First, since I'm always the first to admit when I'm wrong, it's time to look back at the Dang Fun S6 Preview. Here's what I said:

So who wins? By virtue of the age trend noted above, we can safely eliminate Christy, Heidi, Jenna, Shawna, Dave, Rob, and Ryan for being too young, and Janet, Butch and Roger for being too old.

Take out Daniel for being too physically threatening, and Matthew for being too dang snobby, and I say the winner comes this group of four: Jeanne, JoAnna, Alex and Deena.

I am, to quote Simon, absolutely pathetic. This means unless Matt somehow wins this thing, we'll have our oldest (Butch) or youngest (everyone else) winner ever. Interesting stuff.

Now it's Night 30 and Heidi and Jenna weep while they curse Rob. "We hate him! Me and Heidi cannot ever forgive him." Rob could care less. "It's Jenna or Heidi who are going to have to kiss some serious ass in the next couple days."

"You're so pretty, Christy, and you have a great body."

The next morning the girls try to get Christy to change sides. They tell her she'll do no better than fourth if she stays with the men, which is probably true. Rob counter-talks with Christy and plays on her desire to outlast the other girls. Christy is torn. "So I personally have to decide, is it better to win a million dollars or is it better to be the final girl that kicked butt. That's such a hard decision!" She appears to seal her allegiance to the guys with spit handshakes all around.

The Reward Challenge is a race. First you uncover a paddle from the sand, then you jump in a one-person canoe and paddle out to a trivia question: "The bite of which Amazonian snake results in the most deaths?" You pick the bag that matches the color of the right answer and head back to shore. If you got the answer right you'll find puzzle pieces in your bag. First one to complete the puzzle gets…a visit from a loved one. The girls are crying already.

They're off. Butch and Heidi don't find a paddle and are out. More tears from Heidi. Matt is the only one who can handle the boat so he's way ahead. He guesses Pit Viper, and is right. Rob gets to shore second but Matt's lead is too great and wins the reward.

But wait. Jeff asks, "As a philosophy, would you say it is better to give or to receive?" Matt says give, and Jeff says Matt could give up his visit with his mother and the other five would get visits with their loved ones. Matt agrees with little hesitation. Bravo.

We meet Butch's wife, Christy's boyfriend and Rob's mom. Even Rob is crying now. Heidi's mom and Jenna's dad are next. "It was really touching for me to see all the tears, all the emotion," Matt beams. "And I felt like, I was, uh, like God for a moment." Because everyone has a crush on God, right Matty?

They all sit down to a feast and Rob whispers to his mom, "I've been really bad." "I'm shocked!" she laughs. Christy tells her boyfriend, "I'll be in the final four!" So much for the girlies' plan.

The family members leave, but wait. You knew it was coming. For giving up his visit with his mom, Matt gets to spend the entire evening with her and an even bigger meal. Mom comes out and Matt says, "I'm a little drunk, I'm sorry. I've been sucking down some wine!" Sounds just like Thanksgiving, don't it?

Matt and Mom ride off to their banquet and Matt literally jumps for joy when he sees the spread. "Oh chicken! I haven't had fried chicken in so long!" They dig in and Matt says, "Just the two of us, Mom. It's going to be a romantic evening." Voice-over Matt adds, "My relationship with my mom is great. It's not the conventional mother-son relationship." He's not going to get all Colby on us, is he?

Mom says, "I talk to you at home. Even if I don't see you, I talk to you." It seems Mom's a little crazy too.

Back at camp there's more drinking. Christy gets her foot stuck in a tree and Butch is staggering. "Butch was an absolute disaster," Rob says. It's Ted 2! OOOOOOOOHH!

Rob's in his Speedo and we now know way too much about him. "It's like a rap video!" he explains. Fo' shizzle.

No conjugal visits please.

Matthew and his mother enjoy a tribal dance performance. "The dancing was hypnotic. The music was hypnotic." I'm sure the topless girls were hypnotic too.

Speedo Rob sings to the girls. Yikes. He's almost as bad as Idol Josh.

The next day it's back to strategy. Rob says he had wanted to take Matt into the final. "I thought I would be able to beat him 'cause he's a spaz. But now after Matthew yesterday won the challenge and gave everybody their visit from home--and, for the record, everybody would've done that. It's not like this guy is patron saint of Reward Challenges--but I'm getting to seriously doubt whether he's a beatable opponent any more and I may have to cut him off before the final two." Are we looking at a third straight week of a paranoid leader doing themselves in??

Rob surprisingly goes to Jenna and offers her a spot in the final two. I do believe Deena's fall also started by trying to trust one of the "cute girls."

