Survivor: South Pacific 9/21/11
Survivor, Blind Hatred, Damn Temptress
It's the second episode of Survivor: South Pacific and we catch up with Semhar as she poetically weaves her thoughts as the voice-over to her arrival and first night at Redemption Island.
SAVAII TRIBE (ORANGE)
Less poetic was Cochran's voice-over about how horrible he did at the last Tribal Council and how his new attitude around camp would defy his mother. (Um, maybe he should be able to handle a machete…)
Next, we cut to Ozzy who's on a search for the HIIdol. They were supposed to be harder to find this year… apparently they are NOT. Survivor producers thought that by also hiding the HIIdol Clues that it would make it harder for the survivors to find the HIIdol. But haven't they noticed that pretty much everyone that's found the HIIdol barely even looked at the clue(s)?! Ozzy was scooping out for things that looked interesting, unusual or out of place. He found a sprawling tree over the water, climbed and so a oddly placed rock. He lifted the rock and found… THE HIIDOL! He decides not to tell anyone he has it (for now) and hopes that he's smarter with it this time than he was the last time he played.
They really need to come up with something harder. Maybe give up on the clues all together. Maybe have clues for portions of an idol, say 2 pieces. That way if you find one piece, you still have to find another for it to give you immunity… if they did that it would also give them more dynamics on whether or not the person that finds a piece tells anyone else, and the possibility that 2 people have the different parts and would have to work together, or go crazy not knowing the other had it. COME ON SURVIVOR!
Anyway, we also got the inner-workings of a Savaii alliance. Keith & Ozzy are in cahoots and want Jim on their side. They're willing to let Jim think he's running the show. They decide that they need to round out their 3, with 2 more… Elyse & Whitney, which leaves out Cochran, Dawn and Papa Bear.
UPOLU TRIBE (BLUE)
Coach isn't content with just his new alliance of 5 (himself, Brandon, Albert, Sophie and Rick), he wants a safety net. And because she showed some compassion after the first challenge, he chose Edna. He gives her the final 2 speech, and she totally buys it.
So, Brandon's feeling guilty about not telling Coach that he is Russell Hantz nephew… so, they go for a walk and Brandon shows Coach his tattoo "Lil Hantz". It took a minute for Coach to understand what that meant and although he gave good face, we all know that this definitely planted a seed of doubt in his head. The two hug it out and pray together, vowing to stay true to the alliance they've formed.
Then, we got more of Brandon's blind-hatred of that damn temptress, Mikayla. As she tries to prove her worth around camp by going crabbing/fishing and telling us she's more of a tomboy than girly-girl, but Brandon sees something completely different. He sees her as trying to seduce all the guys of the tribe and tempting him (yeah, with her no make-up and unruly hair – imagine what Brandon would say if he was on Savaii with Elyse & Whitney? IMO they are much prettier than Mikayla and are definitely trying to work their good looks compared to Mikayla trying to show how strong she is physically).
Then, there's Christine. She's still searching for the HIIdol. She didn't get as lucky as Ozzy, but she did find the HIIdol Clue numero uno, which basically tells her that the HIIdol is hidden… somewhere. She questions whether or not to tell anyone about finding the clue, and decides to keep it to herself for now.
IMMUNITY/ REWARD CHALLENGE
Apparently Upolu found a fruit tree on their way to the challenge, and were all feasting on a piece as they stood on the mat, trying to rub it in Savaii's faces. It was an odd pysch-out maneuver…
It's a two parter: First 4 members of the tribe would have to unwind ribbons from a pole to release a set of keys. Those keys would unlock the second group of 4, who would have to complete a movable puzzle. First to complete the puzzle and move the main piece to the mat wins IMMUNITY & REWARD (comfort items).
Savaii decides to sit out Edna. Ribbon Unwinders for Savaii = Cochran, Dawn, Whitney & Elyse. For Upolu = Sophie, Stacey, Christina & Mikayla. Upolu totally dominates this portion of the competition. The ladies worked together perfectly and unwound the ribbons pretty seamlessly. However, Savaii didn't have as much luck. They were much slower, and Cochran got caught up a few times, slowing their progress even further.
This led to Upolu having a lead going into the puzzle (Coach, Brandon, Rick & Albert), but Savaii easily caught up here (Ozzy, Keith, Papa Bear & Jim). They seemed to know exactly how to maneuver the puzzle pieces and were much quicker in doing so…
SAVAII WINS IMMUNITY & REWARD!
UPOLU TRIBE
UPOLU TRIBE
Start the scrambling… The core alliance of Coach, Brandon, Albert, Rick & Sophie discuss what to do. Coach suggests splitting the votes between Christina and Stacey in case Christina found the HIIdol. He also tells them that Edna will be their 6th, but she'll be on a "need-to-know" basis.
Later Brandon meets with Coach to tell him he wants to vote off Mikayla because she reminds him of Parvati. Coach understands where he's coming from (at least a little bit), but tells him it's not smart to vote their strongest female out yet. Since his attempt with Coach didn't go so well, Brandon decides to voice his opinion to Rick & Sophie. This concerns Sophie, since she considers herself the next strongest female. But they both rebuff it, telling him it doesn't make sense to vote Mikayla off first.
Because of Brandon's tactics, the core group has open discussions where Christina, Stacey and Mikayla can see. Mikayla tries to join the conversation, to which Coach walks away, leaving everyone confused.
Christina & Stacey are concerned, so they try and get the dish from Edna. She tries to play dumb, but when she suggests they were talking about voting Sophie out, Christina & Stacey belittle her (because, oh yeah, Sophie was in the group discussion…) They then try to get the dirt from Brandon. He tells them they're considering voting out Mikayla. They, too, are confused as to why Mikayla (the strongest female) is being considered and they think Brandon is lying to them. So, Christina goes off to look for the HIIdol again (no luck).
The core group reconvenes and Coach persists that they need to vote out Christine tonight. But Brandon won't let go of his effort to vote out Mikayla just yet. He tells the group that Stacey and Christina are going to vote for Mikayla.
TRIBAL COUNCIL
Coach doesn't let any time waste away. He calls out Stacey & Christina for wanting to vote out Mikayla. They, of course, have no idea what he's talking about and deny it. They try and get Coach to spill who told him that, but he won't do it (and Albert speaks up that he's been loyal to the person that told him).
Christina thinks that because she called Coach a "temporary player", that he's now gunning for her. He doesn't really deny it, but also calls out her overt attempts at searching for the HIIdol.
After some prompting from Probst, Mikayla finally speaks up and asks Stacey & Christina if they want to vote her out. They say no. Albert speaks up and says he wasn't the one that said the two were going to vote for her. That makes Brandon crack. He tells everyone he was the one that said it.
THE VOTE
With the votes all over the place…
CHRISTINA IS VOTED OFF!
With 4 votes and will meet Semhar at Redemption Island. Next week will be the first Duel of the season, and I'm guessing it will be close, but not so compelling.
AND seriously… how did Brandon pass the psych evaluations? The boy definitely has demons. Where Russell Hantz clearly embraced his evil-side during the game of Survivor, Brandon Hantz seems to be struggling epically with his Hantz-genetics (to be evil) and his want to be good. To me, it's a valiant effort to want to be good when it's in your nature to be bad… but I'm not sure I want to watch it unfold on my television screen.
