Survivor: San Juan del Sur - Episode 10 - Recap and Results - This Is Where We Build Trust
Recap and results for Survivor: San Juan del Sur - Episode 10 - This Is Where We Build Trust:
Welcome to the recap and results for Survivor: San Juan del Sur -- Blood vs. Water Episode 10, "This Is Where We Build Trust"!
On last week's episode, it was the blindside of the season as Jeremy went home. Jon and Jaclyn remain on top in this game, but will it last? Or are Reed and Natalie going to turn the game around with Wes, Alec, and Keith? Could blindsiding Jeremy have been a huge mistake for Jon and Jaclyn, and Missy and Baylor, who no longer have the numbers? Or will they be able to rope in a fifth member to keep ahead of the vote? Will Jon or Keith play their hidden immunity idol tonight? Why am I asking all these questions?!
But, most importantly of all, who will be voted out tonight?
Let's get this show on the road!
Credit: CBS
AFTER TRIBAL COUNCIL
At camp, Keith is floored that Reed didn't go home. He feels Reed was able to save himself by using his savvy gameplay and social skills. For his part, Reed is considering what his best next move is, whether he should stick with Team Jon/Jaclyn/Missy/Baylor to pick off the rival alliance one-by-one, or if he should find a way to blindside Jon, who views himself as the alpha male around camp.
Reed isn't the only one considering ousting Jon: Natalie feels "totally blindsided" by the results of tribal. She doesn't feel she can ever trust Jon and his alliance again. However, Jon explains the reason he needed to strike when he did was because he found the hidden immunity idol. He says he wouldn't tell her this if he didn't trust her, but it might be too late to win Natalie back, as she's intent on giving Jon "a taste of his own medicine" for Jeremy. She goes off searching for a hidden immunity idol using a clue Baylor once showed her. Her hope is that she'll be able to blindside Jon if she finds it, although the only way the idol will be able to help her blindside Jon at tribal is if she believes she's their next target. And if Jon doesn't play his idol as well. Kind of a convoluted plan, considering it'd probably be easier for her to get Reed, Alec, Wes and Keith onboard to take control of the game. Then again, given Keith, Wes, and Alec's relative lack of game savvy, that might actually be harder.
Credit: CBS
REWARD CHALLENGE
This challenge involves swimming across platforms, retrieving keys, and releasing puzzle pieces to solve a puzzle, because it's always a puzzle. The reward will have the winning team serving as goodwill ambassadors to the baseball-loving kids of San Juan del Sur. They'll drop off all sorts of baseball equipment for them in the form of helmets, bats, balls, uniforms, and the whole nine yards. They'll then watch the kids play while enjoying a picnic. Sounds like fun.
We get a schoolyard pick for the teams...
Yellow: Reed, Alec, Jaclyn and Jon
Blue: Natalie, Wes, Missy and Baylor
Keith is not picked, and must sit out the challenge, meaning he has no shot at reward. Once again, I would have liked to have seen the schoolyard picks to see what, if any, politics went into the formulation of each team, and whether those choices had any repercussions back at camp. But I'm guessing if we didn't see it, it ultimately didn't end up being that important.
This actually looks like a pretty fun challenge, between jumping off the various platforms to retrieve the keys, to unlocking the pieces, to actually putting the puzzle together. Normally, I'm kind of weary of these straightforward challenges, since it doesn't represent the show at its most creative. But I guess I'm just a sucker for water challenges, even while recognizing I'd be terrible at them myself. For the most part, the challenge is fairly close throughout, but once the yellow team takes the lead, they never look back.
REED, ALEC, JACLYN AND JON WIN REWARD!
After the challenge, Probst asks Baylor why she's on the verge of tears. She says she really wanted to win this for her mom, since she hasn't been on a reward yet. This prompts Reed to step forward and offer to give up his reward for Missy. It's a sweet little moment, even if it is clearly calculated, since Reed comes across as such a genuinely likable guy. He tells her to enjoy the reward and, most of all, to eat something, since she's practically skin and bones at the moment.
