Survivor: Cook Island Episode 4

As is the usual in our household, I was happily occupying myself in the living room when Robin "suggested" that I need to blog something to keep our loyal readers happy. Since our Dead Like Me marathon has severely impacted our dvr viewing, we only watched the Survivor on Sunday and I didn't keep any notes. Happily, CBS now provides innertube so I can watch the highlights and remind myself of all the wonderful Survivor moments.

Act 1 Aitu

Aitu returns from tribal council with the obligatory rats eating in the dark shots. But one of my favorite things every week is to see how the people who were on the wrong side of the vote always sulk when the tribe returns to camp. Ozzie was quite upset that Cecelia, his former tribemate was evicted. Too bad, Ozzie, S(ucks) T(o) B(e) Y(ou)!

I also find in humorous that the women of the tribes can be so nasty about each other. It's always based on looks. Candice is returning from Exile Island and because she's blonde and cute, the women make witchy comments about her wave of all things. Hey, you do know you're on tv, right? Do you really want to be that immature?

Then to top it all off, the girls ask Candice why the other tribe sent her to Exile Island. Ok-- first, we already had this conversation without Candice before Tribal Council, remember? What makes you think Candice-- stuck on Exile Island for 2 days, is going to know the answer? Again, it's just an opportunity to be witchy because Candice got immunity.

Act 2 Raro

So here's a new one: the men are lazy and the women are workers. Has the world turned upside down? FORESHADOW COMING: The men brag about how strong they are compared to the Aitu tribe men. The men brag about how the women need them. There's a challenge coming. Hmm, I wonder what will happen?

Act 3 Challenge

The challenge is a race. Two tribemembers are clipped to a rope that snakes through an obstacle course. The rest of the tribe will help them navigate this until they get to a puzzle table. Then another tribe member will swim out to a buoy and retrieve a decoder wheel. The tribe that decodes the message first wins 2 pillows, 3 blankets and a hammock, and the right to send someone to Exile Island.
Raro has an extra member : Stephannie sits this one out.
Raro clips Jenni and Cristina, Aitu clips Becky and Candice.
The race begins, teamwork is critical and Aitu has that totally sewn up. They also really don't care if they hurt the women while they're pushing and pulling them so that's a big plus too. Raro's men do NOt listen to their women, so eventually they get really tangled up and lag behind. Ozzie swims to the buoy for Aitu and Brad swims for Raro. Ozzie kicks butt! He runs like mad and swims like a fish. He has the decoder back and Aitu is solving the puzzle while Raro is still going through the obstacle course. Aitu wins and sends Adam to Exile Island.

Act 4 Aitu

Congratulations all around. Everybody feels great beating the brawn team. We then get to watch Ozzie become the provider. He catches a ton of fish (9 out of 11 fish) and hopes the team will keep him for his ability to feed them. It's a tried and true tactic which has been more effective than less. We'll see how it works for him.

Act 5 Raro

Raro discusses their humbling by the other team. JP then begins to give one instruction after another to everyone every one else while he reclines like a pasha drinking coconut juice. Unfortunately, the rest of the tribe is not stupid and everyone notices that he's bossy and lazy which is only slightly better than bossy and hardworking-- but still bad.

Now we have our ick moment. Parvati, who is NOT 'all that', is flirting with Nate, who says he has her back while she pumps him like a soap dispenser for information about the alliances among the men. Nate doesn't want to find himself thinking like a 'dumb-dumb' but well Nate, TOO LATE! He advises Parvati to 'let the King sit pretty'. They can wait for their moment to take him out.

Act 6 aka Cruelty to Animals

Cao Boi loses his tiny mind and harasses a mother bird with it's nest until the nest is knocked down with a new born baby bird in it. Jonathan is very upset (he appears to CRY) and picks up the little bird. After alot of touchy feely moments, Cao Boi tries to make up for his stupidity by putting the bird and nest back. The bird allows this. So now we know two things: 1. Jonathan sounds just like Hawkeye from MASH and, 2. Birds don't refuse to take care of their chicks just because a human has touched them. I'm thinking that the adult that told me that, just didn't WANT to put that egg back in the nest and made up the stuff about the "human smell".

Act 7 Immunity

The immunity challenge is another race, this one three parts. First, 4 members put together a stretcher puzzle and run it to the beach. Then one tribe member swims out to a mast, climbs a rope ladder and releases a tribemember shackled high up on the mast. The two swim back, holding on to a life ring, place the person from the mast on the stretcher, and run back to the start. The three remaining members have to build a fire that releases a tribe flag.
Raro has too many members, they sit out Cristina.

On the mast in shackles : Candice for Aitu and Parvati for Raro.
Raro stretcher builders are: Brad, Nate, Adam, JP with JP to swim.
Aitu stretcher builders are: Ozzie, Jonathan, Jessica, Yul with Ozzie to swim.
Raro fire builders: Stephannie, Jenny, Rebecca
Aitu fire builders: Cao Boi, Sundra, ???.

Raro is the first off with the stretcher. Aitu is right behind. At the water: JP is in first but Ozzie runs for a really long time and he makes up all the lost time and takes the lead. He kicks JP's butt! Ozzie and Candice beat JP and Parvati by a lot. Then it's both teams back to the mat to start the fire. Aitu gets flame first, then lots of smoke but Raro cannot get a flame. Jenny whacks herself with the ax and ends up with a bloody thumb. Aitu wins immunity.

Act 8 Pre-Council Strategy

After the immunity the tribe consoles itself by exclaiming over Cao Boi's firemaking skills. Then Stephannie has the dumbest moment ever and takes responsibility for the tribe's loss, saying she is the weakest link and she should go. She regrets it immediately, but unfortunately time only runs in one direction and there's no taking back stupid.

The girls do not like the idea of giving up their 5/4 majority which they will do if Stephannie is voted off. The girls start talking and they decide to try to get rid of JP. They try to convince Parvati to vote JP off. Now you would have thought that since Parvati is just letting JP think he's in charge until the time is right to strike ('let the king sit pretty') that she would jump at this opportunity. But wait, grasshopper, what is Parvati's tactic: Flirtation. And what does that require: Men. Parvati is lukewarm to the idea perhaps because she thinks she can manipulate men better than women. Since Parvati responded so weakly to this suggestion the women approach Brad. He's shocked but he listens. Which way will he vote?

Act 9 Tribal Council

Lots of blah, blah, blah. Who's the leader? JP. Why should someone be voted off? Not because of challenge performance. In the end Brad and Parvati come through as well as Adam. In fact, the most interesting thing is that Nate who is Stephannie's old tribemate is the only one besides JP to vote for her. I wonder why Parvati and the other guys didn't let him know what was coming down. Whatever the reason--JP is voted off. The tribe has spoken.

JP votes Stephannie
Nate votes Stephannie
Brad votes JP
Jenny votes JP
Rebecca votes JP
Parvati votes JP
Adam votes JP
Stephannie votes JP
Cristina votes JP