Surviving One World, Episode 9: Just Because You’re Paranoid Doesn’t Mean They Aren’t Out to Get You

Last week, Kim was deciding between her alliances and seems to have chosen to stick with the women, eliminating Michael in what was a complete surprise to him. The question now is whether Kim can hold the rest of the women together or if any of them (hello, Christina) will realize that standing with the other women will mean leaving before the other women. Let’s find out!

We begin again on Day 23, the morning after we last saw our group leaving Tribal Council. Jay takes a page out of Kat’s book and tells the others he dreamed he was shot – maybe by Mike. What, it wasn’t Alicia in the mall?

Meanwhile, Tarzan is educating Troyzan on math and how the women outnumber them. He says they are plotting to knock out the men one by one. Troyzan says Mike was never with the guys anyway, so it doesn’t matter. He tells us Mike was gunning for him since Day 1 and Troyzan was sick of it – so it looks like he’s still buying the story Kim sold him.

However, he does recognize the women could boot him and Jay to remove challenge threats, so part of him is wondering if they’re telling him the truth. Uh… only part of you is wondering that?! He tells Tarzan anything could happen to turn things around on the women. Somebody could find an immunity idol (which we know he already has) or they could turn one woman to their side. He adds to us that if they try something on him, he’ll use the idol to turn the vote against them.

Treemail! It’s a do-it-yourself reward challenge. I guess Probst is busy again. They have to set themselves up in two teams and then throw bolas around horizontal pegs to earn from one to five points. It’s essentially ladderball, but the pegs stick out from a pole instead of being rungs between two poles. Each player will get one throw, with the highest team total winning. The winners will receive a boat ride to a local island for a barbecue.

The teams are as follows: Red team is Alicia, Troyzan, Tarzan, Kat, and Jay. Black team is Leif, Chelsea, Christina, Sabrina, and Kim. Troyzan also steps into the hosting role, but he’s no Jeff Probst.

Jay misses, as does Kim. Kat gets two, Leif misses. Troyzan plays as well as he hosts and gets a zero; so does Chelsea. Tarzan hits big for four points. Christina gets on the board for one point, but Alicia does horribly and misses.

It all comes down to Sabrina. She’s the last one to throw, her team is down five, and the highest possible score is five, so she has to hit that rung. She concentrates, she throws – and she misses completely! Red team wins reward with Tarzan being hailed as the all-star by Troyzan.

The winners get in a boat and already are getting some of their reward in the form of rum and coconut while they travel to the island. Once they get there, they continue digging into the rum drinks as Troyzan suggests to us that if he can get the women drunk and they can stay on the island for a night, he might have a plan going.

Some fish and crabs are put on the fire by some locals. Meanwhile, Kat asks Jay what he’s thinking and Jay says he wasn’t happy about sending Mike home. It was supposed to be Christina or Alicia first. He continues, saying Alicia, Christina, Tarzan, and Leif all have to go before their new Salani alliance takes another hit; Kat says she knows and that’s the plan. They dig in to the barbecue as Jay tells us there will be some blindsides coming up – “I just hope it’s not me.”

Back at camp the next day, Kim asks Chelsea if they made the right decision, and then says she thinks the guys realize they made a mistake and may now be really worried. She also tells us she’s been hoping people think of her as calm and soft-spoken and not calling any shots, but she thinks if she can make the final three, the jurors will know she was making most of the decisions. Sorry, Kim, but those are usually mutually exclusive – those who try to blend into the background rarely get credit for making moves.

She chats with Alicia and Chelsa, validating Troyzan’s earlier fears by saying it’s smart to get rid of him and Jay before somebody like Tarzan. My first thought is that we can’t really take much out of this discussion because this is exactly what Kim would be telling Alicia if she wasn’t planning on booting a man but instead wanted to go back to the new Salani alliance.

However, Chelsea seems to take it seriously, as she has a problem with it because she looked Troyzan and Jay in the eyes and told them they were safe. She can’t betray somebody like that.

Kim tries to convince Chelsea that her idea is the best way, but Chelsea discusses how difficult it is. Alicia, of course, makes fun of Chelsea getting “sensitive” to us. Kat, who had overheard the discussion, reports back to Sabrina about Chelsea’s hesitancy, and Sabrina says they can’t have a weak link. She tells us getting to the end requires big decisions and “you gotta put on your big girl panties.” Whether or not I agree with the plan, I do agree with the sentiment and get tired of players – after 23 seasons – who still don’t seem to understand the point of the game.

Meanwhile, Jay and Troyzan chat, with the latter saying their new Salani allies should boot a woman or two to prove they’re still loyal. Yeah, that’ll happen. But Jay specifically wants Alicia to go first.

Jay also has his own plans, because as Troyzan talks about how they could run the table on immunities and keep working together to the end, Jay tells us that he’ll let Troyzan keep thinking that’s the case, but he knows Troyzan is dangerous – everybody likes him. He wants to work with Kim and Chelsea.

Jay brings the plan to get rid of Alicia and Christina to Kat, who doesn’t really respond to Jay’s entreaties. She does, however, tell us that while she likes Jay, she can’t go with her heart – she has to use her brain.