Survivor 31: Cambodia (Second Chance)

[slipintothefog]

Still thinking it's Jeremy. Spencer has NO personal content and anytime the show tries to present him as a human, it's always under the veil of him "improving his game" or whatever. Jeremy's cried how many times over Val and his babies now? And Jeremy is clearly in a good position socially because he hasn't even come up as a target... like, ever. Even Tasha was all "oh I know Jeremy (and Spencer too but we haven't even interacted this season, while Jeremy is from my day one alliance) clearly thinks of me as his #4 but he gets one free pass "

That last scene, btw. What the hell, Tasha?

 

[Sgt Pepper]

Either Jeremy or Kelley would make me happy as a winner. Funny too how the two of them are the only two people to have found idols early on pre-merge, found a second idol post-merge, and played an idol correctly at Tribal Council. Especially since Kelley's second clue find was a total coincidence.

 

[slipintothefog]

Also, for the record, my reaction to Spencer actually winning Survivor would be something like Denise in this Iconic 2012 Abi-Maria Moment:

 

[RRUGER]

The November 25, 2015 two-hour episodes—titled "Like Selling Your Soul to the Devil" and "My Wheels Are Spinning"—may be our answer to who will be winning Survivor: Cambodia—Second Chance.

That winner may be…Spencer.

The two-part episode, resulting in the vote-outs of Ciera and then Stephen, struck me as one highlighted by a battle of wills starring two leaders with two separate paths to getting to the end of the game.

Jeremy wanted Stephen in the finals with him. Spencer, observing enough about Stephen, saw the need to eliminate Stephen for the sake of Spencer's game—which, for a time with Jeremy, might have seemed good as well for Jeremy (the false impression that Jeremy was willing to mislead Spencer into believing; perhaps it is accurate to say that Jeremy did do that for a while).

Spencer, having recognized prior to the first-part's Tribal Council, knew that Jeremy was adamant about eliminating Ciera. But, Spencer stood his ground by actually voting to eliminate Stephen.

At Tribal Council, we saw a result of six votes cast against Stephen: Spencer, Kellie, Abi-Maria, Joe, Keith, and Tasha. The other three (which includes Kimmi)—who flipped on their original Bayon tribe mate Monica weeks ago to spare Ta Keo originals Kelly and Spencer—cast their votes against Ciera and, clearly not willing to let go of Stephen, Jeremy revealed slightly his intention of retaining an end-game alliance with Stephen when he presented his hidden idol to host Jeff Probst on behalf of saving Stephen. (At the beginning of the second part, Spencer knew Jeremy's explanation was a lie.)

The undeniable truth came to light after Stephen, having won the Reward Challenge, actually explained why he was taking Tasha with him. (She's in his alliance. She voted against him, rather than against Ciera, and wanted her on the reward with him—so that Stephen could shore up any alliance weaknesses with Tasha. He actually said it!) And then, because he was allowed to take a third person on the reward, Stephen selected Jeremy. Shown having reacted to this, in addition to Spencer, were Bayon originals Keith and Joe (who was targeted, as some obsession, by Stephen while others didn't want Joe winning more immunities). And, with Kelley not needing any time to process the score (while Abi-Maria does), they realized the Final Four intention of Jeremy, Kimmy, Stephen, and Tasha. If Spencer, Kelley, Abi-Maria, Keith, and Joe were also interested in getting to the end, they had to counter that four-person group with their five. They had to unite.

The battle of the wills was won by Spencer when, not only with corralling the necessary votes, both Jeremy and Stephen came to him to explain how they were going to handle the upcoming Tribal Council vote: that Stephen would play his advantage—allowing him to void another player's vote (which would be Joe's vote) and Stephen would get to cast a second vote at the same time—and that they were going to split their votes equally between Abi-Maria and Joe. They wanted Spencer to vote against Joe so that three votes each would go against Abi-Maria and Joe. At Tribal Council, Jeremy and Stephen, with one of his votes, voted against Joe while Tasha and Kimmy voted against Abi-Maria (as did a votes-splitting Stephen). Spencer, Kelley, Abi-Maria, and Keith sent their collective four votes and knocked out Stephen.

Now that we know that the Spencer Group has wrested control from the Jeremy Group, I think we're going to be seeing Spencer, Kelley, Abi-Maria, Keith, and Joe send Jeremy, Kimmy, and Tasha out between 6th and 8th place. The hidden idol in Jeremy's position may delay his elimination slot by one; or, if he can mount an immunity run, he could move an additional notch further. While Jeremy is still there, who should also most definitely remain is Joe.

I think, if we're getting a Final Three, this is going to be between these United Five: Abi-Maria, Joe, Kelley, Keith, and Spencer. And, even though I am impressed most with Kelley—especially her magnificent hidden immunity idol surprise in the November 11 episode (which eliminated Andrew with three votes to her voided nine)—throughout this Survivor, it's very feasible for the winner of Survivor: Cambodia to end up becoming Spencer. But, hey, wouldn't it be cool if Joe—so dismissed by Survivor Geeks for not being a mastermind strategist (but just merely a Challenge Beast)—were to come out on top and win this game?!


