Survivor China: You’ve Got to Know When to Hold ‘Em…
With the hidden immunity idol’s presence made known to the players at the last tribal council, a whole new element to the strategy of the game was in play. No matter how well you plan, if you do not have that individual immunity idol around your neck or the hidden one in your back pocket you could be the next player to go home.
Back at the newly merged camp Jean-Robert admitted he had a close call at tribal council when Jamie played what she thought was the hidden immunity idol. He was safe though and for Jean-Robert, that was all that mattered. James cracked me up with his humorous comments once again and confessed that he didn’t want Jean-Robert to know about the hidden immunity idols he had because he would mess it up. Jean-Robert just talked too much. Right now James felt that the former Zhan Hu were out to win the high school friendship contest and the former Fei Long were out to win immunity every time. James definitely was not only a strong physical player but a strong mental one as well.
At the reward challenge Courtney turned sideways and we almost couldn’t see her anymore. Someone needs to get that girl some protein! For the challenge there would be two teams of four. One member had to sit in a boat while the opposing team used buckets of water to sink them. The first team to sink the other team’s boat two times would win reward. Their reward? A visit to an ancient village for an authentic Chinese meal. It would be a break from camp and the four who won would get another note from Jeff.
They did a school yard pick with Jean-Robert and Peih-Gee as team captains. As usual the teams ended up mostly former Zhan Hu against former Fei Long. The person left out? Denise did not get picked so she was not eligible to participate and therefore wasn’t eligible for reward. They picked Courtney over her because she was lighter.
First up were Todd and Courtney in the boats. Courtney was hilarious. She was hating them and telling Jeff to shut up. Todd did great hovering in the middle and scooping water out of his boat while Courtney was slaughtered and was the first boat to sink. She may have been light but she definitely wasn’t strong.
Amanda and Frosti were next in the boats. I thought that it was going to be hard to beat Frosti since he was small and fast but it was Amanda who did great and Frosti who got cornered and sunk. With that the team that consisted of Amanda, Jean-Robert, James, and Todd easily won the reward challenge.
At this point in the game reward challenges can be a double edged sword. Most of the former Fei-Long members got to go on reward while all of the former Zhan Hu plus Denise and Courtney were left behind. Zhan Hu now had a chance to work on Courtney and Denise, probably the best two they could have had alone time with.
As Amanda, Jean-Robert, Todd, and James arrived at their destination and sat down for their feast; Jean-Robert was shook up a little bit as he read Jeff’s note with the clues to the hidden immunity idol. He literally had no clue at all that there was one until Jamie tried to play what she thought was one at the previous tribal council. What Jean-Robert didn’t know was that he was the only member of Fei Long who didn’t know that James had them! On a side note, the authentic Chinese food looked awesome. What a treat to sit in a thousand year old village and eat the real deal.
Back at the Hae Da Fung camp Denise felt bad. She said she was big, she was fat and that was the way it had been her whole life. She had always been picked last. Well, on the bright side she WAS picked to be on Survivor. She wondered if her being picked last was how it would be when they got down to the final seven Fei Long. It made her nervous and she didn’t want to go; she wanted to stay in the game.
Peih-Gee as usual was trying to shake things up. She wanted everyone to vote out Jean-Robert. But, Denise didn’t want to go against the rest of her tribe. Denise was straight up with Erik and Peih-Gee. She didn’t say she wouldn’t vote with them but she didn’t agree to either and was completely honest about it.
After returning from from the reward late that night Jean-Robert couldn’t sleep. There was an annoying frog croaking so he got up to go look for that hidden idol. So, all night long he looked and looked and looked. Little did he know that DAYS earlier it had been found and taken in broad daylight. He was so anxious to find it he did not sleep at all and finally before daybreak started to look in the mini pagoda’s and took down all the plaques like the one Jamie had. Then he hid them in the woods not sure if they were the right idols or not. Oh Jean-Robert, he also like Jamie had the wrong idol.
At breakfast Jean-Robert picked on James and told him he ate almost three times as much as everyone else. Todd was going crazy with Jean-Robert’s annoying voice and James’ constant complaining of hunger. Todd was also ticked that James had both of the immunity idols. It was driving him insane because he GAVE James one of them and told him where the other one was and James had not even offered him one back in return. Well, that would drive me crazy too. Todd could just ask for it for cryin’ out loud!!!
With all the craziness of the idols Todd wanted to get rid of James because he had them both and was getting too powerful. That made Amanda nervous because Todd was changing his mind so much. Todd felt that the game was getting out of their hands so Todd told Frosti about blindsiding James and Frosti played it cool. He was feeling like maybe he was being viewed as a swing vote and he liked that.
