Survivor 41 - week 5 results

 Wow, what an episode.  It seemed like a lot of stuff happened!  Here's how it breaks down in pool points:

• First, Genie finds the immunity idol clue but doesn't open it.  Since she doesn't open it, it's not hers.  Instead she shows it to her tribe.  Shan and Ricard trick her, and Shan actually opens it and gets the 3-way powerless immunity idol - 1 point to Shan for obtaining this "clue" to how to activate her idol.  She gave her extra vote advantage to Ricard, but it seems like he'll be giving it back next episode.
• At the immunity challenge, Shan says her idol phrase, Xander says his idol phrase, and then the show gives us a holy crap! moment when Naseer out of nowhere says the last idol phrase!  It turns out that he found the clue the day earlier.  So 1 point to Naseer for finding the idol clue, and then 3 points each to Naseer, Shan, and Xander for activating their immunity idols!
• The yellow Yasa tribe wins first place in the immunity challenge.  3 points each to Evvie, Liana, Tiffany, and Xander.
• The blue Luvu tribe wins second place in the immunity challenge.  2 points each to Danny, Deshawn, Erika, Heather, Naseer, and Sydney.
• Yasa chooses to send Shan and Liana on the journey to play the prisoner's dilemma.  Shan protects her vote and Liana risks it and gains a Knowledge is Power advantage.  3 points to Liana for obtaining that.
• At tribal council, Ricard and Shan vote out Genie.  2 points each for Ricard and Shan for controlling the vote.
• Everyone except Genie earns 5 points for surviving week 5.

In the pool, only 15% of entries had Genie, including me.  She was my sleeper pick.  Since not many entries had her that wasn't too much movement in the pool:

• Rachel L moves up one spot and now ties Jswizzle for 1st place and they are the only ones with all picks intact.
• Adam J still holds last place by only 2 points.
• TONE jumps 30 spots to 23rd.
• Jeff Probst fell 38 spots from 12th to 50th.  Poor Jeff!

Next week: merge!  but, only sort of?

My episode observations:

• Ricard and Shan are so devious together, tricking Genie into not opening that idol clue.  Genie must have been REALLY kicking herself for not opening the clue.  She would have got the immunity that she needed and would have lived another day.  What puzzles me is how she didn't figure out that all 3 idol phrases were spoken and now Shan has the activated idol and she was tricked?
• Danny and Deshawn are really thinking smart and meta. They are catching on that mostly guys are getting voted out so that when the merge happens the women will outnumber them.  Unfortunate for them that Naseer is not on their meta-level.
• That Knowledge is Power advantage really confuses me.  If she asks someone about their idol and that person lies about not having it, does a producer walk out of nowhere and say that they're lying and force them to give Liana their idol??  Someone, please reply in the blog and help explain it to me and everyone.
• Really anxious to find out what the heck kind of merge or swap is going to happen next week!

Till next week,

Jay