By Guest Correspondent ChoHey, it’s Cho and I’m actually interested to see how they edit this episode after the shit carnival that was last week’s merge episode. Tonight is an hour-long double boot which means you’re bound to miss some rapid fire information. Thankfully, you have this Survivor 39 recap to catch up on all the finer details!
Everyone is miserable after the last tribal council, but especially Karishma. She’s having a mental breakdown, because she’s realized that she hasn’t lived up to the potential she thought she had for the game. A rat also crawled on her mouth the previous night which would make anyone go insane. Everyone views her as a goat, and Norua OF ALL PEOPLE gives a scathing confessional about how worthless she is.
Finding Strength Through Struggle
Karishma bemoans the fact that she has no friends in the game but is happy to have a husband who loves her for her. Karishma then goes on to find an idol. When Karishma returns, Norua asks how she only got two coconuts after a two-hour search! HA! Karishma plays the sick card which is the perfect cover considering her tribemates think she needs medical attention.
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The twist is revealed at the beginning of the challenge: after being split into two random groups, one person from each group will win immunity. Each group will then vote a person out in two separate tribals! This is intense. Elizabeth, Elaine, Karishma, Missy and Tommy are in one group. Aaron, Noura, Dan, Janet, Lauren and Dean are in the other group. This makes both Janet and Karishma EASY targets for both tribals, but I suspect there will be some backstabbing this episode!
Noura wins for purple, but jumps off in excitement, excluding the purple group from winning PB&J. Elaine wins for orange who gets a huge ovation from her tribemates. The most exciting part of this twist is that the two groups won’t be able to strategize with each other as purple is going back to a separate camp!
Dan & Janet Reconnect
On purple, the scheming begins almost immediately. Aaron says it should be a 2-for-one tribal with Karishma & Janet leaving. Noura doesn’t like the sound of that, and feels like it would be better to get rid of Aaron who is the biggest threat and hasn’t won immunity for the first time. Janet is ecstatic about this new lease on life and has a heart-to-heart with Dan. Wow. After the shit storm from last week?
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Dean is a slippery snake that snakes people and has decided that Aaron leaving isn’t good for his game. He recognizes that Janet is still a major threat to win this game. More importantly, he says that Aaron leaving leaves a bigger target on his back. Dean is snakey, but he’s a smart snake. He takes his thoughts to Dan who is now in the swing vote position. Dan is happy to have reconnected with Janet inside of the game, but Dean is persuading him. There’s a lot of oscar-worthy acting in the orange group as the majority tells both Janet and Aaron that they are safe. One of them is going to be blindsided hard tonight, and I hope it’s Aaron.
An Unlikely Swing Vote
Missy’s happy to have a power play in the works: she wants to send Tommy home to separate him from Lauren and take out a huge threat in the game. She says no one is going to award Karishma the million dollars. I don’t know about that. Karishma is not good at playing the goat, because she’s being really dismissive of Missy. She says that Missy has yelled at her at camp and she wants to talk to everyone around camp. Karishma literally walks away from her. It’s nice to see her stand up to Missy. Immunity idols sure do have a way of giving Survivors a backbone!
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Karishma is furious about the way Missy has been speaking to her. She feels as though Missy has bullied her in the game. She exposes the plot to backstab Tommy to Elaine who is surprisingly ready to write Missy’s name down. Tommy and Elaine approach Karishma with genuine compassion to work together whereas Missy feeds her a bunch of bullshit. Missy is the best actor we’ve seen in years. She’s so believable. I’m still disgusted by her behavior from last week, but she needs the million to sleep better at night. Missy is so methodical, diabolical and convincing. Will Karishma go with the good guys or Missy and Elizabeth?!
Double Tribal Councils!
At the purple tribal council, we get right into how this twist impacts the game. Dean says that it’s concerning to be split into groups where you might not have your close ally. Noura starts opening her mouth about how this is an opportunity to switch the game up. Aaron and Janet both feel like they are in the hot seat. I just don’t think Aaron realizes how hot his seat is! Rob says it’s Aaron going home while Sandra says it’s Janet. Jeff reads the votes: Janet, Aaron, Aaron, Aaron and Aaron is blindsided! At least he delivered a great apology.
Now we get to the next tribal council, and the orange group is literally shocked by Aaron being voted out. Elizabeth and Missy both expose themselves as being tight allies with Aaron. We then have a lengthy discussion about how Missy and Karishma fight often around camp. Missy takes specific issue with Karishma labeling her as a bully. Karishma digs in deeper and keeps her stance that Missy is a bully. Karishma does NOT play her idol, and Jeff reads the votes: Missy, Tommy, Tommy, Missy and the last vote is for MISSY! Wow. Missy takes a long time to leave to the point where Sandra says “Ok Missy, it’s over.” HAHA!
