My Greyhound Wrote me a Letter

My Greyhound Wrote me a Letter is the 9th episode of Survivor: Espana.

Challenges
Reward Challenge:  Concentration You will be divided into two teams. One by one, you'll uncover an item. You'll then have to find an item that matches. Certain items are duds and do not have a match. First team to find 8 items with a 2 item margin or the first team to 11 items wins.  Reward: Letters from home.

Immunity Challenge:  Fauxconut Bowling You'll play one on one. You'll roll a coconut down the lane. On the other side are ten bottles filled with sand. You'll want to knock down as many as you can. Whoever knocks down more moves on to the next round. You'll get two rolls. All ten in one roll beats all ten in two rolls. Otherwise, if you tie, you'll go again. If you win all three rounds, you'll win.

Previously On Survivor...
Despite Larry's controversial quit, the alliances were set on remaining as is. Julia, Jeffery and Jack wanted to target Virginia, while Matthew, Susan and Sue were set on knocking out Ramon. After Virginia won the reward challenge, she and Raphael decided to join Ramon in getting Sue out. Julia ultimately outlasted the others for immunity. But at Tribal Council, a 3 way tie involving his tribe mates forced Raphael to flip, removing Sue from the tie. A makeshift second revote forced Virginia out of the game. Eight are left. Who will be voted out tonight?

Initial Reactions
Alright, I'm sure we have initial reactions. It's just that everyone was too tired to say what they are.

Jeffery: Man, I'm tired.

Susan: Mind if I sleep with you tonight?

Jeffery: Look, Susan. You're a nice lady. But I'm a married man. And you have a girlfriend your...

Susan: Okay. How about we just share a shelter?

Jeffery: Oh. I guess there's no harm in that.

Confessional-Susan: Just what I was going for. Hopefully this will make it seem like he's going to flip on Jack and Julia. If that happens, he may get ostracized from the alliance. And that will mean that he may have to join us.

A few hours later, a bit of a scuffle occurs.

Sue: Move it, Julia. I'm trying to sleep.

Julia: Well, guess what? So am I.

Sue: Well, I'd do a lot better if you weren't sleeping here. With your fat ass and all.

Confessional-Jack: The other leaf hut had a bit of an insult exchange between Sue and Julia. I'm sure it was nothing big time. But it definitely kept me awake.

Julia: I'm not getting into this.

Julia walks over towards the river.

Sue: GET BACK HERE, FATASS!

Why? You wanted the space.

Julia: OVER MY DEAD BODY!

In another shelter,

Raphael: Well... that went wrong.

Confessional-Sue: I'm a bit irritated by Julia's demeanor. She has this attitude about her. I don't really like it. I could see myself voting for her at the next opening.

Confessional-Julia: Sue better watch her back. Because she's the next target for the triple J.

Let's just start singing in Russian.

The Reward Challenge
You know what might get your mind off of that argument? A children's game. Concentration, anybody?

Probst: COME ON IN, GUYS!

The tribe walks in, all ready to go and such. Jack is shadow boxing. Matthew is doing the dougie. And Ramon is trying to erase that picture from his head.

Probst: Are you ready to get to today's reward challenge?

Well, in order to get a accurate...

Probst: For today's challenge, you will be divided into two teams. One by one, you'll uncover an item. You'll then have to find an item that matches. Certain items are duds and do not have a match. First team to find 8 items with a 2 item margin or the first team to 11 items wins reward. And I'm going to give you a small taste of the reward up front.

As the tarp is removed, there are 8 manila envelopes, one per castaway.

Matthew: OH MY GOOOOOOD!

Probst: You are each getting a letter from home. You each have 6 letters in your envelope. Win the challenge, and you'll get to read the other 5. I know it's worth playing for. But if you're not convinced, here's your teaser.

After Jeff passes the letters out, the tribe breaks away for a spell.

Confessional-Julia: My husband is the greatest. To hear that he has my back through all of this is just what I needed.

