‘Survivor: Kaoh Rong – Brains vs. Brawn vs. Beauty’ recap: Week 11

The lines have been drawn…

After last week’s INSANE tribal council, the castaways returned to camp in various emotional states. Aubry, Joe, Cydney and Tai were ecstatic that Scot’s blindside had gone exactly as planned. Jason was furious that he had lost not only his closest ally, but the idol he had given Scot, too. Then there was Julia and Michele, who were completely stunned that they had been left out of the loop. Having been told to vote for Tai, they realized they were now at the bottom of the totem pole. Gotta love the drama, right?

To his credit, Jason took the news MUCH better than he had when Nick was blindsided. He was probably seething inside, but he congratulated Cydney on the bold move. He also told her that there was no way her alliance would be able to get rid of Tai now, especially with his idol and the advantage. However, if Cydney ever felt like doing something crazy to shake up the game, Jason would be up for it since he has nothing to lose.

 

 

Is it too late now to say sorry?

Tai felt really bad about betraying Jason even though it was just a game move and nothing personal. Yet Tai wanted to clear the air with Jason all the same, if only to ease his conscience. So he apologized for his actions and told Jason he had been threatened by Jason and Scot’s closeness and feared that they would turn on him, so he had to strike first. Jason told Tai that he understood why he did what he did, but didn’t admit that Tai had guessed right about Scot and Jason’s long-term plans for him. The conversation ended on a light note when Tai confessed that he thought Jason was going to wring Mark’s (the chicken’s) neck in retaliation after last tribal council.

 

 

A once-in-a-lifetime reward challenge…

Up for grabs this week was a helicopter tour of the island with a picnic of fried chicken, corn on the cob, apple pie and wine waiting on the beach for the winners. By random draw, pairs of castaways were tied to each other and had to race through a series of obstacles, collecting rings along the way that they would then toss onto a hook. Jason got the short end of the stick and was not able to participate in the challenge, so he watched as Joe/Tai, Julia/Aubry, and Cydney/Michele navigated the course.

 

 

Cydney and Michele won (woohoo, girl power!) and when Jeff Probst allowed them to choose another person to go along, the two instantly agreed that it should be Aubry, who hadn’t yet won a food reward. Michele used the opportunity to get back in the groove, since she and Julia were at the bottom of the alliance. She succeeded because both Cydney and Aubry said that they trusted her. Cydney and Aubry then began talking about voting scenarios and discussed possibly getting rid of Tai. (Oh, what a difference a few days makes!)

 

 

Back at camp, Julia and Jason wracked their brains looking for any possible crack in the majority alliance that they could exploit. They figured that they could approach Cydney, since she’s proven that she can turn the game on its head. When she returned from the reward, Jason and Julia gave Cydney their pitch to vote out Tai. Cydney agreed that it was a smart move, but she would have to think about it. At the end of the day she said, “It’s a me game, not a we game,” and she would do what was best for her individual game.

A quick, but impressive immunity challenge…

In order to win individual immunity, the contestants needed to race out to a platform in the sea, memorize symbols and numbers matched up on a board, get back to shore, use the information to unlock a box containing puzzle pieces and assemble a word puzzle. Usually, this entails a lot of back and forth because let’s face it – when you’re underfed and exhausted like these players are, retaining all that info while navigating obstacles is next to impossible. But somehow, both Michele and Julia unlocked their boxes after only studying the board once! Michele ended up winning her first immunity necklace shortly afterwards.

 

 

Overwhelmed by the choices…

The no-brainer vote for the majority alliance would have been either Jason or Julia in order to preserve their numbers. They eventually decided that Julia was a bigger threat than Jason because she’s smart, likeable and hasn’t angered anyone on the jury. Jason, on the other hand, is a polarizing figure who could be kept around for a little while longer.

Despite going along with the group, Michele was conflicted because Julia is her friend and an ally who has been with her since the beginning. So when Michele asked her teammates what she should tell Julia when Julia came to ask her about the plan, Cydney advised her to say that the two of them were “going to do the Tai thing.” (Not exactly a smart thing to say when Tai’s right there and can hear everything.)

Michele went back to Jason and Julia and told them she would vote with them to get rid of Tai. Jason and Julia were hopeful that Cydney would also do the same; this way Michele wouldn’t have to betray Julia. (And fans were likely giddy with excitement that it would be another tense tribal council and blindside!)

 

An uncomfortable tribal council…

At first, it seemed like the majority alliance was going to stick together versus Julia and Jason. However, with all their talk about making big moves, it seemed like Cydney and Michele would actually follow through on “the Tai thing.” Jason especially took advantage of the moment to point out that Tai had turned on his alliances twice – the first time when he sided with Jason and Scot, the next when he went against Jason and Scot – and therefore couldn’t be trusted. Listening to all of this, Tai admitted that he didn’t feel comfortable this week despite having felt on top of the world last week.

 

 

After the votes were cast, everyone looked to Tai to see if he would play his hidden immunity idol. He had actually leaned over to ask Aubry if she thought he was in any danger. She told him she didn’t think so, but to follow his gut. (Cue all of America probably screaming at the TV that he should have used the idol. Instead he opted not to.) My stomach dropped when his name was read a couple of times, but Julia went home instead as a teary-eyed Michele looked on.

Now, it looks like Jason is officially in no-man’s land but considering how unpredictable Survivor is, there could be a chance that he’ll go further than we think!

What do you think?