Unaired episode #12 - Recap - SPOILERS

This was again a very talky, heavy on the suspense editing episode, so hopefully I get the full gist of it.

For an fyi, after the "previously on" segment Jay makes reference to the fact that they've been on the ship for 11 weeks. Doesn't seem right to me, unless they've had breaks. It appears that they hold pirate court on 3 day cycles and with 11 pirates gone that would be 33-36 days or about 6 weeks. So am not sure where the extra 5 weeks come in. Maybe the challenges are all in the same general area, so they have to "reset" the island each time, so maybe there is more days in between than we've been led to believe.

Anyhow, after Kendra was cut adrift, the backstabbing begins. Apparently due to Kendra's inside information, Christa and Ben are now just becoming aware that Jay has been lying and playing several sides, and it only took them 11 weeks to figure this out. Christa now exclaims that she is now playing the game for her and Ben and not her and Jay. This is all taking place in the galley, mostly Ben bending Christa's ear about Jay being a snake. That's when they agree that they should black spot Louie and Jay and then bam, Jay is gone, checkmate! (which was in last weeks preview).

Come back from commercial and there is what I've come to expect because of the bad editing, the fore shadowing. Cut to Laurel in her confessional on deck. States she is probably the most relaxed person on ship. She's playing her game, which she admits is without any strategy. They also showed clips of how close her and Louie have become, which they conveniently left out last week when Louie was on the black spot, to heighten the tension.

Here comes the challenge. This time the treasure was hidden by Chinese astronomer Renshu Chow, who navigated by the moon and stars. So teams are chosen, which again reveals a game weakness. As there are only two women, Laurel is automatically placed on the red team and since there is an odd number of pirates, the extra goes to the captain, which guarantees the captain will get two men on her team. As it turns out, black team is Christa, Ben and Jay, while losing Louie joins Laurel on red team.

Teams have to swim to shore. Black team easily outswims the red team. They have to go into the jungle and hike a long steep trail up the hill until they come to a crescent moon rock formation laid out on the ground. Black gets there first and they uncover rocks until they get to the one that reveals the next clue. Clue #2 reveals that they must take one of two trails and find the planet closest to the sun, which Christa knows is Mercury (they have a map with 4 symbols, identifying the various planets). They run down a path before red even gets there. What we know and they don't is that one of the trails is booby trapped and a dead end. Jays gets to the end of the path and sees a sign with a moon on it. He and Ben lift the lid to what they think is the next clue and it instead releases a booby trap and a net falls on them. So they go back to the crescent moon where they finally see red team arriving. They go down the correct path to a valley floor that has several rock formations, which they have to identify the correct one representing mercury, which they do. They uncover a rock and remove a chest that when opened reveals large puzzle pieces. When placed together they form another symbol. The next clue says they must find the rings of Saturn to reveal their next clue. Black team starts looking for a saturn formation as red team arrives. Red team uncovers their clue and does the puzzle. Because black team can't find the saturn formation both teams are even. Eventually Ben suggests that maybe it's not on the meadow floor, but maybe up the nearby hill, so black team runs up the hill. Laurel sees black go up and suggests to Louie that maybe they should do the same, to which Louie disagrees (I think because he was too tired). So black goes up the hill while Laurel and Louie wander the meadow aimlessly making ridiculous suggestions as to where the ring may be. At the top of the hill the black team gets frustrated not finding it and Jay suggests going back down, but Christa feels that it must be up there. She ends up being right and they find the rock formation that matches their puzzle. They uncover another clue and key which states that the treasure lies between earth and the red planet (mars). So they run down the hill and Jay says he knows right where it is. Red team sees them running down and Louie is like, "is this the ring of Saturn?" Black team digs up the treasure with red team no where close to finding it. Back on ship the treasure ends up being $30,000. They don't show it, but the presumption is that Christa split it three ways.

Back on ship the editing starts kicking in. Christa in one of her many confessionals talks about knowing that Jay is a snake and that he has lied in the game, but at the same time he has played smart and deserves to be there at the end. And for some reason, she starts this running commentary about how she is concerned for his kids. Then Christa and Ben have this insufferable talk. Christa is waffling on her earlier plan with Ben. She cares about Jay's kids and she doesn't want Jay to flip out. Ben just keeps on her about Jay needing to go, that courage is doing what is difficult, blah blah blah. Basically Ben is playing her hard and kissing her ass at the same time. Then later Jay starts talking to Christa, and of course he says that Ben does not want her in the finals. Christa starts freaking out a bit and tells Jay she wants to talk to both of them at the same time (which was part of last weeks preview). She comes out point blank and asks if either one had discussed her not being there at the end. Jay admits it, saying that part of his strategy was to discuss all the options with other players so that he could tell where they stood. Ben says a little of the same but basically babbles. Jay says he doesn't know who mentioned first, Ben or him, to which Ben is like, it was you Bro, and they start bickering and Christa is crying "how could either of you even discuss me not being there". You can tell Jay is really fighting for his life. Later Ben and Louie are talking below decks about how eventually playing all sides will come back to haunt you and that tonight, Jay goes home. At least this week Louie didn't volunteer himself.