Confessional-Ramon: I got my dad's letter. And I want to share an excerpt. "Get off your ass and get to work. Make them proud to keep you around." That's why I'm glad to have gotten this. I needed awkward encouragement. Make me get in the mood to play again.

Confessional-Susan: I got my college roommate's letter. She told me that if I find a cute guy, to let her know. Courtney, meet Raphael. Raph, Courtney.

Alright. Let's get to the challenge.

Probst: Alright. We drew for teams. On red is Ramon, Raph, Julia, and Matthew. On green is Jack, Sue, Jeffery, and Susan. Red won the toss and elected to go second. Jack will go first. He uncovers a bible. And a snowball.

Actually, it's a polystyrene foam ball. You know how snow can get.

Probst: Ramon uncovers a soccer ball. And a bible. No go. Sue uncovers a bible. And another bible. Green leads, 1-zip.

The magic of television later,

Probst: Raphael uncovers a necklace. And a bull. No good. Jeffery uncovers a snowball. And a snowball. Green leads, 3-2. Julia uncovers a bull. And the other bull. We're tied, 3-3.

Another skip.

Probst: Susan now up for green. She uncovers the bowl. And the sword. No good. Matthew uncovers the soccer ball. He's trying to remember where he's seen that before. He does. Green still leads 7-4. Jack uncovers the urn. And the other urn. GREEN WINS REWARD!

A bit of a celebration. But eventually, they get back onto the mats.

Probst: Alright. Jack, Jeffery, Susan, Sue. Come get your envelopes. Don't open them until you get back to camp.

Jack was so excited about it that he didn't watch his footing and tripped. He was okay, but if it wasn't on Survivor, it'd be on Home Videos.

Probst: Raphael, Ramon, Julia, Matthew. I have nothing for you. Grab your stuff. Head back to camp.

Afterwards
So, a logistical problem with the challenge reward occurred. The green team had to read the letters at camp. As in, in front of the red team. Who didn't win the reward. I don't see this going over very well.

Sue: It's my nephew. He said to say hello to the tribe.

Susan: Hey to the relative.

Matthew: Whose that one from?

Susan: My dog, Sophie.

Confessional-Susan: Yes. My greyhound wrote me a letter. There's no law against it. Gosh, people. Get a life.

Matthew: That's a new one.

Confessional-Matthew: Obviously, I'm pretty disappointed that we didn't win this one. But ultimately, there's nothing you can do about it.

Julia, meanwhile, is ready to go on the strategizing. She is helping with water duties.

Julia (captioned): Ramon, are you still up for voting for Sue?

Ramon (captioned): I take it you're still upset about last night.

Julia (captioned): Probably, but it also seems like a good strategic move.

Confessional-Ramon: Last night ultimately ended in me flipping. So I'm going to need to get into a new grouping. But there's a human element to this as well. I don't want to join someone who seems to merely be frustrated. So I'm going to give her some time to calm down.

Ramon (captioned): Let's sleep on it. Okay?

Julia (captioned): Alright.

Confessional-Ramon: The only thing giving this any reasonable consideration is the end game. It may be wise to get rid of Sue to get there. If I can get help with that, perfect. But it's complicated right now.

Meanwhile, Jeffery noticed there's a bit of a change in the river's content.

Jeffery: Is that what it looks like?

Well, the network wasn't allowed to show what it looks like. So we can't say for sure. But he might have a clue.

Confessional-Jeffery: So, a condom just washed up. We can't drink from this river, but other people can just use it as their personal trash can. Of flipping course.

He then proceeds to put it in his pocket.

Confessional-Jeffery: We may be able to use this.

Night 25 will be very... interesting.

Ramon: Let's just go to sleep.

Gamma tribe (in unison): Good idea.

Okay, maybe not. Oh wait. What is this?

Jeffery: Julia, I got an idea.

Julia: What is it?

Jeffery: I found a condom earlier today. I'm going to fill it with water, dig a hole, stick it in the hole, and cover it up. Someone will step on it and get their foot wet. It'll be hilarious.

