SURVIVOR GHOST ISLAND EPISODE 12: “GIVE HER EDIT ONE LAST HUG”
I spent 29 hours in transit from South America to get back home.
Then I had to binge watch four episodes in a row of Belgian Mole within an hour of landing because I was interviewing the host of the show the following morning.
That interview ended about four hours ago (I interviewed him for nearly 3 hours! Belgian Mole is the best) as I then caught up on Survivor: Ghost Island.
Here’s a very brief recap filling in the gaps while I was gone:
Michael plays an idol; the backup person everyone wants to go is eliminated anyway.
Malolo vs. Naviti narrative doesn’t exist as Donathan and Laurel have been aligned with Wendell and Domenick for a while.
Donathan finds an idol.
Domenick finds a fake idol.
Angela is penalized.
Desiree tries to swap to Malolo even though a Malolo doesn’t really exist. She goes home.
I thought we were going to get the long-awaited unmerge twist at 10 as we have two tribes for the next three episodes. Nope, it’s just the Survivor: Fiji twist but with more individual immunities in play because there aren’t enough hidden immunity idols and extra votes in play.
An idol and an extra vote are played at two Tribal Councils where the next two players on the bottom go home regardless.
Michael was -this- close to saving himself if he had written Laurel’s name down and abandoned the Malolo mirage as much as Laurel did.
Production repeatedly bashes us over the head that Dom, Wendell, Donathan, and Laurel are the dominant alliance and Laurel is the obvious goat to take to the F3, Donathan is the favourite who has to go at 4 or 5, and Dom and Wendell are the next Avi and Tom who could have an awesome showdown at FTC.
Challenges have been very generic and boring except for Angela’s sea slug swallowing.
Now we are on day 30. Let’s get this out of the way so I can do Survivor NZ and Survivor SA.
***
ANGELA
CHELSEA
DOMENICK
DONATHAN
KELLYN
LAUREL
WENDELL
Previously on Survivor: There was a surprise twist and past mistakes came to haunt again as Donathan played his idol but didn’t need to, and Kellyn played her extra vote to take out Laurel but it was Michael who was sent to the jury.
Which curse won’t be reversed–er, who will be voted out tonight?
LAVITA
NIGHT 29
Kellyn comes clean about her extra vote to everyone and her attempt to take out Laurel.
POST-MERGE REWARD CHALLENGE #3
For today’s challenge, they’ll retrieve a sandbag then move through a series of obstacles to the finish then land a sandbag on a small table.
The winner receives ribs, chicken, burgers, pastries, and ice cream.
Quick explanation. It’s just a notch above the marble drawing challenge from HHH with their loved ones.
And sure enough, it’s a freakin’ loved one’s visit. Here commmmmmmme the tearrrrrrrrs.
Wendell Sr. is introduced as the original Wendell.
I like Wendell Jr.’s blue bandana.
WENDELL SR: He is our hero.
He could’ve been on TAR Canada 6.
PROBST: Give her a last hug.
Kellyn’s older brother Clay appears. Kellyn jumps up and down like she’s on a spring. She is prancing around like a deer. Hilarious. They love the Survivor family.
PROBST: Give her a last hug.
Donathan’s Aunt Patty and Selma come out. Where’s Jubjub? Hell, Aunt Patty is like a Kentucky version of Judi Dench. She talks about her job at the DMV.
PROBST: Give him a last hug.
Angela’s daughter Paige appears. Paige is a quick sprinter. Angela pets Paige’s hair while she talks.
PROBST: Give her a last hug.
Chelsea’s younger sister Sydney appears. Probst talks to Sydney but not Chelsea. This running joke hasn’t stopped since I was on vacation.
PROBST: Give her a last hug.
Laurel’s older brother Frank is summoned. He is a rock.
PROBST: Give him a last hug.
Sebastian’s younger sister Grace shows up. Sebastian says she is pretty.
PROBST: What is the feeling of hugging your little sis?
SEBASTIAN: I’m at half mast, Probst!
Nah, just kidding. Grace is Sebastian’s sweetheart.
PROBST: Give him a last hug.
Domenick’s non-blood wife Kristen shows up. So much crying.
KRISTEN: I love you and hate you so much.
Sounds like the start of a Drake song.
For the third time out of the loved ones, the loved one is referred to as a rock. Kristen’s anxious rambling is subtitled due to the emotion.
PROBST: Give him a last hug.
He went 9-for-9. Impressive, Probst.
***
Finally, the challenge. Donathan’s tumble at the end of the initial balance beam is hilarious.
Angela shimmies across the beam after everybody else is on the second or third obstacle.
