Big Brother 13 2nd runner-up Adam Poch is recapping Survivor Caramoan – Fans vs. Favorites for us, focusing on Matt “the Beard” Bischoff – BMX salesman & lead singer of the metal band Moonbow.
Welcome to my weekly Survivor 26 Caramoan Fans vs. Favorites recap. I will be focusing on Matt “the Beard” Bischoff – BMX salesman & lead singer of the metal band Moonbow. Last week Matt & the rest of the Fans tribe won immunity and did not have to vote anyone out. Let’s see if their luck continued this week.
Before I start – I do need to apologize for making fun of Matt last week for getting manhandled by Francesca last week. I lost on my show to a girl who outplayed me in several physical competitions throughout the summer. So to the people that reminded me of that after the last recap – yes, you were right!
Sadly for Matt fans – he was not on the episode too much this week. Two reasons, one – there are still so many people – it’s hard to get everyone an even amount of airtime. Two – he is not a returning player, and the producers love giving the returnees extra air time. So we had to sit back and watch most of the episode without seeing much of the Ginger Metal Warrior. Last week we saw Matt & Shamar butt heads over work being done at the camp. This week it was everyone else’s turn at the Fan camp to bitch about Shamar’s lazy ways. Yes – it is hot out there, and not much food – so energy levels could dip but everyone else in the tribe was collecting & cutting wood and looking for food to share. Shamar is needed since he is a physical asset to the tribe, but his lack of teamwork can also cause a rift amongst them. As we have seen in previous seasons, a problem child in camp – no matter how good they are at challenges – could hurt the tribe more than help.
Let’s fast forward to the immunity challenge for the week. The tribes had to split into three groups of three (fans had to get 1 player to sit out since they still had 10). Group one would be the swimmer – who had to go on a raft and get pulled by Group two out to a cage in the middle of the water. They would have to jump into the water and remove sticks to release nine rings. Once they have all nine – they would get pulled back to the beach & give the nine rings to Group three. They would then toss the rings – trying to land three of them on three posts. TEAMWORK is so important in these challenges – and when the Fans tried to figure out how they would play this out – there was a lot of arguing and lack of leadership. Shamar as usual added to this by getting all pissy when they didn’t listen to his ideas. Matt was in group two and did a great job pulling the raft out to the cage – but that is where the Fans tribe started to fail. The three girls did not do a good job of pulling the sticks out – and by the time they got their ninth ring – the Favorites were already throwing the rings onto the posts. The Fans (behind strong pulling duties by Matt) – finally got back to the beach and started throwing the rings. Last week we saw Reynold do a great job bringing the team back by tossing the sandbags in the holes, but this week the comeback fell short and the favorites won not just immunity, but also fishing gear.
When the Fans got back to their camp – the bitchfest started all over again with Reynold and Shamar going back and forth while the rest of the tribe sat there. No one else wanted to defend either guy publicly, but once it broke up and people started going their separate way, the whispering started. As we saw last week, Matt & Mike knew they could be the swing votes and decide which way to vote. Matt spoke with Reynold and Eddie and assured them he would vote to get rid of Shamar. When he went back to Mike and Sherri and said he wanted to get rid of Shamar, Sherri balked right away, saying they needed to keep him around and break up the “Pretty People” alliance. Matt said they could still have the numbers and get rid of Shamar. There is obviously no love lost between these two after the argument last week. Matt was trying to keep the entire tribe happy by getting rid of the biggest problem, but was outnumbered by the rest of them.
The name they came up with to get rid of was Allie. Of the four pretty people, they felt she was the biggest threat because she seemed to be the smartest strategic player of them. So it looked like it was all set in stone, but this is Survivor and there will always be a wrinkle in the plans. Before they were scheduled to go to Tribal Council where they would vote off one of their tribe, Reynold did some poking around in the woods looking for a hidden Immunity Idol. Is it me – or are these idols becoming much easier to find? As the tribe was leaving for Tribal Council, Laura noticed a bulge in Reynold’s pants – and figures that he may have an Idol. She worried that he might hand it off to Allie and throw a wrench in their plan, but it was too late for her to get to her group and warn them. When they got to Tribal, Laura hinted that someone may have an idol, but without saying his name, she just stared at Reynold. This led him to bust out the idol and tell the tribe he would use it tonight. So with it time to vote, what would Matt do, stick with the plan and get rid of Allie, or go with his gut and vote out Shamar? As the votes were revealed, Allie wound up being the first of the Fans to be sent home. Was this a good move? Well we see in previews for next week’s episode that Shamar is going out of control again – and making life in the Fans tribe unbearable. Will this disruption to the tribe cause them to lose another challenge and force them to vote another one of themselves off? Tune in next Wednesday at 8pm on CBS and find out. (Hopefully there will be more MATT!)
On a side note – I would like to say farewell to a friend. Pat Egan, who metal industry people all knew and loved, passed away this week. He was also a fan of some reality shows including Survivor. I remember last year around this time – I was urging him to try out for Big Brother 14. Pat, you will be missed by all who knew you!!! ROCK ON!
