Cindy is feeling insecure after not being in on the booting of Judd, but she feels better after winning the reward challenge that gives her a car. The show makes one of its most diabolical moves ever by offering Cindy the opportunity to avoid the "curse" -- that the winner of the car never wins the million dollars. And how can she avoid it? By giving up her car, at which point the other four people remaining will all get cars. That is horrible. Cindy hems and haws, but she ultimately keeps the car, as she should. She takes Steph on the reward, and while Steph is off being a shockingly good sport about the car and telling Cindy she'd have done the same thing, Rafe is back at camp being unfortunately bitchy about how he can't believe Cindy kept the car for herself. Danni helps prod this unhappiness about Cindy, aware as she is that any hostility between any two other people is an advantage to her. When Cindy and Steph get back, Steph can't believe Rafe actually thinks Cindy should have given the car back, but Rafe can't be swayed and now has a tight alliance with Danni. Since Steph and Cindy had talked about booting Danni , this is a problem. At the immunity challenge, Steph finally -- and I do mean finally -- wins immunity for herself, and she's all teary-eyed about it. The unhappiness between Rafe and Cindy expands when Cindy decides to target Rafe as the biggest threat rather than sticking with the plan to boot Danni. The Rafe boot is not going to stick, and at tribal council, Cindy finds that she is the latest to suffer the car curse, because she is going home. So your final four are Danni, Steph, Rafe, and Lydia. And the outcome is actually in doubt, and the finale might actually be interesting.
Previously on A Man's Man, Man: Judd, Cindy, Rafe, and Steph looked to be headed for F4, with Danni and Lydia battling for fifth and sixth place and the opportunity to spend as little time as possible in sequester with Judd, Jamie, Gary, and Bobby Jon. When the auction offered an even better shot at immunity, the rest of the group let Danni have it easily, because keeping your game plan for a million dollars in place is good, but it's no plate of cookies, after all. Judd bought his own wife at the auction, and took Steph and Cindy and their waxed boyfriend and chirpy sister (respectively) along on the reward, leaving Rafe to be sent off with Danni and Lydia. In exile, a new plan began to emerge, known as Operation Judd Has Been Here Way Too Long Already. And believe me, it is a plan with which I was entirely on board. After Danni caught Judd keeping his options open with Lydia and deftly tattled to Steph, Judd's stock began to drop like a rock. And at tribal council, Danni and Lydia joined forces with Rafe and Steph to get rid of Judd, who was such a good sport that he had absolutely no hard feelings except for hoping that everyone who voted against him got eaten by crocodiles. And wanting animals to eat people isn't that hard a feeling, after all. One boot left to get to the final four. Who will get the axe tonight and not make it to the interminable finale except in the capacity of Embittered Snotty Juror?
Credits. Wow, I really miss Blake. No, I'm just kidding, of course.
On the night of Day 33, after tribal council, the final five are standing around the fire discussing the booting of Judd. Steph says that although she felt bad about booting Judd, she felt somewhat less bad when he went all nutty on them and started calling everybody scumbags: "I mean, he almost started to turn into Jamie a little bit." I guess "Jamie" is now slang for "crazy person" around camp, which is both sad and funny. Danni, meanwhile, interviews quietly that this was the break in the big alliance that she was praying for all along. She did hold on admirably through a lengthy period during which it appeared that she was doomed, which she no longer seems to be. I like how, when she has an interview snippet, they still put up that caption that says, "Sports Radio Host." Like people are going to be watching the show at this point going, "Now, wait. Which one is Danni? Oh, the sports radio host. That's right." It would be much more useful if they really think people are joining the party late to caption her something like, "Not So Strong In Challenges, But Less Bitchy Than Most." That would give you some actual information.
