Brilliant and Boneheaded 'Survivor' Plays of the Week: A Fake Idol Is Still Just Fake

Warning: This recap contains storyline and character spoilers for this week’s episode of Survivor.

Fake idols — don’t you just love ‘em?

A handful of players have made fake idols in Survivor history, most notably Bob (twice!) in Gabon. He deserves some kind of award for that.

This week, Joe finally doesn’t win a challenge and crafts a fake idol to kinda-sorta save himself at tribal council. Gotta give the guy props, because pretty much anybody ever in the history of the show would want to eliminate him immediately. He’s an immense threat in challenges, and he’s totally likable as far as the social game goes. So RIP (in Survivor), Joe. The fact that you lasted even to the merge is an amazing feat.

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This week, Survivor was all about cleaning up: They finally got rid of Joe, and they’re well on their way to getting rid of Jenn. But now that it’s getting down to serious business, who’s on the outside? You’d think it’s Shirin, as shrilly annoying as she is. But then again, isn’t she the perfect person to take to the final tribal council? (Disgusting) food for thought.

A rundown of this week’s episode…

Brilliant Play of the Week: Jenn

Look, we almost wrote down Shirin’s name here, and then we didn’t want to hate ourselves for the rest of eternity. Still, since it was close, we will say this: Shirin is doing a really good job of being that under-the-radar, non-threatening player that could get to the top three. Will she win? Hell no. But she could get there. That is all.

But better than her “woe is me/I’m the worst/nobody likes me” gameplay (which we’re pretty sure isn’t even on purpose, poor girl) is Jenn’s “I don’t even wanna be here anymore” strategy. It’s a good one, and believable now that her BFF Hali is gone.

Jenn mopes; she pouts; she sighs. Everyone thinks she is done. And maybe, deep down inside, she is. She doesn’t kill it at either the reward or immunity challenge.

When it comes to the vote at tribal council, the former blue collars split between her and Joe. But it’s Joe who ends up eliminated. Sure, he’s the bigger threat, but remember that Jenn was nearly voted out two tribals ago. She’s still alive. That’s pretty baller.

Boneheaded Play of the Week: Joe

Oh, pretty, pretty Joe.

Making a fake idol could work. It’s happened before. But you have to consider the circumstances.

In this case, Joe got a clue during a reward, then shared it with Tyler. Tyler then shared it with everyone else. There was a huge scramble. Mike pretended to congratulate Joe on finding it, even though Joe hadn’t.

So here is what Joe knows: He doesn’t have the idol. Mike pretended that he did. Everyone knows what the clue was.

Pretty basic logic dictates that, at the very least, everyone knows Joe doesn’t have the idol. At the worst, Mike or someone else has found it.

Thus, in this particular case, crafting a fake idol is — sorry, not sorry? — super dumb. Mike sees through the charade immediately. At tribal council, he doesn’t use it on himself; he uses it on Will! Joe, if only you’d had a lifeline.

Power rankings: 1. Mike 2. Tyler 3. Jenn

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