Laurel isn’t skinny enough to dig a hole for herself to gain a lead, but Sebastian is. Since Sebastian’s aim has notoriously sucked all season, he can’t land the sandbag right away. He keeps missing. The aim has been his kryptonite since day one.
Domenick is second to dig a hole for himself somehow. He starts throwing. Sebastian can’t land to save his life. Domenick has two really close calls, but Sebastian wins reward on his 20th toss.
Challenge is over.
Sebastian picks Dom to go on reward with him. Then Wendell. He has one more pick to make. It’s Donathan.
It’s a reward split down gender lines. Now one more decision to make. It’s all on him to decide who goes to Ghost Island. The twist is that because Angela had the No Vote penalty that the advantage on Ghost Island is automatically awarded. One of the four who won reward will have to make the sacrifice otherwise one of the losing four can decide who gets the advantage.
Wendell volunteers to make it easy. Wendell Sr. is told to GTFO. Kellyn is upset by the males going on the reward.
GHOST ISLAND
DAY 31
When Wendell gets to Ghost Island, Probst tells him to give the boat driver a hug.
Nah, just kidding. Wendell earns the same secret advantage that Malcolm had on day 38 of Survivor: Philippines. It’s the challenge that Malcolm said at the Philippines reunion show that he thought Parvati had won in Survivor: Micronesia.
Yeah, this is getting very meta.
REWARD
DAY 31
Dom gives Aunt Patty his word that he is looking out for Donathan.
LAVITA
DAY 31
Kellyn is upset as she makes it into a gender thing.
KELLYN: He wrecked somebody else’s family visit which PISSES ME OFF.
Dude. You weren’t even entitled to that family visit in the first place. Just ask the casts of Survivor: Fiji and Samoa.
Kellyn, Angela, Chelsea, and Laurel are going to bring in Donathan into their alliance and target Wendell at Tribal Council because he has more idols and advantages.
Laurel thinks this new alliance might be mutually beneficial but is afraid of Dom and Wendell playing idols. I mean, Dom and Wendell will be impossible to beat at the end and will be tougher to blindside as the expiration date on idols fast approaches, but sure, be hesitant on taking one of those two guys out.
INDIVIDUAL IMMUNITY CHALLENGE #5
I swear Probst just said, “Window is coming back from Ghost Island.” He takes back the talismans as only one is up for grabs today.
It’s a very familiar immunity challenge. Have they done it since Survivor: Philippines? I know we have had a lot of ball-balancing immunity challenges, but not sure how many times this specific one has been repeated.
The challenge begins. We have way too many “Concentrate and don’t move” immunity challenges over the past several seasons. Sigh.
Kellyn drops.
-TEN MINUTES ELAPSED-
A second section is added to the cylinder. Angela couldn’t get the ball up. Wendell drops, but he uses the freebie and they restart the second round.
Wendell is out a few seconds later anyway. Probst says the curse continues. Yes, all two times.
-TWENTY MINUTES ELAPSED-
A third section is added to the cylinder. There will not be any more rounds. Sebastian practically sets his cylinder down on the board as the ball falls off.
PROBST: You don’t really get much Wiggle Room.
Except on Rob Has a Podcast.
Laurel is out.
Chelsea drops. Her immunity streak ends at two.
Donathan crumbles. Domenick wins individual immunity for the second round in a row. This is the fourth time he will be immune from elimination post-merge. Legacy Idol, last round’s talisman, and now this. Good luck voting him out before day 39.
Kellyn says the Naviti family is over. This should be fun.
LAVITA
DAY 32
Domenick and Wendell decide it is time to vote out Chelsea because they don’t want to worry about future challenge beasts.
Angela wants to target Wendell. Kellyn views this as her sweetest victory so far. Laurel is quiet as Kellyn, Chelsea, and Angela all commit to the plan.
We cut to Angela approaching Donathan. Then Kellyn and Chelsea approach for Donathan. Donathan is also quiet as he agrees to the plan.
***CHELSEA HAS A POST-MERGE CONFESSIONAL!!!!!! EVEN PURPLE KELLY GOT A POST-MERGE CONFESSIONAL SOONER THAN HER! CHELSEA’S CONFESSIONAL COUNT IS NOW UP TO 4 FOR THE SEASON! HOLY CRAAAAAP!*****
ANGELA: This is gonna happen. It’s gonna be f–king epic.
(DONATHAN frowns and nods.)
Yeah, Donathan seems so on-board with this plan.
Wendell and Dom talk to Laurel about what’s going on. Wendell is sensing a weird vibe.
Donathan and Laurel are in the jungle. Donathan wants to take Wendell out now, but Laurel is more hesitant. Donathan is extremely worried they won’t have another shot to split the two guys up.