Julia: Humor is why we're keeping Susan around for. Quit wasting your time. Especially on terrible gags.

Confessional-Julia: Apparently, Jeffery's idea of a gag is to get someone's foot wet. I think the thought of it being funny is funnier than the gag itself.

Confessional-Jeffery: Come on. They're just walking along the bank. They're thinking, "Oh, I hope I don't get my foot wet." And then, bam. Their foot gets wet. It's hilarious.

Well, 25 days in a survival situation, and I guess you'd think obscure things are hilarious, too.

Day 26
Susan: Matt, you awake?

Matthew: No.

Susan: Well, I'll just tell your subconscious. I'm thinking Ramon.

Matthew: Why?

Susan: Raph's going to be rather ticked off at him for flipping. By convincing him that he can trust us, this may be our golden ticket to the finals.

Matthew: True, but Sue is ticked at Julia. Can we guarantee she will vote Ramon?

Susan: She will probably get over that one pretty quickly, though.

Confessional-Matthew: This isn't the first time I've thought Susan was a little off target. But she does have the right idea. So I'm going to look into this one further.

Well, you know me. I'll never get back around to that. So I may as well just go to the next discussion.

Jeffery: What's up, Jack?

Jack: To be frank, I'm a little worried about Matthew. He's been rather shady this whole time we've been out here.

Jeffery: Has he?

Jack: Yes. To make matters worse, I saw him yesterday digging in the shore. He was probably hiding a fake idol.

Jeffery: Hmmm.

Confessional-Jeffery: Jack probably saw me. Giving the angle of the sun at the time I hid the condom, I'm thinking that he was sun blind. But I'm not going to tell him that because it would not only put a target on my back, but it will also expose the joke. And I can't have that.

Jeffery: Well, I'm sure that Julia will be more than happy to vote with us. She's probably forgiven Sue by now.

Jack: True.

Later that night, it's time... for Survivor Idol.

Matthew: Anyone know any good songs?

Julia (singing): County fly, county fly, no she can't even see so I poke her face.

Jeffery (singing): Eh oh, chicken on a raft. Oy oh, chicken on a raft.

Raphael (singing): But I keep mooning. Can't stop, won't stop spooning.

Ramon just started whistling Price It's theme song.

Susan (singing): Whether you're a mugger or whether you're a --, you're staying alive, staying alive.

Jack (singing): I'm a spice drop, he's a spice drop, she's a spice drop. We're all spice drops.

Sue (singing): 99 bottles of beer on the wall. 99 bottles of beer. You take one down, pass it around, 192 [sic] bottles of beer on the wall.

Matthew's song is to the tune of Amazing Grace.

Matthew (singing): Don't do the drugs and you will live. Don't pee and you will die. This is so weird, but that is it. Come on, let's have some pie.

Yeah, it's clearly a time filler at this point. But whatever.

The Immunity Challenge
Probst: COME ON IN, GUYS!

What's this? Fauxconut Bowling? For immunity? In a nation where coconuts aren't indigenous? You're messing with me, aren't you? No? Wow.

Probst: Ready to get to the immunity challenge?

As crucial as day 27 is, oh yes they are.

Probst: First things first. Julia, I'll take it back.

Julia takes the necklace out of her cleavage and hands it to Jeff. His wife had apparently okayed him touching it, however.

Probst: Thank you. Once again, immunity is back up for grabs. For today's challenge, you'll play one on one. You'll roll a coconut down the lane. On the other side are ten bottles filled with sand.

The sand bottles are shown to be in traditional ten pin bowling layout. Here's that, for those of you who don't bowl.



Probst: You'll want to knock down as many as you can. Whoever knocks down more moves on to the next round. You'll get two rolls. All ten in one roll beats all ten in two rolls. Otherwise, if you tie, you'll go again. If you win all three rounds, you'll win immunity. Guaranteed a one in seven shot at one million dollars. Losers, tribal council, you know the drill.

