Australian Survivor – Mon, Sept 12 – Is Phoebe a goner?

Ten are promoting tonight as a Phoebe V Andrew showdown, but no doubt it’s all hype. I do enjoy listening to Andrew’s confessionals and seeing his Penner-style hat.
I hope we do check in with the blue team this episode as we only saw their interaction briefly last night – I miss Nick’s commentary.

Back at camp after tribal, everyone is shocked Rohan actually handed his idol over to Phoebe. We as viewers were shocked, too, because the editors failed to give us an inkling” that Rohan was even considering it.
Craig tells the camera that Rohan sent himself home, and that they are stuffed without his strength in challenges.
Andrew is delighted Rohan went and now has little scrapper Conner in his sights as a middle man who could be potentially be lured by the siren call of Kat, Kristie and Phoebe.
Andrew reckons he’s the only one playing the game. “I have a Ferrari in my brain and the rest are driving Hyundai Excels,” he says. So, Andrew is another one who knows what to say to get the camera time and entertain us here at home. And now we know Hyundai is not a sponsor.
A dispirited Phoebe is trying to chill on the beach when Kat rubs her the wrong way by listing the 1001 things she hated about Rohan. If I were Kat I’d be keeping my distance from Phoebe and showing the yellow core alliances I wanted nothing to do with her. Cosying up to the next obvious target is dangerous.
Meanwhile, Craig has been looking for the hidden immunity idol, using the clue he fluked upon at the shuffle feast, to no avail. (And with Phoebe playing Rohan’s HII last night, does that mean it will be re-hidden on the same beach?)

It’s Day 22 and we get some stunning aerial shots of Samoa (hope this boosts their tourism) and, over at blue beach, everyone is living the sweet life. They have all the comfort items and the fishing gear. Lee is loving having Spidey Sam to buddy around with, but he’s a bit worried he and El will be targets when the good times end. El is confident, however, that give time, they can both play a good social game and forge new alliances.
Back at blue Phoebe goes idol hunting because she has run out of options. Having noticed Craig “collecting firewood” in one area and finding it a bit suss, she has a hunt around and, wallah: idol! Good on you, Phoebe – hopefully you won’t have to play it within the next 24 hours.
Her tribemates are discussing how screwed they’ll be at the challenge without Rohan’s strength, but Andrew’s not fussed: “For me, challenges just get in the way of the real part of the game; which is voting people out.” Hear, hear, Andrew. I really only like the challenges when they go to individual immunity and they are tests of endurance, balance or intelligence, rather than the giant team obstacle course ones that favour the protein shake pack.”
But, since we are getting a lot of Andrew talking, do they try and vote out Phoebe tonight (or Pheobe, as a lot of them think she’s named) and, because they don’t split the votes, Andrew goes home? That would be good TV.

Come on in, guys
JLap has ditched the navy T-shirt for marle grey and his Wolverine-veined forearms are glistening in the sun, but blue tribe doesn’t have time to admire his outfit because they are shocked that Rohan was voted out. Straight away they pick Kat as the mastermind, which is giving Kat more credit than she deserves.
The challenge involves a lot of climbing, balancing and creating ladder rungs, ending in a puzzle. Brooke sits out for blue. Kylie is going to pretty much skip through this challenge and El’s army background will help. I can’t see yellow winning this – they don’t have the co-ordination. I really want an update on Kate’s boil – it might hurt a lot for her to have to stretch her arm so high for this challenge. Poor Sue is a short-arse and can barely reach the top rung.
“Kat, struggling a bit for Vavau,” intones JLap. She teases back: “I’m not struggling, buddy!”
Thanks to Nick, blue knows what the puzzle picture will be almost straight away. He and Magic Matt get to work for blue while it’s Kate and Andrew for yellow.
The result is predictable and yellow will be back at tribal council.

