Survivor Maryland: Major Conflict, Episode 10

Kemper Boyd

Currently on…Survivor: Kemper has asked me to finish up the remaining recaps of Major Conflict and, presumably, PRP’s Survivor Maryland coverage. Hopefully I can gently land this plane, unlike my namesake. On to Episode 10: “100% Totally Going to Flip.”

  • I don’t know which episode the Youtube comments watched but this was great! Some of the more unsung players got some time in the spotlight, Doug begrudgingly didn’t get his way, and some potentially interesting outcomes are starting to take more shape.
  • Tribal fallout: Ange reacts to getting called out by Morgan while Ange applauds her ally for going out with a bang. Though she was eliminated, this week showed that Morgan succeeded in stirring up the game a little. 
  • Yet another early Dain confessional where he says he needs to make moves but then realizes he can’t do anything and sits the rest of the episode out. Amanda seems to be the consensus target but Dain and Tim have incentive to keep her in because she’s proven herself to be trustworthy and is one of the few people they can conceivably beat.
  • No Doug or Santi before the intro this is by far the least we’ve seen of those two in a full episode this season.
  • This was also a really strong Josh episode out of nowhere: he gets personal content (wants to surpass his roommate Micah) and wants to weaken the Goat Trio of Amanda-Dain-Tim. There’s a lot of talk of eliminating threats vs. getting rid of floaters.
  • Sadie’s on the side of going after the easy votes first. Since she’s widely considered to be in the pole position (though it’s actually Doug), trimming down the bottom could prevent a potential rally. 
  • Touchy Subjects! I wonder if the challenge was intentionally done in the cold to make the answers sting more. Either that or Anders doesn’t have the access to indoor rooms that Austin had. (Walking to the challenge someone says “It better be inside,” Tim says “It’s outside,” and the other person goes “oh noooo.”)
  • Anders does the traditional version of this game: each player gets three name cards, if you get a survey question correct you get to tear up a name card, last one standing win. This makes it impossible for an underdog to be victorious, but it does show the pecking order to everyone. I prefer Austin’s version where every person gets to answer every question.
  • I’ll go over the results of the survey and who I think should’ve been the answer:
  • Least Deserves to Be Here: Ange; Unfortunate result but that’s the way the numbers work out—Ange should thank everyone for practically writing her Final Tribal speech for her in this challenge. Though I like when she’s on screen—Abbie hasn’t made much of an impact on the season at any point and was barely present in the pre-merge. Ange is eliminated from the challenge after one question. 
  • Biggest Backstabber: Amanda; I’d give this to Santi. Amanda has been pretty loyal to her side despite not liking most of them—she threw out Sadie’s name but Sadie arguably dislikes Amanda more than vice versa. Santi sided with Doug and turned his back on his alliance with Jasmine, Liam, and Mike, then framed it like Ange did something wrong. Amanda is out.
  • Most Likely to Win: Doug; Santi and Sadie are the only ones to guess correctly. The challenge did a good job of putting all the cards on the table (and it literally started with cards being shown on the table). 
  • Most Trustworthy: Dale Aram/Abbie; they don’t seem to be playing that hard but both do seem like trustworthy people. Abbie backed up that claim by voting with Morgan in the last episode. Abbie is out of the challenge. 
  • Dark Horse to Win: Josh; I wouldn’t have thought that before watching this episode, but that claim has merit. I’m not a big fan of the Adam Klein method of playing your way to the bottom then take out targets with your newfound safety of not being considered a threat. I’d much prefer Ange pulling off a come from behind victory. Everyone remaining has two name cards left.
  • Most Attractive: Santi; This is the first time a male has won this category. No complaints here, probably a toss-up between him and Dale Aram. Tim and Josh take each other’s cards and are eliminated. A rivalry between the two was sparked later in the episode. 
  • No Chance to Win: Ange/Dain; Ange has an uphill battle, but that’s not the same as being in the Zero Percent Club. Our honorary members are Abbie, Amanda, Dale Aram, Dain, and Tim after Amanda was voted out at the end of this episode. Dain is out, everyone else is down to one.
