Survivor: Cagayan - Episode 8 - Recap and Results - Bag of Tricks
Recap and results for Survivor Cagayan - Episode 8 - Bag of Tricks:
Welcome to the recap and results for Episode 8 of Survivor: Cagayan -- Brawn vs. Brains vs. Beauty, “Bag of Tricks”!
Follow along as I'll be frequently updating the post with my recap and analysis! Just hit refresh. Also, add your thoughts in the comments or by tapping out how you feel about the episode with the BuzzDial:
http://buzzdial.com/swing-dial/embed/?uid=OSYDUC5G
Credit: CBS
Let's get this show on the road!
AFTER TRIBAL COUNCIL
-The side effect of a less dramatic tribal council is that we get a less dramatic post-tribal, such as is the case here. Tony is huddling his troops together after calling Morgan a useless load that needed getting rid of. He sees this as a 6-3 situation that Spencer and his crew won't be able to overcome, and barring any craziness, I think he may be right. Of course, this is Tony we're talking about, so I could easily imagine things changing in an instant, even though, when you boil it down, he's actually been playing a pretty spectacular game. Tony is already bent out of shape about seeing his name at Tribal Council, and it's leading some of the other people in the tribe to start questioning his stability. Could be an explosive one, tonight.
REWARD CHALLENGE
-Tony wants to win the reward challenge because he's worried about how going on a reward together might bond his allies with his enemies and create alliances where none should exist. It's a valid concern, and one of the biggest reasons I'm glad Redemption Island is gone, since it means we have time for these challenges, the rewards of which could test alliances and show who's really playing the game.
-So the reward is a Survivor Spa Day, with a shower, a massage, lunch, and some comfy places to rest. Sounds like Heaven. The challenge itself involves a sandbag toss through a basketball hoop. The ball has a rope attached, allowing the castaways to pull the structure down to release sandbags, which must then be navigated through a tunnel. At the end, the sandbags must be bounced off a trampoline and into a series of nets.
-The three teams are:
Yellow Team: Jefra, Trish, and LJ
Purple Team: Kass, Tasha, and Woo
Green Team: Spencer, Tony, and Jeremiah
-So yeah, this is all the Green Team, and it's not even close. Spencer, Tony, and Jeremiah take a quick, commanding lead, and never look back.
SPENCER, TONY, and JEREMIAH win reward!
-Tony says that winning a reward could provide new opportunities. He plans to talk with Jeremiah and Spencer about organizing a blindside against LJ, which is actually pretty sound strategy, since I think LJ is the perfect mixture of under-the-radar strategy and more overt play.
Credit: CBS
SOLARRION
-Woo hates that he's missing out on mani/pedis and chicken wraps, but he's just glad Tony was able to win. For her part, Jefra thinks it's best they all stick together right now. But LJ is already rocking the boat while out fishing with Jefra and Trish, saying that Tony is getting paranoid and already wants to stop cannibalizing the alliance before it's necessary. Tony is apparently panicking because he thinks Woo found the idol, but the trio thinks it'd be wiser to get rid of Tasha, Spencer, and Jeremiah first. LJ argues that if they remain patient, they can control this game all the way to the end. Of course, as Trish notes, this requires putting out "Tony's fire."
REWARD
-Spencer is eager to talk strategy with Tony. He tells Tony that he understands they're pawns on the board since they don't have the numbers. However, he tells Tony he can use them if he sees fit. Tony is leery, but notes that Spencer and Jeremiah are just desperate, since people get desperate when they're low on numbers. Tony commits to saving Spencer and Jeremiah at the next tribal council because he feels they can help him advance. Jeremiah, however, doesn't entirely believe him. Spencer also doesn't trust Tony, arguing that he's playing a bunch of different sides. He does note that Tony doesn't know he has an idol, so that could come in handy, obviously. But if Tony can get him farther in the game, it's an option he'll have to explore. I would argue against trusting Tony, but it's actually fairly good Survivor strategy to always leave your options open, particularly when you're on the down side of the numbers.
BACK AT CAMP
-Tasha notes it doesn't take a CPA like herself to do the math and recognize her alliance is short on numbers, so she realizes she has to find someone willing to flip. She approaches LJ and asks if he'd be willing to talk with her, but he's hesitant to go due to Tony's paranoia, since seeing him walk off with Tasha is pretty much the last thing he needs to see at this point. He also doesn't think Tasha can really help him anyway. Tasha, however, is annoyed that LJ won't talk with her. She suggests to the camera that if he were man enough to make a big move, he could take Jefra and come on over to their side and blindside Tony. Of course, while this would be a good move for Tasha, it really wouldn't be a very good move for LJ at all. He'd be flipping on an alliance of people he could easily beat at the end to join an alliance packed with people who'd get jury votes. And that's if he doesn't already alienate the people in his former alliance by flipping, creating a scenario where he wouldn't get the necessary votes to win anyway.
Credit: CBS
IMMUNITY CHALLENGE
-So it's a memory game, which should make for an interesting challenge. It's kind of like a game of Simon, where Probst lists off a series of colors, and the castaways have to pick up colored tiles and show him the proper colors one by one, on his command.