(Side note: The editors are being a bit mean with the Kat edit tonight: First there was a shot of her looking like a dead fish in the shelter, mouth agape and half an eye open, and then in the challenge there was a lingering shot on her backside as she struggled to climb over the obstacle. Just because she’s a “villain” doesn’t mean they need to seek out all the unflattering shots they can find.)


Back at yellow beach, Andrew pulls his alliance buddies plus Conner aside to discuss the vote and has Kat in his sights. He tells Kat that Phoebe is the target.
Coma Kate is worried they are on a sinking ship and has a very roundabout chat with Craig about how much Andrew sucks at challenges because he’s not trying (although I don’t think either of them actually uttters his name). Ooh – this could be fun.
We’d seen Andrew sit out a tonne of challenges but I thought he was just out of shape, but now we learn that he doesn’t even have a go and doesn’t help around camp. Phoebe is gunning for Andrew, too, with her former tribemates. She wants him gone so much she is willing to work with Kat, even though she despises her now.
“He’s shit at challenges,” (now there’s a word you wouldm’t hear on US Survivor) Phoebe tells Kat and Pigtails Kristie, then confesses she found the idol. Kat doesn’t believe her – just show her, Phoebe. Saying “I swear on my life; why would I lie” doesn’t cut it on Survivor. The three of them approach Conner to try and get something started when Andy, once again, appears to stymie the conversation, as he does so often this episode.


Tribal council
JLap has ditched the chinos for some smart casual shorts. I am not a fan of him mixing up the wardrobe. He prods for comments about how surprising it was to see Rohan voted out, given he had muscles. Sue tells JLap they didn’t do that badly in the challenge but no-one is buying that. Kate tells JLap the tribe needs to get some more “oomph” and Phoebe gives a passionate speech about how much effort she puts in at each challenge because she knows she’s in danger. Sue says she tries hard, too, but Andrew doesn’t bother to say he tries and just talks about loyalty.
Kat – who must be thinking they are talking about her being a dud at challenges – announces to everyone she pledged loyalty to the core yellow alliance at the last tribal and the look on Phoebe and Kristie’s faces is priceless. Kristie is great for reaction shots so I hope she sticks around for a bit.
Kristie gets up to vote and Kat whispers to Phoebe: “I’m with you.” Phoebe does not look reassured. We see Kristie vote for Andrew and Andrew vote for Kat.
The votes are: Kat, Andy, Kat, Andrew, Kat, Kat and it’s Kat. Phoebe must be glad she didn’t play the idol – I wonder if she voted for Kat?
A smiling Kat turns to the tribe as her torch is snuffed: “It’s been an absolute pleasure, guys. Play hard. See you on the outside.” Bye, Kat – go home and burn that leopard print thing.

Next time
We just get footage of Andrew blathering about getting his revenge on the “stupid girls” who voted for him.

The vote reveal
Everyone on yellow voted for Kat and, yes, Phoebe did indeed vote for Kat (which I imagine she only decided to do after Kat’s “I’m with Vavau” speech).



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24 Comments

  1. I think it’s a given, tonight, that if the yellow tribe loses, Phoebe’s going home (unless Kat torpedoes herself in front of everybody. Here’s hoping). If the blue tribe loses, Nick’s going home (unless he convinces them to ditch Jenna, which I think is possible. He is the stronger competitor, challenge-wise). Gee it’d be nice if Matt and Sam figured out they need to do something about Brooke and Flick.

    Kat really is a piece of work, isn’t she?

    OTOH, I liked Craig’s confessional to the camera after tribal council, when he realised that they’d accidentally (because they hadn’t counted on Phoebe having the idol) sent home the most physically capable member of their team. Whoops.

    • Totally nailed it! It’s code for “I’m an out and out bitch but trying to present like an honest operator to prevent someone calling me on repeated nasty behaviour”
      Kat – spilling guts inappropriately isn’t straight shooting. It’s just poor play.

    • Yes, or I’m just being honest. That was that bitchy Tahan’s excuse on Big Brother a few years ago. You can be a straight shooter & honest without being rude.

