Terry gets terrifying news from home and we lose two contestants.
We all see whats happening here, right?
Its Dr. Will all over again.
Credit: Monty Brinton/CBS
Who the hell is Dr. Will, you ask?
Dr. Will was the winner ofBig Brother2.
Will Kirby was his name.
Still is, as far as I know.
(In one of his in-house raps, Mike Boogie rhymed the word party with fellow contestant Hardy.
He was quite the wordsmith.)
Seriously, this was their greatest concern.
They couldnt understand how people less cool than themselves had somehow come into power.
It was their worst high school nightmare come to life.
But then something weird happened.
After all of his Chill Town allies were voted out, Dr. Will stuck around.
Eh, we can get him out anytime, many people reasoned.
Week after week after week, Will was going to be the next to go only he never did.
Do I even need to tell you that he ended up winning the game?
Will was smart and savvy.
Are we now watching this exact same scenario play out again with Spencer Bledsoe?
Getting rid of Shirin, Monica, and Woo before Spencer?
Seriously?!?!
What happened to getting rid of the biggest threat when you have the chance?
Especially when that person is not part of your numbers and has no real allegiance to you whatsoever?
I give Ciera a total pass on this weeks vote.
But what were Abi and Kass thinking?
(I actually know what Abi is thinking: something about someone being dead to her.
Most likely Woo, because she still has not gotten over those two votes he gave her.)
So Spencer lives to play another day.
Thats good news for him.
Its good news for me.
Okay, lets get to it and recap an episode that saw bookend eliminations at start and finish.
This is never a good sign.
An even worse sign is Jeff Probst showing up at your beach.
Terry, he whispers.
I need to talk to you for a second.
I just got a phone call from your wife, and your son, Danny hes in the hospital.
Both your wife and the doctor think that its serious enough that you should go home to be involved.
I wouldnt be here if it wasnt serious.
Monica chose to stay in the house and in the game.
For Terry, the choice was obvious.
Ill go back, grab my bag, and then well go.
Little does he know that they were planning to vote him out at the next opportunity.
Its worse than a medevac.
Its worse than anything onSurvivor, says Kass, and shes right for multiple reasons.
For one thing, its your child, and no pain nor worry can compare to that.
That is first and foremost.
Luckily, this story appears to have a happy ending.
So, you know, kind of like Abis knee tendon.
Okay, lets bring it back to the island and get to the reward challenge.
Angkor walks in and then Bayon.
But where is Ta Keo?
Doesnt the losing tribe usually walk in last?
Always talk about how awesome whatever product that bought airtime on the show is.
My favorite: the look of shock when you see who is missing from the other tribe.
They voted out Shirin?
CRAZY?!?!?
Its actually not crazy.
And it causes folks like Wiglesworth and Ciera to shed tears once they are informed of the circumstances.
After that, Probst asks everyone how theyre enjoying their current tribes.
Jeremy says that they have a nice little family on Bayon.
Savage says, This four are unbelievably tight of Angkor.
Of course, when Probst does this it can only mean one thing: tribe switcheroo time.
Which brings us right back to all those shots we love of contestants feigning shock at the announcement.
Why do I say feigning?
Because they all already know they are going down from three tribes to two.
And how do they know?
For Savage, it is music to his ears.
The three most beautiful words in the world for me drop your buff.
Anyway, lets meet our new tribes.
(Paging Chuck Woolery!)
And the man always delivers.
He is truly the gift that keeps on giving.
And he is about to give again in this next challenge.
The reward competition is aSurvivorand creepy-voyeur classic the slip n slide.
First tribe to three wins.
Or at least the cartoon version of Stephen that appeared to be running down the slip n slide course.
Seriously, that was not an actual human running, was it?
And then it gets worse.
Which is to say, better.
When the producers are openly mocking you via musical cues, you know its bad.
This causes Jeremy to yell at Stephen, You got to have confidence in yourself!
