‘Survivor: Philippines’ preview: Do Mike Skupin, Jonathan Penner have secret deal?

When you are a returning player on “Survivor” surrounded by newbies, there is a natural tendency more or less to expect them to ally with another returning player. After all, it’s sometimes hard to win against newbies in the end, especially if you have a jury who feels as though you don’t deserve if for no other reason than they you have been there before. Plus, you know that the other returning player can use you, and is a little less likely to send you packing.

As for how two returning players on different tribes manage to make a pact, that is a completely different story. However, the latest preview for Wednesday night’s new episode suggests that there could be this very thing happening between Michael Skupin and Jonathan Penner. How does it happen? Our guess is that they make some sort of gesture to each other during the awesome mud-wrestling immunity challenge, or they do something that at least causes the other castaways to completely lose their minds.

As for Penner, we don’t really know why he would feel the need to make a move given that he is already in an amazing position in the game; as for Skupin, he really may have his back up against the wall a little bit more than he even realizes. The good news for Penner at least at the moment is that not only does he have an immunity idol, but he has someone still on his tribe in Katie Hanson is viewed as a weak link, and will probably be booted from the game before he is if our current prediction holds. As for Skupin, he just better hope that his tribe tires of RC Saint-Amour before they do him.

How do you think that these two could have formed a secret pact?