  2. Craig having the idol clue? Great.

    Phoebe following Craig’s path in the jungle on a hunch, and *actually* finding the idol? BRILLIANT. This got interesting.

    Meanwhile, over on the blue beach, I had to laugh when even Lee is interviewing that he’s enjoying all the eye-candy running around. Me too, Lee. Me too.

  3. The look of joy on Matt’s face when JLap pointed out that the final stage of the immunity challenge was a puzzle? That pretty much tells you all you need to know about these tribes, right now.

    I mean, they have Lee and Sam and Kylie (who are all extremely physically capable), and they can sub in Matt and Nick to solve the puzzles. I was really impressed by Nick, actually, for his idea to put the ladder pieces down face-up, so it gave them an extra few seconds to study the puzzle and figure it out before they actually had to make it. That was a really clever idea, and it paid off because they completed it with time to spare (and yellow only figured out what they were doing when they looked at blue).

    Nick might be a snake, but damn it, he’s a smart guy. Props to Lee, too, for telling his tribe-mates to step back, keep quiet and let the puzzle guys work.

    Blue’s winning streak is going to end, at some point, but they’re a very capable team. And with an immunity idol up Phoebe’s sleeves, I can’t wait for the tribal council tonight.

  4. I do like that Phoebe’s helped everybody twig to the fact that Andrew sitting on his arse and being smugly intelligent isn’t actually helping anyone win any challenges. I thought Phoebe was gone, tonight, so props to her if she survives. At the moment, I guess, it’s either Kat or Andrew. I think either of those decisions is a good one.

    Man, Kat just cannot play this game. When Kat began monologuing about her loyalty to JLap, I actually laughed when Conner face-palmed. Yeah, he already learned the lesson about over-sharing at Tribal Council. Kat, hint, hint. Good job, editing team.

  5. Once again, there’s missing footage so we’ll have to fill in the gaps. I’m sure Phoebe was one of the votes for Kat — which is good, because Kat was kind of awful, and wasn’t remotely trust-worthy — but Kristie wasn’t.

    So Kat and Kristie went with the plan to oust Andrew (which Craig and Kate considered, but obviously decided to stick to their original 5-strong alliance), but Phoebe — who was the one trying to oust Andrew to save her own skin — flipped and voted out Kat? After telling her and Kristie that she was trying to save her?

    Old habits die hard, eh Pheebs?

    • As someone suggested above, I think she changed at the last minute when Kat stated outright that she had pledged allegiance to the five. That was a slap in the face to both Phoebe and Kristie but Kristie was too shell-shocked to change her vote.

  6. I think we should rename her pheobe in honour of poor spellers (said the hypocrite who wrote ‘Connor’ for a week because Conner just looked wrong!).
    I like her for having a red hot go when backed up against it and hats off for clocking that Craig’s “walks” were hunting expeditions.
    I agree with Juz – there was no need to make Kat look physically awkward – we were already onboard with not liking her over the catty Rohan hatred.
    I loved tribal council for pointing out that through stupid strategy they had shafted a strong but not bright player – isn’t that the perfect combo that you want to keep for as long as possible?
    Andrew is totally delusional. I can’t wait to see Phoebe getting Craig into an alliance to ditch him, although surely the smart money says Craig is a more serious threat long term? I laughed so hard when Lee said the eye candy comment – immediately I thought of Windsong looking hard at Lee! Too funny.

    • Thanks for thinking of me! 🙂

      Andrew seems really, really smug at how clever he is, and that’s a set-up for an epic take-down at some point in the future. I do hope Craig wises up to Andrew’s crap and enlists a few of the other yellows to take him out, but I think it’ll be a while before that happens (and yellow will knock out Kristie and Phoebe first).