An uncomfortable Cindy, for her part, wants to know why nobody talked to her about what was happening with the Judd boot. Steph claims that they wanted to tell her, but Cindy insists that they didn't even have to tell her; they could have just felt her out to see whether she'd be amenable. But the problem is...they really couldn't. Once you admit to one person in your alliance that you're considering turning on another person in your alliance, the risk is already out there. If they try to feel out Cindy and Cindy goes to Judd, then they have a mess. Once they had the votes to make the boot, not telling anybody else was the safe play for them, even though it makes Cindy uncomfortable. Cindy huffs in an interview that she was not "privileged to the information," by which I believe she means "privy to the information," but she's a zookeeper after all, and monkeys aren't big on precision. Cindy takes note back around the fire that she doesn't like the fact that Judd was the one left out of the Jamie boot, and now Judd is gone. Because if that's the case, then what does it mean that she was the one left out of the Judd boot? Girl has a point. That would make you feel a little isolated. Steph insists that the one to go "could be any of us," which is a nice deployment of the technique in which you comfort someone by saying something completely obvious and devoid of meaning.
Howlie stares down at the tribe, wondering where the big loud guy went.
We see the light of dawn break through the clouds in a single chunk, as if God Himself has come to deliver something. I don't want to say, but I think it might be a Pontiac. On the morning of Day 34, talk turns to the fact that Rafe is the last guy here. "In the hardest Survivor ever, it's the gay guy and four women in the final five," he notes. Rafe says that he's happy to be with all the women (or, as he puts it, "four girls"), and then he refers to the group as Rafe's Angels, which is kind of disgusting, because even when there's a guy among women, it is possible for the guy not to be at the center of the dynamic, you know. Steph opens a game of "Things We Are Not Going To Miss About Guatemala." Rafe thinks for a minute, and then, vaguely disturbed, he says, "Naked Judd." Everyone laughs, including me, although Steph and Danni both have those dumb, nasal laughs, like "hnah-hnah-hnah," which takes away from my enjoyment because it reminds me of a lot of women I don't like, and it also reminds me of a flock of geese. But I can certainly get behind the not-missing of Naked Judd. I don't even miss Judd With Clothes On, and although I never saw much of Naked Judd, I can extrapolate, and it's not pretty.
Rafe claims in his interview that, when Judd left, it was like the only "cool kid" remaining was gone, so everyone else could let his or her inner dork out. This apparently takes the form of an eye-crossing contest, which...I admit, is pretty dorky. Although Judd did participate in a cartwheel contest, which is not exactly cool-kid behavior -- at least not when the cool kid is a beefy dude and not a spindly cheerleader. Lydia adds that Rafe is "a real gentle type of male," and that he "fits right in with" the women. Eh. I could have lived without the "he's so gay, he's practically a girl!" celebration, but, whatever. It's also interesting how Rafe's seeing Rafe's Angels, while Lydia more thinks that they're all angels together in search of a Charlie. The nerdfest continues as Steph and Rafe discuss Justin Timberlake, Steph's opinion that Timberlake is hot, and Rafe's correction that he was in *N SYNC and not The Backstreet Boys. Rafe offers his rendition of "I Want It That Way," apparently the result of some kind of grand dissection of boy bands that I'm sort of sad we missed. Usually, I have no defense against guys who can actually sing that song as if it's a real song and they're not embarrassed by it, but Rafe doesn't really commit, and if you're going to sing that song, you have to commit. Rafe claims to have relationships with all the four women "on a close, personal level." But not like that, of course. That would be a great scenario for F5 some season, though. He says he hopes these close relationships will get him through the game, as we look at a shot of him taken through the legs of one of the women. No, really. They frame his face with her legs. Sort of, "Miss Stephenie, are you trying to seduce me?"
Rafe and Danni go together to open the treemail, and to what should really be no one's surprise at this point, the clue is nothing but a ropelike tchotchke with a car key hanging from it. Steph talks about her excitement that the reward is a car. She tells us that she's never had one, and that she's "in desperate need of a car." For her part, Lydia wants to win it and give it to her seventeen-year-old son, which I think is crazy. Give him the beater, Lydia! Take the new car for yourself! He's only going to wrap it around a tree! You won't be able to afford the insurance! It's kind of lame how they all act so wigged-out excited over the car, because they give away a car every year right around this point, so it's not exactly a big shock. It's sort of like getting to the final tribal council and going, "A million dollars? Eeeeee!" Anyway, Steph mentions quietly to Rafe that the two of them seem to be the only two who don't have cars. Cindy: "It's not a good time for me to try not to chew my nails." Heh.
