Episode Report Card Miss Alli: B | 1 USERS: A+ YOU GRADE IT Poker In The Rear
By Miss Alli | Season 15 | Episode 8 | Aired on 11.07.2007
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.Things get underway this week with a reward challenge, which is gruesomely mishandled by Todd, Amanda, James, and Jean-Robert, who essentially "win" some alone time for Erik, Peih-Gee, Denise, Courtney, and Frosti. Nothing like being rewarded with the bottom half of your alliance and the people your alliance is trying to vanquish getting to spend some time out of your presence. Sure enough, this leads to plotting, including participation from a disenchanted Denise, whose closeness with James seems not to be what it once was. Over at the reward meal, they all receive another clue to the hidden immunity idol, and self-professed person-reading genius Jean-Robert embarrasses himself by (1) never having thought before that maybe there was a hidden idol and that was what all the secret scrolls were about; and (2) having no clue that everyone in the room except him not only has known all along, but knows right where the idols already are. So he gets back to camp and looks for the idol (heh), only to conclude that he should pretend he has one and go try to threaten Erik with it. Erik's kind of like, "Bzzzzt, James has them; ya burnt!" And J-R goes and tries to bully James. Good luck with that. The real genius kicks in when it becomes totally clear that Todd has no grand plan, no matter how hard he's working to act like he does, because his new thing is that he's mad at James and wants to "blindside" James at tribal council, hoping he won't play an idol and will get booted. At the same time, however, J-R comes up with this same plan. Once he presents it to Todd, Todd decides that...nobody else can be the planner? Or something? So he goes to James and tells him about it, and they decide to return to a boot of Jean-Robert (for which Courtney is always game). So at tribal council, Jean-Robert, Peih-Gee, and Erik vote for James, while everybody else votes for Jean-Robert, and he goes home. It would appear that Erik and Peih-Gee erroneously believed that Frosti and Todd, at least, were voting with Jean-Robert's blindsiding plan. So Todd somehow reacts with smugness, because there is some way in which having James continue in the game with two immunity idols is beneficial to him, as much as it might not be clear how, to the average person. Want more? The full recap starts right below!
Previously on Gentlemen Prefer To Ridicule Blondes: James wound up with two immunity idols stuffed in his giant pants (you heard me), and Jaime and Erik thought there might be a third. There wasn't. Finding herself just about out of options, Jaime offered up the non-idol just in case, and Jeff Probst hurled it into the fire like it was a scroll containing insults directed at his dead relatives -- his cutest dead relatives. Jaime was sent home, and a lot of people who were mistreated by cheerleaders in high school got their revenge by making up blonde jokes about her.
Hae Da Fung, Night 21. After tribal council, everyone returns to camp with the night-vision cameras close behind. Jean-Robert points out that he was pretty shaken up when Jaime pulled out the plaque from her bag, and Amanda agrees. J-R interviews that he was seriously wetting his droopy pants with fear when Jaime pulled out the idol, until he realized that it wasn't real. We watch a snake encircle a shoe, apparently pining for feet, as Erik stands at the edge of the shelter, trying to find a polite way to ask J-R to move his bulky frame a little so that everyone can have a place to sleep. James takes up the Rocky-esque "be a man" position, taunting Erik that he appears "scared" to ask J-R to move over. It's safe to say that the guy the other guy is accusing of being "scared" is usually preferable to the guy calling out the other guy for being "scared." And I'm not scared to say so. James decides to insert himself into the situation, trying to show up Erik by telling J-R to move, referring to Erik as "the poor boy." You know what? He sucks. I'm sorry, CBS, for ignoring your heroism-themed promos, but he is patronizing and he sucks. I was a reasonably early adopter of TiVo and PDAs and a very early adopter of "Rupert sucks," and I am proud to be an early adopter of "James also sucks." Anyway, James continues to assault the manliness of the other guys in camp, mockingly asking J-R if he wants "a hug" after J-R expresses unhappiness about having come so close to going home. I'm all for making fun of Jean-Robert, certainly, but the fact that James appears unable to come up with an insult other than variations on "okay, Gertrude" is kind of disappointing. James interviews that they have to keep J-R's "dumb ass" around and not tell him about the idols. James's ass, of course, was brilliant enough to receive the immunity idols when Todd essentially handed them to him.