The thirteenth season of Survivor came to a close with Yul taking home the money and Ozzy coming in a close second. I would have been thrilled with either of them winning, but I'm glad that Yul's plotting and planning didn't cost him the game. Physically winning tons of challenges is a big deal, but the manipulation and social strategy is my favourite part of the game.
In the greatest tie-breaker of all time, Sundra and Becky failed so miserably at making a fire that Jeff interrupted the challenge to bring them some matches. AND THEN SUNDRA RAN OUT OF MATCHES.
Final tribal council felt weird. It seemed rushed and there were only a few good questions. Becky was pretty much snubbed entirely. I knew there was no chance she could win but I thought she played a pretty good game and felt bad for her that everyone else seemed to think she was carried the entire way. When the votes were read I was hoping poor Becky would get at least one.
Interestingly, this season there was no car reward, although Ozzy won a car by winning the internet vote. Jeff CRACKED my shit UP twice; once when Cao Boi tried to keep talking and Jeff shot him down with a little shake of his head, and then again when he brought up Billy's infatuation with Candice. But to Billy's credit, he recovered well.
The next Survivor is set in Fiji where they'll enjoy both a plethora of snakes and a military coup. Good times. Wikipedia has some unconfirmed, spoilery rumours here.
The object of the reward challenge this week was to fill a bucket with as much mud as possible in 10 minutes using only your body as a means to transport the mud to the bucket. The last time we saw this challenge was way back in the first season (Kelly won). Ozzy whooped everyone's ass by managing to get over 40 pounds of mud into his bucket; the second runner-up, Parvati, managed 24. Yul came in third with 22.5, and the three of them went to enjoy a night at a spa as their reward. They got massages, dinner, a private hula show and then spent the evening naked together in the hot tub. Parvati and Ozzy flirted just enough with each other to worry Yul about a possible shift in loyalties.
Ozzy had sent Adam to Exile Island so he could commune with the spirit of Candice. This left just Becky and Sundra at camp to discuss the game, and Becky pointed out that maybe Ozzy should be the next to go because he's dominating every challenge. When the winners returned from the spa the next day, Becky spoke to Yul about changing their plans. Not that it mattered, since Ozzy won immunity easily. Parvati was voted out instead.
Yul decided to bring Jonathan's hat to tribal council since Jonathan had asked for it when he was voted off. Yul left it on the jury bench for him, and then Jeff led the group in a big discussion about whether Yul did so out of the goodness of his heart or in order to secure a jury vote with Jonathan.
As the first order of business, Parvati cut her thumb open in a way I wouldn't wish on anyone. I won't regale you all with details like "fingernail falling off" or "split in two" or "need stitches to hold it all together," because no one needs to be grossed out further. The medics swooped in, gave her drugs and stitches and she went on to win the reward challenge with her dad.
How cute were all the loved ones! Jonathan and his wife tried really hard, I loved how she was all business. I was rooting for them, but Parvati beat them out by a hair. She then decided Jonathan should go to Exile Island and Jeff told her that her dad could choose two more Survivors and their family members to join them on reward, without talking to Parvati about it. He chose Adam and Sundra. They were taken to a freshwater cave where the locals included them in the bi-annual blessing ceremony. Then they had meatloaf, fried chicken and biscuits - typical South Pacific fare.
While everyone else was gone, Ozzy pointed out to Yul and Becky that he was tired of feeding Parvati and Adam, giving them the energy and strength to win challenges. Yul and Becky agreed so they cleverly tossed their coconuts into the jungle. When Parvati and Adam came back from stuffing their faces, there would be no coconuts for them! Devious. But then they just ended up looking like asswipes because Adam, Parvati and Sundra brought them tons of goodies from their feast.
Ozzy won immunity (due to having a lot of, ahem, pole to work with) and then gloated about it to the camera. When Jonathan came back to camp and tried to make conversation with Becky, she rolled her eyes and completely ignored him. Jonathan deduced that this meant he might be going home, and he was right. I knew there was no way Jonathan was going to win the show, but I was hoping they'd get rid of Adam or Parvati first.
I saw Survivor tonight. I wasn't drunk when I saw it, but I sure am now! I loved it. Lemme esplain. No, there is too much. Lemme sum up. OKay. Yul is just so sommmth. I enjoy his handling of Candice. She left tonight. I did not cry about it. Jonathan is playing the game. They ate fish without inviting Poverty and Adam and Candice. She said no one liked Jonathan but they shut her up good. Also, Pverty took a bath and they sent Candice to Exicle Island AGAIN! AWSEMEN! Anyway, I"m on vacation in New Jersey and so I am drunk. Discuss.
