Survivor

View Date: 11/19/09

We started off this episode with the discussions around the tribe after the major blindside at tribal council. There are now just 6 members of the previous Galu tribe remaining, while all 4 of the Foa Foa tribe to make it to the merge were still in the game. We were also reminded that Shambo, while a part of the original Galu tribe, is conspiring with Russell, which evens out the vote.

The next morning while the rest of his tribe sleeps, Russell starts searching for his next idol. It also turns out that John knows that Shambo has flipped sides, and is trying to decide what to do with that information. When she approaches him, he will not commit to which way he would vote to take out Laura.

At the reward challenge, the tribe members were split into two teams of 5. One member of the team would lie face down on a cradle. The other four members would be manning ropes to pull the cradle around a ring bearing 15 flags. They then had to get the person in the cradle back to a log to place the flag. The first team to get all 15 flags into their correct slots on the log would win reward. They would be whisked away to an island with a waterfall and a picnic lunch. They were also provided with a Palm Pre (talk about advertising) so they could have a handheld device to record a once in a lifetime opportunity.

The purple team consisted of Brett, Russell, Laura, and Dave pulling Natalie in the cradle. Shambo, Jaison, Mick, and Monica pulled John in the cradle on the yellow team.

purple leads from the start, while yellow keeps losing their flags and falls behind. Yellow keeps it pretty close, natalie hangs out of cradle keeping as little as possible in to allow for the most reach. Purple wins with natalie almost falling out during the last two flags.

Back at camp, Jaison approached Monica looking for her vote, and Monica figures out that Shambo is voting with the former Foa Foa. Jaison should have probably left well enough alone, because now they're at a disadvantage in my opinion. After coming back from the reward, everyone goes off to look for the idol. Laura and Dave vow not to let it fall into Russell's hands, so she follows Jaison on his search while Dave follows Russell. Russell figures out what is going on and starts sprinting through the woods. Dave winds up losing him, and Russell heads back to where they were just searching. Flipping over his first rock, he finds the idol yet again!

During the immunity challenge, the tribe members get one chance with one rock to break a series of tiles hanging close together. Each member is assigned a color, and if a tile of their color breaks, they get a spear. The spears are then shot at a target in the next round. The person who lands closest to the center of the target wins immunity. Laura fails to break a tile, so she has no shot at winning this immunity and ends her streak at two. After the first round, Brett earned two spears, while Jaison, Mick, and Monica each had one spear. Monica was only able to get to the last round because Dave broke one of her tiles instead of his. All other members failed to connect with the tiles. Brett hit target, then the only person that came closer was Mick. On Brett's second shot, he lands low, and Mick won immunity.

On to the strategizing, and Shambo states hands down that she is voting Laura at tribal council, and she will not be swayed. Galu talk about voting for Russell yet, and John can't believe that his tribe members have absolutely no analytical skills. Monica tells Foa Foa that she will be voting for John, but will really be voting for Natalie with the other Galu members. Mick, being a pretty smart guy, doesn't trust Monica. However, Galu didn't let John in on the plan. On the other side, Russell decides the only way he can get this to work is to tell John that his team is after him. The talk turns to ties, and John was still trying to decide what his best move was.

At tribal, Russell chooses not to play the idol, and the votes come down to Laura and Natalie, and the first round ends in a tie. The next round, the eight members whose names were not displayed got to vote again, and they could only choose between Laura and Natalie. Meanwhile, Eric is sitting in the jury saying “This is good shit!” After the second vote, one person switched sides, and Laura was voted off. More stunned looks by former Galu members, and incredibly smug looks from both Foa Foa and the jury, at least Eric.

10 words or less: John's right: no strategic skills whatsoever.