I apologize up front if I seem a little distracted in this column. As I write this intro, my L.A. Dodgers are about to play the Yankees in game 5 of the World Series. The Dodgers are up 3 games to 1. They could win it all tonight. Adding to my distraction is the fact that Survivor promos have hinted at another post-merge split-squad challenge. I fear 6 of the 12 remaining players will have Immunity.

I don’t have many notes from my rewatch, but in the Secret Scenes there were a couple of revelations. First off was the schoolyard pick for the teams in the Immunity Challenge. Teeny and Tiyana were the Captains. The player they picked first would then make their team’s next pick, but they could discuss their pick with anyone already chosen. Teeny won a Rock, Paper, Scissors and had the first pick. Here’s how it went:

Team Yellow: Teeny, Sam, Kyle, Rachel, Sierra & Sue

Team Blue: Tiyana, Gabe, Sol, Caroline, Rome, & Andy

Sam and Gabe were the first two picked. Does this mean they are the perceived Challenge Beasts? Sam only put himself in a spotlight role once before, and Gabe only twice. Kyle did it 7 times. This makes it pretty clear its hard to avoid the “beast” label if you’re a muscular-looking guy. Kyle isn’t as muscular as the other guys, but despite doing well in most of the challenges, he still fell behind Sam and Gabe here.

Freddie Freeman has been a beast in this World Series. He has hit a home run in all 4 games so far. Oh, sorry, that was about baseball, not Survivor.

I found it interesting that Sierra had the last pick and could choose between Sue and Andy. After conferring with her teammates, she picked Sue. So, Andy wasn’t chosen by anyone, and by default landed on the Blue team. This of course means that all of Andy’s Gata teammates – Sam, Rachel and Sierra – agreed they didn’t want Andy on their team. Combine this with the fact that Andy was the backup vote and might soon find out that Sam and Sierra didn’t try to stop that from happening, and it probably adds up to Andy defecting to another alliance soon. He got a pretty clear message that he’s on the bottom with Gata. It wasn’t quite as surprising, but when Rome was available, Kyle picked Rachel, then Sol picked Caroline. That had to be a blow to Rome’s ego too.

And speaking of Rome, the other Secret Scene contained Rome’s personal story about how his many brothers and sisters are all successful in their fields, and he’s trying to live up to their standards. I thought since Rome had such a huge presence this season, it would be a lock that his backstory would make the final cut. This just goes to show there’s no guarantee your backstory will be shown before you get voted out even if you’re giving Producers some “good TV.”

I wonder if tonight’s teams will also be chosen by schoolyard pick? If the players know someone on their team could be voted out if they lose, would someone purposefully pick someone they want gone? That’s the only thing I’d find interesting about another post-merge split-squad challenge. Suppose Gabe picked Tiyana purely because he wants her gone? But, we all know Probst is gonna pull out that bag of rocks again, don’t we? Sigh.

The Yankees just gave the Dodgers 5 runs to tie the game!!!

And away we go ...

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Teeny is happy Rome is gone. I’m happy the Dodgers got the first two runners on in the 8th inning. Now they’ve loaded the bases.

Sol tells Andy he was afraid Rome could have an Idol and booted him with it, and Gata said ‘Alright, we’ll give up Andy.’ That’s a great lie, but of course, Sol had plenty of time to think of it. But Andy isn’t buying it. Andy is taking this too personally. It’s better to appear to be appeased, then verify Sol’s lie with other players. That way, he’d have an edge on Sol. He’d know how Sol looks and reacts when he’s lying. But props to Sol. By selling out Sam, he just turned Andy into an ally after voting for him. That’s Cirie-level manipulation.

Andy says he needs to take authorship over his fate in the game. The last person who said that was Brandon Hantz. His tribe forfeited a challenge to get rid of him.

