Who knew episode numbers could be so cinfusing. I do not count the recap so this is 12, right?!

The Recap was more “The World According to Sash” than the story of Survivor Nicaragua.

Jeff said: “Did you ever have one of those days where everything goes wrong? Welcome to Sash’s world.
After 4 weeks in the jungle, Sash had it all…
A hidden immunity idol in his pocket, his closest ally, Na’Onka had another one and the third person in his clique, Purple Kelly, did whatever he said…
<Kelly was heard saying: “I’m not as wise as some of these people but as long as I keep Sash close, I’ll be fine.”>
The “Sash train” was in a perfect position to go all the way to the end…
…and then the wheels came off.
First, Na’Onka gave her idol to Chase…
…Then, at tribal council, both Na’Onka and Purple Kelly threw in the towel.

Now, there are two alliances: Chase, Holly and Jane on one side, Benry, Fabio and Dan on the other.”

Besides taking another cheap shot at Kelly, the recap set it up for us to see Sash as the underdog or at least to let us hear about his feelings, his frustrations, his fears but that’s not what we were about to have.

Instead, the episode showed us that:

They are Crazy if they Trust Sash.

Libertad
Night 28
Holly: “Tonight, we had a tribal council and Na’Onka and Kelly decided to quit. 20 people out of how many people are given this opportunity and 11 days left and they walk out. Unbelievable.”

Benry and Fabio decided the chicken should be named Kelly-Nay for the 2 quitters.

Sash: “For most of this tribe, losing two was a huge plus but probably the person that has not benefited the most was me. Chase, he’s aligned tightly with Holly and Jane. On the other side of the spectrum is Dan, Fabio and Benry who have also formed a close alliance. Now, I have a hidden immunity idol so I still think the odds are in my favor to try to make a run for it but it’s going to be more difficult than I thought.”

It’s nice to have proof that part of his confessional heard last week was taken from this one. More importantly it didn’t take long for us to realize that Sash wasn’t going to get an underdog edit after all. And where were the emotions? Is Sash really this cold or were the emotional remarks left out?

Libertad
Day 29

Talking to Chase, Benry and Fabio, Sash made it clear that he would play the idol at the next tribal council, reasoning that it was only putting a target on his back. “What I’d like to do is get rid of it and show everyone that I am a free agent.”

Sash: “Right now, it’s an individual game so I have to do what is best for me. I’m a swing vote; no matter who I align with, I know I’m going to be the fourth man so make me your best offer and I’ll decide then.”

You have to admit this was a very smart move by Sash because he was telling both sides that voting for him was useless yet he’d be certain to stay there once one of the alliances of three had been whittled down to 2. We have to consider him a top strategist like Cesternino, Chris, Todd and Russell but I still don’t see any manipulation to make us want to see his plans succeed. Certainly, the recap was manipulated to make it all about Sash but it reminded us he was already on top and only suffered a set-back because Na’Onka and Kelly quit. The audience was too happy to see those two go to care for Sash. In previous seasons, we got to know the schemers mentioned and that was what enabled us to share an interest in seeing them succeed. Here, it feels that we should want to see Sash fail like John, Gregg or Marty before him. That’s because we have gotten to know those that he wants to trick more than we have a connection to Sash himself (which was Gregg’s editing problem) and he is becoming insufferably arrogant. (like John and Marty)

It seemed that, as soon as they wound up alone, Chase offered Sash his trust and a promise to keep Sash over Jane. He also promised Sash that he and Holly were owed a nice reward. Sash agreed that Holly deserved to go on the next one but was happy to hear that Chase considered him next in line.

Sash: “I really need a reward right now, especially some food. I’m literally starving and, aside from Holly, I’ve gone the longest without a food reward recently so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that there is some food on the horizon.”

This set up nicely a reminder of Palau where Ian, who like Chase was a hesitating young man on a journey to maturity, made a mistake in choosing Tom over Katie for a reward.
Of course, if I’m not reading this story correctly then Sash was in a similar position to Tom on another of Palau’s rewards but I didn’t really hear anything as foreshadowing for him as Tom’s remark to Gregg: “We’ll make you pay.”

