Previously on Survivor: Micronesia - Fans vs. Favorites, the two tribes finally merged as one and formed Dabu.  But things weren’t all fun and games as Eliza and Jason worked to find a way to overthrow Ozzy and stay in the game.  After Jason won individual immunity they thought they had a chance, but the hidden immunity idol Jason gave Eliza turned out to be a fake and she was voted out of the game.

Returning From Tribal Council

As the group returns from Tribal Council they are full of questions about the immunity idol that Eliza tried to pay.  No one seems to know for sure what happened (except Ozzy).  The whole thing gets explained.  Ozzy says he took a lesson from Yau-Man and replaced the original with a fake.  Cirie tells us that she panicked at first, but then says that if it had been real Ozzy would be gone and that might not be such a bad thing.

The Next Day

Jason is telling us how good he is.  He’s the best ever!  In fact, he says that Ozzy isn’t the only “God-like” competitor who can play this game.  That’s right.  He thinks he’s God-like.  Furthermore, he thinks he’s in a pretty good position if he can just keep beating Ozzy and winning immunity.  Duh.  Anyone would be in a good position if they could keep beating Ozzy and winning immunity.  Moron.

Reward Challenge

Jeff says that the nine of them will divide into two teams of four (uh-oh…9 divided by 2 equals 4 with 1 leftover…yep, uh-oh).  One person from each team will swim into the water and crawl through a net tunnel/obstacle course.  They will then swim to a platform and study a pyramid of Micronesian symbols.  They will then race back to the beach - going back through the net tunnel - where they will have to correctly place as many of the symbols as they can on the answer board.  To make it a little more challenging, they gave them some extra symbols.

The winning team will fly to a place called Yap, where they will enjoy a local dance and feast, and spend the night in a traditional Micronesian residence typically reserved for chiefs and other dignitaries.

To pick teams they draw for captains.  Jason and Natalie are chosen.  They do rock/paper/scissors to see who chooses first.  Jason wins.  He chooses Ozzy, of course.  His team also gets Erik and Amanda while Natalie gets James, Parvati, and Alexis.  Cirie is the last one standing.  That means she has to go to Exile Island and doesn’t get to participate.

So, anyway, the race is on.  I’m not going to bore you with a scene by scene.  There’s no real leader in the challenge as they get different numbers of symbols at different times.  When it comes down to it, Amanda is working on her team’s puzzle with some help from her team and she finishes it. 

They ask for a call…and they win!  I’m not sure it was ever in any real doubt.  So Ozzy gets to go on the reward with two of his biggest fans, Amanda and Erik, and the one person who most wants to be him, Jason.

The Reward

The four winners get on a plane and fly to the middle of the jungle where they find a feast and lots of topless women waiting for them.  Erik says its the most boobs he’s ever seen (I don’t doubt that at all).  The four of them watch a dance that is put on for them then Erik (maybe the others too) chew betel nuts and they all drink beer.  Erik gets sick, but it’s all worth it to him.

Back At Dabu

The women are sleeping which is apparently bothersome to James because he is obviously making noise to try to wake them up.  Parvati is the only one that really stirs.  James is breaking wood to feed the fire and sharpening the machete and generally making noise.  Parvati finally tells him that there are three other people trying to sleep and he’s being obnoxious.  James walks away but he tells us that she has a lot of nerve to mouth off to him when he’s the one that’s been feeding the fire all night to keep them warm and keep the mosquitoes away from them.  He doesn’t know much longer he can take it before he cusses somebody out.

Well, the Reward winners return and find the girls still sleeping.  Jason goes on and on about all the food that was there.  Parvati and Alexis later call him a “little brat” for doing so.

James and Amanda do a little talking.  James thinks Parvati is too close to the other girls (Alexis and Natalie) and that she’s in love with “girl power.”  Amanda agrees that they haven’t been as close since the merge.  Amanda tells us she’s worried.  Amanda doesn’t like that Parvati aligned with Alexis and Natalie because she doesn’t know or trust them. 

Immunity Challenge

The challenge is simple in concept.  Each Survivor will step up on a log and their hand will be tethered to a bucket filled with water that is suspended above their head.  If their hand drops, the bucket tips, the water spills out, they get wet, and they’re out.  Last person standing wins immunity.

