Survivor: Palau, Survivor Live Recap, Episode 9

It’s time for week eight of Survivor Live – The Internet Talk Show, CBS’s interview and phone-in question show. This week, our hosts Dalton Ross and Jenna Morasca are here with guest Coby Archa.

My own comments are enclosed in square brackets like this: [Will the chatty duo of Jenna and Coby let Dalton get a word in edgewise?]

This week’s Survivor Live starts out with Dalton asking Coby about his Dalton’s hair. Coby says, “I don’t care – I want to talk about how pretty Jenna looks. I’m not just kissing your butt, but you’re so much prettier in real life.”

Jenna says that last week, Bobby Jon “had more makeup on that I did!” Coby’s looking pretty good too – the beard is gone and several of the top shirt buttons are open to show chest hair.

Commenting on his loss of temper in Day 21, Coby says, “I looked like Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction! I thought I’d lose it on day one!” and calls himself “a raging bitch.”

Coby thinks that maybe winning too much was his downfall in the game. He was sick of looking at some of those people [I think the people most likely to have gone are the ones who were his friends, though].

Dalton asks if calling Steph aside in from of everyone was a fatal error, but Coby says he thought he’d lost the game long before Stephenie came to camp and he felt the numbers were against him. He didn’t pull Steph over to try and pull her to his side, because he knew he had no power in the game at that point. Instead, he wanted to spill the beans about Koror.

Jenna asks, “What happened to the Gregg thing?” [In an earlier episode, Gregg had proposed a Gregg–Jenn–Coby–Janu alliance to overthrow Tom and Ian.] Coby says, “I think he just chickened out.” Dalton thinks Gregg had to back off once Coby was on the radar so prominently. Dalton also thinks Gregg’s intentions were legit, but it came about too early for him. Coby says, “That’s the great thing about Survivor, it can end up in so many different ways.”

They go to the phones. Caller number one asks Coby if, after seeing the show, does he still feel that closing words, “Smart play, smart move” are appropriate, or if it was more of a “dumb move” on his part? Coby thinks he could have been a threat in immunity challenges and notes he was a main player in the last couple of challenges. He also but admits he felt he couldn’t win the Perch challenge. When Dalton mentions his win over James in the Sumo Challenge, Coby high fives with Jenna!

Dalton repeats that calling Steph was a bad strategic move. Coby says it was a bad move for winning the million dollars, but not for someone who just wanted to play the game. He says, “I was there to have fun. I wanted to stir things up. I wanted to have a good time, and I did do that.” [Ahh, remember back in the olden days when players wanted to WIN the game? Good times!] Coby continues, “The other people on my team were boring. But they’re still there. But they don’t have fun. I wanted to play the game, and I did. So in my opinion, it wasn’t a bad move. Did it keep me from winning the million dollars? Maybe.” He goes on to say that watching Katie’s facial reaction, “I’ll be proud of that moment forever.”

Coby reveals that Janu asked him to vote for her. As far as he knows, she only asked him. They thought she was the one going and she didn’t want Coby to stick out from the rest of tribe. From day three, Janu was sick, either throwing up or having diarrhea, she couldn’t keep anything down, not even the shark.

The next caller, another Canadian, asks, “Why did you pick Caryn over Angie?” Coby says they both [he and Angie] had targets on our backs, together they would have been booted early for sure. Also, he felt Caryn would pick Willard, and Angie might take Jonathan. Coby wanted Jonathan out of the game because there were so many young studs. He didn’t really care if it was Jonathan or one of the others. “He was an easy target, he wasn’t very sociable,” says Coby.

Coby is next asked if he did the hair braiding. No, it was Janu. He shampooed all the girls’ hair, not just Caryn’s.

After a couple of phone malfunctions, the clip of the immunity challenge is run. Coby was the first one into the water, and at some point everyone but Tom followed. [I didn’t catch it before, but there’s a death-stare from Katie, probably because she wishes she’d held out for the pizza.]

Coby planned to be the first one into the water and likened it to calling a bluff in poker. “Either you people are going to play with me, or you’re not,” he says. [I don’t get the analogy.]

Jenna says, “This challenge always shows how comfortable people are in their tribe.” She adds that Stephenie giving up was a little iffy, and that she’s has had a few weak strategic moments in this game. Jenn, Katie, Gregg, and Ian all jumped together showed tribal dynamics.

Dalton asks, “Did Tom make a mistake winning this challenge?” “Coby says, “Well, he’s still there and I’m not.” Jenna says, “I’m still drinking Hateraide.” “Pour me a cup,” replies Coby. Jenna tries to clarify, “I’m nor a Tom-hater, but when you boss everyone around like that, it just reminds me of Roger [from Survivor: Amazon], and that leaves a bad taste in my mouth.”

Dalton says that to him, it doesn’t seem like a B.B. or Twila [from Survivor: Borneo and from Survivor: Vanuatu, respectively] situation. Although Tom has assumed a leadership position, he’s not forcing people to work and making them feel bad about it. Coby says, “But there’s an empowerment issue, and self-respect. Who’s going to let someone tell them what to do constantly? He’s not over the top, but every decision in the tribe is made by Tom. And nobody seems to care.” Coby’s main problem with Tom is that he was there to experience the game, and Tom kept stopping him from experiencing it like he wanted.

Jenna wonders if anyone will see what a threat Tom is before he’s in the final two. Dalton thinks that if he can get the food, win the challenges and control the tribe, “It’s one of the best game playing ever.” They liken it to the Brian Heidik from Survivor: Thailand played. Jenna notes everyone seems happy being dragged along to an inevitable end.

Dalton notes that Coby has done a high number of the testimonials so far.

A caller asks again if Coby shot himself in the foot by calling Stephenie aside so publicly. We get a similar answer – that people are there for different reasons. Some are there just for the million dollars but he was there for the experience. By giving Stephenie that information, he was able to keep her in the game.

Jenna adds that a common goal of players is to try and make the jury, and Coby has done that. Dalton asks how different he’d have felt if Coby had gone one person earlier. Coby replies, “I would have regrets for the rest of my life.” He adds, “I’m cool with that.” Jenna tries to get a hint about how exciting Coby might be at the Final tribal Council, asking his questions to the final two, but we got nothing.