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Jalapeño has no time to mourn the loss of Sandy as Taj has to go off and plot with Stephen. She finds the idol and promptly gives it to Stephen for safe-keeping, since he has pockets. He also has a brain, and starts to think of ways to keep the idol for himself. Jalapeño wins the reward challenge, which involves making tribe members dizzy and then forcing them to walk across a balance beam. Their prize is one of the lamest product placements this show has ever had: a trip to Brand Name Toilet Paper Café, where they get coffee, pastries, and a chance to use a real toilet and real toilet paper. Also, letters from home. Even though they've been gone for less than two weeks, crying ensues. Stephen does not get to enjoy the reward, as he's chosen by Brendan to go to Exile Sand Dune instead. Tyson starts to become suspicious of Brendan and all the time he's spending with various members of the other tribe, and he, Douche, and Debbie decide that Brendan should be the to go. They don't get the chance to vote him out this week, as they win the immunity challenge, which involves catching sling-shotted balls in nets. J.T. almost single-handedly wins it for Jalapeño, losing half a tooth in the process and becoming Probst's onetruelove for his determination and grit. But then Spencer forgets how to guard Tyson, allowing him to catch enough balls to win the challenge for Tempura. Back at camp, Taj flips out on Joe for no reason, putting her on the possible boot list along with Spencer. But then Spencer reveals to us that he's gay (no duh) and he'd been hiding that fact from his tribemates for fear that they'd use it against him, and this sudden appearance of a personality indicates that he's the to go. Sure enough, the tribe unanimously decides to get rid of him after a poorly-edited Tribal Council.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!After Probst recaps like the entire season thus far and wastes five minutes of precious airtime, we go to morning at Camp Jalapeño, where Taj's back itches. Stephen is more than happy to literally scratch her back to pay her back for figuratively scratching his. As she moans in ecstasy, he notes that he's "never brought such pleasure to a woman before." Way to use your national television fame to get ladies, Stephen! I'm sure they'll be lining up at your door now. Taj interviews that she wrote Joe's name down last night because she didn't want to write Sandy's. A sweet gesture, but I doubt Joe appreciates it. Be careful, Taj! As Taj and Stephen go off to get water, she interviews that their four-way alliance with Brendan and Sierra is intact, and all she has to do now is find the idol. She's so eager to get the idol that she actually runs to treemail and starts searching. The clue said something about asking treemail "why the sad frown?" which obviously means the idol has been shoved up its ass. I would have a sad frown if that happened to me, too. Taj quickly finds the idol. It's not all that well-hidden, actually -- what would they have done if someone found it by accident? Taj interviews that now that they've got their alliance and the idols, all they have to do is make it to the merge and the game is theirs to win. "I just love it when a perfect plan comes together," Taj A-Teams. I'm not sure if Taj is the best judge of perfect plans, though, as she then gives the idol to Stephen to hold for safekeeping. What is with these people and their mistaken impression that immunity idols are group projects? Stephen wants to bury it somewhere, but Taj thinks he'll be fine hiding it on his person since no one will suspect him of having the idol. Stephen then interviews that he and Taj "found the idol together" even though Taj totally found it and he happened to be nearby. Stephen says that since the idol is now in his possession, he's going to work hard to keep it that way. Because, unlike Taj, he understands that only one person can use the idol. Not two. One.
Let's go over to Tempura. They're making beans, which is never a good sign. While the rest of the tribe goes off to do the dishes, Brendan and Sierra stay behind to get the fire started. As soon as Sierra ascertains that they're alone, she's kind of annoyed with Brendan for not telling her about the Exile alliance, but says that Taj filled her in. Brendan fills her in on something else -- that he already has the idol. Brendan and Sierra now fully believe they're in the Final Four and there's no way to stop them. Pride goeth before the fall, guys. How many times have we seen people on this show talk about their foolproof plan to make it to the Final Four, only to see them leave before the merge? Sierra interviews that she's proud of herself for going from the first person voted out to a member of a powerful alliance. As if she had anything to do with that. As if any of them had anything to do with that, really. Brendan just happened to have been chosen to go to Exile and he just happened to choose Taj. Sierra's only move was to confide in Brendan that she had a clue to an immunity idol because she couldn't find it for herself. "We're really going to take over the whole world. That's right," she says with a giggle. Okay, she's still endearing.