And now, to the challenge clearing, where Jeff awaits. He is standing in front of a boxy black SUV. For the car, they'll be playing the famous "second chance" challenge where, rather than rehashing challenges from earlier seasons as they usually do, they'll rehash challenges from earlier this season. They'll start by going across a balance beam and untying three sets of clubs. The first three across will go to the round, which involves throwing a club and hitting a tile. First two to break their tiles go to the final round, where you have to assemble a puzzle based on the Maya calendar. When you've got your puzzle solved, you get in a cart, chop the rope that holds the cart, and ride down the hill. And the car is a 2006 Pontiac Torrent, which I admit is not the coolest of vehicles, but which I would not kick out of bed for eating crackers if it were free. The winner will also spend the night at an archeologist's camp hearing a lot of boring stories about science and history and stuff, which sounds like the beginning of a dirty movie, kind of, but not the kind of dirty it would be if it involved these people. On the plus side: food! And booze! Specifically, a "barbecue feast." I always feel people cringing all across the American south when Jeff says that. Like, "Grilling steak and sausages is not a barbecue feast!" I don't think any actual barbecue feast has ever featured rum instead of beer, either.
Ready...go! First, across the balance beam. Steph gets off to a good start, as she often does in challenges before failing miserably. Jeff reminds them that if they fall off, they have to go back to the start. Steph is slightly in the lead as everyone moves to his or her second set of clubs. Steph falls off and has to go back to the beginning, as do Lydia and Rafe, and then Cindy, putting Steph back in the mix. Danni is the first to finish, followed by Cindy and then, just edging out Rafe, Stephenie. First two to break their tiles will go to the final. Cindy gets her tile first, so then it's down to Danni and Steph. Steph breaks hers first, so it's Steph and Cindy in the final. Steph still sucks at puzzles. She really still does. She does a valiant job of staying in it, but ultimately, you don't have to be an ancient Maya mystic to know that Cindy is destined to beat Steph in a puzzle challenge, and ultimately, she does. Cindy hops into her cart, and to the strains of Lydia muttering, "Go, Cindy!," Cindy chops the rope and rides her cart downhill. In the aftermath of Cindy's victory, Jeff gathers everyone and hands an ecstatic Cindy her keys, and he reminds her that she's also got the feast to look forward to. She gets the right to invite one person, as well.
But before they talk about whom Cindy wants to invite, Jeff wants to talk about the curse. The curse is the one where the person who wins the car has never won the million bucks in ten (really nine) seasons of giving away cars. As soon as Steph hears this, she sort of groans, "Ohh," as if she really thinks it's really low of Jeff to be hitting Cindy with this when she was so happy. Jeff goes on to explain that Cindy has a choice. She can keep the car, or she can give up the car. If she gives up the car, all four of the other remaining players will each get a car. Note the immediate reactions to this news: Steph looks genuinely horrified, like that is the meanest thing she ever heard, which is exactly what I thought. My mom watched this with me, and I think her exact words were, "That's horrible." And then the show actually makes it worse by driving up the four other cars that will be given away if Cindy gives up hers.
Jeff asks Cindy what she wants to do. "I normally don't believe in superstitions," she says. "But I also want them to have cars." Steph looks like she intensely dislikes this entire thing. Cindy says that she believes in making impossible things possible, which I guess is a reference to beating the curse, but which didn't make much sense to me at the time. She goes on to say she should be able to win both if she plays right. Probably something she shouldn't have said, that last one. I think my strategy would have been to say as little as possible. Which would be a stretch for me, but I'd do my best. Cindy bites her nails for real, now. When Jeff demands an answer, Cindy ultimately says that she would love to give away four cars, but that she's "here to beat the odds," so she's going to keep her car. Steph is the first to nod like "damn right," and to applaud the decision. Remember, Steph's never had a car. She would certainly have liked to have a car. Rafe applauds with a notable lack of enthusiasm.