Great episode! This was the first time in a long time that I honestly didn't know what was going to happen during a Survivor vote.
Aitu and Raro met for a reward challenge to find out they were merging instead. They were treated to a huge feast on a booze cruise. Most of Raro got loaded and Adam ended up puking over the side of the boat. Then he cuddled in the shelter with Parvati while Candice pretended not to notice. Good times.
Since Raro had the advantage with five people over Aitu's four, Yul shared the fact that he had the secret immunity idol with his tribemates and then sat down with Jonathan for a "hypothetical" strategy session. Yul suggested that he might have the idol, and if he did, would Jonathan consider realigning himself with Aitu in order to shift the advantage. Jonathan thought about it. When Candice asked him about what Yul said, Jonathan kept the conversation to himself. Raro discussed possibly getting rid of Ozzy during tribal council.
The immunity challenge was no contest for Ozzy, who we already know is half man, half monkey. Afterward, Yul and Jonathan spoke again. Yul confirmed he had the idol and asked Jonathan once again to join them. Yul also said he'd like to go to final two with Jonathan, because he'd be easier to beat. Jonathan returned to Raro and tried to get them to discuss the possiblity that Yul had the idol and if so, what should they do? Raro refused to listen and decided that since Ozzy was immune, Yul had to be the one to go. Jonathan decided that they were all a bunch of morons, but remained unsure of what to do because he knew defecting again could put him in a really bad position.
Until the final vote was read I really didn't know what Jonathan was going to do. To Raro's utter dismay, Yul's strategy worked and Jonathan helped to vote out Nate. Yul didn't even have to use his idol. Nate called Jonathan a "stanky, traiting bastard" during his final words.
Ah, a long night last night for me so a late start today, but I'm here!
I was going to title this post, "A Night at the Roxbury" in honour of Yul's reception during the reward. Yul sandwich!
So, in a nutshell, Aitu continues to kick serious ass, winning both challenges. After the reward challenge, they continued to punish Candice for jumping ship and sent her to Exile Island again. Aitu then went on to enjoy a wonderful afternoon amongst the locals. They were treated to an incredible welcome and a banquet, and Yul became betrothed to two ladies of the island.
Later on, after Aitu won the immunity challenge, Raro discussed their displeasure with Rebecca and her inablilty to keep up at challenges. They pondered the mysterious note inside the glass bottle, which they were to bring to tribal council with them. After Rebecca was voted out, Parvati read the note and learned they were to vote out one more person. And Jenny was handed her walking papers without any warning. Ouch!
Interesting gossip about Brad and JP from Survivor. And here's a tidbit about Ozzy. Yeep.
The episode began with Candice talking about how she can't wait for the merge so she can be with Parvati and Adam again. Then she and Jonathan spoke about how even though everything seemed to be going okay, they don't want to get left in the dust in case anyone on their tribe got greedy and switched things up. When the tribes met to compete for reward, Jeff offered Candice exactly what she wanted; he gave everyone the opportunity to jump ship and join the opposite tribe. No one from Raro moved a muscle, but Candice stepped forward and as soon as she did, Jonathan followed suit.
Understandably, the rest of Aitu was pissed. With Candice and Jonathan gone, Aitu was down to four people, and Raro had eight.
The reward was breakfast and letters from home. Aitu kicked ass in the challenge and really bonded over the win. They shared photos and letters and generally had a great time. Oh, and they sent Candice to Exile Island.
On Exile, Candice worried about how Jonathan was bonding with Raro while she was stuck, essentially out of the game. She needn't have worried because he wasn't very well recieved. No one was particularly warm toward him, although Adam was friendly. Jonathan couldn't stop talking about how tight and close he and Candice were, feelings Candice obviously did not share.
Candice returned to Raro for the immunity challenge. Teams had to steer their boats and manouver so that a dropped cannonball landed in a trap and released a couple of buoys. The buoys contained letters and a clue, and the first team with all their buoys had to rush back to shore and solve their puzzle. Aitu fell behind until Yul discovered it was easier to gauge accuracy by looking through the cannonball shute itself, and once that happened they kicked ass yet again.
