Grid Effect

There has been some discussion about the merits of this Survivor episode and whether or not the consist of the most satisfying episode in the history of the series. I would nominate the episode where Tom and Ian convinced Katie to vote out Gregg or the episode last season where Yul swayed Johnathan over to his alliance. That said, this is definitely top five material, possibly more so but I really do not have a rooting interest this season, set aside seeing Stacy not win. Onto the recap…

Pre-credits scene, Mookie and Dreamz are at odds about voting out Michelle instead of Stacy, I like the indifference to Stacy standing in the general viscinity. Mookie camera interviews how ridiculous it was to give all the power to Alex, which I am hesitant to agree with Mookie, is pretty damn stupid. Mookie is livid with Dreamz because now that Alex presumably has so much leverage, he is forcing his hand about the Immunity Idol. Dreamz says, “we go recruit then”, as a counter-argument to Mookie’s paranoia. Dreamz says he voted against Michelle on the basis of her response to Probsts “Give me a reason to vote off Dreamz” question/demand. That’s pretty interesting that Dreamz would allow someone as transparent as Probst to lead him around by the nose like that. No one is supposed to take those answers personally, but I suppose Michelle could have been more discrete. Either way, Mookie and Dreamz are at odds but are in the same boat so they have to tolerate each other. Amazingly enough, Mookie has alweays been in tighter with Alex and Edgardo, but is hesitant to align with the two of them, he wanted to go to the matresses with Dreamz and apparently he was unaware of this. Dreamz, who is skeptical of Alex just unintentionally gave him all the leverage.

At camp, everyone is sitting around in silence, Earl was hoping Stacy would be sent home, but now he is left scrambling. Boo is offering his services, and they want to take out Alex. Earl is skeptical, but realizes he needs the vote. Earl is relishing in his participation of Survivor, and its good to see someone actively enjoying the experience.

At TC, the challenge is the questions about the character of individual members of the tribe. They are trying to guess what the common consensus was amongst the tribe. Each time they guess what the group said correctly, they smash one of their teammates boards. Each person has three boards, the last person goes on a 75 ft yacht.

First question, who would you most trust with your life? Most common answer was Earl. Cassandra Boo and Earl all get it right, they all collectively knock out Stacy.

Next question is: Who are you least likely to invite to a family dinner? Boo is the correct answer, Cassandra, Dreamz, Mookie and Alex all get it right. Three of them knock out Boo and the fourth from Cassandra goes to Alex.

Next question is who has the biggest sense of entitlement: Alex. Cassandra hits Alex and Mookie hits Earl.

Who would you most want to be stranded on an island with: Yau-Man. Its pretty random who they start attacking. Earl and Alex both go to the sidelines, at least the two “leaders” are seemingly on equal footing.

Who would you least want to see after the game: Stacy, She looks hurt because not only is she the correct answer, but they all get it right. Like it has been discussed amongst the tribe or something. Edgardo to Yau Man. Mookie to Cassandra, Cassandra takes Mookie out of the game.

Who smells the worst: Dreamz. Cassandra and Dreamz get it right. Dreamz hits Edgrado and Cassandra knocks out Yau Man, who guessed Stacy.

Who mistakenly believes they are in control: Alex. Cassandra takes out Edgrado. We are now down to Cassandra and Dreamz.

Who has wasted this opportunity: Stacy. Cassandra kncoks out one of Dreamz.

Who has surprised you the must with their athleticism: Yau-Man. Casandra gets it right and wins the game. She sends Mookie to Exile. It seems random and non-threatening. She is allowed to invite three more people, she ends up taking Boo and Dreamz for the sake of strategy to find out where there heads at, and invites Yau-Man out of sincere friendship.

Mookie is bitter about being sent to Exile, and has turned it into a vendetta. He says he has to get in touch with “The four horsemen” and it is done. Why would someone with an alliance of four amongst nine contestants left in the game, think he is in a domineering position?

On the yacht, there is several food item and alcohol, Dreamz who doesn’t usually drink is making no exception here. They discuss alliances and whatnot. Cassandra says she cannot sense in Dreamz’s eyes, the commitment with the alliance. Dreamz admits he is torn. They watch fireworks.

When they arrive back at camp, Dreamz and Alex are debating, Dreamz informs him that his name is going to come up tomorrow. Earl is borderline willing to cut Dreamz when he stumbles onto their conversation.

Dreamz is now under the impression that Earl is doubting him, and he is for good reason. He claims he can tell by how he is looking at him. There is a little too much misguided intuition taking place in this episode. Dreamz tells them that Mookie has the idol. Earl claims he should have known about it beforehand. Because, you know, Dreamz should never be given anytime to weigh his options since he hasn’t been ona team with Earl for the past three weeks. No, he should be steadfastly aligning himself with a complete stranger.

