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Survivor 11 Episode 13

We build excitement.

It's Night 33 and Cindy is understandably feeling alienated. She tells Stephenie she's noticing a pattern: They didn't tell Judd about Jamie getting voted out and Judd left shortly thereafter. Now they didn't tell her about Judd getting the boot.

Speaking of Judd, "Future Contestant" writes in and says, "I would like to nominate Judd leaving the game as the all time greatest Survivor exit." That was delightful, wasn't it? It was nice seeing an honest reaction for a change as opposed to people acting like they don't care. The best part was Judd's train of thought went something like this:

"Hey, anybody can go home at any time. You can't take anything for granted. If it's your time you can't get upset about it and you just have to accept it. I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU DID THIS TO ME! I HATE ALL OF YOU!!!"

The next morning everyone feels good about themselves. "It's like Rafe's angels," the last man standing says. Lydia calls him "gentle" and "one of the girls." To prove it, they talk about cute boys. Stephenie says Justin Timberlake is hot and Rafe agrees. He later starts singing "I Want It That Way" by the Backstreet Boys. No, I shouldn't know that.

Treemail isn't very subtle. It's a car key. The Reward Challenge is for that Torrent thing. It's basically the great-great-grandson of the Aztek.

It's the second chance Challenge. You start by untying things from a balance beam, then you have to break a tile by throwing a club, then a puzzle, then you gaily go down the hill in a cart with your legs in the air like Bobby Jon. People are eliminated after each task and the winner also gets an overnight trip to visit an archeologist and a feast.

Steph has the lead on the beam but falls off. Rafe and Cindy both fall off right at the end. Danni finishes first, then Cindy and Stephenie recover to advance to the next round.

Cindy is the first to smash her tile and Steph beats Danni to make the final. The puzzle starts out close, but Cindy pulls away and wins herself a set of wheels.

But nothing's ever easy in Survivor. Jeff mentions that in the history of the game, the person who won the car has never won the million dollars. It's true. Here are the previous ten victims of "the curse of the car":

Borneo: Kelly
Outback: Colby
Africa: Lex
Marquesas: Sean
Thailand: Ted
Amazon: Matthew
Pearl Islands: Burton
All-Stars: Boston Rob
Vanuatu: Eliza
Palau: Ian

So here's the twist. Jeff offers Cindy the chance to escape the curse. He says she can either keep the car for herself or she gives it up and all four of the others get a car! Bah, that's too easy. They should have made her keep it or single out one person to get it. Now it's a gimme choice.

Wait….Cindy keeps it for herself!! She went back and forth and her final reasoning was that there are no guarantees even if you do give everyone a car, and she thinks she can beat the odds and win the game anyway. Wow.

If you look at it from the others' perspective (and that's all that matters in this game), Cindy just took a car away from everyone and gave it to herself.

Ladies and gentlemen, Cindy just committed Survivicide.

Cindy chooses Stephenie for yet another Reward because she finished second in the Challenge. As they drive off Steph tells Cindy she would've kept the car too.

But back at camp Rafe tells Danni he thought Cindy had no choice but to give up the car. He said he was so happy for her for winning, then he felt bad because she was going to lose it in an offer too good to pass up. Danni agrees and says she would've "done it in a heartbeat." And I 100% agree with the two of them.

Here's the thing. Mark Burnett and company do a great job of constantly putting people on the spot and making them single one person out for something good and therefore excluding everyone else. For once a player had a chance to include everybody…and instead she chose to exclude everybody.

The other thing is, there's never any currency in Survivor. They only thing you can give somebody is the promise that you won't vote them out. There's never been a way to bribe anybody, until now. Cindy was given about $100,000 worth of automobile to give away and she kept it. Worse, she only got one car and the other three went to waste.

Giving everyone a car and playing it off humbly was as close as you could get to having Immunity without wearing the actual necklace. Score a huge one for shortsighted greed.

As they eat and relax Cindy and Stephenie talk about not letting Danni go further than them. Stephenie says she wants to bring Rafe with them.

When they return to camp, Cindy can't stop talking about her car. Rafe tells us, "I think it's grating on people a little bit." He also wonders why she can't read their unhappy body language as she talks. Cindy tells us that no one had a problem with her keeping the car. Heh.

Steph talks to Rafe privately and surprises him and me by not understanding why Cindy should've given up the car. Steph's actually surprised that Rafe was surprised. Somebody's selfish colors are showing.

Stephenie asks Lydia what she would've done and Lydia says Cindy made the right decision. Who are these people? Rafe tells the camera he's now wondering if he's been playing too nice because everyone else seems to only be thinking about themselves.

At the Day 36 Immunity Challenge Jeff more or less says, "Cindy, please annoy the others some more," and she obliges with more car talk.

The Survivors will each be attached to a rope that is wrapped around poles and other ropes. You start with your hands and feet shackled and a big ring of keys. You have to find the key that unlocks your hands, then you start unwinding rope. The goal is to get enough so that you can run--still attached to the rope--to where your flag is at the end of the course. When you think you have enough rope, you unlock your feet and run for it.

Stephenie leads the whole way. But when she heads for the goal she doesn't have enough rope! She's got a knot in it that's holding her back. She unties it, and is short once again! She works on another knot. Where is everyone else?? Nowhere to be found, and Stephenie wins anyway. Bah.

Stephenie breaks into tears over her first individual win ever. What about when you beat Bobby Jon last season to stay in the game? And freeloading off of everyone else's Rewards doesn't count either?

Back at camp, Rafe and Danni make an alliance for the final three. Rafe tells us Danni said she'd even take him into the final two with her.

Rafe wants to vote off Cindy. Good. But he goes and tells Stephenie about it. Bad! You only need three people. Quietly pull Lydia in and be done with it.

Stephenie doesn't like the idea. She says she already has too many people on the jury that won't vote for her (Jamie and Judd) and she doesn't want to add Cindy.

Stephenie then goes to Cindy and tells her everything Rafe said! She confesses that Rafe said Cindy is the biggest threat and he wants to keep Danni over her. Rafe, my man, this is what I was talking about! The blindside is the only way to go.

Cindy then pulls the other three women together and says Rafe is the true threat and the females should stick together.

Off we go to Tribal Council and Bobby Jon's pink shirt. Rafe points out that the first four people on the jury are all men. Very interesting. Jeff asks Cindy about--what else?--her car choice. She says the curse thing is "silly" and you could get voted out even if you do give everyone a car so she didn't want to be left with nothing. She then announces that Rafe should be the biggest target.

Cindy votes for Rafe. Lydia's vote is concealed but she says her victim is athletic, competitive and intelligent, and she's voting with the tribe. That sounds like Rafe to me. Rafe votes for Cindy.

The tally goes: Rafe, Cindy, Cindy…Cindy! I was wrong! Lydia and Stephenie turned on her!

As Cindy gets up to leave she says, "I'll think about you guys when I see the stars through the sunroof of my new car." Judd applauds the dig with a fist pump.

So now Cindy will say she was justified in keeping the car because they did vote her out, when keeping the car is exactly what caused her to get voted out. It's like shooting your foot off and saying it was because you knew you were going to get blood all over the carpet.

Now we go to Sunday's two-hour finale with gentle Rafe, opportunistic Danni, celebrity Stephenie, and Lydia, the fourth wheel on a tricycle. That's the order I'd put them in before the jury, and I'd only swap Steph and Lydia in my personal preference.

Drive safe.



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