Last Week: Mikayla approached Brandon nicely and still managed to offend, Ozzy might be mistaken in thinking Keith is a friend, and Papa Bear’s time with Savaii came to an end.
39 Days, 18 People, 1 “Survivor” Blog
Here are the tribes as they currently stand…
The Savaii Tribe (wearing red)
Cochran – 24, Harvard Law Student
Dawn – 41, English Professor
Elyse – 27, Dance Team Manager
Jim – 35, Medical Marijuana Dispensary Owner
Keith – 26, Water Treatment Tech
Ozzy – 30, Slayer of Challenges
Whitney – 27, Country Music Singer
The Upolu Tribe (wearing blue)
Albert – 26, Baseball/Dating Coach
Brandon – 19, Oil Tanker Crewman
Coach – 39, Slayer of Dragons
Edna – 35, Anesthesiologist
Mikayla – 22, Lingerie Football Player
Rick – 51, Rancher
Sophie – 22, Medical Student
Stacey – 44, Mortician
Currently Residing on Redemption Island (wearing fun accents)
Christine – 39, Teacher
Papa Bear – 48, Retired NYPD Detective
Tonight’s festivities kick off over at Savaii with Ozzy and Elyse sharing a hammock. Scandal. Elyse asks Oz if the rest of his family is as athletic as he is. Boy if I had a nickel for every time I’ve been asked that…I’d have no nickels.
Seeing the two in the hammock together has Jim raising an eyebrow. He approaches Cochran with the idea of getting rid of Elyse. Cochran’s all for it as he’s interested in anything that buys him another three days.
Meanwhile over at Upolu beach, Brandon inner turmoil continues. Again, he makes a vow to chill out. He even goes so far as to apologize to Mikayla. Mikayla accepts the apology but still doesn’t trust him. Mikayla blames it on his uncle. Who’s his uncle again?
Then, Brandon apologizes to Edna for lying about the C.R.A.B.S. (Coach, Rick, Albert, Brandon, Sophie – TM Andrea Boehlke) alliance. Edna is taken aback by the fact that she’s not an official part of the crew. I’m assuming it’s because the only anagram they can come up with that includes all six initials is B.R.A.C.E.S.
In other news, Lil Hantz is self destructing. It’s like he’s on a twelve-step program and is in the apologizing phase.
Tree mail arrives with everyone’s swimwear and an invitation to Redemption Island. Cochran and Jim will attend for Savaii, while Edna and Brandon will attend for Upolu.
Before the Savaiians make the trek to the arena, Whitney and Elyse try on their bikinis. I think this awesome, but Dawn disagrees. Seeing the youngsters in their swimwear makes her worry that she’s the “Rudy” in the tribe. Rudy went to the final three, I’d be more worried about being the Ramona.
Redemption Island Duel: Players will toss sandbags onto crates. The first person to get a sack on each of the ten crates stays in the game
No, I won’t be making any “sack” jokes. But feel free to make your own.
Before the duel gets underway, Papa Bear tells the Upolians that he’ll join them if he can make it back into the game. Brandon thanks him for that sentiment, then apologizes to Christine for lying to her.
The duel is super close, with Christine finally winning nine bags to ten. Christine Elrod, baby!
The following morning at Upolu, Edna tries to win her way back into her tribe’s hearts by doing their laundry and walking on their backs. It’s a unique strategy, I’ll give her that. It doesn’t work for everyone though as she’s apparently driving people nuts with her constant questions and irritating laugh.
In all fairness to Edna, her laugh doesn’t seem very irritating to me.
Meanwhile over at Savaii, Cochran’s trying to discover how Dawn feels about the Ozzy/Elyse alliance. Dawn isn’t a fan and thinks that they should consider getting rid of Elyse. Good on Cochran for making Dawn think that targeting Elyse is her idea.
Immunity Challenge Time: Three players from each team will hold long poles across their shoulders. Slowly, the other team will assign weight to be placed on the poles. The last team with a person standing wins immunity, a clue to the hidden immunity idol, a rooster, and two hens.
No, I won’t be making any “pole” jokes. But feel free to make your own.
Albert, Brandon, and Stacey will be the weight bearers for Upolu, while Keith, Jim, and Dawn will go for Savaii.
Not much to describe here except for some standing and some straining. Keith is the first one out with 180 pounds. Albert then loses his balance and falls, also with 180 pounds. Jim and Brandon are both in there with 240 pounds, setting a “Survivor” record. Jim and Brandon both don’t last long after that with Jim dropping slightly before Brandon.
It’s down to Stacey and Dawn, both with 140 pounds. Dawn does an amazing job hanging in there despite the fact that the pole has rolled down her back and down to her waist. Stacey eventually ends up in a similar situation, but can’t keep it up. Savaii wins immunity and poultry.
Back at Upolu, politicking centers around Stacey and Edna. Edna tries to talk with Stacey, but Stacey isn’t interested. She claims that Edna hasn’t talked to her since day one and that Edna wouldn’t have been able to carry any weight. Why? Because skeletons can’t lift weight.
Ooo…Stacey burn. Why haven’t we heard from her earlier?
Stacey tries to plant a seed of doubt in Lil Hantz’s head. Telling him that Albert, Sophie, and Mikayla are after him. Smart move by Stacey, and ironic that a Hantz seed was used against a Hantz.
Brandon approaches Coach with this tidbit, but Coach implores him to trust in their alliance. Brandon counters this by asking how many times Coach has been screwed by his alliances in the past. Wow, Brandon finally said something that made sense.
That night at Tribal Council, Coach lets us know that he is impressed by Stacey’s warrior spirit.
Sophie thinks the tribe needs to be strong, but that isn’t physical strength, it’s team unity strength.
J-Pro decides it’s time for some Tribal Council Mad Libs and asks some guy named Rick to fill in the blank to the statement; the most annoying thing about Albert is ______.
Some guy with a super sweet mustache responds, “He snores.”
Brandon is asked about the most annoying thing about Edna. He responds that she has a lot of opinions
Edna disagrees. Apparently she thinks she has a perfectly acceptable amount of opinions.
Mikayla thinks Brandon’s a great kid, but she can’t stop thinking about who his uncle is.
Brandon is proud to be a Hantz, but they’re two different people. This line of questioning makes Brandon emotional. He breaks down saying he wants to be someone that God is proud of and that involves clearing the Hantz name.
Voting Time: No votes are shown.
One vote for Edna, four votes for Stacey, and the fourth person to pay a visit to Redemption Island is…Stacey.
Oooo…Coach and the others go for a hug as Stacey is making her exit. She totally denies them and vows to return to the game.
Verdict: Again, not an explosive episode but the plotlines and characters are still fascinating.
Also, none of the votes have been terribly shocking, but that probably a sign of solid gameplay from the current alliances.
Who’s Going to Win? Watch Rick pull a Runaround Bob and take this whole thing.
Power Rankings Update: Oof…maybe this vote was too predictable. Both Andrea Boehlke and I had Stacey in the bottom slot and we both had Christine winning at Redemption Island for a total of sixteen points each. The score is now Team Boehlke 48, Team Holmes 49.
Any Questions? Drop me a line on Twitter: @gordonholmes
Tags: coach wade, jeff probst, ozzy lusth, survivor, survivor south pacific
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