Detailed spoiler, please? I missed it.
I’d like to see a spoiler too. I came in 20 minutes late, when Yau was already on Exile Island.
I was very disappointed that Earl did not rub noses with the HI turtle and dance a little jig.
I still think when Yau did it, was the cutest thing EVER.
Still waiting …
For those who missed it:
Reward challenge was for a car. (A huge Ford truck.) They were split into two groups of 3, tied together and had to navigate an obstacle course. Yau seemed to be purposely falling off the balance beam to make his team (Boo and Stacy) start over. Even still, Earl, Dreamz and Cassandra were unable to win the initial heat.
At that point it became an individual challenge (throwing tomahawks to cut two ropes) between Yau, Stacy and Boo. (It seemed to me that Yau decided a way out of the car curse before the second phase began.) Yau won the car, but as Jeff was presenting him the reward he asked if he could make a deal. Then in front of god and everybody he openly and directly asked Dreamz (who had been begging to be hooked up with a car before the challenge) to make a deal: if both Dreamz and Yau made it to the final four, and Dreamz won the immunity challenge, he had to give it to Yau. In exchange, Dreamz would get the car. Dreamz agreed without hesitation.
Also, since he won the challenge, Yau got to pick who went to exile island. In an unprecedented move, he sent himself. This allowed him to get the third clue to the HII, which he later shared with Earl. Yau hung around camp while Earl went and found the second HII, giving them each one.
The immunity challenge was a combination basketball/balance beam, which Boo won. This threw off the planned strategy of voting out Boo. (Two consecutive weeks that’s happened, now.) Dreamz, realizing that his car deal meant that Yau was planning to vote him out at the final four, made a play to oust Yau immediately, thus getting him out of the deal honorably. (Jeff specifically pointed the possibility out to Yau when the car deal was first offered, and Yau said flat-out that he’d take his chances.) Dreamz convinced Boo, Stacy and Cassandra to vote out Yau.
Stacy, knowing that she would have been next to go, casually went to Earl and said she knew it was her time; since Boo won the idol, the numbers just didn’t work. Earl fell for the deception hook, line and sinker.
Yau, however, was getting bad vibes from the rest of the tribe. At tribal council, both Dreamz and Stacy tipped their hand at what was coming. The worst was Stacy, who said that she thought the tribe would be surprised by a split vote. Yau went with his gut and played his HII, thus saving himself and sending Stacy home. Final vote: Yau & Earl voted for Stacy, while Boo, Cassandra, Dreamz and Stacy voted for Yau.
Possibly the single best Survivor episode I’ve ever seen.
thanks!
Will all future contestants who win the car at a challenge, in order to avoid the Car Curse, also give it away via the Yau-Manuever?
Random thoughts - what a season this is turning out to be!
I think Dreamz is going to renege on his deal with Yau-Man. The editors are setting us up for that moment by playing so many clips of Dreamz talking about his integrity and his ethics and “my word is solid as oak” and so on. When it comes down to it, he will not give up his chance at a million dollars to honor his deal with Yau-Man - although by doing this, he will doom himself, because no one on the jury is going to vote for him at that point (and deservedly so - if you make a deal and go back on it, the game consequence is going to be that people won’t vote for you to punish you; you knew that when you made the deal).
My other prediction is that we will again have an F3, like last season. There’s simply not enough time in the finale to do three immunity challenges, and the Parade of the Fallen, and the tribal council with questions and answers, in the space of one episode, even a two hour episode.
I think Earl has this in the bag. Someone other than Boo wins immunity at F5, and Boo is booted. At F4, Dreamz wins immunity, declines to vote out Yau-Man, and Earl reluctantly ejects his friend rather than risk a tie. That leaves Dreamz, Cassandra, and Earl as the Final 3, with the following jury members:
Yau-Man
Boo
Stacy
Alex
Mookie
Michelle
Edgardo
Lisi
Rocky
Of the nine, Yau-Man is a guaranteed vote for Earl. Alex, Mookie, and Edgardo will feel that Dreamz cheated them and seem like the kind of guys who will automatically vote for Earl just because he’s male and Cassandra is not. This leaves only one vote that Earl needs to win to sew the whole thing up, and really, Earl has never lied to anyone or misled anyone, held the immunity idol, and is perceived as the undisputed leader of his alliance whether or not that’s true. Earl wins.
