Recap
From the beginning of the game, Lisa was an outcast.
<Lisa: “Maybe I am not able to play this game.”>
As of the merge, only 2 people had discovered her secret; Penner and Skupin who had just become her biggest ally in the game.

Lisa and Mike’s only problem was that everyone wanted the returning players out next.

At the immunity challenge…Penner won immunity and Lisa decided to make a big move, attempting to save Skupin…by throwing Malcolm and his idol under the bus.
But, at a crazy Tribal Council, Lisa took a lot of heat for her big move and it became clear there were two major alliances each with their own immunity idol.
In the end, Tandang stayed strong and got their way.

The recap clearly defined the two main characters for this season: Lisa and Mike.

The Fulcrums

Night 22

Mike: “Tribal Council was the most amazing experience because Lisa made her big move to save me. So, from going from: “It’s you”, to: “It’s not you” in five minutes is a sense of relief. The game could have been flipped around with 1 or 2 more votes for Pete but whether Pete went or whether Jeff went, they are two of the most outspoken people about getting rid of returning players. Having one of them go is a win-win for me either way.”

It’s a good sign that Mike received the first confessional after that “historic” TC as it was called. It also shows that Mike already has his eyes on flipping the game against the former Tandang. He isn’t clueless afterall! Now that he has gotten rid of the most vocal rival to returning players and that the other is in danger he could be in a truly win-win situation.

Abi thought Skupin had voted against her but Jonathan set her straight; it was his vote and he did it because he was PO’ed.

Jonathan: “That was the most incredible Tribal Council I have ever been a part of. It was crazy! I don’t even know what the hell happened.” Carter soon told him that it was his vote against Abi that sunk Jeff. “I’m the one who blew it?” asked Jonathan. His confessional went on: “There was no plan; nobody knew what was going to happen. So, did my vote screw it up? Even if I had voted for Pete, it would have only tied it up so, I voted for Abi and no we will see where I stand. I’m dead man walking anyway.”

We then saw Lisa apologizing to Malcolm who was extremely gracious, understanding her game decision.

Lisa” “I tried to make the big move, tried to play the game like a real survivor and it’s just not me. I lied and I betrayed and I broke promises and Malcolm has been full of grace and mercy. I love this game but I think it’s too big for me. It’s bigger than me.”

Mike talked about a win-win situation, Jonathan said he blew it while Lisa said she isn’t good enough for the game. So? Mike wins? It would be nice if it was that simple. It’s great for Lisa’s chances that no one blamed her. She is still a “suspect” that we have to consider in this whodunnit of a season!

Jonathan: “There are five original Tandang and, if they vote together, I am done...” These words were accompanied by a shot of Jonathan dropping the machete, a sign that he will fail

“...I’ll probably go home at the next immunity if I don’t win it. But, there’s been such division, so many cracks in that five and their identities as people is so varied: You have two parents who are trying to play a straight up, almost Christian game in Lisa and in Skupin and then you have three incredibly tight players who are playing some other game; what I call a bully game. My hope is to play on those divisions, to appeal to Skupin’s and Lisa’s hearts.”

Right here, we heard Jonathan telling Lisa she made great moves, unprecedented in the history of Survivor. People were starting to admire her and love her, he added. Jonathan then psychoanalyzed Lisa, the child star and she thought he knew her.

The camera angle put us, as viewers, directly on Jonathan’s shoulder as he looked and talked to Lisa. It was a clear example of the Jonathan camera: What he says, what he sees in people is exactly how the editors want us to see those people. Like in Cook Islands; Jonathan’s point of view was the one that mattered then and so is it now.

Lisa: “I know Penner is always scrambling to find a way to stay but he struck something really, really deep, this internal conflict…My whole life has been based on public perception…If I do the wrong thing, will I still be ok? If I am not liked…can I survive, not being, little miss Perfect?”

