EPISODE 9I
so wanted things to take a turn for the excellently-super after last weeks brutal elimination of Brandon and I’m very iffy that they haven’t.
Adding to the suck-factor of it all is the fact that the delight of Gary saving himself by sneakily finding the Immunity Idol was way too fleeting, knowing in advance it was gonna be ruined by another fave getting voted out instead.
Liking both Gary and BJ as much as the other,Gary's sneaky move didn’t change the sinking disappointment I ended up feeling when yet again the psycho Pig threesome maintained the upper hand by winning everything so easily.
Jamie’s attempts to de-demonise himself by giving away his position during the Reward Challenge didn't do anything to make any of it more bearable. I agreed with droopy-eyed Rafe - Jamie definitely didn't do anything from the goodness at the bottom of his heartless-soul but much more out of not wanting to look like the trash that he is.
This truth about Jamie was revealed at the start of the episode when everyone returned from Tribal Council and poked around the campfire where Jamie confronted Bobby-Jon about how upset he was at being called “unclassy”.
While they brawled about this, Danni and Gary mooned around in the greeny/yellow background, looking like sporty long-types, aware of their ever encroaching doom.
The next morning different people spent time looking in the trees for the hidden Immunity Idol before being called to the Reward Challenge which involved Survivor’s throwing a stick thing as far as they as they could to win the best meal out of the nine meals up for grabs.
I scrutinised the challenge with an eagle’s eye but couldn't understand it. Not the actual thing of them throwing and winning the best place at the table etc but rather how they had to throw it. There was something about the way that bow got connected to the wood and then needed to be thrown that seemed such an uncomfortable and un-groovy thing to do I was amazed that any of them managed to do it.
It obviously had something to do with how you threw your weight behind it because Judd being a lump mastered it perfectly, thumping his bulk behind it to win the reward of being the person to get the biggest feast out of everyone. Jamie came fourth, narrowed his eyes as if he couldn’t believe how much like Jesus he was and gave up his meal in an attempt to convince everyone that he’s sorry for how appallingly he’s behaved previously.
Everyone went to the reward dining area, got greeted and sniffed by a pack of gorge snoots and sat at one long table where they were each given the food they’d won – with Danni’s spaghetti bolognaise looking most delish.
Judd sat at a special table of his own as if he were a prison warden eating in front of prisoners and also got to choose two people to share his open bar and desert with. He predictably chose Stephenie and Bobby-Jon - obviously seeing them as Survivor stars who could boost his on-screen - and then followed up being himself by stuffing his face with booze, falling all over the place and hurling in Xhakum’s shelter and not remembering.
The best was the soggy, haze of self-conscious gloom the three of them had hovering over them in the form of Gary Hoog’s hysterical mad staring at them. His lifting his one gangly leg onto his chair casually as if he had nothing else to do – which he didn’t – with his eyes piercingly freaking them out was brilliant – as was his attitude when he lifted Judd out of his drunken gutter.
I love the way Gary’s able to read Judd like an open book – not only in how extra dense it makes Judd’s shenanigans seem but also because it suggests there’s hope that Gary could find a way to out-smart and out-stay him and Jamie - keeping Danni with him. They could overthrow them pronto if they could get Rafe and Cindy brave enough to see the light and then use Lydia in the same doormat ways everyone else has.
She needed such a humungous slap at the reward for how she undermined her status next to Jamie. Every single one of them besides the top four got a better meal yet she was the only one who went on and on about how she didn’t deserve what she was getting it and how she owed Jamie.
The way he ate his nuts was ridiculous as are the stirrings of loathing that have started happening against him because I just don’t trust them nor know what to make of them. On one hand Steph and Judd seem to be sincere when they get irritated by Jamie but on another they still seem very thick as thieves, superglued to each other in their Nukem allegiances.
I was really hoping their relationship would be put to the test during Tribal Council but then Jamie went and put a crap inevitable spin on everything by surprisingly winning the Immunity Challenge.
Even if it didn't save the day at least Gary 's finding the Idol was something - just wish they’d shown us the exact moment of him finding it. Imagine what a cool feeling it must have been – knowing he’d outwitted Judd, trapped him in his lie about where the idol was by looking skywards instead.
How scary is it that they all lie so convincingly? At Tribal Council, when Judd said he’d never lied - it seemed he believed he hadn’t - despite him being fully aware he had. That has to be socio-pathetic surely?
What’s also whacked is how it’s okay when one person lies but not another. When Judd said he’d never lied I loathed him to the very brink of my being but when Gary said it I was chortling away happily. Same thing thinking about Bobby-Jon being on the Jury – thankfully there is a diffs between his leaving and Brandon’s ‘cos at least he’ll return next week to judgify.
Whatever plottings and plannings happen between what looked like Gary and Danni and Lydia and Rafe next week – these just have to be successful because otherwise there is no justice in life at all. For evil to go as unpunished as it currently is just way too unfair.