Reward challenge time! Tempura sees that Sandy was voted out last night, and Douche feels the need to mutter "only a matter of time" under his self-satisfied breath. UGH. Can this PLEASE be the episode where he gets voted out? Please??? Probst explains today's challenge. One tribe member sits on a rotating platform while the other pulls a rope, thereby spinning the platform and making the person sitting on it dizzy. Once the entire rope has been pulled, the dizzy member must walk across a balance beam and cross a finish line. The first tribe to cross the line wins a point. First tribe to get three points wins a trip to the Charmin Café, where they'll get coffee and pastries and a toilet filled with Charmin toilet paper. Methinks the contestants are much more excited about the food than the TP. Both tribes agree that this is worth playing for, like always, and Tyson looks like an overgrown schoolboy with his hands clasped across his tiny little shorts. Probst then gives everyone the big "fuck you" of the reward -- whoever the losing tribe's Exilee picks from the winning team to go to Exile will miss out on the Café.
For the first round, we have Joe pulling Taj for Jalapeño and Brendan pulling Tyson for Tempura. I see that Douche has once again elected to stay as far away from helping his team out as possible. Joe and Brendan reach the end of their ropes at about the same time, so now it's a race between Taj and Tyson, who both look very dizzy. Taj tries to get on the balance beam immediately, while Tyson tries to clear his head and un-dizzy himself first. His strategy seems to be working, as Taj falls off her beam several times. Even so, it's still a pretty close race to the finish line when he wins one point for Tempura.
Second round: Stephen is pulling Spencer while Douche is pulling Erinn. How can he do that when he's too true to be near her? I'm so confused. Both men pull their ropes, and Spencer appears to be attempting to minimize his dizziness by keeping his face pointed forward as much as possible. I wonder if he took figure skating or dance lessons growing up? Once the ropes have been pulled, Erinn's got a hilarious windswept look to her hair. Spencer approaches the beam and tries to shake off the dizzies. He seems to have this round, but then he falls off towards the end beam and has to start over. Erinn blows her chance to help Tempura out when she falls off soon after. Spencer almost falls off the beam the second time, too, but manages to get across the line and win a point for Jalapeño. He makes a comment about "beer goggles" that the editors make sure to put in so his parents can yell at him for admitting to underage drinking.
Third round: Joe will be spinning J.T. while Brendan spins Sierra. I think Tempura has the advantage on this one. But both men finish pulling at about the same time. Both Sierra and J.T. are ridiculously dizzy, with J.T. having trouble standing and Sierra having trouble finding the balance beam. Probst watches J.T. struggle and says it's "like the end of a bad Friday night" for him. Probst only wishes he could spend a Friday night with J.T. Sierra takes the beam first, but has trouble about halfway through and falls off. Surprisingly, J.T. makes it across to give Jalapeño another point. I really didn't think the big, beefy cattle rancher had a thing on the model when it came to balance.
Fourth round: Stephen will pull Sydney while Douche pulls Debbie. Both men pull their ropes at the same time. If anything, Stephen gets across before Douche, as the editors make sure to include a shot of J.T. cheering Stephen on and saying he's beating Douche. Ha ha! Sydney better pull her weight here, because I bet Sandy could've crossed that balance beam, no problem. Sydney goes too fast and falls off the beam just before reaching the end, giving Debbie a chance to tie the game. But then she takes forever on the beam and Sydney is able to pass her on her second try and cross the line. Jalapeño wins! Douche is in agony over losing out on the TP. Even Tyson, who wants us all to believe he's laid back and chill, looks pained. Probst congratulates Jalapeño on their win and asks who they're sending to Exile. Stephen says Brendan, and now Brendan has to pick someone from Jalapeño to miss out on their reward. Taj tries to hide behind Joe. Brendan picks Stephen, much to Stephen's surprise. "I love you!" Taj says to Brendan, blowing him kisses. Joe tells Brendan that was a "classy move" (not according to Stephen, I'd bet) while Tyson and Douche look all suspicious. Actually, just Tyson looks suspicious. Douche looks clueless. Tyson interviews that he's starting to wonder about Brendan's contact with the other tribe and whether he's managed to build friendships or even alliances with them. The funny thing is, he probably thinks Brendan has an in with everyone in Jalapeño, based on Joe calling him classy, when he really only has anything to do with Taj and Stephen, who he just kind of screwed over. With that, Jalapeño heads out to the lamest product placement reward since the time that one tribe won a three-bean salad and soda.