Jenna naturally tells Heidi who then tells Rob, "That's why I'm glad that I'm getting taken out. Because that way I'm not up against five snakes." Rob defends himself, saying his mom was proud of him. "That's where our morals are different," Heidi retorts. "'Cause I told my mom I played really good and I gave up a lot of stuff for other people." What on earth is she talking about?! What stuff did she give up? I don't think getting naked for peanut butter counts.

Jenna blows up and tells everyone Rob's plan to take her to the final. "I don't understand how you can lie to all these people on a regular basis!" she shouts. He calmly replies, "Did you ever think that I was lying to you?"

Day 33, and Rob is still scheming. "I am an alliance of one…. I just pick up the bottom feeders as I go. They go with me because I promise them the dream of getting to the end." It's an attitude that would make Don King proud.

Heidi keeps trying to sway Christy but it's not working. "So they're like, 'I need to talk to you.' I'm like, 'Well since when have you ever wanted to talk to me?' you know? It's just because [singing] I have the power!" She's loving this.

For the Immunity Challenge they use slingshots to try and break hanging plates. Each plate you hit with your name on it earns you a puck that will be used on a shuffle board. Closest puck to the X at the end of the game wins.

Matt should rule at this. He and Jenna each hit a plate in their first try. Butch then hits one of Jenna's, giving her two. In the next round Jenna gets another one, and Matt hits one of hers, giving her four. She and Butch end up with five, Heidi has four, Christy three, Rob two, and Matt only got that one! Big surprise.

After the first round of shuffling, Matt is the closest to the X. After round two it's Butch and Matt and Rob can only watch. Heidi then knocks Rob back into first. Butch calls a bank shot and nails it to regain the top spot. But Christy puts Rob right back in first! He plays better when he's not playing.

"To embarrassing ourselves!"

Butch accidentally puts Heidi closest and Jenna gets the final toss. She knocks Heidi and Butch out of the way and claims Immunity for the second time!

No problem, they'll just vote out Heidi.

But Rob is nervous. He asks Christy if she's still on board with them. He doesn't get the answer he's looking for: "The question is, who can I go farther with? What can get me to be the Sole Survivor?" Christy says she won't decide for sure until it's time to vote. Why the heck is she telling him this?!?

Rob is not pleased. "The threat of Christy defecting terrifies me, which really got me thinking about an alternate scenario." He now goes to Heidi and offers to join them in voting off Christy. How many deals are on the table now?

At Tribal Council Dave and Alex walk in with matching fu-man-chu moustaches. How cute.

Jeff asks why Jenna didn't think she'd make it this far and she says, "I'm judged all the time by just outside looks. I mean, I don't think that women take to me very well. I mean, 'You're a stupid model; you can't hack it,' so I felt like I've had to work twice as hard to get here, and I think Heidi feels the same." Work twice as hard? How can she say that with a straight face?

Rob takes a shot at her: "Well I was lucky in this game that I'm not handsome so I didn't have any handicaps like the girls found."

Christy says she doesn't know yet what she will or won't do to win. "Right now I think I am in the driver's seat. I make the final decision," she says.
Jeff: "Really! For tonight's vote?"
Christy: "For tonight's vote."

Jeff asks if Jenna wants to give up Immunity, and she does! She gives it to Heidi. "Strategy, that's all I can say." Wow, I never thought that dumb rule would come into play. We'll see if it screws the confident person like I thought it would.

Christy does indeed vote for Jenna. "Go look beautiful," she says. "Be happy. We don't need you."

Butch joins her. "The alliance is very strong. I'm staying with the alliance all the way."

The tally reads: Jenna, Jenna, Christy, Christy…another Christy! Uh oh. And Christy again! She's gone!

What just happened here?!

Christy should've lied to the liar.

Jeff puts it into perspective. "Well obviously Christy came into tonight's Tribal Council feeling she was in a position of power…. It's obvious that she wasn't. Very similar to what happened to Alex…. So you now have at least two members on your jury who must feel a little betrayed. I will only say this: It's one thing to get to the final two. It is another thing to get the votes needed to win a million dollars."

Christy is a mess during her farewell speech. "I'm so pissed off! I didn't deserve to be voted out!" For the third week in a row we had someone in a position of power try to go against the alliance that got them the power. Christy has one goal left. "I'm going to make sure those freaking evil stepsisters of mine are not going to win the million dollars!"

Next time on Survivor: We've only got two episodes left! On Thursday a fire burns through camp. Who is to blame? And Heidi says, "Having Jenna voted out works to my advantage." Do they finally turn on each other?

Then on Sunday we have the two-hour finale and reunion special. And I have no idea how any of it will play out. This has easily been the most unpredictable season yet. There are no clear alliances bigger than two! No original tribe loyalty, nothing. I'm not even going to make a prediction, I'm just going to sit back and enjoy the ride.

May the best manipulator win…unless it's Jenna or Heidi of course.

Buckled up,
Scott

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