Two icons are voted out, while a new threat emerges in epic fashion.
Welcome to the club.
Jeff Probst
Yes, welcome to the club, Denise Stapley!
Youre the next contestant onThe Price Is Right!Wait, no… check that.
ThereisnoPrice Is Righthappening now with that whole social distancing thing.
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, Ill be here all week.
Just a reminder that there is a two-drink minimum and dont forget to tip your waiter.
Wait, no… thereisno waiter because thereisno comedy club because thereisno audience because, yes, social distancing.
Which, as far as I can tell, has already been perfected by our good buddy Tony Vlachos.
STAY 6 FEET AWAY FROM TONY VLACHOS AT ALL TIMES!
By the by, I dont want anyone mistakenly believing I am not taking this social distancing thing seriously.
I can self-quarantine like a mofo.
Hell, Ive been self-quarantining for over 20 years.
I just had a different term for it: being anti-social.
(If the wife and kids are around, thats fine too.
As long as they dont talk.)
The point is, Im all about staying home and you should be too.
Okay, PSA over.
Where were we anyway?
Lets just get the bad stuff that has to be acknowledged out of the way first.
Yes, she needlessly burned that second immunity idol by playing it for Jeremy.
Too bad about that.
However, now that thats out of the way… ALL HAIL THE QUEENSLAYER!!!
That was some Jamie Lannister jot down stuff right there.
That is a straight-up baller move by Denise.
But she correctly sensed that Sandra was not really interested in building any sort of long-term alliance with her.
Sandra was just making a transaction: idol for tokens.
So Denise went into transactional mode.
(Because Jeremy is all about the shields.)
And that underestimation cost her.
But the most striking thing about the move was not Denises boldness, nor Sandras shortsightedness.
It was the enormous impact Fire Tokens are having on this season.
That sounds so stupid!
And they werent wrong.
But I was intrigued by the Fire Token concept from the get-go.
The question, of course, was how would it play out?
And that answer was firmly delivered in this weeks episode.
Maybe one tribe has to exchange idols/advantages to the other tribe for tokens.
Maybe you shift tribe reward challenges to individual challenges for tokens.
Maybe theSurvivorauction returns, but instead of paying money for items, you pay in tokens.
This episode proved it.
It proved that Fire Tokens have worked.
We saw three different scenes in one day that all paid huge dramatic dividends.
And they did it anyway.
Kudos to them and kudos to what has so far turned out to be a stellar season.
Do yourself a favor and check it out tolearn some juicy intel.
And then continue on with the rest of this here recap.
Oh, and one last thing about Denise taking out Sandra.
Welcome to the club.
The Final Words of Wisdom were back in all their glory!
You all can scream bloody murder all you want about the missing opening credits or previously on… segments.
I dont care that they usually do little other than state the obvious.
I dont care that they are often filled with cliches and half-baked metaphors.
I dont care that Jeff Probsthimselfdoesnt care for them andadvisedAustralian Survivorhost Jonathan LaPagliato not even bother.
It turned out to be an Idol Nullifier that Tyson then sent to Parvati.
Interesting how Tyson gave his Fire Token to Nick yet sent the Idol Nullifier to Parvati.
Speaking of food, thats exactly what Tyson used his Fire Token for.
Specifically, peanut butter.
Go back and watch it super cool.
And then, in a twist,bothof the losing tribes would be going to Tribal Council.
It was cool enough.
Holy moly, did you see the rage and intensity with which he was stabbing those bags?
I need to watch what I write about that dude from now on.
Hey, you cant blame the guy.
Three cheers for Ben, everyone!
Breaking up Is Hard to Do
Breaking up sucks.
If you break up with someone, you feel bad.
And if you get broken up with, you feel like a loser.
Ive been on both sides of that equation, and they are equally sucky.
But you know what sucks even more?
I have all the sympathy in the world for Michele and Wendell right now.
I seriously cannot get enough.
He wanted no part of it, explaining that Im not concerned with Fire Tokens.
Im concerned with numbers.
But Wendell is the one feeling the heat now.
That kind of stuff never made it to the air.
All that did was exclude him from important conversations and make him seem super sketchy.
Interesting that Jeremy felt safe enough not to use his safety without power advantage.
If he did not know the latter, then he took a hell of a risk staying put there.
Jeremy impersonating what a duck looks like underwater is now seared into my brain for all eternity.
It will never leave.
Its like a burned-in image on an old plasma TV set that was left on pause for too long.
And I know Jeremy is quite familiar with both of those things.
And you should make yourself familiar with some of the other goodies we have at your disposal.
Goodies like myweekly Q&A with Hostmaster General Jeff Probst.
And goodies like the cast allsharing secrets from their winning season.
And for even more Survivor-themed treats, follow me on Twitter@DaltonRossand Instagram@thedaltonross.
Are you digging the extra layers of strategy at play due to the Fire Tokens?
Bummed to see Parvati and Sandra goon the same night!Questioning Tysons decision on the peanut butter?