Reward Challenge
Day 30

In a 2nd chance type challenge, which was very appropriate for this episode, we had Chase, Jane, Benry and Holly winning the first round and Chase eventually beating Benry in the final leg.
(For those keeping score at home, note that Dan wasn’t featured once on camera except when the first round was over and we saw him covered in mud to prove he was actually there!)

After first choosing Holly to accompany him, Chase faced a tough decision. He chose Jane (who appeared to be his new cheerleader now that Brenda is gone! Poor Chase!) even if the camera showed that Sash was expecting it and that Benry deserved it.

Sash: “Chase actually said to me that, next reward if he wins it, he was going to take me. Right now, I can go either way; Chase knows I have an idol so, for him to make that risky of a move when he probably already has Jane’s vote locked up, is incredibly stupid.”

Libertad
Day 30

Fabio was happy with the outcome, telling the tribe that Chase had picked the two least strategic players to go with him.
It’s now Fabio’s turn to underestimate Jane and Holly. That just confirmed to us that he was the least aware of the strategies. Isn’t that dangerous for his overall story? It certainly is something to remember because casual comments in Survivor are rare. Usually everything, especially a comment that sets up a scene, has meaning.

Sash: “With Chase choosing Jane and Holly to go on the reward, he was not only making one of the dumbest moves in the game thus far by leaving me who is really a wild-card back at camp to possibly maneuver myself with the other alliance being Benry, Fabio and Dan.”

Sash asked about the future plans of the three guys because, as he said: “It’s obvious that there’s a three-three split… it’s obvious that I’m going to be number four man on any three-person alliance.”
Dan simply replied: “Forget those three, let’s us four go.”
Sash still wanted to hear their game plan because “Only three make it to the finals.”
Dan smartly said: “In other words, you’re saying you might side with them? That’s what you’re saying is that you might side with them.”
Sash was stumped: “Uh? I…I…Ah? I…Uh? Honestly, none of you three have come forward and told me your game plan yet so for…for…for…Ah…here on out, I…I want you to feel free to tell me whatever you want, so you know…you know…”

Dan: “We tried to get Sash back on board with us so we approached him and he said: “I’m with you guys, I’m with you guys, I’m with you guys” but people don’t trust Sash and they are crazy if they do after what he did to his own right-hand girl, after what he did to Brenda, after what he did to Marty. If Sash goes with Chase and the two ladies, they have four, we only have three so I have no choice but to trust Sash.”

If I am permitted an aparté; was Sash expecting one of the three guys to fall on his sword or for the other two to say right there and then they weren’t sticking with number 3? This wasn’t a very smart approach. Was there more to it than what was shown?
As it was presented, Sash was outwitted by Dan and herein lies the difference between a schemer that wins and a schemer that fails at least as far as the editors are concerned: The ones that fail have others calling out their stupid moves while the winners see their side of the story being told, recorded for posterity. For the audience, Sash is no longer meant to be seen as the puppet master that SHOULDN’T be trusted but as the guy that simply isn’t trusted, unless you are crazy…That opens up a new line of editing thoughts: Who is crazy to trust Sash?

The Reward

Jane: “Chase won and I was so much praying that Chase would pick me. I loved the tiki hut…”

Holly: “Chase picked Jane and me to go on the reward leaving Sash behind. I went Oh! No. I think he made the wrong choice.”

Chase agreed and knew he had been stupid.

Chase: “I’ve been a little flighty throughout the game, not making decisions and sticking with them. It could come back to hurt me. It’s mistakes that I’m making that I don’t need to be doing that too much because people stop trusting me. Now, Sash is back at camp with Fabio, Benry and Dan and that’s terrible. They could pick us off one by one. I’ll have to back to camp tomorrow and see where Sash’s head is at and that is all that I can do. I’ll enjoy this reward while I am here but I’ll have to do damage control tomorrow.”

Back in Camp
Benry: “Not only are Holly and Chase a big threat to Sash but nobody wants to go to the final three with Jane anyway. So, if Sash were smart, I think he will make the right decision, jump on board with us and take himself a lot further in this game. I think that alliances were pretty defined today and that we can really use Sash to our advantage in this game. I’m not going to take any chances though; that kid as been shifty this entire game and hasn’t been able to make up his mind so I think he’s still in that same boat and something tells me he is a lot closer to Holly, Jane and Chase than Dan, Fabio and I.”

