by Gina Scarpa

It's amazing how quickly things can change in the game of Survivor. Enemies can join forces in the face of adversity, and alliances can crumble at the blink of an eye due when paranoia grabs hold. Obviously at Matsing, it's just an "everybody for themselves" situation, with only three remaining players. I mean, it's Day 9 and they're steps away from being decimated by the other two tribes. It seems like Malcolm and Denise are going to stick together, especially since he doesn't seem to particularly like Russell, but then again, you need muscle in challenges. You need stamina too but one thing at a time...

Over at Tandang, Pete fancies himself to be a H.I.T. (Hantz In Training) and decides to create a little chaos around camp. I'm not sure how he did it, but he managed to slip the immunity idol clue onto RC's things when they spilled out of her bag. Just as he had hoped, it sparks a fight between the two girls, whose alliance was already coming apart at the seams. Abi-Maria stomps around claim, proclaiming she can't trust RC, but the thing is... nobody looks too phased by it. I have no idea if Pete's plan worked or not. Sure, the spotlight isn't on him but was it ever?

At the Kalabaw camp, the guys head out for a little fishing/form an alliance session and Jeff and Jonathan put their differences behind them. It seems smarter for them to team up. They're both mature, intelligent, and competitive. Their third is Carter, who doesn't seem like the sharpest crayon in the box but who knows? Maybe he's taking the Fabio strategy and pretending not to really know what's going on when actually, he's watching every move. Meanwhile, the girls are definitely watching every move and don't like what they see. They're sure the guys are teaming up and decide the three of them should stick together and pick up a few more ladies at the merge. Assuming you all make it that far.

In the immunity/reward competition, players have to run with a pole on their backs with a pot at each end through a series of obstacles. Once they get through that, they set the pots on a stand and once all six pots are placed, one player uses a mini wrecking ball to smash them all. Matsing gets off to a nice lead, their first lead EVER in the competition I might add but in true Matsing fashion, things don't go their way. Carter stumbles through the obstacles like a drunk person in a Looney Tunes cartoon but Kalabaw is able to recover, while Tandang gives a solid performance as usual. The tribes all catch up when it's time to do some pot smashing, with Tandang taking first, and Kalabaw taking second after Malcolm misses the final pot twice in a row. Tandang takes a steak dinner back to camp, Kalabaw takes a tarp, and Matsing only has their shame and Russell's insane rants.

As you would imagine, there's a whole lot of scrambling back at the Matsing camp, with everyone promising to vote for anybody that's not them. Russell told Denise a story about getting into a fight when he was a kid in order to try to... show he's tough? I'm not sure. Regardless, it didn't work. Despite the fact that he boomed all over the island that he deserves to be excellent at all times, it didn't seem the Survivor gods felt the same way and, to his shock, Jeff snuffed his torch at the end of the evening.

Survivor: Philippines airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on CBS.

(Image courtesy of CBS)

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