Survivor Psyche, Episode 12: A Cute Failure

Method To Their Madness?

It’s “all about me” again this week for Princess Jenna. Perched in the comfort of the shelter, she and Heidi take a thorough inventory of their physical and emotional state in the morning. Woe is me, is the announcement from Jenna, who says she is suffering from a condition she calls “phlaryngitis.” Whatever the heck it is, it can only be a good thing if it means that Jenna is gonna SHUT UP!!! Next comes the bulletin about her emotional state. “I didn’t feel half as betrayed as I did before,” Jenna sniffs, referring to the vote against Christy. Instead of feeling rejuvenated by their renewed alliance with Rob, not to mention actually staying in the game, Heidi and Jenna seem to be suffering from a terminal case of the miseries.

Rob arrives to take their emotional temperatures and unburden some of his own inner agitation. He quickly concludes that the girls are “very grateful” to him for saving their asses the night before. “I’m now at the point where I’m completely honest with them.” “Heidi, I’m gonna vote for you next,” Rob announces. “OK!” Heidi chirps back.

Emboldened by the girls’ reception, Rob gives voice to more of his inner dialogue. If I don’t vote for you, Rob confesses, “I’ll be screwing over everybody I ever allied with in this game.” Heidi now says the most insightful and humorous thing she has ever made in this entire game. “And you care about that at this point?” (Here we see the effect that faithful Matthew has had on Rob over the course of the game. Rob has managed to keep his emotional distance from the other players through most of the game, calling Matt for one a “spaz” and a maniac, but has been forced to confront his resurrected feelings of loyalty and friendship.)

In either a move of true brilliance or the kind of hubris Rob showed last week with Jenna when he told her she was the next to go, Rob now concludes that Heidi and Jenna “don’t have anything up their sleeves,” because they were so OK with his plans. After Rob leaves, Heidi and Jenna congratulate themselves for their playmanship in staying in the game. “We sit here thanking Rob but really it was us that got us here!” Heidi snickers.

In what looks like simple fun and games, we see Principal Butch on his daily firewood forages. It’s here, it’s there, it’s everywhere! Even under the shelter platform where Heidi and Jenna rest in self-induced comas. “Butch done lost his mind,” Jenna snipes in one of her more cognizant moments. “I’m just a wood crazy nut I guess,” Butch admits, and breaks into his own wacky version of “Walk Like An Egyptian.” “My wife’s always embarrassed when I dance, I don’t know why…”

Reward Challenge: Things To Come

Before setting out for the reward challenge, Butch makes sure to look over his wood stash and the state of the fire in the fire shelter. All systems are go, and they’re off to the challenge.

When they assemble at the challenge site, Probst asks they players how they’re doing. “I’ve got laryngitis,” Jenna immediately pipes up. “I don’t feel very good. I’m a little girl, (shrug) I can only ask so much from a small body.” Apparently, Jenna is sicker than we thought, as she’s now hallucinating that she’s back home complaining to SOMEONE WHO CARES!!

Back in the real world, Probst announces that the challenge is a blast from the past and a sneak at the future. (You know it’s gotta be the cool vehicle reward.) First comes knot untying, then a puzzle, a rope swing, message decoding, find the key, unlock the flying fox, grab the last key, and voila – a shiny new Saturn Ion! As if that’s not enough, the trunk opens to reveal the fixings for a tailgate party!

The challenge turns into a relay race between the three men as each takes a turn in the lead. Butch goes first with the knot challenge, followed by Matt and then Rob. Rob flies through the puzzle portion, but is overtaken by Matt at the decoder station. It’s a straight shot from then on for Matt, who blazes a course straight to the fire red Saturn.

Probst invites everyone to get in the car. “It’s the first time in 34 days I’ve been in air conditioning,” Jenna exclaims. Please God, don’t let it be Jenna or Heidi as Matt’s date at the tailgate party! But, Matt’s wiser head prevails, and he picks his old buddy, Rob, instead. “Everybody else out of the car!” Probst orders. A distraught Jenna has to be forcibly removed from the car’s comfy padded interior and helped back to camp by Principal Butch.

More juvenile hijinks follow, as Rob and Matt check out the car’s distinctive features. “How far back do the seats go?” Rob inquires. “It’s got a big back seat…” Matthew generously offers Rob the use of his new car to cruise for chicks “whenever he returns to Asia or the planet that he came from,” Rob laughs. Carnal desires of another kind take over and they break out the food. “Oh my God, they’re like Flintstone hamburgers,” Rob exclaims when he opens the hamburger Tupperware container. Both Matt and Rob lament the absence of Butch when they light the hibachi charcoal. “Butch’s gonna be so jealous we have coal,” Rob jokes.