DONATHAN: It’s either go big or go home, girl.
Way to plagiarize Lloyd from Belgian Mole.
Laurel’s dilemma is as follows: She knows she can’t beat Dom and Wendell on day 39, but doesn’t trust everyone else to get her to day 39. She knows the two idols they carry could make it impossible to eliminate them after this round.
TRIBAL COUNCIL #13
(GONZALEZ)-(JACOB)-(MORGAN)-(BRENDAN)-(STEPHANIE)-(JAMES)-(BRADLEY)
(CHRIS)-(LIBBY)-(DESIREE)-(JENNA)-(MICHAEL)
X
(ANGELA)-(*ifDOMENICKif*)-(DONATHAN)-(KELLYN)-(LAUREL)-(SEBASTIAN)-(iWENDELLi)
Donathan says there is an opening within the Naviti Six; he is very confident about this shakeup. I think Donathan is trying to bait idols into the open.
Kellyn acknowledges Donathan always drops truth bombs at TC. Laurel is hopeful she can cash in on the cheque.
Chelsea acknowledges she is in a vulnerable state. Now moving on. . .
Donathan says the women and the men are trying to bring him in for a blindside.
Kellyn admits the loved ones visit knocked her off of her current game plan.
Chelsea is spoken to by Probst for a second time and gets the episode title. Now back to our regular programming of speaking to Dom.
Donathan says there -could- be a blindside. Could.
It’s time to vote. Donathan returns to his seat with an evil grin on his face.
Probst tallies the votes. Pounding drums play in the meantime. So much suspense. Wendell looks down at his idol then back at Probst. Oh, my word.
FIRST VOTE: WENDELL
SECOND VOTE: CHELSEY
THIRD VOTE: WENDELL
FOURTH VOTE: CHELSEA
FIFTH VOTE: WENDELL
SIXTH VOTE: Chelsea
SEVENTH VOTE: CHELSEA
One vote left.
FINAL VOTE: Chelsea!
Why the exclamation mark?
CHELSEA: Good battle, sir.
WENDELL: Good game, lady.
So formal.
Chelsea’s torch is snuffed the second she got a confessional. How appropriate.
I have a feeling Donathan and Laurel expected Wendell to play his idol.
Next Time on Survivor: When you’re caught red-handed, the consequences could be dire.
Chelsea is grateful for the experience and tried to make a big move.
CHELSEA: I went out with a bang.
She didn’t know what type of edit she was gonna get, did she?
***
Wow. Wendell didn’t play his idol. After being the target since the merge, it amazes me that Wendell has managed to hang onto his idol through every single Tribal Council. Either he is being reckless or brilliant. So far it is the latter. Will it be possible to blindside him or Dom at this point? They must know Laurel and Donathan will definitely want to take a shot at them very soon. Donathan and Laurel may have made the wrong decision tonight and hoped paranoia would draw an idol into the open, but they’re not playing for third place either.
Sebastian. Jenna and Chris were his only allies. So where the hell does he stand now? We know absolutely nothing about his current position other than he took a bunch of dudes on the reward. We didn’t even get a private confessional about exactly why he chose the way he did, and what he plans to do moving forward. We know nothing.
Sigh. I hope Sebastian goes home next episode because it is going to be odd to have somebody make it into the finale when we have no clue where they stand. There is a difference between being under-edited and invisible.
Angela and Kellyn are very tightly aligned. Kellyn was surprisingly emotional in this episode as she was very angry about not going on the reward. Now she is on a path to abandon her anti-Malolo agenda and to take out Dom and Wendell. Angela said she is a fan of stirring trouble so anything like this catches her attention. Not to mention Angela has been on the bottom so frequently this season that she finds the self-destruction amusing.
Donathan is the wildcard right now. I am curious to see if he’ll just be knocked out as a fan favorite at four or five, or if no one will know what the hell to do with him and eliminate him now.
Laurel is playing a very calculated and cautious game. She has been very loyal to a specific alliance and for some reason has been offered to join many legitimate alliances since the merge. She has ratted out all of these deals to increase trust within her original alliance but is mounting a big FTC thrashing for herself. She is the projected third-place goat on day 39 unless she can prove to be a bit more dynamic over the remaining seven days.
Everyone is hoping for some big action next week, and I think we’re going to get it. This group of seven is reminding me a lot of the dynamics of the final six from Survivor: Fiji. All we need now is a truck deal.
***
Poor Chelsea. She sat out of challenges, Probst never gave her any credit and talked more to her sister than Chelsea herself in her own boot episode. Tragic.