Back at Raro's camp, Candice gave Parvati and Adam enough information about Jonathan to make them distrust him, and Adam got pretty angry as well. At first he was campaigning to keep Jonathan over Brad, but seemed to be changing his mind. In the end Raro unanimously voted out Brad, who surprisingly became the first member of the jury. Now, does this mean that there will be 9 people on the jury this year instead of the usual 7, or will there be a couple of non-jury votes down the road?
Even though Aitu chose Nate to spend the night at their camp, they didn't trust him to compete in the reward challenge and sat him out. Both tribes were allowed to choose two items from a cute little catalog as their reward, and they both had the same idea since Aitu chose peanut butter and potatoes, and Raro chose peanut butter and bread. The challenge was extremely physical with a lot of swimming; losing it left Raro very angry with Brad because he sat out to do the puzzle portion of the challenge while poor Rebecca practically had a heart attack.
What is it about peanut butter that I am missing? Jenna and Heidi took off their tops for peanut butter a few seasons ago, and this week I thought Candice and Jessica were going to start smearing it on their bodies, they were so drunk from eating it. Why does peanut butter not do this to me? Unfair.
Ozzy was obviously the star of the show this week, kicking ass in both challenges and catching enough fish, birds and coconuts to keep his tribe fat and happy. Even so, Aitu lost the immunity challenge and ended up at tribal council. Before they went, Ozzy and Jessica tried to create an alliance with Becky, Candice and Yul, making it their goal to oust Jonathan. Ozzy was a bit concerned that he would be the next to go, and pointed out the fact that he really does provide for the tribe.
I was surprised at some of the conversation because I thought Candice, Yul and Becky were pretty tight with Jonathan but it sounded like they would be willing to get rid of him before the merge. However, Jessica continued to annoy the majority of Aitu to the point that they voted her out. The only thing that surprised me about that was the fact that Ozzy voted for her as well.
Was that not the most primal, brutal, physical, personal and rather porn-like challenge ever? Crazy. Candice was practically unstoppable and Ozzy came away with some bad scratches on his neck. Since both tribes would be voting out one of their own, the challenge reward was a lamb feast that the winning team could eat while watching the losing team's tribal council. Aitu won so they went to tribal council first.
Before they went, Cao Boi tried to implement Plan Voodoo, which came to him in a dream. He spoke to Yul about trying to fish out the immunity idol and at the same time break up the white alliance by splitting their votes evenly between Jonathan and Candice. Cao Boi was sure Jonathan held the idol. Yul kept the truth to himself but agreed that it was a pretty good plan. Even though it seemed that everyone agreed to go along, Cao Boi himself fell victim to his own doodoo and was voted out. As soon as he left, Aitu was served lamb and cider while Raro drooled.
That afternoon at Raro, Cristina knew she was on the chopping block so she went around asking everyone for a second chance. Nate seemed to be in favour of keeping Cristina over Jenny but as it turned out, he didn't get a say in the final vote. At council, Jeff announced a surprise: Aitu had to choose someone from Raro to save from the vote and take back to camp with them until the next challenge and they chose Nate. Once Aitu left, the votes were read and Cristina went home.
After JP got the old heave-ho, the men of Raro decided to get off their asses and get some work done around camp lest it happen to them. Parvati, of course, thought it was sexy.
Reward this week was wine, spices and extra fishing supplies. To win, everyone paired up and had to support weights (added in 5-pound increments by members of the opposite tribe) from a rope on a pulley. Raro outlasted Aitu and sent Jonathan to Exile Island. Did they even drink the wine yet? I was looking forward to someone getting really drunk and doing something really stupid.
At Aitu, Ozzy, Cao Boi and Jessica wanted to get in their boat and explore. They asked the others to join them, but no one else wanted to go. They ended up crashing Raro's camp, which Raro did not appreciate. Watching Cao Boi try to understand how to pronounce Parvati's name gave me a headache. Cao Boi wore out their welcome even further by telling stories and asking for supplies and some of Raro's hard-earned spices. Raro was horrified.
At the immunity challenge, the tribes had to assemble three posts with small platforms and use those to transfer two of their tribemates from one platform to another. Once that task was completed, everyone had to climb up a small tower and arrange themselves so that they were all balanced together on the tiny platform at the top. Aitu won by a hair and saved themselves again from tribal council.
Back at camp Raro was preparing to get rid of Cristina until Stephannie casually mentioned to Nate that she could really go for some mashed potatoes and gravy. Nate deciphered Stephannie's clever code and told everyone that what she really meant was that she wanted to go home. Stephannie insisted it wasn't true but the damage was done and she was unanimously voted out. I don't know...Stephannie certainly doesn't strike me as being into the game that much, but I thought it was pretty lame that they changed their vote based on a wish for comfort food.
