Survivor – Recap & Review – Tonight, We Make Our Move

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Survivor: Heroes Vs. Villains
Tonight, We Make Our Move

Original Air Date: Mar 4, 2010

Ryan O’Neil – TwoCents Reviewer
ryan@thetwocents.com

Wow, for an early episode, a lot went on. Emotional breakdowns. Breaking alliances. Hidden immunity idols. The first blindside of the season.

Pre-Credits – We watch the Villains return from Tribal Council and find out that Coach is sensitive and, surprise, among the many other things he does better than anyone else, he’s the best at being sensitive. He was hurt by Sandra’s comments – the ones where she simply said he tells people what to do and then wanders away.

He whines to Tyson about the noble things he’s done and how there’s never been someone like him out there. He says he’s the only one that won’t compromise – unless you mean voting for Randy instead of voting for Parvati, like he just did after quoting Martin Luther King in a speech about not voting for Randy. That’s something else entirely. It’s still something honorable and noble though. I’m just not sure what it is. Then, he breaks down in tears about “that one sentence that Sandra said.” Breaks down in tears. And he wants to know why no one ever says anything good about him. Well, because it’s Survivor and no one ever says anything good about anyone ever?

And damn Coach, because he actually makes me feel positive things for Tyson. Tyson! after he lends Coach a shoulder to cry on. Tyson then offers to coach Coach through it and tells him that he might say things Coach doesn’t want to hear. At that point, I wasn’t sure if Tyson was being serious or playing it for fun in front of the cameras. Coach says, “Like what?” “Don’t wear feathers in your hair at Tribal,” Tyson says earnestly, and continues by advising Coach not to tell his unbelievable stories since no one believes them anyway and people just mock him. Coach threatens to go home that night. Tyson solo-views, with actual human compassion, which, good for Tyson, that Coach was done and talked about going home but that the tribe needs Coach. Again, I’m feeling sympathy for Tyson TYSON! and it’s weird.

Pre-Reward Challenge – The morning of Day 9 on Villains Beach. News of Coach’s attitude-shift has spread. He gets up and goes for a walk. Rob finds him. Coach tells Rob that he feels as if he’s on the outside (ah, could this be the real reason for the crying? Nobody likes him?) Rob spends time talking with Coach, telling him that he has to trust him. Rob gives some more encouragement and walks off. Coach solo-views that “he’s one of a kind, the last of the Mohicans, King Arthur, a legend. Nobody out here has got what I have.” Like the urge to cry when receiving one sentence of mild criticism?

Reward Challenge – This reward challenge brought to you by a corporate sponsor. A tribe member has to race/slide across a slippery course (made slippery with something like baby oil, so it seems like an excuse to get everyone in their bathing suits and oil them up), retrieving a ball, and then toss it into a basket. The first tribe to four wins. They’re playing for rewards courtesy of The Corporate Sponsor. After six rounds, it’s tied at three and comes down to Tyson vs. Colby. They both take a bunch of shots but Tyson finally sinks it and the Villains win.

Post-Reward Challenge – Coach solo-views that the Dragon Slayer is feeling top-notch and is ready to roll. Yes, totally. Anyway. The Villains won a tarp and bunch of tools from The Corporate sponsor. Oh, right, yeah, sorry, Russell, does that make burying the machete meaningless? Awww. Oh, also, did you drop a clue to an immunity idol on the ground in front of the tribe before you realized what it was? Double Awwww. Rob reads the clue to the tribe. They decide they’ll get the idol together and then toss it in the ocean. But, first, they work on building the shelter since it seems as if it’s going to rain soon. Russell declares he’s going for a walk while everyone else is working on the shelter. Oh, boy, Russell, that was subtle. Smooth like a cat’s tongue, that one.

Rob sends Sandra to see what he’s doing. She sees him looking for the idol and declares him an ass. She reports back that he’s looking for it. Rob says that’s it, he’s done. They all agreed that they’d vote out whoever went looking for the idol on their own (which, if they HAVE the idol, seems like a bad idea).

Rob solo-views that he doesn’t trust Russell and the easiest thing to do is to vote him out.

We don’t see Russell find the idol. Triple Awwwww. Is it hard to find idols when the production staff actually takes a few minutes to hide them in not-so-obvious places, even when you have a clue?

Heroes Beach morning of Day 10. They wake up and get the coffee they won two days ago and, surprise, find a clue in it, that, oddly, they hadn’t seen before. It is, of course, a clue to a hidden immunity idol. The tribemates immediately go their own separate ways, looking for it. Tom reminds us that he and Colby are on the outs with the rest of the tribe, so finding that idol would help.

James digs at the base of a tree for it. Oh, James why even bother looking for the idol? Are you building a collection of unused idols? It’s not big enough already?

Tom finds the spot he thinks is it and starts digging. Amanda and James come over pretty quickly and start digging, too. While staying in the same place, Tom digs in a different spot, finds the idol without Amanda or James noticing, and hides it in his sock. More people come over. Tom gets up and walks away. Amanda solo-views that Tom was acting funny and she saw him walk behind a tree and hide something in his sock. So, she knows he has it. She immediately tells Courtney and JT. Tom knows he’s been caught. He talks with Colby about using it as a tool to work their way into that alliance.

