Survivor 9: Vanuatu

Twila and Scout
Twila and Scout are at the bottom of the pecking order in the women's alliance.

Ami and LeAnn are tight. They pulled Julie over to "their" alliance. They don't like Eliza, but she's the fourth vote to control the game. Any one of them -- Ami, LeAnn, or Julie -- would do well to be standing next to Eliza in the final two. That leaves Twila and Scout on the outskirts of the major female alliance and their chances of making it to the final four are probably NIL. As soon as the men are GONE, who did Twila and Scout think the other women would go after next?

Twila and Scout had a far greater chance of making it to the final four by forming an alliance with the two remaining men if they had the guts to make the move. They ought to know that they're goners once the men are voted out anyway, so they had nothing to lose by forcing a tie vote and the "purple rock of death." They had a 50-50 chance of winning. And if they won -- that would put their new alliance in power and most likely would have assured them a spot in the final four.

Now, they have zero chance of winning.

alright, everybody -oh and I meant to say, solid observations there, Debra-- place your bets..... who wins?

Can Chris, the guy who couldn't do the balance beam, win imunity for the the next twelve days?

No. He'll be booted off next unless he happens to luck out and win immunity. Then it'll be Scout. Twila is part of the girl group, maybe even one above Eliza, who is being kept on b/c she is seen as annoying by so many, so a good choice to keep around as they go to the final 2... also she seems quite beatable, dontcha think? If Twila can win immunity once, she can do it again, and if she doesn't piss any of the 3 more powerful than her off, they stand a chance of turning on each other pretty soon... I'm thinking Twila goes to the final 2, and hoping they vote Ami off next time they have the chance or else she's likely to be the other going all the way...

I dunno, I think Scout might make it all the way. I was worried because she was looking too powerful the last couple of episodes -- editing-wise, that's not good. (They just love to set up the mighty for a fall.) Now she's not, though, so there may be hope.

They're trying to shape Ami into a villain, so it might even be Ami vs. Scout at the end.

I'm not convinced that Chris will get voted out if he doesn't win immunity -- with just him and 6 gals, the 6 gals are thinking ahead to making it to the final four or final two, not just making it to the final 6. Could be alliance-shifting time. Jeff was nudging things in that direction with his "pecking order" comment, too.

Jeff suggested that Chris could end up being the deciding vote next week. If he doesn't win immunity, I think he'll be out.

I loved that Twila was holding onto the pole with her teeth. LOL.

Previews
The previews for next week's episode show Chris blabbing to the ladies that Twila and Scout tried to form an alliance with the two remaining men to vote out Eliza. The ladies confront Twila and Scout about their betrayal. Chris apparently thinks his blabbing will buy him two more weeks if the women decide to vote out Twila and Scout first.

Twila and Scout missed out on an opportunity to play the men against the other four women when three men were left. Instead of voting out Sarge, Twila and Scout should have sold their votes to the men that week to get rid of Ami.

That would have left LeAnn, Julie, and Eliza in one alliance and Sarge, Chad and Chris in the men's alliance.

The following week, Twila and Scout could have sold their votes to the three women to vote out Sarge and so forth and so on. Twila and Scout could have controlled the game.

Twila and Scout failed to seize their strategic opportunities to control their own destiny, and now they're in jeopardy. Instead of taking control and being the puppet masters -- they serve as mere puppets to get Ami, LeAnn, Julie, and Eliza into the final four.

I am so disappointed in them.

Remarkable Turn of Events
Remarkable turn of events!

Chris tattled on Scout and Twila. This stirred things up momentarily, but both Scout and Twila swore alligiance to the all female alliance.

Both LeAnn and Ami made a HUGE mistake when they were confronting Scout and told Scout to her face that there was no agreement to take Scout to the final four. LeAnn made it clear to Scout that Julie was now in the final four plans.