This week on Survivor, Ozzy proved his worth, one tribe's women took control, and someone got totally blindsided. Fun! Upon returning from Tribal Council, Ozzy was pissed as hell that they voted out his ally. I don't really like Ozzy, but he really did step it up over the next few days, catching fish like crazy and whooping ass in the challenges. Good for him. Meanwhile, over on Raro, the women were getting annoyed at King JP, who appeared to be just sitting around most of the day and making people get him things. Looks like someone is feeling pretty good about his alliance...
Later, in the immunity challenge, Raro lost, due to their inability to build a fire at the end. Stephannie felt responsible in a way, and expressed her feelings, and suddenly found herself about to be voted out. BUT WAIT! The women finally realized that they have numbers over the men. They decided to vote out JP instead. I didn't think it would work, especially since Pavarti would rather be with the boys. But over at TC, JP was voted out, and it looked like the only people not in the know were Nate and JP himself, yes? JP went out well, though - he was stunned and congratulated his tribemates on surprising him.
By the way, Cao Boi's behavior made me irate. For someone who sees himself as such a wise man, such a man of nature, he showed complete and utter disrespect to wildlife last night. Not only was it unnecessary to look for eggs when they are obviously not starving, but to TIP OVER a nest in front of a freaking-out mama bird? And not even look first to see if there are eggs in it at all? Kudos to Jonathan for finding that baby chick and making Cao Boi put the nest back up. Cao Boi's embarassed confessional right afterward makes me think he was chastised by production. I hope he was. I hope that mama bird shit on his head.
The four tribes were narrowed down to two last night, members of each gender and previous tribe were pretty evenly distributed across the board. Yul and Becky were lucky enough to remain on the same tribe, as were Candice and Jonathan. The four of them made a pact to stick together, and Jonathan said he would be able to get Jessica to join them as their fifth. Their concern was making it to the next merge, having a voting majority over the rest of their tribe. Jonathan totally misjudged Jessica because she really wasn't keen on the idea at all.
Yul took Becky aside and told her about finding the immunity idol. He wanted to share the news with her as a gesture of good faith and trust. He offered to use it to protect her if he needed to.
The challenge was one we've seen before. Each tribe, chained to its respective members, had to chase each other around an oval track, knee deep in water, each person laden with a fifteen-pound sack. They started at opposite ends of the track and travelled in the same direction. The object was to be the first to catch and tackle a member of the other team. Survivors could drop out of the challenge as they became exhausted, but they had to give their fifteen pounds to someone remaining behind. In the end, four men from each tribe were left, and Raro caught up to Aitu. Yul stood his ground, ready to fight back but Cao Boi went down like a wet noodle. Raro wins!
Raro then had to send someone from Aitu to Exile Island, and they unanimously chose Candice. Back at Aitu camp, Jonathan's alliance was a little worried because Candice was essential to their plan to remain safe. Especially since Cao Boi immediately cooked up a plan to get rid of Becky, saying she was a weak link. Jonathan approached Jessica again, and he was so aggressively trying to persuade her to do his bidding that she completely shut down toward him. The more she closed herself off, the more aggressive Jonathan became, and at one point I wondered if he was going to grab her by the shoulders and shake her.
At the same time, Yul went to work on Cao Boi, trying to get him to change his mind. I didn't think it was going to work but to my surprise, Cao Boi ended up discussing it with Jessica. I honestly didn't think it was going to amount to anything, though.
At tribal council, Ozzy stated that the vote would set the tone for the tribe dynamic, based on whether people will vote the way they had promised. He must have been sorely disappointed then, to find that Jessica and Cao Boi completely flopped and Cecilia was voted out.
Last week Cao Boi got rid of Brad's headache and this week he got rid of Jenny's. It seems there is something to his technique. However, he gave the headaches right back during open-mic night in the Puka lean-to.
Hiki finally made a fire and were quite pleased with themselves.
Jonathan came back from Exile Island empty-handed, and was very disappointed to find that the rest of Raro had done nothing while he was gone. He tried to rally the group into building a comfy floor for their shelter, which Adam thought was a stupid idea. Apparently Adam feels it is stupid to be comfortable, warm and dry at night. I don't get it. Even if getting a good night's rest really WAS a stupid goal, why not just go along with the tribe and be amicable?
