Survivor Maryland, Major Conflict: Episode 12

Kemper Boyd

  • Previously on: Doug has three idols. There are eight people remaining and two Final Five alliances—with each player left belonging to at least one of those alliances. Someone is about to become very unhappy on Episode 12, “Colder Than My Ex-Girlfriend’s Heart.”
  • Dale Aram is pissed; Abbie is disappointed as she was looking forward to working with Josh (you were on the same tribe for 61 days!!). Sadie tries to rationalize the vote-out and is mad that Doug lied to her, but Doug reassures her that Dain is the target this week. Despite being blindsided, SAD still feels secure about their Final 5 with Doug and Santi.
  • Ange explains that the guys alliance might be easier to break apart later than the girls. Dain is incredibly grateful to Ange for saving him, and she plans to form a trio with him and Tim. Dain realizes he’s at the bottom of his alliance—true since episode 5 my man—and Doug’s continued allegiance to Sadie’s side puts him in a wary position.
  • Tim wants to target Sadie this week: Doug and Santi don’t want to target her for separate reasons (social repercussions and flag football respectively). It alternates between fascinating and frustrating that the two strongest players in Sadie and Doug don’t want to vote each other out. Doug suggests the target be Ange because of her heartwarming underdog story.
  • It’s time for the traditional pole challenge, the earliest it’s ever appeared in a season. It’s mid-November and most of the students don’t have gloves. (Someone says “Anders, my hands are cold!”)
  • A lot going on in this one: Ange forgets the idol in her car; Santi jokes he does this every Saturday night for practice; Abbie falls off after one minute; not to be outdone by her roommate, Dale Aram falls after five minutes; Tim makes an extremely weak Hillary Clinton joke one week after the 2016 election; Santi and Ange flirt, Sadie (11 minutes) and Santi (12 minutes) both drop. This challenge usually lasts for more than an hour but the people that feel safe are saying “what’s the point of being in the cold?”; Pole Challenge Master Victoria asks Dain if it’s cold enough for him to drop, he replies with the episode title then clarifies that he doesn’t have an ex-girlfriend. Doug drops after 16 minutes. Tim, Ange, and Dain remain.
  • Dain knows he’s in a terrible position but wants to win at least something in this game. He’s showing more heart and emotion in this challenge than in any previous episode. Tim drops out at 22 minutes— he checks under Anders’ table for an idol but finds nothing. Where could it be??
  • It’s down to Dain and Ange, the two voted least likely to win in the superlatives challenge—Dain dubs them Team No Chance. Eventually the others leave the two of them alone. I found this conversation to be surprisingly touching—it came out of nowhere because Dain’s been my least favorite player for many weeks. There’s a real connection between the two but they also know that whoever drops is likely going home. There’s also a funny moment when Dain talks about potentially going to rocks and Ange replies “Who’s Rocks?”
  • After an hour and 51 minutes, Ange drops and Dain wins immunity! She’s putting a lot of faith in Dain/Tim of not only sticking with her but also being able to persuade Santi/Doug. I’ll be honest, I was feeling nervous for Ange and the remainder of this season when she slid off that pole.
  • Doug is suspicious that Ange and Dain felt unsure enough about their spot in the game to hold onto a flagpole in the freezing cold for two hours. Sadie made a comment that the final three in the challenge was also the bottom three, which eventually made its way to Tim.
  • Dain and Tim both want Sadie—she’s a strong player and her elimination would make Doug more dependent on them—but they are unsure if they can get the numbers. Doug doesn’t want Sadie and Santi is pretty much doing what Doug is doing. Hilariously, Tim has a video chat with Ange while Dude Perfect’s Slip N Slide Football Battle is still up on his browser.
  • The challenge idol being absent leaves uncertainty in the air. The Chikasha idol’s location is also unknown but some suspect Liam was blindsided with it. Tim’s plan is to tell Abbie they’re going for her to hopefully flush out an idol.
  • Tim tries to talk to Santi about voting Sadie but he immediately shuts it down as the stupidest idea he’s ever heard. Tim explains it doesn’t matter if Sadie hates them because this is Survivor. Doug writing down Sadie’s name would prove his loyalty to Ange and the boys. I love how Tim’s side is forcing Doug’s hand here: Doug wouldn’t dare go to rocks with two (actually three) idols in his pocket.
