Okay, my tape crapped out, so I missed Survivor, Earl, Office and the first half of ER. (I didn’t notice until 10:30…doh!)
TWOP doesn’t have recaps up…can somebody give me a recap of the notable goings-on?
Did Terry and Danielle know who Aras and Cerie were voting for? Seems to me they could have used that info and made a play with the hidden idol. If Cerie and Aras were voting for Terry, Danielle could have also voted for Terry and Terry could have voted for Cerie. Then when Terry’s vote came up, he could have pulled out the HI and his lone vote for Cerie would have been the only one that counted. OR if they knew Danielle was the one they were going for, they could have used the same strategy and he could have given the idol to Danielle. BUT I suppose they had no way of knowing which way that Cerie/Aras would vote and Terry wouldn’t give up the idol on chance. C/A probably banked on that. Actually, if Aras didn’t hate Terry so much he might have been better off aligning with Terry and Danielle.
I don’t know…Aras seems to genuinely want to be sitting next to Cirie at the final Tribal Council. Yes, he may well be better off taking Terry or Danielle, as far as winning the million goes, but I don’t think that’s the way he’s thinking. He likes Cirie, he made an alliance with Cirie a long time ago, he’s going to take Cirie if he can. It’s not about hating Terry, I don’t think.
I think the “extra” episode designation is because for the last few seasons, they have not had the final four episode be a separate Thursday night one. Typically, they have held it for the Sunday night Finale Fiesta and combined it with the Final three and the Final two, followed by the Reunion show.
Very brief recap:
Reward Challenge: Aras won and took Cerie with him on a cruise of the Panama Canal complete with feasty goodies. Terry and Danielle were sent to Exile Island where they tried to strategize how to ensure their places in the Final Two, mostly based on Terry’s winning the Immunity Challenge. Terry showed Danielle the real thing - the hidden idol, get your mind out of the gutter.
Immunity Challenge: Aras and Cerie came back all nice and refreshed. This was mostly a puzzle challenge. They had to dig up bags with puzzle pieces in it, solve the puzzle, which then gave them clues to where the next bag of puzzle pieces were buried. First one to solve the third puzzle won. Terry and Aras were neck and neck at the very end (Terry had fallen behind, but almost caught up) and Aras won.
It became clear to all of them that it would end up as a tie at the tribal council between Cerie and Danielle (Terry and Danielle both voting for Cerie; Cerie and Aras both voting for Danielle; the hidden idol not being used in the end, but definitely changing the strategy and votes. If they didn’t think Terry had it, Cerie and Aras would have voted Terry’s ass out without a second thought) and they all figured it would be a fire building tie-breaker. They were right and that’s where it ended. No resolution to who is the Final three until Sunday night’s Finale.
Excellent recap, thanks much.
Terry’s seeming stupidity gets me every time. Why do I watch this? Gah. :rolleyes:
I haven’t been much of a fan of this season but I must say that Aras’ comment about Terry–“Someone call the Waaaaambulance” is one of the funniest things I’ve ever heard on the show. Almost makes up for the rest of the season. Almost.
I’ll be happy if anyone but Terry wins the thing. He’s way too smug for his own good.
Absolutely. He seems to constantly forget that this is a political game as much as a survival one. He’s forever antagonizing all of the very people he’s going to have to get to vote for him to actually WIN that million dollars. He seems to think that all he has to do is keep winning challenges and they’ll hand him the money at the end.
Last night’s episode really changed my opinion of Aras - again! Up until a few weeks ago, I thought he was great, then he seemed to be arrogant and whiney, but last night I loved him again - especially after he apologized to Terry. That was a really strong, mature thing to do and gestures like that are all-too-rare in this show.
I was hoping that Cirie and Danielle would speculate more on the handshake - it looked, from a distance, as if Aras and Terry were making a deal.
I’m scrupulously avoiding spoilers because I think the finale will be enjoyable! We’re taping it though, to enable us to ff through the commercials!
The patronizing tone Terry took with Cirie just set my teeth on edge. If he’d spoken to me that way, chances would be very good I would have picked my torch back up and whomped him upside the head with it. The very last shred of like I had for Terry disappeared at that moment. I don’t even care if he has won nearly every individual immunity; he’s an arrogant jerk beyond belief.
And it became even clearer at TC that Terry has no intention of keeping any alliance or sticking with any agreement if he doesn’t feel like it. So much for Captain America and being honorable. I really, really, really hope he loses final immunity and gets sent off to the jury in disgrace.
Again, there would be no reason at all for Terry to give up the immunity idol at this point. As Danielle said, there is no real alliance with her and Terry…at this point, it was just about making it to the next round. While Terry might do better against Danielle in the final two, if Cirie makes it to the final three, he pretty much only has to worry about beating Aras (Cirie not being much of a challenge threat).