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I guess tonight’s episode was a small redemption from last week’s disappointment of a show with both villains leaving. How do you feel the game will be shaken up with those two major blindsides? Let me know your thoughts in the comment section below. If you like what I do here on the site, be sure to support me in my other ventures elsewhere on the internet!
I totally forgot to post my comments. They are more about the Ponderosa than the show. But I do think both tribes made the best decision. They both got out strong players.
But I wanted to talk about how fanstastic THE PONDEROSA is this season. I wanted to pull a few extra photos just because I am wide awake and had some time. I thought I would just add a couple of photos to the pile that Cho sent. And I had seen the photo of Missy with the sandy face and liked it. So I went looking for it and could not get ANY of the Survivor clips to play for me.
Then I remembered I pay for CBS online because I am too lazy to cancel after Big Brother and THEN I SAW PONDEROSA EPISODES! For those who do not know, the Survivors who make jury are kept on “The Ponderosa where they are secluded and not allowed to travel home in order to avoid spoilers (like I used to be back in the day) from figuring out who won (but sometimes people still know which is why we have the big NO SPOILERS!) disclaimer after every post.
Anyway, I want to MOVE TO THIS YEARS PONDEROSA. Where are they anyway? It’s a fucked private resort. Here is what happens when they leave. They are immediately sent to a tent on the island with a medical doctor for an assessment. They are weighed and I literally wrote down how much weight Missy and Aaron lost and now I can’t find my paper. Anyway IIRC Aaron lost a bit over 20 pounds and Missy lost 18.
But the place they are staying has individual bungalows for everyone that are more fabulous than my house. That’s not saying anything. But they are really nice. There is also a RESTAURANT IN THE PONDEROSA.
So after they see the doctor, they get on a boat. On the boat they are given a men that has burgers and fries and pizza and LOBSTER and surf and turf and steaks and beer and basically anything you could want. And that is the menu at Ponderosa! In the olden days they would have a nice enough place and tons of food for them to make for themselves.
This Ponderosa also has a gym and a Swimming pool! It’s a really sweet set up. Jamal lost a lot of weight too. He was unhappy about the weight loss in his face, but loved that he can sort of see his abs. He was like 250 pounds when he came in!
Jack is a baker and makes cookies for all the new arrivals. Jack and Kellee and Jamal all love each other. They are having a blast at Ponderosa. I wish I could live at this Ponderosa. Could you imagine living an island with your own private bungalow (they call them bungalows but they are more like hotel rooms. Everyone has essentially a hotel room that is very nice.
Missy and Aarons video was not up yet but I will update when I see it. It was kind of funny that that Missy said the black people usually get voted off first and last week two black people won immunity and Jeff didn’t point it out. Then those same to people got voted off in the twist!
Okay I might bounce around but these are what I loved about this episode
how Noura stopped when she won her immunity
how Elizabeth was super cold/wet one night
how Rob called that Aaron was going
when Elaine pointed out the hick or redneck game was hers to win
I have always said they need to make a legit companion show out of the 6-9 minute Ponderosa eps. Are they longer on the subscription CBS?
I love the Ponderosa stuff. I am having computer issues or something and could not get the other ones to play for me. Then I remembered I pay for CBS alll access for Big Brother and just let it ride (and write it off as a tax expense because of my job..) and it worked for me there oddly. I doubt they are longer they are under 1o minutes,
And as for gameplay, I love that Karishma kept her idol in her crotch and didn’t play it this week. I am kind or rooting for Karishma. I mean I don’t think she can win, I just like her lying about doing nothing while everyone else does all the work. Normally this would bother me, but I have a thing for attorneys and she amuses me.
Cho- Awesome recap! I think voting Aaron and Missy out was smart. Aaron was by far the strongest physical player. I will definitely miss watching? Him in the physical challenges. Maybe it’s just me or “editing” but Missy’s entitled, better than everyone attitude rubs me the wrong way. It seems like this season there won’t be any battle back to renter the game.
TT- Thank you for the description of Ponderosa. I want to go to hang out and have a beer with Jamal.
I am loving this season more and more! So, I especially appreciated that the whole Dan is a Pervert thing was set aside because it was quickly dealt with and they moved on. This is how real life should be – you recognize a potential issue, you discuss, you call the person out and don’t let them weasel out of owning it and then – YOU MOVE ON. If Dan is just clueless (and I truly want to believe that’s it), then he no longer is clueless and is a better person for it. I’m still disgusted by the Liz and Missy lies, but one of them got their just reward and hopefully the other is not far behind. Karishma moved up the ladder in my list of favorites, I liked her gameplay and I also liked that she all of a sudden is realizing her marriage might be more important than she thought it was when she started as a Survivor. Elaine just makes me happy. So does Janet. And Tommy! But I also gotta admit, I like Dean a little too. Thanks for the recap – I look forward to reading every week!
