Survivor: Gabon – Episode 17-11 Recap

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10 Thoughts on Survivor: Gabon

1. And then there were three.
Charlie got voted out as the next victim of the Pagonging, and Randy (being an ass) applauded this as a brilliant move since, hey, it wasn’t him, right?

2. Survivor Auction returns.
Always good to see the auction return. And this time around, we got drama instead of eating. Randy had earned enough ill will towards him that once he won the first award the others essentially outbid him whenever they could. Well, except Kenny, who really didn’t seem to care. The important thing here was that Kenny sent Bob to Exile Island, and Corrine won an advantage in the Immunity Challenge, which I’m sure most people figured was a “skip task one, go directly to task two”. Also fun was the chocolate and peanut butter in a nod to Jenna and Heidi in the Amazon season.

3. When is a cookie more than a cookie? When Randy’s giving them out.
That was pretty much the most intense moment over a cookie in Survivor history. Basically, Sugar declined a cookie and asked Randy to give it to Mattie. Randy refused, and basically had Mattie and Corrine split the cookie, because they were his cookies and he had his rules. He then offered Sugar the last cookie, and out of spite, took it and gave Mattie the cookie. Randy was offended by this, but if he was looking for some gratitude over the cookies, perhaps he shouldn’t have acted like an ass about it.

4. Randy’s master plan.
Yes, more Randy. I feel like John Madden talking about Brett Farve here. Anyways, the plan to focus the votes on himself was ballsy, but there were obvious flaws here. First, Randy’s arrogance did not allow him to believe that Sugar had the hidden Immunity Idol. I doubt that he thought that she had even found it – and given the vote off sequence on Fang there didn’t seem to be any real point where she would’ve needed to use one. Second, because Sugar DIDN’T have the Idol Randy KNEW that Bob would find it, and of course Bob would gladly hand it over to Randy, since Randy’s such a good guy and all. Third, they were going to use the Idol and vote out Susie? Assuming that all this came to pass, would it not behoove the former Kota to use the Idol and get rid of a stronger player like Mattie or Kenny? Even my one-year old daughter threw a fit over that one.

5. Immunity Challenge.
So yeah, Corrine’s note let her go directly to the domino task. I don’t think I’d seen this combination before, and I suppose the reason may have been the logistics in not having the domino knock over the ball without all the tiles being set up. This was pretty close, but clearly Kenny’s strategy of setting up the rear portion of the dominoes paid off as he was able to keep everything aligned there and win immunity. And that’s two in a row for the “weaker” players. Nice to see that they pulled away from the more physical challenges so far for Individual immunity.

6. Setting Randy up for a fall.
So Bob, for whatever reason, tells Sugar about the fake Idol. This may go back to the Sugar/Ace/Bob alliance prior to the first tribe shuffle, but whatever. Sugar somehow keyed into the fact that Randy might bug Bob about having the hidden Immunity Idol, and thus set Randy up for perhaps the most embarassing Tribal Council in history that didn’t involve Amanda choking away $900,000 (give or take) in front of the Jury.

7. Tribal Council.
This one was all about the voting and the end result here. Sugar kept her voice down but let the camera know exactly what she thought of Randy. Crystal made sure that RANDY (and the rest of the contestants) could hear what she thought of Randy. And Randy, of course, played the fake Idol, with the result of his getting thoroughly embarassed as Jeff simply tossed the fake Idol into the fire and the Fang Four laughed (since they knew exactly who had the real Idol). Now Bob kept his word and voted for Susie, but he obviously knew that his vote didn’t count.

8. Sore loser.
On The Ultimate Fighter, Charles McCarthy was nicknamed “Captain Miserable” because he really didn’t enjoy his time in the house and on the show. I don’t know that Randy earned the right to take that title from him, but certainly he deserves the rank of Lieutenant Miserable. And his exit confessional didn’t help things either. Yeah, this couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.

9. Did they make the right call?
Oh hell yes. Randy’s ouster was a long time coming. He always felt that he was in control of the game, but twists and the Fang Four conspired against him. He’s not the first contestant to be caught with a fake Idol (Jaime and Eliza having already done that) but unlike the other two who figured that the Idol was not genuine, Randy was utterly convinced of the authenticity and went down in flames.

10. So who goes next?
Well, common sense says Corrine goes next. But should she get Immunity I see the Fang Four turning on Susie and eliminating her as the Pagonging continues.

That’s all, see you next week!

Kevin Wong writes for Reality Dish, Prime Time Pulse and Inside Fights. He’s rooting for Lance and Lacey to win Dancing With the Stars.

Kevin has been an Insider since 2003, writing on a variety of topics ranging from The Amazing Race to Mixed Martial Arts. His current hobbies include Fantasy Football, Sporcle, travelling, making liberal use of his DVR and wondering what the heck he's gonna do when his two daughters are old enough to date. You can follow Kevin on Twitter (@starvenger).