We have another example that Sash isn’t really seen as a mastermind but really thought of as a shifty kid.

Libertad
Day 31

Jane realized that the guys had killed Kelly-Nay. Crying, she built it a pet-cemetery.

Jane: “I found out that they did kill the chicken so I made her a little ceremonial…”

Holly told Chase and Jane that she didn’t trust Sash.
Chase said that they’d have to make him believe that they would drop Jane and take Sash to the finals.

Chase: “It was an unbelievable mistake that I made. I left Sash back at camp, the person that I can trust least with three other guys who were ready to pounce on him. They were all talking to him. If Sash goes with them, it’s going to be me, Holly and Jane fighting for our lives and it’s going to be hell. It’s going to be a fight to the finish if Sash goes with them.”

The “shifty” Sash was the first to give big hugs to Holly and Jane.

Benry: “Chase, Holly and Jane got back from the reward and it sounds like they had a great time. I’m nervous: There are a lot of variables that can play into this right now that are dangerous for my name being brought up on the chopping block because I am not really sure where I stand right now and I am a physical threat as well.”

Benry talked with Chase who told him that he wasn’t stupid enough to take Jane to the end but was thinking of voting Fabio at this point.
Benry agreed he’d vote Fabio out.

Chase: “I haven’t trusted Benry this entire game. I think Dan, Fabio and Ben are gunning for Jane but I think they are also gunning for me. I’m worried that Sash would leave us and go with those guys but I’m going to do my damn best to make sure that he feels good with our group.”

Chase apologized to Sash for not taking him on the reward.
Sash accepted and wanted Chase to swear on his mother and his father that he would drop Jane.
Chase would not swear on his father but he promised to take Sash to the final 3 or 2 no matter what.
Holly joined them, saying that she was nervous about yesterday.
Chase said Benry wanted to play the game with him and was ready to vote Fabio out next.
Sash said that was a “straight up lie.”
Chase then said it had to be Benry next even if Holly wanted Fabio.
She said she didn’t mind either way.

In the shelter, Benry told Dan and Fabio that Sash was talking to the other side.

Benry: “It was originally me, Dan, Fabio and Sash that were going in and pick these guys off one by one; Holly, Jane and Chase but you can’t trust Sash. I don’t trust Sash but I have a pretty good relationship with Momma Holly and Chase is my boy since day 1 so we’ll see if I can end up confiding in them and creating myself a new alliance. I definitely found a way to save my ass.”

Not according to all those seasons of studying editing, you haven’t!

Benry: “I came over and I talked to Chase and Holly for a little bit and they have no problem voting out Fabio. I’m not sure if they were beating around the bush or if they were talking about me when I was walking up but Sash was in on the conversation as well so I let them know that, as long as I wasn’t going home, I don’t have a problem voting Fabio out. I know it would be breaking up my alliance a little bit but it is amazing, it’s crazy what a couple hours can do around camp.”

Immunity Challenge
Day 32

Once more, Dan wasn’t shown during this challenge so even the cameramen have given up on him!
During the puzzle, we heard Jane encouraging Benry, Fabio and Sash alternatively, leading Fabio to wish she would “Shut up.”
Benry was ready to give up while Fabio looked over at Sash for clues.
Jeff said: “Fabio and Sash are neck and neck right now”.
(Is the final vote going to be that close if it comes down to those two?)

Sash won immunity.

Final Scene
Sash: “I pulled out immunity and it feels great. Right now, I am a triple-threat: Individual immunity, the hidden immunity idol and I am in the majority alliance. At this point, I am in complete control and I can’t wait for final tribal council to win my million. Most of the challenges, I’ve been sandbagging, going maybe 70 or 80% and now I look at people like Benry and Fabio who have been going at 110% in every challenge and the reason they are not going to make it to the finals is that they are a physical threat to win the final immunity challenge.”

