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I was in Orlando yesterday and last night, so I'm a bit late in blogging about last night's Survivor. However, it's 4 o'clock now and I have avoided all blogs that might talk about it, so here's my fresh take, watching alone. What will happen this week? Hmmm… I'll find out shortly.

The next to last show! We'll be down to four shortly! Eeek!

Day 34. Jenna's talking about "flaringitis" did she say? She's talking about how tired and whatnot she is. She's mentally worn. That's it. Jenna doesn't "feel half as betrayed as she did before." Huh? How does Rob proving that he can turn on someone else (Christy) show Jenna that he's more trustworthy, and thus less capable of betraying (possibly her) again in the future? How does any of that change what Rob did to Jenna three days earlier? Rob senses no animosity. Jeez, that guy's a fucking genius if that's all true. Jeez.

Now Rob tells Heidious he's voting for her next, and then Jenna, and they both agree that it's a smart move. What kind of crack are they on, or perhaps a better question: what aren't we seeing?! Jenna then says that "Rob vs. Butch" is a lock for Rob "even though Butch is a moron"? Huh?! Rob is the person, I think, that he's least likely to win against!

Rob leaves and Heidious says "we should be thanking ourselves, not Rob, but I can't tell that to him." Then she resolves to "go out fighting." Hey, so long as you "go out" Heidious, I don't really care how you do it, but "fighting" might be more entertaining.

Butch is obsessing about firewood. Jenna, Heidious, and Rob make a joke about it, and the cameras show Butch cutting up a bunch of firewood. Rob offers to help carry some wood and Butch makes a wisecrack about how Rob will do well at the challenge because he's "sitting back on his haunches" letting Butch do the work. Seems to me that'd be Jenna and Heidious, but if what those two said are correct - that they have eight days of firewood already - then Butch is acting a bit strange. Seems maybe Butch is the cause of the fire this week? We'll see.

Rob makes a crack about being the "Junior Deputy Firewood Bitch" and then says he's "getting his shirt dirty." Butch begins dancing, and his wife is right: that's embarrassing.

Tree mail time! The last reward time. They usually give out a car by now don't they? Is this the car show? And now we see Butch screwing with the fire, adding more firewood. They'll return to camp and it will allllllll be gone. Silly Butch. If that's the case, and if Rob can turn everyone on Butch for burning up all their shit, I think he can get rid of his biggest competitor. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Yep, it's a car: another Saturn. A Saturn? Eh, okay. Not as cool as the Aztek or the Avalanche, I say. 🙂 It's close at the knot untying stage and Butch gets out first to the puzzle. Matt's next, then Rob. Jenna's out next. Rob finishes his puzzle first and then Matthew quite a bit behind. Rob and Matt are at the puzzle, and Heidious finally gets out just after Butch finishes his puzzle. Rob should be better at this puzzle but Matt beats him to it. Matthew goes down the flying fox and grabs the key. He'll get to take someone right? Matt lets everyone in to check out the air conditioning. Matt's gotta pick, and picks Rob because of a deal he made before the game.

Rob and Matt check out his "cool" car, and Rob asks Matt if he can borrow it to "cruise chicks." In a Saturn. Eh, well, whatever man. Rob's just mooching up to Matthew here. "It's got a big back seat" says Rob and "If he ever goes to Asia, or ever returns to the planet he came from he said I could borrow it." They begin pulling their food out and they look at the hibachi. "How do you light this?" and "Too bad Butch isn't here."

Where is Butch? He's looking at the result of fire: utter and complete devastation. How in the hell did they think putting a fire underneath a lean-to was going to work? The segue across the water was awesome, the fact that they captured the initial flame-up is awesome. The fact that Butch is an idiot? Not so awesome. Holy fuck that is a big fire!

Segue back to the little hibachi fire. Wow. "Believe in Yourself" goes up in flames. Segue back to Rob and Matt. Then back to the camp. Show Magic 8-Ball melted, show entire camp decimated and basically gone - a big black spot in the middle of the lush green Amazon. Butch, Jenna, and Heidious return to a smoldering pile of ashes. "Oh" and "Oh my God" are all they can say. "All of our stuff." Everything is gone. As much as I don't like Jenna or Heidious, I must say I can't imagine how bad it must be to lose all of your stuff like that, things that meant something to you, reminded you of important moments in your life. Heidious expresses some guilt, and I'd probably feel the same way.

Butch says "it could be my fault." Uhhh, yeah! And I want to add additional blame to everyone else for not wondering "gee, why do we have a dried out leaf roof over our fire?

Rob and Matt have a little bonding moment where they express feelings of gratitude. Rob is grateful for Matt teaching him how to survive, Matt is grateful to Rob for keeping him in the game. Rob says Matt is in the driver's seat and he's riding shotgun - cute analogy given that they're sitting beside car Matthew just won and sharing a meal in which he invited Rob to partake. Matt is stoked to have crafted relationships with Rob and Butch. "So far as they know, I'm going to the final two with each of them." Is Matt craftier than he's let on? Has he been masterminding everything since the start? Or is he just talking out of his ass?

