Apologies for not posting my recap last week…let’s just say the last few weeks have felt like an extended stay on Exile Island. Here’s what you need to know from Episode IV:
• Coach cries
• Tyson advises Coach to be crazy in private
• The Dragon Slayer is reborn
• Villains win Reward (toolkit)
• Immunity Idols are hidden
• Tom finds the idol at the Hero’s camp
• Villains win Immunity (again)
• Tom plays the Immunity Idol
• JT flips on his alliance
• Cirie is voted out of the tribe
And now, on to last week’s show…
JT has a lot of explaining to do back at camp as Amanda, Candice, James and Rupert are left wondering how Tom/Colby remain in the game while their alliance lost Cirie in a surprise vote. JT does his best mea culpa with his wide-eyed, southern charm in full effect. Meanwhile, over at the Villains camp it’s Dragon Slayer Chi with Coach leading his team through some early morning meditation exercises. While most of the Villains focus their mind, body and spirit, Russell goes on an idol hunt, and as expected, he is successful.
At the Reward Challenge, the tribes are faced with another highly physical challenge where three members of each team must fight for balls, pass them back to their team-mates who then attempt to fire the balls in to baskets across the playing field. Before the games begin Jeff teases the tribes with a place of chocolate that will be part of the upcoming reward. The Heroes decline samples and Colby and Jeff get a little testy with each other. Rupert explains that they don’t want the chocolate, they just want to win.
Early in the challenge the Survivor medical team is brought in once again after James appears to blow his knee trying to catch a ball. James, a massive physical specimen and threat, appears to be in severe discomfort and he is removed from the challenge, leaving the Heroes short-handed. Things continued to get rough during the challenge when Rupert ‘accidentally’ slammed Jerri’s face in to a fence post stopping the game once again. Jerri shakes it off and goes on to score the winning point for the Villains.
While on a chocolaty reward, Russell decides to share the news of his idol finding with a few of his tribe-mates. First he shares the news with Parvati and then with Coach. Coach bows down to Russell who mockingly Knights the Dragon Slayer (insert laughter).
James eventually makes his way back to the Heroes camp wearing a heavy brace on his knee. While some (Candice) questions his ability to help the tribe, James assures everybody that he is ready to compete…and that’s a good thing because another Immunity Challenge is looming.
The challenge requires blindfolded team members to collect large puzzle pieces in a vast field using only a team-mates verbal commands to guide them. Given his limited mobility, James is the caller for the Heroes while Jerri calls for the Villains.
The Heroes get out to a good start but eventually James’ voice start to fade and his instructions become erratic leaving the door wide-open for the Villains to make a late surge and win the challenge…the Heroes are going back to Tribal Council.
The Heroes are faced with a tough dilemma – vote off James and his gimpy knee or finally get rid of Tom like they had tried to do last week. Either way, the Heroes lose in my opinion as they are both tough competitors and valuable to the team in the coming challenges. In the end, Tom didn’t have another idol to play and JT went back to his initial alliance with James, Amanda and Rupert, sending Tom home.
How does JT do it? The guy flip-flops every week and people don’t seem to mind. Amanda appears to be on to him so look for her to start dispelling the myth of JT. I also predict an eventual showdown between Boston Rob and Russell. The producers are kind of teasing a rivalry right now so I have to believe things will come to a head at some point…hopefully following the merge.
The Scribe Has Spoken…