This approach shall hereby be known as Cochraning.
Im not going anywhere, he proclaims in the jinx of the century.
But then things start to get dicey.
Huuuuuuugeblunder by Andrew here.
1: Ask instead of tell.
This way you allow others to reveal their hands while you keep your cards hidden.
The second part of this is: Dont volunteer someone else as the pawn.
Or volunteer for it to be you so that others can see how trustworthy you really are.
Savage blew it on this one.
He dictated instead of allowing others to make what would have likely been the same decision anyway.
Over on Bayon, Joe is being sneaky.
He tells Kelley Wentworth that she has work to do to stay alive.
Therefore he targets Kimmi and tells Stephen that she is a liability in challenges.
And this leads to…crying?
Like, an absurd amount of crying!
At least I think thats what he says.
Honestly, there was so much blubbering going on it was hard to make out the exact words.
But I actually get it.
Most of these players have been obsessed with getting another opportunity to play the game.
Throw in a lack of food and lack of sleep, and it is #SurvivorBreakdown time, baby!
Still, to see this from Stephen was surprising.
The match is tied 2-2 when we get to a Woo and Kimmi battle over pigs brain.
My gift is to let Woo eat some pig brain.
Translation: Kimmi Survivors most famous vegetarian refuses to eat it.
I actually dont have a problem with this.
Kimmi decided it was, so if that is where she draws her line, then so be it.
After Woo wins to give Ta Keo the 3-2 lead, we move on to scorpion.
I knew I would too.
Im terrible with food.
First off, Im a super unadventerous eater.
So, yes, I eat like a 5-year-old.
I also have a super weak stomach.
So, this is definitely not my jam.
But heres the thing: The scorpion wasnt bad.
Not bad at all.
It was just super dry and hard to get down.
So I got smoked.
But it actually was not bad in the least.
(TheET Canadaguy who looked purple for an hour after trying it may disagree.)
Wentworth beats Ciera at the scorpion so it is on to most infamous of food challenge dishes: balut.
I cannot emphasize enough how much balut grosses me out.
For those not in the know, balut is a partially formed duck embryo.
That means you’re able to see the face and the beak and even taste the feathers.
I am honestly concerned I may vomit on this keyboard right now just thinking about it.
It makes pigs snout look like mint chocolate chip ice cream.
Balut is my personal Vietnam.
But is that really the case?
Sounds like Woo just sealed his fate.
Ive been wanting to play with Savage the whole time.
I just think hes a really good guy and someone I can trust.
Because Savage is still intent on getting rid of Spencer.
Nowyoujust sealed Woos fate.
Speaking of which…DOES NOBODY KNOW WHAT IS HAPPENING IN THIS GAME?!?
All these guys are completely clueless right now.
Why Woo and not Savage?
So many other questions, though.
Why would Kass want to keep nemesis, Spencer?
Why would Abi turn on Savage after running to him on Ankgor?
And is Fishbach still crying?
(Perhaps that last one is less relevant but still worth asking.)
We head to Tribal to see if it will be Calm Kass or Chaos Kass.
Is Chaos Kass even on this season?
For all the big talk, we havent really witnessed her this go-round, and neither has Andrew.
I havent seen Choas Kass yet, he says.
I have seen a loving, loyal Kass STOP JINXING YOURSELF!
I dont have doubts about tonight.
SERIOUSLY, THIS IS NOW HARD TO WATCH!
And it is indeed Woo who is voted out.
How would they fill all that confessional time?
And whom would we hear from during voting?
So two more contestants are now gone.
It didnt work out for them for drastically different reasons, but the journey ends in both cases.
However, your journey has only begun!
And finally, for an endless stream ofSurvivorscoop, follow me on Twitter@DaltonRoss.
Did Savage blow it?
Did Kass make the right move in ousting Woo instead of Spencer?
And should Jeremy and Tasha follow Fishbachs plan to take out Joe?
