Survivor: Cagayan - Episode 9 - Recap and Results - Sitting In My Spy Shack

Recap and results for Survivor Cagayan - Episode 9 - Sitting In My Spy Shack:

Welcome to the recap and results for Episode 9 of Survivor: Cagayan -- Brawn vs. Brains vs. Beauty, “Sitting In My Spy Shack”!

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

-After tribal, the tribe is still reeling from LJ's elimination, particularly Jefra, who wonders if there's even still an alliance. Trish assures Jefra, but notes that Tony is "an Academy Award-winning actor" who went into business for himself, so they agree they'll have to be leery of him. Surprisingly, Jefra ultimately admits she's okay with the LJ blindside, but it's more about how it was done. She's just irked, and I don't blame her, especially since Tony clearly did go into business for himself. That said, in retrospect, it was the right move for Tony, especially since I think LJ was one of the top three biggest threats to win the game. Besides, Tony still has the numbers even with dumping LJ, so he didn't really sacrifice the strength of his alliance, although he did risk losing the trust of his allies. But big moves always require a cost-benefit analysis, and I think Tony made the right call, even if it torpedoed my endgame prediction.

-Of course, because he's Tony, he's heard this entire conversation. This makes him every bit as leery of Jefra as she is of him. So let the paranoia commence (again)!

Credit: CBS

REWARD CHALLENGE

-Tonight's reward challenge involves teams of four paddling a boat along a course in which each team must stop at several stations along the way. At each station, they must untie a pair of paddles. Once they collect all the paddles (which have letters on them), they must row to shore and solve a puzzle by arranging the paddles to form a phrase. The winning team gets a barbecue reward.

Orange Team: Kass, Trish, Tony, and Woo

Purple Team: Jeremiah, Spencer, Jefra, and Tasha

-It starts out fairly close, with the Purple Team taking an early lead until Jeremiah has difficulty untying one of the pairs of paddles, which allows the Orange Team to pull ahead. Tony loses a paddle and tries to tell his tribe to go on without him while he goes back for the paddle, but Probst won't allow it, stating he needs to be in the boat. This loses the Orange Team the lead they gained. Thus, it becomes neck-and-neck as we get to the puzzle section. Ultimately, it's the Purple Team that pulls ahead after Tony (from the sidelines) has a disagreement with Woo (one of the puzzle solvers) about a letter in the puzzle ("There's no 'Y' in 'Fighting'!").

JEREMIAH, SPENCER, JEFRA and TASHA win reward!

-Tony worries now that Jefra is going off on a reward with the opposing alliance, all while believing that she's no longer a part of their alliance. Tony notes that this is a problem and that "bad things will happen." He really should have assured Jefra that she was still a part of their alliance, but I get the sense that Tony only ever talks to her when he needs her. And if someone in your alliance only talks to you to give you marching orders, then that's poor alliance-management on the leader's part.

SOLARRION

-Woo said he's never been more bitter about a loss, while Kass declares she's tired of losing. But in a confessional, she also notes that if she wants to make it to the end, she needs to stick with this five. "Tony's annoying, but my philosophy is 'keep the annoying people, and get rid of the threats.'" Kass wants to get rid of Spencer next if he doesn't win immunity, which is probably the right idea for her, although she doesn't know about his hidden immunity idol, which could prove problematic if she really pushes the Spencer issue only for him to play the idol and cost their alliance a valuable member.

-Annoyed with Trish's preoccupation with papayas, Tony storms off to go search for the hidden immunity idol. Meanwhile, Woo goes papaya picking with Trish. He climbs up into a tree and begins shaking the papayas down, which Trish declares are "bigger than Morgan's boobs." However, one of the branches breaks and Woo takes a SICK fall off the tree. Seriously, I'm FLOORED he was able to walk off from that, because he just landed with a THUD. Trish worries he's broken his tailbone, but thankfully, he's only got a charlie horse in his leg. Woo's recap of the fall in slow motion is part of the reason I love the guy so much. Woo is insanely entertaining, and his recreation of his attempt at a "Sylvester Stallone in Cliffhanger" move is aces.

