Oh, it's a sad day for me. And maybe for you... You all know my fondness for Penner. He's pretty much my all-time favourite Survivor. And he's gone.... He worked so much magic to stay as long as he did, and I think he was pretty close to staying again but for one mistake. More on that in a bit.
Let's go back to Abi. Our little pouty Shakira was in fine form, only this time she turned on her brain. It's like she hasn't had much brain all this time and only now did it kick in. If I had to classify Abi's brain it would be 95% "All About Me" and 5% "How to Win Survivor... For Me". Thankfully - for her - that 5% of her brain woke up. It started with the 95% when she was crying and pouting to everyone about how mean they all were to her, and how awful it is to be her and have to deal with people being mean. My favourite was her talking to Penner asking him, "What do you have to say to me?" Uh, what do you mean? "I think you should say sorry to me." He tried to explain to her that she "could have been friendlier," but she just wasn't having any of it (surprise!) so in the end the two hugged it out while everyone else stayed silent.
The reward challenge was the Survivor Auction. Now, everyone knows that there's always a clue or an advantage as part of the Survivor Auction. Thing is, everyone is hungry and everyone figures that even with an advantage, there's no way Abi can not get voted out, right? Right? Wrong. Everyone stuffs their faces except Abi, who waits for it (cue 5% of brain) and gets the advantage thingy, using all her money. The way she figures it, if she goes home, she'll be eating well soon anyway so why bother spending the cash on food. Again, way to go, Abi's brain! (Aside: I really enjoyed when Jeff showed Carter a baked potato and pronounced it "potatuh" a whole bunch of times. "You can take this baked potatuh, or you can trade the potatuh for bags of rice & beans for the whole tribe. Will he take the potatuh?" Hee.)
Where were we? Right, so the note Abi bought says that she can advance to the final stage of the immunity challenge. Again, cue brain. Brain tells her to pretend that the note also tells her there's an immunity idol. So, she goes off pretending to look for it for most of the day & then tells Malcolm that she's not going home, because she has the idol. Later, at the challenge, when Jeff asks her to read the note aloud, she says, "Jeff, I only have to read part of the note," and reads the actual part about the challenge. Then she rips the note into tiny pieces and litters it on the ground saying, "I have to tear this up so that no one will read the other part." Brilliant! Who knew the horrible little vixen could be so clever? Whether or not they believe it remains to be seen, but it's at least a very good try at playing the game. Damn, girl.
The note proved to be a huge advantage, as Abi managed to win the challenge vs. Carter and Skupin, who were both probably pretty tired from competing in the previous 2 portions. You (and by you, I mean me) have got to hand it to her, she did good. Don't get me wrong, I still can't her and there's no way on god's green earth that she's going to win this, but yes, this is what the game's about and this is why this show is so good. Now, what looked like a sure thing is no longer.
Now the six faithful allies have to turn on each other and here's where Penner's mistake cost him the game. Remember last week when Lisa & Skupin asked Penner to commit to a final four alliance and he didn't want to commit right then? Yep. Now, he's probably done in Carter too, as Skupin, Lisa, Malcolm and Denise did make that final four alliance (unless of course, Carter wins an immunity challenge, which would be awesome.) Lisa is SO fixated on being loyal (or at least appearing to be loyal) that she wouldn't budge on her alliance to Malcolm & Denise. Penner tried to talk her out of it and was clearly super frustrated ("Lisa has lost her mind again....") and then he tried working on Skupin by telling him that he has a way better chance against Penner than he does against Malcolm and Denise. And here is Skupin's fatal error that will cost him down the road. Penner is totally right. It's going to be ridiculously hard to beat M & D in the final. Malcolm STILL has an idol.... why is no one thinking of blindsiding the guy with the idol???? What the....?
Anyway, Penner went out in true Hawkeye Pierce fashion - giving Carter a hug, telling Abi he doesn't want to hug anyone else, telling them all to "suck eggs!" and then going out whistling down the path... then disappearing, then reappearing, still whistling.... ahhhh... you gotta love the guy.
(Seriously, am I the only one that loves Penner this much? I have a feeling this is the case. Like for reals, I want to invite him to my house for a bbq. Is that weird?)
Next episode is the family visit one, so prepare for lots of crying. There was an odd preview where we see Malcolm's brother - who proves that bad hair does run in the family, and perhaps screws things up somehow for Malcolm. Good fun.
I miss Penner already.
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