Never the less, Dreamz informs them that Mookie has the idol but plans to loan it to Alex for the night. Since Earl knows the physical makeup of the idol, he asks Dreamz to describe it to make sure he is being sincere, Earl replies inquisitively, “It’s a Turtle?” to appear surprised. Earl eventually lets his guard down and informs Dreamz on his alliances status.

At IC, the challenge is individual now. Good, because last weeks vote was inexplicibly random. Its a balancing, patience challenge, with them standing on these little pellets, in between these planks. They can balance with their hands, elbows, etc. pressed against the planks but once they hit the ground they’re eliminated.

At the get go, since it’s of no consequence to him should this challenge end sooner rather than later, Probst is quit to point out the heat. Cassandra is first to go down. Edgardo, with about 23 minutes in, falls. After thirty minutes they move down a foot hole which is much more narrow. Earl falls. This again benefits those with smaller feet (read: Stacy and Yau-Man), so when Jeff asks those elminated who they think is the favorite, they all say Stacy; who looks pretty calm. After stepping down a quarter inch, Alex falls, Dreamz falls, Stacy is really grimacing, Stacy falls. It’s down to Yau and Boo, Boo keeps making remarkable recoveries but eventually falls, Yau-Man wins, mainly because he has more heart and character than Stacy could even fathom.

Mookie now claims he is going to take out Cassandra’s entire alliance as retribution for being sent to Exile. Alex assures them that Stacy is a member of their alliance. Yau actually approaches her and tells her to vote for Alex but if she doesn’t, then to not vote for Earl. She says that she can agree to that, also camera interviews that she owes nothing to Alex. Well, no not technically, it is Survivor and free will during the voting process is one of its greatest components…But he did save your ass at the last TC. So while you don’t owe him anything, a little gratitude wouldn’t be frowned upon. Either way, she’s at the bottom of the totem pool regardless of which alliance she casts her vote for.

Alex tries to persuade Stacy. It seems ineffectual. Edgrado breaks the news to Alex who is a little too naive with her response. Somehow Dreamz is avoiding all talk of being voted out, so is Stacy. Mookie is now willing to use the idol to save Alex, and the do this incredibly conspicuous hand off, Dreamz tells the Earl faction about this unimpressive move. Obviously, they all agree to vote for Mookie now. Mookie persuades the Alex faction to vote for Cassandra, because he is all so vindictive about spending a night on Exile that everyone seems to agree, is not all bad. Its kind of depressing how uninformed they are right now.

Stacy suggests voting out Edgardo to not let the horsemen know they have the idol. And since they feel like Dreamz might be lying to them, they can heed his some of his advice but not all of it and still cover their bases.

Dreamz is really leaving Alex and them spinning in the wind when he tells the horsemen that the Earl led alliance has no clue they have one of the immunity idols.

At TC, they discuss how crazy the day has been with rumors and such. Probst points out the idol is a little different this year, which we already knew so even if everyone didn’t realize what was taking place, it seems a little suscpicious, but in case you’re not aware, they have to present the idol after everyone votes and before they are read. Dreamz is voting for Mookie but wants to still be friends. Good luck, I have never seen a backstabbing of this caliber on Survivor, but I’m sure he’ll have a good laugh about how you cost him a chance at one million dollars in a couple weeks. The only downside to all this is Stacy, the one who seemingly everyone hates based on the RC, is going to hang around for awhile.
Alex plays the idol and everyone from Earls camp laughs, the vote goes as such:
Cassandra
Cassandra
Cassandra (All the horsemen are sporting some self-satisfied grins)
Mookie
Edgrado (The horsemen’s faces drop)
Edgardo
Edgardo
Edgardo
Edgardo

Wow. That has to be embarrasing for three of the four horsemen. Not only did they play the idol, but they also lost one of their three members. Edgardo was so flummoxed he forgot to take his bag. I am guessing the one vote for Mookie came from Boo, So Stacy is actually ahead of Dreamz and Boo in the pecking order, but still behind Cassandra, Earl and Yau-Man. If Alex, Mookie and Edgardo had played their cards right, they just as easily could have gone with the three of them, Dreamz and Cassandra (possibly Stacy), but they were miserably arrogant. At some point the following were discussed as possible outings: Earl, Cassandra, Boo, Mookie, Alex, and Mookie before it was settled on Edgardo of all people. Great episode.

Edgardo is pretty good-spirited. He was a non-entity on the show, just a vote. We can probably blame that on editing, because he didn’t seem like enough of a prick to get a lot of face time. Amazingly, he already knows it was Dreamz who screwed him, he is either guessing (quite astutely) or the producers told him before his parting words.

Tongiht, Alex and Mookie confront Dreamz. They discover Yau-Man has the other idol and plan on playing the sweet old man with this knowledge. Now that’s how you get the viewing public back on your side: go rummaging through the fan favorites bag. Say what you will about them, you can never accuse them of trying to make friends.