With the camp back to normal, it was time to talk strategy. Lydia approached Judd and suddenly dropped her sweet facade in lieu of a tough-talkin' fishmonger grit. "We've come this close. We got seven freakin' more days left. Now... we either get rid of the threats... or we're gonna be stuck to where we're gonna be sittin' on the jury," she said in a firm and mildly scary way. Of course, this completely appealed to Judd's greedy instincts, especially once Lydia reminded him how his so-called "alliance" had blind-sided him with the Jamie ouster. As a result, Judd became riled up and said he would join Lydia and Danni (who was sitting with them) if they wanted to go after one of the larger threats. What Judd didn't realize was that Lydia had just ensnared him into going after Rafe, a move that would surely annoy Steph and turn her against her loyal Jersey buddy. Holy shit! This is some top-notch scheming. Gotta give props to Lydia and Danni -- assuming it all works out...

At the immunity challenge, Probst revealed to us that today's game "requires smarts." And to illustrate this, he tapped his temple. You see, if you tap your temple, that means you're smart. Thanks Jeff! Amusingly, on the word "smarts," the producers cut to an exasperated Judd, clearly not the biggest proponent of thinkin' 'n' stuff. Well, the big immunity puzzle was actually just an elaborate retread of a popular Big Brother motif (ah, memories flooding back from Big Brother 6. Such a wonderful season...). Basically, players had to move from tile to tile on a giant board. Any tile that was stepped on could not be stepped on again, and players could move until they became boxed in. Last person standing would win immunity. As for Danni's immunity advantage: she could swap positions with any other player one time. Make sense? Don't worry, it doesn't really matter.

Well, everyone went about stepping from tile to tile, and as exciting as it was to watch on screen, it really doesn't translate well into writing. Needless to say, Cindy dropped out first, then Danni swapped with Steph (which of course led to Steph giving her trademark pissy glares), and then Lydia and Rafe bit it. Judd boxed himself in next; although, that's not the way he saw it. "I got one more!" he protested, but an annoyed Probst swiftly replied, "Judd, you cannot move diagonally!" By the way, where's the surly gym teacher Probst we saw last week? You know, the one who kept yelling, "This is for immunity, LET'S GO!!!" I kind of miss him. I guess he calms down when it comes to puzzle games and smarts. And yes, I did tap my temple just now in honor of Probst.

Ultimately, the challenge came down to Steph and Danni, and in the end, the purchased advantage did the trick. Danni won immunity and effectively saved herself from the chopping block. Yay! In celebration, Danni then did 250 crunches in the span of ten seconds.

Back at camp, the scheming continued at full tilt (yes!) as Danni cozied up next to Steph and happily played on her fears. Judd was still pissed and angry and betrayed about the whole Jamie situation, Danni noted, adding, "He's like 'Don't think I don't know who's in control.'" Well, this immediately had Steph paranoid that Judd was coming after her, and as he sat on the temple like a bored gorilla, Steph approached Rafe with the idea of turning on their ally.

"We've been trying to be honest with each other for the most part," Steph said. Yes, "honest" in that backstabby sort of way. But that's okay. Even if Steph was betraying her alliance, I didn't mind. I'm all about the backstabbing on Survivor. As for Lydia, she was busy stirring the pot by quietly pitting Judd against Danni, saying that she could be very dangerous. Lydia then offered her vote to Judd, which was clearly an effort to mobilize Judd into doing something stupid like campaigning against Stephenie. Judd didn't quite take the bait, but he still had some sage advice: "If you think you're safe in this game, you're crazy. You're absolutely berserk."

Later, Lydia offered her vote to Rafe, and while this may have seemed duplicitous, I think she was actually sincere. Judd wasn't very happy though, and he called her out, saying that she had offered her support to him first. Oh, who cares. Lydia's just trying to stay on by the hair on her chinny chin chin (I sincerely hope her chin does not have any hair though). As the tribe headed up to Casa Del Probst, Judd told us that he was simply happy that someone was going home. "As long as it ain't me, I'll always have a smile on my face," he added. And yes, that was my Obvious Misdirection Sensor going off.

At Tribal Council, we met our lovely jury and discovered that Gary still hadn't shaved his nasty neck-beard. C'mon. Adam's apples aren't supposed to be hairy. Sadly, nothing too interesting happened at Tribal Council. Probst barely seemed able to elicit any sort of excitement; not even from Judd who explained his thoughts on voting someone off: "No hard feelings, but deal with it. That's basically the way I look at it." Makes sense. No hard feelings. Just business...

Well, speaking of voting, it was that time. Lydia jotted down Judd's name, and Judd jotted down, well, some lady named "Lidia." Oh wait, that's supposed to be "Lydia." Now I understand why Judd wasn't so psyched about using all those "smarts" before (me tapping temple again). I shouldn't be so snobby. Everyone has a typo here and there. Of course, they're usually typing when it happens, but hey, that's okay.

Posted by B-side on December 3, 2005 3:39 AM