Fabio asked Sash if he would let him know if his name came up because he had an uneasy feeling.

Fabio: “My instincts tell me that Sash is still a bit of a swing vote but he’s closer to me than anybody on the tribe so if he’s in the middle of a swing vote and it’s my name on the other side, he is going to tell me, I feel like.
I feel like just sitting back and being cool is part of it. We’ll see though, it is hard to tell. We’ll see, man.”

Poor naïve Fabio is one of the players crazy enough to trust Sash. We know he has nothing to worry about in this episode because the editors didn’t give him any confessionals before it was time to set up the suspense of TC. A likeable player like Fabio would have had a nice end to his story but instead we had heard only from Benry. But does this naiveté hurt his chances at winning the million? Fabio was to prove to everyone that he wasn’t really a Fabio in order to win but didn’t he just miss his chance? More on that after TC!

Sash: “Right now, Chase and I are stringing along Fabio, Benry and Dan into thinking different things as to who is going home tonight. Right now, the two names on the chopping block are Fabio and Benry. They have no idea what is going on and I’m going to keep them guessing until I feel like telling them or not telling them.”

Back in the shelter, Dan worried what to tell Fabio about the vote. Sash and Chase told him they would say it was Jane but Benry said it would be better to use Holly as pawn.

Benry: “I feel guilty for lying but as long as it’s not me going home next and everybody agrees that they’ll vote off Fabio then it’s going to be pretty simple to pitch to Fabio that we want to get Holly out of here. I don’t think he will buy the Jane thing just in terms of Chase and Jane being so close. As long as it’s not me going home I will do anything it takes to stay here tonight.”

Did this little move by Benry, switching the fake target from Jane to Holly contribute to Sash and Chase not trusting him and voting him out? Or was it the lie that Sash uncovered and told Chase about? Either way, it would have been better for him to play it cool!

Fabio: “I was feeling a little worried earlier. I wasn’t sure if my name wasn’t being thrown around or this or that: it would make sense for them to want to get me out I thought but I feel good about voting Holly out. I feel she has over-stayed her welcome.”

Sash told Jane she was like a second mom to him.
Jane said the best thing that happened to her was being picked to be on LaFlor.
Sash said it meant a lot to him that she trusted him. He then lied by saying he had her back, that he couldn’t backstab someone he had so much love for.

Jane: “I feel real good because I think our four-way alliance is going to stay strong. Our four, which is Chase, Holly, Sash and me, will be in the final four. I really and truly feel that Sash has a great heart and the Sash is not going to go with them. Sash is guaranteed final four with us; I mean we will not vote him out. Fabio and Benry have been a physical threat since day one, always have, always will. So, either Fabio or Benry is going home tonight. Holly, Chase and I, we never planned this in the beginning but we just came together and it ended meshing. It was like spokes on a wheel…”

So, we can count Jane as another person who is crazy enough to trust Sash. His boldface lie to her tells us why she will not vote for him if he makes it to the end without her.

Tribal Council

Chase said he worried that his choice at the reward challenge would work against him. He added: “I’m a physical threat but I haven’t won individual immunity.”
Benry said he was extremely concerned about being a physical threat.
Talking about Fabio, Jane said: “He’s definitely a lot stronger, more built, faster maybe not the smartest on the puzzle but… he is a big physical threat.”
Asked what to do to deflect that target, Fabio said: “I stay friendly with people around camp, I talk to everybody, I make sure that they know I am pretty honest and open. I trust my alliance to get me further in the game and those people that I have trusted; hopefully we’ll go further in the game together.”
Benry said he was pretty confident the vote will swing his way and he was encouraged to say that by a little nod of approval from Sash.
Sash felt great for having immunity. He explained: “As soon as you have this around your neck, it seems people want to talk to you more. The more people talk to you in this game, the better you probably are.”
Fabio said he noticed people talking to Sash but that he wasn’t worried.
Holly also saw people talking to Sash and that it concerned everybody.
Jeff said it didn’t concern Fabio.
Holly replied: “I feel sorry for him then. You have to talk to people, you have to find out what is going on. If you just sit back and watch, you might not be furthering yourself in the game so communication is huge.”

