Survivor Caramoan - Episode 8 Discussion Thread - NO SPOILERS PLEASE

[dr.strangelove]

Hey everyone. I am sorry that I missed my recap of episode 7 last week. My uncle passed away and I had the wake and funeral over the weekend. I did not get to watch it until Tuesday night, and by then the recap seemed silly. As you know, Julie got voted out last week as Team Crazy had Philip and Corinne fight some more, which leads us into this week's episode. But let me say good-bye to Julia from last week, I feel like you had about 3 minutes of screen time all season.

So this opens after tribal and the utterly insane Phillip tries to tell people he threw the challenge to vote off another fan. Whatever, like anyone believes you. Cochrane and Dawn were better at hiding their disgust of Philip than Jerry (whoops I mean Corinne, is anyone else noticing the edits that seem a lot similar to the Jerry edits from Outback). they are really trying to cast Corinne as a villian here.

Anyway, welcome to the merge everyone. The new tribe members arrive, they have a trunk with a feast, wine, the usual. Plus, we get the annual naming of the new tribe. First prize goes to Malcolm for convincing people Enil Edam mean new tribe or some nonsense but is really Madeline, his mom’s name, spelled backwards. I bet someone figures that out. This is better than Rob naming his merged tribe Murlonio, which he told the cameras was just the name of his wife Amber's favorite stuffed animal.

Corinne and Malcolm seem to form a good plan. Malcolm tells her of his boys foursome. Corinne hates women, so she is happy to take "her Gay" Michael and form a group of 6. Since it is 12, they just need to survive this week, then they will have the numbers to control the game. Corinne wants to target Sherri first since everyone seems to dislike her and she would be an easy target. I am seeing Corinne and Malcolm and loving their move. It essentially locks up the final 6 for them, and probably more as no one in their right mind would let Eddie and Reynold stay in so they could get Erik and Michael and force a final 4 with them. for a moment I am in awe of their brilliant play. I am playing it out and think this gets the two on them down to the final 3, since they would both probably want to take Michael with them and let the best player win. Wow, this is a great move.

After this, we get the IC and it is a return to one of my favorites, the gross food challenge. I love Eddie concerned that he might not get to make out with a hottie who will remember he ate a bug. Way to pay attention to what matters. Cochran plays the self deprecation card again saying eating gross food could make him look like a bad ass and help with the ladies.

First they eat beetle larva that are big ugly grub crawling everywhere. The next round is ship worms which Jeff says are like clams, but look disgusting with flies on them. Malcolm Eddie and Cochran advance. Get out, Cochran wins two rounds. this is awesome. Eddie, Malcolm and Cochran will be eating Duck Embryo and the first two move on to the final round. Cochran seemed to swallow it whole. Eddie gags when it looked like he was about to win, so Malcolm go to the finals. so it is challenge god Malcolm v. the little twerp Cochran eating pig brain. It is close, but Cochran wins. He get the immunity necklace. He struts and I was happy for the guy. He is playing a great game and this was a deserved win. I am sure he vomited right after this.

Well, back to camp. Corinne and Malcolm should be all set. Just divert attention away from the wonder twins and onto Shelly, and they can lock up the game. Phillip smartly wants to split the vote and flush the idol since they have the numbers to do it. This is the moment. Corinne can win or lose the game right now, and she seems for a moment to have won it. While she can not get Philip on board with Sheri, she seems to get Dawn and Cochran on board. Then she makes the mistake. She spills the beans on her alliance when it would make no sense to do it. She seemed to have Dawn, but she tells her she wants to vote Sherri out this week and then go after Phillip. What a colossal error. Dawn goes over to Cochran, who immediately figures out that she has a group forming to take out the favorites. Cochran informs Andrea and gets her to try to bring Erik on board. So tribal starts with Erik being the swing vote.

Tribal goes as expected, with no one spilling much. But the votes comes in 5 straight for Sherri. Then the Corinne votes pour in. she was completely shocked. She made a huge mistake. I am thinking the Dawn, Cochran, Andrea and Philip have a lot of power, but no one has seen much of Brenda lately, and that girl is smart. I am waiting on her to see what she does. If she thinks she is at the bottom of team Phillip, Cochran, Dawn and Andrea, she will leave them in a second. If Malcolm knows he is alone with Eddie, Michael and Reynold, he can get her as a 4th and try to repair his relationship with Erik and get Sherri back. This is not over by a longshot. I am watching Brenda closely next week.

[Phentex]

1. Ok,you mean no spoilers in the titles, right?

I have been trying to figure this out and just had a duh moment because when I open the threads the dirt is all there!

I felt the foreshadowing was too strong in this episode and was not at all surprised. I still cannot believe that after all of these seasons, all these episodes, the players don't learn to keep the strong idea current and stop telling too much of the advance plans to people that probably aren't involved in that plan. All Corrine had to do was insist on removing a fan and that's that. I wonder how much editing there was because they only showed a bit of Cochrane and the others wondering why Corrine was so determined to keep Eddie and Reynolds.

