Oh come on, I had to use that title. Oh, and I hope you enjoy this new look for the blog. A few people had trouble reading the white-on-red in the other design, so enjoy the bamboo forest.
This episode mostly revolved around Shamar vs. Everybody, so let's start on the other side with the Favourites. Our Faves are truckin' along and are a pretty happy bunch. Malcolm & Corinne have found themselves buddied up & they go off looking for the hidden immunity idol. And... yay!... they find it. Let's be clear about this - it's in Malcolm's possession. This will become important as some of the other Faves seem to be gunning for Corinne. Corinne, it seems, is not trustworthy. I think what this comes down to is Corinne not having a very great social game. When she was on in her season, she was a bit of a cow, now she's trying to soften up but obviously isn't making nice with everyone. Cochran and Andrea in particular have picked her out as a threat.
So, to replace Corinne in the six-person alliance, Andrea & Cochran approach Brandon. How is Brandon a better choice than say, Erik, I'm not sure, unless they're looking for some more people who are nuts to keep around. Brandon tells us that he's in, but he's weary of their offer and he'll go down in a blaze of glory if they try to vote him out. "I'll pee in the rice. I'll pee in the beans." You've got to admire his commitment to being crazy, then not crazy, then crazy again.
Meanwhile Philip's head gets bigger each episode. His Stealth R Us Corp. is strong, no one's fighting with him, he's doing well in challenges, his pink y-fronts are holding together, and he's developed a "cooling system" that involves wearing a basket on your head.... life is good for Philip. He tells us how he's in great shape.... how he plays basketball with men who are half his age and "twice his height." Giants! And, that he's got the moves like Larry Bird, making him "old school." Got it?
But back to Shamar. Shamar has got some issues. He loses his mind at pretty much his whole tribe after they come back from the previous tribal council. Continues to fight with Reynold. Then says he wants to quit. Of course. Why? 'Cause he's not happy. Now... before we all lose our minds at Shamar.... we start to get a bit of why Shamar is Shamar. He tells us that he's done 2 tours in Iraq... that he's seen/done a lot of things that I'm sure we can't imagine, that he had a really tough time adjusting when he got home and became an alcoholic with serious anger issues. And now, if you're Shamar and you have to deal with spoiled brats like Reynold all day... and dealing with these people is making you return to your dark angry place, yeah ok... I sort of can see how quitting Survivor might seem like a good option. I'm not saying I think Shamar would be my first choice for a camping trip buddy, but I think we can all take a step back and 'get' Shamar. Personally, I still like Shamar more than I like Reynold and his crew of 'cool kids'. And so does Sherri.
Sherri totally gets Shamar. In one scene, she tells us how she owns fast food franchises and deals with "snot-nosed kids" all the time (making me think her uh... employees... are not going to be too thrilled to be called that on TV by their boss...). She's smartly thinking big picture and long term. She calls Shamar her "Philip"... meaning that you find the person who bugs everyone the most and you keep them close to you, bring them with you to the end. Right? As long as you are a very patient person. Boston Rob nearly murdered Philip on a few occasions, and I'm sure Sherri's in for a tough one with Shamar. She and Laura were able to appeal to his sense of loyalty and convince him to stay, much to the dismay of Reynold & Eddie & Hope.
At one point, Shamar nearly blows it by telling Hope that she could avoid going home by voting for Eddie. This became the plan - split the vote in case they play the idol. 3 votes for Eddie and 3 votes for Hope. All Hope had to do was vote for Eddie and she could have saved herself. She should have listened to Shamar. Really, what did she have to lose? Oh, gee, Reynold would think she's disloyal. Well, no one likes Reynold anyway, and maybe the others would see that she can work with them. Nope.
Instead, Shamar made his own troops - especially Julia & Laura - freak out. At one point Laura even went over to Reynold and said she'd see if she could get more people to vote for Shamar. Calmer heads (Sherri) must have prevailed because the plan stuck. (Oh, did I mention that the Fans lost the immunity challenge again?) 3 votes Eddie, 3 votes Hope, 3 votes Shamar, no immunity idol in play. (Wouldn't it have been delightful if they'd blindsided Reynold?) So it goes to a re-vote. You can only vote for Eddie, Hope or Shamar. Hope gets the boot. See ya later, dummy. Serves her right for canoodling with Eddie instead of playing the game. Perhaps next time she and Allie should try out for the Bachelorette instead. It kind of annoys me, as I would like to see more strong girls like Sherri who are actually playing the game instead of almost every season having to see dumb girls like Hope get their butts squeezed by guys like Eddie who gets to keep playing because he's a big strong dude. I did enjoy when Reynold & Eddie acknowledged the predicament they're in as "Revenge of the Nerds".... and would invite them to read this blog to learn about why the nerds always ALWAYS do well in this game while the frat boys do not.
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