Survivor Tocantin: Week 8 "I finally wore through the rope and snuck out the back"

What a fake-out!

We left last episode with the conclusion that everyone was going to gang up on Brendan and Sierra. This meant that, no matter what happened this episode, we could count on the fact that the only safe people were Brendan and Sierra.

But the episode was filled with even more behind-the-scenes machinations in what seems like it could be called the most volatile, entropic situation in Survivor history. The funny thing is that, in all this chaos, more people are in danger of getting booted. And yet, every single person had the impression that they were in the seat of power.

Last week, it seemed like JT and Stephen were in trouble, having made alliances with two major power factions. JT made the brilliant, or idiotic, move of allying himself with the only three people he was not yet allied with-- Erinn, Sierra, and Brendan. In a game in which everyone is prepared not to trust their closest allies, it seems that everyone does in fact trust JT. His country bumpkin attitude is so convincing that, even as a viewer, I can't figure out whether he is actually sincere in what he says (meaning, he actually is fooling himself), or whether he is pulling off the biggest snow job this season.

The episode came down to Coach versus Brendan for BMOC, and Coach made America cringe by making good on his dragon slaying mission.

Coach topped his previous remarkable efforts at making an ass out of himself by telling a not-even-remotely-believable story about being captured by cannibalistic pygmies and escaping on his kayak. If it was a little more believable, it might have been a storyline on Gilligan's Island.

Oh, yeah, and Tyson won immunity. Again.

The Pool:

In the rankings below, each pool player is ordered according to their current score, but the ranking in bold shows where they were last week. So, Paul is currently in first (!), but was second last week.

You're seeing the scores in this format:
Current Score (+/- Brendan Boot in First Set, +/- Brendan Boot in Second Set, + Immunity Pick Bonus)
So, the first number is your actual score, and everything that comes after shows what affected it this week.



2nd: Paul 288 (-5, -16, +18)
6th: Mom 272 (-4, -2, +18)
1st: Matt 271 (-7, -14, +0)
3rd: Carl: 259 (-8, -16, +0)
5th: Kim 251 (-1, -8, +0)
4th: Dawn 250 (-2, -16, +0)
7th: Brian 244 (-7, -8, +0)
8th: Stats 240 (-2, -6, +0)
9th: Mike 224 (-1, -4, +0)

This Week's Winners:
Two weeks ago, Mom was battling for last place in the pool. Now, she's suddenly battling for first. She's the only pool player to pick Tyson for immunity both weeks, and she's picked up massive points as a result. Paul also got some Tyson love this week, and has captured the pool lead as a result.

This Week's Losers:
Carl, Dawn and I lost some big points, mostly because we all failed to pick Tyson for immunity, and all had faith in Brendan, the crunchy granola entrepreneur (whose Bearly Granola snacks were spotlighted this week as a "faux healthy food" on Yahoo.com). All three of us slipped in the standings, and also lost either our first or second place finisher.

Boo.

Please send me your Immunity Pick (IP) by choosing from the 8 remaining players. I also need your third and final set of predictions, too. To do this, just list the players in the order you think they'll be eliminated from the game.

Good luck, everyone!