  • Santi and Doug debate telling Tim about the challenge idol. Doug claims he isn’t going to play an idol tonight but if he does, he will give Sadie the challenge idol that she helped him find. Doug doesn’t like all the questioning Ange is giving him and considers voting for her.
  • Tim and Dain think Doug should just get over himself and vote for Sadie. They realize they don’t even need his vote and consider faking out Doug by telling him to vote Abbie while the remaining four vote out Sadie. Dain continues his power-trip and makes a very condescending move of telling Dale Aram to vote for him (he’s immune). The jury ridiculed that one later in the episode and Anders got to try out his Dale Aram impression.
  • I think Santi and I have the same type of cellphone. He tells Sadie straight-up that Ange is more inclined to keeping him around while Abbie and Dale Aram are only committed to Sadie and each other. Sadie tries to get Doug to play an idol on her alliance, which would send Ange home.
  • Tim asked Doug “as a fan of the game and not a participant what would you do?” He says “vote Abbie.” C’mon dude.
  • Jury attendance has been great this season—so far it’s been 1/1, 1/2, and 3/3.
  • Doug does not play an idol for anyone. In a very tense vote, it’s four votes Sadie, three votes Ange, and one frowny-faced vote for Abbie from Doug. The post-show commended Doug for throwing his vote on Abbie and securing Sadie’s jury vote but from his body language it sure looked like he was blindsided by his own alliance.
  • Condolences to Max_Jets. Sadie was a confident player who was physically and strategically strong. She was just far too adamant on her Final 5 pact and by extension her Final 3 with supergoats Abbie and Dale Aram to budge in any way. Ange’s been at the bottom for weeks and putting in the appropriate amount of work, but SAD seemed far too passive for someone in their position and were overly reliant on Doug to fix everything for them.
  • Sadie seems to be a strong contender to return for S10. Mike and Morgan are seniors so their last appearance could be S8. That leaves a logjam of potential returnees in Eric, Doug, Santi, Sadie, Ange, Amanda, Jasmine, Ivy, and mayyyyybe Liam. I think Anders is going to go 5/5/5/5 for All-Stars 2 and the New Beginnings representatives will be Daniela, Faith, Shaina, Dylan, and Swale. As of right now, my guess for Major Conflict is Eric, Doug, Santi, Amanda, Jasmine.
  • I feel like if Dain had not won immunity he would’ve been gone—Santi wouldn’t have stuck his neck out like he did for Ange. Dain didn’t do his already meager winner’s edit any favors playing from the top this week.
  • I thought this was the best episode so far in what is shaping up to be a solid season after all. The always great pole challenge, a lot of strategy, and the most tense Tribal to date. The bills are starting to come in for players who refused to budge earlier in the game.
  • Doug has three idols left in the Final 7, meaning he has a guaranteed spot in the Final Four. However, with all his idols and connections Doug has essentially put himself in a trolley problem situation. If he saves Abbie and Dale Aram with his idols he’ll completely destroy the relationship he has with the Dain-Tim-Ange-Santi side, potentially losing jury votes. But if he does nothing but play the idols for himself, Sadie and Dale Aram will wonder why he did nothing to save them when he’s had three idols all along, potentially losing jury votes. Every tribal council from here on out is going to be pretty interesting.
  • I’m trying not to think about this too much, but Doug can pretty much Thanos Ange whenever he wants— and get Santi back for voting out Sadie. An Ange comeback win would cast the entire season in a whole new light but unfortunately I think a robbed goddess Janet vote-out at the Final 5 or so is much more likely. However, at this point I can also say Doug has been acting far too bratty and stubborn to be the winner of this season and that Santi is my guess for Sole Survivor.
  • NTO…S: there are two pairs of roommates in the Final 7. Abbie tells Ange/Dain that Doug has two idols and Dale Aram of all people is the first one to put potentially a Doug blindside in motion.
  • No Sadie on the post-show this week (she was driving somewhere). Really the only big tidbit was Anders confirming that this season will be a Final 3 (though the players don’t know if it’s 3 or 2).