Picture This:

1. Spencer
2. Kellie
3. Abi-Maria
4. Keith
5. Joe or Jeremy
6. Jeremy or Joe
7. Jeremy or Kimmi
8. Jeremy or Tasha​

Spencer-for-the-win votes would likely come from Andrew, Kelly, Stephen, as well (alphabetically by first name): Jeremy, Kimmi, and Tasha.

i think it will be kelly, spencer jeremy tasha

keith the ol man might make it far too

 

[BetinaNungging]

so who's got injured next week

Spencer? Joe? Keith? Jeremy?

because Jeff referring the word "he" in the preview

 

[CoolBlue71]

Jeremy and Keith are the ones who have not received a single vote cast against them at any point during the game. But, prior to the November 25, 2015 episode, the same was true with Joe. Right now, there are two editions of Survivor in which any castaways who never received a single vote, in attempt to eliminate him/her, made it to the end of the game…and did not win. This happened in China. With the winner Todd, both runners-up Courtney and Amanda never received a single regular-Tribal Council vote. It happened as well in Philippines. With the winner Denise, runners-up Michael and Lisa never received a single regular-Tribal Council vote in attempt to eliminate them. (Those never-voted-against runners-up were among a Final Three.) All the rest of the examples—The Australian Outback's Tina, Africa's Ethan, Thailand's Brian, Pearl Island's Sandra, Palau's Tom, Tocantins' J.T., Caramoan's Cochran, and San Juan del Sur's Natalie—won their Survivor. (Worlds Apart winner Mike received votes but played his hidden immunity idol at the right time to void those votes. After that, Mike ran the table with immunities.) I think, here with Cambodia, Jeremy would be in this position [for the win] had there not been, what I believe, a flipping of power from the Spencer Group [Spencer, Kelley, Abi-Maria, Keith, and Joe] over the Jeremy Group [Jeremy, Kimmi, Tasha, and with the most recently eliminated Stephen].

 

[joesman]

If no one votes to evict you that certainly means no one finds you a threat. They should think that through since Jeremy has played an idol for someone else and Kelly has played one for herself which was great timing. Who is more likely to win as perceived threat to win, Joe/Spencer. Who has made the best moves so far. Keith rarely has a say so in anything and like Joe he just wants to play immunity challenges and reward challenges. I felt the giving up of a chance to win immunity was stupid and it turned out that way for Stephen, though he thought his special power would save him but actually destroyed him, while Jeremy playing an idol for Stephen put a spotlight on him and exposed an alliance. I disliked Stephen a lot. He is such a whiney ass with tunnel vision.

My choices to win would be Jeremy, Spencer or Joe. I chose Jeremy just because he is good to look at as is Joe but Joe is a competitor and those are always the people I like best. Tasha has thrown me off and I don't particularly like any of the other women.

I am an idol skeptic when the same person finds them all as with Jeremy and Kelly. Did no one else look for idols?

 

[slipintothefog]

Was... was Tasha always this stupid, guys? She can't seriously think she has a chance against Jeremy and Spencer in the end, can she? Especially when one of her alternative opponents if she went with the women would be ABI-MARIA?

 

[BetinaNungging]

I love Joe but sorry no social game no winning
he's more like Ozzy than Malcolm

 

[Sgt Pepper]

Was... was Tasha always this stupid, guys? She can't seriously think she has a chance against Jeremy and Spencer in the end, can she? Especially when one of her alternative opponents if she went with the women would be ABI-MARIA?

To be fair, I think she's just keeping her options open on both sides, which is smart. Remember she has to actually get to the end first and even if it's a F3, she has every reason to think the other three women would not take her with them. I think that's why it's always a double-edged sword to try to drag goats to the end because (as they pointed out during this episode) that goat could get to the finals over you. This is why I admire Cirie and Aras for arranging a 3-2-1 vote split to get rid of Courtney because everyone wanted to take her to the end.

That said, Tasha is stupid for telling the guys about the girls' alliance before voting out Joe. All she had to do was wait for Joe to get voted out easily and then tell them, thereby placing herself firmly in the middle of two gender camps of 3 and both sides would need her because it would be too late for the guys to do anything else.

Once again Abi-Maria delivers. "You're moldy and please cut your hair, you look like a clown."

 

[slipintothefog]

The scene bothers me because I'm reading into the sledgehammer editing of this season where Jeremy and Spencer are the center of everyone's universe while two of the three ladies on the opposing side don't even get to speak unless Abi is saying something snotty luv. That combined with Tasha so freely outing the girl alliance to Spencer and Jeremy, and the three of them forming a F3 alliance, screams that she's going to pick them over the girls.

