Pawns on the Board on Episode 8

As Spencer hoped, we got another blindside.

I'm running out of unique praise to give this season; Survivor: Cagayan is just so good! And as Spencer hoped, we got another blindside. Let's break it all down. (Image credit CBS)

It's the night after Tribal, and Tony is not very happy to see his name written down four times. He at first considers it an insult, since he feels that people should only vote off others who "don't deserve to be there" like Morgan. This is coming from the same person who talks about what a great guy LJ is and then votes him out because he's a threat.

Anyway, Tony eventually chooses to interpret the votes as a compliment, and our game continues. Tony's now in ultra-scrambling mode, and basically tricks LJ into saying "Do you want to vote out Woo?" so that he can use that as ammunition to blindside LJ himself.

Woo totally buys into Tony's lies.

Throughout the episode, he attempts to enlist different troops for this purpose--Spencer calls himself and LJ pawns to this effect--and ultimately gathers some. While Trish proves her intelligence and aptitude by being unswayed by Tony's lies, Woo totally buys in, as do Spencer, Jeremiah, and Tasha, who really have no choice.

I kept waiting for someone to turn the tables on Tony--be it Spencer, Trish, or even LJ--and decide to vote him out instead, but that never happened. Usually when someone scrambles this much (I used the example of Andrea in my power rankings), they end up going home, so I have to say that I was surprised that Tony's plan actually succeeded.

Whether he's in a good place going forward is a different conversation. It would seem that the alliance is now Tony and Woo along with Spencer, Tasha, and Jeremiah, which would put the trio of Jefra, Trish, and Kass on the outs.

But I think there are several reasons why this might not be true. Firstly, there's a better than zero chance that Tony doesn't want to work with someone as dangerous as Spencer long-term, and is just using him for his vote, the same way Russell got Rupert and Colby to blindside Danielle back in HvV; they stuck around 3 days longer, but were voted out right afterwards.

I'm sad to see him go.

Also, Trish and Kass are too smart and too into this game to let themselves sit back and get eliminated. Tony's now presented himself as an enormous threat willing to turn on his alliance at any point, and I'm sure they'll want to capitalize that. I could easily see it being Tony and Woo on the outs of the alliance.

As for LJ, I'm sad to see him go. I never thought he had a great chance to win the game, but I would have predicted a final 5 finish at least. I did a complete 180 on him from earlier in the season, where I wanted LJ out right away.

Time for three burning questions!

1) Will Woo be medivaced next week?
The short answer? No. There's no way they would show so overtly who was going to be medivaced...although I guess they have hinted very heavily at quits and medivacs in the past. But still, I don't believe that Woo's fall from the coconut tree will eliminate him from the game; he may be hurt, but that will be all.

Eliza's shocked face will forever
be immortalized in Survivor legend.

2) Is Sarah one of the best jurors?
Sarah's been giving us a lot of facial expressions over on the jury box, which is always a plus. I don't tend to think very much about the jury during the game (and I should) or remember much about their interactions or expressions, but the two jurors I can think of that were great are (of course) Eliza Orlins and Courtney Yates.

Eliza's shocked face when Ozzy was blindsided in Micronesia will forever be immortalized in Survivor legend. And she contributed many more crazy faces before that season concluded. Courtney's main moment was during Heroes vs. Villains, when Jeff said "I'll go tally the votes." Courtney replied (mostly to Coach) "You do that." Nothing incredible, but compared to most jurors, it was a big step forward. And I think if Sarah keeps up her level of activity, she can become a member of that esteemed pantheon in the future.

3) Who's in a good spot to win this game?
I touched briefly on this in my power rankings yesterday, but with Cagayan, things change episode per episode. I think Spencer is still getting a great edit, and he's in a much better position now than last week. Kass may be in some hot water now if she does remain on the outside; flipping back will just put her at the bottom of another large alliance, and she would have accomplished nothing except having two jurors mad at her.

Last week I would have said that Tony is in a great spot to win, but he too has angered the jurors. His umpteenth lie about his profession at Tribal certainly irked Sarah, who probably wouldn't vote for him anyway after their relationship went sour. And LJ, Trish, Jefra, and Kass are all certainly mad at him too. Jefra, Jeremiah, and Woo aren't real threats to win, although Woo is extremely likable and should not be brought to the end.

I really hope we see Trish play again.

It would actually seem like the people (besides Spencer) in the best spots to win are Trish and Tasha. I really hope we see Trish play again; she's really given us a lot this season. We've seen some great emotional outbursts and fighting, but also some really good gameplay. Trish seems to have solid relationships with a majority of the remaining cast.

And if there was a vote right now with the three current jurors, Tasha might run away with the title of Sole Survivor. From secret scenes and interviews, as well as some covert signs on the show, it's clear that Sarah is very close to Tasha, and I have a feeling she has a strong influence over Morgan as well.

Alright, that's it for this week's recap! I'm going to try to get my audio scrutiny with Ethan done ASAP this week, so with any luck, I'll have it to you tomorrow, and there's a BBCAN recap coming on Friday, so stay tuned!