survivor tocantins: tyson apostol is eliminated

for the second week in a row, blindside is the name of the game insurvivor tocantins: the brazilian highlands. utah native tyson apostol is voted off the show, which was completely unexpected to him and two other castaways.

the episode started with sierra completely surprised of brendan's elimination last week. she was so sure of their so-called exile island alliance with the old jalapao tribe. they have decided to vote out coach but the complete opposite happened, brendan was voted out and he didnot use his hidden immunity idol.

sensing that she is in grave danger to be eliminated next, she talks to tyson to take her again and promised to be loyal to the old timbira again. but as expected, tyson hates her and sierra cannot convince her.

at the reward challenge, the 8 remaining castaways were divided into 2 groups of four. the red team are jt, tyson, erin and debbie while the blue team are stephen, coach, taj and sierra. in pairs, they will get big puzzle pieces from the trees and place it to their proper spots. after retrieveing all four pieces and putting them in place, the teams will flip or rotate the pieces so that the holes will align and they will see the vowels.

when they get the vowels, they will arrange it together with the given consonant to form a phrase. first team to get the phrase wins reward. reward will be a feast and they will be entertained by local capoeira dancers, a local martial arts. they will also send one member of the losing team to exile island.

the retrieval of the pieces were neck to neck until the red team had a slight advantage in the last piece. but red team's team work proved supeior when they arranged the puzzle pieces first, getting the vowels. once they were arranging the letters, it was debbie who suggested the word feast and they immediately got it. the blue team was not even close to getting the vowels. red team wins immunity and sent stephen to exile island.

at the reward, the four enjoyed the feast and the dance. the dancers even invited them to dance with them. debbie were doing back flips and the others were doing cartwheels here and there. after dancing, erin was shown vomiting after eating and dancing, talking about embarrassing moments on tv.

at exile island, stephen discovered that there is no new idol in play.

at camp, sierra is still finding a way to stay in the game. now, talking with debbie. she gets points for her fighting spirit and perseverance.

at immunity challenge, the castaways are given an option whether to play or not. if they decide not to play, they will eat pizza during the duration of the challenge. three opted to eat the pizzas rather than participating. they are jt, stephen and coach. wow! the girls are rocking and all decided to play.

the challenge is that the castaways will slide pucks across a playing board and they need to get the pucks nearest the x mark. the one closest to the x after 3 rounds wins immunity. the first round was just a feel of the board, almost all of them are far from the x. at the second round, all threw near the target. at the last round, they were simply hitting each other's targets and taking the lead. so debbie was the last to throw during this round with sierra leading. but her puck was nearer to the x mark so debbie wins immunity.

with debbie winning immunity, the old jalapao tribe saw the opportunity to vote for tyson. after winning the last 2 immunity challenge, he is simply a threat. sierra is in and they talked to erin about it. she agrees and they hope she is really solid to it.

at tribal council, sierra emphasized that she has a big target in her back. jeff on the other hand pointed out how big a physical threat tyson is. then the votes were casted. the old jalapao tribe did not play the immunity idol. so, the votes:

sierra

tyson

sierra

sierra

tyson

tyson

tyson

tyson

another blindside! tyson is voted out of the game. the old jalapao tribe, sierra and erin voted for tyson. it was a complete surprise to tyson. brendan was happy at the votes and sierra was visibly happy.

well, that is survivor, one day you are top, the next day you are out (just like project runway...)

image is from: http://www.cbs.com/primetime/survivor/bio/tyson_18/bio.php?season=18

survivor tocantins: joe dowdle is out of the game

joe dowdle became the latest castaway out of the island in survivor tocantins: the brazilian highlands. joe is a real estate agent from austin, texas and was a member of the jalapao tribe.

the episode also featured the merge between the jalapao and the timbira tribes. a small feast was prepared for the merge, which prompted them to get a new tribe name and wear the new buff. the tribe color is now green. they all decided to the new tribe name, forza.

the merged tribe will now stay at the old timbira camp. when the old jalapao came over, they saw that they had a better shelter and they have to improve it. sensing that they are in trouble due to tyhe numbers, the jalapao boys worked around camp.

new alliances are also being formed after the merge. coach has approached jt to watch each other's backs and they are joined by stephen, debbie, tyson and erin. they are plotting to vote out brandon since they think brendan is manipulative and they think he has the immunity idol.

joe and erin, who were the last to go to the exile island, checked out the tree mail idol to check if the idol is still there. they found the compartment empty and they knew that either sierra or brendan has it, since they are the only other 2 timbira members who has been to exile island.

but joe has another problem of his own. he has infected his wound which was just below his left knee. it has been swollen and red and he has been limping around camp. many castaways has noticed this and are thinking of voting him off.

at the immunity challenge, tribal immunity idol is no longer at play and they are now playing for individual immunity. this week's challenge is a simple one. each castaway will cling on the pole and they must stay on the pole as long as they can. last person on his or her pole wins immunity.

the challenged seems to be simple but it proved to be very hard. at the start of the challenge, stephen and joe immediately struggled. less than 5 minutes in the challenge, stephen bailed out and joe followed soon. jeff noticed joe's wound and asked him if it was okay. then several other castaways struggled. taj, brendan and erin fell off their pole consecutively. jt also was struggling and fell off after about 20 minutes. only 4 castaways are left, all former timbira members. coach was the next one to fall, followed soon by sierra.

the challenge is now between tyson and debbie. both are struggling. debbie's arms are already shaking and tyson is holding on the pole by his toes. but soon after, debbie can hold on no longer and released her hold. tyson wins the first individual immunity of the season.

jeff asked the castaways to leave but asked joe to be left behind so that the medical team can look at his wound. the doctor told him that it was infected and the doctor feared that the infection is too close to his bone and it might worsen if he stays and played on. worst case is he might lose his leg.

back at camp, plotting begins, with the old timbira tribe meeting near the camp fire. coach and tyson are making brendan and sierra think that they are voting for jt so that they would not have a clue that they are voting for brandon. when coach told jt about this, jt feared for his life. if brandon plays the immunity idol, he might be in danger. so he and stephen asked tyson to split the vote between brendan and sierra.

stephen also asked taj if she was willing to vote for brendan and explained to her the whole set up. they are also wondering why brendan are not making signs of who they would vote since they had the exile island cross tribal alliance already. so taj said that she is willing to do it. so everything seems to be in place and it looks like either brendan or sierra is going home.

but jeff showed up at the camp. he said that joe is not with him and the medical team already decided that he cannot continue on in the game. he is now being lifted via helicopter to be treated and he will be fine. taj asked jeff to say to him that they all love joe and they miss him. jeff informed them that there will be no tribal council anymore.

tyson was crushed because his plan to eliminate the strong player brendan has been destroyed. anything can happen in the next three days and things will definitely change. in the preview, the so called exile island alliance was showing plotting against coach and coach is doing the same against brendan. i think either coach or brendan will go home next week.

what is unclear right now is that, will joe still participate as a jury member or not? hope he still continue as a jury member, just as what they did in a previous season. bruce was pulled out of the game due to stomach aches and he still continued to join the jury in survivor panama: the exile island.

image is from: tv.yahoo.com/show/42547/photos/10