Survivor: Caramoan - Recap: Sheppard's Flock

Recap video and review of Survivor: Caramoan - Episode 7 - Tubby Lunchbox:

Survivor: Caramoan might as well be considered The Season of the Crazies, between the temperamental Shamar, the unhinged Brandon Hantz, and now the increasingly delusional Phillip Sheppard. There's something to be said for self-confidence, but as "Tubby Lunchbox" so clearly demonstrates is that what Phillip's got isn't confidence, it's a self-absorption that essentially blinds him to his own faults. Dawn made a similar analysis in the episode, as she feels that Phillip's personality is such that he only sees his strengths, while refusing to acknowledge any of his weaknesses. In much the same way last week's episode title stemmed from the feud between Phillip and Corinne, with Phillip naming "Operation Thunder Dome" as his covert operation to dispose of Corinne, "Tubby Lunchbox" is what Corinne refers to Phillip as, following a particularly frustrating reward challenge. Yes, there have been more infuriating castaways in recent years, from Colton to NaOnka. But it's the little things with Phillip that make him so damn irritating, from his frequent butchering of colloquialisms and platitudes, to something as simple as his mispronunciation of "faux pas." Not two weeks ago, he got into it with Brenda for daring to suggest they should shore up the shelter against the rain, his rationale being that he wanted to save his energy for future challenges. Yet here he is, challenging all-comers to an arm wrestling match, and telling Cochran to essentially stand on his arm. I kept expecting Phillip to break his spine trying to fellate himself this week. Sure, Phillip deserves respect for honorably serving his country, same as Shamar. But if nothing else, Phillip is proof that men can get pregnant, because the man is damn near at full-term with his delusions.

So let's get into the meat of things. The reward challenge is the return of the chase, in which the tribes chase one another around a watery ring while being harnessed together, shouldering bags with a certain percentage of their body weight. In his eagerness to be seen as the strongest, most capable competitor out there, Phillip insists on coordinating the entire effort, leading the charge while...not really leading the charge. He adopts a strategy of walking, as opposed to rushing to keep ahead of the Gota tribe, which was rapidly gaining on them. Phillip's attempts to conserve energy ultimately tire him out, and they lose the challenge when he gets tagged. But is it Phillip's poor-planning skills or hubris that cost them the challenge? Not according to Phillip. Nor is it his fault when he fails at the immunity challenge, the last leg of which involves tossing a grappling hook at a set of key rings to drag them back to base. The Bikal tribe is utterly dominated by Gota, and when Phillip returns to camp, he reveals to Cochran that he threw the challenge on purpose. To his immediate credit, Cochran calls BS, though he smartly does it in private, in a confessional. He notes the patently ridiculous notion that throwing a challenge would somehow be necessary to eliminate one of the remaining Fans on their tribe, since they're going to have the numbers at the merge regardless. Phillip is just making excuses because he'd rather be seen as savvy than ever be seen as weak. It's bad enough that members of his own alliance are already contemplating voting him out.

Corinne is at her wits' end with Phillip, tiring of his constant talk of his youthful prowess and incredible strength. It's enough to get Corinne thinking about organizing a blindside, though she realizes pretty quickly that she's not going to have the numbers, so she switches to her secondary goal: protecting Michael. There's something seriously off-putting about Corinne's aggressiveness in courting Michael, as she seems insistent on an alliance with him solely because he's gay and, hey, she apparently works well with gays. The problem here, of course, is that she's so transparent about wanting to protect Michael that the other tribemates see through her intentions: she might say Michael will be an asset to their alliance, but really, she only wants Michael around for her own benefit. Much like Shamar when he was Sherri's "Phillip", Michael would be a tool only Corinne would ever get to use. And that's just lousy, transparent strategy. Of course, Phillip doesn't do much better. More or less rationalizing that, since he studied at the altar of Boston Rob, he's just as smart as him, Phillip tries to turn Julia into a sleeper agent. He wants to keep her to the merge and then use her to infiltrate the former Gota. He tells her not to breathe a word of this to anyone, but she immediately goes and tells Dawn. Since Dawn is also in Stealth R Us, this really shouldn't be as big a deal as it is, but Phillip sees it as a betrayal of trust, putting the target on Julia's back. Things escalate from there once Corinne happens in on Phillip and Dawn having a conversation on the beach, and her interruption sets off Phillip's temper, with the Federal Agent arguing back-and-forth with Corinne until both parties seem about ready to strangle each other, with Corinne flipping out over Phillip being "so mean".

Yet none of this tensions really translates to an interesting Tribal Council, as Stealth R Us' plan to split the votes between Michael and Julia (just in case one of them has the idol) results in a tie, just as planned. On the revote, Julia is sent packing, and that's that. Pretty much the only thing worth note is Cochran's running commentary throughout the episode, as he hesitates to compare "non-entity" Julia to vanilla since he feels it would be doing a disservice to the flavor vanilla, since people actually seek out vanilla-flavored products, while no one in their right mind is searching for anything Julia-flavored. Julia is voted out and now the target is clearly on Michael's back, which Probst points out, since there's an obvious division between Fans and Favorites on Bikal.

Credit: CBS

However, Bikal isn't home to the only interesting developments of the episode. While on the reward, an afternoon in a makeshift Caramoan cafe, Malcolm begins the process of solidifying the alliances that will get him to the end. He recognizes that none of the women are necessarily going to want to play with an alpha male like himself, so he bands together with the other alpha males of his tribe. I'm sure if Malcolm knew anything about Pete earlier this season, he might realize that making a Cool Kids Lunch Table alliance with Eddie and Reynold might not be the wisest move in the world, but Malcolm is a much more deft player than Pete proved to be. Case in point, he plays on Reynold's desperation to be seen as loyal and trustworthy to get him to confess to his possession of the hidden immunity idol. Now Malcolm is the only person in the game who knows where both idols are, as he has the other one, and only Corinne knows about that. Malcolm's giddiness at getting to the merge so he can take control of the game is infectious. His strategic gameplay is what I'm most excited about as we approach the merge, particularly as it contrasts to other similarly savvy castaways still in the game.

"Tubby Lunchbox" is boilerplate Survivor, played right down the middle, with little or no surprises, or much in the way of real interest unless you're a huge fan of Phillip's brand of crazy. But that doesn't mean it doesn't have me excited for next week. If the tensions boiling beneath the surface over the last two weeks are any indication, this game could potentially blow up in a big way as we approach the merge.