Look, strategically, you can argue all day about what she should have done. I can easily make and accept the argument that giving people cars today is a good way to make sure they don't vote you off tomorrow, or that people on the jury who are torn about whom to vote for might go with the person who gave them a large gift. But I could also argue that if you're Cindy, and if you have strong reason to believe you're not going tonight anyway, then all you accomplish by giving away the four cars is making yourself the least desirable F2 partner in history. Who's going to take someone to F2 who has given cars to three people on the jury? It's completely no-win for her, because the more you think that giving people cars will make them more likely to favor her, the more you have to think that it will make them more likely to get rid of her on the theory that other people will favor her, you know? I think it's one of those situations where, all other things being equal, I would tend to strategically favor leaving things status quo and sticking with what I already had. When you add in the fact that Cindy's winning the contest and then being the only person not to get a car is ridiculously unfair from a pure competitive standpoint, and the fact that she could hope other competitive people would understand and agree with that, it seems to me like at the very least an entirely defensible decision.
Anyway, Cindy's choice is to take Steph on the reward, and as soon as Steph comes over to hug her, her first words are, "I would have kept the car." Good on her; she's driven me bonkers all season, but I give her big points for that, which seems totally genuine. Steph and Cindy hop into the car. You can tell that Cindy feels somewhat bad as they get into the car, and Steph pats her on the arm: "This is beautiful...be happy!" In the car, Cindy is already rethinking: "There's no guarantees in this game, and...giving people cars is no guarantee that they're going to say, 'Give her a million bucks.'" "Exactly," Steph agrees. Cindy and Steph take off.
On the road to the reward, Steph talks to Cindy about how "sweet" her car is, and Cindy interviews about how excited she was to win the car like that. Her comment to Steph is that "zookeepers don't drive cars" (you can't insure them, I'm sure, because of the constant risk of a stampede on the way to work), but Steph insists that this one does. They also talk about how neat it was to see three women playing against each other in the second round, and my sense is that their happiness about that is pretty genuine. When not accompanied by revolting sexual politics, I don't mind people being happy about women doing well in a competition that often doesn't favor them. When Steph and Cindy pull up to the camp, there's an archeologist waiting. He welcomes them to the Yaxha archeological campsite. He invites them to come and eat, and he shows them the spread of meat and veggies and, of course, rum. I don't really drink rum by itself, though, so I hope there are some mixers or something. Diet Coke with Lime works well.
Cindy and Steph start cooking up the meat, Cindy commenting that it's "more meat than [they've] seen in thirty-some days." I would make a Naked Judd joke here, except I fear that he would choose to find it flattering. Steph offers a toast to the new car, and "to final four." Cindy voices over about the car issue again, and she explains how she didn't know what to do, because you think to yourself about when you'll ever get another chance to give cars to four people. Sure, it's four people you don't really care about, but...okay. Unfortunately, rather than let this drop with Steph -- who has already agreed with her -- Cindy keeps talking about how "if you win, you win" and so forth, forcing Steph to say it's okay over and over again. Cindy goes on in her interview to repeat the part about "no guarantees," and about how nobody is necessarily going to give you a million bucks because you give them a car.
Here's my take on how Cindy misread the situation. She accounted for the part of the equation where giving away her car might make people vote for her, and she decided how she felt about that. And she also accounted for the fact that it would be fun to give away four cars. But I think she never accounted for the possibility that anyone would be enough of a dickweed to feel entitled to have her give up her car, and that this would make people vote against her. I think Cindy saw the choice as an opportunity to give a gift, but I don't think she seriously considered that anyone (Rafe) would conclude that she was somehow obligated (Rafe) to give him a gift (Rafe, Rafe, Rafe) and that anyone (Rafe) would turn on her as a result specifically of her failure to make that gift. Honestly, I would have made the same mistake. When I saw the situation presented to Cindy, my reaction was that I'd probably keep the car, but I'd be very tempted by the opportunity to give four people cars. But it would have never occurred to me, if I were one of the four other people, to think anybody had any obligation to do that, or that it was somehow selfish or inappropriate for her to turn down that opportunity. If I won the lottery, I'd give away a lot, including to my friends, but if my friends won the lottery and didn't give me any -- particularly to the point where they got ZERO as a result -- I certainly wouldn't be pissed at them, you know?