-Trish is the first person out on just the second tile of the first round, while Woo is eliminated on the third tile. The puzzle gets longer in the second round, although everyone does a tremendous job. Seriously, I'm impressed at the memory skills these people have.
-However, it all comes crashing down on the second-to-last tile of the second round, as Jefra, Kass, and Jeremiah all guess wrong, leaving us with Tasha, LJ, and Tony.
-With the final tile, each of the remaining three guess a different color. Tony and LJ are wrong, leaving Tasha as the winner.
TASHA wins immunity!
-In a confessional, LJ states that the wheels in his head started turning when Tasha won immunity, as he now realizes that his alliance must split the vote between Spencer and Jeremiah, which is easier said than done with all this Tony uncertainty.
BACK AT CAMP
-Tasha is proud to have won ("In your face, LJ!"), since it was a critical vote tonight. However, while Tasha is at ease, LJ is having a hard time getting Tony to agree to splitting the vote, since he wants to dump Woo. LJ says being in this six-person alliance makes this the first time he's felt comfortable in the game (no! Don't say that!). Tony decides he's going to pin all the troublemaking on LJ in order to convince everyone else to blindside him, and the first victim of this talk is Woo. Tony tells Woo that LJ is planning on voting him out, and tells him they need to act now to get rid of him. And Woo buys ALL of it! Spencer too! He compares this to Christmas morning, expecting to see coal under the tree, but instead finding the gift of a potential LJ blindside.
Credit: CBS
-Jeremiah is onboard with the plan, even though neither he nor Spencer trust Tony. They're more than happy to let Tony's alliance cannibalize itself, since it's a better option than they had yesterday. For his part, Tony tries to turn Trish on LJ, arguing that LJ is the one trying to break the six-person alliance. Trish is unsure of what to believe now, as she's now heard two different sides of the story. "I'm gullible, but I'm not stupid," Trish says in a confessional. "I'm not going to break up the six." She feels Tony hasn't gotten over seeing his name written down at Tribal, and is flipping out trying to get LJ out of the game. Kass thinks it would be crazy to flip at this point, and Trish agrees, feeling they need to keep the six strong. Tony recognizes that he's risking alienating his alliance by flipping to get LJ out. Honestly, that's what he should be thinking, because if he breaks his six, I don't think he has a hope of winning the game. A bitter jury will cost him.
TRIBAL COUNCIL
-When asked if she feels any empathy for her former alliance, Kass says you can't play this game without getting a little dirty. Tony says when people play this game, they come in expecting to be lied to and stabbed in the back, so he's brought his "bag of tricks" with him to tribal. Probst asks what he means by that, and he says he has something in his bag that makes him feel a little more comfortable. It's an obvious lie, but Tasha is happy to hear that there are cracks in the alliance. LJ, for his part, admits to having been approached, but states he thought it best not to cause any anxiety.
Kass has a salient point about the shifting nature of loyalty in the game, where you have to decide whether you're a player or a person. She says she checked her old life at the door before she came out here. Spencer makes his argument to the six, saying that there's someone on that alliance who's at the bottom, and now would be the time to make a move. Trish feels this "Brady Bunch" is about to get uncomfortable, since something has to break. However, the big question is whether it breaks now, or if the alliance of six hold strong and avoid cannibalizing before they actually have to.
We get to the vote, and Spencer keeps his idol. Probst reads the names...
LJ
LJ
LJ
JEREMIAH
JEREMIAH
JEREMIAH
SPENCER
LJ
LJ
LJ is voted out of SURVIVOR: CAGAYAN!
Credit: CBS
-Nooooo!!!! LJ was my pick to win! Shows how quickly the game can change. LJ says "well-played" and wishes them luck as he leaves, while Spencer stupidly starts celebrating (you do know you'll probably need his vote in the end, right? Why potentially lose yourself a jury vote by being childish?). In his farewell interview, he says there's a tricky balance between being patient and being assertive, and says one could easily be on top one moment, and then speaking into a lens wondering where it all went wrong the next.
-Well, I had been shocked in the past few weeks with how well Tony had been playing, as he built a strong alliance that quickly took control of the game, and managed to make it a stealth democracy in which he held all the actual power but never actually appeared to. And all while appearing to be a likable goof. But that all went down the drain this week, as his paranoia has caused him to cannibalize the alliance he built LONG before it was necessary. Now? I imagine his allies will be bitter at how he tossed away a valuable ally. Then again, this was a loss the group could take, since they still have the numbers. So maybe Tony actually did make a pretty smart move, since there's now one less challenge threat in the game, as well as one less threat to win it all at the end. The more I think about it, the more the move made sense, although I still think he'll need to reassure his alliance that he and Woo were only using Jeremiah, Spencer, and Tasha for this one vote, and that it wasn't a permanent flip. But even then, Tony just comes across as untrustworthy, and a guy who's really out for his own neck. Of course, who isn't, in Survivor?
-Thanks for joining me tonight! Add your comments on tonight's vote and whether or not this was the right move in our comments section below!