Soooooo excited Missy & Aaron are gone- they thought they had it in the bag. Other than Liz, I don’t dislike any of the remaining players. I’m hoping for either Elaine, Janet, or Tommy to take the win- and now there’s a chance for that to happen!!!
I wonder if anyone ever clued Elaine in on the fact she was the target when she came back from Island of the Idols? Because that was spearheaded by Missy, right?. I was mad Elaine didn’t confront her, but looking at it now-if she did know- it was probably smarter to lay low and take missy out like she did this night.
Getting strong players out was smart. They brought the drama though, I’m thinking the rest of the season might be kind of blah. I hope Elaine or Noura wins.
I found it VERY interesting that someone said on this episode, “No one is going go give Karishma a million dollars. At first I thought “Ain’t that the truth, they should all drag her to the end.” But then I thought a bit more about how production works on this show and I am wondering if it is not some sort of forshadowing. There is plenty of time life for Karishma to build a better resume.
Ponderosa episodes are on youtube.
Oh cool! Thanks!
Everyone in the world that watches reality TV should watch Survivor.
That is all.
For now lol.
Hi Cho and TT! Thanks as always for keeping the Survivor love alive with these recaps and great comments. Want you to know how I thoroughly enjoyed last weeks double recap and comments, even though I didn’t comment at the time, I was avidly reading! I logged in expecting to see much #metoo pearl clutching about Dan’s Creepscapades, but should have known better here at TT’s, lol. I literally agreed with EVERY point TT made in the comments, so had nothing to add to the already well balanced summary. Which helps me kinda explain my previous comment that reality show viewers should be watching this show. Survivor is finding a way to stay fresh after all these years and handling hot button issues very well. I see these issues all the time in my line of work, (sadly). Young women who ruin it for very “real” victims of sexual harassment when they incorrectly think if they inflate and inflame charges on usually older/veteran employees, it will get them somewhere. Just like real life, it does indeed get them voted out of the workplace in some form or fashion. Missy’s comments at Tribal and Jeff’s response on race also can be uncomfortable but mirrors society.
My least favorite comments on TT are the ones, mostly on Real Housewives recaps, how they’re over it all, don’t watch anymore yada yada blah blah etc ad nauseum. And yes, I scroll past them. I just wish they would ALL then tune into a quality show like this one, or others! As TT points out occasionally, other shows get way less “clicks” or comments. Same with the new Project Runway. I’m hoping word spreads that like Survivor, it’s a great “reality” show to switch to, and comment on!
But back to this episode, lol……The twist was a good TV and two power players out was absolutely the right move. I liked the reunion of Dan and Janet. She needs to take him to the end. With Noura, preferably.
The Rob and Sandra thing could have been a bust, but loving their “Peoples Couch” banter…need MORE!
I’ve read about the doings at the Pondeerosa, but have never watched.
BB16: Victoria made it to final 3. Reminds me a bit of Karishma.
Yeah, but Derrick protected Victoria as his goat the whole way. Then Cody protected Derrick at the end. I’m not sure if the people left will protect her. She seems to annoy everyone. I still think Karishma may rally and do well at something before too long.
Or not. LOL.
I am ready for Lauren to go. And Elizabeth.
Yeah, Karishma has made a comeback with the viewers I think. I thought she was useless, but now I kinda like her. I am a bit squeamish, so what happened to her (the rat) made me feel bad. I would die!
Noura can go! First she hogged all the rice, then she only thinks of only herself and doesn’t help her side in the immunity challenge. (Knowing more about Jamal, I believe he was telling the truth that Noura hogged the rice!)
I think Missy is a bit immature, she will live and learn. She was a little bit of a bully.
I still do not think Aaron did anything wrong. I believe he was telling his truth and that is all. When he was voted off, he was very polite about it.
I still love Janet.
Sorry that I missed commenting on this episode. It was a DOOZY, and appreciate everyone here in this community. I had a busy time recording youtube videos, live streaming and working a lot before the holidays. I’m still under some pressure, but I have a few days to get it together.
My stupid iPhone keeps dropping my comments. Ugh. Almost caught up! Don’t feel sorry for any of these people. They’ll just be known as villains in six months. But it was satisfying to see them go after last episode. Still love Elaine and Janet but don’t see them making it to the end.
Thanks for the recaps, Cho! Sorry I’m so late to the party!