Well, this keeps things interesting at least.

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Sorry to hear about your uncle.

[dr.strangelove]

2. No, no spoilers at all, nothing that has already aired is a spoiler

We have episode discussion threads where obviously an episode mentioned in the title will be discussed. Once something airs on TV, it is not a spoiler. If you have not had time to watch it, just don;t read a thread about a particular episode.

No spoilers means not to spoil what will happen in episodes that have not yet been aired. Survivor somewhat pioneered the spoiling of TV shows. In some seasons fans have traveled to locations where unaired seasons filmed and found out what happened from support staff or local contractors. In other seasons, contestans on teh show were contacted who "spilled the beans" a bit. In almost every one of the past 10 seasons there has been a "boot list" or some variation thereof listing the order of people kicked off and who the eventual final 2 or final 3 were. I understand that there have been several different such lists for this season. People who read these threads do not want to know anything about what CBS and Mark Brunet have not yet aired.

If you know who will be the final 3 or if you know who goes home next, please keep it out of these threads. This is just a place to talk about episodes and unspoiled discussion and predictions. Frankly I would rather if someone who knew what was going to happen stayed away entirely so as to avoid the potential for spoiling, but as long as one who knows is careful, it is fine with me if they post here. Just keep the stuff that has not aired yet out of it.

I agree about the foreshadowing being too strong in this episode. My wife called Corinne being evicted from the moment she said at about about minute 10 that there would be blind sides. I also am surprised she blabbed to Dawn. It was her undoing. Editing is great because it makes the story more fun to watch. It is the story MB is telling us, no doubt. But still it is what makes me come back each year. This certainly keeps things interesting at least.

[catchnrelease]

3. Wow Cochran!

I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm actually rooting for him at this point. When he was on the first time I really disliked his whiny wimpy 'character'. But this time he seems to be much sharper as far as strategy and subtle manipulation. As always I realize that this could be due to editing, but I have definitely changed my opinion of him this time. As the challenge started I said to my husband 'Wouldn't it be a riot if Cochran won this?' I have always said that if I were there and that challenge came up it would be a total loss. I could not eat those things even for the money. Mr CnR however, could eat it all without a second thought. (He learned to eat those crawly things in some kind of jungle training in the Army) He was trying to tell me how to get each item down the easiest way...blech!

I agree about Corinne's mistake. She was going in the right direction with telling Dawn that they should vote Sherri out, but why in the world did she go on to say that Philip would be next? I am not sorry to see her go though. I was really getting tired of "the gay" thing. How demeaning for Michael, like he was her pet or something, for her to use as she wished. ugh. I don't think I would tell Dawn anything at this point, she is really a wild card.

I also agree about Brenda, I think she's flying under the radar and staying out of Philips way.

I do hope Philip will be gone soon, altho' I know he's good for controversy on the show. Especially last week, he was such a bully about how the others should follow his orders. Yes, people have to make alliances and use strategy, but he seems to think that everyone is just there to do what he says and give up their own game play. I was just thinking that as bad as it is to have to watch him every week, it would be beautiful if he went to the end again and didn't get a vote. I guess he'd say that he really didn't want to win, he just wanted to get to the end. What a dope.

Thanks for the recap Dr S. Always enjoy them and they give me new ways to look at some of the play.

[dr.strangelove]

4. philip

has gone past entertainment and now is just annoying me. I agree that I would like him to go soon, but I don't see it happening. He has no real power and no one would ever vote for him to win, so I suspect everyone wants him around. But knowing me, once I say this he will be the next one to go home. That is how bad I am at predicting this stuff. If I say Philip will go to the finals, he will be unanimously voted out the next week. If I say I think he will go next, cbs has already written him the check.

I am with you, I could not eat those things. the grub/larve, maybe. But not the duck. that was nasty. Mr CnR gets my respect. I could never win that challenge.

Corinne's "the gay" was annoying. I think Michael was fine with it since it gave him a power partner and she no doubt saved him two weeks ago, but it would annoy me. Dawn is playing a great game. I think her and Cochran are in a great position, but they have to account for, or work with, Brenda. That girl is good and smart. Part of me thinks she will start to dominate the strategy game.

We will see, but I see this being the favorite's game to lose. If I were any of them, I would take Sherri and Philip to the finals with me and win it all easily.

[Demit]

5. Philip keeps referencing Boston Rob but he's nowhere near as shrewd

Philip's way of trying to control others' actions is to bully & threaten, and he always makes things about himself. Rob would manipulate people by persuading them how an action would be good for *them*, diverting attention away from how it would be good for himself. I think Corinne's weakness was a similar thing, i.e., she made it too obvious that it was a personal thing between her & Philip, and that was her downfall. At first I was on her side b/c he's such a douche, but when I saw Cochran's reaction I realized that she was the disruptive one, long term. Cochran & Dawn know full well how much of a douche Philip is, and they're amused by it, not threatened. They're using it. So that's a strength that they have, and Corinne didn't. Plus, yes, that retro fag hag thing she was so proud of was annoying. What a goober.