(Editor note: Hi all, I would like to apologise, I forgot to put the recap up, it was sent to me in good time)
-We’re at the Final 7 and Doug still has three idols. Abbie and Dale Aram are on the outs after Sadie’s elimination, but can they make something happen on their own for the first time? Let’s find out on Survivor MD:MC—E13, “Hell Yes He Would.”
-It’s looks like Doug was left out of the Sadie vote; he is devastated about Sadie’s exit but rationalizes it by knowing it wasn’t a very enticing Final 5 for Santi. Abbie apologizes for calling out Doug for having an idol at Tribal. She wants to use the fact that he has two idols for leverage—and plans to get Doug out this week as the ultimate power move.
-Doug isn’t too worried about Abbie/Dale Aram because he doesn’t see them working with Dain/Ange at this point to make a majority of four. Dain and Dale Aram did have an early connection that’s been pretty much forgotten at this point. There are four people left in the game that Doug has been working with since Day 1: Dale Aram, Dain, Tim, and Santi. He trusts Dale more than anyone outside of Santi.
-Abbie tells Ange about Doug’s two idols and that information makes its way to Dain—now everyone knows about Doug’s multiple idols. They finally see the pieces but the puzzle is already complete.
-Tim’s attachment to Doug is so inexplicable—I can kind of understand Santi’s reasoning because they’re roommates and are on somewhat equal turf. Tim acknowledges he has no chance against Doug at the end, but Doug is so invested right now he would feel bad about blindsiding him. Just last week, Tim asked Doug to make a decision as a fan of the game an not a participant.
-Abbie is the clear target because she doesn’t have much of a connection at all to Santi, Dain, or Tim, but Doug wants Dain out because he’s an ideal goat for the others. Doug wants to keep shields around and Abbie/Dale Aram together is sort of a shield.
-Doug details a sweet moment where he was depressed in bed after the Sadie vote and Santi jumped in and gave him a hug. I wish this dynamic didn’t overpower the entire game but their partnership is very interesting—they’ve both played strong games in fairly different ways.
-The challenge is thirty questions about the game so far—the first one to get twenty correct wins. These questions are pretty tough—some players could be living the nightmare of taking a test that they didn’t study for.
-Observations from the challenge:
Some of the answers appear on the screen, which an improvement over last season; Doug, Santi, and Tim have not received a vote yet(!); Dale Aram is pretty funny throughout this challenge; someone yells “Fuck!” At 22:40; Anders says Ange is taking the walk of shame and she replies “I don’t do it often”; Dain and the girls are way out of the running; It’s Day 69; Ange: “Am I in last place? Anders: “Oh, absolutely;” At 25:40, Abbie sets a pick on Dale Aram. The challenge was edited pretty well for what must of been 30 minutes of running back and forth.
-Doug wins immunity rather easily!He actually answered one more question than was necessary. Now he’s safe up to the Final 6 and still has all three of his hidden immunity idols, so he has more leverage to get fancy and play one on someone else down the line.
-By the time the other players comprehend Doug’s threat level, he is immune until the Final Four—so they are forced the shift their focus elsewhere. Ange tries to solidify her pact with Tim and Dain. She wanted to make something happen with the girls but knows Dale Aram is too close to Doug. I was once again worried about Ange after she lost the immunity challenge but she had so little content there was no way this was her boot episode.
-Abbie is the main person on the chopping block but will miss the entire weekend because of Quidditch regionals, so it is up to Dale Aram to shift the target for her. In the first ever strategy meeting between Santi and Dale Aram, an alliance is proposed for the two pairs of roommates to blindside Dain and avenge Sadie.
-In a very wooden scene that almost appears to be staged, Dale Aram tells Dain to vote Santi as a decoy vote. Later while in a tux, Dain relays that info back to Santi. Dale Aram said that the boys knew about Santi’s name being used as a decoy, but this scene proposes that maybe they don’t?? If so, that’s a major blunder by Dale—I almost thought the roomie alliance could be a possibility.
-At 38:25, Dale Aram in confessional details a plan to blindside Doug in the next round, it then cuts to Tim saying “good luck” to her.
-Doug mulls his options: he could go the straightforward route and vote out Abbie to keep the majority happy, he could also give Abbie an idol to get out Dain, neutralizing the Dain-Ange-Tim trio—but he’d prefer to use his spare idol to save Santi.
-Time for Tribal (Hi Amanda, Hi Sadie). It’s extremely windy. Abbie is on Dale Aram’s phone, saying she’ll be there soon. Dale has to hold her phone up to the camera for Abbie’s voice to be picked up because the wind is so loud.
-Abbie arrives wearing a gold medal just in time to vote. Everyone rushes through their confessionals on account of the cold.
-In a somewhat surprising plurality, it’s 3 votes Abbie, 2 votes Dale Aram, and 2 votes Dain. I nearly thought it was going to be Dale Aram taking the L for her botched Santi decoy plan. Tim and Ange vote for Dale—I’m unsure if this split was in the event one of the girls had an idol or in case Doug played one on Abbie, we didn’t get a scene discussing this.
-“Happy Thanksgiving, Abbie”
Abbie not appearing for most of Tribal Council but showing up in the final moments is a metaphor for her entire season. Abbie was legitimately very funny whenever she was onscreen, but her commitment level and competitiveness were very low, and she seemed too shy for a game that requires you to get out of your comfort zone.
-NTO…S: There’s a lot of different Final four combinations in play; Doug wants him/Santi/Dale Aram/Tim. Both Ange/Dain and Doug/Tim separately concoct plans to blindside Santi. The final two girls attempt to strike up an alliance and in a very 2016 moment, Dale Aram dabs.
-Abbie appears on the post-show: she’s still best friends with Dale Aram. Her and Mike didn’t like each other before Survivor—he was an intimidating, douchey Junior and she was a quiet freshman—but they became friends through this experience. Like Mike, Abbie was in Quidditch but didn’t watch/read Harry Potter.
-Dale Aram encouraged Abbie to apply as it could be a fun bonding activity. She posits that her and Dale Aram were a more threatening duo than Doug/Santi because she and Dale would never turn on each other and would always be a bloc of two votes.
-When asked about her faults in the game, Abbie says she never established relationships beyond the ones that already existed, wasn’t active in her proposed Final 5 with Doug-Santi-Dale-Sadie, didn’t think she was mature enough, and had a hard time managing her academics.
-Abbie confirms she won’t be in Season 10 because she was abroad (among other reasons). She puts in a good word for Ivy—saying she didn’t get a fair shake—and roasts Evan, calling him a meme (“sorry if you’re watching but you’re probably not.”)