After the break, Jalapeño arrives at Charmin Café. I hate product placement, so I'm going to call it something else instead. I'm going to call it the Quilted Northern Café. The Quilted Northern Café is loaded with some very tasty-looking breakfast items that I hope are full of fiber so that the contestants will get a chance to make full use of their TP reward. Taj interviews that she was thrilled to have a chance to be with her team on a reward instead of at Exile Sand Dune. She says the reward was so great that she forgot her own name. I wish the editors had forgotten to pay tribute to their product placement people, but they didn't, so now we have to see the glorious bathroom facilities loaded with toilet paper that Jalapeño also won. Sydney speaks for everyone when she ignores the TP in favor of the sink with soap. Taj interviews that she's happy to get to know her tribe for a change instead of being stuck in Exile, but she's also not very worried about being voted out because she's on the outs with them because of her alliance and the idol. Don't get too confident, Taj. Joe interviews that it's hurt Taj to be away from the tribe for so long because everyone else has bonded and won each other's trust while she's been away. Shut up, Joe. When you talk, I fall asleep.
J.T. moseys on over to the hammock and finds a bunch of envelopes. Taj hopes they're gift certificates, because you can never get enough free stuff even if you're rich. Seriously, why would she think they were gift certificates? And if they were, they'd be for freaking toilet paper, so that would suck anyway. Of course, they aren't certificates -- they're letters from home. Now I kind of wish Tempura had won that challenge, if only to see who wrote a letter to Douche. Most likely, it was his one true love, a.k.a. himself. The tears start to fall, of course. Spencer says his mother wrote a two-page letter. Sydney's family, meanwhile, wrote like half a page between them. They probably forgot what they wanted to say and sat around looking pretty instead. Spencer says that getting letters from home was the most important reward yet in terms of mental strength, because it reminded them all that there were people who cared about them outside of the game. Fuck that. I'd want the fishing gear. Protein > mail.
Now it's time to explore Joe and J.T.'s apparently terrible home life, as Joe says that his father told him to "be careful" for the first time ever in his letter and J.T. says his mother said she loved him in hers, which she's only done like three times in his life. That really sucks for J.T. Taj says that she was starting to forget who was waiting for her back home. She didn't forget when she told everyone that her husband was a rich ex-football player. And isn't it only, like, Day 13? I mean, come on, guys. Suck it up.
Let's see what's going on at Tempura. They're all bummed out about losing the challenge. Tyson says he wanted to win that challenge more than any of the other rewards, which, again: fish > pastry. Erinn feels sorry for Brendan for getting sent to Exile again, while Debbie says it was nice of him to take Stephen with him so Taj could enjoy a reward. Then it occurs to her to wonder why Brendan picked Stephen, of all people. Tyson runs over to the shelter and tells Douche and Debbie that he suspects that Brendan's trying to "build relations" with Jalapeño and should be voted out . Debbie whispers to him not to tell this to Sierra, as she's figured out that Brendan and Sierra are tight. Douche says Brendan is "making strong allies" with the "way" he's going to Exile and the people he's choosing to accompany him there. But if Brendan was trying to build an alliance with the entire Jalapeño tribe, wouldn't it make more sense for him to choose a different person to go to Exile with him every time? Douche says as it stands right now, when the tribes merge, Brendan will be in control of the game and Douche will just be a "bystander." Kind of like he is all the time already, so I don't see why he has a problem with it now. Even though Tyson and Debbie are the ones who really figured this whole thing out, it's Douche who poses dramatically at the waterfront and asks if everyone just felt the breeze shift. If they're standing downwind of you, Douche, then they probably smelled it before they felt it.
