After 30 days of causing general drama -- both intentionally and not -- to his tribemates, a gaffe by Randy Bailey, a 49-year-old videographer from Eagle Rock, MO, and another castaway's desire to make a fool of him led to his becoming the eleventh castaway eliminated from Survivor: Gabon during last night's broadcast on CBS.

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"Being voted out by these bozos is probably one of the best accolades anyone could get. The hell with these frickin' people," an angry Randy said following his elimination. "I hope [Corinne Kaplan] does well if she was not in on today's plot, and I don't think she was. Most of the others, with the exception of [Matty Whitmore], I hope they get bit by a f****** mamba."

Survivor: Gabon's tenth episode began on Night 27 as the eight remaining Nobag tribe members returned to camp following their Tribal Council session in which Charlie Herschel had been eliminated.

Randy said that he had been pleasantly surprised by the outcome of previous Tribal Council, especially considering the less than favorable opinions of him throughout the tribe.

"I thought I was the target tonight because I was pissing a whole bunch of people off. That wasn't the case," Randy said. "They made more of a smart vote, Charlie's got a lot of friends, I don't."

As she watched her alliance members slowly get picked off by the former Fang member alliance headed by Ken "Kenny" Hoang, a 22-year-old professional video gamer from Westminster, CA, and Crystal Cox, a 29-year-old 2004 Olympic gold-medalist track athlete from Durham, NC, Corinne realized that it was time to rethink her strategies in the competition.

"I'm gonna do whatever I think I can do when I wake up tomorrow morning. I'm gonna revaluate the situation and hope to come up with something," Corinne, a 29-year-old pharmaceutical sales representative from Los Angeles, CA, said. "Kenny and Crystal are taking out my entire alliance, my chances are very slim. Most likely me, [Robert "Bob" Crowley] and Randy are gonna go home. We don't know in what order, but we're gonna go home."

The following day, Jessica "Sugar" Kiper, a 29-year-old pin-up model and actress from Brooklyn, NY, vented to Bob about much she wanted Randy gone, after which Bob -- a 57-year-old physics teacher from South Portland, ME -- confided that he had created a fake Immunity Idol while away at Exile to her.
 
"I think it might fool somebody in the future, but I'm only gonna tell you," he told her.

"Everyone beside Randy, Corinne and Bob know that I have the idol," Sugar said later. "Bob still thinks the Idol is out there. I kinda feel bad about, but it is hilarious."

Meanwhile, Corinne and Randy discussed what their survival strategy should be now that they and Bob were up against the five-person alliance made up of Kenny; Crystal; Sugar; Matty, a 29-year-old personal trainer from Pacific Palisades, CA; and Susie Smith, a 47-year-old hairdresser and assistant teacher from Charles City, IA.

During the conversation, Corinne said she felt that Matty and Sugar were "so stupid" for believing that they could make it to the game's Final 3 with their alliance.

"I mean don't they realize there's five of them? They can't all be Top 3," she told Randy.

Randy said felt he had no shot at convincing Sugar to change sides but would try and convince Matty that he needed to change alliances if he wanted to make it to the end of the game.

"Desperate times call for desperate measures," Randy said later. "We've got to get somebody to flip-flop now and come with us, and that somebody has got to be Matty because the credibility of all the others is crap."

Later that day, the castaways met Survivor: Gabon host Jeff Probst in their next Reward Challenge, which ended up being the show's traditional "Survivor Auction." Each castaway was given $500 and told that they could bid in increments of $20 on items up for auction that included items such as beer and peanuts, chocolate and peanut butter, a bath and a clean set of clothes, the ability to send one person to Exile while stealing their money, and a note containing a "huge advantage in the next Immunity Challenge."

Following the auction of all but one of the items -- which included Corinne using her full $500 to win the advantage in the Immunity Challenge, Kenny winning a mystery item that ended up allowing him to send Bob to Exile for the second time, and Sugar bidding on items she didn't appear to want just to keep Randy from getting them -- a controversy arose when Randy bought the final prize for $20: a batch of eight cookies for he and his tribemates.

As he handed them out, Sugar said she did not want a cookie, causing Randy to give a second cookie to Corinne who, in turn, gave half of her extra cookie to Matty. However, once only one cookie remained Sugar took Randy up on his second -- and clearly felicitous -- offer of a cookie to her. Sugar took the cookie and then immediately handed it to Matty, angering a now cookie-less Randy.

