work with your feet" challenge. And while it was a nail-biting finish between Sydney, Evvie and Ricard - Ricard won immunity (which, I shall mention again, he had already WON until a dumb twist made him have to win it AGAIN. So unfair #FloggingADeadHorse). Back at camp: let the scrambling begin! It starts with Luvu wondering how the heck they WON the challenge last week and now they are suddenly at risk of going home? Poor Danny... the pro athlete in him just could not get his head around that. Totally understandable. He wasn't being a poor sport: when you win a challenge, YOU WIN A CHALLENGE! No one should be able to take that away. More from Dalton Ross: he is so much better at explaining the scramble details: "With Danny and Deshawn wanting to get a woman out of the game, that put the target squarely on Evvie. And once Liana shifted allegiance over to her new fearsome foursome of her, Shan, and D&D, then the target was locked and loaded. All that was left was to see how Advantagepalooza would play out. Because Xander was ready to play his idol for Evvie. And Liana was ready to use her Knowledge is Power advantage to take away Xander's idol. And everyone was telling everyone everything. Tiffany told Evvie about Liana's advantage. Then Evvie told Xander about Liana's advantage. Then Xander told Danny about Liana's advantage even though Danny already knew about Liana's advantage and was on the other team, and I'm not exactly sure what that accomplished other than alerting Liana to the defenses being put up against her. It was around this time that both sides starting parsing out every single word of the Knowledge is Power rules, realizing that Liana had to successfully figure out the person actually in possession of the idol at the time she asked the question for it." Read the rest of Dalton's recap here: Survivor 41 recap: Knowledge is sour | EW.com Well Dalton, I think what it accomplished was confusion. I think that was Xander's plan: cause as much confusion as possible so that Liana would have no idea who was holding an advantage. Liana DOES have a talk with Xander and Evvie, trying to fish out their plan. She apparently walked away convinced that Evvie was NOT holding the idol. Oh Liana... At tribal, Xander feels the need to whip out that idol for everyone to see. I wondered why in the world he would do that? Wouldn't that clue-in Liana to where the idol is? Of COURSE it would! You see, this was the plan! Liana can't believe her good fortune. Xander had just made it so EASY! So she pulls out her advantage, reads it out loud, and asks Xander if he has an idol. "Hm.. nope. But I have this FAKE one..." he says as he hands Liana the bogus one. I liked Xander before; I now truly appreciate him. The camera cuts to a brief look at this plan being hatched earlier in the day. Hard to know if it was Xander's alone or if he and Evvie (and maybe Tiffany) had hatched it together. But since it's HIS idol, I'm giving him the credit: he did all the work to pull it off perfectly (though as mentioned in our live chat, it IS a bit hard to understand why Liana fell for it. She KNEW Xander knew about her advantage. Did she not wonder why he would so blatantly flaunt the thing in front of her?) So a fake idol was made. The real one, along with his advantage, was safely tucked into the pocket of Tiffany. It never occured to Liana to ask her, so the plan played out perfectly, nullifying Liana's oh-so-powerful "Knowledge is Power" advantage (which is now no good to her or anyone else). Now the scrambling at another "full participation tribal council" commences (I admit, this usually drives me nuts. But in a situation like this, it's easy to understand why folks were unclear of which plan they should follow). DaShawn was sure he would be the target so he played his extra vote. Sydney was sure it would be her, so she played her "shot in the dark", a last ditch effort to save herself. But by doing so, she her vote - and didn't win immunity either. Evvie, sure it was her, pleaded with Tiffany to play the idol for her, while Xander urged her NOT to play it (even if it appeared Evvie did have good reason to worry). Tiffany - understanding (as Shan never would) that even though it's in HER pocket it is still not HER idol - would defer to whatever Xander decided. He was convinced Evvie would be safe; Evvie was not so sure. The votes are read. First three: one each for Deshawn, Evvie and Sydney. Next three: another one each for Deshawn, Evvie and Sydney. Then two more each for the two women. One vote left... and sadly for those of us who liked her... ... it is Sydney who is sent home. I know... kind of a sketchy recap. As usual, I'm sure that WM will improve it greatly once he gets his hands on it. (I know, this is probably just me - but does Sydney look like Stephenie Lagrossa in that picture below? Both their smiles look remarkably similar!) Beginning of Live Chat. Episode synopsis reads like this: Castaways compete in their first individual immunity challenge in the game; Erika is on Exile Island for two days and must make the biggest decision in the game thus far. Raise your hand if you think there is even the slightest chance in the world that Erica WON'T use that advantage. The more I've thought and read about it, the more firmly I am on the "No chance she won't" side. What will it hurt her to use it? The theory from RHAP's "Know-It-All"s (well, half of the know-it-alls. Stephen missed this week for his little baby girl's birthday. That's sweet: it made me smile) and replacement guest Lauren (from "Island of the Idols"): Erica will use it, realizing that she has no future with Luvu. Now the former blue tribe will be at risk, and all the people Erica just saved will be so grateful that they will join together to vote out her arch-rival Sydney. That's only a theory; not a spoiler. But it sounds like a rational one to me - and if it's correct, Sydney could be in real trouble. Anyone?
The above comment was from Sunday morning. Hmmm.... I'm not really sure I have an NGH in me this morning. Who else is at risk if Erica uses this advantage? Well, most of Luvu: Danny, Dashawn, Naseer and Sydney. Also Evvie and Ricard. The only Blue on the other side is Heather. So far, she's has had zero impact on the game; I doubt anyone will start listening to her now. Shan, in an only two-person alliance, would want to protect Ricard (even though we now know she doesn't trust him). Tiffany and Liana would want to protect Evvie. I guess it WOULD end up being Erica with the upper hand in choosing tonight's target. Hmmm... okay, I still say that Lauren and Rob C have guessed right. If Erica's the one who saves them all, everyone should defer to her just to finally get rid of ONE Luvu - and for sure Erica would pick Sydney. Or... perhaps the "women's alliance" ladies will speak up and talk Erica into ditching one of the guys just for being a guy? They all know Naseer has an idol - but he's so loveable, Liana could be convinced not to take his from him. So.... Danny maybe? DaShawn, since he has been gunning so hard for Erica (willing to throw challenges to get her out)? Hmm..... Nope. Got nothing. I'm about to be late and I don't want to be. If WM has a good NGH to add, please.. do it! Who wants to live chat "Survivor" at 8 pm?
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