Which would be a satisfying ending, IMO.
Stacy and friends didn’t play that well at all. It was painfully obvious that something was going on, and fortunately Yau Man figured it out. I was worried that because it was so obvious, they were trying to trick Yau into playing his HII and pulling a switcheroo and hitting Earl instead. Now their (Cassandra, Dreams, Boo) only hope is that neither Earl nor Yau win immunity next time, then hope they pick the right one to vote off.
Great season!
I don’t think Yau Man purposefully fell. I don’t recall his being exceptionally good at balancing, though he’s quite good at other tasks. And I don’t think he would do that, considering that it would affect innocent others at that stage. Plus, he knew that he could throw the competition after the first round if, for whatever reason, that was what he wanted to do. I think he wanted to win. I think he had the deal he made with Dreamz in mind from the start.
I think Dreamz is just blowing smoke about his integrity. He often overlooks the most important tactical considerations of anything he does. He looks forward to challenges, touting his athleticism and strength, but overlooking the most important thing he needs: hard effort. And now he has overlooked the stress and pressure of being that close to the million. I’ll be surprised if he honors his deal with Yau Man. If he does, it’ll be the first thing about him that will have impressed me.
I do believe that Earl will feel blindsided by the votes. I think he’ll hook up with Yau Man, and they will work out a strategy. For my money, the best thing they could do is recruit Boo and drop Cassandra and Dreamz. It would be a major switch, I know. But this season has been chock full of exactly such strategic maneouvres. If Earl is pissed enough (and smart enough), he’ll do it.
I hope Dreamz doesn’t win because I believe he will squander the money. He’s so mindful of his life struggles (even if they’re made up) that he’ll waste a lot of cash impressing people, just to show them that he is “movin’ up”. I think he’s already planned how to spend his million, and I’m confident that he hasn’t even thought about the fact that the IRS, not to mention the State of North Carolina, is going to take a mega-chunk of it.
I hope Cassandra doesn’t win because she simply doesn’t deserve it.
That leaves Earl, Boo, and Yau Man. I wouldn’t mind seeing any one of them win the million. Earl because he’s played the game well considering his leadership role. It’s very hard to pull off being leader for that length of time. Boo would be cool because he will have overcome the terrible burden of being odd-man-out. And Yau Man, just so there’d be more evidence that God exists.
Oh, and I’m an idiot because I didn’t realize we were so close to the finale. **Finale is this Sunday for those who don’t have DVRs!!. **
When I saw the Ford truck, I immediately thought that I would give it away to Dreamz. He truly needs a vehicle (though who could afford to gas that thing up?) and very few people need a truck with that hauling capacity. Certainly not me and certainly not Yao. So why not build some good will?
Anyway, I think Yao was right to give it away, both ethically and strategically, though I don’t think he should have put conditions on it. Had he let Dreamz believe there were no strings attached, I think Dreamz’s innate sense of decency would have kicked in. Gratitude is a very compelling emotion.
If Earl and Yao and Dreamz make it to the Final 3, I have no idea who I’d root for. Yao has played a great strategic game, he performs amazingly well on challenges, and he is a great diplomat. When Mookie and Alex tried to bully him into revealing he had the HI, he was very decent to them and simply said, “Do what you have to do.” He put them off while still not alienating them that they wouldn’t want to vote for him to win the million. And, of course, he has that wonderful geeky charm about him. However, I have no doubt that he has everything he needs in life already and he doesn’t need a million bucks.
Earl is a quiet powerhouse and an incredible leader. He shepherds people in when they need to be reigned in but lets them speak. If someone presents him with a good plan, he doesn’t dismiss it simply because he didn’t think of it. He knows when to speak and when to shut up. Plus he seems like a really decent chap without being a total pushover.
