Caramoan Episode 7: Immovable Object

The last vote has left Michael on his own. Corinne is willing to fight for Michael though, because she loves him and would rather work with him than Phillip. Phillip is on to her though, and tells Cochran he doesn't want her to make the merge, even though Cochran thinks its too soon to make a move.

Eye of the tiger

The tree mail for the challenge tells them that the "Strong carry the weak". Cochran points out they have lots of the latter and none of the former. Phillip begs to differ however, and claims to be the strongest guy out here. He arm-wrestles Cochran to prove his point. But does it, really? It's Cochran.


The challenge is to run around a ring carrying heavy weights until one tribe catches the other. Phillip takes the lead role,

Cheerleader Brenda was the best part of the challenge

and you just know he's setting himself up for failure. Gota go quite well and don't seem to be feeling the strain. Whenever Michael and Corinne suggest to pick up the pace and run, Phillip doesn't want to, claiming the girls will tire. With Gota gradually gaining on them, Phillip eventually admits that he is the one that's tired. Dawn drops out and Corinne takes her load. Gota make their move and start running, with Brenda encouraging them from the sidelines. Phillip falls down, falls behind and Erik catches him, winning the challenge for Gota.

The Gota tribe are taken to a Caramoan coffee bar, and it's a real love fest. Andrea wants the fans to have a good time before she votes them out - still a gamebot, I see. Malcolm goes around kissing everyone. But he is also aware it's a game, and says that he doesn't think anyone wants to take him to the end.

Gota's spring break

Corinne blames Phillip for the loss, which is understandable  "He's the worst" she claims. But Corinne now has an unlikely rival in the mean confessionals department in the form of Cochran, who says Julia is even more boring than Vanilla. Ouch, no wonder she's getting no screentime. Phillip and Julia are close now though, for some reason. Phillip wants Julia to be his double agent once they merge.

Leader of the bro-lliance

Malcolm's plan is to bring together the other alpha males that have the same problem as him - Reynold, Eddie and Erik. Reynold is down for it, and thinks Eddie will be too. He's so confident he can trust Malcolm he even spills that he has the idol. Which even Malcolm thinks was a stupid idea.

Dawn has a conversation with Julia to see what she's thinking, and she reveals Phillip has offered to work with her. Dawn tells her she won't repeat that to anyone, but she tells it to Phillip straight away. Phillip's pissed because he now sees he can't trust her, and is now willing to cut her loose for her "foo pas", as he puts it.

Now for the immunity challenge (does it even qualify as a challenge at this point?). Three people swim out on a boat to grab a statue...for Gota, it's Brenda, Erik and Eddie. For Bikal, it's Dawn, Michael and Corinne. Gota finish first obviously, after Bikal almost tip over their boat several times. Then there's a grappling hook section which Reynold fumbles a little, allowing Phillip to make a comeback. It's not enough though, and after Andrea unlocks the locks, Gota are able to hoist their statue to victory.

Cochran - bullshit detector

Phillip confesses to Cochran afterwards that he threw the challenge to get rid of Julia. Cochran thinks it's a pretty ridiculous claim, but that Phillip is so delusional he almost believes it himself. Bikal want to split the votes just to be safe, but Corinne doesn't want to alienate Michael. Phillip wants to vote out Michael because it's what Boston Rob would do...he knows Corinne and Michael are close, and they even get into a bit of a fight over it.

At tribal council, Probst tries to make Phillip admit he lost the challenge but he doesn't bite. Michael says he's ready to find out what's gonna happen. What happens is a 3-3 tie between Michael and Julia. On the revote, it's Julia that goes home.

So Julia bows out quite literally, and now we have 8 Favorites to 4 Fans. Haha, that's pathetic. Will the Fans continue to get slaughtered after the merge, or will the Favorites fracture?

STAR OF THE WEEK: JOHN COCHRAN

It was between Cochran and Malcolm this week, but Cochran made me laugh more so he gets it. We haven't got as much insight into his strategy as I would've liked, but he's a great narrator.