Season 50, Episode 8: A Whole Lot of Coconuts

Welp, this was a big one. In my opinion, cooler and bigger than the Blood Moon (which just felt like a slaughter and I guess it was). This episodes features another brand new twist: two players partnering up, competing together in a challenge for immunity, and then potentially being ousted together. If one of the pair plays an immunity idol, both are safe. If one of the pair plays a shot in the dark and it works, both are safe (although it seems only one of the two can play it). And so we are introduced to a crap ton of social dynamics at play. First, in players picking their partner before they even know what's at stake, but at least rightly assuming they will be competing together (and so you consider who brings the brains and who brings the braun, for example). Of course I have to imagine myself in this scenario, not really having much to offer. I wouldn't be great physically (although I figure I could get the ball through the tube faster than Coach does) and I'm not awesome at puzzles, but I think I could manage okay during what they have to accomplish. I can follow directions! After Joe and Tiffany win the whole thing (which includes two sets of obstacles--the first three teams getting to compete in the second set to determine the winning pair) and bond over their triumph and shared spaghetti dinner, everyone has to scramble to figure out which of the pairs is best to send to the jury. So much to consider because each member of the pair has potential pros and cons. One has to wonder if any of the players considered this possible twist when deciding who to team up with. I'm guessing not.

The pairs: Jonathan and Christian, Chrissy and Coach, Ozzy and Stephenie, Aubry and Devens, Emily and Rizo, Tiffany and Joe. It's smart of Jonathan to pick Christian. The super muscle (Christian calls him a "giant") and the super brain. Emily, I think, gets the short end of the stick. Neither she nor Rizo are particularly athletic, but Rizo is definitely NOT good at puzzles.

Cirie, meanwhile, gets to go to Exile Island instead. After a few folks put their names in a bag to be the one leftover and not compete (smartly considering it would mean safety), Cirie's was the name drawn. Cirie Fields, gosh, we love her. I mean, who is cooler and wiser and better at the social game than Cirie? She's the best at going far in a sort of under the radar but super powerful political operative kind of way.

On Exile Island, Cirie encounters two thousand coconuts on the beach. She learns that if she finds the coconut with a gold phoenix she can go back to the tribe and have a vote at tribal council.

Poor Cirie out in the heat, sorting through 2000 coconuts. She has an emotional moment and anyone there would. She's under the brutal sun, a task that must feel overwhelming (2000 coconuts!) and while she would love to just sit down in the shade or, even better, get in the water (I'm guessing), she needs to keep going. Not only because she'd love to get back to camp and make her voice matter in the vote (because it matters to her game) but because she wants to finish the task for the sake of it. This is a challenge of will. Can you meet it? And when she finds that coconut with the glued on golden phoenix it feels like a triumph for all of us. Cirie and the viewers and fans, too. Cirie is one of us. Once upon a time just a fan herself who wanted to see what she could do. Completing this challenge shows her own strengths to herself. She can do this. She can overcome. Resilience, discipline, perservenernce. The prize is the journey, right Jeff?

And so she returns. And reclaims her rightful position as leader of Cirie's Rizard of Oz.

Christian: "Here comes the cavalry. It's Cirie."

Ozzy, so sure he was making the right move in planning to vote off Aubry and Devens, is relieved to have her back and set him straight. No, we can take out the middle any old time, she tells him. By the way, the middle apparently includes Emily, Christian, Devens, and Aubry. She says the smarter move is to take out Coach and Chrissy, as they are the "parents" of the bigger alliance. And the two for one is too good an opportunity to pass up.

I can see Cirie's point. The middle players are the smarter, more devious bunch. But if there's a bigger alliance, why not mess with it? It does out her, though. Well, the three of them. If they don't vote with Stephenie and Jonathan, they show themselves as not part of their alliance. But perhaps at this point, that doesn't matter. I trust Cirie knows what she's doing. She's never not good at having a sense of things. Honestly, she's be great at the role of right hand to the king or queen in fantasy novels, no?

Chrissy wants Rizo gone. She doesn't doesn't really like the guy and sees him as more threatening than everyone else seems to. We know she's right because we've all seen season 49 and we know he's aligned tightly with both Cirie and Ozzy, so therefore well protected.

Before Cirie arrived back, Rizo wanted to take out one of the middle players because that's where he wants to be, but I would argue he is. Like Cirie and Ozzy, he's only pretending to be in the honor and integrity group. See also: Coach's Four Horsemen. But when he learns that Chrissy is gunning for him, he seems to have no problem flipping to her.

The middle players want to go after Coach and Chrissy, too. Christian, though, trying (I think, weirdly and unnecessarily) to look aligned with the honor and integrity folks, pretends to be on board with voting for Devens and Aubry. I'm not sure why Jonathan is fooled by this, but he seems to be (until the votes are read). Christian even does some acting at tribal. Devens, too, obviously. And it's awesome to watch him go after the fake idol that he planted earlier, in order to attempt to save he and Aubry from going home. He doesn't even show it to anyone, but it scares enough people to change their vote and so Chrissy and Coach are out. Chrissy was voting Rizo and Emily. Coach was playing his Shot in the Dark, so giving up his vote. That leaves Jonathan and Stephenie left to vote the Devens and Aubry pair. Christian was voting Coach and Chrissy and so were Devens, Aubry, Rizo, Ozzy, and Cirie. So I don't think he needed the fake idol, but it was fun to watch it all play out. Although I'm honestly not sure who Tiffany was planning to vote for. She did say she wanted her revenge on Coach, but she also clearly feels aligned with Joe now. Although she has been tight with Aubry, too. I just don't know!

Both Chrissy and Jonathan had encouraged Coach to lay low all day, worrying that if he was too much himself or too out in front in directing votes, people would be more inclined to go after him.

Coach spends the time singing and making up his not-actually-a-haiku-haidus. A song he makes up starts with the lyrics,"I love to be the dragon slayer." It isn't good. But we don't care. You keep making that music, Coach. I love Coach. I don't think anyone was going to forget Coach was on the beach. Even off in the hammock amusing himself. "Lying low" didn't save him. He'd already outed himself as someone who was making decisions. And people would have known that he and Chrissy were a pair. Jonathan has likely been successfully using him as a shield. Tiffany was done with him after he worked so hard to get Dee gone and then came to her trying unsuccessfully to lie about going after her, as well. That was one of the funniest albeit more painful moments this season. Coach tells Tiffany that he didn't push for her name to be written down (he did). See, liar. She asks him who DID push for her name to be written down and he says NOTHING. "If it wasn't you, who was it?" Nothing. LOL.

And we know that despite what Coach might think, Ozzy* has no allegiance to the man who stole the key he obtained way back on episode one.

So--tribal council--it's hella fun with Christian doing his best acting, Devens pretending to find an idol, Emily making faces, Aubry quoting Wardog (Wardog!) and Coach getting a lovely farewell with Rizo singing his praises. Poor Chrissy just marched off into the darkness. I'm sorry, Chrissy, you are rad and could truly have gone far, I think, if not for being tied to Coach.

As we all know, there are so many variables that go into who stays, who goes, and who has power. Numbers, challenges, perceptions, luck, and little decisions that can have big consequences days later. But, more than anything, if Cirie is involved, it often comes down--in my opinion--to what she wants. Cirie is the best player of all time and now with a special coconut!

*Damn, I'm still so distracted by Ozzy's terrible hair. I hate mullets so much. I think the 80s scarred me.