Amanda takes Cirie out into the forest to talk to her as well, and Cirie does an excellent marketing job by explaining to Amanda that she doesn't want to risk some sort of tie-breaker and then going home herself. You see, she has no choice! She simply must! Cirie is awesome, and you have to admire this approach and how nuanced it is. You will recall that Cirie went home on a tie last time, so this is very shrewd on her part, but she's obviously feeding Amanda some bullshit. Wouldn't you think that if Cirie wanted to get rid of someone besides Amanda, she would make it happen?

s16e12005.jpg

Strategic nose-picking. Now I've seen it all.

So Amanda, hopeless except for the fact that she knows exactly where the idol is buried, begins digging around the flag. It is very tense, and I will admit that I sort of thought Amanda might not find it, given how spacey she's been this season to date. Well, she somehow managed to lose to Todd and Courtney last time, so I don't know what I'm thinking.

Tribal Council! James comes in with an IV bag attached to him. Is it really that important to have him at this particular tribal council, like he is going to glean some information that will eventually allow him to come to the informed decision that we all know his is undoubtedly going to make? Let the man lie down! At least Bruce got to poop and skip one. Of course, Jeff makes James a big hero and lets him tell everyone what's going on while he lays a garland of calla lilies at his feet. Yeah, sucks about your finger, but I think it's safe to assume you're okay when producers let you go to tribal council. Amanda puts on what is actually quite an awesome performance, beginning by throwing what is either a real or totally fake tantrum about Erik betraying her and being a big stinky butthead, which is basically what she calls him. Everyone keeps acting like it's a foregone conclusion that Amanda's going home, to the point that Parvati calls Amanda "her little sister", which is not only condescending to Amanda but makes it seems as if Parvati has somehow taken Amanda under her wing. Yeah, all Amanda did was get to final three last time, while you...refused to believe that Yul had the idol, threw a bunch of tantrums about getting played by Jonathan, and then got your ass voted off. Or does being on an older season automatically make you the elder person in the incestual Survivor family tree?

Amanda continues to whine about her inevitable ouster, to the point that I'm starting to believe that maybe she didn't find it. Everyone is all condescending to Amanda about how they totally love her and wish her nothing but the best, which is bullshit because they just want to stay in the game. Amanda plays along while they talk about what a big jury threat she is and whatever, whining and crying totally rad crocodile Sheila tears.

Everyone goes to cast their votes, and Jeff returns with them asking whether anyone would like to play the idol. Amanda is totally awesomely like, "Um, yeah. About that!" and then presents Jeff with the immunity idol while everyone squirms and the jury celebrates. Amanda tells them that she really didn't lie, and "at the time" she totally didn't have the idol. The part that is unsaid, but clearly heard: "But now? In your face, bitches!"

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It continues to be totally awesome as Jeff reads four votes for Amanda, right in order, all of which do not count. Question: Do they rearrange the votes after someone plays an idol to make it more dramatic? Because then we wouldn't have known who Parvati and Amanda voted for, in this configuration. But we know now, because it's Alexis, who is visibly disgusted. She gets both of the other votes from Parvati and Amanda, who exchange totally deserved glances. Well, Amanda's is deserved, but Parvati played her part.

The jury is clearly happy as Alexis' torch is snuffed. It's not that they dislike Alexis, I think it's that everyone there really does like Amanda a lot. Also, Amanda has to be pretty happy that she got to engineer the downfall of Alexis. That's what you get for trying to steal her boyfriend!

Survivor: James and the Giant OH MY GOD, THAT IS DISGUSTING. Sections:  1  |  2  |  3  |  4 

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Comments (22)

Anonymous:

Just a quick comment about the immunity challenge. It was obvious at that point that the women were against Erik, planning to vote him out if he didn't win immunity. So why didn't they work together after he got his second bottle and it became obvious that he was a threat in the game and all aim for Natalie's final bottle (she also had 2)?

Also, and this bothered me, Erik went before Natalie (according to the editing at least), so when they were tied at 2 and he hit his 3rd, why didn't she get her chance to tie that round? Maybe my counting was off but he got 4 shots and she didn't get her 4th because he broke his final bottle first. Why didn't she get a chance to "match" him?

georgiababe:

Actually, Nat went before Erik and she missed her second bottle.

I like Erik, actually. I think he's adorable. Also, he's from a town called Hell. No kidding.

I didn't really like Amanda in the beginning (I didn't watch China, so I had no idea who she was) but I think she has the best chance with the jury, by far. I like Cirie too, so if Amanda, Cirie or Erik win, I will be fine.

They should have gotten rid of Natalie. Alexis is injured, so she wouldn't be a threat in the immunity challege (and they wouldn't do 2 non-physical in a row) and then they could kick her out next time, assuming that Erik didn't get immunity.

Anonymous:

Whether it was Alexis or Natalie, someone else had 2 bottles down because my wife and I were asking each other why they didn't all start helping that person so Erik didn't win immunity.

And yes, they definitely order the votes for maximum drama. Think of all those times when the votes go 4-3 or 3-2, or when Ozzy got knocked out how there were 3 votes for someone else and 4 consecutive votes for Ozzy to finish it. The odds of the votes coming out in such a "suspenseful" order are ridiculously slim.

weasel dearest:

I loved it when Amanda pulled out the idol.

