In the morning of Day 23 Shirin goes to Mike about working with him and he seems to be considering it, but he needs to trust her. She tells him to keep an eye on Carolyn because she has Will, Rodney and Tyler on her side. He knows he's going to need to start depending on the outsiders if he's going to get rid of Rodney or the other Blue Collars. Once Shirin is back in a group instead of on the outside she may actually have a chance, . . . of course, then she won't need Jenn.
Time for today's reward challenge which has two teams of five starting on a floating platform. They need to race from that platform into the water to another platform, climb up the ladder and then slide down the other side, back into the water to a mesh platform, race across the mesh, swim through to the balance beam, across the beam and then finally swim to the last platform where they'll need to use a grappling hook to catch five floating rings.
Wow, that's a lot of platforms. The Reward is a trip to the Chocolate Cafe; bowls of M&Ms, Snickers, Twix, Dove, tons of chocolate, and I think popcorn twists. My kinda reward, but it's missing the beer. It's a schoolyard pick with Mike, Tyler, Shirin Dan and Sierra for the Blue team vs the Red team of Joe, Carolyn, Jenn, Rodney and Will.
Mike and Rodney are the first in the water, up and over, slide in, balance beam, and Blue wins. Next it's Will vs Dan and they're both pretty slow up the ladder and really clumsy on the slide, over the platform, in the water, over to the balance beam, which is not Will's friend, and Blue wins despite their awkwardness. Tyler is way ahead of Carolyn until he gets to the balance beam and falls in so he needs to swim back to the start of the beam but then Carolyn falls in and Blue stays in the lead. Shirin starts with a big lead on Jenn but when Shirin stumbles Jen catches up quick and passes her on the beam for a Red win. Joe is next in the water for Red, up and over, in, over, in, beam, and done almost before Shirin and now Red moves on to the second part, trying to hook rings as Sierra finally hits the slide for Blue.
Red misses their first toss but Sierra arrives and Blue gets the first ring, then Red, then Blue, then Red again, then Blue, then Red, then Blue, then . . . Joe missed for Red, and Mike overshoots for Blue but catches it coming back and Blue wins the reward and loves every bite. Sorry 'bout that, Red.
There are bowls of chocolate bars, every color of M&Ms in separate containers, drinks. Mmmm. While the Blue team is enjoying a sugar rush, back at camp the other five are a little depressed for not winning the reward. Rodney decides it's time to kill the chicken for dinner. I guess he figures they both start with "ch." Jenn's ticked because she feels like they're her chickens as she's the only one who's been tending them. Afterwards, Rodney's impersonation of Mike was pretty damn good and he gets everyone laughing. Joe hopes to use that part of Rodney that doesn't like Mike to keep himself in the game.
It's Day 24 and Dan reads the morning message with a hint to the upcoming Immunity challenge. Joe knows he needs to keep winning that Immunity necklace if he wants to stay. Jenn, on the other hand, is done. She just wants to go home and if she wins the necklace she tells Joe she's giving it to him. That certainly can't hurt his game but she could change her mind at the last moment so hopefully he isn't counting on it as they head off to the challenge.
Time to balance on their toes with a block wedged between their head and a crossbeam in order to win Individual Immunity. A classic Survivor challenge and everyone looks good at the start. Joe starts struggling early in this one, but Carolyn was the first out . . . followed by Will. There goes Shirin. It's all about focus and Joe recovers once again. There goes Rodney. Farewell Dan. Joe looks pretty precarious but Sierra goes next. Damn, there goes Joe. So much for his streak. Its down to Jenn, Tyler and Mike. Jenn hasn't moved through this entire challenge but there goes Mike. It's now either Jenn or Tyler. Both are still in it 30 minutes later. Jenn's finally starting to twitch, but so is Tyler. Jenn starts to shake . . . and wobble and . . . Tyler wins Individual Immunity.
Tyler looks pretty pleased to have that necklace around his neck, but Jenn is really upset she lost after fighting so hard. She's sure everyone is going to vote for Joe unless she does something to make them vote her out instead. It's not like we haven't seen "crazy" before, but sometimes it backfires and the tribe keeps you in as a decoy target. I guess we'll see real soon what she has in mind.
Heading back to camp Joe's not looking so happy. Time he started fighting to stay in the game. Shirin knows the numbers and has figured out that she's likely to be the swing vote. Jenn just wants Shirin to vote for her and keep Joe in the game. Meanwhile, Mike wants Shirin to vote Joe and needs to trust her to do so. She knows that Joe is the bigger threat and now he's making his plea to Dan to keep him in but Dan's not going for it, so Joe races off to make a fake Idol.
Mike realizes that Joe's gone and he can't have him finding an Idol so he hunts him down. Mike asks Joe to vote Jenn and he tells him that he has an HII but he agrees to vote out Jenn as long as Mike guarantees to keep him. Yeah, like that's gonna happen.
Time for council and Jeff brings in Hali. Jeff goes to Jenn and asks why she keeps swinging from wanting to leave to fighting to stay. Jenn reveals that she would have given the necklace to Joe just to see their faces. Jeff asks why she doesn't just walk out but she says she's not quitting. Jeff turns to Joe who says he'll never quit. Shirin understands why Jenn would want to leave but she wants to keep Jenn as an ally. Mike asks Jeff if the idol Joe gave him is a HII but Jeff won't confirm it unless it's played. Time to vote and everyone looks confused.
Once again Jeff gathers the votes and calls for the HII. There's a bit of a pause before Mike decides to play the fake one for Will, but it's not a HII so it doesn't matter. Jeff reads the votes and they are Jenn, Joe, Jenn, Joe, Dan, Jenn, Joe, Jenn, Joe and finally . . . Joe. Damn, there goes another one. Joe becomes the second member of the jury, joining Hali, as the others return to camp.
As the numbers decline it's time for the final nine to step up their game. Next week Will explodes on Shirin for some reason while Mike blames Rodney for flipping. I'm not sure when Rodney flipped, other than "out" but I'm sure it'll be fun to watch. Be sure to check out my Big Brother Canada review right after this one (or before depending on which you read first) and come back on Friday for our main event . . . our Amazing Race review. See you real soon.