With only six people left on Survivor: One World, it was time for the plots and subplots to come to light and get unraveled. Each of the remaining castaways had a plan to get someone else out, and it almost seemed that each of them had a different deal with the other five.

Kim is at the heart of the intrigue, and not just because (as Sabrina insisted) no one could resist her "angelic eyes." Somehow she managed to convince everyone to vote out her best friend Chelsea. But later, after Chelsea showed her hand by inviting Kim on the Reward she won, Kim somehow made Tarzan the target. She exposed the deals Tarzan had with each of the other women, even though she herself wasn't aware of them before she started talking.

Tarzan, meanwhile, had made it clear to Alicia and Christina that if Kim came back from reward and tried to deflect their votes away from Chelsea, she would be giving away her true agenda. The three of them were determined to stick together and vote out Chelsea or force a tie. Kim did return with a new plan, but instead of creating suspicion against her, she galvanized her own position. So maybe the magic is in her eyes after all. It has to be coming from somewhere.

After Alicia won immunity, she assumed that she had control of the vote. That's never true, but she thought all she had to do was tell Christina and Tarzan to vote for Chelsea, and they would do it. Not only that, but Kim had privately decided that she would still vote out Chelsea if she couldn't talk the others into getting rid of Tarzan. So either plan would have worked, depending on how Alicia decided to vote. Instead of taking control of the game, she let Kim stay in charge and save Chelsea.

Christina has never been an active player, but she has figured out who is allied with whom. That could have been a card that she used to get out a stronger player, but instead she played it backwards. Instead of using her insight to get closer to Chelsea and Kim, she repeated a private conversation she'd had with Chelsea to Kim, not understanding that Kim and Chelsea tell each other everything. (Well, almost everything.) So instead of getting Chelsea out, which would have been the right play, she strengthened Chelsea's position in the core alliance. This isn't unexpected, because Christina has been playing this way all season. Whatever she says or does is always the opposite of what she should say or do.

Sabrina was in a strong position. She wasn't really a target, and everyone talks to her. She knew what Kim's plan was, and she understood what would happen if it went wrong. She also seems to be the only one who realized that Tarzan has been playing the game hard all the way from day one.

On the other hand, Tarzan's argument at Tribal Council was valid. He would have been the best one to take to the end, because he has helped the women take out the other men (and because he's the one who least needs the money, despite what he says about needing new shocks for his car). He has played the villain and the fool. There was no reason to vote him out yet, but that's what the women did, unanimously. And now they have only each other to worry about. That should make for fun times over the last three days.

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There were a lot of high points in tonight's American Idol, but let's start at the top. When I heard Jessica was singing "And I Am Telling You," I groaned, because I thought the song had been stomped to death by so many attempts at it over the past few seasons. But her voice has more shades and colors than anyone I've heard on the show in a long time (maybe ever). Wherever she finds the feeling, and however she infuses it into such amazing vocals, it's magical.

Joshua doesn't need my help, because the judges are always so over the top with their praise, but for once they were on target. His version of "It's a Man's Man's Man's World" was incredible. Was it better than James Brown? No, that's an exaggeration, but it was in the ballpark. When he gets in that zone, Joshua's performances are so riveting you almost can't breathe.

The only one of the top four whose records I would probably buy is Phillip. He does the kind of music I actually listen to on the radio in my real life, and his version of Damien Rice's "Volcano" was the sort of thing that would also make me buy a concert ticket to see him. And when he does a fun song like "Have You Ever Seen the Rain?" the joy in his performance is infectious. That was the one number I had to rewind and replay.

Poor Hollie. I think she believed she was singing "I Can't Make You Love Me" with emotion, but it didn't come across. She has the pipes, but not the feeling behind the song, so it falls flat. For once the judges were right. But the other three killed with their second performances, as they always do when they get to pick their own songs. And I have to say that I also loved two of the songs in the first half: Phillip doing CCR, and Jessica doing her bluesy thing on "Steal Away."