John Fincher was the latest castaway to incorrectly think that he could trust Russell Hantz.

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The 25-year-old rocket scientist from Los Angeles, CA was blindsided and became the twelfth castaway eliminated from Survivor: Samoa during last night's broadcast of the CBS reality competition.

"I think that tonight's vote was another decision made by Galu that is a sub-standard decision," said John after his ouster.

"They're scrambling, they're doing anything they can to live to see tomorrow. The former Galu tribe is intellectually outmatched. I'm happy that I performed well and made it this far. I think I had what it takes to go the distance but it didn't work out."

Survivor: Samoa's twelfth episode began on Night 27 at the merged Aiga camp following the elimination of Laura Morett -- who was booted after an initial five-to-five Tribal Council vote was broken when John decided to vote with the four former Foa Foa members and Shannon "Shambo" Waters, a 45-year-old sales representative from Renton, WA, instead of the rest of his fellow former Galu members.

"At Tribal tonight Laura went home. The vote was five-to-five, the rules of Survivor state that if there is another tie after a second round of voting the remaining members would choose rocks. One of those rocks would be of a different color and that person would go home," explained John in  a confessional.

"I'm not going to go home because of ridiculous rocks."

John tried to explain his decision to Laura's ally Monica Padilla, a 25-year-old law student from San Diego, CA. Unbeknownst to her, John had made a deal with Russell, a 36-year-old oil company owner from Dayton, TX, that if he voted to oust Laura then the former Foa Foa members would get rid of one of their own at the next Tribal Council.

"Right now I think I have a pretty good position," he said in a confessional.

Despite his explanation, Monica told him she "still could not flop for Laura."

"I definitely have come to see John a little bit more as a Judas to the Galu tribe," she said in a confessional. "John has to go home."

The next morning the nine remaining castaways each received an envelope with $500 and immediately knew it was time for the Survivor auction. They subsequently met host Jeff Probst, who confirmed their prediction and explained bidding would be in increments of $20 and that there would be no sharing of money or food. 

As castaways purchased food items -- some good and some bad -- Jaison Robinson, a 28-year-old law student from Chicago, IL, got in a bidding war with John for an item that Jeff described as a "significant advantage" during the upcoming Immunity Challenge.

Jaison decided to bid all of his $500 on it and Jeff told him to keep it sealed and bring it to the Immunity Challenge.

"I was thinking when John was bidding on the item that would do well in the challenge that [the former Foa Foa members] need to be in possession of that item," he explained in a confessional. "Maybe it was my turn to sacrifice a little for the good of the former Foa Foa."

The last item in the auction was piece of apple pie that John won with a $300 bid, however Jeff told him he could keep the piece for himself of forfeit the piece and give four of his tribemates a whole pie to share.

"I'll eat the pie," decided John.  "Everyone's nice and I'm confident that no one is going to vote me off because they didn't get a piece of apple pie."

Russell did not agree with John's decision.

"John should have gave the pie to everybody," said Russell in a confessional. "It shows how stingy he was. You're playing a game, you're in the game -- you don't need to eat. If it was me, I would have given it to my tribe, Foa Foa and Shambo. So I think it was a terrible move. It was terrible at that point in the game."

Back at camp, John began his search for the Hidden Immunity Idol -- which he had purchased clues to at the auction. After carefully searching the area where the clue led him to, John correctly became suspicious that Russell had already found it.

"It could be found already," he said. "It's making me wonder if Russell has the idol. I mean, he's a dude finding idols without clues. But I'm still going to make moves to advance myself in this game. Better safe than sorry."

Shambo began to prepare the two remaining chickens to be killed so the castaways could eat -- however she had grown emotionally attached to them since they were won for the Galu tribe by David Ball, a 38-year-old fitness instructor from Los Angeles, CA.

"The chickens were probably my single source of happiness the last 29 days," she said.  "I think that I brought them as much peace as they brought me and it was a win-win -- then off with their heads."

Once Russell beheaded the chickens Shambo took charge of cooking them -- deciding to boil them slowly over the course of two hours rather than skewer them for a rotisserie, which is what a majority of the other castaways wanted. Dave subsequently questioned Shambo's cooking decision.

"That's a hard boil," said Dave when he saw Shambo cooking.

"Yeah, we're not having a conversation about the soup this time everybody because I'm in no mood," she fired back. "So just trust me. We'll call it a bad case of PMS, but I'm really in no mood to talk the soup today."

"I won those chickens Shambo so I think I should be able to say something," said Dave.

"Go right ahead because I'm not listening," she responded.

"You boil a chicken for two hours and it's going to be ruined," said Dave.

"You have no idea what the f--k you're talking about right now," replied Shambo. "You've got to just respect that on some level."

"Okay, cool," said Dave, ending the argument.

However Shambo subsequently stated she doesn't think she's "been as angry in the last 29 days" and that night she claimed to have had a vision in her sleep.

"In my lifetime I've had some dreams about situations that I'm enduring. Sometimes it's dreams that are just out of the blue that occur, and they're literally clairvoyant dreams. I've probably had 30 of them in my lifetime. I think that's god's divine intervention at work," she explained. "

"I had a dream last night that we voted Dave off."

The next morning Shambo told Russell about her dream -- and while he thought it was funny he also knew it was best not to question the volatile Shambo.

"You've got somebody unstable like Shambo, all she votes with is her emotions," he told his ally Natalie White, a 26-year-old pharmaceutical sales representative from Van Buren, AR.

The nine remaining castaways then met for the next Immunity Challenge, and Jeff explained the rules.

