-It’s the penultimate episode of what’s been an interesting and at times frustrating season. Next week, prepare for a super-sized recap of the finale—and uh this one is going to be pretty lengthy as well. On to Survivor MD: MC Episode 14: “No Sides Game”
-Doug attempts to explain the Abbie vote to Dale Aram, who’s starting to see how fake he can be—she wants to target him but she can’t. The Final 6 appears to be split between a Ange/Dain/Tim side that has zero idols and a Doug/Santi/Dale Aram side that has 3.
-Doug talks to Santi about trusting Dale Aram and feels they should separate Ange/Dain this week because that duo is threatening them. Dain thinks Doug would save Dale over Santi because she would never vote for him. Dain feels good about Tim’s loyalty because of how he was with Amanda and also feels connected to Ange because of their moment at the pole challenge.
-Ange talks about her close friendships with Santi and Dain, but she is OK with separating emotions from the game. She isn’t 100% with Tim, thinking he will stick with Dain and Dale Aram once they jettison Santi and Doug.
-Tim is set on targeting Santi because he feels Doug is closer to his roommate than him. If Doug or Santi win immunity, Doug can just play an idol on whichever of them doesn’t win. The edit is telegraphing hard that one of them will win because it’s mentioned a lot. If Ange wins one more challenge she’ll tie the Maryland female record with three.
-The challenge is “Combo Platter,” which Ange gives a look of disgust because she thinks it will be another gross food challenge. What it actually is I give a look of disgust because it’s my least favorite challenge that Maryland regularly does. Contestants have to count the number of trees, benches, windows in an area, then those numbers will open a lock. It’s a very tedious, boring event that feels like a crapshoot— these drawbacks are heightened because it’s occurring at night for the first time—and since everyone has numbers bouncing around their heads their aren’t as many player interactions that I love so much. (Ironically, the All-Stars version of this challenge contains my favorite moment in the history of the series).
-Notes from the challenge: lots of footage of people quietly counting things; things start to loosen up once the incorrect guesses accumulate; Dale Aram references Anders popping booty at Halloween (footage or it didn’t happen Anders); Ange runs into a cameraperson and mimes pushing Doug down the stairs; “This sucks,” I agree Dale Aram; Tim asks Anders to edit all this down so they look good so Anders edits in epic Koyaanisqatsi footage of the stars moving across the heavens, flowers slowly wilting, and the Earth revolving; 36 minutes have passed; Dale Aram gets everyone to work together and compare notes; Tim is able to get the first lock with help from Dain but doesn’t return the favor—what a dishonest and untrustworthy move!
-Santi has all the correct numbers but enters them in the wrong order, and Tim is able to capitalize and win his first immunity! That one little mistake could spell the difference for Santi. Tim has to be feeling good about being safe heading into what feels like a rocky vote
-There’s lots of footage of Dale Aram eating: she has instant Mac in her conversation with Doug, ice cream with her talk with Santi, and she’s eating a sandwich in the show intro. Dale (chocolate swirl) and Santi (mint chocolate chip) agree on the easy vote of Dain, and she drops the bomb of Doug having two idols while Santi pretends to look surprised. He intends to use Dale’s distrust of Doug to pull her closer to him, because he isn’t so sure about Ange lately.
-Ange discusses her tumultuous partnership with Santi: they are stable at the moment but Santi has so much invested in the Freshman Floor Three with Doug and Tim. Their bromance is almost impossible to maneuver around. Ange and Dain are going to try to vote out Santi like Tim wants and try to trick Doug into playing one (or two) idols for himself and Dale Aram. If it comes to rocks, Dain/Ange/Tim would have a 1-to-2 advantage because Tim is immune. (But if Doug does play idols for himself and Dale, Ange would get Cirie’d out of the game).
-Tim says he realizes it’s an individual game and it may be in his best interest to target Santi this week. But he starts to have reservations when both Ange and Doug tell him the other has convinced him to vote for Dain. And of course the unknown whereabouts of the third immunity idol is on the back of everyone’s mind. Hilariously, Tim is more worried about Ange and Santi pulling something funny than Doug and Santi.
-Tim tells Doug about the Santi plan so Doug gives his Zachoo idol (with the rainbow strap) to Santi. Doug says he’s going to play an idol on himself as well but Santi tries to talk him out of it, unaware that Doug has one to spare. Doug makes a clumsy metaphor equating having excess idols to feeding cookies to your dog (?) Things aren’t looking good for the underdog side but…
-Oh hell yeah, Ange and Dale Aram have a one-on-one conversation for the very first time! Ange hatches a plan for her, Dain, and Dale Aram to vote for Doug and also keep Tim out of the loop and continue to have him vote Santi, making it 3-2-1. If Doug does play an idol, then Dain’s the one going home. That’s a great plan made in a very tight spot—Ange is working with someone she has never talked to before to take out a pre-established alliance. Every plan Ange has had has blown up so far but Dale Aram has proven herself to be very trustworthy.
-Doug knows Santi, Tim, and Dale Aram wouldn’t vote for him so he feels safe tonight. Tim is confused by Ange’s texts and is unsure whether to vote for Santi or Dain. I honestly have no idea where this vote is going to go.
-I watch these live so I don’t know how much time is left in the episode, but this Tribal was 18 minutes long. I usually don’t write much about these Tribal’s because the result is usually concrete, but a lot of stuff happened in these 18 minutes.
-Amanda’s been very good at jury attendance, Abbie greets the players by giving them the finger, Sadie shows up late, and Josh is there.
-Dain’s had eleven votes cast against him so far (tied for first with Amanda); he receives credit for surviving with a target on him and for rallying the troops in the last couple votes. Dain tries to downplay all these compliments.
