Survivor Results: Week 7

This week Malakal won reward, which turned out to involve some nude showering, much to Cirie's amusement (and Erik's voyeuristic delight). However, despite some typical water challenge heroics by Ozzy, Airai won immunity and sent Malakal to tribal council.

In the midst of all that, Kathleen's increasing levels of crazypants completely eclipsed all other parts of her personality, as she broke down and begged her teammates repeatedly for hugs. Jeff Probst, tipped off to a mental breakdown in the making, came out and personally accepted Kathleen's resignation from the game. Jeff, who is openly and haughtily contemptuous whenever a man quits the game, for some reason decided to coddle Kathleen as she exited. The editors even gave her sad swellings of orchestral music as she broke down, making the whole thing seem like a scene from the English Patient instead of a woman quitting a game show because she couldn't hack living outdoors.

Tracy did her damnedest to get off of the chopping block, attempting to take Ozzy on in a pissing contest. Even though she had a secret ally in Ami, she was unable to get the votes she needed and ultimately went down swinging (at Ozzy, and bitterly so). This was a little bit of a ho-hum episode, but it had a huge impact on the pool, thanks to my clouded judgment re: Tracy...


This Week's Standings:
The standings reflect a 200 point bump for everyone, as well as two eliminations (Kathleen in 13th and Tracy in 12th)

1st: Dawn 288 (+6)
2nd: Kim: 271 (+0)
3rd: Matt: 268 (-22)
4th: Carl: 258 (+6)
5th: Paul: 228 (-30)

Dawn, Kim, and Carl each got four points for correctly predicting that Airai would win immunity.

After weeks of battling Kim for second place, Dawn surged ahead in the standings, powered by a correct Immunity Pick and a one-two combo prediction of Kathleen and Tracy. She now rules the roost, and has built a small but significant lead of 17 points over second place.

Kim treaded water this week, which was good enough to climb out of third place and into second. She's now positioned to overtake Dawn in first if she has another good week or two. She also correctly predicted the Kathleen-Tracy ouster in her second set of picks.

I plummeted in the standings this week, absolutely ruined for believing that Tracy would somehow bully her way out of her unenviable position in her tribe. My second set of picks cost me dearly, as Tracy went out in 12th instead of the 2nd place finish I predicted, costing me a huge 20 points.

Carl had a great week, gaining six points in pretty much the same manner that Dawn did. Like Dawn and Kim, he predicted the Kathleen-Tracy eliminations. He's now put some space between himself and last place, and is only 10 points off of third.

Paul is the only one who had a worse week than me. He made the same Tracy mistake that I did, and also suffered by inexplicably predicting that Kathleen would be out in 13th instead of 12th, which cost him 7. He said his picks were pretty random, and I guess the proof is in the pudding.

The second set of picks has already shaken things up, so we'll have to see what develops as time goes on. A merge is certainly on the near horizon, and a little while after that we'll do our third and final set of picks. In the meantime, tonight's early airing means we have 9 days before the next episode. So send me your immunity picks whenever you get the chance.

Good luck everyone!