survivor philippines: "she found a clam. yay. whoopee."

Survivor Philippines, episode 09, air date Nov. 14, 2012

after returning from tribal council, abi attacks skupin for voting for her.  the nerve of that guy!  after skupin denies it, penner steps up and says yup it was me.   she actually sounded surprised and a little bit hurt by it.

penner realizes that he sort of screwed up the vote by voting for abi.  it's hard to believe that a great player like penner had such a major brain fart at this crucial moment.  it turns out lisa's "plan b" comment threw him for a loop and he was no longer clear which plan to follow.  these guys need to come up with some hand signals or codes or something.  is that against survivor rules?  and we learn that carter can count to 10 if he uses all his fingers.

love that malcolm checks to see if lisa is OK, even after she betrayed him.  what a great (smokin' hot) guy!

and then penner has his own tender moments with lisa.  aw, very sweet.  will it help penner win over lisa and save his ass tonight?  i hope so!

#rewardchallenge - again, the teams are split in my favor.  and since jeff tells us it's a school yard pick, now we know why.  and abi gets to sit out because no one picks her - sweet justice!  in this challenge, the survivors have to crawl through mud, climb an A frame, dig for a bag of balls, crawl through rice (awesome visual gag as the rice sticks to the mud) to the final table.  once all bags are collected, they must then throw all 12 balls into a tall, funnel-like basket.  the dream team of malcolm/penner/carter/denise get a HUGE advantage when penner decides to dig out all 4 bags of balls before completing his leg of the challenge.  as team lisa/pete/artis/skupin fall further behind, they seem to slow way down.  i mean artis is seriously dragging ass as he gets his bag and crawls through the rice.  there is some tension at the end because the team matbaw has a hard time landing that last ball but they do and hooray, they win reward!

it's the riceman!

what they played for:  a visit to a local village where the survivors get to deliver supplies and toys to the kids and then share in a native feast.  yay for authentic filipino food!  i definitely see some lechon (roast pig) but everything else goes by so fast i can't tell what it is. for sure there were crabs, shrimp, chicken, beer, rice, watermelon, noodles, ribs, bananas and a whole lot of other food!

funny moment #1:  penner tells the kids that in america his name is normal.  so all the kids call him "normal"

malcolm interacts with the kids *awww*.  malcolm talks about how much he misses teaching elementary school kids *swoon*.  malcolm attempts to hula hoop *drool*.

funny moment #2:  while the survivors sit to eat and strategize, there's a random guy (villager? crew member?  beer wench?) sitting with them.  i hope he gave them some good tips.

meanwhile back at camp, tandang is angry and bitter.  and for some hilarious reason, artis is still covered with rice.  abi decides to give lisa a verbal beatdown because apparently she thinks has been giving all their secrets away by playing the double agent.  um, really?  no, i'm sure abi was the one waving her HII around and telling everyone exactly where they stood in the pecking order last night at tribal.  unfortunately lisa doesn't get to explain anything to abi because as usual, she talks over her and refuses to listen - a typical abi conversation.  artis calls abi a clueless, loose cannon who needs to shut up before she destroys everything.  amen, sister!   now go take a bath.

maybe i can save this rice for later if i get hungry?

#immunitychallenge - this seems like the world's hardest immunity challenge.  i know jeff (now that jeff kent is gone i can stop calling him probst) has said that all of their challenges are tested by the dream team so obviously it's doable.  the survivors had to maneuver balls into 6 indented spots on a large paddle while controlling the paddle by a long handle - i envisioned all the placed balls rolling off as they tried to place the next ones.  skupin and pete manage to figure it out but they are the only ones.  pete loses two of his balls (ha ha) in the final stretch and skupin wins immunity.

during this challenge my husband asks why jeff keeps calling him "scoopin".  really?  obviously it's because he's the one who puts the raisins in the raisin bran.

side note:  at the beginning when jeff goes to retrieve the immunity necklace from penner, is it just me or does carter eye penner like he's a big juicy piece of chicken?

oh

yeah

yum

so penner does not win immunity.  rut-ro!  let's see if penner can scramble enough to save himself a second time.  he works both lisa and skupin to get them to vote with him.  skupin says his loyalty is to lisa and he will vote with her.  lisa is waffling again.  i don't see any real conviction from her that she is going to flip.  abi, on the other hand, is so annoyed with skupin that she wishes he could go home instead.  in fact she tries to kill him with a coconut!  for once skupin's injury is not self-inflicted.

abi tries to get skupin medically evacuated again

as we head into tribal council, tandang is voting for penner (of course) and kalabawsing is voting for artis.

tribal council:
- the newly cleaned, fed and juried jeff kent has acquired a wooly worm on his lip.
- abi obviously has no clue what it means to show grace.  if this is her being graceful i shudder to think what see her bitchy, cantankerous, abrasive side looks like.
- artis claims tandang is the most powerful tribe in history.  i wonder if he'll kiss his biceps again?
- abi calls out lisa as a possible betrayer and may have put the final nail in tandang's coffin.  oops!
- although i'm not really an advocate of giving away an idol, NOW would be a fantastic time for malcolm to give his idol to penner!
- 4 votes penner, 5 votes artis, so long artis!  abi's reaction was priceless as she looks around trying to figure out who did what.  what a marooon!  i'll have to rewind and watch that again, a few times.
- RC is beyond thrilled while pete and abi look despondent.
- so based on this vote, lisa and skupin did not vote together...hmmm.  i wonder if lisa flipped at the last minute thanks to abi and her big mouth?

ohhhh frak.

and just like that, the evil three has been dismantled and the game is now a free-for-all.  the final credits reveal skupin as the betrayer.  it's about time skupin stopped being tandang's punching bag.  now he's less annoying to me and i'm happy to have him stick around a little longer.  it looks like next week we get to see abi grovel and feel like the outcast for once - CAN'T WAIT!

ps - i apologize for the poor quality of my "screen caps".  i had to resort to the old hold-the-tape-recorder-up-to-the-radio method.