Each castaway would have a rope and a very heavy log.  The object of the challenge was to hold on to that log for as long as they could.  To keep it fair, the logs weighed as much as the person holding them.  Every three minutes they would switch hands and move one knot lower on the rope, which would dramatically increase the weight pulling on their arm. 

When they could no longer hold onto the rope, the log would drop, and that person would be out of the challenge.  The last person standing would win Immunity. 

Jaison then opened his auction item and learned that at any time during the challenge he could move up two knots on the rope, which would significantly reduce the tension and amount of weight he was holding.

The challenge commenced and Jaison decided to use his advantage early and it paid off -- as he was able to outlast everyone else, setting up a battle between him and Dave that he eventually won.

"I am definitely in a position of power with Foa Foa at my disposal to vote how I ask them to," said Shambo in a confessional. "They keep saying, 'Shannon, whatever you want.' David is so gone. He doesn't even know it."

Back at camp Mick Trimming, a 33-year-old doctor from Boise, ID who currently resides in Los Angeles, CA, asked Russell if there was any chance Shambo would flip on the former Foa Foa.

"I know she ain't flippin'," replied Russell. 

On the beach, John approached Russell about their previous agreement that somebody from Foa Foa go next, and Russell suggested Mick.

"We continue to move on and move on and move on and move on through this game and progress further and further," John told Russell, agreeing with Mick as the choice to go.

"If something crazy happens because you have ears here and I have ears there, if we do find ourselves outgunned, we can see it coming, we can play the idol and then we're done."

Russell initially played coy about having the idol, however he eventually broke when pressed by John.

"At first we were thinking get rid of Dave -- everybody was on board to get rid of Dave. In the meantime, probably the best move would be to get rid of John. He's a threat strategically, and I told him I have the Immunity Idol," said Russell in a confessional.

"I knew he knew I had it. So he said, 'I know you have it.' I didn't want to sit there, 'No I don't! No I don't!' So I said, 'Yeah I have it, it can help us.' So now I've got to get rid of John."

John was unaware that he had just painted himself into a corner with Russell.

"As long as you give me your word that you're not voting for me, we can continue to move on," he told Russell.

"Sounds good to me man," replied Russell. "As long as we stick together."

"You're not going to burn me the next vote, I'm not going to burn you the next vote," reiterated John.  "So we're fine."

Russell immediately approached Dave and told him that his head was on the chopping block but could be saved.

"I think the best way to do this is to get rid of John tonight," Russell told Dave, planting one of his infamous "Russell Seeds."

"There's no reason I would be lying about this because why would I come to you saying I want to get rid of him when your name's in the sling right now. Is Monica close to John? Can you tell her without her going to John and saying anything?"

"I could probably say something to her," replied Dave. "After he flipped on Laura, nobody trusts him anymore."

"It will be you if it's not John," said Russell. "I want you to stay in the game."

Russell then brought Mick -- who thought John is the "most dangerous person in the game" -- in on the plan, however Jaison was a harder sell.

His reasoning was that the decision not to boot Dave would alienate Shambo, and thus create a four-to-four tie between himself, Mick, Natalie and Russell and Shambo, Dave, Monica and Brett Clouser, a 23-year-old T-shirt designer from Salem, OR who currently resides in Los Angeles, CA.

"Shambo's going to leave us in two seconds," said Jaison. "We're doing to her exactly what they did to her --  taking her for granted."

"This may be one of our only shots to get rid of John," countered Mick.

"Why?" asked Jaison.

"Nothing's for sure but it seems like we do have the numbers," replied Mick.

"You get rid of John and you piss of Shambo and she's going to go to the other side and we're going to have to draw rocks," said Jaison.

"I believe that Russell can settle Shambo," said Mick.

Tribal Council the commenced, as jury members Erik Cardona, Kelly Sharbaugh and Laura entered.  Jeff asked Dave if he was concerned that the strength he displayed during the Immunity Challenge would put a target on him.

"It might have put a target on my back but I just wanted to play my guts out and do my best," he answered.

Shambo said there have been "so many up and downs" so far in the competition but described today as "peaceful."

"It wasn't about game play so much and it was genuine," she added.

"To me today was strategic only. Completely strategic," replied Russell, which brought a confused look to Shambo's face.

Wow," she said.

"That shocks you?" asked Jeff.

"Yeah," she replied.

"Shambo, how is it possible that you are shocked to learn that people were scrambling to stay in the game?!" asked Jeff.

"My vote is being based on me advancing in the game, number one. Number two, I do not want somebody that did not warrant getting $1 million. That's imperative to me in this game," she explained.

Dave said he's done his best "to be as honest and kind" as he can with Shambo, and John added he feels Shambo doesn't think he's "lacking in a certain worthiness of continuing on."

Jeff then asked Mick if -- like the previous three Tribal Councils -- there was another blindside coming.

"At this point, I don't see how you would be surprised," said Mick, pointing out that everyone brought their stuff. "Everyone has to come in here ready to go home tonight."

Russell agreed that the eliminated castaway "would be surprised."

"I don't think they're going to be shocked at all," disagreed Shambo.

Jeff asked Dave what he thought about the impending vote.

"If this vote tonight goes the way I'm expecting it to go I will be shocked," he answered before Jeff asked for John's take.

"I think that of the two potential names you've asked both of them questions and they've both said they wouldn't be shocked, so I think the answer is no," said John.

The vote then commenced. While John voted for Mick and Shambo voted for Dave, the other seven castaways all voted to boot John -- who became the fourth jury member.

"She has no idea what happened," whispered Laura to Erik about Shambo once the votes were read.

Survivor: Samoa's next episode will air Thursday, December 10 at 8PM ET/PT on CBS.
About The Author: Christopher Rocchio

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