Good morning all! Its Monday morning so that means its time for your:
First of all, a big ‘ol FReeper welcome to “proud American in Canada”. Our newest Survivor Ping List Pingee!
The Yaxha Tribe: (blue buffs)
Amy, Brian, Brianna, Gary, Jamie, Lydia, Rafe, and Stephenie
The Nakum Tribe: (yellow buffs)
Blake, Brandon, Brooke, Cindy, Danni, Judd, Margaret, and Bobby Jon
The Losers:
Jim, Morgan
The show opens with Nakum stumbling around in the dark. They have just returned from Tribal Council where they voted out Jim. Bobby Jon comments about Tribal Council. "It seems like that's where I live. It seems like I'm paying rent at Tribal Council. I'm ready for it to change."
The next morning, the Yaxha are kicking back and relaxing comparing their “tribal unity” to the dysfunctional Nakum tribe. Life is good at Yaxha, and not so good at Nakum.
Tree Mail calls them to the Reward Challenge, Where Jeff describes the challenge. A giant spiderweb has been strung over a large pool of water. One at a time, the Survivors must sprint up a ramp, over a net run to the web, where they must climb underneath it and gather hanging bags. After untying a bag, they must drop into the water and race with their bag back to the start, where the next person would be waiting to leave. Each tribe member must attempt to get a bag once. If they fall in the water before reaching a bag, they must return empty-handed before the next person may start. The first tribe to gather eight bags wins the Reward which is a collection of fishing supplies.
Jeff says go and both tribes prove adept at navigating the course. Yaxha’s Rafe has trouble which briefly gives the lead to Nakum. However, Nakum’s Judd also has trouble and the race is quickly tied again. The challenge remains neck and neck until the very end. Brian and Blake race to the finish line, each with their tribes eighth and final bag. Blake manages to squeak out a victory for the Nakum tribe, sending Yaxha back to camp empty handed.
The next morning, the Nakum tribe puts their new fishing supplies to good use. Blake and Brandon quickly haul in a large amount of small fish. Enough to provide the Nakum Tribe with a much needed meal.
Meanwhile, over at the Yaxha camp, the tribe has been reduced to foraging for ants, grasshoppers and tiny minnows. Everyone is hard at work, trying to find food with the exception of Morgan, which Gary quickly notes to the camera. “ "I love Morgan, but you got to work around camp if you want your tribemates to be on your side." Is there a crack in the “tribal unity” at Yaxha? Only time will tell.
Back at Nakum, despite having had a good meal, Blake again begins to cramp and hyperventilate. Margaret, being the good medical person she is, begins to mother him. This does not pass unnoticed by Judd who comments: “Blake just rests all day so he's got all his strength and his energy to go into all these Challenges. I want to be the hero next Challenge." Do I detect a hint of jealousy in the good doorman from New Jersey?
The tribes once again are called to the Immunity Challenge. This time it’s a good old-fashioned tug of war in a pit of mud. Both tribes are tethered to each other and the first tribe to drag the other to their side of the mud pit and grab a flag would win that round. If, after 15 minutes, neither tribe has captured a flag or has a noticeable lead that match would be declared a draw and we will then go to one-on-one challenges. The first tribe to capture 3 flags would win Immunity.
The tribes are tied together and Jeff says GO! And pretty much as you would expect, the tribes are evenly matched. The 15 minutes goes by quickly and Jeff announces that the first match is a draw. The first one-on-one match pits Judd against Gary. Judd initially gains ground on Gary, but then the match stalls. Gary tries to run back and tackle Judd, but since Judd was closer to his flag, all he succeeded in doing was giving the match to Judd. Danni makes a cryptic comment (to anyone who will listen) that Gary was a quarterback and not a lineman. The camera pans to the Yaxha tribe to show the puzzled looks on their faces. The second round pitted Brandon against Jamie, with Brandon easily winning against an unprepared Jamie, giving Nakum their second flag. The third round has Jamie again (Why? Who knows?) against Judd. After an initial early lead, Jamie quickly bogs down in the mud, while Judd digs in and keeps up a steady tension wearing Jamie down and with only a few seconds left in the round, Judd kicks it into gear and drags Jamie through the mud to win Nakum’s third flag and the Ugly Idol. Yaxha would attend that night’s Tribal Council.