Credit: CBS

REWARD BBQ

-While everyone enjoys their meal, the group gets to talking strategy. Jefra is annoyed that Tony made a move and neither she nor Trish nor Kass were involved in it. Of course, she doesn't hold it against Spencer, Tasha, and Jeremiah, since she's decided Tony is the enemy. And hey, she's not exactly wrong, since he's probably the biggest threat left in the game. And so they decide on a final four alliance, with Tony as the first person to go. But not before they receive an extra surprise: letters from home! Jefra IMMEDIATELY breaks down, just turning into a soup of tears. She reads the letter from her mother, which says not to let her kind heart overrule her strategy. Her mother lets her know it's okay to lie in the game, even though that isn't the kind of person she is in real life, and right away, I want Jefra's mom to be on the show so we can get her into the next Blood vs. Water season, since she's already showing more of a self-awareness of the disconnect between "game life" and "real life" than most people who've actually played. This is sweet, although does anyone else think it's kind of unfair not to have announced letters from home as one of the rewards before the challenge? I feel like both teams deserve to know what they're playing for, since I think everyone would have tried harder for letters from home than they did for just more food. But maybe that's just me.

Credit: CBS

IMMUNITY CHALLENGE

-We don't get a scene showing the reward winners' return to camp, we just head straight to the challenge, which makes me wonder how this was laid out: was this the next day? Or was it the same day as the reward? If the latter, that changes the tone a bit, since I imagine competing on a full stomach is as much of a disadvantage as playing on an empty one. If the former, why no scene of the winners' return to camp? I would have liked to have seen the reactions from Tony, Woo, Kass, and Trish when they learned they missed out on letters from home. Of course, odds are, nothing of interest really happened. But if it did, I'm sure we'll see it on the deleted scenes when CBS uploads them later.

-The challenge itself involves the castaways standing on a plank while balancing a ball on a staff with a flat surface on top. In the first round, half the competitors are eliminated one after the other, leaving us with just Woo, Tasha, Jeremiah, and Spencer. In the second round, in which the competitors must move their hand one section lower while also moving down one rung lower on the balancing plank, Jeremiah is eliminated. This brings us into the third and final round, the toughest in the challenge, as they're basically on the narrowest part of the beam in addition to having their hands on the lowest level of the staff. Woo is quickly eliminated, leaving us with Tasha vs. Spencer for the second time since the merge. A gust of wind kicks in and that's all she wrote for Spencer.

TASHA WINS INDIVIDUAL IMMUNITY!

Credit: CBS

-Jefra notes in a confessional after the challenge that she just doesn't feel safe with Tony anymore, and that this might be her chance to finally get rid of him. However, I'm leery of any overt foreshadowing from the editing team. There has to be something deeper going on here that we aren't seeing. Either way, if Jefra flips, it's a 4-4 vote. Is she really going to take it to purple rocks just to get rid of Tony? It's way too big a risk, I think. She'll need to get someone else to flip with her if this is going to work.

BACK AT CAMP

-Upon returning from the challenge, Tasha immediately makes note of the threat of going to purple rocks, since it's a 4-4 vote unless someone else flips with them. Tony knows he's on the chopping block and goes searching for the special immunity idol, combing the area behind the Tree Mail. Meanwhile, Jefra pours out her soul to Trish, tearfully saying she's sick to death of Tony's fakeness. Trish doesn't really have a response. However, no sooner do we check in with Jefra than we're back with Tony...who FINDS THE SPECIAL IDOL!

