Did we already say how great this season is? I think Woo described the situation the best this episode: a very dysfunctional family. Tony the controlling dad. Trish, the mother having a bitchfit. Kass the misunderstood daughter looking for a fight with mom. Spencer, the son who’s in the middle of it all. And Woo, the foreigner that tries to understand but fails (like Fez from That 70’s Show basically). In the end the family bands together against the mother and kicks her out of the house. Now a final three with Kass, Tony and Woo seems to be in the making unless…Spencer wins immunity, which seems more and more of probability if we see how his story is being told. Then there’s still the rising rumor and possibility that a final two is happening. What ever the case, this is going to be, to use Jeff’s words, ‘a crazy finish’.
Let’s first take a look at the foreigner’s performance, as Woo calls himself in this dysfunctional family. He actually did a fairly well job this episode. But when Woo plays strategy, it’s still very apparent it doesn’t come natural to him at all. When you see Woo thinking, you can literally see him suffering. But you do have to give him credit for upping his game the past two episodes. His head was on the chopping block after all and by voting out Trish, he not only saved himself but eliminated the person who could have taken his place at the final. Not only that but he also basically saved Tony by voting out Trish because Trish was Tony’s biggest jurythreat, besides the obvious Spencer threat.
The only thing stopping Woo from pleading his case to the jury is Spencer winning immunity or a final two. And what of his chances when he eventually gets his chance in front of the jury? Pretty much bupkis, I think. He would probably win over Kass and finish second but that’s about it. I very much doubt he has a chance against Tony and winning over Spencer is definitely out of the question. But let’s entertain, for a second, the very implausible and most anti-climatic scenario there is. What about a final two between Kass and Woo? The thought alone is both funny and depressing but it could result in a win for Woo, although the choice would be dreadful for the jury, I’m sure. But in all reality I think Woo will land on the podium but will miss the gold medal by several miles.
Next is the misunderstood sister who goes head to head with mom. Kass too, had a big episode this week. It was Kass who came up with the idea to target Trish. Not bad thinking since, like with Woo, Trish is a threat for Kass to make it to the end. And Kass thinks, if Tony doesn’t see Trish as a threat and takes her out, she’ll do it! But the returned ChaosKass didn’t count for a ChoasTrish to hear her plans. On learning that Kass wants to take Trish out, Trish goes of on a very vocal rant on Kass. The rant was over the top and unnecessary but it did show how poor Kass her social skills are and how misinformed Kass is about how she’s being perceived. I think on the one hand Kass doesn’t care what other people think about her. But on the other hand, Kass apparently thinks that she’s playing an amazing game and that the jury will see that. Proof of that is the very arrogant middle finger towards Trish when Trish is walking the walk of shame after being voted out. Who does that in front of everyone to see? She won’t have won any jurymembers, that’s for sure and she didn’t have any to begin with.
Kass also went head to head with Tony. Tony offered her a final three deal but after the Jefra vote Tony burned all his bridges with Kass. Kass wants to villainize Tony so he’s the perfect goat to take to the end with her. Kass shared what Tony told her with Woo and she succeeded in creating chaos because that’s the moment when Woo’s wheels started turning. I liked the idea behind it and the gut to go up against Tony whom she succeeded in making nervous. But in the end her plan to villainize Tony probably won’t matter since she’s the most hated person out there, which makes winning for her impossible.
Next up is the good son, stuck in the middle: Spencer. He had a really good episode as well. His back was against the wall after all. Nobody wants to go to the end with Spencer and the only way to save himself was winning immunity. Thanks to a great performance, perseverance and of course massive failing on the part of Tony (Funny how Tony was randomly shifting puzzle pieces like a mad man) he won immunity and could take a front row seat to see how the others would tear each other apart.
And tear each other apart they did. But what was Spencer’s role in it? Not a whole lot according to me. It was Kass who lit the fire and Woo who was the swingvote. All you can give Spencer credit for is throwing some oil on the fire but nothing more. Spencer was just going through the events, basically being a pawn. I don’t really see this changing towards the last episode, despite Trish her exit. Spencer still is target number one to the rest and going up against Spencer is committing Survivor suicide. So Spencer will still have to win immunity to get the chance to plead his case to the jury. But if he does get to the end, the game is over and Spencer is the winner of Survivor Cagayan.
Last but one is Tony, the controlling dad desperate to keep his authority in check. Tony has been behind the wheel for a while now but this episode he seemed to have lost control over the steer. His lies started to catch up to him when Kass told Woo that Tony promised her a final three with him and Trish. This wavered Woo’s loyalty towards Tony. Woo finally saw that Tony is prepared to do everything to get to the end and that even he himself isn’t safe. Tony tried to keep everyone in line but the train had already left the station. It got even worse when Spencer won immunity after Tony had a huge lead.
With Spencer immune, Tony had two options. First, he could have opted to save Trish because after all he does have two idols. But this episode made it very clear that Tony doesn’t see Trish as the jurythreat she is. He wants her in the final next to him. But then why didn’t he save her by playing the normal idol for her while still having the special idol for himself.
Tony’s second option was letting things run it’s course but stick with Trish. If Trish is Tony’s biggest jury threat (of course next to Spencer) then this was the perfect scenario. Even if Tony stayed with Trish, she still would have been voted out but Tony could have kept his hands clean and gotten a guaranteed juryvote.
Instead Tony goes for option three: sticking with the numbers. By doing so, Tony not only looses one of his closest allies but by voting for her, he might have lost a juryvote in Trish as well. It just seemed very unnecessary to me to vote for Trish. The whole thing kind of felt like a panic move from Tony because he was loosing control over the group.
In the end he might have lost an ally but they did him a favor by targeting Trish. He lost his biggest jurythreat next to Spencer and can now focus on a final three with Kass and Woo, which is pretty much cat in the bag for Tony. It’s just a shame that by voting for Trish he might have lost himself a juryvote and enhanced his villain perception towards the jury.
Last is the mother of this bunch, who drew the short end of the stick in the end but she kind of has herself to blame. Trish was getting a little to comfortable in her position. With the finish in sight, Trish was probably already thinking about her jury speech but she should know that you always have to stay on your toes. She also reacted too emotional on hearing Kass talk about targeting her. In the past she showed that she can take the rational decision over the emotional one. But this episode she went back to the Trish that went of against Lindsey. With just as much venom as she yelled to Lindsey, she yells to Kass. The whole rant felt unnecessary and over the top. In the end Kass got the last laugh and send Trish packing in a 4-1 vote and gave Trish a middle finger to go along the way.
With Trish now gone, only four are left: A hero, a villain and two goats. The villain has to get rid of the hero before they get to the finish because everyone loves a hero. If he can get rid of Spencer however, Tony is the superfavorite to win unless he burned to many bridges along the way. We’ll see how it all ends this Wednesday. Enjoy Trish her ponderosa and ‘Day after’ vid below and I’ll see you next time!
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