  • Most in Need of a Mute Button: Tim; Just like idols hidden at challenges, Tim can’t seem to find the mute button. Though Tim is under-edited, I can totally see it. Starting with Eric’s elimination, you could probably mute all of Dain’s confessionals and not miss a single part of the story. 
  • Sadie wins immunity! This was actually a huge win for Sadie as Doug-Santi-Tim-Dain could’ve decided that Amanda is worth keeping over her
  • For the second week in a row, Tim has the good luck of finding an idol clue and the challenge but is unable to find it in time. I sincerely thought that was going to end up in Doug’s pocket because earlier Josh talked about how crazy it would be if someone had three idols.
  • Lots of salty people after the challenge. Doug thought everyone was “playing stupid” by going after the lesser players (the final four was him, Santi, Sadie, and Dale Aram). “If people are smart they’d do something about it, but I don’t know how smart everyone is.” This confessional was shot by Doug at a weird angle and is by far the brattiest he’s looked all season.
  • Amanda attempts to do damage control: “please do not write my f*cking name down.” She attempts to use Ange and Josh’s connection, but Ange probably doesn’t want to work with her after the Jasmine vote. Tim and Amanda both have two episode titles so far.
  • Amanda and Sadie talk about Amanda calling her name out at the Halloween party: Amanda feels that Sadie would always take Dale Aram or Abbie to the finals over anyone else. 
  • Amanda’s the projected vote this week, but Sadie talks with Josh about a potential Santi blindside for next week. Sadie was one of the only happy campers after Touchy Subjects, as Doug’s threat level may have usurped hers. The pre-established friendship of Tim-Doug-Santi is starting to come to light.
  • Doug cuts a mini confessional to Micah in Josh’s car while Josh goes to get his phone, jokingly saying he’s voting Josh out next. He doesn’t want to vote Amanda but doesn’t feel it’s worth the effort to keep her in either. 
  • Santi’s viability as a winner is questioned: he gained a reputation as a flipper pre-merge and hasn’t really done anything post-merge. To top it off, he feels comfortable taking Doug to the Final 2. 
  • Haha, Sadie’s dislike of Amanda goes all the way back to the first challenge on the first day, when they lost Steal the Bacon to Jasmine and Morgan.
  • Speaking of Morgan, I love me some Survivor Maryland Jury Attendance and she seems right at home making jury faces. 
  • Sadie compares herself and Doug to Katie and Alex from Guts and Glory. It took me a second to register who she was talking about…ohhh Katie and Paskal.
  • Amanda finds herself in pretty much the exact position Morgan was in last week. Tim calls this “the most-complicated” easy vote—I wouldn’t go quite that far—but some of these spider web alliances weaved earlier in the season are starting to come into play.
  • Poor Amanda, I didn’t really like her onscreen presence or voting habits that much but she played hard and it’s tough to anyone hurt by the game to that degree. She says it’s unlikely she’ll return but at this point she’s arguably the most disliked player of Gen 2 and the biggest female villain—that kind of reaction counts for something. I could see Amanda returning as an Ashley Roach-type who experiences a lot of personal growth as a player and a person.
  • With Amanda’s upcoming jury vote, she will either vote for a man for the first time or vote for a woman to win the game. 
  • NTOS: I think there’s a strong possibility we see an idol next week, as Doug’s all-male alliance of four is starting to feel the heat from a possible majority of Sadie-Abbie-Dale Aram-Josh-Ange.

 

A few dispatches from the recap episode. I recommend watching these if you have the time—they usually interview that night’s boot and offer a lot of bonus perspective on the game.

  • Amanda talks a lot about how being on the show made her reflect about not trusting women. She had relationships with girls in high school didn’t go well and she carried a lot of that hurt into the game. In the past four years Amanda says she has grown a lot in that regard, which is good to hear.
  • Amanda says her biggest regret was not voting Santi over Jasmine: had Liam been more open about his partnership with JAM and had Jasmine approached her earlier than the night of tribal council she probably would’ve blindsided Santi.
  • Anders goes over the unused superlative questions and answers.
  • Who’d You Most Like to Introduce to Your Parents: Doug
  • Who Do You Least Want to Talk to After the Game Is Over: Ange and Abbie
  • Who Mistakenly Thinks They’re In Control: Amanda 
  • Who is the Most Gullible: Dale Aram

What did you guys think? What superlative were you voted in high school? I was Most Likely to Suceed and look at me now!