Survivor 43, Ep. 12: Telenovela
GAIA Day 22
The Karla and Cassidy relationship is primed and ready to go nuclear. Karla puts on her best acting buff and turns the show into a “Telenovela” soap opera and SHEDS TEARS?!!?!, albeit fake tears, and thinks she’s still in the clear and part of the plan to get out Cassidy.
She even ropes Jesse into the lie and makes her worst mistake of the game so far. Jesse immediately goes to Cassidy and validates the rumor that Karla was coming for her, exposing Karla, and making me think that Karla is headed for disaster.
REWARD CHALLENGE
Reward - night at the sanctuary
BLUE - Owen, Cody, Karla
RED - Cassidy, Jesse, Gabler
The challenge splits the remaining 6 players into two teams of 3. One player is strapped into an early 90’s American Gladiators “Atlasphere” with the person inside directing the other two blindfolded teammates to get the sphere through obstacles, up a ramp, and then direct the blindfolded teammates to collectively navigate a ball through a table maze.
Owen directs Cody and Karla to a reward win equipped with pastries and a chance to talk strategy at the sanctuary. My gut tells me that this sanctuary is most important to Karla. She has completely upended her game and she doesn’t know it yet. The question is, will Owen or Cody let Karla in on the secret or gather more intel to bring back to Cass and Jesse to use against Karla so she won’t play her idol at Tribal, and Karla will be eliminated.
THE SANCTUARY REWARD
The takeaway from the sanctuary is Cody and Owen are not the masterminds of this game. Nothing new here, but the fact that Karla is able to, from what we see, throw them off her scent of having an idol is amazing. Also, I think Karla is arrogant enough to think that she has convinced them so she could try to forego using her idol at 6 and save it for 5.
After the reward, Gabler immediately obliterates Cody’s ignorance and exposes Karla having an idol. This just reassures how little chance that Cody has of winning the game, but he definitely is entertaining, especially when he’s all hopped up on caffeine and 9,000 calories of danishes.
IMMUNITY CHALLENGE
First, I could say this every episode of every season, but the challenges are just beautiful and visually/aesthetically pleasing to look at. I love the colors. I love the creativity. I love the design. I love that its in the middle of a clearing. I love the aerial camera shots. I love it all.
This challenge is a doozy. Up and over a cargo net, untie bags of puzzle pieces while going up and under hurdles. Then, get to a combination lock box and use the bag of numbers to solve it. Next, head under an army crawl net and back up another cargo net with your key to unlock the bat puzzle.
Riddle me this, riddle me that, whose afraid of the big bad BAT (puzzle)? Like I said earlier, the challenges are beautiful and the puzzles are the cherry on top. It’s anybody’s game… back and forth…down to the puzzle… few pieces left…Karla’s body literally shuts down…and, and, and…
Cassidy thinks she has it…
NO!
It’s anybody’s game… back and forth…down to the puzzle… few pieces left…
Cassidy thinks she has it…
AND SHE DOES!!! Cassidy wins immunity, guarantees a spot in the final 5, and keeps hope alive for a 3rd straight “under the radar” and underdog winner to happen.
PRE-TRIBAL COUNCIL
Far and away the best part of the season so far!!! This pre-tribal scramble is what we’ve been waiting for all season long. First Cody hatches a plan to hook Karla into using the threat of their idols to bully people but what Cody really wants is to blindside Karla.
That causes Cody to tell Owen and Jesse his plan.
That causes Jesse, who has Cody’s idol, to rethink his alliance with Cody who could be masterminding the biggest move of the season in blindsiding Karla, and decide to tell Owen about having Cody’s idol and wanting to vote his #1 guy out.
That causes Owen to tell Cassidy the plan.
Which all causes Cody to get his idol back from Jesse, submarining the plan, and teeing us up for an absolute storm of idols and advantages and uncertainty to the greatest degree at Tribal.
LFG!!!
TRIBAL COUNCIL
The stage is set. Cassidy is safe with immunity. Karla and Cody have idols and have made it known that they have an idol and are playing their idol tonight. If all 3 play it, then votes can only be cast on Owen, Gabler, and Jesse. But, Jesse has an idol too (Jeanine’s) that NOBODY KNOWS ABOUT still.
Jeff brings out the possibility of using the idol as a bluff to get to the 5 with an idol still in their pocket. I don’t think Cody and Karla wanted to have this come up, but they nail the “lie your ass off” portion of this Tribal Council.
Prediction: All hell breaks loose.
VOTES
Cody 3
Owen 1 - doesn’t count (Jesse played idol for Owen)
Karla 1 - doesn’t count (Karla player idol for herself)
💥BOOM!!!💥
Ladies and gentlemen Jesse just pulled it off. The move of the season was executed with pinpoint marksmenship by a true Survivor assassin. Jesse successfully took out Cody, his number 1 ally and friend in the game because Cody had tried to make a big move on Karla to take her out and put a feather in his game’s cap.
Instead, Jesse pulled in Owen, Cassidy, and Gabler to vote Cody and let Cody vote Karla. Plus, Jesse let Karla think that her and Cody were going to use their Immunity Idols to flex power and strong arm people enough to vote out the “easy vote” in Owen and save their idols for Final 5, guaranteeing Final 4 by using their idols for immunity at the Final 5 Tribal.
Instead, Jesse used his alliance and trust with Cody to make Karla feel good about the Owen vote (that wasn’t happening), make Cody feel good about the Karla vote (that wasn’t happening) and then use Cody’s idol to save Owen, spook Karla into using her idol and take out Cody!
That’s right, Cody asked for his idol back from Jesse so he could show Karla and lock up what he thought was going to happen. Then miraculously, Jesse convinced Cody to give his idol BACK TO JESSE!!!
Then, Jesse set his masterclass in blindsiding Cody into motion by awkwardly getting up at Tribal, “tearing up” the social contract in the game, playing CODY’S IDOL on Owen which spooked Karla to play her idol, and eliminate Cody and ELEVATE JESSE to HE’S GOING TO WIN THE GAME WITH A UNANIMOUS VOTE TERRITORY!!!!
And oh by the way…
JESSE STILL HAS JEANINE’S IDOL THAT EVERYONE IN THE GAME AND ON THE JURY THINKS WENT HOME WITH DWIGHT!!!!! Jesse is in a massively powerful position. He’s the guy at the poker table with 10x the chips of everyone else at the table plus he’s got a guarantee of the final 4.
So, Season 43 of Survivor comes down to two challenges.
The Final 4 Immunity Challenge
The Final 4 Fire Making Challenge
If Jesse wins either, he walks into Final Tribal Council with an unassailable case to win the million dollars and the title of Sole Survivor with what I believe would be a unanimous vote. No doubt about it.
If Jesse loses at the Immunity Challenge, he will be put into the Final 4 Fire Making Challenge (assuming they have it) and if he loses there, he will have blown an opportunity to win $1,000,000 and make a mark on the history of the game because of his strategic play from beginning to end. Should that happen, I think the beneficiary would be Cassidy winning the million because Karla is out next and Jesse would go out in 4th place. Owen and Gabler don’t have a chance to win.
Wow! This was an amazing ending to this episode. I’m pumped for next week’s finale and will be rooting for Jesse to close it out and win this in a runaway vote. I think he deserves it, he’s played the best strategic game and it’s not even close.
Thanks for reading this week. Appreciate the support. Be sure to outlike, outcomment, and outshare the rest all season long. I will be writing about each episode all the way through to the announcement of the winner of Survivor 43 next week!
The blog has spoken!!!
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