Whoever makes it to the final three would pretty much be a fool to bring Terry with them to the final two. Consider the jury…
- Austin and Sally: Former tribemates of Terry, almost a guaranteed vote for him
- Bruce: Had a man-crush on Terry, would likely vote for him out of hero worship
- Courtney and Shane: Feel betrayed by Aras, Cirie and Danielle (esp. Danielle, it seems)…both would likely vote Terry over Danielle; less certain (but likely in my book) they would vote Terry over Cirie or Aras
- Aras, Cirie, Danielle: Much less likely to vote for Terry
So, I see any final vote giving Terry a minimum of four votes…it’s just insane to bring him along. But who should Terry bring? Aras, Cirie, or Danielle? Danielle would be almost a sure thing for his win. Aras…might be close. Cirie is kind of a wild card…on the one hand, she arguably changed the most while out there. On the other hand…we can expect some “why should I vote for someone who came in on other people’s coattails” questions from the jury. Plus, from the editing, she seemed to be largely responsible for orchestrating the oustings of Shane and Courtney.
Speaking of editing, apparently the immunity challenge really wasn’t all that close and Aras actually had a fair lead on Terry when he finished the puzzle…
Well, I agree for the most part. I do think he’s definitely in an honorable alliance based on friendship, kinship and loyalty to Cirie (I knew how to spell her name, it was just a typo…twenty times 
) and he seems like the type of person who would put honor before gold. But I also think that had Terry been a different person, Aras could have aligned himself with him for the sake of a good competition, but his feelings of dislike for Terry eliminated any remote chance of that.
Ellis Dee, you’re welcome for the recap. I know how that feels!
Mama Tiger, what did Terry say to Cirie that was condecending? I vaguely remember something, but can’t put my finger on the moment.
Regarding Terry’s lack of strategy last night, bear in mind that, to date, none of his strategy has worked. Since the merge, every single time he’s gone to tribal council, his vote has gone to somebody who didn’t get voted off. He has failed to get anybody on his side from Casaya, except maybe Danielle, and he just lost her vote last night, I think. The only reason he’s in the game is because he can win immunity challenges, and as Aras pointed out a week or so ago, you can win all the challenges you want, but if everybody hates you at F2, you can’t win. His change in strategy since then? Piss people off even more. Good thinking, flyboy…
Please refresh my memory - what is with Courtney’s rolling eyes routine as related to all things Danielle?
Sorry, but none of the remaining 4 are “perfect” survivors. Aras is plain nasty. Danielle, feh. Cirie, has improved but still kind of lame. That leaves Terry, who I think should win. Not saying I like him or agree with his actions, just that he is one of the strongest physical participants in recent history.
As someone pointed out upthread, Terry’s already got 3 or 4 votes on the jury. The upside of playing a completely non-strategic game is that you never piss anyone off; he could get into the F2 without ever stabbing anyone in the back. On the other hand, whoever else makes it will undoubtedly have someone on the jury who’s holding a grudge against him/her, and will have to make the impassioned plea that their superior game-playing (ie, Machiavellian) skills justify getting the money. Terry just has to overcome his personality defects.
The way the game has played out post-merge has worked out beautifully for Terry.
You go into the merge in a minority; you’ve got 4 friends (hopefully you’ve never double-crossed to this point) who get picked off one by one. Two of those go straight to the jury, and you’ve got 2 votes right there. All you have to do is win enough IC’s to make it to the finals.
In other words…the combination of getting Pagonged + a huge winning streak in IC’s = $1M.
I think that Terry is doing okay given what he was faced with. Face it, he might not have been as nasty to the others had they not singled him out from the second they merged and made no secret of the fact that he has a huge target on his back. How many times did they send him to Exhile Island, yet he always comes back, like a bad penny.
I can’t imagine that the odds he faced, and triumphed over, wouldn’t earn him some votes from the jury. Besides, I can’t imagine that Shane, Sally, Courtney or that other guy (1st tribemate of Terry’s to be vote off, whose name escapes me) would cast a vote for either Cirie or Aras.
Remember that Dani, the winner from last season, faced a similar challenge (her tribe was decimated by the time they reached the merge) and managed to come out ahead. And Stefanie’s tribemates turned on her because she double crossed them. Just like Cirie, Danielle, and Aras did to their tribemates.
By the way, I definitely think this season was the most boring in Survivor history. At least we had obnoxious people to entertain us in Africa. What we’re left with are four bland contestants. They’re all too nice for the game.
I think I saw on ATMB that if you put your spoilers in a quote, they won’t show up in the emails so I’m going to try it. Regarding the spoilers mentioned above:
As they got back to camp, Cirie put her torch down on the ground, and Terry said to her in this patronizing, superior tone that you’d use when your kids threw their coat on the floor or something, “Is THAT where we put our torches?” My jaw literally dropped, it was so incredibly rude and arrogant of him.
The man has zero people skills. Zero.
Terry, was so patronizing to her but on the other hand, Cirie was criminally stupid to just drop her torch. If it was too dark for her to see where she needed to put the torch, ity was too dark for anyone walking around to see it. Anyone of them could have stepped on it and broken thier leg. Which may be why Terry got so snitty about her dropping it in HIS path.The one person who clearly has had everyone out to take him down has someone drop a big stick in his path for him get hurt on and complely take him out of the game. I think if I had to fight everybody every freaking step of the way, I would be cranky too. Of course, Terry could just be an ass.