Oh, crap. Now it's time for Douche's weather report. He explains that the breeze usually blows one way except when there's a storm coming in. I think the fact that there are dark clouds rapidly forming overhead would have clued me into the approaching storm before the breeze, but whatever, Douche. Go stand outside in the lightning and show us all how you're a human weathervane. Hilariously, Douche predicts that the storm will pass them. No sooner does he say that then the editors cut to the storm raining down upon Tempura. Ahahahahaha! They never miss an opportunity to show us how full of shit Douche is. Neither does Erinn, as she interviews that Douche is a "jackass" who wants everyone to think he's some kind of nature god when he can't even figure out if a storm is going to hit camp or not. Erinn wonders if Douche is really just an accountant who's never left Nebraska and is just faking his vast outdoors experience. I guess it does seem unlikely that someone could be as full of himself and lacking in self-awareness as Douche.
Brendan and Stephen arrive at Exile. Stephen says he's already gotten the heads-up from Taj, because, unlike Brendan, she knows how to tell her alliance mates important information. Brendan says he picked Stephen because neither he nor Sierra have met the fourth member of their alliance and he wanted to catch up with him and make him comfortable. That's great and all, but I'll bet Stephen is thinking right now that he'd be a lot more comfortable eating pastries and using toilet paper. They hike up to the top of the dune, where Stephen reveals that he and Taj found the idol and he actually has it in his pocket right now. That's smart, to bring it to a challenge like that. It's not like the challenges get physical and it's in danger of falling out of your pocket in front of both tribes or anything. Brendan tells him that he has the idol as well, so their alliance is awesome. Or is it? Stephen interviews that his first impression of Brendan is that he's a very strong player mentally and physically, but he isn't comfortable placing all of his trust in someone he's only known for five minutes, nor does he want to place his entire game in the hands of the secret alliance. Which I have to admit is pretty smart, even if it does mean that Taj might get screwed over.
Jalapeño has returned to camp. What a shame that we didn't get to see them using their Kleenex Cottonelle toilet reward. Sydney talks to Spencer about a dream she had about her boyfriend because she's boring. Her boyfriend's name is Kelly, and she wants to marry him. She should; they can be the couple with unisex names and name their kids Jamie and Bradley. Sydney then demonstrates her incredible cluelessness by asking Spencer if he has a girlfriend. He says he's not with anyone right now, although his college is full of cute girls. Spencer then interviews that his tribemates are not aware that he's gay. Um... really? Are they deaf? I mean... come on. He says he doesn't feel the need to tell anyone because it won't benefit him and it could work against him. "I'm not getting married anytime soon," he says to Sydney. Sadly true. She says "it's nice to be free." Sadly untrue. Spencer interviews that he doesn't like hiding the fact that he's gay and wouldn't mind talking about guys he's interested in instead of girls, but he'd rather win a million dollars than be out and proud. It's weird after so many seasons of this show with out gay contestants to meet one who's afraid it'll be held against him, especially one who's so young. Treemail arrives, and it says something about "connecting with your tribe" and comes with a stick with a big net on it. Spencer continues to tell us about how Southerners like J.T. probably won't take kindly to homosexuals. He doesn't know if J.T. shares those feelings, but he's not taking any chances. I guess he's going to judge J.T. before J.T. can judge him.
Immunity challenge time! The tribes arrive, and Brendan and Stephen return from Exile. Probst takes the idol back from Debbie and explains the challenge. Two members from each tribe will alternate launching a ball from a sling-shot-type device onto a playing field, where their teammates will try to catch the balls in their nets. Each ball caught is a point for the tribe, regardless of which tribe's ball is caught. Each catcher is paired up with a catcher from the other team, and the first tribe to catch five balls wins immunity. Stephen and Sydney are launching for Jalapeño, while Erinn and Debbie are doing the honors for Tempura. I can't believe Douche didn't find a way to be on the launching team. For the catchers, we have Brendan paired up with Taj, Joe with Douche, Spencer with Tyson, and Sierra with J.T. Um... what? Brendan and Taj? Sierra and J.T.? How is that even a good idea?
