Survivor 20 week 5 post game

It’s week 5 on Survivor and things are about to get juicy, the fallout from Cirie being voted out is being discussed as JT swears that he voted to strengthen the team but nobody is buying. Colby is particularly happy since his head was on the chopping block but as Amanda sits down to talk to JT she is not as joyful. JT pretty much lies to Amanda’s face and says he still with her alliance and will not turn on them. Amanda has finally woken up to JT’s deception and has to finally decide to bring her A game out. She is now targeting JT to oust. The game is about to get turned on it’s ear again as an injury may have taken out one survivor and has another in tears while at the villains' camp guess who found the hidden immunity idol? Go on guess?

It’s day 12 and Coach has talked the villains in practicing his special brand of Tai Chi that he call Coach Chi and how he managed this is unclear but during it does brings some laughs from Sandra, Courtney, and Parvarti who obviously playing along to appease Coach. Only one person isn’t playing along, Russell is still out looking for the immunity idol and doesn’t try to hide it as he walks directly past the group looking. He has spent 3 days digging in the same spot and it finally pays off, he has found the hidden immunity idol, which now changes the balance of power. Boston Rob has been running things up to this point but now Russell finally wields the power he has been looking for. He immediately tells Parvarti that he has it and says they are running the show now. He even makes the mistake of telling her to ride his coattail to the end. Parvarti corrects him by telling him that she doesn’t ride anybody’s coattails. Russell, you just don’t get it do you? You are in bed with the most dangerous player in the game with Parvarti; she will use you as long as it suits her needs then you will be discarded with a smile. Russell says he wants to pull in Coach and Parvarti jumps on this idea knowing the weak minded Dragon Slayer would jump at the chance to be aligned with the immunity idol.

Russell approaches Coach with the idol and wants to pull him in, and of course Coach having no clue to the social aspect of the game falls for it hook line and sinker as Parvarti predicted. Coach even goes so far as to bow down to King Russell and gets knighted by him. Russell brags that he now has the Dragon Slayer on his side, as every King should. Coach says we wanted to play the game with Boston Rob but has now turned on him for a new alliance with Russell. The real winner here is Parvati as she tells us the target is off her back where it has been most of the game and on Russell’s. Sandra and Rob discuss the fact that Russell must have the idol by now since he has been looking for it for 3 days and both agree that they will vote him as soon as they can. Sandra is a another keen player who is lying in wait to take advantage of this situation, and it remains to be seen what move she will make since she has scooped out Russell has the idol. Rob admits the whole personal immunity idol is a new game concept to him since they didn’t exist when he last played. The final piece of the puzzle is Jerri, where does she stand in the game now. She has aligned herself with Coach but he has switched sides and Parvarti hates her. Can the two women work together to remain in the game? It is doubtful since Jerri hates Parvarti too. Russell appears to have a solid foursome to use against the rest of the group of himself, Parvati, Coach and Danielle. Rob and Russell would appear to be headed to a showdown and I don’t like Rob’s odds now since Russell has the idol.

In between this jockeying for position on the villains’ squad, the reward challenge takes place but I won’t say much about it. It is for a prize of a buffet chocolate and the teams are given a sample of what they will get but the heroes’ team especially Colby turn down the chocolate samples. When questioned Colby says it’s game time let’s get to it Jeff, and even going so far to ruffle Probst’s feathers with his direct :let get to the challenge”. The heroes have their game face on but leads to disaster. The match is contest to fight for football between the two teams and get them back to teammates on a platform that will try to throw the ball to a score in a basketball like hoop. During the battle James goes down hard and can’t get up, he has injured his knee so badly he can’t walk on it and must be carried off the field. I will save this about the contest Amanda and Jerri prove to be the better Quarterback than any of the men on both teams scoring goals. Jerri gets sweet revenge after getting dumped by Rupert into fence face first by scoring the winning goal. The villains are off to their reward and James is off to medical. As the exam continues, medical can’t determine how back the injury is and whether James has blown out his knee. The decision is made to wrap it up and see if James can walk. If he can walk he will stay if not he is gone.

Back at the heroes camp JT realizes his game strategy must be adjusted since he was working with James and tries to plan for the bad outcome. Tom is joyful since the target is off his back and moves to James if he comes back with a bum leg. Amanda is now in tears, the usually strong player breaks down and is lost and doesn’t know what to do. She has to have James return to the game or she is very vulnerable and reveals that their relationship is stronger and deeper than I thought. Amanda says that she is James little sister out here and he looks out for her and protect her. I thought perhaps she was just using him but she seems genuine in her affection for him and laments him being removed from the game twice because of injury. The heroes gather around the fire and discuss that James is likely gone since it has been too long since they have heard anything. Amanda looks in vain down the beach for him only to rewarded by seeing the limping James coming up it leg wrapped and still determined to play this game. In a display rarely seen in Survivor, Amanda runs full speed ahead of the group to greet James not caring what results in her actions. She hugs happily hugs James by herself before the other arrives. Their bond is way stronger than I realized. The others greet James but not as warmly with Tom and Candice still targeting the wounded warrior.

It’s Immunity time again and the heroes face another puzzle. The teams are blindfolded to search for giant puzzle pieces that must be brought back before they are assembled and the injured James will be the caller guiding the blindfolded Heroes. Jerri who has done this challenge before is caller for the villains and I believe she even called her team to victory last time. The sidelined James does amazing well as a caller and lead the Heroes to big lead but again the Heroes can’t handle a puzzle. Villains come from behind again and win. The heroes are headed to tribal again.

The usual scrambling at camp begins with most targeting the injured James, JT again doesn’t know where his alliance lies and tells each side what they want to here. He tells Tom that it will be James because that makes the most sense, but then tells Amanda that he is remaining loyal her group. Amanda is doubt since he screwed them on the last vote and took out Cirie. Tom thinks he is okay but still says you’re never safe in Survivor. JT now goes off to talk with Candice and reveals a working relationship that we hadn’t quite seen. The two discuss that they are in control of the game and the vote since they could go either way but agree the smart move would be to get rid of the injured James. At tribal there is plenty of discussion of James’ injury and James goes after Tom for their failures in the past. Tom states that it makes no sense to keep James at this point due to the injury. James still thinks he is better on one leg than Tom, but says if they think Tom will allow them to win keep him. It’s time for voting and the first two votes are for James and it looks bad for him but four straight votes come in for Tom and he is gone. This surprises me as TJ stuck to his word to Amanda.

The result is a weakened Heroes team that I can’t really see getting a member to final tribal since they are done too many members and now have James that will not be able to compete fully in every challenge. I believe TJ voted the way he did because he saw a chance to take out the powerful player Tom because he was too dangerous to remain. I am not seeing how he plans to work this at the merge since he is down in numbers but perhaps he is banking on Amanda’s relationship with Parvarti to swing over to their side. Parvarti is aligned with Russell and idol so I’m not sure they can make an in road there. Colby would seem to be in trouble again but with James disabled, he has more value to the team and might be kept. The person in the most trouble with the heroes team is Candice since no one trusts her and she has lost her main ally in Cirie. The Heroes must make a heroic comeback of else a villain will be wearing the crown of sole survivor.