      I think Craig is probably running one of the best games of this season. He’s in charge and pulling all the strings, but in a way that nobody really realises it. On one side, he has Andrew (who’s arrogance makes him unlikeable), and on the other side, he’s got Sue (who’s lovely, but kinda useless in challenges), which is two shields to protect himself with. He could also nudge a vote for Conner as well (although I hope he doesn’t. I like Conner). I think at the moment, at least Craig’s the player to watch.

      I also have trouble with the Connor/Conner thing. The two ‘o’s just looks right, to me.

  7. What a stupid comment from Kat; “At least I went before Rohan. That’s the main thing”. No, it isn’t the main thing.,
    I still don’t like Pheobe and think the reason she was on to Andy’s game is because it takes a manipulator to know one.

    Again the crescendo of the music at tribal ruins any chance of that final moment of suspense.

  8. How stupid is Andy, dissing the value of challenges out of hand. Challenges are the way you show your value to the tribe. Not trying means says that you don’t care about the others (and their comfort),there’s nothing aussies dislike more than a shirker, hence Des’ demise. And you preferably want to stay away from TC as much as possible, to have time to build your social game.

    I don’t like Craig, but I agree that in that tribe he seems to be the most switched on.

    I think it was smart of Phoebe to not show the idol. This way she has planted the doubt but not the certainty.

  9. Thanks for the great recap Juz.
    Damn, I really wanted that smug look wiped off Andrews face & hoped it would be him voted out.
    It was hilarious when at tribal council Jonathan asked who doesn’t know what’s going on & put his hand up too.
    Vavau really need to get their act together. It gets tried seeing the same tribe win over & over & over again.
    How pissed off is Craig going to be when he finds out Phoebe found his immunity idol?

    • Imo it was stupid of the producers to allow an already victorious group to pick their entire new team so that all we see is the same group at tribal every week.

      • Vavau are not in a catastrophic situation because of the tribe selections. They chose to get rid of muscle and to keep deadweight in the form of both Kat and Andrew. They are not outwitting and as a result they can neither outlast nor outplay.

      • Yeah, while I think this seemed like a good idea, the reality of it means that one team was seriously weakened right from the get-go, and they’re in an even worse situation every day that goes on afterwards. I don’t see them making a serious comeback here.

        Like Juz said, the random swap was a much more interesting twist, and much fairer for both teams.

        It didn’t help that it’s taken them this long to vote out the dead-weight, as opposed to the actual useful people, either.

        • And yet, they thew away their puzzle specialist because Andrew told them to and that was before the tribe swap. Andrew was unsuccessful in throwing away Craig only because Sue blocked him. If he had not been blocked Vavau would now have zero muscle and zero puzzle skills. A random swap may have slowed the Vavau catastrophe but any tribe where the majority is voting off useful people to maintain dominance would face the same grim prospect as Vavau. Loser alliances just don’t work.

          • So you’re saying that they were doomed by an idiot in charge, right from the very beginning?

            It does seem like, in avoiding the limelight, Craig let Andrew take the reins, and boy, that was a mistake they’re only now rectifying.

          • It’s perfect storm. They have an idiot in charge. They acquired 2 idiots at the tribe swap.

            Kat was apparently playing Get Rohan, not Survivor. I have no idea what Kirstie is playing but it is definitely not Survivor. And just quietly Connor needs to turn his brain on at some stage.

            And I sincerely hope production will stop giving us Andrew confessionals because I only own so many buckets.

  10. Andrew is Russell, even to the hat, but without any of Russell’s challenge, scrambling or strategic skills. I suspect that production created the vote for Andrew push more or less out of thin air because otherwise their chances of an exciting episode were about as good as Vavau’s chances of winning another challenge under the awesome leadership of Andrew the Great and Powerful.

    Even if the merge happens tomorrow the Vavau 5 will immediately lose Phoebe and Kirstie to Saanapu. As they are then voted out one by one no doubt Andrew the Great and Powerful will continue to give confessionals about his unchallengeable dominance. The more challenges that happen before the merge, the weaker the Vavau 5, or 4, or 3, or 2, or 1 will be in the postmerge.

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