Survivor Recap: Always Read the Fine Print

This week, as anticipated, we got a double elimination.  Also, Cirie shows us why you should always read the fine print on an advantage.  To explore all this and more, keep reading.

Top moments from this week’s episode:

1. Andrea’s Boot:  For how well Andrea played this season, I was disappointed to see how little air time she received for her boot episode.  Andrea was eliminated because she was a huge physical and social threat.  Although she thought her relationships with her alliance were strong enough to protect her, she misjudged Cirie’s loyalty, and Cirie took the opportunity to help orchestrate the vote against her.  Andrea seemed to take her elimination well though and I’ll miss her perfect answers to every single one of Jeff’s questions at tribal council going forward.
2. Sarah’s name finally starts to come up: Andrea, misjudging the purpose of Sarah’s “shocked” face when Sierra was voted off, was the first one to mention that Sarah seems to be pandering to the jury.  She suggested to Cirie that they consider voting Sarah out since she is playing the hardest out of anyone left.  Cirie seemed to think that keeping Sarah in the game was crucial for her game.  Does Cirie think that Sarah is a bigger target than Cirie and can provide a shield for her as long as she’s in the game? Based on some of the jury’s reaction to Sarah at tribal council this episode, it does seem like there is lingering bitterness.  Was Cirie counting on this bitterness and hoping to go to the end with Sarah and Michaela?  If so, Cirie better come up with a new plan and quick!  I bet Cirie is wishing she voted off Sarah with Andrea when she had the chance because…
3. Always read the fine print!  Cirie, so intent on saving Sarah, attempted to pull off a move without reading the fine print of the advantage that her entire plan hinged on!  Instead of executing her plan, she exposed herself in a major way and put herself in prime position to be the next boot.  Let me attempt to explain.  Before the second elimination of the episode, Tai talks to Aubry about how he is thinking about voting off Sarah, which Aubry relays back to Cirie.  (On a sidenote: can we just mourn how Aubry has been given no chance to play this season! Every time it seems like she’s finding footing, her allies get voted off!)  Cirie, intent on saving Sarah, relays this information back to Sarah.  Sarah does not believe the information even though Cirie is insistent and wants to stick with her plan to vote out Aubry.  Sarah then gives Cirie her vote stealer advantage to show her loyalty to Cirie, which didn’t make much sense to me since Cirie was never questioning Sarah’s loyalty to begin with.  Cirie then develops a plan to use Sarah’s own vote steal advantage to steal Sarah’s vote, use it to vote Tai out, and in effect save Sarah.  But, Cirie was smart enough to assume Tai had an idol, so she set out to make Tai feel very safe in the hopes that he wouldn’t play it.  To do so, she tells Tai that everyone was targeting him instead of Aubry, and that she is going to use an advantage to save him.  It seems like Cirie has laid all the necessary groundwork and at tribal council, she sets out to execute her plan.  What she didn’t do, however, was carefully read all of the rules of the vote stealer advantage.  As Sarah points out rather calmly, the advantage was “non-transferrable” and could not be stolen from Sarah.  Jeff confirms that only Sarah can play the advantage.  Cue chaos at tribal council.  Apparently, getting up and walking around to talk to people at tribal council is now allowed. (Rein it in Jeff!)  Cirie tells Sarah that she was only trying to play Sarah’s advantage to save her.  Sarah seems skeptical but she does the right thing in playing her advantage at this point to steal Tai’s vote to vote out Michaela.  Cirie is very clearly on the bottom coming out of this episode and seems to be in real trouble now that she appears to be left with no allies, idols, or advantages.  If we weren’t down to the wire this season, I’d have faith that Cirie could turn things around for herself using her charm and social game, but I think the options have run out for her and we’ll be seeing her on the jury very soon.  All because she didn’t pay close attention to the fine print!
4. Michaela’s Boot:  Did they vote out Michaela purely because she is too annoying to bear now? She seems like a near perfect goat to take to the end.  Or, did Sarah target Michaela because she knew Michaela was Cirie’s right hand lady and she is doing everything to further isolate Cirie so she can pick her off easily in the next few votes?  Either way, I wasn’t sad to see Michaela go and I bet those jury members back at Ponderosa are eagerly awaiting her arrival…
5. So many idols have never looked so boring:  Please allow me to rant for a moment.  Right now, Tai has two idols and Troyzan has one idol.  Did any of you even remember Troyzan has an idol? I barely did.  He could have played that idol at a few points throughout the game and completely switched the course for his alliance and his game, in that he actually could have played, but instead he is choosing to sit on it even though he seems to be perfectly safe.  And what is it going to take for Tai to play an idol?! The fact that he didn’t pull one out to shield himself from the insanity of last night’s tribal council blows my mind.  Is he just planning to protect himself for the next two votes and coast into the final four?  Maybe, but that is so boring!  I was hoping these “game changers” would use all of these idols in a fun, novel, and interesting way.  Rather, at this point there are four idols in play, and only six people left in the game.  The previews lead us to believe Tai does something crazy with his two idols, like potentially giving them to other players to hold on to.  As much as I hate to see Tai cry, if that means these idols will lead to something interesting, I’m all for it.

Next week we have our two-hour season finale and will see who earned the title of sole Survivor.  We’re down to the last six players, and presuming there will be a final three, we will say goodbye to three more players.  Does Cirie have a chance to pull off the win she so deserves after her fourth time playing?  Will the final three be facing a bitter jury?  Well see and I’ll recap it all next week.

Photo Credit: CBS