Trial by Ambush on Episode 7

It didn't have the same excitement as some
of the earlier episodes, but was still very good.

Trial by ambush. Sounds exciting, right? Kass described it as her favorite strategy to use in court.

Well, in reality (I looked it up), it just means that the prosecution is allowed to keep evidence they plan to present secret from the defendant, and not allow for "discovery" before the trial. Probably very important to law, but not all that interesting to the rest of us.

That's a little bit how this episode went. It promised to deliver with a crazy search for the idol, a grueling immunity challenge, and possibly even another great power shift at Tribal Council.

I'm not saying that it was bad; in fact, compared to many post-Heroes vs. Villains episodes, it was very good...it just didn't have the same excitement as some of the earlier episodes. Nevertheless, it's time to recap the whole thing.

We get back from Tribal and see Kass and Spencer exchange some verbal barbs, with Spencer laughing at Kass' attempt to play strategically. I know you're definitely upset at the moment, Spencer, but really...calm down! You might need to try to get her to flip back again soon...

I was impressed at the speed at which
the castaways got out of the water.

The edit is surprisingly kind to Kass throughout the whole episode, to the point where I think (and hope) that Kass may make another huge move or flip back to Aparri later on in this game. Far from being painted as a dumb player who flipped to the bottom, she's depicted as a strategic villainess playing her own game.

We get to the reward challenge, which was definitely a fun one. It was over pretty quickly, and I was impressed at the speed at which the castaways got out of the water onto the sand...except for Woo, which was funny in it's own right.

And of course LJ powered through the puzzle to give his team another huge comeback and a meal at the Outback Steakhouse, Sandra's favorite restaurant. Seriously, though...LJ is really good at puzzles. He's definitely the best since Boston Rob; dare I say better?

On the reward, Spencer finishes eating like a caveman and remembers to use his napkin...and then finds the OPHII clue in it (except it's not the OPHII? Just a regular HII? More on that soon).

Woo has to resort to stealing the
clue and hightailing it out of there
with Spencer on his heels!

Back at camp, Spencer takes a walk during the rain and leaves the clue with his pants and shoes while digging for the idol. Woo uses his "super ninja stealth skills" (or whatever he calls them) to follow along and spies Spencer searching. Woo proves that he really is a fan and not a recruit when he posits that Spencer must have found the idol clue because there are usually clues hidden at the Outback Steakhouse.
Very good, Woo! Woooooo!

However, Woo's ninja skills are apparently lacking, because Spencer discovers him, and Woo has to resort to stealing the clue and hightailing it out of there with Spencer on his heels! This was absolutely the highlight of the episode. I don't know if we've ever had a castaway just blatantly steal an idol clue and run off with it, as opposed to finding it in someone's bag.

But Woo's stealth and thievery skills doesn't pay off, because Spencer finds the idol anyway, after he and Woo have both called out their alliances to search for it.

What she had in aesthetics
she lacked in brainpower.

At the immunity challenge, Spencer continues his good fortune and proves that he can hold a brick between his head and a beam for the longest, winning immunity. Good job to the challenge designers this season for coming up with another new challenge (although in all honestly, I have no idea if they've done this one before; I can't recall it), although to a viewer like myself, it wasn't really interesting.

It was certainly hard for the castaways, who needed to have really strong calves to prevail, but for us, it was basically just watching them stand there with pained looks on their faces. Jeff could have at least brought out some edible incentives.

And now we get to the pre-Tribal scrambling. The Solana alliance comes up with a Plan A (Morgan) and a Plan B (Tasha), while Aparri seeks to target Tony and tries to get Kass on board.

Kass has been describing herself as a free agent, and Spencer does make several decent arguments, so going into Tribal I'm not positive who's going home...but I'm fairly certain it isn't Tony. Because even if Kass did flip, it would be 5-5, so the only way for Aparri to swing things around would have been for Kass to tell them where to play the idol, which we didn't see happen.

At Tribal, Morgan makes me regret ever liking her and is subsequently voting out. And at this point, good riddance. What she had in aesthetics she lacked in brainpower (or movement).

Time for the 3 questions of the week!

We haven't seen the last
of Chaos Kass.

1) Waaaait...it's a regular idol?
This was certainly surprising. I was definitely under the impression that the castaways were on the search for the OPHII, so kudos to the producers for tricking us. Maaaaybe it was just a joke and there is no "Tyler Perry Idol"? Doubtful, but possible. No, I think that the OPHII is still to come. Either way, having an idol in his pocket can only help Spencer if he plays it right.

2) How's Kass doing as the wanna-be Rob Cesternino?
According to the editors, not too bad, actually. She's certainly setting herself up as the swing vote much better than Sarah did, although she needs to fully commit to the Solana alliance, at least in name. The only problem for Kass is that the numbers are now 6-3, so swinging back by herself won't do much. What Kass could do (if she discovers that Spencer or one of his alliance has the idol) is find out who Solana is voting for and then relay that information back to Aparri so they can save that person with the idol. I have the feeling that we haven't seen the last of Chaos Kass.

3) Are we in for a Pagonging?
This thought has lurked in the back of my mind ever since the merge. Even with the three tribe twist, it's still a possibility. The only upside (for me at least) if this does happen is that just about all of my favorite people are on the Solana alliance: Jeremiah is a moving boulder, Tasha is smart but we never hear from her...and I'm kind of ambivalent about Spencer at the moment. If he was in power, I wouldn't like him, but as the underdog, I'm a little confused about how to feel about him.

My bet is that we'll see a lot more
action from here on out.

I want to say from the previews that no, we will not have a Pagonging. It looks like Solana will turn on itself a lot sooner than Stealth 'R Us did in Caramoan...they waited until they had completed their main agenda of booting Malcolm and Reynold before blindsiding Andrea. So with an OPHII still in play, Chaos Kass waiting in the shadows, and a splintering Solana alliance, my bet is that we'll see a lot more action from here on out, and no Pagonging.

I'm going to speak with Ethan as soon as possible to scrutinize and recap this episode, and will have our conversation up soon, so stay tuned!