Cirie would have been a better choice or that skankola Natalie but at least Amanda lived to fight another day.

Amanda kind of reminded me of Gerald Butler from 300 at that point.

pixi-stix:

Wow, three really good episodes in a row. I am loving this season now, when in the beginning I was bored with it.

I feel for James too. Even if I may not like someone, for them to be removed from the game like that sucks, and it can change everyone's gameplay.

Still rooting for Amanda and Cirie to win this.

I have to admit that I was loving the way Amanda was finding out for sure if people were voting for her or not. And her act at tribal council was awesome. I was laughing so hard when she said "about that".

smolls:

I LOVED the way Amanda played the idol - PRICELESS!! I had to rewind and watch it a few times I was laughing so hard!!

And I caught the end of last season? (is that what they call them?) when she made it to the final 3 and didn't really like her but this time around, I hope she wins!

And there's something very child-like about Erik that seems to be growing on me...but that may be because I despise Natalie so much...ugh!

Anonymous:

This may be one of the best seasons of Survivor and last night's tribal counsel with Erik giving up immunity...amazing!

BellicoseBaby:

Oh, poor Eric never stood a chance, but loved his comment about "Now I'm the ice cream MAN, not the ice cream BOY..."

Also love that the 3 faves are pimping Natalie out to do the dirty work with Eric - good jury strategy.

Unless Natalie can win immunity, she's gone next, right? Although,Cirie is the bigger threat to Amanda or Poverty in the Final 3...

What do you think?

BellicoseBaby:

I just watched Erik's Final Words at the CBS Survivor Video site, and he's totally endearing!

Among many gems:

"Surviving the elements is one thing...but surviving four crazy sexy women is another...these women pulling me in all different directions...but I kind of liked it at times..."

He's really contagiously enthusiastic and self-deprecating.

The Ponderosa footage is great, too. Nice to see the other side of Survivor.

aholic:

You guys should not be posting spoilers about last night's episode in a recap about the previous episode. Not cool.

RugDoctor9:

Wow, guess I don't need to watch the new episode anymore.

Seriously, wait for the new recap to post about the new episode instead of spoiling and ruining it for those of us who didn't watch yet.

BellicoseBaby:

TOTALLY SORRY for posting about last night's episode! New to this (poor excuse, I understand), but really sorry. Can the moderator/author pull my posts?

nashuaf:

Maybe if we didn't feel like we had to wait a full week for the next recap there wouldn't be the urge to talk about the most recent episode?...

RugDoctor9:

nashuaf,
Go to the forums and you can discuss there until the recap is up.

weasel dearest:

Hey Rugdoctor:

I think everyone is excited about last nights episode.

RugDoctor9:

I'm sure people are excited; I can't wait to see how it goes down. It just sucks that I already know what's going to end up happening. It was an honest mistake by BellicoseBaby. I'm just saying it should be avoided in the future. That's all.

ThisShowRocks!:

I loved the way Amanda played the immunity idol.
She asked different people how they were voting and why...this way, she could see the thought process behind each one.
This gave them enough rope to hang themselves for future votes.
It allowed her to see who was a stable "ally" and who wasn't...who she could and could not trust.
It worked! Good for her.

tammy:

Thanks for the spoilers on last nights episode. I hadn't watched yet because we watch with family on Sunday. I thought it would be ok to read about last weeks episode, I guess I was wrong.

JustJesse:

You people complaining about the "spoilers" crack me up. Like little kids who didn't get your way. The girl who flubbed apologized, its a tv show, get over it.

tammy:

justjesse

You really think we don't have the right to expect someone not to talk about the next show on here? I actually didn't see the apologies until I read your post because once I saw the spoiler, I quit reading all the other comments so as not to read anything else about the show. If the person who posted the spoiler didn't realize it, that's ok,now they know. But if the rest of us prefer to watch the show without knowing the ending, I don't see how that makes us like little kids that didn't get their way. It's just a desire of just wanting to watch the show without knowing the ending. Those of us that may wait a few days to watch have to be careful not to find out the end and it's ok for us to be disappointed if someone spoils it. Do you read the end of the book first? Ask your friends the ending of a movie before you go see it? I don't think anyone who complained about the spoiler really made a big deal about it, just stated that this wasn't the place to discuss the next episode. How would she know if no one told her? Geez, get over it.

JustJesse:

Oh Tammy, how I laughed when I read your comment. I posted three sentences, you come back at with with a paragraph of stuff, telling me to get over it. Looks like you're the one that needs to "get over it". The show has aired, the spoilers are no longer spoilers, and its just too bad the show got "ruined" for you. With something has popular as Survivor, you're bound to find out what happened before you watched it anyways. Guess you better just close your self off from the world until you watch it, because the results will be everywhere.

tammy:

JustJesse,

So happy I could provide you with a laugh, you sound like you might be kind of a cranky person. I didn't know there was a limit on how many sentences we could write, I will be more careful in the future. Generally I don't have to close myself off from the world to not see the spoilers, just didn't expect to read it about a current episode that had just aired hours before on a recap of a week old show. If you cared to really read my comment, you would see that the biggest complaint wasn't about the spoiler, but your response that we shouldn't be disappointed. It must be nice to tell others how to feel.

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