Cindy wraps up her interview about the car by saying, "I don't think anybody was bitter about it at all." As it must, this takes us directly back to camp, where Rafe, Danni, and Lydia have lots of time to talk about what Cindy did. Rafe tells Danni: "I was, like, shocked." Danni laughs noncommittally. In an interview, Rafe says, "I just couldn't believe that that was the decision Cindy made. For me, that didn't seem like a choice. Like, you have to give the car to four other people, like, there was nothing else I would have done. Like, I never would have taken the car for myself." ["While I wouldn't have held it against the person who didn't make that decision, that's kind of how I felt about this whole thing." -- Wing Chun] Of course, Rafe wouldn't have had to, because in his scenario, conveniently enough, Cindy gives him a free car. As with Tom and Ian, it's always easy to say that honor should count when honor makes you get stuff. Rafe goes on with this line of bullshit by explaining to Danni how very sad he was for Cindy when he heard about the choice, because he realized that she was going to have to give up her car. At this point, Danni starts in with a lot of "Oh, just what I was thinking," but I think her reasoning is totally different. Listen to her reasoning in an interview: "I actually thought Cindy would do it, because I would have done it in a heartbeat. Because you would have four people who were very happy with you." That's strategy talk, not "selflessness is my middle name" talk.
For her part, Lydia tells Rafe that her thought was, "Cindy, keep the car, you deserve it, you won rightfully." Danni agrees with this as well, saying something about having heard Cindy say she needed a car. But Rafe is determined to make this into something it isn't, so he goes back to his communist argument, saying, "I was just thinking, four people can have a car, or one person..." Of course, he's one of the four, not the one. It's so easy to dictate morality and "greatest good for the greatest number" when it's not coming out of your ass, you know? ["Except I really think that, if their positions were reversed, Rafe would have given everyone the cars. I don't think it's so much that he feels he was entitled to the car as that he just can't fathom being the one who gets the car instead of the one who gives cars to four other people. I do think there's some sour grapes here, obviously, but that he is also sincere in saying what his choice would have been, and given what we learned about Rafe this season, I buy what he's saying here." -- Wing Chun] Rafe then says in an interview that he would never have been able to vote Cindy out if she had given them all cars. Which, if true, makes him a wuss of the first order, because if you're going to play this game, you play it to win, and not playing to win is for wusses. You don't keep people in because they gave you a material reward -- that's dumb, and hardly admirable. "But now," Rafe says, "you never know what's going to happen."
Steph and Cindy eat their dinner. As they finish up, the archeologist comes back, and he starts to tell them lots of interesting things about the Maya. Steph wants to know if they really ate this much corn. Hee. I loved that question. It's like she can't believe this isn't all just a big Burnett stunt, because nobody could eat this much corn. The guy says that they did, and she visibly blanches, like she cannot imagine. She probably has several reasons she wouldn't have wanted to be born among the Maya, including the low availability of hair-care products, but this is certainly among those reasons. He tells them what Yaxha means, and tells them lots of interesting things, but Cindy says that she was distracted by her beautiful car the entire time. Oh, the siren song of the Pontiac Torrent.
When the archeologist's finished with the storytelling, Cindy and Steph carry a tray of food over to a little tent of netting, and they sit and eat and talk about strategy. The basic upshot is that while Steph really likes Danni, both Cindy and Steph recognize Danni as a threat, vote-wise, so they're thinking they'll vote her out . "If she went further than me, that would suck," Steph says. "Or you, or Rafe." Steph takes the position that they should go farther because they had numbers at the merge, which is idiotic, really, because you could just as easily argue Danni should go farther for having survived without an alliance to rely on. Steph points out, probably knowing that Rafe likes Danni, that all that's needed to get rid of Danni would be her, Cindy, and Lydia. She wants, however, to include Rafe if possible. They agree that they'll bring this up to Rafe back at camp. Steph's position is that "Rafe's a smart kid; he'll be fine with it." That's what she thinks.