The opening segment comes during a pitching change. Andy says he wants to defect. There have been a couple of winners who betrayed their original tribes. Parvati followed Cirie’s plan to blindside Ozzy in Micronesia. But she stayed loyal to Cirie and Amanda. Sandra tried to defect to the Heroes in Heroes vs Villains, but the Heroes weren’t smart enough to take her. Tyson betrayed his alliance with Aras in Blood vs Water. And I guess you could say Tony betrayed everyone in Cagayan. Gabler turned on Elie in Survivor 43, but he wasn’t really aligned with her in the first place.

Dammit, I can’t take this. I have no choice. I must record Survivor and watch it after the game. The Dodgers just tied it up! Shohei Ohtani is up. He hit 54 home runs this year.

2 hours later ...

The Dodgers are World Champions! They played almost as well as Earl did in Fiji!

Ok, back to Survivor. Thanks for indulging me.

Andy is really obsessed over Sam serving him up as the backup vote. It looks like he’s gonna destroy his element of surprise on Sam, Sierra and Rachel, and blurt out something that will tip them off.

Genevieve goes to sit with Andy. I wonder if Sol sent her over?

Genevieve in confessional: “I need a new ally and Andy is at the top of my list.”

Ok, I guess it wasn’t Sol. This tells me Sol and Genevieve aren’t talking as much as they should be.

Genevieve to Andy: “We need to not be the singles (in this game).” Kenzie, Ben, Liz, and Charlie worked that angle very effectively last season. But Genevieve should be wary of Andy. He still has the potential to spill vital information. Approach with caution.

Teeny is right about prior all-female alliances. They usually don’t work. The Micronesia women cut Alexis before the men were gone. The women in Vanuatu cut Lisa before Chris, then lost the game to him. Even the One World women cut Kat loose while Tarzan was still in the game.

I’ve liked Tiyana’s instincts this whole season, but she’s got a blind spot somewhere. Does she even know she’s Gabe’s #1 target? Has she figured out he’s got Caroline and Sue on his side?

I remember this Immunity Challenge from Survivor 44. Frannie won it. She eventually got labeled a challenge beast and was voted out because of it.

Crap! Seven people with Immunity and only six can vote. Why Probst, why? And a rock draw too? This makes me want to watch the end of the World Series again.

You see? Because the players had no say in picking the teams, Tiyana’s plan to use the women to go after Gabe can’t work now because Sue, Caroline and Kyle are with her. If her team loses, Tiyana is probably a goner. That’s easy to predict. But on the other team, it looks like Andy might be able to remove Sam if he’s got all three Tuku with him. Again, this is fairly easy to predict. Predictable Survivor is boring Survivor.

If there’s any good news about this, nobody is a clear favorite to win.

Everybody has their right foot in front. Was that a requirement? In 44, four of the twelve players had their left foot out in front. I’d rather have my stronger arm and leg in the back. I think a left-handed player (if there are any) would have an edge.

Andy is the first one out. So much for the strategy of winning individual Immunity, then tanking the challenge so he can remove Sam or Sierra. Now he needs one of the Lavo to win it.

So Teeny and Genevieve tied for first place. That’s anti-climactic. That’s one more reason to dislike split squad challenges. The winning team can’t even influence the vote. That sucks too.

The winning team gets their feast, and Sam sits next to Sierra. So much for hiding their partnership.

We’re sure seeing a lot more of Genevieve now that Rome is gone.

Ok, we got three extreme closeups of that note. I’m guessing none of the winners find it. They’re so happy they’re safe they’re not even looking. It’s probably a note that can save one of the vulnerable players. Maybe like the Advantage Heidi got in 44 where she could control one person’s vote.

Rachel: “There’s nothing you can do if you draw the wrong-colored rock.” That’s why a schoolyard pick is so much better than a random rock draw. At least the players have a choice and some influence over their fate.

Tiyana’s observation is spot on. “If we come back 5 strong, we lied to everyone about how close we were. So not only are we really strong, we’re also liars.”

I wonder if Tiyana’s plan to blindside Gabe will backfire? She doesn’t know Caroline is in with Gabe. This could come down to how confident Caroline is with Gabe and Sue. If she sticks with her initial instinct about Gabe, she’ll want him gone. But if she trusts him now, she can warn Sue who could play her Idol for him. Tiyana doesn’t want the rest of the players to think Tuku is loyal. Caroline accomplishes that by booting Tiyana too.

