Australian Survivor – Mon, Sept 19 – are you Team Phoebe or Team Kristie?

Yellow tribe arrives back at camp after the Craig blindside and everyone quizzes Phoebe about the where and when of the idol.
Kristie – who acted so well earlier – awkwardly lies that she only had an inkling that Phoebe had the idol. Even Conner – dear, sweet Conner – thinks her pants are on fire, and he trusts everyone. Sue is not happy. And that’s what you get when you don’t split the votes, people!
It’s Day 28 at blue tribe camp and everyone seems a bit chirpier. They even get to gaze at a rainbow as they talk about wanting to win yet another challenge.


Over at yellow, Kristie is up a tree trying to fish using Rohan’s dacks as a net. Her plan would work better if she stood in the water. And then we get a whiff of Phoebe – rocking a massive topknot – thinking of turning on ally Kristie, who is “a bit weird”. Uh, no, weird in Survivor is Phillip Sheppard, not Kristy of the expressive eyebrows.
Sue and Coma Kate go for a stroll and Sue has to fill Kate in about Kristie’s “Academy Award-winning performance”, because Kate is one of those always think the best of people types (as you would be, after her experience). Sue has the shits about the havoc Phoebe has wreaked on her alliance. How dare Phoebe play the game when the odds are against her!
(Side note: My, we’re getting a lot of footage of pounding waves tonight – does someone’s camp get washed away later? Or did they run out of wildlife shots?)

Challenge time
And we don’t even get a “Come on in, guys”. Blue team cracks up when they see yellow enter without Craig – that kind of “I’m horrified and shouldn’t laugh but I can’t stop” laughing.
The challenge is a memory test – yay! I wonder if the producers had to drop some of the bigger, more elaborate challenges they had planned because yellow has been decimated. First tribe to five wins.
Blue has to sit out FOUR people: Kylie, Elle, Flick and Lee. Magic Matt and Nick should ace this – plus blue has had a lot more to eat – but at least yellow is in with a chance.
The first round involves memorising five objects (coconut, mortar and pestle, tribal statue-type objects) and Nick wins the round against Conner. Conner just can’t catch a break.
Brooke beats Sue – the first person back to the mat with the correct objects wins, so it’s speed as well as memory. Kate beats Magic Matt – ouch, that’s gonna hurt, Matt. Perhaps you should have eaten the chicken.
Phoebe beats Jenna-Louise so at least it’s not a slaughter of yellow, as in previous challenges. Sam and Kristie both stuff it up and get a do over, but as Kristie sprints back her statue topples off the shelf and does not count.
Nick battles Phoebe and super fast Nick kills it. It’s Kate V Brooke and they have to memorise eight items. And Brooke wins and blue gets a meat and seafood feast. Poor yellow – they are doing it tough.


Yellow gets an awesome feast – it’s much better than what they often get on the US Show, with a mixture of fruit and protein. Perhaps it came from the resort a stone’s throw away? Good one, Samoa.
“Eat now and worry about what happens to the guts later,” says Lee.
Cut to poor little depressed yellow team. There is a chicken wandering around but no talk of eating it.
Kristie is determined to pick up everyone’s spirits and goes snail hunting on the beach so they can have a snack. Luckily they taste pretty good. “They do taste like mussel, says Conner.”
As they nibble their snails and put on brave faces, blue team are trying not to throw up from their pig out. “I’ve got the crab sweats,” gasps Nick, clutching a tree for support. He is sooo going to cop it from his students tomorrow morning. Sam spews in view of everyone – charming.

On Day 29 at blue, Kylie decides it’s time to try and forge alliances and get a girl power thing going. Why would you bring that up in front of El, Kylie – don’t you know how tight she is with Lee? Flick and JL are stunned and there is awkward silence. (More Survivor 101: Nod, smile, say “cool bananas” and then report back to your real alliance.) Kylie is really bad at the social aspects of Survivor, but a gun in the physical stuff.


