Episode Report Card Kim: C | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Back-Up Plan
By Kim | Season 25 | Episode 11 | Aired on 11.28.2012
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.As Abi continues bitching about her treatment at Tribal Council, Denise lays out their plan: vote out Abi, but if Abi somehow wins immunity, vote out Penner. Not sure why Penner is going ahead of Carter, but there it is.
The Reward Challenge is the food auction, where Skupin proves he doesn't understand strategy. Carter wins a baked potato, but he trades it for rice and beans for the tribe and then wins veal shanks for the entire tribe to eat like animals. Abi spends all of her money on an advantage in the game. Abi's advantage is that she gets to skip to the finals of the Immunity Challenge, but she lies and tells Malcolm that she actually has an Idol. Won't he find out she's lying when they get to the actual challenge? I don't get it.
Immunity Challenge is yet another ropes course. I'm getting a little sick of these. Anyway, it's in three stages with a twist. At the beginning of each stage, Probst will ask each competitor a question and if they get it wrong, they have to carry 5% of their body weight with them. Did they get weighed? Are we talking current body weight or pre-game body weight?
Abi reads the message about heading right to the final stage aloud, but then claims that there is another part she's not reading and rips up the note. Probst doesn't give her away, which I guess is fair. Denise handily wins the first stage, with Carter, Skupin, Malcolm and Penner also moving on, although Penner barely makes it through. Penner somehow makes a huge comeback and wins the second round and he moves on along with Carter.
So Penner, Carter and Abi compete for Immunity in the final round, which involves untying knots and climbing a structure. Abi's knee seems completely healed! It's a miracle! And despite a big challenge from Carter, Abi actually wins immunity. Well, it only took a huge advantage to light a fire under her. So anyway, now everyone's going to vote out Penner.
Lisa goes and tells Penner that he's being voted out. Penner somehow thinks that Skupin is part of his alliance with Carter and Abi. How did that happen? I mean, it's not crazy because Skupin and Penner have a much better chance of winning against Carter or Abi than anyone else, but I feel like this is the first we're hearing about this so-called alliance.
At Tribal Council, Penner tries to convince Lisa (and Skupin) that she's better off keeping him and ditching Denise. It doesn't work and Penner is voted out. The best part is that he hugs Carter and then Abi stands up and asks for a hug and Penner refuses. Penner has a bit of a hard time leaving the stage; I would have rather that Abi went tonight, but I was kind of over Penner anyway. He had gone over that line for me from funny and sarcastic to bitter and smug.
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Want more? The full recap starts right below!We don't even get the night vision post-Tribal Council footage; maybe they all just awkwardly went to sleep. Anyway, the next morning, Skupin checks in with Abi who's all pouty and says that they were "brutal" to her and "it wasn't cute." She clearly has never heard much negative feedback in her life. I mean, even if she's completely different off the island, she's a human being and she has flaws and she has to have heard some criticism prior to this, right? That was relatively mild and, frankly, deserved.
Denise interviews that Abi is still being negative and grouchy about everything. Penner and Denise go to get wood and talk shit about Abi. Penner nails her attitude with "furious, defensive, bitter." Denise interviews that she has a solid Final Four, so Abi's going next. Unless she somehow miraculously wins immunity (come on, that could never happen! Why would they even mention it in the opening of the show?), and then they'll probably ditch Penner. I get that Penner is a good social/emotional player, but he's no immunity threat. I don't get why Carter's name hasn't even come up, since he's shown himself to be pretty decent at challenges, especially physical ones. Interesting.
Abi and Malcolm go to get treemail and they find little pouches with each player's name on them. Abi assumes that these are letters from home and she starts crying. Malcolm doesn't think they are letters, but then notices Abi's tears and says, "Come on, darling." Ugh, I hate that he kind of melted me with that "darling." Anyway, Malcolm hugs her and expresses empathy for her condition. I don't know how much of this is genuine and how much is currying jury votes. I'm going to guess that it's 25% genuine/75% jury. Abi cries that Denise was so meeeeeeean to her and it was the worst day of her life. Look, if the worst day of your life is when someone you don't give a shit about tells you that they don't like you and want to spend time with you? Your life ain't so bad.
Malcolm and Abi return with the pouches. Penner immediately nails it as being for the food auction. Abi reads the clue, which confirms Penner's suspicion. Abi interviews that she's unliked and she needs to keep playing the game, so she's going to hold onto her money and save it for an opportunity to get ahead. So that was her plan all along; I somehow missed that on the first viewing.
The contestants head over to the auction, which is the same as every season. They sit on bleachers and they each have $500. Bidding is in $20 increments and they can't share food or money. Aw, I like it when they can share money. I think that creates insight into tribal dynamics. The first item is pancakes, butter, bacon, maple syrup and orange juice. Here's the thing: there is a giant hunk of butter sitting on top, not melting, so those pancakes are ice cold. I get that the contestants don't care, but at least try to make it look appetizing, huh? Cold pancakes are bullshit. Denise bids $200 to start, Malcolm ups it, and Denise jumps to $500. She really loves cold pancakes. Also, there is ice in the orange juice, which is disgusting.