The morning, Steph and Cindy return to camp on Day 35. Cindy is asked if the car was okay, and she takes this opportunity to wax rhapsodic about how awesome the car is. The car handles so great. The suspension is so great. She calls it a "luxury vehicle." Cindy tells the group that she never anticipated that she'd own a new car. She loves the tires. She loves the taillights. She needs to shut up. She also needs to see more taillights, I think, so she's not so easily won over. Rafe is giving her the stinkeye. The editing is designed to leave the impression that Danni is also pissed off, but I don't believe it for a minute. Rafe, for his part, snottily interviews that Cindy was "grating on people" (by which he means "grating on me") by talking about how much she loved the car. "You can only hear so much about something that everyone else could have had, too," he snots, conveniently ignoring the fact that everyone else could not have had it "too." Everyone else could have had it "instead." Convenient, that little shift. Cindy interviews that everyone seemed to think choosing the car was the right thing to do, and although they set it up to make it seem like she's totally ignorant, I think she's right about everyone but Rafe. I think Lydia and Steph think it was the right thing to do, and Danni might think it was a strategic mistake, but I don't think she's at all on about "four people versus one person" and all that bullshit Rafe is shoveling. Cindy certainly failed to notice herself pissing off Rafe, but I don't think she failed to read the entire camp the way they're setting this up to imply, nor do I think Rafe is correct that everyone was irritated by hearing her talk about the car.
In my favorite scene of the episode -- the one that makes me love Steph again, just briefly -- Steph tells Rafe with disbelief how Cindy actually felt guilty about keeping the car. She explains how she told Cindy how silly that was, that Cindy deserved the car and had won it fair and square. Rafe is caught off-guard by this, because he loves validation and was sure Steph would validate him. Given some of her past behavior, it's not a bad guess, but not this time. Rafe claims that he and Danni both believed Cindy would give up the car, and Steph -- this is where I love the hilarity of this scene -- is like, "So did I -- she was considering it!" And Steph says this as if it's the dumbest thing she ever heard, which leaves Rafe with really no way to tell Steph he thought there was no choice for Cindy but to give away her car. Showing the first sign of insecurity by attaching someone else to his opinion, Rafe says, "Danni and I both thought that there wasn't any other option than to give up the car." Steph, still pounding corn, totally confused: "What do you mean?" AWESOME. Rafe: "If they had asked me that, like, there's no way I would have kept it." Steph, more curiously than anything: "Really?" Steph doesn't get this, and Rafe -- not talking strategy -- says, "'Cause it's like, four of you guys could have cars!" Steph is still confused: "You thought you had to give it up?" Rafe: "Not that you had to, but just...I would've." Oh, well, sure. You would've. In the hypothetical universe in which you will never be required to live. Steph answers that she wouldn't think anyone would give up the car. Steph interviews that she couldn't believe Rafe claimed he would have made that choice: "Sometimes, I just feel like Rafe does try to play the martyr a little bit." She goes on to say that this is the only time she and Rafe have disagreed in the entire game. Steph asks Lydia what she thinks, and Lydia says, "I think Cindy made the right choice."
And then Rafe gives the interview snippet that means that he and I are not friends anymore: "The only thing I was thinking about was that you could give four other people a car, and it seems like everyone else was thinking about what they could have." Of course, the irony is that it's precisely the opposite. In evaluating Cindy's decision, Rafe is the one person who held out that Cindy should have done the thing that would have made him get more. Steph supported a decision by Cindy that gave Steph less. Lydia supported a decision by Cindy that gave Lydia less. Danni doesn't seem to have problems other than strategic ones, so morally, she seems to be fine with a choice that gave her less. Only Rafe is griping about the outcome that didn't favor him and whining that the right outcome would be one in which he got a car. It's very easy to speak in hypotheticals -- what you would have done if they'd asked you -- but what really brings out your true colors is your attitude toward things that really happened, and the fact of the matter is that everyone else reacted to this situation by not minding being denied a car, so they're exactly not only thinking about what they could have, or they'd be mad at Cindy. Like Rafe is. Rafe just wanted a car. Rafe is pissed off that Cindy didn't give him a car, and it's ultimately selfish, and he's playing it as self-righteous moralizing, which is my least favorite thing. He needs to own his own greed. He'd be a lot happier. Oh, and then he says he wondered if he's "playing this game too nicely." What the fuck does that mean? Playing too nicely? You're in the final five, dude. You've already voted off a whole honkload of people. What are you doing that's "nice," exactly, other than talking about how much more selfless you are than other people? Talking about how torn up you are about everything you do doesn't make you any nicer than anyone else.
