Episode Eight- "Blindside Time"

Bikal returns to camp after they vote out Julia, congratulating Michael for being the last fan in the tribe. Immediately, Phillip pulls Dawn and Corinne aside to try and convince them that he decided to blow the immunity challenge during the challenge. They, like me, aren't convinced. Many of the faves have decided that Michael is the smartest fan, and will be the biggest strategic threat of all of the fans. They also start contemplating the best strategies in the event of an upcoming merge.

"Vincent" returns to the show on Gota's beach with a message telling them to pack up their supplies and go to the Bikal camp for a merge. During the traditional merge feast, the castaways discuss having a basic name like "Stanley" or "Douglas." Malcolm then suggests the name Enil Edam, which another justifies by translating it to "New Beginnings." Malcolm later explains that it's just his mother's name, "Madeline" spelled backwards. Shortly after the feast, Phillip and Andrea play catch up on what has happened at each camp since the shuffle. Malcolm and Corinne also compared notes on everything. They believe that they have Eddie, Reynold, Michael, and Erik on their side, and that this would be a perfect opportunity to vote off Phillip.

The tribe receives tree mail about the upcoming immunity challenge, which brings a lack of enthusiasm to the tribe when they find out it's all about eating local delicacies. The tribe split into to groups of six for the first round of eating beetle larva. The first three done from each group moved on to the second round with shipworms. Next the top three faced off by eating duck embryos. After all of that, it was down to Cochran and Malcolm eating pig brains. To everyone's surprise, including Jeff's, Cochran walks away with his first individual immunity win.

Absolutely everyone was happy for Cochran back at camp. When everyone starts to settle down, Phillip talks to Corinne about splitting the vote between Reynold and Eddie, but Corinne tries to convince him that Sherri is a much easier immediate target to vote off. Shortly after, Corinne talks to Dawn about her real plan to blind side Phillip. Of course from there, word got around when Dawn told Cochran, who in turn told Andrea, who automatically relayed the news to Phillip. Phillip immediately makes Corinne the new target when he receives the news. The only thing you hear out of Erik is that he's been approached as the swing vote for the tribe.

At Tribal Council, several fans are still worried that the faves are actually still united and targeting the faves. But when the votes are cast, it's 7-5 to vote out Corinne over Sherri.

Plain and simple, Corinne waited too long to make her move, and when she tried, she trusted the wrong people. This in turn hurts Malcolm and Michael's chances even more because they hadn't had a close relationship with each other, and Phillip knows they were both working with Corinne. Eddie and Reynold are just back in the same place they were on the original Gota tribe, at the mercy of the people in power. Brenda and Erik are the next Julia of the season. They aren't doing much worth noting in the game. I almost don't like admitting it, but if everyone keeps voting the way they did tonight, Phillip, Andrea and Cochran quite possibly will be the final three. Cochran and Andrea are firmly in Phillip's back pocket, and he knows it, so I think he's going to take him to the end if he can get there.

What do you think? Do you agree or disagree with me? I welcome everyone to leave a comment with your views on the season at the end of the post. Also, don't forget to vote in the weekly poll in the right-hand column. Until next week, the tribe has outspoken!