The Challenge

Abi wasn’t picked by either side and she didn’t get to pick a team to root for and follow on reward.
Jonathan was the one to figure out the challenge, looking for all 4 bags of balls at once. It enabled his team to start shooting before Artis could make his way on the course. Jeff certainly wanted us to know that Penner’s strategy had been the key for the red team’s victory.

The Reward

Penner, Denise, Malcolm and Pete were off to donate school supplies and toys to a local village.

Jonathan: “We came in carrying a crate of toys and school supplies…amazing kids...This reward is extraordinary…It seems to be the happiest community I ever walked into.”

Malcolm: “Right after I graduated, I taught elementary school in Micronesia for a year…I enjoy working with kids…This means so much more to me than pouring drinks to girls in bars. It really made reconsider what I have been doing with my life.”

Jonathan: “The food was great. Amazing break from the game although I hope we can talk strategy over a beer or two.”

As far as strategy went, we only heard them mentioning that they wanted to have Skupin and Lisa with them.
Denise said they had to be gentle with them while Malcolm added that Skupin was treated horribly by “them”.

Carter, strangely, had the confessional to tell us about their strategy: “Right now, the lines have been drawn and it’s former Tandang versus everyone else but last night at Tribal Council, they made a mockery of Skupin. I feel like he’s been mistreated and they mistreated Lisa so we are trying to get Skupin and Lisa in with us because they are going to play the biggest role in deciding which alliance moves on and which starts getting picked off.”

Camp

Pete: “Losing a challenge like this is awful. It’s really demoralizing. I need that energy. At least, Lisa doesn’t really know what’s going on after tribal Council where she got obliterated and Skupin: It’s ironic how someone I wanted to get rid first or second, now I am forced to work with. We need the majority right now…We are back to Tandang. They are going to trust us more than they trust Penner or anybody. So getting them close and keeping them close is definitely what we are trying to do and making them feel comfortable.”

Abi must not have gotten the message because she was still after Lisa whom she accused of being gullible and naïve (!)

Artis, in his confessional, echoed what the audience thought: “Abi is such a loose canon. She thinks she knows so much about the game and so much about people in general. I don’t know who told her that but she needs to shut up before she screws everything all up.”

Lisa: “Very interesting how things split after the challenge today. My thought was that we really had some time. We could reevalute and stay solid, the Tandang 5 but I get back here to the island and Abi was terrible. Maybe it makes sense to go with the other alliance but I made this grand stand at Tribal Council about having loyalty to Tandang and Skupin so, to flip to Kalabaw, looks from the outside as really awful but in time it probably makes more sense. I don’t know what to think now.”

The Immunity Challenge

Like Jeff said, it was a two horse race. Skupin and Pete were going very quickly.
But then: “Disaster; Pete loses two balls on that one.” (!)
Skupin won immunity.
“Way to go, Skupin” said Malcolm.

Artis received the editors’ kiss of death type of confessional: “At tonight’s tribal council, unless something goes wrong, we can get Penner out and we can actually, for the first time in a long time, come back to camp, take a deep breath…we can relax for a while.”

Yes, Artis, we all realized then that you would be having plenty of time to relax!

Day 25

Jonathan: “I didn’t win that immunity challenge so I know my days are numbered if I can’t put something together. The problem is the numbers. I need 5 votes if I want to have even an ice cream’s chance in hell of staying in the game.”

Abi: “I wish I would be voting off Mike today but we need him for the numbers. Penner is a bigger threat but Mike is really annoying. Penner is actually charming, a little too smart for his own good so time for him to go home.”

I wonder if this wasn’t taken from last week’s time frame. It wasn’t needed back then because the editors wanted us to think Mike could go but why would Abi say she’d like to eliminate Mike now? Had she said: “I wish I could vote off Mike but he won immunity” that’d be one thing but she says it’s the numbers that were preventing her from doing so. Last week, the numbers saved Mike, not this week.

In the woods, Denise was explaining her thoughts to Malcolm and Carter, saying that Abi would never give the idol to Artis.