"Sugar, she can kiss my ass. She thinks I was bad before. I'm just gonna turn it up a notch. There's a lot of fight left in this dog," Randy said following the auction.

"I left the auction broke, full, half drunk and pissed off, so I'm gonna burn this house down in the next day or so," he added later.

Meanwhile, Sugar was taken aback by Randy's extreme reaction to the cookie incident.

"Oh my gosh! Have you ever seen a grown man get so upset over a chocolate chip cookie?! The only reason I took his damn cookie is because he didn't want to give me a cookie. He wanted to give everybody a cookie but Sugar, because Sugar's evil," Sugar said in mocking baby-voiced tone.

Matty informed Randy that it would serve him well to "drop the attitude and just be cool" instead of always acting so harshly as they sat together with Corinne, however Randy and Corinne didn't seem interested in his advice.

Instead, Randy and Corinne attempted to convince Matty that he was on the outs in his alliance and needed to join with them and Bob and have a shot at winning the competition.

"Fifth place ain't bad -- it's nothing to be ashamed of," Randy told Matty smugly.

At Exile, Bob was disappointed to choose the clue to the Immunity Idol over comfort only to learn that the new clue only confirmed that the Idol should have been on the small pond island that he'd already searched during his previous visit to Exile. Instead of searching for the Idol again, Bob instead decided to spend his Exile time on a personal "safari."

Back at camp, Kenny tried to convince his allies that they should eliminate Randy at the upcoming Tribal Council. However, he was shot down by a suddenly vocal Matty who suggested that, despite Randy's penchant for being annoying, it was in the alliance's best interest to eliminate Bob first instead.

"Randy's not gonna win any challenges, Corinne's not gonna win any challenges. Bringing them into the Final 6 or Final 7 is way safer for us. I think Bob should go next," Matty told his allies.

While Sugar said that holding off on eliminating Randy "suck[ed]," but agreed to go along with Matty's plan.

"I know it sucks, but we gotta worry about us and this five some getting into the final five," Matty said.

On Day 30, Randy sought out Corinne and told her that he had stayed up all night thinking of the most "diabolical thing that we could do to keep us in the game and get the worst person in this game out."

Randy then told her he'd decided that given the pair felt Bob had found the hidden Immunity Idol, he was going to intentionally try to make everyone on the other alliance as miserable as possible and all but force them to decide to vote for him at Tribal Council.  But before that could happen, Randy was going to convince Bob to give him the Idol once he returned from Exile.

Getting the Idol from Bob and pulling it out after the castaways voted at Tribal Council would then negate the votes that the five former Fang members had cast for Randy and instead result in Susie -- who Randy, Corinne, and Bob would be voting for -- being voted out of the game instead.

"I love it," said Corinne, who added that he would talk to Bob once he returned.

Randy wasted no time getting under his tribemates' nerves, telling Matty he had "whored" himself out to the other alliance, repeatedly bringing up the cookie incident with Sugar and telling Susie to "Shut the f*** up."

It didn't seem to take long for Randy's strategy to "work."

"Randy's just sealed his fate," Matty said after Randy's antics. "I've done what I can, and if you're not gonna listen to what I have to say or take my advice, than there's nothing I can do.  It's a no-brainer that Randy has to go home now, and he going out with a bang."

However as far as Randy was concerned, he now had the former Fang members exactly where he wanted them.

"I like where I'm sitting now, they're all freaking out and that's a real good thing." Randy said after he had thoroughly annoyed his tribemates. "The more they freak out, the more paranoia sets in, the more 'Operation Strong Arm' can be effective."

The castaways then met with Jeff  for their Immunity Challenge, which required each castaway to race across a series of balance beams while carrying bags of puzzle blocks. The first two castaways to get across the beams three times, each time with another bag of puzzle blocks, would advance to the finals.

In the final round, the remaining castaways would have to arrange their domino-like puzzle pieces on a multi-angled platform while avoiding trip wires at their feet that would tip the platform if touched.  The first castaway to arrange the puzzle pieces and then have them fall like dominoes to hit a device that raised their flag would be granted immunity during the upcoming Tribal Council.

Prior to beginning the challenge, Corinne opened the clue she had won during the auction and learned that the item would allow her to sit out the challenge's first round but still get to compete in the second round.

