Survivor: Gabon Episode Recap: "The Good Guys Should Win in the End"

• Dec 12, 2008 09:08 AM ET
• by Rhoda Charles

If you're a fan of Matty then this was an excellent episode. If not, well, it was still good. Six castaways remained in Gabon and they managed to fill the hour with double-crossings, blindsides, blindfolds and best of all a hidden immunity idol. If that doesn't draw you in then the Gorilla encounter should.

With so much happening in a mere sixty minutes I feel the need to just relay my reactions to what I was watching as it happened and maybe somebody out there was thinking the same thing I was at the time.

• Man, that's a long preview!

We love you Jeff, but at this point in the season, no new watchers are joining in. It's just the regulars and we're in it for the ling haul and um, we've seen all this stuff. Let's get to tonight because Matty ought to be pissed that he was almost voted out last week and I wanna see the fireworks!

It's true, Matty was annoyed at Kenny for writing his name down at the last tribal council and well he should be. Bob and Corinne managed to woo Kenny away from his solid alliance on the promise of a false idol. Tsk Tsk. I'd be pissed too.

• This week on 'Where's Susie...?'

Seriously, is Susie still on the show? It's like she's an afterthought in the editing room. Is she lost in the woods somewhere trying to make it back to camp?

• There's no guilt in Survivor!!!!

Bob! Are you actually promising to give Kenny your future immunity because he's guilted you into feeling sorry for duping him with a fake idol at the last tribal council? This is me shaking my head at you Bob. While I don't condone it in real life, Survivor is its own beast. Lying, backstabbing, these are acceptable actions in this game and when you do so you are not to feel guilty about it! At the very least, if you promise to give away something of value in this game, be prepared to renege. It's happened before.

• Kenny's no slouch at these challenges

Yeah, the Kenster plays up this whole, I'm not athletic, I can't compete in the challenges thing, but over the course of this season, he's performed pretty well. Heck, he's outperformed an Olympic gold medallist! Tonight, he beat Matty and Bob in a foot race through the obstacle course and he sunk some baskets too. The women bottlenecked trying to get their first (and only) ball into the net while the guys were all competing to sink ball number three. Bob won. He sent Susie to Exile Island and took Kenny and Crystal to the gorilla reserve with him. But first they ate and showered and then...

• Dashikis!

Bob in a dashiki was adorable. How nice it must have been to put on a clean outfit.

• How dumb is Kenny?

I know that's not nice, but that's what I was thinking as Kenny made plans on how and when to use the immunity that Bob was going to win and pass along. Strategy based on a bird in the tree is not as good as based on a bird in the hand. Watching Kenny plot his usage of an immunity that has not yet been earned just seemed like wasted energy. But what do I know? Bob won immunity, so maybe Kenny isn't so dumb after all.

• The 'Sugar Shack' sounds better.

Sorry Susie. It's your right to rename Exile Island after yourself now that Sugar's tenure there is over, but somehow it seems more hers than yours. Maybe because Sugar took the time to at least look for the idol before partaking of the fruit of the land. It struck me that Susie took someone else's word that Sugar had the idol rather than searching for it herself on her first trip to EI. I mean, has Susie ever even laid eyes on the supposed idol to confirm that it's not still out there? Pretty risky, I'd say.

• The Evil Three

Matty dubbing the Sugar, Kenny, Crystal alliance as the Evil Three had a nice ring to it and it was a clever way to chip away at that threesome. Sugar believes in good and in no way would want to be called evil. The next thing you know Sugar is turning on Crystal. Good job Matty.

• Mr. Potato Head: Gabonese Style

I loved the immunity challenge. Basically, I love any Survivor challenge that involves blindfolds. There are plenty of headers and people wandering off. I find it all terribly amusing and tonight did not disappoint. The castaways had to use their sense of touch on a Gabonese mask, grab three bags of parts, crawl through a course and correctly rebuild the mask. All while blindfolded. Now remember who the players are as I remind you of Jeff's hilarious commentary.

Crystal, you are off the course!

Crystal, you are over a hitching post...in the wrong lane!

Was any of that surprising? Crystal underperformed. Susie was off the radar (much like she's playing the game). Kenny thought he was the one to beat and was wrong. Matty played a solid game making few errors but was too slow and Bob won the challenge, as he tends to do.

• Kenny takes the stage

First off, Kenny is no actor, but he plays one on TV. After Bob won immunity Kenny decided he'd test out the deal he'd made earlier and if Bob kept his word then Kenny would blindside him. Such a nice guy that Kenny. No wonder Matty wants to rip your head off. If he keeps playing this way and makes it to the end, Kenny will have no friends on the jury. Not that it matters now. Despite Kenny's hangdog face and his attempt to persuade Bob that he had legitimate cause to worry at tribal council Kenny's act was still unconvincing. Bob kept his idol and hung Kenny out to dry.

• "Let me do the thinking"

How funny is it that Sugar has taken over the role of the brain? The woman that everyone thought was too dumb to find the idol over the six weeks she spent on Exile Island has usurped the position of master manipulator. Tonight, Sugar pulled a Cirie: orchestrating a double (or was it triple?) blindside that saved both Matty and Bob and got rid of Kenny's muscle, Crystal. And she used the real immunity idol just before it expired. "Matty, take this cursed thing away." Sweet victory indeed.

With what is probably the most unlikely final five ever to reach this point Survivor: Gabon is primed to crown its ultimate survivor in Sunday's two-hour finale followed by the live reunion show. Kenny looks vulnerable, but he has looked that way from the very start. Susie has silently made her way to the end. Sugar has played hard. Bob has earned his spot and Matty is one lucky son of a gun. It really is anybody's game. Who is your money on?