For the first launch, Tempura's ball is nearly caught by a diving Brendan, while J.T. gets a point for Jalapeño. Second round: J.T. gets another point, while Joe nearly gets a ball (way to guard, Douche), but ends up falling all over himself instead. He tries to make a case that he caught the ball, but Probst screams "in and out! In and out!" most likely thinking of a Friday night with J.T. again. Joe returns to his station with Douche and complains that he hurt his knee. Whatever, Joe. You and Douche can sit around and be ineffective and make excuses for it together. Third launch: Brendan gets an easy catch, while J.T. dives for his ball and misses, landing hard on the ground. Sierra runs around him nearby, completely unable to do any defense. Fourth launch: Taj goes through the motions of running after Brendan, then stops. He's able to get another point for Tempura, and the score is tied. J.T. yells at Taj to guard Brendan better, and she snaps back that she's doing her best. "Taj is wearing down!" Probst announces. Shut up, Probst. For the fifth launch, Probst cries out "both balls in the air!" Hee hee. Taj steps up her defense game and pulls on Brendan's shorts. He doesn't catch anything. J.T. gets a point, but holds his face on the way down. Spencer goes to see what's up, and Brendan tells Probst that J.T. lost a tooth. I have no idea how that happened -- perhaps he got hit by Sierra's net? Damn my lack of HDTV! Probst's reaction? "Aw." That looks like he was being sarcastic, but he actually wasn't. J.T. stands up and tosses the piece of tooth away, and Probst can't believe his badassosity. He stops the game to search for J.T.'s tooth, titling that he's going to want it. Oooh, Probst got the title line! That's rare. J.T. says it's only a piece of the tooth, not the whole thing, so it doesn't do much good to keep. It's called eBay and crazy Survivor fans, J.T. Wise up. Brendan somehow manages to find the tooth shard in the sand. Probst offers to hold onto it for safekeeping.
Once J.T.'s mouth stops bleeding, Probst announces that this is the first time in the history of Survivor that a point was scored while losing a tooth. Okay, but he didn't even lose the entire tooth. In fact, I don't even see a chip missing. J.T. is still pretty badass, though. Launch six: Tyson suddenly comes alive and nearly catches a ball for Tempura. J.T. also manages to get another catch, giving Jalapeño four points to Tempura's two. Excellent. Tempura will lose, and Douche will be voted out at Tribal Council. Yes. Sydney is confident going into launch seven, but Spencer misses the ball while Tyson is open to get Tempura's. He does a stupid victory dance. Meanwhile, J.T. has caught all four of Jalapeño's balls, and hasn't done a victory dance once. Launch eight: Sierra manages to jump on J.T. and keep him from catching a ball, while Spencer runs up to get the winning point for Jalapeño. He's nowhere near the ball, unlike Tyson, who is unguarded and makes the catch, tying the score. Now J.T. is annoyed with Spencer, who says he has to "go forward to get in control." That doesn't make sense. Just play defense and keep him from catching the ball and let J.T. win the game for you. That's what Taj is doing, and Brendan hasn't caught a ball since. Joe and Douche, meanwhile, are probably just hanging out in the back keeping themselves amused with dirty knock-knock jokes. Joe and J.T. tell Spencer to stop Tyson from scoring again. Launch nine, and Erinn and Debbie are clearly aiming for Tyson again. Taj grabs Brendan into a bear hug, rendering him useless. Spencer, on the other hand, runs around in circles. Tyson catches the ball. Shit. Now J.T. will have to catch the other one to keep Jalapeño from losing. By the way, I saw a quick shot of Douche in the background, and he was wandering around while Joe was running up to actually play the game. J.T. gets the ball in his net, but it bounces out before he hits the ground. Tempura wins. J.T. is furious. He lost a tiny piece of tooth for nothing. He punches the water and throws his racket.
