Episode Report Card Kim: B | 24 USERS: B YOU GRADE IT Flipping Monica
By Kim | Season 27 | Episode 3 | Aired on 12.11.2013
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.Katie joins her mom and Laura at Redemption and they tell her that she made the only move she could under the circumstances. Meanwhile, back at camp, everyone is really friendly considering how heated that Tribal Council got. If it's sincere, I really appreciate how much these players seem to get that this is only a game and people need to do what they can to stick around. They even joke about how they are on different sides of the line, physically demonstrating it. Then Monica wants to immediately start strategizing about what to do if Hayden or Ciera has the Idol, so Tyson admits he has it just to shut her up.
Redemption Truel. Tina isn't sure she can try to beat her daughter. It's my favorite Brady Bunch-in-the-ghost-town-jail challenge, where they fashion a long pole to retrieve keys to unlock a gate. Laura powers through as usual and comes in first. Katie seems poised to take second, but she runs into problems and Tina comes back and wins -- checking with Katie first to make sure it's okay. Maybe they should have had a talk about how they would handle this before they came to the challenge? Laura gives Ciera the clue to the Hidden Immunity Idol.
Hayden and Ciera look for the Idol while Gervase tries to make sure Monica is going to stick with him and Tyson. Meanwhile, Ciera and Hayden decide to try to flip Monica, since without an Idol, whichever one of them wins immunity will stay and the other will go. With Monica, they can vote out either Gervase or Tyson.
The Immunity Challenge involves pushing a buoy along a rope underwater, then grabbing a bag of letter tiles and spelling out a phrase. Tyson and Hayden lead through the water portion. Ciera is terrible. The final phrase is eight words long and everyone struggles, allowing Ciera to catch up. And she actually wins immunity with the phrase, "You are going to have to dig deep." I can't believe she won. Goodbye Hayden. She chooses Hayden to share her food reward. She should have chosen Monica.
After her reward, Ciera talks to Monica and tells her that Tyson is using her and has talked shit behind her back. The sticking point is that Tyson drew rocks to save Monica -- did he do it out of loyalty to Monica or to keep her along as his goat? At Tribal, Gervase and Tyson argue that it was the former and Hayden and Ciera argue that it was the latter. I would argue that it's a little of both. He trusted Monica more than Ciera, but he also thought he had a better chance of beating her. What could be Tyson's downfall is that he was publicly dismissive of how annoying Monica is. What could be Tyson's saving grace is that everyone else was too. So they all try to convince Monica to vote their way. What will she do? She sticks with her alliance and votes out Hayden, although you can tell she really did consider flipping.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!Katie wanders into Redemption Island and reveals that drama of Tribal Council that led to them drawing rocks and her being eliminated. Katie asks if they think she should have just voted Hayden off, and Tina and Laura both tell her that she had to take her shot at Tyson. It's true; with the top three so tight, there's really no way Katie could slide in there unless she found the Idol, which wasn't going to happen. Tina interviews that she and Katie can't both go back in the game, and as they lie down to sleep, Tina tells Katie that she's not looking forward to competing, and she's willing to let Katie win. Katie responds that they should both try their hardest, but Tina isn't sure that she can. I guess I'm more competitive than Tina; I think I could easily beat one of my children if called upon. Maybe Tina's just a better person than me. Probably.
The Kasama tribe returns to camp with everyone still kind of dumbstruck over what happened. Hayden says he owes Ciera a hug, and Ciera tells everyone that she still loves them and it was just a game move. Tyson agrees that it was a great move, and he was excited to be part of such a historic Tribal Council, although he guesses that Katie wasn't quite so excited. Hayden says that he had to throw everything he had at the wall and see what stuck, and anyone else would have done the same thing. Hayden interviews that he was trying to flip the script and it kind of worked. Well, it worked in the sense that Hayden didn't go home, but it didn't work in the sense that he's still in the minority. He vows to stick with Ciera until the end.
Tyson tells Gervase that he made the dumbest move of the night when he told Hayden that he was the target. Tyson knows that telling someone they're going home lights a fire under them, and instead, you should give them hope and tell them someone else's name. That is pretty obvious, and just furthers my opinions that if it weren't for Tyson, Gervase would have been voted out long ago.
Monica hugs Gervase and Tyson and says that she can't believe that they stuck with her. Hayden and Ciera stand facing the other three, neatly illustrating the current split on the tribe. Then they all joke around and Monica pulls Ciera over to her side which is a little awkward and uncomfortable (Monica's memoir: "Awkward And Uncomfortable: The Monica Culpepper Story").
Monica interviews that she's worried that Hayden or Ciera has the Idol. She immediately relays that worry to Tyson and Gervase and before she can get her paranoia motor all revved up, Tyson tells her he has the Idol to shut her up. He walks away and Monica is STILL talking to Gervase about potential outcomes and Tyson walks back and tells her it doesn't matter because he has the Idol and she needs to "shut it down." Do you think Tyson watches Scandal? It's hilarious to me that Tyson told Monica the one thing that meant she didn't need to worry, and it took Monica STILL wanted to go through every hypothetical permutation. She can't help herself. Monica interviews that she feels disrespected that Tyson didn't share the Idol news with her earlier. Tyson and Gervase prepare to go to sleep and wish Monica good night. As she walks away, Tyson comments that Monica isn't great at Survivor, but she's really come in handy.