Grid Effect

Pre-credits scene, we are walking back from what’s being labeled the Best. Tribal. Council. Ever. Everyone is whispering like they’re trying to coerce someone into sex. It must have been a really rewarding Tribal Council for all of those involved. Mookie and Alex however, are livid, and are abut to engage in some angry hate sex. Seemingly everyone else is elated except Dreamz, who was concerned that yet another alliance was slow in informing him, and he is way to hesitant for any coitus. But Stacy, Earl and everyone else sold him a load of bullshit and he bought it. Naturally Stacy has to reming us why no one liked her in the first place when she says of Mookie and Alex, “They’ll be lucky if they get fed”. Trust me, Stacy, no one has releied on you for anything since they got here. No one. And literally, if she somehow ends up winning this thing, I will be done with this show.

The following day. At this point Alex and Mookie are really feeling defeated and are just waiting to get booted. Dreamz is trying to claim he was loyal to them, they want to believe it due to their dismal numbers, but they cannot let themselves. Apparently he’s trying to make nice simply for the slim chance he has at final two, and the repair work is for increasing the odds he might have at their votes.

At RC, they are split into two teams. One teammate is slinging these makeshift balls into a muddy marsh where the rest of his/her teammates and opponents are standing with giant cones, attempting to catch the flying makeshift balls. They are split into two teams, Mookie is firing for one team, Stacy for another. Both teams miss. Boo scores for orange then Mookie steals from the green, giving them a 2-0 lead. Stacy hits Dreamz and his team is down 2-1. Mookie goes down on one shot mixing it up with Alex, he groans a lot and explains to Probst, “I think my ACL is broken”. I know he’s under durress, but first of all, you tear your ACL, second of all, he couldn’t roll around like that if he did. He gets up, flexs his knee and it makes this horrific pop, and they continue. Obviously Mookie used to play soccer. Anyhow, they are now tied 4-4, Stacy hits Dreamz to win it for the green team, which also includes Earl and Alex. They send Boo to exile because he’s been on Moto the entire time and they go straight to reward douched in mud.

At reward, Alex is predictably going to attempt to get back in the alliance. I have to tell you, I couldn’t be subserviant towards someone like Stacy. They shower and she tries washing the acne off her face but to no avail, then get dinner in these brightly colored robes. Stacy is bitching about Alex’s awkwardness and being typically overly judgmental. Alex asks Earl what the pecking order is and tries to claim Mookie wants to go home, which is nonsense. Earl throws it right back at him and says precisely for that reason he might stay.

Back at the island, Mookie is perseverant. He now believes Yau-Man must have the idol because he is always at camp, him and Alex decide to go search his bag and sure enough they find the thing. They start contemplating how they can use this somewhat inconsequential knowledge to agitate everyone. Apparently it’s against the rules to steal it, which I’m opposed to. If you’re clever enough to attain the thing then you should be clever enough to be forced into concealing it.

Cassandra and Stacy are accidentally eavesdropping while toasting to being the only two remaining women. As ridiculous as the toast is, it’s not nearly conniving enough to fault them for it. I mean, it’s not anywhere near as conniving as looking through Yau-Man’s bag. Before the revelation that two people were standing directly behind them, Mookie describes this ruse as, “Two great brains working together”. They start fantasizing about what an explosive Tribal Council it is going to be…until they discover the two women right behind them, then continue to talk like they’re not still there. I kind of like seeing them go out like this, it’s petty and immoral, but what the hell? They’re never going to see any of these people again and maybe it can break up the predictable monotony this episode is going to be. It’s a damn shame to, I would have loved to have seen that TC.

(Wood Harris (Avon Barksdale) is in an upcoming episode of Numbers…It’s still not enough of a reason for me to watch a cop drama on CBS.)

Apparently Stacy and Cassandra couldn’t hear them specifically which seems implausible, Mookie and Alex go running to find Yau-Man and give him the option of either telling everyone on the tribe about his idol, or letting them do it for him. Yau is fairly level-headed about it, realizing its a desperate move for two players grasping at straws he more or less says, “Do what you have to do” and is quick to point out that it isn’t immediately necessary he uses it.