Probst gives Tempura the idol while Douche pumps his fist as if he had anything to do with that. While they walk away, Spencer looks pretty sad. Of course, Probst has to talk to J.T. following Jalapeño's loss, just like he did last week. He congratulates him for "almost single-handedly" winning the challenge for Jalapeño, which okay, yes, J.T. was amazing there. But he also had Sierra guarding him. Meanwhile Taj really stepped up, keeping Brendan from scoring quite a few points. And I'm sure Stephen and Sydney did a good job launching their balls in J.T.'s direction. This time, before sending them away, Probst actually has something for Jalapeño: J.T.'s tooth. The tribe leaves, and J.T., speaking a bit funny, says he did everything he could to win today, including breaking "the back half of [his] front tooth off." I'm not sure how that works exactly, but you really can't tell that any part of J.T.'s tooth is missing in the interview. He says "some people" weren't giving their all today. Namely, Spencer. See, Spencer? You can get voted out by J.T. for reasons other than homosexuality.
Jalapeño returns to camp. Taj interviews that she was hot today. But not temperature-wise -- temper-wise. What's with the text under Taj's name calling her a "former pop star," by the way? They didn't call Crystal a "former Olympic champion" last season. And there's nothing former about Taj's success. SWV forever! She wanders off while Joe shows off his knee injury, which pales in comparison to J.T.'s missing tooth. Taj takes a seat to Spencer and interviews that she knows she fell short today, but thinks that Spencer fell even shorter and should be the one to go. Taj, Stephen, J.T., and Joe head into the water, and Taj starts talking, saying that whoever they vote out tonight has to be someone who will increase their chances of winning the immunity challenge so they'll be even going into the merge. She orders everyone to put their emotions aside and think about the best interests of the team. Meanwhile, her emotions are out of control. She says she's angry and doesn't care what anyone thinks of her and they can all kiss her ass. She probably shouldn't have said that last part out loud. J.T. and Stephen say they trust her more than some other people in the tribe once they get a chance to speak. Then it's Joe's turn to talk, and he says he trusts Taj just fine, by which he obviously means that he doesn't. Taj says he doesn't really, since he's never approached her about forming an alliance while she's made efforts to talk to him. With that, she storms off, saying she's sick of the bull. Joe interviews that he has no idea what Taj's problem is with him, but acting like that is a great way to get voted out. Except not this week, since I just saw the stupid Sprint Player of the Week thing and she was one of the choices, so obviously she's not getting voted out tonight. Thanks for ruining the show again, Sprint. Stephen has to try to defend Taj without looking like he's in an alliance with her now, and says Taj is probably acting out because she's scared. He asks Joe what he thinks, and an obviously dubbed-in voice (I have no idea whose) says "she's ." So now Stephen has to figure out if he should let Taj be voted out without telling her, thereby getting the idol for himself free and clear, or keep his secret alliancemate in the game. As for Taj, she totally trusts that Stephen will let her know if she's in danger tonight and give her back her idol to use if she is.
Now it's Spencer's turn to worry. He says he's competitive, so he hates losing and his poor performance being a reason for that loss. He's pretty sure that J.T. is gunning for him right now. Sure enough, down by the water, J.T. is saying he has no problem writing Spencer's name down tonight because he didn't do what J.T. and Joe told him to and that's the reason for their loss. Spencer walks up as J.T.'s saying this and gets in the water, fully aware that the people he's walking towards are talking about him. J.T. asks Spencer what he's thinking, and Spencer says he's pretty sure J.T. is pissed at him. J.T. says he was pissed at him for the challenge because he wasn't tackling Tyson. Spencer just says he had a feeling he'd be on the chopping block tonight. J.T. says his opinion is not necessarily that of the entire tribe's. Spencer tries to make a case for himself, saying that he's not "the worst person to keep around" and they might need him for the immunity challenge. The whole time he says this, he's touching his face, which is textbook liar and insecurity. Don't even try to play poker, Spencer. He asks J.T. to tell him who should go tonight. "You or Taj," J.T. says. Spencer tries not to cry. He shrugs helplessly. Who's worse -- Taj, for going over the top in defending herself and yelling at everyone, or Spencer, for making little to no attempt to stay in the game at all?
