If the last recap was all about Sash, this one was the story from Chase’s point of view and it wasn’t a pretty sight!

“Since the beginning of the game, Chase has been a portrait of indecision.
On day 1, he was Shannon’s closest ally but later voted him out.
He had a puppy dog crush on Brenda and eventually voted her out.
<We heardHolly asking: “What the $%*# is wrong with Chase?”>
Despite Chase’s indecisiveness, Na’onka liked him enough to give him her hidden immunity idol right before she quit.
Which brings us to day 30: Chase was in an alliance with Holly, Jane and Sash who had the other immunity idol…
…but Benry also thought he was in with Chase so Chase conspired with Benry and the rest of his crew to vote out Fabio but at tribal council, Chase decided that Benry was a bigger threat. Benry was voted out.

Note that all these moves could have been presented as smart game moves, especially voting out Brenda. Did Jeff say that Chase had outwitted the Asian Sensation? No, he reminded us he had a boyish crush on her and the decision wasn’t explained. That’s hanging a character out to dry.

Calamity Jane

Libertad
Night 32

Pulling Fabio aside, Sash explained the vote: “Benry was trying to target you. I wanted to say something to you but it would cause more problems with the rest of the tribe.”
Fabio replied: “That’s fine. I trust you a lot, man.”
Sash ended it saying: “I got your back.”

Sash: “Fabio is just happy to be alive. He saw his name was put down twice and he really thought he was going home. He knows that I am in control of this game right now and, as long as Fabio doesn’t win the challenge, he definitely will be the next to go.”

Note the change of sound quality and the switch from voice-over to on screen confessional after Sash said “this game right now and”…/…”as long as Fabio…” These were definitely taken from two different times because I’m sure Sash wasn’t implying that Fabio knew that Sash wanted him to be the next to go. Sash must have said something like “Fabio is counting on me” after saying that he had control of the game. Do Fabio and Sash have a deal that could still come in play? Or is it Sash and Dan? Either could explain the upcoming vote.

Fabio: “The next couple of days are going to be really tricky. I think they believe I am more gullible and naïve than I am. It’s to the point where I am on high alert. It could be pretty funny to watch them under-estimate me and they go: “What? I didn’t know Fabio was that smart.”

That was the confessional I was expecting. If you couple that with his mom’s video that would also refer to his intelligence, we can say that the viewers are prepared to see that Fabio is really smart but will it happen? The episode didn’t show it.

Tree Mail

Chase retrieved the phone and the first video was from his mom

Chase: “We are playing a game for a million dollars and something as simple as a cell phone can bring you to tears. It’s very interesting to see how everyone reacted to their own family. It makes you realize you are playing this game with people and not just other competitors and they miss their own family as much as I do.”

Fabio: “I know that my family is number 1 but, being out here, has really given me time to think about that. Seeing the video, it really got me. My mom always says the perfect things. She told me exactly what I needed to know. I just want to see my family, man!”

Remember that remark when his mom does say something to him later on.

Then Fabio went to Chase, asking him who he’d take on reward.
Chase assured Fabio it would be the three young guys.

The Challenge

Holly told Jeff how emotional it was to get the videos.
Chase’s mom told Jeff that her son was handsome.
Jeff told Fabio’s mom of his name change! She liked that nickname.
Sash said that he didn’t have a lot of money growing up but had a lot of love.
This tells me that we only now got to know Sash. Isn’t it too little too late?
Dan couldn’t stop hugging his son and said he was his life.
Jane’s daughter said her mom looked skinny.
After being teased, Holly told Jeff about missing her 25th anniversary.

Chase’s mom solved the puzzle first.
So Chase was forced to make a decision.
Jane told her daughter he’d pick Sash and he did.
Asked to bring a second person, Chase chose Holly.
Dan told his son that Chase was a scumbag.
Wondering what would happen to the others, Chase was told that they would “be taken and executed.” (Jeff really had some snark this season!)
Jeff turned to Fabio who was really upset.
Chase apologized.
Fabio said he would have taken Chase because he knew how much his mom meant to him.
Hugging him, Fabio’s mom said: “Get your head in the game.”
(If she does always say the perfect thing, that could be a million dollar quote.)

Back in Camp

Fabio told Dan and Holly that Chase had promised him he’d take him. That seemed to surprise Jane.

Fabio: “I was really let down by Chase. We had been talking about having our moms on this one reward and he knew how much my mom meant to me and I knew how much his mom meant to him and I was really planning on taking him. So I kinda got played there, he straight up lied to me.”

