Tons of Twerking on Episode 4

This was one of the few times in
Survivor that I'm happy we had a swap.

It's time to recap another crazy episode of Survivor: Cagayan. This season is really delivering so far, and I would say that this episode was possibly even better than the premiere.

This was one of the few times in Survivor that I'm happy we had a swap. It really shook things around, and not in the way anyone thought. Surprisingly, the Brains tribe has a huge advantage on the new Aparri tribe, with Spencer, Kass, and Tasha working together, while Alexis, Morgan, and Jeremiah each separately tried to sell themselves out and flip over to the Brains alliance.

And poor Sarah. I felt bad for her being all on her own, but if Beauty is as eager to backstab each other as they appear, she should be fine next week. Morgan was very busy telling the Brains about Alexis' twerking exploits, which were apparently for the benefit of LJ over on the old Solana beach.

Almost the entire Brawn tribe
stuck together.

At new Solana, however, we have Trish, Tony, Cliff, Woo, and Lindsey against just LJ and Jefra; almost the entire Brawn tribe stuck together. Should be a simple elimination of LJ and Jefra, like we saw with the Fans on Caramoan, right? Wrong. While LJ is teaching his new Alexis (Trish) how to twerk, the two form a strong Massachusetts-based bond, putting Trish (who hates Lindsey and Cliff) solidly with the two Beauties.

And when Solana loses the challenge, Trish works hard to carry out the plan Sarah hatched last week: vote Cliff out. She attempts to enlist Tony, who is reluctant at first, as he should well be. But at Tribal Council, two shocking things happen. LJ does not play his idol, and does not get voted out, as Tony flips on Cliff.

Time for three burning questions.

1) Did Trish/Tony make the right move?

Prospects are bleak for a
post-merge Beauty alliance.

Yes and no. I think Trish made a dangerous move by aligning herself with a dangerous threat like LJ, who could reunite with his Beauty tribemates after the merge, but she was on the very bottom of the Brawn alliance and was hated by Cliff and Lindsey. Plus, if she can forge a strong enough bond with LJ, she might be accepted into the post-merge Beauty alliance, assuming there is one (prospects are bleak at this point).

So Trish made the right move, but I think Tony chose wrong. He was not in a bad position at all if he stuck with Brawn, and would have had the whole merge to get rid of Cliff, Lindsey, or Woo if he wanted to. Now he's with some iffy allies--Jefra and LJ. I'm still not sure what I think about this, though. Time will tell.

2) Is Sarah in big trouble?
I would certainly have thought so, given that she's the only Brawn castaway on Aparri now. But I think next week, should Aparri go to Tribal Council, the Brains Trifecta will side with either Alexis and Jeremiah and vote out Morgan, or with Morgan and will vote out Alexis and Jeremiah (which I'd prefer). In either scenario, Sarah is likely informed of the plan and brought along as a swing vote. I'm keeping my fingers crossed, but I think Sarah could make it to the merge unscathed.

3) Will Lindsey quit next week?
Such a dramatic scene portrayed in the "next episode" segment tonight. I have to say that I really don't like Lindsey, but I am enjoying Trish a lot more than I thought I would. We see Jeff talking to Lindsey at the very end of the scene about what's been going on, like we've seen before with other quits (Dana in Philippines or Kathy in Micronesia), but you have to remember the golden rule of Survivor: What happens on the next episode segment (usually) won't actually happen in the episode.

In this case, though, I'm not sure. I can't think of a time that Jeff came to someone's camp to check up on a castaway and then left without them quitting or being medivaced. So my final ruling is that since we've seen Jeff this involved already, Lindsey will indeed quit next week. And honestly, good riddance.

My head is still reeling from the superb episode, so I'm going to go to sleep. Check back soon for our audio scrutiny of the episode, and on Friday I'll have a recap of this week's BBCAN. Stay tuned!