And then we're going to Tribal Council. Probst opens things by asking Spencer how he felt about his performance today. Spencer admits he was "pretty pathetic" and he let his team down. Probst asks Taj if the team's bonds are starting to come apart after another loss. Taj says people are starting to feel the effect of losing and people (named Taj) are getting frustrated, but they all hope they'll tie things up again at the challenge. She admits that she "blew up" upon their return to camp after losing the challenge. There's a lot of editing here, so whatever Taj was really trying to say never comes through. Something about things being "mismatched" and her being upset. Probst asks Joe how it felt to suddenly be attacked by Taj. Joe says it wasn't fun, especially since Taj's anger at him wasn't warranted. Probst asks Taj if she's worried that her outburst will cost her the game, and Taj says just about anything can do that in this game, so, whatever. Then she says something about how she felt like she was on her way out the door. Either Taj talks too much at Tribal Council and the editors were forced to cobble something together that fit the time restraints, or the editors decided that us knowing what people were saying today wasn't necessary. I think it's the latter, because most of this episode has been kind of off. Except for the part where Douche couldn't predict the weather. That was perfect. Taj says that she gives one hundred and ten percent at every challenge, so it was upsetting to think that she was still at risk to go home despite that.
Probst asks Spencer if he's felt that gut feeling that he could be going home. Spencer says yes, he's gotten the sense that his head could be on the chopping block. Was it the way J.T. basically told you he was voting you out, Spence? He says he returned to camp after performing badly in the challenge and being yelled at by J.T. for such let him know that he was at risk tonight. Basically, a lot of words just came out of Spencer's mouth but he didn't really say very much.
Probst asks Taj if being at Exile has benefited or detracted from her game. On one hand, she hasn't been around camp that much to piss people off. On the other, she hasn't been around that much to form bonds and build trust. Okay, editors. Keep making us think that Taj is going home tonight. Except that you also suddenly gave Spencer a personality this week and you pulled that "focus on the person who isn't being voted out at Tribal Council" thing last week with Sydney. I am not fooled. Taj says she has no choice but to be at Exile, so all she can do is fit in as well as possible when she gets back. She says she only started getting worried about being voted out this week, since the "expendable" players on the tribe are now gone and if her tribemates think she has the idol, then they'll be gunning for her.
Probst turns to Joe and asks him if he thinks she has the idol. Joe says he doesn't know, and hasn't heard Taj say she doesn't have it. Taj offers to say that right now, but Joe says it's not necessary. Then he says that Taj not saying she doesn't have the idol makes him think she's being "aggressive" about hiding it or lying about it if she does have it. That makes no sense. Everyone who has spoken at Tribal this week has made little to no sense. Either the beans are making them crazy, or the editors were in a big hurry to finish this episode. Taj asks if Joe thinks she would tell him if she did have it. "It's just little things like that," Joe says. "I can't win," Taj says. I have no idea what game they're even playing. Finally, Joe says Taj hasn't slipped once, so he believes her. Even though he pretty much just said that he doesn't believe her and is even apparently waiting for her to slip and reveal that she has the idol after all. Then Probst points out that Taj still hasn't said that she doesn't have the idol, and Joe asks Taj to do so even though he turned her down before when she volunteered to do it. What is going on? Taj turns to Joe and says she doesn't have the idol. He claims he believes her. From this garbled mess, Probst somehow picks out that this game comes down to whether or not you believe what the people on your tribe tell you. Time to vote!
Spencer votes for Taj, saying it's probably either her or him. Taj votes for Spencer. We don't see who Sydney votes for, but she says "you played a hell of a game and I'm sorry it came down to this." Probst tallies the votes and returns with the urn. He asks if anyone wants to play her idol. Taj stays put while Stephen looks all shifty-eyed. The first vote is for Spencer. The second is for Taj. Spencer gets another vote and nods, pretty sure what's coming his way. Then he gets a third vote. Poor Spencer, but he did rally to vote Sandy out last week, so, whatever. Maybe if he'd taken Sydney out instead, Sandy would have been going home tonight instead of him. Spencer gets a fourth vote, and that's it for our youngest-ever contestant. At least he knows that it wasn't homophobia that got him voted out. He leaves, and Probst informs Jalapeño that they're losing challenges, players, and momentum. But they don't have Douche on their tribe yet, so they're still up in my book.
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