Survivor

Air Date: 10/22/09
View Date: 10/25/09

The episode started off with a look into the tribes. Both tribes have been hit with miserable downpours for the past 5 days. Everyone is soaked, waterlogged, cold, and miserable. Well, everyone is miserable except for Foa Foa's Russell, who seems to be enjoying himself immensely. Is this just another one of his mind games? Only time will tell. The Galu tribe was not happy that Russell, the tribe leader, did not grab the tarp when he could, but they did respect that he continued working very hard around camp while everyone else holed up trying to stay warm. Others did worry that he was working too hard, especially when he stumbled trying to enter the shelter. They were more worried that he would fail in the challenges or seriously put the tribe at risk.

The reward challenge was for a prize of hot pizza. There was a twist, with both teams needing to go to tribal council. The teams had to push one team member in a large ball while blindfolded. The person in the ball was the only member that could see and was in charge of navigating. The balls were to be pushed to a table-top ball maze, also blindfolded, that would need to be conquered to win the reward.

Galu's Russell was getting more exhausted as the challenge progressed, and needed to be helped to his position at the table maze. Russell completely collapsed, passed out right on top of the maze, and the medics were called right in. He kept insisting that he was OK, but the challenge was stopped and Jeff let everyone take off their blindfolds. Jeff completely stopped the challenge, and announced that both tribes were to vote someone out that night. Russell was to be monitored and would return if he was deemed medically stable.

All the talk that afternoon on both tribes was Russell's status and if he would be OK. Galu seemed to be completely lost without without their leader. During Russell's monitoring, his heart rate plummeted upon sitting, and was having huge blood pressure fluctuations. Russell was incredibly upset about the medics' decision to pull him from the game, but even Jeff wouldn't let him return after seeing him pass out twice in a short amount of time. Most likely, Russell's problems were due to dehydration.

Of course, lots of talk was about the votes at tribal that night. Jaison commented that every time Foa Foa gets close to succeeding at something, it seems to be ripped out from under them. They were very close to winning the challenge, and because of the medical situation they couldn't get their revenge as they saw it for losing so many times. On Foa Foa, talk was about sending one of the girls home. On Galu, the girls wanted to send Shambo home without question. The guys, on the other hand, were discussing sending one of the other girls home, with the main focus on Monica. The guys didn't see Shambo as a threat, and also recognized her efforts and success in the challenges. The guys did give Shambo hints that she should vote for Monica, and the guys brought her into their confidence.

At tribal, Jeff informed everyone that Russell was pulled from the game, and also told them some of the details of his condition. Foa Foa, while on one hand glad that the strongest Galu member was out of the game, Russell said it very eloquently that he would rather beat someone on the field of battle than have someone taken out this way. Then, when they were all sitting at tribal, it started pouring again, and everyone looked absolutely miserable. Due to the fact that they did not complete a challenge for the first time in Survivor history, there would be no vote. Yet there was still trash talk between the two teams. The last order of business was that, now that Galu's leader was out of the game, they had to take the leader necklace back to camp and assigned a new one.

10 words or less: Seeing Russell taken out by medical was heartbreaking.