Before voting, Jeff said the vote would reveal which alliance holds strong and which alliance falls apart.

Benry and Dan ended up voting for Fabio which surprised jurors Marty and Brenda.
He voted for Holly.
The alliance that held strong decided to eliminate Benry who couldn’t believe it.

After sending him off, Jeff said: “Coming into tribal council, everybody trusted their alliance. Leaving tribal council? Not so much. Therein lies the tricky part of alliances: Realizing when you no longer can trust them.”

The Story

In this episode, we saw that everyone trusted Sash even if Dan wisely said no one should. However, instead of pulling for our mastermind to get out of the mess that he had found himself in, we were meant to hope that Sash wouldn’t be trusted. Our only reward for the moment was to hear him stuttering when called out by Dan.

The Characters

Dan: Despite starring in the scene that I felt defined this episode, the audience still didn’t really connect with Dan. That is bound to happen when he isn’t shown during challenges and at tribal councils. If he had gone to Jane and Holly to convince them that Sash wasn’t truly a nice guy we would really have seen an unbelievable TC! But, as he said, Dan had to trust Sash.

Jane: The slow deconstruction of her edit continues. For sure, some always saw Jane as being batty but she did have some nice moments. The editors wanted us to pull for her as long as Marty was there and even now that she is in Chase’s corner but we are meant to see that she’s losing it. Her scene eating the fish alone a few episodes back was the first truly negative moment in her story but having a scene that draws a parallel to Thailand’s Jan isn’t flattering! The scene where we saw her trusting blindly Sash, eating up his lie about being his second mom served a dual purpose even if it was totally unnecessary to the story of this episode: It told the viewers that Sash was evil but also that Jane was foolish enough to deserve her upcoming elimination.

Sash: This episode was totally devoted to Sash so of course it could be to set up the Macchiavellian strategist’s win but I read it in the completely opposite direction. This episode showed us why Sash doesn’t deserve to get the votes: He is really a shifty kid and those who realize it (AND can act on it contrary to Dan) should beat him in the end.

Chase: Will it be Chase? I don’t thinks so because Chase was too busy convincing Sash to trust him instead of wondering if Sash should be trusted. After this vote, he will be even more certain that Sash is a person he should trust and we know that’s Chase’s kryptonite. One also has to consider that we saw another example that Chase isn’t a smart player. How can the jury reward him if everyone sitting there thinks he isn’t smart? It is getting late for us to see him turning it around. However, he does seem to be in a great spot to reach the end and it’s dangerous to say that the “nice guy” will not win the vote.

Holly: We continue to see her as a smart woman: She told Chase that it was dumb to leave Sash at camp, and she knows that communication is huge in this game. So, will she be the one to realize that Sash isn’t to be trusted? I feel she will realize it only too late because, ever since her scene with Jimmy Johnson and his departure, Holly’s role has been that of Coach for this season. People call her mom and it’s interesting that she is a coach to her daughters: We have been shown Holly giving lessons to many players, most notably Na’Onka, Kelly, Jane, Chase and now, finally, the one I see as the winner: Fabio.

Fabio: On the surface, this was a terrible episode for Fabio. Instead of being the one that the others underestimate, he underestimated Holly and Jane by calling them the least strategic. The audience heard them strategizing and saw him sit back so we know he was wrong. He told us that he was closest to the new “Villain”, saying he trusted Sash to tell him if his name came up. Doesn’t that signal the end of the “playing it cool” strategy? He brought it as far as he could but now he should be the next to go, right?

I do not think so. Fabio might just win his way to the end. We certainly heard enough mentions that he was a physical threat but I feel it would paint an incomplete picture:
I believe that the tribal council was the trigger to a new role for Fabio: The Strategist! Listen to Holly’s words just before the vote and Jeff’s words immediately after: Holly was addressing him directly while Jeff could only be talking to him. That was the lesson that Fabio needed, the jolt that should tell him how to act in the next few days and how to convince the jury to vote for him. He wasn’t too far off because he has been talking to people and he does have friends, just not the right ones. He should be able to figure where he went wrong: All his expressions at Tribal Councils prepared us to see him do just that!