Andy decides to look for an Idol right in front of everyone. Man, this dude is sloppy. He’s about as subtle as Chrissy in HvHvH. She got caught whispering to her partners several times that season, even after they warned her they were being watched.

Props to Sol for not overreacting when he spotted the note. That kind of subtle play usually pays off. After having Rome up his butt for so long, I’m glad he got to replace it with something that could be good for his game.

Caroline to Tiyana: “That’s the issue. I do like Rachel the best. She’s the glue.” That’s the same reason the Reba 4 got rid of Kellie in 45. That was the back-breaking move for Kellie’s alliance.

Gabe sounds like he doesn’t want to remove Tiyana anymore.

Gabe to Rachel: “We been wondering when is the right time to get Caroline out.” If I’m Rachel, I go straight to Tiyana and Caroline and tell them what Gabe just said.

Gabe: “I would go to rocks.” Sorry dude, nobody will believe that.

Rachel in confessional: “It was all fake.” Rachel has a pretty good BS meter here, but she couldn’t see through Sam and Sierra’s lie about removing Andy.

Last week, after Rome left, I wondered who was the most overconfident between Andy and Gabe. It’s Gabe.

Sol gets to save someone. Hmm ... who does Sol feel close to on the losing team? Another hmmm ... Does Sol get to remain anonymous? If so, that’s even better because he can come clean to the person he saved in private and gain an ally. But if he has to pass it out in front of everyone, he’s drawing a line in the sand with no guarantee of gaining an ally.

Is there any advantage for Sol if he gives it to Kyle? Kyle of course wouldn’t need the extra Immunity, but he’d have the power to swing the vote where he wants it to go. If Kyle wanted Gabe gone, this could be the way to do it. Then Sol could meet up with Kyle later and form a partnership.

I like this twist if it’s anonymous. Otherwise, it’s just short of a complete waste. It’s like having an Idol or Advantage everyone knows about.

Caroline: “There’s a difference between a big move, and a big smart move that changes things.” I don’t think Probst knows or cares about how Caroline views big moves. He just wants people making them.

I don’t know who’s leaving tonight, and that’s a good thing.

Ahh, Sol gave the Advantage to Rachel!

Rachel reads it, and says she’s got Safety Without Power. Sol plays it perfectly.

This turned out to be a lot better than I thought it would be. This note twist almost makes up for the split squad crap. I was feeling pretty good because of my Dodgers becoming World Champions again, and this move saved the episode. I think it’s Gabe vs Tiyana, and Caroline gets to decide.

Will Sue play her Idol? Would she dare play it for Gabe or Caroline? Sitting in the front row is a huge disadvantage tonight.

And the whispering begins.

Yeah, its coming down to Caroline, and Teeny knows it.

If Gabe leaves, Sue’s game is probably over. She hasn’t been making enough connections, and Caroline can tell people about Sue’s Idol. If Tiyana leaves, Kyle can be scooped up by Lavo or Gata because he HAS been making connections. This is why you never write anybody off in Survivor.

Hmm ... Caroline didn’t look at Gabe or Tiyana after she voted. This vote is almost as intense as the 8th inning of tonight’s World Series game.

Tiyana is gone. I wonder who Kyle voted for? We only saw one vote for Gabe.

So much for that proposed women’s alliance.

Wow, Kyle voted for Tiyana. Did Caroline come clean to him, or did he read the room correctly?

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Recap

I really want to know why Caroline voted for Tiyana. Was her vote based on the fact she thinks she might be able to use Sue’s Idol? Does she actually trust Gabe? Does she have a side deal with Kyle. She had to have tipped him off because he was all in on siding with Tiyana.

What do you think? I’m watching Dodger highlights again, so I’m not as focused as I usually am when I’m writing my recap. How should Sol play it from here on out? Let me know in the comments. It’s 1 a.m. and I’m still hearing fireworks for the Dodgers.