Episode 7 - Drop your buffs. (Not like that, Snaders)

This week's episode started by highlighting a post tribal reaction of a bamboozled Tyler and Rodney. The thought that they might be on the losing side of an alliance battle did not seem to have crossed their minds. Finding out Joaquin was not returning with them to camp lit a little bit a of a fire under each of them to recalculate and figure out how to move forward. Rodney, in particular, came away from tribal with a chip on his shoulder. He basically vowed revenge to those that "disrespected" him, even though he had planned to do the same to the rest of his alliance, just down the road a little further.
Rodney was able to let his anger marinate with a few new faces and a full belly because instead of a reward challenge, the tribe met, merged, and mowed down a merge picnic. After everyone ate, they traveled back to a camp that had been cleared, allowing the tribe to figuratively and literally start from scratch.

As they rebuilt camp, the tribe shook each other down to figure out who might be aligning with who. Carolyn and Tyler vowed to stick together, but keep it on the down low. Kelly and Mike confirmed they were still tight. Rodney quickly latched onto Will in order to try to recruit some help for eventually voting out all the other blue collars. Blue collars stuck together for the most part and the other 3 no collars stayed aligned.  

The very segmented tribe had to come together to pick a new tribe name. Mike suggested " 'Murica " as he thought the group of the dozen or so people he was with perfectly represented the country that he calls home. It was a stretch, but we didn't see any other suggestions so it won seemingly by default. Shirin complained, but only in her private interview. Meanwhile, Dan peed on himself because he got stung by a jellyfish and the the blue collars set their targets on Joe because he is a competitive player.

The endurance immunity challenge proved who really was competitive. 6 tribe members (Dan, Will, Tyler, Shirin, Sierra, and Kelly) dropped almost immediately as they couldn't hold their own weight on a pole for more than 5 minutes. The remaining 6 (Jenn, Carolyn, Joe, Hali, Rodney, and Mike) put on a much more respectable show. Joe eventually won, throwing a wrench into blue collars voting plan. They settled on voting for Jenn instead, but Mike wanted to test Will and have him vote Hali just to make sure he will keep his word voting against his old tribe. Actually a pretty smart move.

The blue collars plan did rely on getting a few of the swing votes on their side. Tyler and Carolyn did choose to join with blue collars for this vote and then everything got foiled when Jenn sniffed out the plan and correctly played her idol. Jenn would have received 7 total votes, but instead Kelly went home by votes from the 3 allied no collars and Shirin. The last vote was Will's vote for Hali. The blue collars looked like they each got stuck in the back with a knife / ice pick / chainsaw / any other random weaponry they mentioned during Jeff's questioning.

This leaves the mostly blue collar alliance with 6 votes in an 11 person tribe, but Rodney's frustration with Mike, and Tyler and Carolyn's swing votes potentially up for grabs based on the situation, should leave this game wide open.

The Teams and Points:
(Parentheses indicate order players were picked) 

AndBag: "Maximillion" - 22 points

1. [Max (2) - 3 pts] - out 3rd 
2. Carolyn (7) - 11 pts 
3. [Lindsey (10) - -1 pts] - out 2nd 
4. Mike (15) - 9 pts 

Michal & Ben: "Jennicide" - 50 points

1. Shirin (4) - 10 pts 
2. Jenn (5) - 25 pts 
3. [Joaquin (11) - 8 pts] out 4th 
4. Dan (14) - 7 pts 

Moon & Melissa: "Livin' On A Prayer" - 45 points

1. Joe (1) - 16 pts 
2. [Kelly (8) - 9 pts] out 5th 
3. Will (12) - 10 pts 
4. Sierra (13) - 10 pts

Doug & Bri: "Jacked for a Reason, Bro" - 24 points

1. Tyler (3) - 10 pts 
2. Hali (6) - 10 pts 
3. Rodney (9) - 9 pts 
4. [Nina (16) - -5 pts] out 1st

Doug's Power Rankings:

The 1st and 2nd place teams (by points) added to their totals, while the 3rd and 4th place teams went nowhere. I'm not changing the rankings from last week based on the justifications below. BUT I think it is virtual power ranking tie between 2nd and 3rd. And the whole pool is in a much tighter race overall. 

1. Livin' On A Prayer - They lost their first player, but I didn't see Kelly bringing in a whole lot of points down the road. Probably going to stay at the top of the power ranking board as long as Joe is in the game.
2. Jacked for a Reason - A lot of ground needs to be made up, so most of our eggs are resting in Tyler's basket. He needs some immunity/reward wins and maybe to find an idol. Maybe we're putting too much faith in him? 
3. Jennicide - Gained some points, but they are now much more vulnerable to losing Jenn. Dan and Shirin won't be bringing in a lot of points unless they are brought to the finale because a powerful player wants them to be. Definitely benefiting from the early episode points. 
4. Maximillion - Can Mike survive the aftermath of his plan from this episode ending up in the drink? Carolyn did prove she might win some more points for this team with her impressive 2nd place immunity challenge finish. A long way to go, but not out by any means. 

Douche of the Week:

I'm throwing my DoW vote to Mike this week for suggesting such a dumb tribe name.

Other Business:

I'm traveling for work the next 2 Wednesdays, so if anyone wants to volunteer for some bloggage duties, speak up.