After the wipe,

Probst: Alright. We drew rocks to determine matches and order. Sue is taking on Julia. Sue's shot is looking good. Hits 7 pins. Julia's first shot. Eight. We have a challenge.

And a tough one too. Sue has the 1-4-6 split, while Julia has the 4-9 split.

Probst: Sue's second shot. Falls off the lane. Julia is moving on. Next up, we have Matthew taking on Jeffery. Matthew hits a strike. Jeffery looking for the same kind of luck. No good.

But impressive, leaving only the 10 pin. But this doesn't stop Jeffery from cussing the pin out.

Probst: Matthew's moving on. Next two are Susan and Raphael. Our youngest two. Susan knocks down 9.

Susan: Alright.

Probst: Raphael hits 7.

Raphael: Dammit.

This is doable for Raph though. He needs the 1-5-9, a pretty easy spare to pick up. But Susan needs the 7, pretty close to the gutt... er, side.

Probst: Susan looks for her approach. Converts. Raph needs to tie. He misses wide left. Susan's moving on. Ramon is taking on Jack. Ramon only leaves 2 on. Jack strikes, though. Jack is moving on.

Ramon would've dealt with the 6-7.

Probst: Alright. We drew rocks for matches and order. Julia taking on Jack. Julia knocks down 9. Raph only gets 1. Julia only needs the one Jack actually got.

The 3.

Probst: Julia connects. Jack hits 8 more, but needed them all. Julia's moving on.

Jack missed the 5.

Probst: Matthew taking on Susan. Matthew hits 8. Susan hits 8 as well.

But the second shot is two different ballgames. Matt's got the 1-2, while Susan has the 7-10. So Jeff isn't exaggerating.

Probst: Matthew converts the spare. Susan trying to force the tie. But it falls off the lane. Matthew is moving on.

Matthew: Yes.

Probst: Alright. One last draw to determine order. Matthew is going first. He puts up 6. Julia keeps it close, however. Gets 5.

It's interesting. Matt has 4-5-7-8, while Julia has 1-2-3-4-7.

Probst: Matt leaves one on. Door is open for Julia. Can she convert the spare? SHE DOES! JULIA WINS IMMUNITY!

Matthew's frustrated. As evidenced by him kicking the 5 pin very far away. Let's wipe.

Probst: Julia. Here's your necklace. Three immunity challenges, three immunity wins. Three reward challenges. Three reward losses. I'm guessing energy focus?

Julia: Yeah. Sure. Whatever you say.

Probst: Well, whatever the reason, you're safe tonight. As for everyone else, tribal council. I'll give you the rest of this beautiful day to think about it. Grab your stuff. Head back to camp.

The Final Scramble
It's that time again. More or less 3 o' clock on the third night of the episode. Perfect time for a final scramble.

Matthew: I wish I was still in high school.

Raphael: That makes one of us.

Confessional-Raphael: I need to get a game plan on. Because I lost mine due to immunity results. So I'm hoping that a plan can be made soon.

Matthew (captioned): I want you to know that we're voting for Ramon.

Raphael (captioned): Alright. Sounds good to me.

Confessional-Matthew: This might not be a perfect solution. Getting Raphael onboard. But I'm sure that it won't be a huge concern.

Julia was looking onto this conversation. Later, in the woods.

Julia: Raph, we have a problem.

Raphael: What is it?

Julia: It's a situation where you need some help, but that's not important right now. What is important is that we need to get Sue out of here. She's a huge threat going into the final 3. So the earlier we can get rid of her, the better.

Raphael: Fair point.

Confessional-Julia: We need to be able to take a chance on getting Raph to flip. If we don't, it very well could be Ramon going home tonight. And I need him around to get back in the majority.

Even later,

Jack: Raphael. My man. What's the word, hummingbird?

Raphael: What's your strategy?

Jack: Matthew. He may have hidden a fake idol.

Raphael: That would've been a good idea if idols were in play.

