South Portland’s Bob Crowley finally played the mind game in last week’s episode of “Survivor Gabon: Earth’s Last Eden,” pulling off one of the most deceitful spectacles in the reality TV show’s history.

He is now one of just seven remaining contestants left vying for show’s $1 million prize.

On the episode, Crowley, 57, whom “Survivor” bloggers have deemed the “most trustworthy player in the game,” slipped a fake immunity idol to Randy, dubbed “the most cantankerous player in the game.” Immunity idols protect contestants from being voted out of the game.

As Randy tried to play the idol at the tribal council – it would have protected him from being voted off had it been authentic – most of the remaining contestants started laughing. Randy, too, began laughing, thinking the joke was on them because he had the idol. But show host Jeff Probst tossed the idol in the fire and Randy quickly was gone.

Even Probst was impressed by Crowley’s ploy.

“It was brilliantly played from top to bottom,” he wrote last week on his ew.com Popwatch blog, “and I do appreciate that level of execution. Bob deserves major credit. He built an amazing fake idol, and he played both Corinne and Randy so well. Didn’t rush it, wasn’t pushy. He was subtle.”

“He’s a pretty crafty guy,” said Jason Tanguay, a colleague at Gorham High School, where Crowley teaches physics. “He’s smart and he showed it.”

His move was the talk of the school on Friday, Tanguay said.

Students at Gorham High have been giggling and talking in the halls, like they have after every episode, but this time they were talking about Crowley’s craftiness and gamesmanship.

“They like other competitors,” Tanguay said, “but they really respect Bob, as they should.”

Crowley is this season’s oldest competitor and until Thursday night, kept quiet, lurked in the shadows and kept to himself.

He had helped his former Kota team by building fires, a hut and furniture while providing fish from the neighboring river in Gabon.

Viewers will see Thursday what Crowley has up his sleeve as Episode 12 airs at 8 p.m. on Channel 13, the CBS affiliate.

South Portland resident Bob Crowley, also a physics teacher at Gorham High School, sits with fellow contestant Susie Smith. Crowley, considered one of the most trustworthy players until this week, gave one of the other contestants a fake immunity idol.