-People are being really cavalier about throwing names out: Dale Aram says the target is Santi and Ange says she’s voting for Dain to avoid rocks.
-Tim takes the lead on episode title quotes for the season, with 3 (Doug, Dain, and Amanda have 2)
-No idols are played! wowwwwww
The arrogance of Doug and Santi to underestimate their opponents and not play idols here, especially Doug, who could’ve just been immune at the next two tribals. They must’ve assumed they had Dale Aram 100 percent.
-But they don’t! It’s three votes Doug, two votes Dain, one vote left. Doug makes some pretty epic reaction faces and the jury and I are getting a kick out of watching him squirm.
-It’s a 3-3 tie between Dain and Doug—Tim must’ve went back to a Dain vote that felt like the consensus because he didn’t want to be caught going after Santi alone. Dale Aram, Ange, Tim, and Santi will partake in the very first revote of the season. Doug is in serious jeopardy of going home at the final six with his alliance in possession of three idols. Wow. Dale Aram and Ange have already made it this far and would be doomed if they flipped. Santi and Tim would be turning on a friend they’ve known for an entire year, but would also eliminate the odds-on favorite to win.
-And after a 2-2 tie, we’re headed to rocks for the first time in Generation 2 and the third time in Survivor Maryland history (in seven seasons they’ve produced the same amount of rock draws as the CBS version has in forty—probably has something to do with the drastically lower stakes). Tim is immune. Ange, Santi, and Dale Aram will reach into a bag containing two with dominos and one red domino, the person who draws the red domino will be eliminated.
-In Austin’s two rock draws, he didn’t give them one last chance to change course and avoid the bag, but Anders offers a moment of deliberation. Tim and Santi are being completely stubborn about voting out Doug. They both site trust being broken by Ange/Dain and Doug being trustworthy throughout but Doug’s been lying about how many idols he has for the entire merge. Dale Aram reveals to everybody that Doug has two idols and Doug pulls an idol out and says “you can’t do anything about it, I’m in the final four.” Not so fast buster, but yeah it’s looking like it.
-Santi and Tim both basically lost the game here, having to choose between either Doug or the three people who pulled off the biggest possible move, a move they were to cowardly to ever do. Tim being immune complicated matters; him and Santi were probably not going to flip but their side having the better odds made it a certainty that they were not going to flip.
-Going in, I thought this would be Dale Aram’s exit: it would’ve been very poetic for her to take a backseat the entire game only to go out in this blaze of glory completely out of nowhere. She mentions that she grabbed the green dominio out of the bag in the gross food eating challenge all the way back in episode 4—that would be some crazy foreshadowing. Ange Paschals herself saying she’s going to grab the red one. Dale says “YOLO.”
-Ah fuck, it’s Ange. Dammit. We go from the best possible result being an option to the worst possible result. It’s just been that kind of season. That’s one of the most brutal losses I’ve ever seen and I’m a Minnesota Vikings fan. Ange deserves some kind of medal for single-handedly making the post-merge interesting. Her bright personality underdog story, and desire to play the game really elevated a rough patch of episodes. All those people on the Youtube comments sure do love their Eric, but Ange is undisputedly my MVP of the season.
-Speaking of episode four, Eric, and crazy foreshadowing, it’s wild that two of the people in on the move to take out Doug—Dale Aram and Dain—were part of Eric’s plot to take out Doug ten episodes ago.
-This is the first Maryland rock draw in which the side with the worse odds actually lost. If the previous two rock draws are any indication, the next three players eliminated will be Evan, Shannon, and Micah.
-The final five all embrace on top of the Tribal picnic bench. Things seem pretty cut and dry and also grim, but I have two big questions heading into the finale: 1) how will Doug reveal his third idol? I could see a scenario in which he does it in a way that could make people more mad than impressed. 2) Could Dale Aram defeat Tim and Santi in Final Tribal Council? I think I’ll play some jury jeopardy in the comments if I have time, but they’ll be 8 jurors—Morgan, Sadie, Abbie, Ange, and Dain voting for Dale Aram over Santi and Tim isn’t too far out of the question right?
-Ange appears on the recap: she bought a house in Maryland and got engaged! (not to Santi) Anders jokes that there’s one rock she’s not disappointed in getting. She didn’t stay in touch too much with the other players but has recently reconnected with Jasmine, Morgan, Eric, and Santi when the season debuted.
-The only conversation Ange and Dale ever had happened an hour before Tribal when Anders was setting everything up. Because of this, Anders wasn’t aware of the Doug plan and when he went to the urn to organize the votes he saw three for Doug he started freaking out. He tried his best to keep his composure but knocked over the urn, which appears in the episode.
-Two behind-the-scenes details that make this Ange exit even more excruciating: 1) They had filmed the entire questioning segment at Tribal, but encountered technical difficulties and had to do the whole thing again. Tim later said that Ange’s behavior in this redo Tribal was what caused him to change his vote from Santi to Dain. 2) When Ange was reaching in the domino bag, she picked one up, let it go, and grabbed a different one. Ange asking “Who’s rocks?” a few episodes ago is suddenly a lot less funny.
-Some more inside-baseball: Another mention of Ivy deserving to return; “Combo Platter” will not be returning in Seasons 8, 9, or 10 because setting up the locks was a pain; Anders took measures to ensure no one has three idols at once again; the finale will be over two hours (oh god) and editing on Season 8 has not begun; speaking of S8, Jay S , who I liked as the host of Generations at Quar but was pretty annoying here, claims that Austin told him that Season 8 is the best season of show, even better than All-Stars. We’ll see about that claim in 2022!
-See you next week for the recap of the Major Conflict finale and some updated spoiler-free season rankings on the Red Domino Podcast.