Both LeAnn and Ami made another HUGE mistake when they called an alliance meeting -- and excluded Eliza -- for the purpose of deciding who should go next: Eliza or Chris. I couldn't believe that LeAnn, Ami, and Julie wanted Eliza to go first! What the heck? They already showed their hand and Twila and Scout knew their pecking order was fourth and fifth respectively. LeAnn, Ami, and Julie were playing for final three--and not one of them was smart enough to realize that they NEEDED Eliza as a fourth vote to secure their positions.

If it was time to vote off a woman rather than the last man, why didn't the women agree to send Scout or Twila home -- and break up the duo of women who they knew were untrustworthy (because Chris tattled on them) -- instead of sending home the single player whom they needed as a fourth vote?

What were LeAnn, Ami, and Julie thinking? Did they really think that the other four people in the tribe would throw themselves onto the sacrificial altar for them? Wow.

And then Julie confirmed that Eliza was the next to go by telling Chris that he was definitely safe at the next tribal council.

Everyone seemed so determined to get RID of annoying Eliza that they failed to see how valuable she was -- until Scout and Twila decided they needed her as a fourth vote. FINALLY, Scout and Twila took advantage of an opportunity to stage a coup and Eliza had no choice but to go along with the plan in order to save herself.

FINALLY, the game is being played and the outcome is not so certain anymore.

Interesting how Julie gives Chris the down & dirty on what the girls are planning thereby giving him the crucial information he needs to form his strategy albeit Twila had to point it out to him. What's Julie's motivation for being Chris' informant (as he put it) if she still votes with Ami & LeAnn anyway? Something most interesting happening there.

LeAnn not feeling right about booting Chris and then seeing Chris almost have an aneurism trying to hold back his laughter as she gets booted - GOLD

Seeing man hater Ami get knocked off her high horse at tribal council - PLATINUM

That was pretty slick foreshadowing by the editors to show those ants carrying off the "queen" bee earlier in the show. Anyone catch that?

Lose the sunglasses already Probst. You're not the star you think you are. Second week in a row he's wearing sunglasses and not a ray of sunshine to be seen.

Edited because I think I've answered my own question

By being Chris' informant, Julie is working both alliances. Ami and the now departed LeAnn are none the wiser it would seem. I'm sure Chris feels obligated to Julie for all the info she's been giving him. If Ami gets booted next week (fingers & toes crossed) the man hater alliance is gone and then they're down to five, bounce the hated (and clueless) Eliza the next week and WHAM! there's your final four. Bravo Julie! Bravo indeed.

Debra and RfromP : Great re-caps and comments. I'm sure Ami is questioning her overconfidence and she doesn't have a clue about Julie.
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Here's small minded, mean, question. I apologize in advance.

Did they ask everybody not to kiss on the lips in order to spare America the vision of Scout and Annie swapping spit?

Yeah, what was up with that?

I think the thing with Chris was still woman-based -- they saw how awful his fiancee felt, and could just imagine how much that would suck if she felt single-handedly responsible for kicking him out of the game. So they figured, we'll still get him later, just not THIS time. So it won't be on the fiance's head.

I loved the jury guys' reactions. :-) Chris is looking a bit overconfident though, he needs to be careful.

Is the lesbian thing finally going to be an issue now that it's completely clear rather than hinted at? Leann looked a little startled when Ami said "that's my girlfriend." Kind of a forced smile. (Leann's gone, of course, but in terms of how much it had been talked about.)

(I kinda like Ami, she really reminds me of a friend of mine, and I thought it was cool when she was soooo happy at how well her gf was doing. It was like, lemme show you what we two can accomplish if we put our mind to it...)

Exactly Debra - how many times have we seen on survivor a similar occurrence? Several over confident individuals in their alliances and then the shoot off their mouths. Can never be too careful in this game.

Interesting next week - I am sure there is going to be lots of bickering and shouting. Wouldn't it be funny if Eliza and Chris were the final two - the two that prior to last night were the least likely to make it to the end?

I was wondering something similar Joe. I thought maybe that they edited out the kissing of the lesbian women.

I'm sure they kissed but don't forget this is the network that brought us Janet Jackson's boob and probably didn't want to raise the ire of the red state viewers. Not that I crave senior girl on girl action but still………

Also, did anyone else notice the unfortunate and somewhat eerie combination of episode number and title this week?

