Grid Effect

We’re preempting the Survivor recap by a day and forgoing the links this week. It seems like a good way to kill two birds with one stone: We avoid working on Thanksgiving and we stay up to date on the only series airing a new episode this week. So with that said, onto the recap…

Pre-credits scene, James is still reflecting on his near outing and obnoxiously waking everyone up. See, if JR had done something similar, they’d be lamenting his existence. It’s James? Well, he’s sort of non-anti-social, he gets a pass. Denise is somewhat perturbed that she wasn’t clued in on the voting, and tell James that she feels like an idiot for being the lone vote cast for PG, she ultimately decides to stay with James because of the weight he carries with the immunity idols. I’m afraid I don’t understand this logic. Is it to hope he gives you one?

Credits.

At Hae Da Fung, PG doesn’t seem to have even any casual friends, and just makes a few pointers to James about the fire, which James and Todd clearly overreact to, and describe an innocent suggestion as “micromanaging” and “annoying”. Those are some thin-skinned cats. Todd, naturally is worried about Courtney flipping. And hey, if you can’t keep Courtney on the straight-and-narrow, then you might be in over your head.

At RC, PG and Erik are picking teams. It’s a balancing and coordination challenge, and PG, much like the idiot she probably is, doesn’t hesitate to take James. Really? The muscle bound meathead is still the consensus number one? I’d probably have gone with the nubile, agile Frosti, whom Erik takes second.

The teams shake up like this: Erik, Frosti, Amanda and Courtney vs. PG, James, Todd and Denise. The former wins in an absolute landslide. And back at camp James and PG get in a bit of a tiff about throwing challenges and whatnot. James is absolutely flummoxed that someone could blame him (James!) for a loss, PG admits she is just sour grapes because her wins have been few and far between. I really have a difficult time sympathizing with any of these people. Sure PG was projecting a little, but does James have to be such a smug prick about it? It’s rhetorical.

Nothing about this looks comfortable.

At the reward, they’re on this vintage yet contemporary cruise “ship” floating along the Lee River. Erik is quite successful at bonding with Amanda and Courtney, to which Frosti gets a little insecure about, being that he’s quite close with Courtney. He refers to her as “out of my league”, she does probably prefer the other translucents, so he might be right, but not in a standard social/dating type hieracrchy sense. Grotsequely skinny people are like vampires from what I hear, they like to stick to their own and critique each other’s visible skeleton. Also, Courtney probably has one of the more grating “baby voices” I’ve heard, and I’ve heard more than my fair share.

Mind you, the four of them are feasting, better than I have since last Thanksgiving, and when they go to IC, Courtney still elects to sit out the challenge and eat burgers.

When they return to camp, the four of them play down the details of the reward, to keep everyone’s envy at bay. Probably the smartest thing anyone has done on this season.

In the water Todd is giving a skewed tangent about what actually took place between PG and James after RC. They giggle over his transparency, but for all the wrong reasons.

As mentioned above, they’re tempted with either food or actually competing in the challenge at IC. Courtney, Todd, James and Denise all opt to eat. Frosti, PG, Erik (all three on outside the core alliance) and Amanda all compete. Erik goes out immediately on a really simple memory challenge, though I’m not all malnourished, though neither is he considering the meal he just had.

Anyhow, long story short: Amanda goes out next. PG and Frosti go two more rounds, proving that Asians are our intellectual overlords, before PG wins the elusive immunity.

Back at camp, Frosti is somewhat bitter, and laments the injustice of competing over eating and having nothing to show for it, Erik consoles him a little too intimately. Erik and Frosti are both uneasy about their standing, and I can’t stand why there isn’t any maneuvering amongst the outsiders. If Frosti and Erik sided with PG then roped in Courtney and Amanda (or Denise?!), that’s a 5-3 majority. I’m not certain Amanda or Courtney would go for it, given there relatively comfortable standing, but a semblance of an effort would be appreciated here, as opposed to fucking mayor of munchkin land Todd picking and choosing who stays and who goes with impunity. God is that kid unintimidating.

Also, Courtney is really condescending when speaking about Frosti. And really, he enables her to do it, but if there is anyone I’m aware of in this universe that I couldn’t tolerate talking down to me, it’s Courtney.

At TC, Todd and James explain their reasoning for opting for food over the challenge, and Frosti explains his reason for the inverse. None of the three are terribly compelling, in fact they’re just as dissmissable as I’m making them sound right now. Probst, God bless him, is doing everything he can to make these disinteresting people interesting, but it’s a hopeless cause. We go to the vote. Frosti votes for Erik, Erik returns the favor. The votes read as such:
Frosti
Erik
Frosti
Frosti
Frosti
Frosti
Alright, it was obvious after the second vote cast for him. Frosti goes home, bitching about them eating cheeseburgers instead of competing at IC. That will probably be the determining factor in his jury vote, should it come down to that. Probst announces that they aren’t free to leave Tribal…and they cue up the credits.

So the cliffhanger in the previews last week is the same cliffhanger at the conclusion of this episode? Seems unfair.

In his parting words, Frosti is a bit dishevelled about losing to the “sassy New York waitress” and “the lady with the mullet” but isn’t ashamed. He also breaks the streak of self-congratulatory parting words segments in which the bootee refers to him/herself as the “biggest threat in the game”.

Tonight: James is no longer tolerating lethargy at camp, and Todd presumably confronts him about his confrontation. Yawn, that tryptophan might not be necessary this year.