Dan told Fabio: “Forget about you, forget about me; he did it to Jane.”
Jane said it was Ashley’s last summer at home, adding that Chase had “made a million dollar decision…”

Dan: “Chase won the challenge and he really did a bad thing to Jane. He really let her down. Just shows you what a douche-bag he is. He was her friend and he spit in her face. It was disgusting.”

Jane: “I got mad at Chase for not picking me. Where I stand right now, it seems I’m the fourth person in a four way alliance and that worries me.”

The Reward

Holly: “I’m assuming that we are not going to have any more food challenges and that we are going to be here the next four days without food so I needed that to get some of my energy back..”

Chase made a toast to the Final 3 saying that he had “just lost a vote with Fabio.”
As we all know, this game usually has a surprise in store for those that are so confident. I’m thinking that Chase could have changed the preposition “with” for “to”!

Chase: “I had to choose between Holly, Jane and Fabio. We all want Fabio gone next because he could ruin our plans. Fabio is very emotional but I want to keep Holly close. I want to make sure she can help me get to the end so hopefully that will not hurt me with jury votes if I get that far.”

Chase found a clue to a hidden immunity idol but he told everyone not to worry since Sash and he had the two already. His mom worried that it would be three against three but Holly reassured the “audience” that they had a fourth person.
Every thing looked so much like smooth sailing that the winner could not have been on that boat!

Holly: “It was amazing…”

Chase: “…Damn, I have to go back to camp and face wrath.”

Libertad
Night 33? – The Return

After asking Chase how was the reward, Fabio said: “It was a rhetorical question.”

Chase: “Sash, Holly and I just got back from reward and, immediately, Fabio wants to know what the hell happened, why I didn’t take him.”

Fabio: “I guess we’ll just move on. You can’t hold grudges out here, you can’t be super ticked off because it will come back to get you. So, I think the best thing I can do is try to win immunity.”

The Challenge
Day 36 (? And we think we have problems with episode numbers! What happened to day 34 and 35?)

Fabio won.

Sash: “The only thing that could have screwed up today’s immunity challenge was Fabio winning immunity and, of course, Fabio wins immunity. Now, we’re stuck in a tight spot because we really wanted the biggest threat to go home, being Fabio. So, we’ll have to decide what our next move is.”

Chase wanted to vote out Dan but Fabio suggested voting out Jane first and then Dan.

Fabio: “Chase has said the whole time that Jane’s got to go, Jane’s got to go but now that it’s actually the time to do it, he’s thinking about it and you can tell he doesn’t want to let her go. If he doesn’t want to vote her out, it could go down as his worst decision.”

Sash and Holly forced Chase to decide on voting Jane.

Chase: “I don’t want to write Jane’s name down. I want to keep Jane around to the final 4 and beat her at the final 4. But now, Sash and Holly don’t think it’s a good idea, they are going back on it. But I still got time. I’m still not sure. I don’t know if this is right or not. ”

Then Jane joined the trio, wanting to know if they were still four. She wanted to know if it was still Dan.
Holly said it was hard.
Chase said that they had been discussing it.
The group went silent as Jane realized it was her turn.
The bells that rang out at that time reminded me of “Hell’s Bells”.
The music grew eerily as Chase asked Sash and Holly if they had decided.
When Sash explained that she could beat them all at the end, Jane gave him the finger.

Jane: “My alliance have turned on me and I’m supposed to go home tonight. It was supposed to be the final 4, us. That was the game plan the whole time. They are obviously flippers, they are liars, they are cheats, they’re back-stabbers. I’m most disappointed in my Carolina home boy Chase. If I was Chase, I wouldn’t show my ass back in North Carolina… I told Sash to not to even f*cking look at me and try to pat me on the back like “I’m sorry Jane”. If he wants to compare me to his momma? I didn’t raise my daughter to be a liar and a cut-throat but she raised a damn liar. I didn’t backstab anybody this whole game so I am proud of how I played this game…The wrath of Jane will break out tonight.”

She put out the fire by throwing water on it as the music suddenly broke into a dramatic military march.

Obviously, the last segment was edited to paint Jane as a “Victim” so that tells us what we should think of her three executioners.