He tells Stacy, Cassandra and Earl and they all agree that Yau’s interpretation of the story is that they threatened him. Apparently the term “threatened” is being thrown around a lot these days. It is kind of relative to the context of the game, it’s not like they were going to beat him senseless if he didn’t do what they said. Dreamz seems to take it personally, and ironically he’s one of the people Yau is most concerned with. He sees a potential outcome where Dreamz and Boo migrate over towards Mookie and Alex, ressurecting the “four horsemen” and making it a 4-4 split. Everyone continues to overreact like Alex and Mookie gangbanged his wife or something, it really isn’t that big of a deal. In fact I think they should have been allowed to outright steal the thing to make it interesting. Carelessly leaving your bag lying around like that with the idol in it should have possible reprecussions.

At IC, they are plaing some weird game where they selct three squares on a grid that are consecutive, then attempt to knock out the squares on everyones grid. The idea is to be the last one standing, like an elaborate form of battleship.. It’s to complicated and I’m not getting paid enough to detail this, so this is going to be fairly vague and unless you watched the episode it’s going to come off as incomplete.

Several people call out numbers and hit targets that they do not know who they correspond with. The first two people hit themselves, and it’s impossible to know you’re potentially doing so until you get a general idea of where you’re three boxes are. Earl is first to go, then Stacy knocks out Dreamz and Boo with one shot. This challenge is embarrassingly simple-minded, not because Stacy is having success at it (well partly as a result of that), but because it rests so heavily on blind fucking luck. Cassandra goes out, then Mookie is the fourth eliminated. Alex and Yau both have one square left and Stacy has two, her next turn she hits a coordinate that has all three of them but since she has two squares to their one, she wins immunity at the challenge that requires no strength, strategy, communication, intellect or agility. Congrats, Stacy!

Alex keeps claiming he isn’t going down quietly and that he has every intention to go out, guns blazing. He claims his skill set as a lawyer will help him in this endeavor. Why do all lawyers deem themselves wordsmiths? I have yet to meet a lawyer that impressed me with anything other than overt knowledge of some obscure court case from the 80’s.

Earl and Dreamz have a telling discussion about how integral luck is with the challenges, to the point where he states, “Fucking Stacy won today and she’s incapable of doing anything.” Maybe that’s an embellishment but that’s the implied meaning. For whatever reason, Boo is paranoid that either Mookie or Alex have the idol so they are going to divide up their votes 3-3 and force out the mythical idol that no one has and still send the other contestant home Brilliant. I like all this scheming to oust two people with eight remaining. Apparantly solidifying a spot in the top six is the goal now.

Mookie and Alex are claiming persecution like everyone who ends up at the bottom of the totem pool. Jeff calls the two of them out for rummaging threw Yau-Man’s things, especially since they implied that all they’re opressors are either snakes or rats (Personally, I’d rather be a snake). Alex implies with a lot of hyperbole how none of the alliance members can trust each other after the two of them are outed. And it is an absurdly large alliance.

The votes go as such:
Alex
Alex
Mookie
Boo
Mookie
Mookie
Alex
Mookie

Quick question, since Alex voted for Mookie ensuring his stay this is all moot. But if Alex had followed Mookie’s lead and voted for Boo, and the votes cast towards Alex and Mookie had been equal with neither of them having the immunity idol, causing a stalemate, does that mean Boo goes home? It wouldn’t make any sense but still, it wouldn’t surprise me.

In his parting words, usually people are a little more surprised about how things went, Mookie says he is appreciative and is kind of relieved, but a part of him wishes to still be back in the game. Nothing even remotely interesting or memorable.

Tonight, Alex tries to be neither seen nor heard, and the Arrested Development reference there is entirely too easy. Boo annoys everyone with his chatter, which seems out of character and there is a challenge that involves eating food dangling from a ceiling with both hands tied behind their backs. Classy.