The reward winners decide to send Wes to Exile Island, which clearly annoys him fiercely. Meanwhile, everyone else heads back to camp, with Reed rationalizing his decision to help Missy, saying that giving up the reward gives him time away from Jon to engineer his ouster. Smart move by Reed, if it pans out.
Credit: CBS
TAKE ME OUT TO THE BALL GAME
For kids without baseball equipment, they have a really sweet baseball field. It's huge! But the kids are all stoked to see the castaways and the gifts they've brought with them. And there are some really heartwarming moments here, between Missy tearfully explaining how badly she needed this, to Jon revealing how badly he wants kids of his own. He notes that, unfortunately, Jaclyn is unable to bear children due to a condition called MRKH, a syndrome which affects one in four thousand women. Jon, however, plans to adopt, saying he isn't going to leave an amazing woman just because she can't physically birth his child into the world. Damn, now I actually like Jon and don't want him to go, even though it'd be stupid of the other alliance not to blindside him.
Speaking of which, Reed is trying to make that blindside happen by telling Keith about Missy/Baylor/Jon/Jaclyn's plans to split the vote to flush out his idol. To this end, Reed wants to vote with Alec, Keith and Wes to get Jon out, and Keith seems onboard with the plan. However, this plan could be completely ruined by Natalie, who stupidly decides to get Baylor to help her look for the idol. I get that Natalie has been friends with Baylor for some time, but the fact of the matter is that she's an alliance-mate with the guy she's trying to blindside. It's a horrible mistake to put Baylor in a position to find the idol first and take it back to her alliance. Luckily for Natalie, she finds the idol first after digging around at camp by the fire pit. Not so luckily, Baylor is there when she finds it, so it's not like she can keep its discovery to herself. But I get the sense that she would have told Baylor about the idol anyway, since they run off giggling like school kids when they find it. Plans are formulated to blindside Jon, although she wants to get rid of one more boy before dumping Jon...for reasons I really can't understand. Does it matter when Jon goes out? Are they trying to form an all-girls alliance? Because you're going to need to take out more than just one more boy to get the numbers to make that viable, you know.
Credit: CBS
IMMUNITY CHALLENGE
This is an endurance challenge, which we've had too few of this season. The castaways must stand on a very short peg while gripping handles overhead. Last person standing wins immunity. Naturally, any good endurance challenge involves some temptation, which is what Probst offers in the form of candy to the first person who steps down. Jon steps down, and if that isn't foreshadowing, I don't know what is. For his part, Jon says he wouldn't have lasted anyway. Missy is the next person out, after her strength gives out. She's followed by Baylor and Jaclyn, who step down for chocolate chip cookies and milk. Wes steps down next for chicken wings, disappointing Keith, who says he's going to have a father-son talk when this is over. Wes tries to defend himself by recalling having eaten over 50 chicken nuggets in a chicken nugget eating contest, which...yeah.
Keith's feet turn purple from standing up there for so long, and he soon drops out, followed by Alec. It's all down to Natalie and Reed, the two people who arguably need immunity the most. For some reason, Wes decides now is the time to make small-talk about Probst's naked cameo on Two And A Half Men. "I love that show," Wes says, and yeah, he totally would. Natalie then makes a proposal: after three freaking hours in the challenge, and making it to the final two, she decides she'd rather eat something. She figures she's headed out of the challenge anyway, so she might as well eat. Natalie steps down for some pizza and cookies, but can barely move. Reed, who wins the challenge, is barely mobile himself. Still doesn't stop him from doing a sweet victory split though.
REED WINS IMMUNITY!
Credit: CBS
In a confessional, Reed vows not to give up the immunity necklace for any reason. He says he hopes he'll be able to get others to help him vote out Jon, but now I'm starting to wonder if Natalie stepping down when she was so close to winning immunity might not be foreshadowing as well. I'm probably reading WAY too much into this episode and its editing cues.