At yellow Sue mentions she reckons Rohan would be a snake in real life – bit harsh, Sue. The talk turns to lying and Kristie again does a bad “I didn’t know Phoebe had the idol for sure). And then the minute Kristie is gone, to try and save her own skin, Phoebe throws Kristie under the bus completely by saying she knew all along.
And then Phoebe pulls Conner aside and tells him Kristie is basically a crazy person and wanted to vote Conner out earlier. Ouchie! Well, now I’m Team Kristie – do we get the merge tonight so she’ll be safe?

Immunity challenge time
“Welcome back,” says JLap, before launching in to: “Phoebe, you’ve had eight losses.” And then they have to stand there shivering while they get rained on.
The challenge involves paddling a boat, opponents pulling a rope to drag the boat back, and doing a puzzle. The winner gets immunity and a huge, secret advantage. Brooke, JL, Sam and Magic Matt sit out for blue.
Nick makes quick work of the knots and drags the yellow boat back quickly. Kate does well but it’s tough in the slippery conditions and they are wearing reef shoes.
The puzzle has a lot of pieces and, from the sidelines, even Magic Matt concedes it looks tough. “Can Nick keep his title as the Puzzle King?” intones JLap. Nick takes a while to find his mojo but gets the hang of it and blue wins yet again. Poor Kate is devo and seems to start crying. Blue team looks awkwardly over at the team they keep thrashing, wishing they could hand over a participation medal.
JLap reveals the secret power is that blue gets to send a player to observe the yellow tribal. Cool. So, obviously, they’ll send Kylie. Just kidding. I’m guessing Matt because they may not trust Nick enough, although he has sworn revenge on his enemies.

Back at camp Phoebe tells everyone they should write “Kristie” and they seem to agree. She and Kate even fist bump on it, although Kate later tells the camera it’s a case of “keep your enemies closer”. Phoebe tells Conner to pretend to Kristie that he’s voting Sue. Conner, who is a terrible liar and is notorious for saying the wrong thing at tribal. We don’t see the tribe discussing how they are going to handle having an interloper from blue at tribal council, but surely they would have.


Tribal council
Ah, the interloper is Brooke! I wish we’d seen the conversation that led to that. Is JLap going to turn around and say: “Surprise – you’re now part of yellow.”
JLap makes them talk about why they each should not be voted out and then, through his questioning, makes it clear to onlooker Brooke that Phoebe has masterminded a lot of the vote outs. Kristie says she didn’t know for sure Phoebe had an idol and the others all say they don’t believe her but she defends with, correctly, saying she never actually saw it. Then she gives an emotional speech referencing her mini meltdown at the start of the game (guess she means the “someone took my bag” Abi-Maria-esque moment”. Kristie is a goner.
And this is when JLap drops the bomb … “Tonight, one of you will be leaving this tribe but you will not be leaving the game.” He reveals Brooke was told before tribal she had the power to take one person back to blue and there will be no vote. Ooh – twisty.


Brooke says she’s been tossing up between Phoebe (but her gameplay is making her nervous) and Sue. And it’s Sue. So, she took Sue in order to have a sacrificial lamb? Sue looks gutted.
As Phoebe rightly says, it’s not 10 versus 4. And then JLap appears wise by tweaking a Mark Twain saying to cheer them up with: “You need to remember what matters is not the size of the tribe in the fight but the size of the fight in the tribe.”

Next time: We see Kate telling Kristie Phoebe betrayed her and it looks like “game on, mole”.

And: So yet another tribal council where no-one goes home. You can tell the producers really want yellow to finally win a challenge, after which they will do a proper merge. I look forward to seeing the Kristie V Phoebe fallout. Will Conner be Team Phoebe and Kate Team Kristie, or vice versa?



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56 Comments

  1. Craig was on the project briefly and they mentioned he suffered horrendous burns years ago that gave him a mental edge. Surprised that didn’t make the edit. He seemed genuinely thrilled when they told him what a gun he was at holding JL up in the air by rope.

    • I really should check out the Project’s website, more, because I’d have loved to actually have watched the interview with him. I hope it’s online.