Dreamz - He has such a child like quality about him that I can’t help but like him. He really does have a hard time lying and like I said above, he has an innate sense of decency which is awe-inspiring considering what his life could have been. I wonder who raised him because they did a good job. I really liked how he interacted with the school children (“Have you ever been to the United States? No? Well, this is the first time I’ve ever visited your country.”) and understood and appreciated their common circumstances. I’m not sure how he’s doing now financially but I can’t imagine he’s well off. But, then again, I’m not sure a million bucks would be good for a young man with his naivete.
And then there are the dark horses, Cassandra and Boo. I think Cassandra has played a great game and I understand that she voted for Yao because it was the right thing to do strategically if she really wanted to win. So I respect that. But she might have alienated her two strongest allies. She’d better hope she wins immunity next round because a think she’s burned a bridge with Earl and is no longer guaranteed a spot in the Final 3. And both Mookie, Edgardo and Alex don’t seem to like her.
**
Boo** is universally loathed for some reason, and there’s probably a good reason for it that we haven’t seen, so I think Earl and Yao might decide to ditch both Cassandra and Dreamz and bring him to the final 4 now that Cassandra and Dreamz drew first blood. Besides he might keep winning immunity and not give them a choice. But I doubt he has a chance of winning over anyone save perhaps Cassandra.
Jeez…You think Dreamz would beat Boo?
I dont see Alex,Edgardo,Rocky,Mookie,Lisi,Stacey or Yau voting for Dreamz under any cicumstance.
Did anyone else notice that Boo was driving the truck to the school? So not only does Dreamz not have a drivers license, he apparently doesn’t know how to drive either. And a monster F-350 just isn’t a good vehicle for a new driver. I’m betting on a “Survivor crashes truck won on Island” story in the news in the next few months.
I noticed that Boo was driving the truck. Dreamz doesn’t have a license, and might not even know how to drive.
ETA:
Simul!
I don’t know. I don’t see any real rancor between the group and Dreamz. Yes, he double crossed them but that’s a part of the game. It seems there is a real dislike for Boo personally. I could be wrong.
I think the chances of Dreamz winning individual immunity in the round of 4 are pretty slim – I don’t think he can beat Boo, Earl and/or Yau-Man at anything.
And speaking of bad players…Cassandra may be the single worst challenge contestant EVER. Typically for her, she was a boat anchor in the reward challenge, and feebly inept in the immunity challenge.
Yeah, but I do love it when she runs.
I take it all back, I don’t want Boo to win the next IC, I want Dreamz to win it.
So it will go like this, Earl hands the HII to Yau-Man, Boo is voted off by default after Yau uses the idol, it can only be used during this next TC anyway and Earl has no use for it. Next IC, Earl wins (face it, he’s been holding back all this time, in hopes of looking unthreatening and it is the perfect time for him to do his thing.)
During TC, Cassandra and Dreamz votes for Yau-man, Earl and Yau-man vote for Dreamz, resulting in a kick Dreamz’s ass contest, where either Yau-man kicks Dreamz’s ass building his fire quickly or Dreamz kicks his own ass trying to build a fire. There is no amount of money I wouldn’t pay to see this little man make (even more of) a fool out of Dreamz.
I just thought of an interesting twist… what if they rehid the HII AGAIN? So they have the reward challenge and then Probst announces that the HII is hidden once again and the person who goes to exile island will have one last shot at finding it before F5. Could provide an interesting scramble and strategy.
I really really really have enjoyed this season. It started out kind of slow for me, but it has just been a lot of fun to watch. Yau may enter the pantheon as one of the greatest players of Survivor of all time. He IS playing the game and he admits it.
In fact, I love that most of them are playing the game. Boo with his secret path. “Secret is fun.” And Earl with his positioning. Dreamz with his energy and vim and vigor.
This season has reignited my love for this show in all forms.
I foresee a few changes for next season though. I expect we’ll see changes to Exile island and the HII given the play Yau made, to send himself to look for the clue. A move I was predicting someone would use a few weeks back.
– IG
Probst said it would be rehidden right after Yau-Man played it.