And they begin…  Only 20 minutes into the challenge, Jeff comes out holding a big bowl of candy.  Cirie and Erik immediately make a deal to share the candy by going out at the same time.  This is both stupid and ignorant.  It’s stupid because Erik could probably use the immunity and it’s ignorant because everyone knows that if you hold out a little longer you get better temptations than a bowl of cheap candy.

45 minutes into the challenge Probst comes out again.  Alexis gets so excited (or something) that she moves her bucket before he even shows what he has in his hand.  Guess what?  She moved too soon.  She gets nothing!  Ouch.  She’s pissed too.  Jeff tells her that she can mope and be mad.  I love Jeff.

So he brings out the temptation which is milk and cookies as he’s explaining that if you want the temptation you have to say you’re coming out for the prize.  As he’s saying all this Natalie dumps her water on her head without saying anything.  Jeff asks her if she lost her concentration and she says that she thought she was going to pass out.  Nothing for her either!

James says that must suck…and as he does so he loses his concentration and moves his arm causing his bucket to spill on top of his head.  It could only happen to James.

After an hour has passed, Jeff brings out three chocolate glazed donuts.  Ozzy doesn’t even think about it before deciding to take the offer.  I have no idea what that’s about.  It’s probably the dumbest play he’s made the whole game and just goes along with what people have been saying - he’s getting a big head and thinks he has this game in the bag.  Jason smiles.  Only Jason, Parvati and Amanda are left.

Two hours pass and it’s pouring down rain.  The same three are still in the challenge.  The onlookers are huddled together for warmth.  Two more hours pass.  They’re up to five hours now.  Even Jeff has a hard time looking interested at this point.  Then, out of nowhere, Amanda says she thinks she’s done.  She has to pee.  She pulls the bucket of water on herself and runs off into the woods.  I don’t know.  Maybe it’s just me, but I’m thinking that if I had stood there for five hours holding my hand up like that, I would have just peed on myself and kept on going.  I’m not leaving the competition to go pee in the woods.  But that’s just me.

I Promise…

So we get to the six hour mark and Jeff brings out a platter of cookies and donuts and candy and pizza and milk and beer and peanut butter and I don’t know what else.  He says that whichever one of the two wants to step down can share that food with everyone who’s already gone out.  What?!?!  Share?  Screw that!  But that’s just me.

Parvati tells Jason that it would be a good way for him to make some friends.  Natalie suggests that if Jason stepped down they just might not vote for him tonight.  Probst asks if the group is saying they won’t vote for Jason if he steps down.  Jason says he’ll need a guarantee.  Yeah, Jason, let me just write down an “I promise” for you…moron.

So this is what happens.  One by one the group figures it out and starts giving him their guarantee that they won’t vote him out.  A couple of them have their fingers crossed behind their backs (because everyone knows that means the lie didn’t count).  And Jason buys it!  He says he’s either making the biggest mistake of the game, or it could keep him out there a little while longer.  No, dude.  It’s one of the stupidest moves in Survivor history.

Back At Camp

After Jason talks about how he could have stayed up there even longer had he needed to (yeah right) he wanders off toward the beach giving everyone else a chance to talk about how stupid he is.  No one can believe he actually fell for it.  Even James is dumbfounded.  They all talk and confirm that Jason is, indeed, the target for the vote.

Cirie Has Other Plans

Cirie tells us that they all guaranteed they wouldn’t vote Jason out tonight, but Ozzy wants to do it anyway (yeah, and you didn’t think of that when you crossed your fingers when you made that promise).  Cirie, however, thinks this would be the perfect time to get rid of Ozzy and the idol because he’ll never see it coming.  Um, why would he since it makes no sense whatsoever for you to vote him out at this point…?

So Cirie pulls together Parvati, Alexis, and Natalie and tells them the plan.  She warns them not to say anything to Amanda, James, or Erik (who is apparently considered to be fully in Ozzy’s camp).  Cirie says if they all vote against Ozzy, and Jason does likewise, they have enough votes to get him out.

Amanda walks up around this time, but the girls cover quickly with a story about voting out Jason.  Amanda walks away.  Parvati tells us that if she goes to the final five with Ozzy then Ozzy will win and she hasn’t been going through all of this to not win.  Um…I think you have actually.

Anyway, Alexis and Natalie pull Jason aside and tell him what’s going on.  They warn him not to say anything so Ozzy won’t use his idol.  I’m thinking that’s almost an invitation for Jason to say something stupid and mess the whole thing up.

