Survivor Guatemala: week 9

This week confirmed for me that the words "white trash" only sound right in a Southern accent, and Jamie's pronunciation is Jerry Springer perfect. He's still got his nose out of joint ("I'm not angry, my feelings are hurt") about Bobby Jon calling him 'no class', and the combination of red-neck rambling and the onset of jungle paranoia makes him this season's James and Janu all in one.

Gary used the ongoing search for the Individual Immunity Idol as the opportunity to raise once again his glorious football past. I still can't understand how the story of his come-from-behind-win twenty years ago fits as a metaphor for finding the idol, but apparently it doesn't have to as long as everyone out in TV land remembers who you are.

The reward challenge was a large horizontal archery target with a big post representing the bulls eye. Survivors had to throw an arrow using a Mayan spear-thrower, with the various food rewards being assigned based on who landed their arrow closest (and yes, Jeff, the reward was worth playing for – they all are – so you can stop asking that every week). Judd went first, and while Jeff described his impressive throw as "the mark to beat" nobody managed to and he won steak, lobster, dessert and – scariest of all – a free open bar.

As is often the case at this stage of the game, Judd as winner got to invite two others to share in his prize, which usually shows up who has alliances and where the political fault lines fall. Judd was surprisingly canny and picked Bobby Jon and Stephanie to represent each tribe (although to be honest he made that decision before the bar opened and his judgement went out the window). The others all had to sit by and watch while the three of them got steadily drunker over a two hour binge. Gary, who won a single slice of pizza for coming fifth, stared at Judd with only slightly less intensity than the pet dogs living at the guest house where the feast was held.

Judd showed surprising nous in his choice of friends, but Jamie showed sheer rat cunning by relinquishing his fourth place burger and beer for the last place bowl of nuts and boiled lake water, allowing five others to step up a place. He said he was doing it to apologise for his behaviour the day before ("Nothing tastes better than my self respect"), but nobody seemed to believe it was from genuine remorse. Even the members of his own alliance can't stand him, and are expressing it with varying degrees of tact.

There were no tactful, but many colourful, ways to describe how drunk Judd got. He staggered, fell over, tried to collect a 30 foot tree as firewood, snored, and dreamt that he threw up (again) on a world heritage building when in fact he'd thrown up in the shelter.

The other part of Judd's reward was a clue to the location of the Individual Immunity Idol, and this segued nicely into the theme of the second act: lies and trust. He showed Stephanie the clue, which stated that the idol is off the ground, then told the rest of the camp that the idol is most definitely on the ground. Next, Gary talked to Jamie and said he'd vote with him. Jamie immediately told the rest of the old Nakúm that Gary was planning to vote for him, which despite much incredulity on everyone's part resulted in Gary being the targeted Yaxhá member for this week's vote. Stephanie lied to Gary when he asked if that was the case, and again when she promised to tell him when it was to be his turn. Even Rafe didn't quite manage to avoid lying in the face of Jamie's persistently paranoid probing about the state of their alliance.

Having seen that the immunity challenge involved ropes, balance and general physical prowess it was a shock to many (including Rafe) to see Rafe survive the early knock-out rounds and make it to the final race against Jamie over a rope bridge. Unfortunately ropes aren't Rafe's strong suit, and Jamie won the immunity necklace and a week's reprieve from the exasperation of his own tribemates. Gary set off into the jungle again in search of the Individual Immunity Idol, and was both lucky enough to spot Judd looking up in the trees and smart enough to realise they'd all been lied to.

If you've ever wondered how Jeff, who only sees the Survivors at challenges, manages to ask such pertinent questions at Tribal Council it's because the daily transcripts of what happens at camp are faxed to the production team every day (and yes, I have first hand knowledge of this; just don't ask how). To prove it, Jeff started with a question about trust, and then asked both Gary (the ex-quarterback who claims to be just a landscaper) and Judd (the recipient of the true clue as to the Individual Immunity Idol's whereabouts) whether they had told any lies at all. Considering nobody believes Gary's lie but everyone fell for Judd's it was funny to see how much more convincing Gary's body language was when they both said "No".

What Gary didn't hide at the appropriate moment was that he had found the Individual Immunity Idol, which made him safe from the vote that night. Jeff reminded everyone that they could not talk to each other prior to voting, but the odd thing was that it seemed to be the old Yaxhá's vote thrown most into disarray, with Bobby Jon and Danni both voting for Stephanie but Gary voting for Cindy (huh?!?) while everyone else calmly switched to Bobby Jon and made him the first member of the jury.

It'll be interesting to see next week whether the Nakúm alliance, which is now six against two, can resist the temptation to get rid of Jamie without losing its majority or whether they'll keep picking off Yaxhá. Either way, they're all on the jury now and need to start being nice to each other with the end game in mind. I'm sure Gary has a metaphor about end games he'd love to share, and now he's got at least one more week in which to do it.