At Aitu, Billy decided that it would be okay if he did nothing but reap the benefits of everyone else's labour. This annoyed Ozzy, who decided they should throw the challenge and get rid of Billy now. I thought this was the stupidest idea in the world; it's much too early to take out your own tribe. Besides, even without Billy's help, Aitu was doing really well, catching fish and chickens and generally getting along. Christina disagreed with Ozzy's plan.
At the challenge, Aitu argued about who should sit out, then proceeded to throw the challenge in the most obvious manner. Hiki came in third while Puka and Raro tied for first place. After the challenge, Candice turned to Billy and said, "I feel so bad for you guys!" Billy suddenly blurted, "I'm next," meaning that he was next to go home. Candice sympathized with him. She said, "Aw, we love you!" Billy looked dazed and replied, "I love you." How bizarre. Billy is one weird duck.
Aitu banished Yul to Exile Island. No slouch he, Yul found the immunity idol. I wonder if he'll keep it to himself or share the news with Puka. Or will he just tell Becky? They certainly seemed to be on their way to forming a pretty tight bond.
At tribal council, Billy outed Aitu's plan to throw the challenge just to get rid of him. Jeff was unimpressed. JP started mumbling some nonsense about how Billy is untrustworthy and must go. Billy interjected that he was there to live the dream. That his prize was not the million dollars. His prize was true love at first sight, as he experienced that afternoon with Candice. Coffee shot out through my nose. Rewind. He said his prize was true love at first sight, as he experienced that afternoon with Candice. She said she loved him. He loved her too. Jeff was very diplomatic and did not ask Billy whether he was insane. Is he insane? I began to think throwing the challenge was a very good idea.
Billy went home; the heavy-metal guy poetically ousted by a dude named Ozzy. Billy lived the dream. Billy, enjoy your prize.
When I first heard that Survivor tribes were to be split up by race this season, I decided to reserve judgement until I had seen the show. I don't think there is anything wrong with it in general, but what I really wanted to know was how the Survivors themselves felt about it.
So far it seemed that everyone involved thought the idea was rather silly, but had no problem embracing the situation. The only tribe that gave me the idea that they really didn't like what was going on was Puka, the Asian tribe. A few of them were concerned that they might be feeding stereotypes. An interesting point was brought up by someone from Puka; the fact that they are all Asians certainly doesn't mean they are all culturally alike.
There was nothing new about the beginning of the game. Each tribe raced to acquire supplies before embarking on their respective rafts. Once at their camps, they each began to build a shelter.
At each camp, it seemed that everyone got along rather well and they were all making an effort to be amicable. Sekou from Hiki (African Americans) wanted to take on a leadership role while Ozzy from Aitu (Hispanics) absolutely did not, although he impressed his tribemates with his ability to get coconuts. At Raro (Caucasians), Jessica upended the chicken crate, allowing them to escape.
Brad from Puka complained of a headache, so Cao Boi, self-proclaimed hippie, tried to literally squeeze it out of Brad's head. He said Brad had some bad wind. I laughed like a 5-year-old boy. Then he pinched a big red mark into Brad's forehead. To Cao Boi's credit, Brad did admit that his headache went away.
The first challenge involved a couple of puzzles, the first being a boat they needed to put together. Hiki had a lot of trouble figuring it out while Raro's boat fell apart in the water on their way back to shore. Puka came in first, winning a big fire-making kit. Second was Aitu, followed by Raro. All three tribes recieved immunity and flint. Hiki earned the first trip to tribal council but first got to choose someone from a winning tribe to go to Exile Island. Sekou and Nate chose Jonathan from Raro, as retribution for stealing a chicken from Puka at the beginning of the game.
Jeff asked why the Hiki women did not participate in the decision, allowing the two men to take charge. I wonder if this spurred the immediate gender split back at camp. The women decided to stick together and vote out Sekou, while Sekou and Nate tried to pull Stephannie to their side. Stephannie decided to stick with the women despite the fact that Sundra and Rebecca formed an immediate bond with each other. Sekou was the first one out.
I really enjoyed this first episode. I actually don't hate anyone on sight! Maybe I'm growing as a person. Of course, it's early yet and with four tribes, it's really hard to get a strong impression of anyone in just one episode. No favourites for me yet, either. What did you guys think?
Next week: Cao Boi offends his tribe with some bad jokes.
Don't forget - Survivor: Race War starts tonight.