The two other final round spots ended up being won by Matty and Kenny, who finished well ahead of any of the other castaways.

In the final round, Matty jumped out to an early lead, but was eventually caught by Kenny and Corinne. After Kenny's first attempt to knock all of his pieces down failed, he narrowly won the challenge when his second attempt succeeded as Matty and Corinne were launching their own first attempts.

"Randy or I needed to win," a disappointed Corinne said following her loss in the Immunity Challenge. "Now I'm going on a wing and prayer that Bob got the Idol, I just have to figure out if he has it or not."

With Tribal Council looming, Randy felt confident that he had done his part in his plan to get Susie eliminated.

"I'm 75% sure that I need the Idol tonight because they're gonna vote for me," Randy said. "Ideally tonight Bob gives me the Idol, and whoever Bob and Corinne and I decide to send home will be going home."

"Right now it looks like Susie," he added.

However, seemingly unaware of Randy's plan, Sugar's "loathing" of Randy led her to develop her own plan to have Bob fool Randy into taking his fake "Idol" and lulling him into a false sense of security before getting him eliminated.

"I think that Randy would fall for it, your 'Idol," she told Bob after approaching him about the plan. "And, it would he hilarious!"

Bob accepted Sugar's plan reasoning that it could only improve his standing in the tribe.

"Sugar wants to play the joke on Randy, and my life expectancy is a little bit better off if I allow her to have he satisfaction of me giving Randy the 'Idol.' I got nothing to  lose," Bob said after accepting the plan. "It's not a real Idol, I can't save myself with it. The only way I can save myself for another Tribal Council is by convincing somebody else to use it."

After speaking with Randy briefly, Bob arranged to meet with him secretly and carried out Sugar's plan.

"There's gonna be some surprised people tonight, and I'm gonna be here three more days," a half-correct Randy said following the Idol exchange.

"Looks like an idol to me," he said as he held the "Idol" to a camera.

That evening at Tribal Council, Jeff wasted little time before asking Sugar what had happened regarding Randy and the cookies at the auction.

Sugar said that she had not thought the last cookie had been for Randy. "So I took it and I gave it to Matty, and we've heard about it for three days."

"It wasn't the last cookie, it was my cookie," Randy shot back immediately. "And honestly I was testing her. I could've thrown them on the ground and stomped on them if I wanted to, or I could've been generous, like I was."

"It's freaking cookies, for crying out!" Sugar responded. "This is stupid!"

"You're really getting to know people's true colors and what they're really like, because I've questioned 'Is Randy really like this?'" Susie added. "He's actually probably a person that's really hurting. I kinda feel sorry for him because he's probably very sad."

Crystal added that she could feel the "tension ramping up" at camp. and added that Randy's remark towards Susie while discussing the cookies two days earlier would be "hands down for a slap" under any other circumstances.

When Jeff asked Randy if he was as worried during this Tribal Council as he had during previous ones, Randy insisted he hadn't been worried at all of his earlier Tribal Councils, but admitted being worried at the moment.

Jeff then had each of the castaways cast their votes. As each vote was cast -- including Crystal's, in which she shouted so loud the other castaways could easily hear her -- Sugar could hardly contain her laughter in anticipation.

When Jeff asked the castaways if anyone wanted to play an Immunity Idol, Randy stood up and presented his "Idol" and the rest of the castaways -- including Corinne, who believed she, Randy and Bob had just pulled as fast one on the former Fang members -- began grinning.

Randy and Corinne's smiles was short-lived however.

"This is not a hidden Immunity Idol," Jeff announced after holding up the fake Idol and reminding everyone that Survivor's rules state that, should an Idol be played, the castaway receiving the second-most votes would be voted out instead.

"All votes cast against Randy will count," Jeff added as the former Fang members burst into laughter and Randy and Corinne responded with looks of surprise and disappointment.

Jeff then revealed that, with votes from Kenny, Crystal, Sugar, Matty and Susie, Randy had been eliminated with a 5-3 vote over Susie.

"Well, after tonight's Tribal Council it's very clear that this game is coming down to one thing.  Trust," Jeff said. "I can't wait to see how it plays out."

Survivor: Gabon's next new episode will air Thursday, December 4 at 8PM ET/PT on CBS.  Due to the Thanksgiving holiday, a special recap episode will air on November 27.
About The Author: John Bracchitta

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