Episode 13, Caryn Gone

Since I missed this episode, Jeff D was kind enough to write up a synopsis for me. Thanks Jeff!

---

Right away, Jen knows she's on the block and tries to pull Ian into a 3-way alliance with Katie to take down Tom. This, incidentally, was my prediction as Jen's best move, and to my mind is indicates she can think clearly under pressure. As it turns out, Jen's pressure situation eased considerably after the rewards challenge.

The rewards challenge was a little boring this time, and a little easy to predict that it was only a shoot-out between Tom & Ian. The challenge was to paddle a raft back and forth from the dock to each of 5 buoys, and collect a marker from each one. Each marker had a number representing a distance from Palau to some world famous city. After collecing all 5 markers, the challengers had to match the correct distance to the city. I think they were (in order): Manila, Tokyo, Paris, London, & New York. Tom & Ian were neck & neck during most of the race while Jen held a solid 3rd. In returning the 4th marker to the dock, Tom made a fatal mistake and threw his marker towards the basket, but missed and had to go retrieve it. This gave Ian the easy victory... and with it, a brand new Corvette!

This is where Jen's game breathed a new life because Ian, who had promised to take Katie if he won reward, instead took Tom. Ian claimed that he and Tom had a prior agreement to take the other if a car was part of the reward. This was a dumb move for Ian, because even though he and Tom predicted an all-girl alliance and agreed to foil it by keeping the girls separated, he decided not to take Katie. This, then infuriated Katie who decided to take initiative at convincing Caryn to help vote off Tom or Ian, to which Jen happily concurred.

Very little of the camera time was devoted to the accomodations and food that Ian and Tom enjoyed, but more focus was given to Katie's displeasure with Ian's decision, and Caryn's considerations of her best move. Upon the guy's return, they find Caryn, who smartly asked Ian directly (with Tom there) about who would be going to the final 3. Ian sputters, and fails to commit to bringing Caryn into a final 3 with Tom. Tom, who has been convinced by Caryn that Katie is out to get him, goes into a mode of brow-beating Ian & Katie into remembering the original alliance, yadda yadda. It's an interesting turn of events where even Ian admits that maybe his best move is to vote off Tom.

Oh, and I couldn't forget the emotional exchange between Ian & Katie. Katie, who had been refusing to even speak with Ian upon his return from reward, finally agrees to go chat. Ian fully admits his mistake, Katie still can't trust him, they both start crying, blah blah blah. In the end, although Katie keeps her cards pretty close, it appears that she might have a hard time voting against Ian (but Tom I'm not so sure).

Before the immunity challenge, it strikes me that if Tom doesn't win immunity, he is probably done. Jen & Katie appear to be pretty solid and may be able to convince either Ian or Caryn (or both) to vote against Tom.

The immunity challenge is a combination of a balancing obstacle course and memory. The players had to cross a rope bridge with cross members, step from floating buoy to buoy, and then finally cross a tight rope (with a hand guide) to a floating dock. Then, they had to memorize a 4 X 5 set of tiles, cross back to the starting point, and match the puzzle. After a couple of hard falls and some serious pressure, Tom finishes first and wins immunity. It was surprising to me that nobody was able to put together the puzzle with less than 3 looks at the original (Tom got it after his 3rd look, I think), but it made for a gripping challenge.

Before heading up to tribal council, Ian & Katie have another one-on-one chat on the beach. Katie appears to be holding all the cards deciding whether or not she will vote off Ian.

Caryn shows concern that if Katie sides with the boys, then the old 3-way alliance will have been refortified and she will be out in the cold. To that end at Tribal, Caryn blatently attempts to smear Ian and sway Katie to vote against him. It gets pretty heated and the jury appears to be loving it. It isn't enough, though, and she ends up getting all the votes. The viewers weren't shown, of course, when the last minute negotiating went down. My guess is that Katie & Ian made up on the beach, and agreed right there that Caryn was the one going home.

|