Survivor Maryland: Major Conflict, Episode 9

Kemper Boyd

 

Hello Maryland following friends, I (Kemperboyd) did not get a chance to watch the episode this week so McQuack has kindly stepped in to save the day. What a hero.

Thoughts of McQuack

  • Hello to pufflehuff and Max_Jets, this is mcquack speaking. Just like Austin filling in for Anders in Episode 8, Kemper asked me to write the recap for Episode 9: “I Want to Cry Externally.” Try flagging all of my comments as spam now, Disqus! Mwhahaha
  • After Mike gets sent to Azkaban, Sadie and Doug try to downplay their threat level despite multiple people citing that they trust them the most. Both of them acknowledge that Sadie has a higher threat level than Doug for some reason.
  • Dain wants to move up the ladder by going after Santi—then he’s silent for the rest of the episode. For someone who wanted to “break stereotypes” in the premiere and felt controlled by Eric, he’s been so subservient that he got called a houseboy by Morgan
  • Funny editing moment: Dain says in VO “you don’t want to be the strongest person (cut to Sadie and Doug) but you also don’t want to be the weakest” (cut to Dain)
  • Tim finds a clue for presumably an idol taped under Anders’ desk. Survivor MD was ahead of the curve on podium idols just like idols at challenges.
  • Doug leads the merged tribe to picking a team name via Improv warm-up, but Ange is the one to put the sounds together (winner’s edit!) It’s Zachoo, which I’ll be pronouncing like the Yahoo! yodel from now on. They debate going by the Greek word for Black, which is μαύρος.
  • Outdoor Memory Cube! The Cube returns with new designs after a hiatus of New Beginnings using colored dominoes. The cube’s are much better presentation-wise and was probably a fun team-building activity with the crew. (Cameos by Cool Victoria, Dylan, and Swale)
  • I would do this challenge by combining two words into one, so you really only have to memorize three words: Turtlestar, Sunturtle, Helmeturtle.
  • Everyone got wiped out in New Beginnings’ memory challenge early too—Austin’s version of this challenge seem to have went longer. Four people said Maryland as an answer but Anders never even said that.
  • Yes! Nice win by Ange even though Morgan was probably going to be the target regardless. I agree with her decision to give Sadie the idol clue even though it will eventually lead to Doug’s third idol find. Morgan said earlier they can’t expect to always be a package deal and Ange won’t go farther in the game relying on Morgan alone. (Funny moment of Ange calling Anders her boyfriend when he puts the immunity necklace on her).
  • Tim doofs finding the idol under Anders’ podium, Doug make Tim feels comfortable about taking him to the Final 3, then Tim declares himself the winner. One thing I’m looking forward to this season is when all the cards are on the table and people finally see how outplayed they all were by Doug.
  • Doug’s edit seems so bulletproof at times but then there’s the scene set to ominous music where he intends to befriend Morgan just for the fun of it before he votes her out.
  • Josh is having a Halloween party—it’s Fall of 2016—that means next week is…uh oh.
  • The costumes were fun: Doug/Ball pit, Amanda/pirate, Sadie/baby, Dale Aram/Lilo, Chris/Chef, Tim/Tim. Amanda throws Sadie’s name to Josh at the party, it would’ve been funnier if Josh was dressed like a hamburger or something for this scene of serious strategy talk.
  • I liked the scene of Ange and Santi patching things up after their break-up a few episodes prior—Ange’s path of changing this season’s clone from Redemption Island to Australian Survivor S1 begins and ends with Santi. Santi says he’s made some “dangerous moves” in the game but Old Chikasha’s votes were all unanimous and he was secretly closer to Tim than Jasmine?
  • Morgan does a good job working from the bottom. It’s tough because two of the swing votes she’s trying to get—Doug and Sadie—are players she’s never met before. Nice editing moment at 30:38: Morgan is fixing her earrings while talking to Doug, cut to Morgan fixing her earrings while talking to Santi.
  • No one wants to rock the boat and vote Amanda. Massive credit to Doug for keeping an alliance of eight all feeling comfortable. Morgan did about as good of a job as one could do in her position, but nobody is willing to take the risk.
  • Amanda’s been to six tribal councils and has voted for a woman at each of them: Natalia, Teresa, Dale Aram, Abbie, Jasmine, and Morgan. I did like her reaction faces at Tribal though. You can tell even Anders is annoyed: “Not all 8 in the majority can make the Final 2.” Anders’ editing has improved greatly from New Beginnings’, I see all sorts of little jokes all over the place.
  • The writing was on the wall for Morgan for quite awhile—I wonder if things could’ve gone differently if JAM had saved Ivy all the way back in Episode 3 and had an extra set of eyes and ears.
  • Morgan’s a Senior so her last opportunity to play again will be S8. I would be interested in seeing how she interacts with a cast that also wants to play
  • NTOS: It’s Armageddon as the Power Alliance turns on itself! (Prediction: Abbie)

What did you guys think? What are some of your favorite Survivor Maryland tribe names?