There's a greater risk of her riding out the girl alliance to F4, and then pretty much her and Wentworth would be battling in the final immunity challenge to crown the winner of the whole season (based on the edit at least... Kimmi was apparently way popular out there but just like with KWigs we've seen zero of it), but the reward of potentially getting first in the girls' alliance scenario surely should outweigh the 3rd place, probably 0 vote situation she's looking at against Jeremy (Alpha Male with a sob story who was #1 ally of Savage, Stephen, etc) and Spencer ("strategic" "fan favorite" well-loved by fans and players for reasons I still don't understand).

 

[Sgt Pepper]

I can't argue with your logic slip. I think it's the classic pro and con question for Survivor and Big Brother. Do you go with the more guaranteed shot of making it to the finals with the higher risk of losing, or do you risk not making it to the finals at all for the guaranteed shot at winning? It's why Dan voted out Shane instead of Ian at F4 in Big Brother, why Natalie used her idol to get out a goat (Baylor) to keep bigger targets around, etc.

That said, obviously I personally wish she'd just go with the girls. I have to say though I don't love Tasha. I liked her way more on her original season. Of the women, I'm rooting for Kelly by a country mile. I probably even prefer Kimmi right now over Tasha just because she actually suggested a girl's alliance though you know Monica Padilla is sitting somewhere like, "WTF girl?"

 

[slipintothefog]

Well, the Baylor vote was brilliant for a bunch of reasons, many of which were only relevant because it was a BvW season. Natalie would have been screwed in a F4 scenario where Keith had immunity and Missy/Baylor were the other two people, and Baylor wouldn't have voted for Natalie in the end anyway except in the unlikely scenario that Missy went out fourth (was never gonna happen). Natalie signaled to the jury that the Baylor vote was her brainchild, and that was definitely endearing to a jury that didn't like Missy/Baylor. And then of course Jaclyn's freak immunity win played dividends but I doubt that was a driving factor in taking out Baylor lol.

I liked Tasha more in Cagayan too. At the start of the season everyone was worrying about "villain Tasha" because I think Probst called her a devil in pre-show press, and of course her starting confessional where she said she'd scheme and then pray for forgiveness gave me a lot of promise that she'd make an epic heel turn. But instead she's just so blah and playing to lose instead of doing anything EPIC or even villainous.

I wish the show would given more insight to why Kimmi decided now would be a good time to do the girl alliance. I would like to think it's because she knew it'd be a safer bet now, when the girls would have a clear-cut majority, than back when there were three tribes and losing a guy at stage might have set off red flags that there was an all-girl alliance. (Sort of like when JT assumed Parvati was up to her old tricks when all of the Villain vote-outs were men, even though the Villain women were split up into two different factions with Jerri in the middle.) But who knows because here's more Spencer and Jeremy!

 

[slipintothefog]

Abi-Maria is a national treasure.

 

[Sgt Pepper]

Oh good point re: Baylor & Missy. Forgot about the F4 bind Natalie would've been in. I also think Kimmi just couldn't stand Monica Padilla and...I kinda don't blame her? I have a friend who I have to hide my new iPhone from because she'll go on and on about how bad Apple is because of the cobalt and the Congo and blah blah blah. Monica complaining about the clams is just as annoying as that.

Here's how I'd rank the remaining players in terms of personal favorites:

FUCKING AWESOME
1. Kelley Wentworth
2. Abi-Maria (I know I'm surprised too)

FUCK ME PLEASE
3. Jeremy

FUCK...OK I GUESS?
4. Kimmi
5. Tasha

WTF?
6. Keith

FUCK MY LIFE
7. Spencer

 

[slipintothefog]

Kimmi was one of the people I was most excited to see when this season started. She was one of the original Abi-Marias in that she was LOUD and obnoxious but I still found her endearing at the same time:

Personal highlights:
"WHERE THE HELL AM I SUPPOSED TO MASTURBATE OUT HERE???"
"I can eat a worm! I can eat a worm!" and the black tongue sticking out
"What the hell is up YOUR butt?" when Alicia is breathing fire at her over the chickens
Kimmy's infamous "dirt line" instead of a tan line around her bathing suit
"And I will not be treated... you know, umm, like a jerkoff!!"

 

[Sgt Pepper]

Yeah it's like you said, we'd probably have been treated to more of her personality -- and more from any of the girls -- if this season weren't the Jeremy & Spencer Show featuring appearances by Amazing Joe.

Just to support your argument slip that Tasha really should roll the dice and go with the women: she's actually capable of winning immunities, having gone on a good run her season against real competition whereas this season if she got to the F4 with the women, she'd pretty much only have to beat Kelley in the final challenge. I'd take those odds!

 

[Rickrock]

This season started out slow and boring for me the first few weeks, but has picked up in excitement the last several weeks. Thoroughly enjoying it.

 

[Rickrock]

I'm not good at strategizing so I'm just sitting back and enjoying the show. I was sorry to see Joe go because now there is less eye candy, but I understood why they took him out.

 

[joesman]

Wasn't Kimmi the one who went all ballistic early on when someone mentioned a girl's alliance?