Back at the beach after the Ron vote, Devens tells the rest of the tribe that the idol came to him anonymously from the Edge. If you remember, there has been chatter this season among the castaways that all the idols and advantages are only coming from Extinction Island. Certain players know that to be false. But (at least from what the edit shows us) it seems to be readily accepted that, if not all, at least most of them are coming from an outside source; i.e. not to be found on the tribe beach.
Devens knows this and smartly tries to keep that in everyone’s mind. He knows that since he just played his idol, it’s bound to have been re-hidden. He wants the opportunity to search for it again without having to worry too much about someone else finding it first. However, Lauren is one of those that knows there are idols to be found, having done so herself. And while she doesn’t outright tell the others, she does let her suspicions about Devens’ claims be known.
Devens gets up in the middle of the night to begin his idol search. After what seems like hours of searching, he indeed finds another idol. And as great as that is for Devens and his fans, it makes you wonder what the other five players are doing. They all agree Devens has to be the next to go. They all know an immunity win or idol is all that can keep in the game. And yet, even knowing that, they make no serious effort to play watch dog on Devens. There are even shots showing them talking about keeping a closer eye on him!
And yes, there is the edit factor to consider. For all we know, they were keeping a close eye and he found the idol in a rare moment when he was able to sneak away. But still, I got the impression that it was largely all talk.
Reward Challenge
For this challenge, each player has to toss a ball onto an overhead track and then run through a rope course to the other end and catch the ball. If the ball drops, they have to start over. They do this with two balls. After completing that, they dig sand out from a wood beam and crawl under the beam. Then they finish by landing both balls on a narrow overhead perch.
The first part of this challenge was great. I’ve said it a few times before, and I’ll say it again here. There’s just something entertaining about watching people hurt themselves for our entertainment. I don’t think I need to clarify this (I hope I don’t, at least) but I’m of course not rooting for anybody to get hurt. But if someone – Julie in this case – trips and falls, and then does it again…and again…and again…I’m going to thoroughly enjoy that.
Anyway, Gavin wins and has the never-enviable decision to make of who bring with on the reward. He first chooses Victoria, which makes sense. He backs up this pick with the fact that Victoria has missed out on rewards and has really been struggling. Once he used that as the criteria, it was a bit of a surprise when he then chooses Lauren over Aurora, who arguable is in a worse position from a food standpoint than Victoria.
Normal reward challenges are surely not on the same level of the loved ones visit, but each one still presents an opportunity to flex your social game muscles. And to the game’s credit, it’s often tricky waters to navigate, especially for someone in Gavin’s position. He is in a (fairly) strong alliance of four, so somebody had to be left out. Now to be fair, it should have been obvious that Aurora was clearly in the 4th spot in that group. But still, any time you ruffle some feathers is a time you’re adding risk to your game.
But that’s also part of why these moments are small but great. Any time the show forces someone to make a choice, it’s doing something right. Every choice is a chance to strengthen or weaken your position in the game. This time it had no real effect for Gavin, but it’s moments like this that can potentially swing the momentum and flip the game.
Reward/Vata Beach
At their poolside feast, Gavin, Victoria, and Lauren all agree Devens is the one to go if he doesn’t win immunity. That’s no surprise. But for their back-up plan, Gavin and Victoria would want to target Julie; Lauren’s not so sure. She has been vibing with Julie lately and isn’t certain she wants to cut ties so quickly.
Back at camp, in one of the best sequences of the season, Devens starts fake idol hunting. And why does he do this? No reason, really. He just wants to mess with everybody else. And with as much fun as I’m sure he had, it also plays from a strategic standpoint. If everyone else is watching him and worried about him, they don’t have time to work their strategies or firm up their own plans.
Extinction Island
Apparently all the players wrote themselves a letter before the game started, and tonight they received those letters to read aloud to themselves/us, and, well
Side note: How sad is it that LC isn’t coming back for The Hills: New Beginnings? I mean, yes it makes sense, but come on. But I digress. This isn’t the time to delve into my unabashed love for The Hills nor my excitement for New Beginnings next month. Back to our regularly scheduled programming.
So yeah, this whole segment was dumb. I could have done with almost literally anything else.
Immunity Challenge
There is more to this challenge, but really it just comes down to the word puzzle. They each have to get their puzzles pieces to the puzzle station, but then it’s all about the puzzle. This time it’a six word phrase: “Not living on the edge tonight”
And speaking of puzzles, let’s take a quick time-out to revisit one of the best sitcom bits in recent memory, certainly one of the best of New Girl’s entire run: Winston and his puzzling. I don’t know why I don’t incorporate this more into these recaps. It’s a natural fit. Anyway, take a couple minutes out and enjoy.
And welcome back to the Rick Devens Show as pulls out the win, cementing his security through another vote.
Pre-Tribal
Devens and Julie want to target Aurora, as she is clearly on the bottom of the Gavin-Victoria-Lauren-Aurora foursome. And while we never see a consensus, we see discussions between Gavin & Lauren and Gavin & Victoria about switching the vote from Julie to Aurora. Everyone views Julie as much less of a challenge threat, thus making it easier to vote her out out later. Aurora has proven herself time and again to be a major factor in almost every challenge, so if they have a chance to vote her out now, maybe it’s the time to do it.
Gavin seems to be equally fine voting Julie or Victoria, but Victoria isn’t completely on board. It also doesn’t sit well with her that Lauren is willing to go ahead with the switch with our without Victoria. Keep all that in mind as we move to Tribal Council.
Tribal Council
Devens once again owns Tribal Council. He puts on a great show for the jury, who continue to all be willing passengers on the Rick Devens Hype Train. Never missing a chance to make a splash, Devens pulls out his idol, telling everyone he is going to play it for Julie. However, when the time comes, he keeps the idol for himself, because duh. It turns out not to have mattered though, as the threat of that move was enough to get Gavin, Lauren, and Victoria to vote for Aurora along with Devens and Julie, sending her to Extinction Island. But was there more to it than that?
Remember, we saw Gavin, Lauren, and Victoria discuss the possibility of voting out Aurora. It didn’t seem like Victoria was going to be swayed, but you never know. They for sure could have come into Tribal already planning to vote Aurora instead of Julie. If that’s the case, Devens stole credit for a move for the second week in a row (last week with Ron and his idol performance). But hey, perception is reality and right now the perception likely is that Devens is controlling these moves. He’s already a jury favorite. Combine that with his challenge wins and flashy idol plays, and you have someone with a big head start at Final Tribal.
And speaking of Final Tribal, the season finale is already next Wednesday. Devens looks to be the front-runner, if he can find his way into the Final Three. That’s not going to be easy, though, as he is clearly the biggest threat in the game. But I’ll get into that and more with my finale preview next week, out either Monday or Tuesday.