Denise: “Right now, I have my alliance with Malcolm and the former Kalabaw tribe; Carter and Jonathan. The goal tonight is to get rid of one of the original Tandang members. Break that little empire up and then continue to just turn this game. The plan very much hinges on Skupin and Lisa. If we can’t get the numbers; Jonathan is going home.”

Jonathan was then seen relaxng in a cove, talking to Lisa. He described himself as a storyteller and asked her what she thought would be the story of this season.
“Who are the good guys and who are the bad guys? Who are the underdogs? Who is the audience going to be rooting for?” He went on to say the audience would like Lisa but “wouldn’t be happy to see that you are helping these three guys…I hope you and Skupin do the right thing…You might be the fulcrum character.”

Since this is the first time a Survivor talks directly about the story being told, I think we should look carefully at what he just said: The audience will want Lisa and Skupin to do the right thing BUT ONLY SKUPIN DID! Lisa voted to eliminate Penner and even if her parchment had multiple little hearts, maybe that is the key to determining that Mike wins over her. On the other hand, the editors presented this episode as Lisa’s emancipation, the time when she liberated herself from the rude members of Tandang and many in the audience will not have even noticed that she voted against Penner. It’s that kind of manipulation that we usually look for in a winner’s favor but then they let us see her vote. Lisa may be the fulcrum of the story but not of the game, at least not this time.
One thing we can clearly get out of this is that Penner’s role is that of a narrator, a storyteller.

Lisa: “I like Jonathan, I learned so much from him out here but man! My head is spinning. I still want to be loyal. But is that the old Lisa?”

Jonathan: “I am planting seeds with Lisa because I am playing my ass off here but I cannot panic. I have to be calm, cool and collected. I hope that I got through to her. Whether that changes her vote, I don’t know but I only need one of them: Either her or Skupin.”

Jonathan told Mike that he was the fulcrum vote and he was. Does that foreshadow that Jonathan will be the vote that tip the scale in Mike’s favor in the end? On the other hand, Jonathan did say that with Mike’s vote they were sure to make it to the F5: If we have learned one thing from Survivor editing is that they probably won’t make it both to the F5! Which one? The storyteller or the fulcrum? I’d have to go with Mike.

Mike: “Jonathan is interested in creating something but Lisa and I agreed on day 1 that we will always tell each other the truth. She orchestrated a pretty big move the other day in order to save the Tandang alliance, in order to save me so, I want to play this game with Lisa. I have to make sure that, if I make a bold move, she’s firmly on the side that I am choosing.”

Mike then asked Lisa: “How can we stay loyal to people that aren’t loyal to us?”
Lisa said that the bigger picture would show that she was swinging both ways, being indecisive.
Mie simply said that the bigger picture was that they had an alliance to the very end.

That sentence, that connection, coming after all this talk of storytelling and fulcrums, should put them both firmly in the picture during the last Tribal Council, facing the jury.

Lisa: “From the beginning, I’ve been thinking that the most important thing was to keep the Tandang numbers strong because I want to stay loyal to Tandang…But if Tandang isn’t loyal to me, am I being exactly what Abi accuses me of being? Gullible and naïve.”

Tribal Council

Lisa said that the fallout of the previous TC was mostly internal (which shocked Kent). She added that people were graceful to her.
After Abi asked her if she had shown grace, Lisa said she felt more grace from the people that she was against.
She told Jeff it was as ign of maturity and experience, adding: “I believe there are more Survivor fans on the other alliance.”
That really irritated Abi which Jeff noted.
Abi simply said she thought she showed grace as well.
Artis said he wasn’t surprised that it was still Tandang versus Kalabaw because Tandang had one of the most powerful tribes in Survivor history and that it was playing out as it was supposed to play out.
Denise countered by saying things could shift.
Artis wanted to be clear that he knew he could be blindsided.
Asked about Mike’s necklace, Jonathan introduced the theme of fulcrums to TC, saying someone could tip the scale one way or the other.
Mike described the feeling of having immunity which he never had in 12 years. He added: “I originally came out for the money but then the game got bigger than the money.” He concluded by saying he loved Lisa’s move.
Lisa said that the game was bigger than her, meaning she had to play with her heart.
Jonathan told Jeff he appreciated someone that played the game.
Denise didn’t know if the numbers would shift but she was hoping that everything gets turned upside down.
Abi said that Tandang had the numbers but that she wasn’t really sure about Lisa.
Jonathan found that Abi’s remark was incredible, Peter scratched his head and Jeff said: “Wow!”
Lisa said those words should force her to make a decision.