The group gathers at a challenge course. Jeff asks Cindy about the reward, and Cindy calls it "overwhelming." Jeff takes the immunity necklace back from Danni. In today's challenge, you'll start out attached to one long rope wound around a bunch of poles. You have to unwind enough rope to get to the finish line. You'll start out with ten keys on a ring, and with your hands and feet shackled, and as you untangle around each pole, you'll unlock your hands, unlock your rope, and then unlock your feet. Then you have to wind around until you have enough rope to reach the end, and when you think you have enough, you run for the finish. First person to get to the finish wins immunity.
Ready...go! Steph takes an early lead, but Cindy is right in it. Danni and Lydia are dragging behind. It becomes a race between Steph and Cindy. Steph is the first to get to her final lock, and Steph is then the first person to get her final lock undone and unshackle her feet. Steph gathers up a lot of rope and then runs for the finish. And she comes up...a few feet short. Wow. Steph must feel like she's walked into some kind of enormous metaphor without realizing it. Steph starts to untie knots in her rope to give herself more slack. The first is not enough. Steph starts on another knot as Cindy tries to get her lock undone. Steph finally has enough rope and reaches her flag, and she hears the words she's dying to hear: "Steph wins immunity." That's once, y'all. Ever. Steph bursts into tears. "Is this your first individual win?" Jeff asks, a little incredulous, and Steph confirms snorfily that it is. She's really quite in tears, there. Jeff puts the necklace on Steph, and he tells the rest that one of them is about to go home.
We return on Day 36, where the survivors are returning to camp, and everyone is congratulating Steph. Steph tells us that winning individual immunity is "the most amazing feeling." Disbelieving, she notes that she's just earned a spot in the final four: "And I did not think I was going to get past the first tribal council in this game." I have to say, I wondered that, too. Steph has really been very unlikable at certain points in this season, but I cannot take anything away from her game play, which has been pretty awesome. Danni and Rafe have a little chat in which they agree that they will be BFF, and that they will never vote for each other at least until they're in F3. Rafe vows that he will never vote for Danni in this tribal council or tribal council. "And I'm not changing that, no matter what happens," he adds. Danni says she feels the same, and is just concerned about Stephenie, and the fact that she could "sway." Rafe says that he'll "deal" if that happens. Danni interviews that she feels comfortable trusting Rafe, relatively speaking. She tells him that she'd take him to F2 from F3, even if she knew he'd beat her. Rafe says in an interview that this is "a huge degree of security." He adds that he's committed to voting out Cindy at this tribal council. He says that he liked Cindy up until the part where she didn't give him a car, and then he figured out that he "wasn't going to be [Cindy's] biggest fan." Oh, grow up. It's a game. She won; you lost. She got a car; you didn't. You're not selfless; you're exactly the only one pissed off because he didn't get the payoff. God.