-Yes, the rumors were true. The special idol is the idol from Cook Islands, which can be played AFTER the votes are read. This idol cannot be transferred to any other castmate. Only the person who found it can use it. Tony, naturally, is relieved to find it, nearly passing out and kissing the idol like it's a long lost child. This imbues him with a new level of confidence, as he returns to camp and flat-out pledges his loyalty to Jefra, saying he swears on his mother and other members of his family. Together, as an alliance, they begin speculating who's got the hidden immunity idol. Woo feels if Spencer has the idol, they're all screwed, but either way, they're sticking together. Jefra even goes as far as to pull Jeremiah aside and break the news that she's reneging on her promise to vote with them, earning Jeremiah's stoic bitterness.

-In an amusing moment, Jeremiah reveals to Spencer and Tasha that he's a fashion model. Tasha is thrilled to have a "hot fashion model" in her alliance, while Spencer is amused that Jeremiah thinks this is a big deal. In a game of oneupsmanship, Spencer reveals he's found the hidden immunity idol. Tasha and Jeremiah are stunned, and Spencer begins plotting on whether now should be the time to use it. He notes if he uses it wrong, he could be kicking himself for the rest of his life.

TRIBAL COUNCIL

-Jefra admits that she'd been weighing her options following last week's LJ blindside, while Trish confirms that no one else in their alliance knew what Tony was going to do. Spencer, for his part, notes how frustrating it is that Jefra is choosing to remain at the bottom of her alliance. He calls Tony out for breaking promises left and right, although he swears he's not judging since he himself has lied. Then, in an interesting moment, Spencer declares that if Tony makes it to the end, he'll be getting his vote. Tasha and Jeremiah say the same. Spencer's rationale is that Tony has been steering this game while no one else hasn't. Woo states that even with everyone else rooting for Tony, they're still maintaining their alliance. Spencer reiterates, "I'm not rooting for Tony, I'm rooting for me." The question of a hidden immunity is raised, and it's finally time to vote.

-Spencer's facetious vote for Woo is hilarious: "Duuuuude, this vote is a real bummer, man!"

-When Probst asks if anyone wants to play an idol, Spencer steps forward and declares, "You can steal as many clues as you want, Woo. I've got the real thing." Tony reaches into his bag as if he's going to play an idol, causing Spencer to pause a moment. But Tony claims it isn't real, so Spencer plays his anyway, causing Tony to then declare Spencer a young fool for falling for his trick (and he somehow manages to botch Jeremiah's name in the process by calling him "Jeremy", prompting Morgan to wonder who the hell he's talking about).

-And now, the votes...

WOO
WOO
WOO
JEREMIAH
JEREMIAH (Spencer: "Sorry, buddy." Jeremiah: "Don't worry about it.")
JEREMIAH
JEREMIAH
JEREMIAH

JEREMIAH is voted out of Survivor: Cagayan!

Credit: CBS

-Jeremiah noted that Spencer did what he had to do by saving himself. He's simply glad to have done something he's never done in 34 years, coming on TV to compete to win a million dollars.

-Well, Spencer is pretty much boned now. Tasha too. Ultimately, Jefra made the right call in sticking with her alliance, since a tie vote was the best she could have hoped for. But she's still at the bottom of her alliance, and now a Tony blindside is functionally impossible. So what recourse does she have but to stay put? Even without knowing about the idol, she has no other choice but to stay where she is, since Kass and Trish aren't going to flip. So that leaves Spencer and Tasha in the untenable situation of being the next two to go. Unless there's another idol out there, which would just be ridiculous at this point. The only thing left to do is win immunity, or hope that Tony gets so paranoid about another member in his alliance that he decides he can stomach the loss of another ally since he'll still have the numbers anyway. Either way, I hate that the rumors about the special idol were true, since I HATE how much power that gives a person, especially someone who's already running the game anyway. Sure, it's only good until final five, but in a final three game in which the idol holder is already on top, that's practically a guaranteed seat in the finals. Then again, stranger things have happened on this show, so maybe it's not a surefire win for Tony just yet.

What do you think? Sound off in the comments! Until next week, thanks for hanging out!

GOODNIGHT!