Last week, the tables turned as Ozzy’s Savaii tribe was able to snatch team Immunity away from Coach’s Upolu tribe. Ozzy found the HII and got the first leg up for Savaii, and Brandon revealed his big secret to Coach; namely, that he is Evil Russell’s nephew. Tempers flared between Coach and Christine at Tribal Council, and Christine eye-rolled herself all the way to Redemption Island and a date with Semhar on the morrow.
Redemption Island. Still inwardly seething at the events of Tribal Council, the first thing Christine does when she arrives on RedIsle is wake up Semhar to complain about what a poopypants Coach is. Guess you shouldn’t have called him out two minutes into the game, huh? The season’s first duel will probably go her way, but I’m not worried that she’ll pull a Matt and win six straight. Truth is, I wouldn’t favor Semhar in a duel against a stiff breeze.
Coach wanted to be there to watch Christine exit the game for good, but it wasn’t to be. In a simple game of balancing a thing on top of another thing on top of a long pole, Semhar proved to be as unequal to the challenge as with everything else in this game. There was one hysterical moment before the duel, when Semhar closed her eyes for a long-winded poem, causing even the normally-placid Jeff to put his hands on his hips and exhale impatiently. The look on his face was priceless, as was the look that Ozzy shot Coach up in the bleachers, which pretty much said, “Now you see why she went first.” And now she’s gone. I won’t miss her.
Immunity/Reward Challenge
In this challenge, one tribe member would race into the ocean on a body-board to retrieve “puzzle banners”, which the other members would then have to retrieve with a grappling hook and then assemble them into a coherent picture. Winning tribe gets immunity and a crate full of goodies (chocolate, coffee, cookies, tea, etc.), as well as another clue to the location of the HII. It was a very close challenge, nip-and-tuck all the way through, but in the end, Upolu was able to wrest Immunity away from Savaii and avoid their second straight TC. It’s worth noting that both Brandon and Coach kicked ass in this challenge.
Camp Life – Upolu
I continue to be mystified at what exactly about Mikayla it is that sends Brandon into a frenzy. She’s been helpful around camp, but somehow Brandon has twisted that in his mind into her “having her hooks into everyone”. I could be way off base, but I suspect that Mikayla reminds Brandon of someone from his past that done him wrong. He felt guilty as hell about going on the warpath against her for no apparent reason, but methinks we haven’t heard the last of this. The kid is a powder keg. (And, if you’re reading this, show, could you remove “Russell Hantz’ nephew” from beside Brandon’s name? His chosen profession is “oil tanker crewman”, and that’s how he should be identified. Yikes, what they won’t do to keep Russell’s ghost hovering around…)
It was only two weeks ago that Brandon vowed to never disclose his identity to the others, but apparently he is incapable of keeping such a secret, and boom, now everyone knows. Everyone outwardly seems to give him the benefit of the doubt, with the possible exception of Mikayla (nor should she). This was probably the right move for him, in retrospect. It’s still the first week of the game, and the damage control will involve less fallout. Coach opines that it’s not a move he would make, but hell, he’s 19, you’ll rarely find something that young as mature as Coach.
The soap opera continues when Mikayla straight-up asks what Brandon’s problem with her is, and after simply replying that he just doesn’t like her, he calls her out in front of everyone in an effort to make her feel isolated. I am trying so hard not to prejudge this kid, but he’s not making it easy. His stock in this game is falling by the minute. Coach shares my concerns as well. Even Russell was never this bipolar. And since Upolu won the Immunity Challenge, this is all the Brandon drama we get this week.
Camp Life – Savaii
“Papa Bear” John is pensive as the game enters Day Six. He knows full well that there is already a pecking order in Savaii, and that he, Dawn and Cochran are at the bottom of it, for reasons of age or nerdishness. Which sucks, but there we are. Ozzy, content in his alliance of five, chose to reveal his discovery of the HII to Keith. Not surprising, the two are probably the most alike of any two people in the tribe. And then it takes all of ten seconds for Keith to relay Ozzy’s discovery to Whitney, and the two of them start to wonder how they can subtly put a dent in Ozzy’s growing power. Maybe there’ll be a blindside attempt in the future? That would be cool! I love blindsides! And this would be the second time if it happened to Ozzy!
However, it doesn’t look like this will be the case this time. Papa Bear, who has been downtrodden this whole episode, was easily the weak link in the challenge, and the general consensus seems to be that he will be next. Dawn, to her credit, had a terrific challenge, and so the cross-hairs are off her for now, but Cochran realizes that he has a shelf-life of two more TC’s, tops, unless something changes. And I feel for the kid, I really do, but you need more to play this game than fanboy mentality, and if Survivor were Star Trek, Shatner would be telling him to “get a life” right about now.
So with the decision made, instead of telling PB that he’s going home and there’s nothing he can do about it, they do the old “bait-and-switch” Survivor trope by telling him that it’s Cochran, and cook some half-assed reason why. PB may be old, but he’s not an idiot. He was a detective, and I have to believe he’s pretty good at telling when people are lying to his face. Needless to say, he’s expect the worst going into TC.
I also kind of like PB, but age is a tough mountain to climb in a game where youth and strength play such a big part. If you’re going to be over 50 and play this game, you need to have a very social strategy, and PB hasn’t employed it. Having only one card left to play, he spends the last few hours before TC looking for the HII (yeah, I know, a lot of abbreviations), and this makes me feel worse, because I know his search is already going to fail. Then, with time running out, he crafts a hastily-made decoy HII out of jungle detritus. Which is a good idea, but I think it’s worked, like, once, EVER. Cochran is suddenly worried, but three Savaii members already know it’s a fake, so whatever.
Tribal Council
Jeff opens the Q&A by asking Cochran, who took a lot of head in the first TC, what he’s done since then to get into Savaii’s good graces, and he simply says that he’s tried harder in challenges, though he fails to understand the distinction between being an asset and NOT being a liability. PB is asked who the tribe’s leader is, and he responds that despite being a retired detective, it’s not him, but Ozzy and his clique. Dawn says she thinks that alliances change on a daily basis, but PB calls BS on that: she’s on the outside looking in, and she’s an idiot if she doesn’t realize that.
Jeff asks Jim if he’s thought about the impact the HII may play, and he responds that it definitely is, and that having it is a lifeline. Jeff then brings up that the last time Ozzy played the game, he was voted out of the game with an HII in his pocket. Ozzy, trying to change the subject as fast as possible, turns the attention back to PB, who was seen frantically searching for it only hours before. Cochran admits that while having the HII is a good thing, searching for it only serves to disassociate yourself from the rest of the tribe. Which is certainly true, but they don’t have it in the game to not be used.
Voting time. Jim votes for Cochran “just in case”. Cochran votes for Papa Bear. That’s all we see. Jeff collects the urn, and out come the slips. Papa Bear. Cochran. Jim. Papa Bear. Papa Bear. And… Papa Bear. C’est la vie, it was bound to happen sooner or later. PB’s torch is snuffed, and off he goes to RedIsle, where he will duel with Christine next week. I know who I’ll be rooting for.
Next week: Cochran makes his big move, and the old Hantz family paranoia rears its tiresome, ugly head again.