9-11: Surprise and...Surprise Again!

It's a little too on the nose to be coincidence. Shame on whomever came up with this one.

I don't like Ami or Chris, and I just don't think Scout belongs there. Anyone else can win. However, I do think Ami is the strongest player.

Ami is GONE
The tribe has spoken! Ami's torch was snuffed.

A few days ago, Ami was willing to sacrifice her dear loved one, Eliza, to get herself closer to the million dollars -- and she thought all the others should throw themselves on the altar of stupidity to get Ami to the finals. Sorry Ami, your plan didn't work out.

An alliance is only good so long as EACH person in the alliance believes it will get them to the finals. Ami, LeAnn, and Julie established the pecking order in the women's alliance and let everyone know it: Eliza was 6th, Scout was 5th, and Twila was 4th. Ami, LeAnn, and Julie were playing for the final three. It only stands to reason that the three on the bottom of the pecking order would grab Chris and grab the power.

Good-bye, LeAnn. Good-bye, Ami. Good-bye, Julie.

It appears that Chris is sticking with Scout and Twila to the END! Who can you beat to win immunity challenges? Who can you beat to get you to the finals? Who can you actually beat in the finals? Do you want to be competing against the strongest player (Ami) or the weakest player (Scout) for final immunity? For Chris, it appears to be a no-brainer. And even appears -- even though Eliza has professed her "love" for Ami and Julie -- she finally figured out that she's not playing to be "loved" by the other women -- she's playing for a million bucks.

cool
just watching now

I think Eliza will be out next, unless she can win immunity.

The final immunity challenge is always an endurance test. Will anyone be able to beat Twila? I'm remembering her hanging onto the post with her teeth in the challenge she won. I think she'll be unbeatable.

Although Scout is physically incapable of winning any challenges, she's managed to maneuver her way through round after round. She may end up in the final two. And I think she deserves to be there.

I think so too. Now that Ami's out, Scout is the remaining one of my top two picks and the one I thought was more likely. Very possible she'd be kept around for the final two by whomever wins the last challenge, if it's not her.

Remember way back when I said that Chris is the type that if he makes it through the first couple of challenges, he'll stick around a long time? I think he'll be in the final four, if not the final two. (Not much of a prediction at this point with only one to go.) The final four and the final two are virtually synonymous, plot-wise, since it's all about setting up suspense and getting people to watch the last long episode that starts with four and ends with the winner.

The lesbian thing came and went with barely a ripple. That's good, I guess. Ya know, enlightened.

We are now going to see just how tough Julie is.

We need to start thinking about final votes:

Chris against any of the women takes second.

Scout against any of the women takes second.

Eliza against anyone wins. (!!)

Julie against anyone wins.

Twila against Scout wins.

Prediction: Julie out next in a whimper.
Then Chris.

Then Scout when Eliza wins puzzle immunity.

Twila versus Eliza in final two. Eliza wins.

Joe, If the final immunity is a puzzle, you might be right. If it's an endurance challenge, I don't think Eliza will win it. It will all come down to the final challenge. I wonder what the producers will do.

But next week, next out--Julie.

If the final 2 are Chris and Twila or Chris and Scout, imagine, on the jury: Sarge, Chad, Ami, would rather chew off their arm than vote for Twila or Scout - so there's three for Chris. It takes four to win.

As to the rest of the jury, Julie and Eliza are not likely to vote for either of the older women either and based on the daggers Lee Ann was shooting the women for ousting her, she may swing over to a vote for Chris. Thos three are going to vote with their feelings rather than along gender lines.

Of course Scout would vote for Twila and vice versa so there's one vote against Chris but of the remaining three jury members, I'd bet you at least one would go against the women. This could be the first landslide since twit Jenna beat out Matt in Amazon.

Chris has a fighting chance provided he doesn't piss off the remaining younger women; keeps the older women thinking he's with them; and gives a better 'Choose me' speech at the final Tribal Council.

That and win immunity a couple more times - Chris could be the next millionaire!