Kim Spradlin Rocks on a Special Survivor Know-It-Alls

In a shocking tribal council, Katie picked the dreaded white rock and became only the second person in Survivor history eliminated on a blind draw. Rob asks if this was a bad call for Katie, and Kim doesn’t think so – she feels Katie and Hayden probably had no shot going forward beyond a deadlock, and Rob and Kim both think it was in the best interest for Tyson, Ciera, and Katie to go to rocks. Tonight’s drama, however, only makes Rob more confused about last week’s vote and Ciera’s realization that she was on the bottom of her alliance with Tyson, Gervase, and Monica. Rob recalls a time in Survivor: One World, around the final 6, when Kim was very worried about going to rocks – the difference, though, being that Kim had two pairs of two who thought they were going with her to the end, while Tyson does not have an “Alicia and Christina” as a fallback.

Rob and Kim have both been very impressed with Hayden’s gameplay; Kim knows he’s smart and socially adept, and she was glad to see him make such a big move after a couple weeks of him either flying under the radar or making a blunder like last week’s vote against Caleb. Rob wonders if Hayden saying “you’re playing for second place against Tyson” makes for an effective strategy. Kim believes there are basically two options, both viable under different circumstances: you can play like that and see what happens, or play more subtly like she and Rob were prone to do. But Kim liked the move and felt Hayden said everything she wanted him to say tonight to the tribe, as well as to convince himself he could pull off the upset. She points out the difference in the execution of this play between Hayden and Troyzan – Hayden came across as reasonable and logical, while Troyzan seemed crazy and had already alienated the rest of the tribe.

Rob asks Kim if she feels Tyson and Gervase mishandled the situation with Ciera’s defection, or if Hayden handled it extremely well. Kim gives all the credit to Hayden on this one, considering Tyson must have been telling Ciera all week long that she wasn’t number four in the alliance and it seemed like Hayden was able to undo that fairly quickly/easily. With Redemption Island in play, Rob wonders if this is still a good move for Ciera. Kim thinks so, as her mom seems to be dominating there and has a good shot of returning to the game.

Rob asks Kim if she saw the CBS promos this week that not only revealed tonight’s vote would go to rocks, but also spoiled that Caleb would lose the truel and end up on the jury. Kim didn’t see them herself, but she heard about them from her family who saw them over the Thanksgiving weekend. While Kim admits there was a lot of adrenaline in the room regardless of how much she knew going into tonight’s episode, she still wishes we could have seen such an incredibly rare Survivor moment with absolutely no prior knowledge.

Gervase won individual immunity tonight and Dr. Rob has officially diagnosed Gervase with a case of “immunity balls”. Kim definitely noticed that he didn’t come across all that likeable tonight and wonders if maybe he did let the immunity win go to his head, or if he’s actually been this way all along and we just haven’t seen it. She says that both he and Tyson are dryly funny, but Gervase came across worse because Tyson has a much bigger reputation as a jokester. Rob thinks it’s probably best for Gervase to tone down that kind of attitude with future jurors.

On the subject of immunity, Rob wants to know if Kim was surprised Tyson didn’t play his new idol. She wasn’t, but only because Tyson mustn’t have thought a deadlock was at all possible, or else he absolutely would’ve played it. Kim says she would have probably played the idol she had in One World (which was eventually given to Troyzan at Ponderosa and then made its way back to Kim) if she had any reasonable doubt about staying in the game, but doesn’t blame Tyson for “wasting” the idol last week or not having the foresight to use it this week.

As part of his challenge win, Gervase also won an ice cream reward. Rob and Kim both thought Gervase did a terrible job of picking people to join him, as not picking Ciera in no way supports their claims that she isn’t fourth in that alliance. Similar to Gervase’s immunity balls, there are cocky comments coming from Tyson, like him telling Katie that there was an open seat for her on the jury, that probably seem funnier to him than they are to the viewers and possibly the other players. Rob mentions that when Tyson gets annoyed, his dickishness comes out, and it’s not going to help him win over a jury that is already pretty cold on him.

It was a big night for strategy, but it wasn’t all plotting and scheming. Tyson opened up tonight about what winning the game would mean to him, and also what it would be like to see his entire game collapse in minutes. Rob asks Kim if she ever had similar feelings, and she says she felt the same way during her last 10 days in Samoa. She definitely identified with the feeling of frustration and sadness that the rug might be pulled out from under you right near the end of the game. Also, the “rustle feathers” debate during the tense Tribal Council reminded Rob of a fight Hayden and Kat probably have had in the past, and he also thought Hayden openly admitting to trying to sway Gervase to blindside Tyson in front of him was very funny.

Rob and Kim could do another hour on tonight’s huge episode, but the Know It Alls wrap up as always by taking your questions. Did Katie miss a chance at gaining a huge amount of leverage from the deadlocked vote? Who was really tonight’s biggest strategist, Hayden or Ciera? Who do Kim and Rob think the jury saw as the winner tonight? Has the purple rock door finally been opened, and could it ever happen again in any season without Red-I in place as a safety net? The answers to these questions and more on Survivor Know It Alls!