Last Week on “Survivor”: Galu continued to dominate the challenges, Jaison flexed his political clout with Evil Russell, and big mouth Ben got the boot.
39 Days, 20 People, 1 “Survivor” Blog
Here are the tribes as they currently stand…
Foa Foa (wearing yellow)
Ashley – 22 – Spa Sales
Elizabeth – 33 – Attorney
Jaison – 28 – Law Student
Mick – 33 – Doctor
Natalie – 26 – Pharmaceutical Sales
Russell H. – 36 – Oil Company Owner
Galu (wearing purple)
Brett – 23 – T-shirt Designer
Dave – 38 – Fitness Instructor
Erik – 28 – Bartender
John – 25 – Rocket Scientist
Kelly – 25 – Hair Stylist
Laura – 39 – Office Manager
Monica – 25 – Law Student
Russell S. – 42 – Attorney
Shannon – 45 – Sales
Yasmin – 33 – Hair Stylist
We join Foa Foa after tribal council and it seems like the living conditions are starting to get to Jaison. He even describes coming to Samoa as the worst decision of his life. Evil Russell takes this to mean that if Ben had stayed in the game that Jaison would have made good on his threat to quit. Evil Russell disapproves.
Back at Galu, Erik pulls Shambo aside and shares his assumption that the clues for the Foa Foa hidden immunity idol must work for both camps. As he’s trying to get the clue from Shambo, John coasts in using his aerodynamicness (not a real word) and steals Erik’s idea.
Tree mail arrives at Galu instructing the tribe leader to pick two tribe members to join him on a special mission. Mick chooses Evil Russell and Natalie, Good Russell chooses Shambo and Dave. They arrive at the location to find a treasure box and a chicken cage…but no Probst. Maybe he’s polishing his Emmy. (Sorry, Jeff…Emmys.)
Finally after waiting for who knows how long, the tribe members make a break for the items. Dave discovers instructions for the challenge, but not before Shambo has grabbed two chickens by the neck. PETA’s gonna love this. Dave reads the instructions for what basically amounts to a game of bocce ball.
Why no Probst for this? Is it because he’s only signed up for one more season and they want to show him he’s dispensable? Cause he’s not. Two Emmys…count ‘em!
The tribe leaders go first with Mick getting two balls closer to the pin. Shambo and Natalie go next, with Foa Foa keeping their balls the closest. Finally Evil Russell and Dave face off, with Dave sinking the final shot to win the chickens for Galu. Wow, even Ulong won the occasional reward challenge before being swept in “Survivor: Palau.”
Meanwhile back at Galu, Erik takes advantage of Galu’s nap time to find the immunity idol. Maybe during their cookies and juice break he can discuss strategy.
We’re seeing a lot of Galu this week, could this be the week they finally drop the immunity challenge?
When Good Russell and his bocce all stars return from the challenge, Good Russell lets Shambo know she’s in charge of the chickens. Shambo is cool with this because she raised chickens when she was younger. She then proceeds to try to talk to the chickens. Galu’s got their own mulleted chicken whisperer.
Apparently Shambo’s whispering knowledge doesn’t include the words “Don’t escape” as one promptly does. Erik gives chase, and in what is easily the highlight of the season thus far, clotheslines himself on a clothesline. That’s the thing with irony; it’s so ironic.
Back at Foa Foa, Evil Russell lets us know that he can’t trust Jaison to stay in the game. He now wants to align with Natalie, thinking she’ll ride his coattails because, “She’s too stupid to do it by herself.” Boy, between Ben/Yasmin and Russell/Natalie I can not WAIT for the reunion show. They should set up a ring.
Speaking of Yasmin, Kelly is cutting open a coconut while Yasmin watches. When Kelly opens it, Yasmin asks if there’s any milk in it. Kelly says there isn’t. Yasmin walks away and Kelly promptly takes a swig from it. Apparently the word around camp is that Yasmin is lazy and waits for everyone else to do work. Yeah, but how many awful speeches have the Galu members given to Foa Foa? Um…none. Yasmin’s totally pulling her weight in that category.
Immunity Challenge Time: And thankfully, Jeff is back. I was worried he’d been attacked by the wild packs of dogs that roam Samoa (apparently that really happens out there). For the challenge, they’ll race across a net run caring wooden blocks. Then they’ll need to craft a vertical stack with the blocks. From there they’ll have to go across a rope bridge for more blocks. First tribe to complete a second tall stack of blocks wins immunity.
Galu decides to sit Laura, Shambo, Dave, and Good Russell.
Five “Survivor” points says Galu Ga-loses.
Note: “Survivor” points have no cash value.
Both tribes race across the net quickly, Galu manages to get their blocks stacked first. Foa Foa is right behind them. On the rope bridge, Monica is extremely slow while Ashley and Natalie manage to make up a ton of time.
At the second block-stacking portion Foa Foa has trouble untying their block bags, but they eventually overcome Galu’s lead and win their first immunity.
Oh, and you owe me five “Survivor” points.
Back at camp, Good Russell is blaming Monica for losing the challenge. Dave and his crew seem to be leaning toward Yasmin. Meanwhile, I’m giddy to finally learn about the alliances in Galu.
Later on, Yasmin tells Shambo that the reason she doesn’t do anything around camp is because she doesn’t want anyone to say anything bad about her if she does something wrong.
Uh huh.
Wait.
Sorry, I needed a minute or two with that one. Back to your regularly scheduled recap.
Russell seems to be willing to go to bat for Yasmin. And the others are worried about going against him because he’s the leader. He’s taking this leader thing seriously, which is weird. I’d assume any smart player would downplay that as much as possible. The next coup d’etat could be only a tribal council away.
Speaking of which, that night at tribal council Brett calls Yasmin out for not doing much around camp. Yasmin claims that she might not belong in the jungle because she’s wearing heels. And sure enough, the camera cuts down to show her heels. How are we just learning about this now?! Damn you, Evil Russell and your camera hogging ways!
Afterwards, Yasmin calls Monica out for performing poorly in the challenge.
Dave’s vote is for the good of the tribe while Laura’s vote depends on who helps the most around camp.
Voting Time: Shambo votes for Monica, Monica votes for Yasmin, Yasmin votes for Monica, Laura votes for Yasmin, and the rest are fortunately going to be read by Jeff and not farmed out to Dave like they were before the reward challenge. Two votes for Yasmin, two votes for Monica, three votes for Yasmin, and the fourth person voted out of “Survivor: Samoa” is…Yasmin.
Verdict: We made light of not getting to know Galu, but the edit team totally tipped their hand as to who was going to lose immunity. They need to be more careful with that. That being said, it’s good to finally get to know our friends in the purple tribe. And don’t get me wrong, it was nice to get a break from the “Evil Russell Show.”
Who’s Going to Win? I think whoever is running things in Galu could win this game, and I think Dave is running things.
What Do You Think? What’s really going on at Galu? Were you secretly rooting for Foa Foa to finally win one? What should matter more; work around the camp or performance in challenges?
Tags: jeff probst, survivor, Survivor: Samoa
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