At the immunity challenge they found a giant dragon constructed over a muddy swamp. The Survivors were to balance on a large barrel filled with water which was part of the dragon’s body. As water from the barrel was let out it would get harder and harder to balance. Now this challenge didn’t have a whole lot to do with brawn so I had a feeling James wouldn’t do so well. This was a great Frosti, Courtney, and Todd challenge. Jean-Robert of course had to complain that his wasn’t balanced right, that his head itched and then Jean-Robert was playing around and fell in so he was the first to be disqualified. Courtney was amazing, like a statue…or as my husband said, like a stick. She didn’t move ever!! James really struggled but kept at it fighting hard until he fell in. The last three fighting for immunity were Frosti, Todd, and Courtney. I knew it! The little and light people!! Then Todd fell off and it was just Frosti and Courtney and with that Courtney WON immunity! Rock on girl. The little girl who did awful at all the challenges and didn’t seem to care about the game didn’t want to get dirty in the mud so she won immunity! Well, if that was her motivation then she really could win one million dollars. You just have to find the right things to motivate people!!
Peih-Gee was absolutely crushed she did not win because she knew her head was on the chopping block. She had been trying to scramble but in her mind it seemed a pointless effort. Later in the lake Jean-Robert and Erik were taking a little swim and Jean-Robert told Erik that now he had the hidden immunity idol. Erik then told Jean-Robert he did not have it. Smooth move Erik! So Erik spilled the beans that James had both immunity idols. Well, that brought a whole new revelation to Jean-Robert about his team! Now Jean-Robert wanted to pull a fast one on James so he confronted James and told him that he had figured it out. Jean-Robert told him that he knew he had the two immunity idols. Jean-Robert was such a great bluffer because he was only going off of information Erik had given him!! James kept playing dumb and lying to Jean-Robert about the idols so Jean-Robert approached Todd and told him they should blindside James!! Of course Todd had to laugh to himself because Jean-Robert kept coming up with his ideas that he had already come up with. The game was so much fun for Todd!! Amanda was very concerned about Todd’s second guessing. Jean-Robert wasn’t worried about going home. He was seen as the Susan Lucci of tribal council. His name was always up there but nothing ever came of it. Oh how I loved that line! James thought he should roll the dice at tribal and not play an immunity idol. He was willing to gamble and felt very safe. I guess we would see if his gamble would pay off!
At tribal James felt that the biggest threats were the talkers not him. Also, everyone was so sure they weren’t going home from Fei-Long. The evidence? Peih-Gee and Erik the former Zhan Hu members were the only ones who brought their stuff.
It seemed to me that there was simply too much talking amongst Todd and his crony’s before tribal council. At first it was to blindside James and then it switched to Jean-Robert and obviously there was talk of sending Pei-Gee home. With that the tribe became splintered as we saw that Jean-Robert, James, and Peih-Gee each received votes. James decision to roll the dice and not play his idol may not have been such a great idea. Peih-Gee I’m sure was ecstatic to see two other names up there other than hers! With all the votes tallied Jean-Robert squeaked by James to get sent home. Jean-Robert did not see that coming and James was ticked, ticked, ticked that his name got written down several times. We know Jean-Robert was going to make one tough jury member and the fact that part of the tribe voted for James and part voted for Jean-Robert meant a split in Fei Long. That was not good for the moral of the team. The vote spoke loudly that the tribal lines were gone and that it really was an individual game. Once again Denise was out of the loop being the only one to vote for Peih-Gee which was the original plan by Fei Long to get rid of all Zhan Hu first. She should now know she has permission to side with and vote with whomever she wants!
With only eight players left it seemed that Todd was backing himself into a corner that would not serve him well in the end by targeting James and leaving Denise out of the loop. With Courtney not caring who goes home, Denise being left out and three original Zhan Hu members left (if you want to count Frosti, he has been voting with Fei Long) he had better patch things up quick or he can kiss his alliances goodbye.
Sadly then we had to say goodbye to the always entertaining poker-player Jean-Robert. He played the hand he was dealt, refused to fold, went all in and in the end missed out on a pretty big pot due to the ever scheming Todd. But, we know we haven’t heard the last from Jean-Robert. I’m sure his annoying voice will be ringing loud and clear in the finale for Todd’s ear to “enjoy” once again. This time however Jean-Robert will have the last word and “I bet” it may just cost Todd one million dollars.
© Copyright 2007 Blindigo Magazine | Article written by Niki Tschirgi