Skupin and Lisa were the last ones shown in the voting booth as if they were both deciding the outcome.

When Jeff mentioned the 5th vote against Artis, RC was shocked, Jonathan was relieved, Skupin was repressing a smile, Abi was fuming and Denise was winking at a smiling RC.

Jeff concluded the evening saying: “Once again this game just turned.”

The Story

With Jonathan’s talk of fulcrums, it’s interesting to note that the episode had three fulcrums: One for the audience, one for the story and one for the game.

Jonathan was the audience’s fulcrum: We saw things through his eyes and it was a pivotal episode. The good guys versus the bad guys, IN JONATHAN’s eyes, were the players we cheered or jeered.

Lisa was the story’s fulcrum: This episode was about her emancipation from Tandang EVEN if she voted with them. There is a feeling of unfinished business here that is troubling. Will Lisa get as much grace this time or will she be seen as the indeciseve player she herself described? For one thing, Abi won’t be showing anymore grace!

Mike was the fulcrum of the game: His vote decided the outcome of the Council but does it relegate him to the role of spectator at the end or has he just assured himself of a spot in the Finals? The big picture, we were told, included an alliance between Mika and Lisa to the very end.

The Charaters

Malcolm: In this most important episode, Malcolm was reduced to his true role in this season: The likable young man on a “coming of age” journey. He had no confessionals leading up to TC and Jeff didn’t turn to him either.

Jonathan: He is seen as a threat, a smart player that could indeed win this whole thing but Jonathan feels more like the narrator and the deciding voter instead of the winner. Did he blow it? Story-wise, to me, it felt like he did. All his talk are about surviving one more Coucnil isn’t bad but, with such a large role, we should be hearing him talk about what he thinks he’ll need to do to get to the end.

Denise: The edit could still be pointing to her victory but having no confessional during what will certainly be the most interesting reward of the season is very troubling. Also, her strategic confessional was really only narration as she wasn’t shown acting on what her alliance needed: She wasn’t shown talking to either Lisa or Mike. The story isn’t being presented from her angle anymore. When Jonathan asked who were the underdogs this season, Denise’s name would have popped up first during the premerge but not anymore. The Act I underdog has become just another player in Act II. We can’t forget that Russell and Malcolm both said she wins it if she makes the Final 3 but that sounds more like doubt for somebody else right now. But the game’s turns are part of her theme, a new occasion for her so she still has to be considered a front runner.

Lisa: It’s hard to say she will not get enough votes when she is received with so much grace by those she throws under buses. She tried to play the game like a real Survivor and she said it was simply not her. That and her confessional after her little session on “Dr” Penner’s couch tells us she is clearly the journey player, the one that will “learn more about (herself) in those 39 days than in 39 of (her) previous 49 years”. We can’t rule out all the manipulation to make this episode look like Lisa’s emancipation though and she is clearly the one the audience is supposed to root for. So, I’d say she’s the favorite to win but I won’t be putting money on her.

Mike: He said it: If Pete or Jeff had left, it was a win-win situation for him so, with Pete’s imminent departure, we should feel more confident about his chances of winning. With Lisa’s stock rising once more in this episode, he still must be seen as a longshot but he was the deciding factor in this vote and he got nice reactions from the jury even if they can’t be sure it was his vote! It’s remarkable that someone who was supposed to simply go quietly with the flow of the game, made the biggest move up to now and it wasn’t even noticed! When Lisa made her big move, the “poop hit the fan”. When Mike entered the waters, we didn’t even hear a splash. A rip entry gets maximum scores from the judges!