Survivor

This is not the ideal way to recap an episode, you know, wait until you've completely forgotten everything that happened and then try to reconstruct it by reading your skimpy notes. But hey--this blog is a free read so sometimes the quality isn't going to be of the highest level. ;o)

When last we left our friends on Survivor--the two teams were La Mina and Casaya. Our cruel school yard pick had divided the teams up into a mix of boy/girl and young/old. La Mina is a bit heavier in the oldies and Casaya seems heavier in the youngies. Hmm, that was awkwardly phrased.

Casaya still doesn't have fire or water which makes no sense to me because I thought the younger guys had won it but--oh yeah--they couldn't figure out how to use the flint. Apparently none of their new team members can figure it out either. Casaya has the alliance of four with crazy Shane and poor Cerie just waiting to get kicked off with the next loss. Bruce has returned from exile island with all his enthusiasm and energy intact and tries to get this tribe started on the right track. The old-filter-the-water through the shirts trick. That'll get them all on his side. Again--why aren't we using the flint? We know boiling the water works for sure, right?

Meanwhile, La Mina has the wierd, two old guys-two young guy-two young women alliance triangle going on. Misty--our missile engineer--begins to implement her strategy of massaging the younger guys to solidify their 'alliance'. Misty. Misty. Misty. Picture me deeply disappointed that the best strategy a missile engineer (that's like another word for a ROCKET SCIENTIST, right?) can come up with-- is to use her sexuality to manipulate a twenty-something guy who's probably not a quarter as smart as she is? Survivor, after all, is not rocket science. Anway--we enjoy watching La Mina's fruitless attempt to fish. Puffer fish galore, but nothing edible except snails. Hard to believe the ocean is full of fish, isn't it? Now I'm pondering...are puffer fish really poisonous? Wouldn't it be hilarious if they weren't? And La Mina threw back--like a hundred of them--thinking that they were. How dumb would that be? Okay--I had to detour so I could look that up. Here's what I found:

The 'pufferfish', also called blowfish, swellfish, globefish, balloonfish are fish making up the family Tetraodontidae, within the order Tetraodontiformes. They are named for their ability to inflate themselves to several times their normal size by swallowing water or air when threatened; the same adaptation is found in the closely related porcupinefish, which also have spines (unlike pufferfish).
The eyes and internal organs of most pufferfish are highly toxic, but nevertheless its meat is considered a delicacy in Japan and Korea. The name "fugu" is used both for the fish that are eaten and for their meat (for more details see Fugu).

So okay--they are poisonous, although the Japanese eat them. Chances are the Japanese know what they are doing when they filet them so as to reduce the risk. Nothing would reduce the risk enough to convince me to eat them, but hey--it's a different culture thing I guess.

Back to Survivor--we have our reward challenge and La Mina wins the tarp and blankets and pillows and rope and water cans just in time to put the tarp on their shelter before the big rain. La Mina cleverly sends Bruce to exile island since Casaya was stupid enough to admit to Jeff and La Mina that Bruce was making things better at their camp. Never admit weakness or strength to the enemy! Doesn't anybody who goes on Survivor actually WATCH Survivor? Meanwhile, poor Bruce stuck on the island during the big storm.

Aras at Casaya is starting to figure out that he is in an alliance with 3 nutballs. Shane and Courtney can't stand each other and we spend some time on their angst regarding each other. Shane wigs out about his "thinking" seat. He doesn't want to share it. Okaay. In my house the thinking seat is the toilet, but whatever floats your boat.

Then immunity. La Mina loses because, well, all their players are skinny. Seems like bulk was the key talent to have in the sand/bag wrestling football match. Poor little skinny Ruth Marie just got picked up by Bobby with the bag. Nothing she could do about that.

Then the show got interesting. We see lots of manuvering by the alliances of 2-2-2 or 2-4 or 4-2 depending on who's really allied with whom. There is lots of talk about getting rid of skinny minnie Ruth Marie. I think they should. I'm not sure she'll live through the game she's so skinny--let alone compete effectively. No one is blaming her for the loss of the immunity challenge, but they do talk about her being unable to compete and contribute. Okay. Young girls definitely want Ruth Marie to go. Young guys seem to be going along with that. Terry has been watching Misty massaging Austin and Nick and he's no dummy--he's thinking she's smart and cute and dangerous. At the vote, we think Ruth Marie's going and then--boom. Misty's out.

I was surprised, I don't mind admitting. Okay, I do mind admitting it. You'd think I would realize that Survivor loves to mis-direct the viewer. I really thought the younger guys would vote for Ruth Marie. Apparently they were convinced by Terry's argument that Misty was too smart to be trusted. They were also not ready to come out against the old guys --it is too soon for that. The tribe needs to stay strong in order to make it to the merge intact. Meanwhile, as wimpy as Misty might have been in a challenge, Ruth Marie is definitely more of a hinderance because of her tiny size and frailty. I guess we'll see if that voting strategy pays off for La Mina or not.