'Survivor: Cagayan' Recap: Tony Uses His Bag of Tricks, But Will It Get Him to the End?

Survivor Rule: When the game is down to six or fewer players, forget alliances. Ask yourself: Would this person want to take me to the finale?

Tony is a clever guy, no doubt about it. He found two hidden immunity idols, including the one with special powers.

He just has no idea how to use them.

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This is the last week that Tony could use either of his idols. There are five players left, with Spencer holding immunity. The truly smart maneuver on Tony’s part would be giving Trish (his strongest ally) his regular immunity idol, then using the special one on himself, if need be.

Instead, he lets Trish get voted out and keeps the special idol (now useless) in a bid to intimidate the other players. Maybe it’ll work; who knows? But now Tony is down in numbers, all because he’s too selfish to save Trish.

Aside from Spencer, he’s the person nobody wants to take to the finale. Kass may think his abrasiveness rankled the jury, but the fact is, super-sneaky strategists have won before (*cough* Boston Rob). Tony has his faults, but he’s no Russell Hantz. If he makes it to the end, he’s winning. Period.

A rundown of this week’s episode…

Reshuffling: After last week’s tribal council, everybody’s trying to get their bearings. And all their thoughts immediately turn to the finale. Woo informs Tony that Kass turned on him and nearly voted him out. But despite this show of loyalty, Tony sadly admits to the camera that he probably shouldn’t take Woo to the end, because Woo is too likeable.

Reward challenge: The five players have to douse themselves in mud and scrape it off into a bucket. The winner will get a hot pizza delivered to camp. Tony ends up winning, and chooses Trish to share in the reward. Kass realizes this is a good thing, because it’ll push Woo into rethinking his alliance with Tony.

As Trish and Tony wolf down pizza, they strategize. They know that Woo is ripe for the picking from the other side. Tony decides he wants to take Kass to the finale because nobody likes her and she can’t win. Then he lies to Trish about the special power idol, indicating it can be used in the final four.

Tony approaches Kass with his final three notion, and she sort of nods and lets him talk. But almost immediately, she runs to Woo to fill him on their entire conversation. This irks Spy Shack Tony, who prizes secrecy above all else. Then Kass blabs to Spencer about how they should take out Trish instead. Trish overhears and is not pleased, at all.

Immunity challenge: The players have to run through a course, building a ladder and staircase, then solving a puzzle. Tony gets out to a lead, but Spencer ends up crushing him in the puzzle round. Spencer wins! Uh-oh… now what?

Scramble time: Back at camp, Trish pounces on Kass for her earlier comments. She totally goes off on Kass! It’s pretty awesome. Kass, meanwhile, just smiles that robotic half-smile of hers.

Tony leads away Trish and Woo to talk, and swears on his every relative ever that they will be the final three. But Woo is still skeptical.

He approaches Kass and Spencer. Woo is realizing that there is no way that Tony wants to take him to the finale. Woo is on pretty good terms with the jury, whereas Tony is not. So Woo proposes a final three of himself, Kass, and Spencer. The latter two are all for it.

Tribal council: Jeff Probst starts things off by noting how Spencer’s immunity win has thrown the prevailing alliance into a tailspin. That starts a discussion... oh, hell, let’s call it what it is: a knockdown, drag-out verbal brawl. Trish calls out Kass. Kass calls out Trish. Kass calls out Tony. Tony calls out Kass.

As Jeff notes, Spencer must be loving this. He replies he feels like he’s in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Woo compares himself to the foreign exchange student living with a dysfunctional family!

Somewhere in all this, Tony puffs up his chest and announces he can’t go home. He pulls out both his immunity idols. One he puts on, and the other he just holds onto.

Everyone votes. Before Jeff reads the tally, Tony plays his regular hidden immunity idol. The other, he announces he’ll “save” (total lie).

Jeff reads the votes, and it seems Woo did the smart thing — Trish is voted out. Tony looks very troubled, even though he could’ve done something to stop it.

Except! Plot twist: Tony actually voted for Trish! Whoa. So many questions. Only one answer: Tony is totally crazy.

It’s two Brawns vs. two Brains. Who will reign supreme in next week’s finale?

Survivor: Cagayan airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. on CBS.