Rafe and Steph take a walk in which he says he thinks they have a much better chance against Danni than against Cindy in F3, and that's actually a valid argument, and I wish he'd stick with that one. Rafe also insists that either of them will lose against Cindy but not against Danni, which...huh? Danni seems to be by far the most well-liked person left, and she almost definitely would have Bobby Jon and Gary's votes against anyone left. Lydia is more likely to vote for Danni than Cindy, and I suspect that Judd is, too, just based on personalities. This part of Rafe's argument appears to be kind of ridiculous, really. Steph points out that if she votes off Cindy, then that's just another person on the jury who's going to think she was backstabbed by Steph, meaning that Jamie, Judd, and Cindy would all refuse to vote for Steph because she got rid of them. ["On the other hand, there's not one person on the jury that Steph didn't put there, so I don't know what makes Cindy so special in that regard." -- Wing Chun] Rafe insists that they don't exactly have a deal with Cindy, which is goofy, because they all talked about their expected F4 back before Judd got booted off. Steph explains to us that she raised this point with Rafe -- that it might not be smart to vote off another member of their own alliance who will hold it against them. Steph says that, at the same time, Cindy is a huge threat who "has a car, at least." Ugh. She says she just doesn't know what will happen at tribal council.
Interestingly, Steph goes right to Cindy with this business from Rafe, probably because, that way, Cindy will blame Rafe and not Steph if it happens the way it looks like it might. Cindy's extremely dark roots are on display as she grinds corn and Steph explains to her how Rafe would rather face Danni than Cindy. Cindy counters that she's not the threat -- Rafe is the threat, having won a bunch of challenges. Cindy interviews that she thinks getting rid of Rafe would be the best move, because he's such a threat in challenges. "And I think the girls would have a much better shot at winning this," she adds with a smile. Well, yes. The odds would certainly...improve somewhat.
Later, sitting around with Danni and Steph, Cindy tells them that if they get rid of her, they'll be keeping the strongest competitor in the game, and indicates Rafe: "He's going to beat you guys in all the challenges." Steph insists that she knows Rafe's the strongest and has told him so. "He can beat any of us in the immunities; we already know that," Cindy says. Despite the fact that Danni has already won immunity, Steph has already won immunity, Cindy has been a top finisher in several challenges and won twice, and Rafe hasn't exactly been on a white-hot winning streak lately. "Smartest thing to do would be to eliminate him," Cindy says to Steph and Danni, neither of whom is considering doing that.
Tribal council. They all enter and are seated. Here comes the jury. Bobby Jon is all in pink. The main thing one notices about Judd is that he really isn't as distasteful when clean-shaven. He's also a lot smaller than he was when he arrived, that's for sure. I'm sorry -- I mean, "that's for sure, man." Jeff mentions how there are five left, and that Steph will be in F4. Asked about the mood at camp, Rafe says that other than Steph, no one feels safe, least of all him, given the string of guys on the jury. Danni says that, for her part, she's never felt comfortable anyway, so this is just par for the course for her.
Jeff asks Cindy about the curse and the car, and how she chose not to give up her car. Does she still feel confident? Cindy says that she doesn't think it was the wrong choice, because there are no guarantees about what might happen. She makes the valid point that part of the reason this "curse" exists is that the people who win it tend to be strong competitors who then get voted out by other people. Jeff asks her who she thinks is a competitor and a threat, and she calls out Rafe, based on past performance. "He's good at everything, and people like him," she says, although people like him much less this week, if by "people," you mean "me."
Steph says that she will be keeping the immunity necklace. Cindy is the first to vote, and she votes for Rafe, calling him a "tough competitor" and saying she's voting him out because people like him. Steph votes. Lydia votes, saying, "What a terrific person you are. But you're very athletic, very competitive, and very intelligent. And I'm voting with the tribe." Danni votes. Rafe votes for Cindy, claiming to "love" her (not), but saying that he has to vote her out because she blows like the wind or something. It's kind of stupid.
Jeff goes off to "tally." First vote is for Rafe. Then Cindy, Cindy, and Cindy. So that will do it for our zookeeper. As she gets her torch, she says, "I'll think about you guys when I see the stars through the sunroof of my new car." Bleh. Unnecessary. Over on the jury, Judd pumps his fist, and it's not clear whether he's happy she was booted, or happy she got in a dig at the rest of them. I tend to think it was the latter. Cindy is snuffed, and she leaves.
Jeff says nothing of value, and then he sends them all home.
Sunday: final four. Will Steph become the unlikeliest winner ever? Will Rafe give everyone all his worldly possessions? Will Danni foil the giant alliance she started off against? Will Lydia...nah. That won't happen.