by Vocal Fry » Mon Jul 28, 2014 10:54:39 pm
Crashcourse Barbados started off like any normal season, with two tribes of 10: the Oistin Tribe in yellow and the Bathsheba Tribe in pink. Over the opening weekend, the players were asked to rank their tribe members from best to worst. After that, the results were then compiled, and at the first event, it was announced that the three lowest-ranking members of each tribe would be removed from the tribe to join a new, third, "misfit" tribe. This tribe was the Hillaby Tribe, wearing blue. They would then be joined by a returning player from Season 1, Morgan. The twist shocked the players and turned the game on it's head. Suddenly the players on the bottom of the totem pole got a wakeup call and a second chance to start playing the game hard, while the other players suddenly lost their easy vote-offs and had to play even harder than they had before to stay alive.
In the opening challenge, Hillaby shocked everyone when they won first place in a strong showing. Bathsheba got third and went to tribal, where they tragically had to vote out Stephannie, who would have otherwise have been safe without the twist. In the following challenges, Hillaby lost twice and the game blew up even more when Ceceilia organized the boots of Cassandra and Erica who were initially in control of the tribe. Meanwhile, the tribes were forced to complete difficult tasks each round to get hidden immunity idol clues, such as solving puzzles or making a thousand posts. HIllaby and Bathsheba got to work and came together to get the clues, while Rocky, on Oistin, adamantly spoke out about getting the clues and promised to eliminate anyone who went after them. The Oistin tribe did not attempt to get the clues.
The following round saw a double boot, where Hillaby finally managed to win again. Oistin went to their first ever Tribal Council and took out the quiet Alex, with Sylvia and Rocky emerging as competing figureheads of the tribe. On Bathsheba, one of the most explosive Tribal Councils in Crashcourse history took place, which opened with Parvati flashing her idol and vowing to take our Penner, who wanted to vote for Parvati as "insurance" in case she didn't have an idol. Parvati rallied JP to vote for Penner, because JP was the backup vote. JP followed and watched in shock as Parvati was right. The vote was tied 3 ways between Penner, JP, and Parvati, but Parvati played her idol forcing a revote. Jenny flipped to side with Parvati and sent Penner home.
Following this, a swap took place, shaking up the dynamics once again. Bathsheba lost first and decided to take out villainess Cecelia, while Oistin lost the next round and blindsided Brad, who was an original Bathbhseba on the tribe, despite him coming from the misfit Hillaby tribe. Another double round followed, forcing Bathsheba and Oistin back to Tribal. Bathsheba, low in numbers, took out Cecelia's ally Candice, and Oistin saw some excitement as Nate played an idol and negated enough votes to take out big threat Mellisa. Nate managed to use the clues he earned on Bathsheba to find the untouched Oistin idol.
The three tribes finally merged. The merge round saw Earl be blindsided after most of the original Oistin members were teamed up against. Edgardo followed the next round. At the Final 10, the classic "Immunity Takedown" dilemma returned where 3 players could claim immunity for an unknown consequence. Feeling they were all in danger, Sylvia, Michelle, and Parvati all grabbed immunity, and at tribal, JP, who had received votes and nearly went home at every pre-merge tribal he attended, was finally sent home. Morgan played her hidden immunity idol (found on her days at Hillaby) on Jenny, but Jenny didn't need it as she only received 2 votes.
At the Final 9, Morgan won immunity, and was faced with "Nick's Dilemma"- take immunity for the present round, take it for the future round, or take it for both rounds and forfeit her vote. Morgan chose to take immunity for both rounds, feeling that she could afford to give up her vote. After dominating the first few rounds of the merge, the dominating alliance, consisting of Jenny, Nate, Morgan, Ozzy, and Parvati, along with Rocky and Yau Man, who had flipped to join them, decided it was time to trim some fat. They then blindsided Parvati for her tendency to overperform in Tribal Councils and for her challenge strength. Sitting pretty, the Bathsehba alliance saw no imminent threats on their path to the end of the game. But this was not the case, as Rocky and Yau Man decided to flip back to Michelle and Sylvia and re-form an Oistin alliance. Jenny was blindsided, turning the game on its head. Morgan, no longer immune, followed shortly after.
The pot was stirred once again at the Final 6 when Sylvia felt that Rocky was not fit to play the game any longer. She, along with Michelle, orchestrated his 3-2-1 elimination to prevent him from being a goat at the Final Tribal Council. Michelle had a similar idea at the Final 5 when she turned on Sylvia and Yau Man to help Ozzy and Nate vote out Yau Man 3 to 2 to ensure that only the biggest threats made their way to the Final 4. At the Final 4, in a long immunity challenge, Nate won his first immunity and secured himself a spot in the Final 3. The target turned to Ozzy and Sylvia, the two biggest personalities left in the game. Sylvia, who had clawed her way to the top after being a target from early on in the merge, received 2 votes. The other two votes went to Ozzy, an early social threat who had one of the biggest falls from grace Crashcourse has ever seen as his power slowly slipped away from him, showing how delusional and self-entitled he could be when he could not fathom why people could possible want him out. In the tiebreaker, Sylvia and Ozzy were sent to find a hidden Immunity Fire, which Sylvia found first. Ozzy became the final member of the jury.
At the Final Tribal Council, Michelle was the odds-on favorite to win, but failed to inspire confidence in her game with her answers to the jury's questions. Nate was seen as a good social player, but his position in the Final 3 was seen as more of a fluke than being attributed to his skill, so he was largely ignored. Sylvia laid it all on the line, claiming that she came to play hard, have fun, and ensure that good people stayed in the game. This allowed her to win the jury's votes and gave her the 5-3-1 win over Michelle, who got second, and Nate, who got third.