Probst notes that since there are three Jalapao and one Timbira, Erinn's odds aren't looking that good tonight. Thanks, genius! He asks Erinn whether she started to scramble, and she tells him no. "If my tribe members taught me anything, it's that scrambling won't work," she says. Way to grab those jury votes, Erinn!
Probst asks Stephen whether Erinn is the weakest player and if they're just following Coach's philosophy. When Stephen tries to duck the question, Probst calls him out. "You're sitting there like you just got here and have no idea how this game is played!" Probst says all condescendingly, because Stephen has not done anything athletically impressive, and therefore it is okay to berate him.
"Fine. The vote tonight is to assure myself a place in the finals." Stephen says, thrown off by Probst's sudden abrasiveness. He needs to know your thoughts on Coach! Be careful, or Probst will KICK YOU IN THE FACE.
Time to vote. We see Erinn vote for Taj and Taj vote for Erinn. When Probst reads the votes and a second one for Taj comes up, we know that things are over for our lovable Sister With Voice.
Was anyone else as floored as I was that they did this to her? Don't get me wrong, it is pretty impressive and definitely the correct move to make, but I kind of thought they wouldn't do it. As Taj's torch is snuffed, Stephen and JT can't look anyone in the face, and you can see that they're kind of disgusted with themselves.
Taj's final words are good natured: she admits to be shocked at her blindside. "If Erinn can weasel herself into the end, she definitely has my vote!" she says, laughing. Bye, Taj! See you in...65 minutes or so!
Back at camp, Stephen and JT try to legitimize their decision. "We decided that it would be easier to win the next challenge against Erinn. You can't make a strategic decision based on the emotional niceness of it," they say correctly. Erinn gets a little overly self-congratulatory here, trying a bit too hard to make herself part of the group. "Every tribal council since the merge has gone exactly as we've planned it!" she says, using second person when third person, as we all know, is clearly more accurate.
Erinn, so excited to remain in the game, continues to talk and talk and talk, which is a mistake any of us (read: me) could be liable to make in a similar situation. They sit with their heads in their hands, and Erinn doesn't really pick up the body language. "Erinn just keeps talking, completely ignorant of any emotional turmoil JT and I are going through." Wait, so you two just made the completely ruthless (albeit correct) choice to vote out your closest ally, and now you want someone else to be considerate of your emotions about the decision that you just made without any of your emotions? You've made your overly talkative bed, and now you must lie in it.
Day 38. Stephen talks to Erinn while JT is off in the background doing...something...and they pretty much agree to take each other to the final two, should they win. They do give each other the best chance, after all. Plus, the precedent has already been established with the Taj boot. Can you blame them?
"I'm actually afraid of winning immunity today because I'll have a difficult choice," Stephen says. JT, correctly suspicious that Stephen might be reconsidering their arrangement, tries to get Stephen to commit one more time. JT tells Stephen over and over again how committed he is to him while Stephen stares at him, saying nothing, refusing to reciprocate the feelings. "We're eating breakfast tomorrow, man. You have my word and my life that I'm gonna take you," JT says. He waits hesitantly for a similar statement from Stephen, but none is coming. This is exactly how my senior prom was.
The clue comes that tells the Survivors to get ready for their final immunity challenge. But first! We have to watch them walk along a path and remember a bunch of people they hate. The best part of it is right at the beginning, when Erinn goes, "I love that we're the final three!" and Stephen goes, "Well, I love that it's me and two other people." Word, Stephen.
So here is everything you need to know about the people that used to be on this show: Carolina and her giant boobs have been missing for weeks. Candace and her giant boobs too. Wow, lots of giant boobs got voted out early. This is a tragedy that had heretofore gone unaddressed. I'm thinking of getting a shirt airbrushed in their honor.
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Comments (12)
Well, I was really hoping that Stephen could have talked his way into the win, but he just seemed to go limp and let JT have it. I'm guessing they already had an agreement worked out there -- after all, Stephen gets the 100k for second place, right?
And the fact that people were falling all over themselves to lick up JT's droppings was part of his strategy -- which he pulled off really well. So he definitely deserves the win.
For once, I'm not dissatisfied with the winner. Although the whole season seemed kind of limp. Hopefully they'll toughen up the challenges for next season.
1 of 12 | Posted by itchy | Posted on May 20, 2009 5:13 PM
Although Stephen was a very good player in the game, he missed the essential point... you can't go to the end with the most-liked player in the game, whether you're in an alliance or not. And, if you're going to try and sell yourself to the jury, you can't sell yourself as a floater! You have to point out exactly what moves you made... DUH! He should have pointed out that he found the Idol with Taj, brought JT into their alliance, and protected JT from being voted out at certain points in the game.
