Survivor Blood vs. Water: Will Ciera Throw Mama from the Game?

Survivor Blood vs. Water has turned out to be quite the dynamic season. At first I was a little apprehensive about having loved ones in the game and how it would effect the strategy of playing it. I have not been disappointed. Splitting up the pairs was an obvious move for the producers to make, but throwing Redemption Island and all of its twists into the mix was a clever surprise. And that tribe switch?! That was almost as crazy as the tribe switch in All-Stars when Amber was the only person to switch, but let’s get to the good stuff.

Last week we had a double elimination episode, which resulted in Vytas and Tina, being voted out of the merged tribe. And by the way, why didn’t we get to see how the players came up with this season’s merged tribe name? Don’t we always get to see that footage? I don’t mind not getting to see them paint the stupid flag, but I’d rather have seen that than Katie’s nasty toenails (or lack there of).

Anyway, Vytas and Tina are now with Aras on Redemption Island so they will be competing in the duel at the beginning of the next episode. And I’m not calling it a “thruel” because let’s be real, folks, grandma ain’t got nothing on those two boys. I will be nice and give Tina a 10% chance of returning the game (because this has to be the last duel, right?); you never know, it could be some wacky challenge that just isn’t suited for two strapping lads, but odds are, it will be something physical or endurance-related. Even if it involves a puzzle, I think Tina will be throwing her Buff into the fire this week.

As long as it’s not the damn clue to the damn hidden immunity idol, right? Am I right? I don’t even care that Tyson has it and that the clue is moot at this point – I just want to see someone not throw it in the fire.

It’s a toss up between Aras and Vytas, though, if we’re talking about who’s going to win this (hopefully last) Redemption Island duel. I’d say that Aras has an edge over Vytas because he’s played the game and won before, but Aras was kind of taunting Vytas at the end of the episode last week, which had to have lit a fire under the former addict’s spoon making the desire to win that much greater. He really wants it now. We’ll just have to see on Wednesday night what happens.

Back to Kasama, or Kasamama or whatever they are calling themselves now, we still have Caleb, Ciera, Gervase, Hayden, Katie, Laura, Monica and Tyson in the game and it is not looking good for the ladies. Katie may have won that Immunity Challenge last week, but I think her torch will be snuffed soon enough. Laura and Monica are playing like it’s their first season of Survivor; they are oxymorons, over-strategizing while not using any kind of strategy that makes sense at all. Ciera is the only woman left in the game whose head is 100% in it to win it, and she’ll probably be the last woman standing.

And then there are the boys. At this point in the game, Tyson is by far the mastermind running the show. His misdirect of instructing the boys to Tina-Sit while she ran the Fool’s Errand of searching for the hidden immunity idol was a brilliant move and he is my pick to win the game right now. Gervase’s best move has been sticking with Tyson and their Coconut Bandit alliance, but he really isn’t doing anything to prove that he deserves to win the money. Caleb and Hayden appear to be sticking with the alliance they all formed with Ciera before the tribes were merged, but like Gervase, they aren’t doing anything strategy-wise except keeping their heads down and their mouths shut. Big moves, fellas, big moves! If you want to overthrow the Cupcake King, you’ve got to start taking some bites.

What we see on television, you have to remember, is what the editors and producers want us to see. Will Ciera throw her mama from the game this week? I think she definitely will if she has the chance; she knows that her mom is a liability to her, but I think that whatever happens during Tribal Council on Wednesday night hinges on which Baskauskas brother comes back into the game. They both have the motivation to rock the boat and if the producers are up to their tricks as usual that’s exactly what we are going to see.