On the way back at camp, Brian asks Gary about Danni’s allegations that Gary was a quarterback. Gary attempts to squash the “rumors” with a not-so-enthusiastic “Who me? Nah, I’m just a landscaper.”
After washing off the mud from the Immunity Challenge, the Yaxha tribe debates who will get the boot at Tribal Council. Jamie wants to boot Stephenie (for no other reason than she has already played and lost this game before, why should she be given another chance). Gary however wants to keep the stronger tribe members and boot either Morgan or Lydia (while strongly suggesting Lydia.) Amy agrees with Gary, but Brian comments that despite being physically weak, Lydia hasn’t “lost us any challenges” and that she is one of the hardest workers around camp. The same unfortunately, cannot be said about Morgan. Who with a vote of eight to one became Yaxha’s first boot later that night. As he snuffed her torch and sent her on her way down the walk of shame, Jeff snidely comments “For all this tribes talk about unity, there was clearly one member who was blindsided by tonight’s vote.”
Again, for those who either cannot or will not view the videos at the SeeBS website, here are the transcripts of the comments made during the Tribal Council voting and the Bootee’s final words.
Brian (Votes Morgan): First vote for Yaxha! Morgan, I’m voting for you because I overheard you telling Jaime that he can’t trust me. And don’t you dare try to mess with my fishmonger! Nobody messes with my Lydia! I hope that this works. It was kind of last minute.
Morgan (Votes Lydia): Um, believe it or not Lydia, this is going to be one of the hardest decisions that I make while I’m out here. You are a fierce competitor. You’re a really hard worker and you can do anything you put your mind to. But I made a promise and I’m keeping my word.
Gary (Votes Morgan): Morgan, you’re a great girl. I think you did great in the challenges. This is all about camp life. You’re not working and contributing to our team in the camp. Had to vote for somebody.
Brianna (Votes Morgan): Morgan, you’re a sweet girl. I truly did trust you. But you didn’t really trust me.
Jaime (Votes Morgan): I told you I was going to do anything I could to save my girl Lydia. I’m sorry you couldn’t listen and vote for Brianna.
Lydia (Votes Morgan): This was not my choice. But now I know what you mean when you told me, “What would you do if you were placed in this position when someone had asked you?”
Amy (Votes Morgan): I’m voting for Morgan. Baby girl, literally this was a last minute team decision. Good luck.
Stephenie (Votes Morgan): Morgan, you did awesome out here girl. That’s nothing against you. It’s just all part of the game and I’m going with the numbers. It helps my strategy. See you on the outside.
Rafe (Votes Morgan): If someone told me on the first day that I would be voting for you now ???, I would have called them an absolute liar. You better believe that I’m going to win this thing for you. I love you.
MORGAN'S FINAL WORDS
Wow, I just didn't really see that one coming...at all. So I'm not mad or anything at them personally. I mean that's just the nature of the beast, that's the way the nature of the game. I just feel really naive for not seeing it coming, but I'm really happy with the way I played the game physically. I didn't really think I was going to be able to perform that well in physical challenges and so... You know, I don't really know why I got voted off today. I guess I'll just have to see. Either way, it was just such an amazing experience just to be a part of this, it's more than I could have ever dreamt of. Here I am, I've never even left the country before, and I got to live in Guatemala for almost a week. I've done a lot of things I didn't think I could do, so it's given me a lot of confidence in that respect. And I've met a lot of really great people. So it was worth this feeling right now. Yeah, I learned a lot about myself. Maybe I don't know people as well as I thought I did. I thought that physically I wouldn't do very well, and socially I would be strong...I think maybe that didn't happen (laughs). It's just really humbling.
I wouldn't have done anything different. Maybe I would have talked a little less alliance at the beginning, and just enjoyed the experience. I think we've seen this game played so many times, we're so worried about who we're going to align with, we start to lose focus. Maybe I would have done that a little differently. But other than that, I'm really proud of myself.
By the way, not meaning to tout my own horn but (I’m gonna anyway!) I would like to point out that all the spoiler websites out there had Amy getting the boot Thursday night. Yours truly was the only one who had any faith in my lovely Irish lass and had Morgan getting the boot. (So I don’t feel too bad about getting the winner of the Reward Challenge wrong.)
Well there you have it, 2 down, and 14 more to go before we get to our final two.
Have a great day, & I’ll be back Thursday with my Weekly Pics.
Take care,
FReepmail me if you want added to, or removed from the one, the only, Official Survivor Ping List.