JON-BE-GONE
The tribe asks Reed how much he had left in him in the challenge, and he says "a while," so it seems he would have won even if Natalie hadn't stepped down. For his part, he's still intent on voting out Jon, noting that it's telling in these sorts of challenges who steps down first, since it reveals who feels safe. Reed tells Missy they're going to split the vote between Keith and Wes, but they're really going to put all their votes on Jon. When Jon learns about the vote plan, he isn't sold on it, since he isn't entirely sure Reed will vote with them, nor is he entirely certain Alec is 100% on the vote, despite his assurances. But Jon is eventually won over by the plan, and goes as far as to note that he doesn't feel it necessary to play the idol to keep himself safe. He plans to use it for Jaclyn, if it gets down to it, since he feels it'd be selfish to play it for himself at this point. More famous last words? For the most part, Jon is confident in the vote, but doesn't like not having control. He has to put his faith and trust in his alliance, essentially. I suppose we'll see whether or not it's well-placed.
Credit: CBS
TRIBAL COUNCIL
Probst asks about why no idols have been played, and it creates a lot of hemming-and-hawing about trust issues. Reed plays along and tries to sell the fiction of their planned Wes/Keith vote split by suggesting Wes or Keith have an idol. Keith, however, takes the call-out seriously and suggests his alliance needs to "stick to the plan." This sets Jon and Jaclyn on edge, as they begin whispering with Natalie and Reed about whom they trust and whom they don't. In short, Keith may have blown this entire Jon blindside. It's fascinating stuff, and I'm not even entirely sure what's happening here. Is the vote moving away from the split plan? Or will they stay the course?
After all the votes are cast, Natalie...tells Jon to play his idol?!?! What the HELL, Natalie?!
JON PLAYS HIS IDOL FOR HIMSELF!
And then Keith decides HE's going to play HIS idol too! He tries to offer it to Wes, but Wes won't take it, so Keith plays it for himself. Probst tallies the votes...
JON (Does not count)
JON (Does not count)
JON (Does not count)
KEITH (Does not count)
JON (Does not count)
KEITH (Does not count)
WES
WES
WES IS VOTED OUT OF SURVIVOR: SAN JUAN DEL SUR!
Credit: CBS
In his exit interview, Wes says he hopes his dad goes all the way and wins the million dollars. He feels this has been the adventure of a lifetime, and while he now wishes he hadn't stepped off the platform at the immunity challenge, sometimes "you gotta risk it to get the biscuit." What?
More interestingly, we learn that Natalie voted for Keith after doing her damndest all episode to get rid of Jon. I didn't think she was serious about the "let's vote out one more boy before Jon" plan, but apparently she was. In the broader sense, I guess she succeeded in not only flushing out Jon's idol, but getting rid of a boy in the process. Still, she should have struck while the iron was hot. Jon knows he's in trouble now, and a lot can change in three days. Jon could find another idol. Or he could learn Natalie isn't as trustworthy as she seems. Seriously, Reed's plan would have worked! Jon would have gone home! Natalie may have just won this damn game for Jon, if he manages to go all the way, because Jon just came within an eyelash of having his ass put on the jury.
And Keith...oh, Keith. All you had to do was keep your mouth shut, and your son would still be in the game. But you're not savvy enough to recognize when a guy is just playing a role to keep the people he's betraying in the dark. Reed wasn't ACTUALLY calling you out! He was trying to sell that he was gunning for you guys and voting with Missy and her alliance! Reed stepped up in a big way this week, and would have engineered one of the more impressive blindsides in recent Survivor history if certain people had kept their mouths shut. But in a game like this, it can be hard to micromanage everybody. I'll be shocked if Jon and Jaclyn don't immediately realize Reed was behind all this. And that sucks, because I like Reed and don't want him to have such a massive target on his back. However, it's kind of unavoidable now, unless he gets crafty. Or unless Jon somehow blows his position, since he no longer has an idol to protect him. It should be interesting, either way.
But what did you think of this episode? Did the right person go home? Sound off in the comments! Until next week's two-hour episode, thanks for reading!