Christa wanted to talk to each one individually. Ben of course comes down completely on Jay, and says put Jay and Louie up and then he and Laurel (who won't vote against Louie) will vote Jay out. Jay comes in and fights, begs and pleads for not getting the black spot. He knows if he gets it he will be out and he will never forgive Christa. Again in confessional Christa talks about Jay's kids and not wanting to upset them. Laurel comes in and out of left field turns on Ben. Tells Christa that Ben has approached her and stated that he wanted Laurel in the finals and not Christa. I don't think they showed Louie going in.

Pirates are on deck and Christa comes out with the summons. Says, the two ballots tonight go to the liar and the other basically to someone who should be safe. Some suspensful camera shots and we find that she gave the black spots to Ben and Laurel. Jay practically wet himself, he thought he was gone and Ben went into immediate scramble mode. He knows Louie will not vote against Laurel so he goes right to Jay and puts his nose so far up Jays ass. I got your back, whatever you want I'll do, we were brothers, if you got something up your sleeve now is the time to do it. On and on.

Christa is smart at times, but here I think she was an idiot. Why not put up both Ben and Jay. By doing that if there is another challenge, 2 on 2, she knows Laurel will be on the other team, advantage Christa and then she is guaranteed to have one of the guys on her team. Even if it is Ben and Laurel against her and Louie it is probably still 50-50. And if she gets either Jay or Ben then it is definitely her advantage. Her best odds were to put Ben and Jay up.

So at Pirate Court Christa gives her speech for why they were black spotted. Laurel for not being the best or committed (sort of the wind) and Ben for his lying tactics. At some point in here Christa exclaims that her philosophy is that she would rather finish 2nd to the best than win as best of the worse, again, she's an idiot.

Laurel defends herself by saying she's played fair and not lied to anyone and basically calls out Ben as a liar. Ben defends himself by basically getting on his knees and begging, I care too much about this game and it's importance on my life blah blah blah.

Cameron talks to Louie and Jay. Louie for the umpteenth time, "this will be a hard vote, both don't deserve to go, but one does, it will be hard." Louie is the John Madden of Pirates, states the completely obvious. Jay previously in confessional had done the both sides of the coin with Ben. On one hand, who do you want to face at the end, and on the other, Ben has been the only one to have his back, he knows Louie or Laurel won't. At Pirate court he says it is difficult because not long ago Ben was doing everything in his power to cut Jay adrift.

So before they vote Cameron says that in the event of no mutiny and a tie in voting, the captain will decide. I actually thought this would be a good time for a power play. From Louie's perspective I don't know that it matters if it's Christa or Ben at the end, they both physically outperform him, and the same could be said of Jay. Knowing Louie wouldn't vote for Laurel I thought maybe Jay would approach Louie about mutiny, as it was still an option. They were never shown discussing it, and as Cameron looked at the votes, he told Christa that she was safe, there were no cards for mutiny, but she wasn't off the hook. He laid down the cards and there was one vote for each, so Jay in one of his few dumb moves didn't vote out Ben. So Cameron turns to Christa and says Captain, cut one of these pirates adrift. Christa says stuff about both that had you believing that it could have been either on, but she ends up refering to her earlier speech about wanting to face the best, so she cuts Laurel adrift. Ben hugs Louie and Jay.

So final 4 are Christa, Jay, Ben and Louie. Christa had two chances to eliminate either the strongest physical player (in Ben) or the strongest strategic player (in Jay) and she chose neither. Jay could have gotten rid of his strongest physical competition in Ben and didn't, and I don't know why, unless he thinks Ben will somehow protect him in the end.

I think there should only be one episode left. But the preview for next week, short as it was, had Jay mentioning that mutiny was still an option. I'm wondering if they will do one more challenge, with 2 against 2 and then hold a pirate court, where the captain doesn't nominate anyone, but instead the remaining three have to chose amongst themselves. I don't know why Jay would mention mutiny unless there was a pirate court. But with only 4 pirates left, the current format of Captain, 2 blackspots and court will no longer work, as only one would be left to vote. So if there is another court then either all three vote for one of themselves (or choose mutiny) or the captain will put up one to blackspot and the remaining two have to choose between mutiny or agreeing with the captains pick. What little they do show of next week, they do show Ben and Jay apparently conspiring against Christa again.

I'm thinking that they will somehow work two challenges in. This weeks treasure was only $30,000 and last week there wasn't one, so I don't think they are at $500,000 yet in treasure found. My speculation is 2 vs 2 for treasure, hold pirate court and cut adrift the 13th pirate, then they will fight the next day, 3 pirates individually against each other for Captain Steele's treasure of $500,000. That's my best guess, but with the way this show was set up, they'll probably get to the last treasure and find that Cameron stole it.

Sorry for the windy recap, only one left to go I hope.



"Who's the more foolish, the fool or the fool that follows him" ...Obi Wan Kenobi