Immunity Challenge – They’re re-running the challenge from when Good Russell fainted last season, which Jeff acknowledges, sort of, by mentioning that the challenge wasn’t finished last time around because of a medical emergency. They strap one person into a giant ball. Blindfolded people follow the strapped-in person’s instructions to guide the ball through a course. Then, the strapped-in person has to guide blindfolded people as they move a ball through a tilting-maze-thing.

I have no idea why they run challenges where both teams have to sit someone out. There must be a reason but it’s beyond me. Anyway, Cirie sits out for the Heroes and Courtney and Sandra sit out for the Villains.

Now, this is interesting. You might expect someone light but smart to be inside the ball. Nope. Tom for the Heroes and Rob for the Villains, both among the strongest on their respective tribes. But, also both are good leaders. So, both teams arrived at the same strategy in that regard.

Rob gets to the table tilting maze first and starts telling the four blindfolded people how to get the ball through the maze by tilting the corners. Tom arrives pretty soon after that. They both do a good job and each has the ball roll right by the goal hole before Rob has his team put the ball in the hole and Villains win immunity. Jeff strokes Rob’s ego because he loves manly men. Cirie solo-views that she’s glad to be voting out Tom or Colby since she needs to get rid of stronger guys gone for her strategy to work.

Post-Immunity Challenge – Tom solo-views about how he and Colby are in a weak position but he’s going to bide his team and look for cracks.

Cirie and Candice strategize. Candice thinks splitting the votes 3-3 between Tom and Colby works perfectly. Tom plays the idol? Colby goes home. Tom doesn’t play the idol? It’s a tie-break vote between the two of them and then the tribe just votes for one of them. They agree it’s a good plan.

Amanda and JT talk on the beach. JT says he’d like to vote Candice because he trusts Tom more than Candice. Amanda is worried about Tom since he’s smart and has the idol. JT solo-views that he’d love to have Tom and his idol in an alliance with him. (Well, JT, remember that time you had an alliance with Tom but then broke it?)

Tom approaches JT and Amanda and makes his case that he and Colby are better alliance-mates than Cirie and Candice. He acknowledges the hidden immunity idol is a problem, says he wishes there wasn’t one and offers to give it to JT or Amanda. He says he’d much rather save it and use it against the Villains. Wow, he’s good. Amanda solo-views that Tom seems mostly trustworthy.

Then, James wanders over to the trio. Someone throws out the idea of voting for Candice and he’s all for it. Amanda says she likes her but she’s too scatterbrained.

Amanda approaches Cirie and tells her the plans about Candice. Cirie is stunned by Amanda’s change of plans, pointing out that Amanda can’t beat Tom or Colby. James and Rupert wander over. Cirie keeps talking about how voting for Candice is a bad idea as JT watches them from the bushes. He reports back to Tom that Cirie is masterminding the whole deal and advises Tom to have his idol ready. Tom solo-views that he’s nervous about Cirie playing puppetmaster.

JT, talking with Colby and Tom, floats the idea of voting out Cirie. They talk about JT flipping his vote and playing the idol to get rid of Cirie. JT solo-views that he’s seen Cirie operate and that it won’t be long before she tries to get rid of someone like him. JT solo-views that he knows how everyone is voting – except for him.

Tribal Council – JT talks about how it’s way too early to vote out someone you can use to beat the other tribe in challenges. He has a point. While it’s an individual game, it’s still at the point where everyone’s individual goals line up: not going to tribal council.

Rupert is basing his vote on how to bond together during the challenges, even though that hasn’t been a problem for the last three challenges. Because Rupert is dumb. He’s also voting with his alliance even though he thinks it’s the wrong vote. Because Rupert is dumb.

James says he’s going to base his vote on helping his tribe win and not the social game, which he calls a distraction.

JT says he’s not worried about going home. And with that, we’re voting.

Voting – Tom plays the hidden immunity idol. Smug smiles from Rupert and Candice. Votes are read and Cirie is going home. Head-shaking from Rupert and Candice.

James’s vote to help the tribe win challenges? Was for Colby. Because James is dumb.

Should’ve been voted out – actually, this was the right move. Granted, it was taken by a minority of the tribe, but JT made the right move. It removes a player who is weaker and also a long-term strategic threat. So, keeping Cirie would’ve meant going to tribal council more often than keeping Tom or Colby (probably, those guys aren’t just strong, they’re both fairly smart, too, and do well in intellectual challenges) with someone who was likely to want to vote you out sooner than later.

That said, I’ll miss Cirie. I love watching her play.

Bubbling under – Tom vs. James. Tom politely questioned James when James claimed he would be voting to keep the tribe strong. James, politely, said, yeah, that’s what he was doing. Rob vs. Russell is also still simmering.

So, what do you think of this week’s episode?

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