Cagayan Episode 3: Throwdown Showdown

Morgan is mad she didn't get her way at tribal council, and decides to call out Jeremiah in front of the group for wanting Alexis out. Alexis doesn't totally believe her, but is definitely more wary of Jeremiah than she was before.

Brains get the treemail and it indicates a blindfold challenge is coming up. They decide to practice again, and J'Tia in particular is hungry for a win as she knows it's her fault they have no rice. Jeff explains the challenge: one caller will direct a blindfolded pair out to collect items, and then three of them will hoist the item up to the caller on a pulley. Tasha takes the caller role for Brains, Cliff for Brawn and Alexis for Beauty.

Alexis flies the flag

Cliff decides to start from the back and have his team do the hardest items first. LJ takes multiple crotch shots to the point where I'll be surprised if he can still have kids now. Beauty are the first to complete the challenge and get their flag up to Alexis. Brains get their flag back faster than Brawn, but J'Tia has trouble with the pulley. Tony and Lindsey get their flag back, with Lindsey having an entertaining wipeout, and manage to get it up to Cliff really fast. Spencer throws his buff on the floor in a huff. Beauty tribe win chickens, whereas the Brains are last again.

The Beauty tribe take their chickens back to camp. Jeremiah finds the idol clue and reads it aloud in front of everyone. Somehow we get into a bizarre chicken/egg argument that doesn't look very flattering for Alexis or Jefra. It's no mystery why they're not on the Brains tribe. Jeremiah rips the head off the chicken, startling the girls again.

That's not the only thing Woo wants to pound

Lindsey and Cliff continue to bond, which concerns Sarah. Sarah goes to Woo and asks if he'd be down with voting out Cliff. Does she really think he's going to turn on his buddy? Well actually he is, I suspect mainly because he's just a go-with-the-flow kinda dude. She then goes and tells Tony that he's in, and Tony is happy that his lie has worked and turned the game around.

Can't lose this one

Treemail indicates a basketball challenge, so Cliff is expecting everyone to look to him to win it. But Sarah doesn't even want to win and tells Trish and Woo that they should throw it. It's not something she feels fully comfortable with, but she doesn't want to risk someone she thinks is coming after her making the swap.

The immunity challenge is to swim down and untie buoys, which they will then throw into a basket. J'Tia couldn't get a buoy on her go so backstrokes back to the platform to let Tasha go. Sarah is slow as well, putting her plan into action. Kass and Tasha both come back without buoys, leaving Spencer to do all the work. Beauty get their 5 buoys first and Jeremiah wins the challenge.

Spencer fearlessly takes on the pro

The race for second place is an extremely tight contest between Cliff and Spencer. It goes back and forth, with Spencer getting frustrated that J'Tia isn't retrieving his loose throws fast enough. Cliff wins the challenge for Brawn and Sarah laments about how they tried so hard to throw it and were unable to. Brains really just sucked that much.

Still got some of those nine lives?

Back at camp, Spencer feels he doesn't deserve to be going to tribal council and makes the case to the girls that he's a challenge asset. Kass agrees but wants J'Tia to feel safe to avoid a repeat of the rice incident. After talking with J'Tia, the girls admit they trust her a lot more than Spencer...which is actually making Tasha second-guess her decision now, as she knows J'Tia will be loyal.

At tribal council, Jeff's extended silence says it all. J'Tia's poor performance in challenges is brought up and Tasha outright admits that it's often a case of finding the role for her where she can do the least damage. Tasha and Kass whisper back and forth during tribal council, making it clear their minds are not yet made up! Spencer says he would be devastated to go out this early and brings up the rice incident again.

Spencer nervously awaits his fate as Jeff brings the votes back, and gets a huge relief when it turns out to be J'Tia going home. I feel J'Tia may have got a bad rap over the rice-throwing incident...it's clear that was more of a heat-of-the-moment thing rather than an indicator of her real character. Spencer promises Tasha that he'll prove to her she made the right choice...but time will tell if he's really just waiting for a place to stick that knife.

STAR OF THE WEEK: SPENCER BLEDSOE

Getting humbled by the Garrett blindside certainly made this guy a lot more likeable. Spencer was a challenge star this week (or at least compared to the rest of his tribe). I really felt bad for him being in the spot that he is, and I'm glad he survived because I think he's got a lot of game left in him.