Tribal Council
Asked about the crazy afternoon, Dan tried to get away with not answering.
Jeff pressed on: “No, no. Give it to me or I’ll dig.”
Dan said: “Before we left tonight, Jane took a bucket of water and threw it on our fire.”
The jury and Jeff looked stunned.
Jane explained: “I started the fire and I wanted to be the last woman standing to put the fire out…There’s absolutely no loyalty in tonight’s vote. It’s full of liars and back-stabbers. End of story.”
Jeff: “End of story? No. Beginning of story. I want more.”
Jane: “They are going to vote me out tonight and I want to call people out on some stuff.” Addressing her directly, Jane said: “Holly, you call yourself a mentor and a coach yet you steal $1400 of personal property. Where I come from, you go to jail.”
The jury liked that.
“It’s not that I’m frustrated. I’m upset that I made an alliance with people who are throwing me under the bus. We had always decided to get rid of these two (pointing to Fabio and Dan) and stay as a foursome. That was the alliance. That’s how Benry got voted out.”
That caught Benry’s attention.
Jeff asked Chase if Jane was only thinking that she was in a four way alliance.
Chase disagreed: “Jane was in a four way alliance. This afternoon, we sat her aside and told her that it is our best interest in having a shot at winning this game to possibly send her home and we told her that.”
Always looking for trouble, Jeff asked “the alliance of three who seems to be in charge: If you vote out Jane tonight, who’s next?”
Chase, his voice sounding clear despite the foot in his mouth, answered: “I’d say it’s whoever doesn’t win immunity next.”
Jeff pointed out: “It’s Fabio or Dan.”
Then, (adding a second foot!) Chase turned to Holly and Sash and asked: “Would you guys agree with that?”
The jury couldn’t believe such stupidity: “Oh my God” was their subtitled general reaction.
Sash, on the other hand, looked incredibly uncomfortable but, along with Holly, eventually said yes.
Jeff said that this open discussion was a ballsy big move.
Fabio said that he’d better win the next immunity or he’d be going next.
Jane interjected: “It’s writing on the wall.”
Jeff confirmed that the alliance of 3 had flat out told him it was so but that there were three other people. So Jeff asked what he felt his mom would ask: “Why don’t they have their own alliance and do something or force a vote? It seems crazy.”
Jane suggested that the three outsiders should vote Holly out because the other two have idols.
Jeff pointed it was the last night to play an idol.
Dan agreed with Jeff: “It would make sense for me to form an alliance with Fabio and Jane.”
Fabio added that things were crazy and they could force a tie to weaken the alliance of three. He added: “I try to make the best out of the pieces that are there.”
Holly said that she was becoming nervous.
Chase, with a look that Jeff described as utter confusion, added: “I don’t know what is going on.”
Brenda’s look told us she had Chase all figured out from the start.

Sash and Chase gave their idols to Jeff.
They all voted against Jane while she voted Sash.

The story seemed disjointed when it came to the vote. Why didn’t Fabio and Dan vote with Jane? After all of Jeff’s prodding, the vote didn’t make Fabio look particularly smart. But was there more to the story or did Fabio simply want Jane eliminated. If so, he will need to win the next immunities as he said he would. Editors certainly saw how Brett became an acceptable winner in the eyes of many viewers when he went on his late winning streak even if he had no story before that. A player with a likeable edit and a winning streak could become someone the audience pulls for but we had been “promised” a smart Fabio.

The Characters:

Dan: Some of the wisdom that guided him in the streets of Brooklyn is coming through especially when he said that Chase had “did it to Jane”. It was another indication that he understands the situation yet he also went along with the vote against Jane. Does he know about a threesome that hasn’t been revealed?

Holly: Hearing her say that the reward’s food would be the last for the next 4 days was another hint that she won’t make it to the end. It showed too much confidence as did her explanation to Chase’s mom that they had a fourth person to rely on back at camp. Letting us hear that Nicaragua was going to be her honeymoon is a great way to end Holly’s story. It was all about making her family proud of her.

Sash: Despite his words that Fabio had to go, I cannot help but wonder if that was taken out of context and from a different time period. If not, I wonder if letting us hear Sash say that he had Fabio’s back could turn out to be ironic in that Fabio ends up protecting Sash. There was no doubt left after the music that accompanied the betrayal of Jane that we are to see Sash as a disloyal player instead of a mastermind.

Chase: If the last episode was tough for Chase, how about this one?! We had a complete destruction of his game during the recap and then Jane tore apart his character after the immunity challenge and in front of the jury. The jurors’ apparent collective “Oh my God” told us exactly what they think of him and how unlikely they are to vote for him.

Fabio: Nicaragua is definitely his story but I still need closure to truly enjoy it. All the doubts that surround his story are about his chances to make it to the end. Doubts about whether or not he can get enough votes have been almost entirely removed even if he is still perceived as a goofy guy. That tells us a lot about the importance of loyalty. An immunity streak would be only partly satisfying. Could he already have a deal or can he make one at this late date? If we go by what we heard, Chase and Sash want him voted out next and Jeff pointed out that he had been told as much. Will Fabio earn his win? Will he outwit or is he just going to outplay?