Ozzy Gets Suspicious

Ozzy’s spidey sense is in full swing and he senses something might be amiss.  He asks James if they need to worry about Parvati, Alexis, and Natalie.  James reiterates his previous assertion that Parvati is all about the “girl power.”  They both have a bad feeling. 

Ozzy tells us this would be a good moment for the others to try to flush out the idol, but he’s pretty confident in his alliance.  After all, that’s why they are the Favorites - they’ve played this game before and they know that once you decide something you just have to go with it.  (Dude, I think that’s more your strategy.) It’s worked out so far (for him anyway).  He says he might play the idol at the last minute just to be safe.

Tribal Council

The discussion goes almost immediately to the deal they made with Jason.  Probst says it’s one of the craziest things he’s seen go down in this game.  He tells James that they essentially made a deal with the devil – they either stick to that deal and vote one of themselves out or they go back on it.  Either way, the person who is voted out ends up on the jury.  James says that if you’ve gotten on everybody’s nerves, a donut isn’t going to make it better.  He doesn’t think you can “appease everybody over a donut.”  He thinks if you tempt someone with a donut and they okay, “they might have just wanted the damned donut.”  Ah, James is a wise man.

Probst goes around and asks the others various forms of the same question.  He asks Ozzy if he’s comfortable since he has the idol and everyone knows it.  Ozzy says he gets a certain amount of comfort, but even then it’s a risk he would have to take after all the votes have been cast.  At that point he needs to read the group to decide if he should play it.

Probst says based on what he’s hearing, either everybody will go back on their word and Jason’s leaving, or somebody’s going to get a big surprise.  With that, it’s time to vote.  Jason votes for Ozzy, of course.  Then James votes for Jason and gives the best line of the game: “I thought I was the dumbest Survivor ever.”

Jeff goes to his quiet place and does his tallying and tallies the votes.  When he comes back he says that if anyone wants to play the immunity idol now is the time to play it.  All eyes go to Ozzy and for a brief moment it looks like he’s going to whip it out, but then he doesn’t.  Jeff reads the votes: Jason, Jason, Ozzy, Jason, Jason (he’s thinking his time is up), Ozzy (what’s this?  Amanda is already worried), Ozzy (even a dummy can see what’s happening now and everyone is shocked), Ozzy, and Ozzy.  With that, Ozzy is voted out of Survivor!

About half of the people (obviously) are in complete disbelief.  Amanda is beside herself.  Ozzy rubs his hands over his face then stands and says, “thanks, guys.”  After Jeff snuffs his torch he turns and stares them all down for a few moments before walking away.

Final Thoughts

Although it’s easy to blame Ozzy for getting a big head the last few weeks, it’s hard to blame him for not seeing this blindside coming.  Basic strategy dictates that you always assume your opponent will make the move that is the most beneficial to themselves.  Voting Ozzy out at this point was not the most beneficial move for either Cirie or Parvati at this point in the game.  In fact, it is just the opposite.  The two of them have made their game that much harder because they have replaced a known element with an unknown and volatile element that is not in alliance with them.  It really makes little sense.  Ozzy might have suspected the move, but common sense would have suggested that the move was not beneficial and so the girls would not go through with it. 

With Ozzy gone, all alliances are now up for grabs.  The next real move lies in the hands of Cirie and Parvati.  If they make the right move they can sort of control how the end game will turn out.  However, the real power now lies in the hands of Alexis and Natalie if they can somehow manipulate Jason.

Merged - Dabu

Natalie Bolton, James Clement, Cirie Fields, Alexis Jones, Amanda Kimmel, Erik Reichenbach, Parvati Shallow, Jason Siska

The Jury

Ozzy Lusth (Ep10), Eliza Orlins (Ep9)

Favorites - Malakal

Jon “Jonny Fairplay” Dalton (Ep1), Yau-Man Chan (Ep3), Joel Anderson (Ep5), Chet Welch (Ep6), Tracy Hughes-Wolf (Ep7), Ami Cusack (Ep8)

Fans - Airai

Mary Sartain (Ep2), Michael “Mikey B” Bortone (Ep4), Jonathan Penner (Ep6), Kathleen “Krazy Kathy” Sleckman (Ep7)

Television
fans vs favorites, Survivor, Survivor recap, Survivor strategy, Survivor: Micronesia

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