Survivor: San Juan del Sur - Episode 8 - Recap and Results - Wrinkle In the Plan
Recap and results for Survivor: San Juan del Sur - Episode 8 - Wrinkle In the Plan:
Welcome to the recap and results for Survivor: San Juan del Sur -- Blood vs. Water Episode 8, "Wrinkle In the Plan"!
On last week's episode, Julie quit the game. But did she screw over alliance partner Jeremy, or did she actually save him from a blindside at tribal council from Josh's alliance by quitting? Jon and Jaclyn seemed ready to go all-in with Josh and Reed to take control of the game from Jeremy, but who knows where their allegiances lie now? Since tribal council was canceled last week, everything is still pretty much in flux, going into tonight's vote. It should be an interesting show.
So which alliance will grab control of the game? And who will be voted out tonight?
Let's get this show on the road!
Credit: CBS
AFTER TRIBAL COUNCIL
Missy is livid that Julie quit, because it's thrown a wrinkle in her alliance's plans to take control of the game. Jon and Jaclyn are still intent on following through with Josh's plan to vote out Jeremy, with Jon stating that the best path for his game right now does not include Jeremy. He's probably right, but I don't know if Jon is savvy enough to take control of the game when the time comes. Hell, the whole point of choosing the right alliance is going with people you know you can wrangle control from once the perfect moment arises late in the game. But will he be able to take control from Josh if it comes to that, or will he be too big of a physical threat to be allowed to advance? I'm eager to see how Jon and Jaclyn move forward.
Credit: CBS
REWARD CHALLENGE
So we get a schoolyard pick to determine teams: It will be Keith, Natalie, Reed, Jeremy and Wes vs. Jon, Alec, Baylor, Josh and Jaclyn. Missy isn't picked by either team, so she misses out on any shot of getting the reward. I would think it's somewhat problematic to her game that no one has enough faith to pick her for a strength-based puzzle-building challenge, as the castaways must assemble a temple and push it along a track. But these sorts of challenges are more about picking the strongest people to increase your chances of winning, so Missy probably shouldn't take this so hard. To her credit, she doesn't seem that annoyed to be watching from the sidelines. Or maybe she's just putting on a brave face. Either way, it's smart. Can't come across as a bitter person, less you lose the trust of the people in your alliance.
The challenge involves not only building the temple, but hoisting it up to the top of a pedestal using ropes. Once it's up, the flag is raised. The first team to raise the flag wins an all-out taco buffet. It's a decent challenge, but it isn't much of a race, really. Keith's team wins pretty handily, in fact.
KEITH, NATALIE, REED, JEREMY AND WES WIN REWARD!
Credit: CBS
Faced with the decision of whom to send to Exile Island, they choose Jon. Keith's rationale is that Jon is a big guy who will be able to take care of himself. It's apparently meant as a compliment to Jon, and he begrudgingly takes it that way. Eh, no other way to really take it that doesn't make you look bitter, so good on Jon.
LET'S TACO BOUT THE GAME
Reed feels it's an interesting mix of people from different alliances on this reward, which leaves them with almost nothing to talk about. Natalie feels if her alliance mates were here, they'd be strategizing. Keith tries to strategizing by playing coy about the canceled tribal council. He says he isn't sure who he would have voted for if Julie hadn't quit, but Jeremy (in a confessional, of course) calls B.S. on the innocent act, saying he knows he has a target on his own back. Then things get a bit silly, as Wes overeats and drinks way too much beers and margaritas, and ends up getting sick. Not med evac sick, but sick enough for the show to put a #TacoOverload hashtag on the screen. I'll laugh if that trends.
Back at camp, Josh tries to get Baylor back on his side by guilt-tripping her, saying she owes him at least one vote for saving her at the beginning of the game. This is kind of a terrible strategy on Josh's part, because it erodes her sympathy for him completely. He may have just gone from being someone Baylor won't work with to being someone she might actively target as the game continues, since he's trying to blackmail people into doing what he wants. However, Baylor is kind of naive when she says she thought there weren't any strings attached to Josh saving her back in the early days of Coyopa. NOTHING is free in this game, and she's silly if she thought Josh was just saving her out of the goodness of his heart.
Over at Exile Island, Jon is missing Jaclyn. But, on the bright side, he feels Jaclyn has the opportunity to continue solidifying alliances back at camp. And as an even bigger bonus, Jon gets the sole clue to a NEW hidden immunity idol hidden on Exile Island. He takes advantage of the opportunity to search the idol, and naturally, he finds it hidden atop a giant pillar. And just like that, Jon's game just improved tenfold.
JON FINDS A HIDDEN IMMUNITY IDOL!
And now, things have gotten interesting. Not only are he and Jaclyn swing votes, he's got an idol to protect them. They just SOARED up the rankings.
Credit: CBS
MISOGYNIST TRIBE
Jeremy is annoyed by how crude Keith, Wes and Alec are, saying that they have no manners. They jump ahead of the girls to eat, and constantly talk about bodily movements around them. Baylor feels Alec treats her like a slave, and she's sick of it. Missy tries to convince her to let it go, but it seriously bothers her. Missy understands, and calls the men in the tribe "misogynists," which is pretty much verified by what happens next. Keith passive-aggressively complains about Baylor, saying she hasn't done any work around camp, and implies she would have been whooped by now if she were his kid. It gets even worse, as Alec orders the girls to keep the fire going while they're off gathering wood, and then makes a snarky remark about how Natalie will probably do it, but he's not so sure the other girls are up to the task. This sets Jaclyn off. She doesn't get why people who NEED her vote are being so derisive toward her. "Jon can vote with them, but I'm not," Jaclyn declares.
