"Survivor: Gabon" - December 4, 2008 episode

Right after last week's tribal council, Bob is mad that the others didn't just laugh at Randy but that they were making fun of him so much and revelling in his deception. Corinne ends up arguing with Sugar, again. Corinne makes some comment that she is usually nice to people she likes. I thought that was an odd comment. It made it sound like even with people she likes, she's not always nice to them. I mean, I get that sometimes, you just have a bad day or something, or someone you like might make you angry about a particular thing, but the way she said it, it was like she wasn't always nice to people she likes just because that's how she feels.

Bob and Ken catch a couple of really big fish, but because the meat is more delicate, they can't really cook it on a stick over the fire, so Bob fashions a grill for the fish, much to everyone's delight.

Right before the reward challenge, Jeff has a phone that has video from family for each tribe member. Each person gets to see and hear the short message, but the winner of the challenge gets to see and hear their entire video as well as to have pizza, beer and brownies.

They choose rocks to break down the group of 7 into teams of 3. Two team captains are chosen, and they have to pick people for their team. The interesting thing for me was that they had to choose people that they thought could help their team win, but it also had to be someone they could personally beat. Hard to weigh that. The two teams ended up being Sugar/Crystal/Bob and Matty/Ken/Susie. With Corinne left out, she was out immediately and had no chance to win. The two teams had to wade through a muddy swamp/bog to retrieve sprocket pieces and then put the sprockets together so that the wheels would spin and raise a flag. Thanks to Bob's physics background, the team with Sugar, Crystal and Bob win. They then each have a slide puzzle that they have to figure out, and Bob wins the round.

The others go back to camp as Bob sits down to his reward. He watches the video of his wife, who then gets up, says she has to get something and goes off camera. Bob is surprised and doesn't know what's going on, but he doesn't realize that she's actually coming up behind him. When he finally sees her, he is overjoyed, and presumably, they're able to share the reward together.

Back at camp, the other members see Bob and his wife approaching. As they get closer, Bob turns around and whistles, and the loved ones of the other tribe members show up. Everyone is able to spend a little time with their loved ones. Sugar's sister has brought some of their father's ashes, which they scatter in the river, and Sugar feels that she finally has closure about her father's death. Matty has had a lot of time to think while he's been there, and he takes the opportunity to propose to his girlfriend, and she accepts.

Much too soon, though, the loved ones have to leave, and it's back to the game. Bob and Corinne go to get tree mail, and they discuss targetting Matty. Meanwhile, back at camp, the other five target Bob since he's the strongest between him and Corinne.

Bob comes up with a plan. He tells Corinne that he will say that Marcus never actually threw the idol into the ocean, but rather, that he kept it and hid it and told Bob where it was, so Bob now has it. Randy was the one out in the water with Marcus, so he's the only one who might really know about the idol, and he's gone. Bob sets out to make another fake idol.

At the immunity challenge, each tribe member has to answer questions, and the more they get right, the more balls they get in which to toss at a target of sorts - the closest one to the middle wins. Sugar ends up getting the most questions right, but it's Bob who gets a ball in the second ring from the middle, so Bob wins individual immunity.

Back at camp, Bob and Corinne set their plan in motion. Corinne is talking to Ken, and she tells him about the hidden idol that Bob has. Ken starts to panic, and they decide to try to pull Crystal in to blindside Matty, who they see as a strong competitor. As they were showing the new fake idol, I couldn't remember what the real idol looked like that they threw in the ocean. They all got a pretty good look at it because it sat on the table for a while. Did Bob's second fake idol really look like a good replica?

Ken and Crystal decide to switch, but they play both sides. Ken will vote for Matty and Crystal will vote for Corinne. That way, they flush out the hidden idol from Corinne and they also take out Matty.

During tribal council, the first thing I noticed was the jury's clothes - what was up with them all wearing different shades of Easter pastel colors?

In any case, there is talk at tribal, and Crystal actually considers voting for Matty. When Jeff gets the votes and asks about a hidden immunity idol, Corinne doesn't play it since she knows it's fake, and Ken and Crystal are surprised. But, since Crystal did in fact vote for Corinne, Corinne gets four votes and is voted out. To the end, she was clueless about a lot of things. When it looked like their plan with the fake idol would work, she got cocky again about how stupid everyone was. Well, once again, she underestimated them, and this time, it was her head on the chopping block.

Everyone knows there were 3 votes for Matty. They expected Bob and Corinne, but that means one of them flipped, and they're going to want to know who did it.

One more regular episode this Thursday before the finale on Sunday.