      • It was blink and you’d miss it. I hope they have him as a guest question reader on Have You Been Paying Attention – he’d be great.

  2. Sue says that Kristie has “been playing the game a little bit still”. Yes, how dare she play the game! I’m not liking Sue, she seems somewhat bitter when things don’t go her way.

    • I’m really not liking Sue at all! What on earth should they do? Sit around discussing grammar? (Sue could do worse.)

  3. I really liked how we cut from Conner trying to organise the group into a coherent unit, to a confessional from Phoebe. “These people have voted me out twice! I’m not forming an alliance with them!” I kinda hope Phoebe goes on a rampage and just takes them out one-by-one.

  4. It’s getting kind of boring watching Saanapu win every challenge.
    I’m glad they didn’t linger on Nick gloating over Craig’s exit.

  5. Did none of them have the common sense to realise that greedily skomping down a rich meal after a month of rice and beans is not the best idea?

  6. Spoiler alert! The blue team wins again. Sigh. This is just a bit sad, now.

    I bet the twist (that one of the blues goes to tribal council to observe) is more complicated than that, though. I bet there’s a hidden, second twist in there somewhere.

  7. It’s horrible, but I’m actually enjoying just how ruthless Phoebe is being. She’s gotta save herself, so she’s immediately knifing the alliance-member she relied on last night to save herself. Oh, bless. Clearly she’s the more dangerous of the two, this is their chance to get rid of her, but they’re doing what she’s telling them to do. It’s very odd.

  8. I had a phone call so missed from the challenge onwards but will be interesting to see if Phoebe’s ruthlessness pays off.

  9. Really, producers?

    You decide to just screw the yellow tribe over *even more*? Was that really necessary?

    I was thinking a merge would happen *tonight*, and I was halfway right, they gave them a shuffle. I can’t imagine why Brooke picked Sue, though. Props to Brooke for realising that Phoebe is a snake and they need to stay the hell away from her, but I can’t imagine why she picked Sue. I was thinking she’d pick Conner.

    • She could have chosen her as the sacrafice if her tribe loses a challenge or as someone that can go with the flow – it’s arguably a sound choice

      • I figured in terms of a sacrifice (in case they lose), that works. But any member of the team would’ve worked for that case. I just can’t imagine Sue turning on her ex-yellow team-mates, except Phoebe.

        • Windsong yes any member can be a sacrifice pick however Sue wouldn’t also present a strategy risk like the rest of them – even Conner has connections in the other tribe he could use. And clearly Phoebe and Kristie were doing something right to survive 3 votes even though they are in a minority.

          Sue seems more controllable.

      • Sacrifice is my bet. That’s why they picked Jenna Louise but she’s been with them long enough to no longer be the easy pick.

  10. I think Phoebe blew it. She should have tried to separate Kate from Connor and Sue instead of turning on Kristie. It is far too early to have a black widow rep.

    • I’m really enjoying watching Phoebe’s desperate scramble to stay in the game, but you’ve got a point. Surely she’s running out of options. There’s nobody left that she hasn’t either lied to or manipulated to get something. I can’t imagine that this isn’t all going to catch up to her, sooner rather than later.

      JLap was pretty clear in pointing out that Phoebe was responsible for blind-siding Craig, and Sue – who doesn’t care for Phoebe one way or the other – will be more than happy to tell the blue team what’s been going on, over on the yellow beach.

    • I don’t know about that. In the US version yes, but these guys are playing as if they are choosing who they wd like to go clubbing with. Except for Phoebe, who is ruthless.
      I also think producers are saving Phoebe. That’s why we aren’t getting normal tribals.

  11. Here’s a great question that was asked in a Facebook fan group: If yellow had won immunity (hilarious, right, but bear with me) who would be their spy and kidnap victim?

    • Lee would be the kidnap victim. There’s no question there. They need muscle, they need someone who’s badass at challenges, and while it’d be good to grab somebody who’s good with puzzles, they need physical strength more than anything else (besides, if they steal Matt, that leaves Nick, and vice versa). I’d pick Lee. Sam would be the second choice, but I would say they’d pick Lee.