Of course, a man just might end up leaving the game anyway, since Keith, Wes and Alec are already planning to blindside Jeremy, in accordance with Josh's wishes. However, they'll need to make sure he doesn't win immunity first.
Credit: CBS
IMMUNITY CHALLENGE
So it's the old memory challenge, where Probst lists a series of items, and then must display the items once again in the correct order using the cube in front of them.
Jon and Reed are the first two out of the challenge, and they're quickly followed by Alec, Natalie and Baylor. Jaclyn is then eliminated, followed by Keith and Missy. This leaves us with Josh and Jeremy, the two big opposing forces of this game. There's a very real possibility that whomever loses this challenge will go home. In the final round, Josh picks one answer, while Jeremy chooses another. Ultimately, Jeremy is the one who gets the question right.
JEREMY WINS IMMUNITY!
Credit: CBS
This is seriously awesome, since now tribal council has gotten kind of unpredictable. Jeremy was the obvious vote, but who else from Jeremy's alliance will Josh target? Will anyone even be targeted, or will the tide of public opinion turn against Josh? I'm intrigued.
BACK AT CAMP
So as soon as the castaways get back, Jaclyn takes Jon aside and tells him that the guys made her feel like garbage while he was gone. While she does note that the guys need to be voted out first due to their challenge capabilities, Jaclyn messes up by not framing it as a practical argument first. Instead, she opens by framing it as an emotional argument (i.e., "The guys don't like me! We should vote them out!"). As a result, Jon thinks Jaclyn is being too emotional, and doesn't want to vote out any of the guys since he feels they won't be able to beat Jeremy in the final three. But dude, you can't vote Jeremy tonight anyway!
More stupid gameplay: Keith lets slip to Missy that he's planning to vote Baylor at tribal council, citing her laziness. Keith then criticizes Missy for sticking up for her daughter, which is kind of crazy, because why the hell wouldn't she stick up for Baylor? Missy says Keith protects Wes the same way, prompting Keith to assert that he never coddles Wes the way Missy coddles Baylor. Ultimately, all votes are up in the air as Jon and Jaclyn struggle to decide which alliance they're going to back, as Josh and Baylor are the two names on the chopping block.
TRIBAL COUNCIL
Jeremy expresses that his name would have been written down tonight if he didn't win immunity, and Josh says he feels the same way, which is why he tried so hard at the immunity challenge. Probst asks where Jon and Jaclyn stand, and she notes that both alliances have approached her. Once again, I wonder why she would even answer that question, since they'll be the obvious culprits to the alliance who comes out on the wrong side of the vote tonight. But I guess she had no real choice. Jon insists they haven't purposely gone out of their way to be swing votes, that's just how circumstances have turned out. Jaclyn, however, expresses how she feels disrespected by the guys at camp, saying that people only want to work with her when Jon is around. Missy speaks up and backs Jaclyn, saying the guys are rude and crude around camp. Keith gets defensive and says that guys are going to burp and fart, that it's just a way of life.
Reed then speaks up and makes his case to Jon and Jaclyn for the alliance, saying that if they side with the singles, they'll become targets for the future. Jeremy takes umbrage with this, saying that Josh and Reed are likely to vote out Jon and Jaclyn the first chance they get. But Reed vehemently denies this. And with that, we get to the vote...
BAYLOR
JOSH
BAYLOR
JOSH
BAYLOR
JOSH
BAYLOR
JOSH
BAYLOR
JOSH
One vote left...
JOSH!
JOSH IS VOTED OUT OF SURVIVOR: SAN JUAN DEL SUR!
Credit: CBS
Josh is the first member of the jury. He kisses Reed as he leaves, and vows he'll eat a cheeseburger for everybody.
In his exit interview, Josh says the game is all about trust and making an alliances, but admits he never really trusted the alliance he had going into tonight's vote. He feels he revealed a little too much about himself, and that got him axed. However, he remains positive about his experience, saying he was happy to get this far into the game. What a lovely little exit interview. No sour grapes, just a humble farewell. I hope Josh gets to come back some day and play again.
Ultimately, I think Josh shot himself in the foot by trying so hard to win Baylor back. He was never going to get that vote back, because that would mean Baylor going against her mother. And if he knew anything about Baylor, he probably should have known how unlikely that was going to be. He should have picked someone else in that alliance to work over. No guarantee it would have worked, but it likely would have worked a whole hell of a lot better than the Baylor approach. I'll miss Josh, but hopefully this opens the door for Reed to stir up some trouble. I think he has serious untapped potential as a power player in this game. Then again, I felt the same way about Julie, and that...well, yeah. That didn't work out at all.
What do you think about tonight's results? Did the right castaway go home? Did Jon and Jaclyn side with the right alliance for their game? Sound off in the comments!
Until next week, thanks for reading!