S28E11: Chaos is My Friend.

Tony has struck again. What should have been a boring episode, where either Spencer or Tash would have been voted out, turned into once again an episode where Tony pulled out his bag of tricks and forced one of his allies towards the exit. A recurring theme with Tony however, is that even though his moves are very entertaining and great television, they’re not that smart towards winning the game. Same thing happens this week, by saving Spencer and Tash and pushing Jefra in the pit. Is Tony busy writing the narrative of his own downfall? It sure as hell is seeming that way.

After the tribal last week, where Jeremiah was voted out, it seemed like Tash and Spence were up against an impossible task, something the alliance of five don’t hesitate to make clear. Especially Kass is getting more annoying by walking and talking around like she has played some amazing game. The last couple of episode it didn’t bother me that much, since she didn’t got a lot of airtime. Does her increased airtime mean we can expect a new move by ChaosKass? Just look at Jefra. In the first two minutes of the episode, Jefra gets just as much airtime then in a regular episode. That was our first clue that things were going to go south for jefra this week.

Next we have a Survivor classic: the Survivor auction. Here the players are given 500 bucks to bid on various dishes of food and a advantage in the game. And I must say, that food looked really good. It really makes you stand up and go to the kitchen and make something for yourself. I believe the ribs and beer would have been my pick. ^^ 

Now you might wonder why I wouldn’t go for the advantage. Well, because the importance and value of the advantage is a little bit overrated according  to me. In this instance there were 3 people vying for the advantage: Tony, Tash and Spencer. That means you have a 2 out of 3 shot to return empty handed and still starving. By choosing food, you also get an influx of energy which is also some sort of advantage, no? And even if you do get the advantage, that’s still all it is: an advantage. It’s no guarantee, you’ll win immunity. So basically it’s not worth the hassle and the 500 bucks.

Maybe that’s also what the producers thought since this time the advantage was a clue to yet another idol. Tony and Spencer both bid 500 bucks, after Tash backed out and basically became the big loser of the Survivor auction. Props go to Tony here because he doesn’t need to do this with an idol already in his pocket. He’s just so focused on the game and doesn’t want Spence or Tash to win immunity. (which seems a little pointless, now we know how the end episode unfolded) Spencer and Tony had to draw rocks for the advantage and it was like Tony didn’t have enough power with his superpowered idol, because Tony won the advantage and would later find the idol. With two idols in his pocket, Tony will kick himself for years to come, if he still loses this game.

Having two idols in his possession might have given Tony a burst of confidence and a feeling of being indestructible. It might be a factor that plays in to his motivation for his following actions. Tony is paranoid and very hyper. He is seeing threats everywhere and is blinded by some less likely worst-case scenario’s then the more obvious threats. And that’s what Tash and Spencer’s angle is to save Spencer after Tash won her third immunity challenge. Tash spends a lot of time with Trish, Jefra and Kass to make Tony nervous. All the while Spencer’s is trying to further grow the seed of an unlikely  all-girl alliance in Tony’s head to keep Tony from seeing the more likely and bigger threat of Spencer reaching the end. The paranoia gets to Tony and he decides to set the wheels in motion to blindside jefra. Tony approaches Spencer and Woo, who’s to Woo’s own words clicking on the same level as Tony 9 out of ten times. :D Isn’t Woo cute in a clueless kind of way?

But why Jefra? Why not vote out Kass or even Trish, who’s a bigger jury threat. I think he chose Jefra because Jefra isn’t in any of Tony’s final three scenario’s. I believe Kass is in a possible final three scenario and so is Trish. This means Jefra is expendable and that’s why he voted her out. Also Jefra doesn’t really add something to the game, whether it being strategy or work at camp. We saw with Morgan, that’s something that irks Tony and influences him in his voting motivation.

At tribal Tony calls Jefra out and pulls out his normal immunity idol out of his bag of tricks and threatens to play it if anyone has an idea to vote for him. Of course Tony doesn’t play it, not that anyone ever expected him to anyway. In the resulting vote, Tony stays true to his plans and blindsides Jefra in 4-2 vote.

Now it seems like every time Tony strikes, we have to ask ourselves the same question: was it a good or bad move? It depends on how grounded Tony’s fear for an all girls alliance was. Now we know pretty much for sure that Tash wasn’t in on an all-girl alliance. She just wanted to make Tony nervous which she did successfully. But what for the case for a Trish, Kass and Jefra alliance? I wouldn’t rule it out completely. I’m sure Trish is very much on guard for Tony’s bag of tricks and might have an alliance with Jefra and Kass as a backup plan if Tony tries something. (which obviously failed if that was the case) Plus, a final three with Trish, Kass and Jefra seems like an easy win for Trish. 

But in the end we have to go with what we saw in the episodes. And in the episode, Trish seems very loyal towards Tony. If Trish had another  main alliance then Tony, wouldn’t we have seen it by now? Taken that into account I believe that Tony’s fear for an all-girls alliance is not grounded, making this a bad move. Add to this that he probably hasn’t won himself a jurymember with this move. Having betrayed his alliance once again, it remains to be seen if his alliance will keep taking his antics without consequences. I guess we’ll see next week. You can find Jefra’s Day after and Ponderosa vids below and I’ll see you next time.