      As for the spy, I think they’d pick Kate. There wouldn’t be any doubt or mistrust about her reporting back to them. Or maybe Sue, given her loyalty to the yellow tribe. It wouldn’t have been either of the two girls, and Conner still has that connection to the blue tribe.

  12. Well, that was probably not what the producers had expected!
    I genuinely felt sorry for yellow tonight and when Kylie said bad luck guys…i just yelled ‘fuck off’ to the tv…i hate losing too and really wanted a yellow win…and dont start me on that nancy boy Nick! He was a bee’s dick from getting voted off and now he thinks he’s hot shit! That JL too, she’s a swarmy little minx, watch out for her…
    I have yet to come up with someone i like…maybe Matt, but they will throw him under a bus right after Kylie?

    • How embarrassing for Matt the mentalist to not get that memory challenge. I thought he would ace it.
      Why did they not pick up the items when they fell? They saw them fall before they stepped back.

  13. Well that was annoying…but not unexpected. I was expecting producers would tweek it to keep Phoebe in, but I expected more like a merge. Phoebe is getting all of the air play so the producers weren’t going to let tv gold leave. But I wish they had.
    And yet again Favau gets crippled so that their chances of Survival become even more diminished. I wonder what tricks producers will pull next week to save Phoebe AGAIN. Will it be putting a clue to an immunity idol in her backpack?
    And Kylie, when no one likes you, and won’t even let you have a place to lay your head, you don’t throw yourself under the bus by suggesting to the brat pack-in group that they might like to follow your lead. “Flick, are you going to tell the boys she said that?” HELL YES.

  14. I thought that the observer would be swapped in to vavau, for the person who was voted out. I wonder if sanaapu thought that also,and chose a relatively expendable person to be the observer. I also wonder if Brooke will have to explain her choice to her tribe. Her face when stuff was being revealed reminded me of how oblivious each tribe is of what is happening at the other.

    I really can’t understand what is going on with Kylie. I think she’s great, she is of great value to the tribe, seems personable, and yet they treat her like a pariah. What aren’t we seeing? Is it just that the pretty girls don’t trust a female who is obviously strong (typical school-yard bullying)? Or is it purely because she came from a different tribe? Or has she an abrasive side to her personality that the edit is hiding? It is annoying me, and the other girls’ behaviour last night really turned me off them.

    I wonder at what point the rest of the tribe realise that Lee and El are becoming romantically involved.

    • I think Kylie is not young enough to be one of the “pretty young things” but young enough and attractive enough to be seen as a threat. Though they have seemed to accepted El but I wouldn’t class her as one of the mean girls.

  15. Thanks for the great recap Juz.
    How fucked up was that? At least they should have swapped some Sanaapu people as well. Really not happy about that.
    I was hoping they would still have the after effects of their feast & lose. But no of course not.
    How fantastic was that feast? Better then any of the US rewards.

  16. The orchestral crescendo before preceding an eviction, or as in last night before declaring if the memory game was vorrect, is having the opposite effect of creating suspense. It’s a give-away to the result.
    I hope if they do AS again, they learn from this mistake.

    • Daisy absolutely agree – the muzak is a pain.

      I’m not sure I actually like all the machinations with “surprise” announcements at tribal council. All up it’s kind of diluting this whole game for me. “You’re going to tribal council … oh hey, guess what, you’re swapping one person, … oh guess what you’re being picked by the other tribe to join them.”

      So it’s not really tribal council anymore, it’s just a get together to hear the latest BS move. My concern is that it starts to lose credibility as a game with rules.

  17. Now things are moving, Survivor is holding my interest. At least it’s beating that awful Zumbo show in the ratings. Block romping home most nights. Last night I was glued to JonBenet murder thing on channel 9, so watched Survivor quite late.
    I quite like Phoebe will be surprised if she makes it much further. Guess everything hangs on whether she can find another immunity idol.

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