Confessional-Jack: Matthew is definitely a huge threat. So we need to get him out.

Alright, it's time for that long and treacherous "hike" to Tribal Council. But one last confessional.

Confessional-Raphael: This morning, I wasn't sure how to vote. But now I'm not sure how to vote. So, we have some crap to figure out.

Tribal Council
At tribal council, we have the opening of a new phase to get to.

Probst: We'll now being in the first member of our jury. Virginia, voted out at the last Tribal Council.

As Virginia takes her seat in the jury box, Jeff takes his.

Probst: Here we are at what has historically been one of the most important tribal councils of the game. Julia, do you feel the pressure even with immunity?

Julia: Absolutely. Although you know you're safe, you feel the need to make sure you make the right decision. Because if you don't, you may be over by Virginia in a week.

Probst: Raphael, how important of a vote is tonight's?

Raphael: It's very important. But it's also very hard. So you have to come into it with a strategy of sorts.

Probst: Well, you can't talk the talk unless you're willing to walk the walk. It is time to vote. Jack, you're up.

I don't normally write stuff like "Raphael went up to vote. It is not shown. Julia went up to vote. It is not shown. Etc." And this is because I assume that you already figured out that they did vote. So I tend to show only the voting confessionals that made it to air. But in today's case, I actually will tell you that Raph took a while to vote. It wasn't shown, but it was a noteworthy length.

Matthew (for Ramon): Good luck in the future.

Sue (for Ramon): I'm just hoping that you'll forgive me.

Ramon (for Sue): I'm apologizing for any meany butt comments that my other alliance member made. But you do seem like a strategic choice. My apologies.

As Jeffery comes back, the results.

Probst: I'll go tally the votes.

Good news. Jeff's recovering somewhat. As evidenced by him walking all the way to the urn. Bad news. Everyone is concerned.

Probst: Once the votes are read, the decision is final. Person voted out will be asked to leave the tribal council area immediately. I'll read the votes.

Tensions rise.

Probst: First vote. Ramon. Sue. One vote Ramon, one vote Sue. Matthew. One vote Ramon, one vote Matthew, one vote Sue. Ramon. Two votes Ramon. Sue. Two votes Ramon, two votes Sue, one vote Matthew. Matthew. Two votes Ramon, two votes Sue, two votes Matthew. Ramon. Three votes Ramon, two votes Sue, two votes Matthew, one vote left. Eleventh person voted out of Survivor: Espana and the second member of our jury, Ramon. That's four. That's enough. You need to bring me your torch.

A disappointing reaction from the blindsided Ramon. But he handles it gracefully.

Probst: Ramon, the tribe has spoken.

As the snuffer hits the flame, Ramon leaves.

Probst: Well, this proves one thing. You never know what to expect from Survivor unless you're the one making it happen. Grab your stuff. Head back to camp. Good night.

Still in the Running
Photo background depicts original tribe. Table background depicts current tribe. Green is Ardilla, red is Musaraña, white means still in the running, and black means eliminated.

Next Time on Survivor...
The game seems well set.

Susan: Final four, baby.

But the minority won't go down without a fight.

Julia: Whoever's last, win them all.

Final Words
Confessional-Ramon: Well, that was definitely unexpected. I'm not going to lie. But ultimately, everyone is in it for the million dollars. So you need to make bold moves. Ultimately, if you don't do that, you're out. That's what happened to me. I don't like it one bit. But I do understand and respect the decision laid out.

Voting Confessionals
Jack (for Matthew): If you're going to play a strategy, play a good one.

Raphael (for Ramon): Upon reflection, this was the only one of the three suggestions that wasn't personal and made any amount of sense.

Susan (for Ramon): Sorry about this. It's just strategy.

Julia (for Sue): Don't call me fatass and expect me to not do this.

Jeffery (for Matthew): Enjoy the burgers.

Author's Notes

 * This is merely an initial upload. A voting chart and the trivia section will be uploaded later today.