Butch immediately creates a new folder. Wow. "Whose fault? It's all of ours" says Butch. Rob and Matt return to find the ashes. My god, they built a fire underneath another dry leaf roof! Matt's got no clothes to wear at night. Matt doesn't point fingers, but in hindsight, he says, "it was an inferno waiting to happen." Rob isn't one for conspiracy theories, he says, but with 137 days of dry wood, his camp burnt to the ground. He's not one to point fingers either, but "cough Butch cough" he says.

Heidious and Jenna are sleeping, Butch is getting more wood, and Matt's planning the new fire shelter. Heidious wants Butch voted off. She says that Rob, Matt, and Butch are "hard core alliance. There's no way to break that." She talks about how they gathered palm fronds to rebuild the shelter (cough lazy bitch cough) and how she felt bad - but not really - about not helping them. Jenna says "if you're gonna vote us off we're not doing any work for you." Matt says "if I were Heidious or Jenna, I'd work hard to try to convince someone I wasn't the first to go. They're digging deeper graves for themselves."

Immunity challenge time. The immunity necklace is scorched. Rob says "gut check time, turned it up a notch, let's go." It's a ropes course challenge. Disc walk, rope tunnel, rope swing, swing steps, and v-tunnel. All five in no particular order. Definitely one to favor someone agile and fast, someone with balance. Rob disc walk, Heidious v-tunnel, Butch rope swing, Jenna swing steps, Matt tunnel. Heidious gets through, Matt gets through, Butch finally gets across. Rob's getting a feather too. Matthew gets back first, then Butch. Matt swings, Butch heads to the rope web. Jenna gets a feather, Rob goes for the v-tunnel. Heidious the disc. Matt gets feather two. Matt's making easy work of the swingsets, Rob is walking on top of the v-tunnel. Jenna swings, Heidious and Rob each get their second. Matthew gets his third and Jenna ads one. Rob and Butch both pop onto the swingset, and Matthew gets his fourth. He powers across the disc walk. Matthew's gonna win this one pretty easily. Heidious gets her third, Matthew grabs his last one and heads back. Matthew puts on his last feather and wins immunity. With that I want to say that it's likely to be Jenna or Heidious, but Butch is a possibility if Rob can work his magic.

Jenna feels like crap. She must be the one to put her head on the chopping block (from last week's previews). "If you're willing to put your head on the chopping block, I'm willing to chop it off." Heidious looks to take advantage of Jenna's weakness. She goes "to the boys" to try to get Jenna voted off. Rob makes a good point: it's only one more day. And with that, they head to tribal council. Not a whole lot of talk after the immunity challenge this week! Will it play out as we now expect? Or will they keep the weaker Jenna in (it does work to their advantage)?

Jeff asks a few questions about the fire and then puts the real question to Butch: do you blame yourself? "At first yes, but I'm comfortable saying it's not my fault." He asks Jenna about her health. Christy looks as though she's trying to read lips but can't quite do it - the others can catch her up later. Jeff asks Jenna who she'd take to the final two and she says "loyalty." Bzzzzzzt, wrong answer. She says "I wouldn't want to go up against someone I know I could beat, because it's not competition." Bzzzzzzt, strike two! Rob gives a funny look. He's been playing "the game" since day one! Jeff asks Heidious if she thinks she deserves to be in the final two. She says she definitely deserves it and that she's worked soooo hard and the others know it. Then - pardon me while I pause and laugh for twenty minutes - she says she has been "like the mastermind behind half of the plans that go on day to day." Matt and Rob both give a funny look. How long ago did she say intelligence was one of her two key strengths? How many times has she proved herself wrong since then? WOW she's a dunce. Uh huh, sure those three guys are afraid that you could beat them. Uh huh, uhh, no. They may be afraid of you, but it ain't cuz they think you can beat them. Rewinding it and watching all the looks people give: Matt, Rob, Butch, Dave, Deena, Christy. Wow.

Matt's asked what he's basing his vote on his "allegiance to his alliance." He then says "it'll be every man for himself" if and when they get to the final three. Jeff asks if they know that, if it's part of the deal, and he says simply "yes." Matthew keeps his immunity. My gut? Heidious. The past four or five weeks, the most confident member has gone, and Heidious is a little high on her "I'm the mastermind" bullshit that she seems more likely to go. Plus, a weak Jenna is less likely to win immunity on Sunday.

Nobody's vote is shown this week, but Rob's speech is heard: "two girls, one brain, divide by two, only one half-wit left." Heidious. Gotta be. Man they're all pretty wet. First vote: Rob. That's Jenna or Heidious. Next vote: Heidious (Jenna? Or did the guys pull around?). Next vote: Rob (with a smiley, has to be the other girl). Then Heidious (they did!). Heidious is voted out. Alex and Christy share a knowing look (of some kind). Christy looks happy. Rob consoles Jenna, as does Butch.

36 days, final four. Three tribal councils, two immunity challenges, one Survivor. We'll see them again in a few days. Heidious's going on about how "awesome" it was.

Rob deserves to win. Or Matt, if he's been sneaky the whole time, but only if he's been sneaky.