Survivor: Exile Island – Survivor Live Recap, Episode 8

Let’s start off this article with another trivia question. Since we’re watching Terry the Immunity Machine perform wonders and be doubly safe in the first two individual tribal councils, let’s approach it that way. Before this season, only once has someone been doubly immune at tribal council. Who, and what are the circumstances? As usual, the answer will be near the bottom of this article.

After the great opening intro and music, the show starts with Dalton welcoming Austin to the show. He looks better without the beard.

Jenna will be in Africa next week, so there will be a mystery co-host. Hmm, I wonder who that might be? Someone from the Guatemala series, perhaps?

Austin says he was surprised Aras called him a “slime-ball.” Austin says things are magnified and intensified in Survivor, and Austin has only good things to say about Aras.

Austin’s deep Christian faith is evident. He says the first time in the game he had been dishonest was last week when he bagged the challenge. Reflecting on his outing himself at tribal council, Austin says it’s hard to go through life as an idiot. So much for the theory Nick put forward last week that Austin had this big master plan…

Dalton next comments on the hidden scene (viewable among CBS’s Survivor Insider clips) showing Austin on Exile Island, where he built a fake hidden immunity idol. As he recounted Jeff’s day one story about the idol to Danielle, he even changed it to more closely fit with what he had built. There was so much confusion on the first day, he was pretty sure she wouldn’t remember what had truly been said. However, he aborted his plans to use that fake idol because he saw it as a lie he couldn’t get behind. On watching the show now, he wishes he had gone ahead with it.

Austin’s definition of a serious lie would be to cast a vote against someone he had previously told he would not vote against. Dalton asks about turning his back on Ruth-Marie, and he reminds us that he never spoke directly to her so didn’t feel bound by that promise.

I think he’s really splitting hairs here. He knows that Dan spoke representing all the men, including Austin, and the promise was made in his name as well. He made no effort to correct the misconception. However, these kinds of moves are necessary to play the game of Survivor with any success. I’m suspecting he’d be catching a lot less flak if it were Shane or Courtney who were victimized by that move.

Austin liked the alliance of the men because he was hoping to hide behind the other men once individual eliminations began. The four La Mina men made that alliance twenty minutes before the women came along for the same purpose. Austin considered it “word games” when he led the younger women on regarding a possible alliance with them. He calls it, “A rationalization, a lawyer’s trick, a Clintonian lie.” Ha!

After he and Sally swapped life stories (as shown in the recap show) he was committed to keeping her over Ruth-Marie. Well, I guess we knew that already. He admits that Ruth-Marie was not weak, but they saw Sally as just a little stronger. He says he “was in inner turmoil” whenever they had to vote somebody out – they were all close and all good people.

The first caller is Chris from Cleveland, who asks why in the reward challenge did Shane play without his pants? They laugh. Austin admits he won’t miss it next week when Shane’s chafing needs evaluation, saying, “It’s not my bag.” Um, yeah, I’m not touching that one!

Dalton tells Austin that as he voted, Shane called him “the creepy Christian.” Austin likes Shane, though Shane certainly says whatever he’s thinking. Jenna says some people seem to be offended but Austin feels if you can’t take it, you need thicker skin. [Associate Editor’s Note: Glass houses, Jenna.] Determined to turn the other cheek, Austin is not offended by the creepy comment.

Dalton runs a clip showing Terry has improved his alliance-flipping speech and he tries it on Bruce, then Danielle. This time, he’s not lying. Dalton asks, why didn’t it work? Austin thinks flipping sides now would be “a poor idea on her part.” He thinks she trusted him 95% but feels the remaining La Minas would be harder to beat in upcoming challenges.

Austin tells us he only had an hour and a half to interact with the others after returning from Exile Island and learning Terry had the idol. I guess Dan and Ruth-Marie were wrong in their earlier appearances on this show, as it’s apparent the others didn’t know Terry had the idol.

At this point Austin expresses a plan he wishes he’d implemented. However, the time on Exile Island had worn him down and he couldn’t think fast enough. He wishes he’d asked Terry to borrow the idol to show it to Danielle and let her hold it. Using his Clinton semantics, he’d feel he could say “I’ll give you the idol” and it would mean this event. Then he’d have returned the idol back to Terry. The hope would be that she’d warn Casaya that Austin had the idol, so he wouldn’t get any votes.

He seems to feel that somehow, that night Aras would be gone. I don’t understand that logic at all, they surely would have targeted Sally instead and she’d have been eliminated. So, maybe it saves him but it doesn’t get Aras nor does it help the former La Minas.

Austin initially thought Shane was pulling the strings on Casaya because he was most vocal. He later figured out Aras is the glue, and without him they just might crumble.

Segment two begins with Austin’s “Open Letter,” where the castoff is given the opportunity to rant against someone or something that the hosts figure ticked them off during the show. Austin’s letter is to Exile Island. I’d love to give you the full text but the dopes at CBS didn’t put the clips on the website properly. Suffice to say, he refers to it as “You evil, wicked, nefarious place,” and an S.O.B.

Dalton informs us that you can’t go into the Exile Island skull for shelter. Whether it’s too small, riddled by scorpions, or access is simply not permitted, I don’t know.