I do agree that no matter what, what it comes to is that the juries (in the majority of seasons) only value physical brawn, no matter how strategic a game was played. If you're not the physical player, you have to actually make moves within the game that people will recognize as game-changing. Getting the people to vote out Tyson, while still keeping Sierra isolated was a master stroke and Stephen should have taken credit for it (since it WAS HIS IDEA!).
It was almost as if Stephen was playing for second place, which was my main problem with Sugar last season. If you really want to win Survivor, you have to play wire to wire. JT did, Stephen didn't.
2 of 12 | Posted by slutty_whore | Posted on May 20, 2009 5:46 PM
This was the first time in a long time I would have been satisfied with either person winning...until Stephen revealed he wouldn't have kept his word to JT. Then I was firmly in JT's corner.
3 of 12 | Posted by cattyfan | Posted on May 20, 2009 8:37 PM
Cattyfan, I don't think that is what Stephen said. He mostly said he wasn't sure. He only said he would go against JT when pressed because that was clearly the answer that they wanted to hear. I'm not sure why everyone gets down on Stephen for saying he would have to think about whether he would bring JT to the end. JT clearly had to think about whether he would bring Stephen to the end. The only difference is that we got to see what decision JT finally ended with but we will never know what Stephen would have done.
(I've not read the recap yet only the comments. :p)
4 of 12 | Posted by Snootchy Bootches | Posted on May 21, 2009 5:29 AM
Cattyfan, I don't think that is what Stephen said. He mostly said he wasn't sure. He only said he would go against JT when pressed because that was clearly the answer that they wanted to hear. I'm not sure why everyone gets down on Stephen for saying he would have to think about whether he would bring JT to the end. JT clearly had to think about whether he would bring Stephen to the end. The only difference is that we got to see what decision JT finally ended with but we will never know what Stephen would have done.
(I've not read the recap yet only the comments. :p)
5 of 12 | Posted by Snootchy Bootches | Posted on May 21, 2009 5:33 AM
Erm... that was weird.
6 of 12 | Posted by Snootchy Bootches | Posted on May 21, 2009 5:35 AM
congrats JT! and thanks for the recaps!
stephen was really portrayed as a whiney little byatch there at the end, which i'm not sure is off the mark. such a strange relationship he and JT have. bromance, fo sho.
pretty good season. sierra definitely acted like a 12 year-old all the way, proving why they hated her (b/c i had been wondering). coach was fun to watch.
looking forward to the recap of the reunion!
dax
7 of 12 | Posted by idax | Posted on May 21, 2009 9:03 AM
Schoonie - Great Recaps (again) all season. Always made my day.
On the forum side I have been plugging the Ponderosa videos. If you haven't checked it out, they actually did one with Stephen and JT showing up at Ponderosa after the final tribal council. It's worth watching because it gives a different perspective than the editing on the tribal council. Stephen and JT seemed pretty cool about the whole thing - not the drama that you might expect. It was a weird, but satisfying, "conclusion."
Thanks for all the recaps and look forward to next fall.
8 of 12 | Posted by Channel Dasher | Posted on May 21, 2009 9:16 AM
Thanks for the entertaining recaps. I always read them at ew.com and then head over hear for your vastly superior take.
9 of 12 | Posted by Emmyloo | Posted on May 21, 2009 10:07 AM
"The part of Debbie will be played by Paula . . . " BRAVO!
10 of 12 | Posted by willintherace | Posted on May 22, 2009 11:07 AM
Great, spot-on recap. I hope that Debbie and Sierra see this recap and realize how stupid their questions were.
11 of 12 | Posted by tv freak | Posted on May 22, 2009 1:57 PM
I just finished reading this. (I was on vacation.)
okay, okay, I wanted the whole thing to end in a big wedding under a tree. I didn't get that but this was almost as good.
First, Smitten and JT pledge their loyalty to each other. Then they have a fight. Then one feels betrayed. How is it resolved? In the end they end up together, side by side, [one in black and one in white (okay, yellow)]. The two of them looked like the top of a big gay wedding cake.
P.S. uh, the reason why Jeff seemingly hates Stephen is cause Jeff's jealous of Stephen and JT's "relationship."
I really enjoyed your recaps Schoonie and I look forward to the ones in the fall.
12 of 12 | Posted by Mr Dangerous | Posted on June 4, 2009 7:49 AM