Survivor: Vanuatu's Halloween Party: Who's Wearing What, and Who Isn't Fooling Anybody?

Shortly before Thursday night's episode of Survivor: Vanuatu, the 11 remaining castaways decided to hold a Halloween party. Unbeknownst to them, I was there as well. The funny thing is, none of them knew I was there; not the players, not Jeff Probst, not even Mark Burnett. Exactly how did I pull it off? Easy - I went dressed as a camera, so every time I talked to them, they thought they were in confessional, and believe me, I got plenty of one on one time with most of them.

First off, I looked for Lisa, fully expecting her to be here. But to her obvious surprise, she was asked not to attend at the last minute. Apparently she got on Ami's bad side, and Ami retaliated by picking a fight with her and rallying the rest of the girls against her. It was enough to make me think I'd stumbled onto a junior high party, with Ami coming dressed as the "Alpha Girl" who all of a sudden decided Lisa wasn't good enough to be in with the "cool clique" anymore. So she started a rumor Lisa wasn't so cool after all, and of course, the rumor spread like wildfire, and just like that, Lisa's chances at the million-dollar door prize went right up in flames.

And just what was Lisa planning to wear to the party? She later told me she was planning to dress in blue from head to toe, i.e. "true blue," which she felt she was to her clique… uh, alliance. But only after asking her not to attend did the rest of the group find out what her costume was, and believe me, no one was more surprised than Ami.

You'd think Lisa would regret just barely missing a Halloween party, because after all, she does come from New Orleans, famous for its voodoo. But she told me she'd rather take her six kids trick-or-treating at some friends' houses.

Then there was Rory, who didn't think he'd even be invited. He was kind of like the kid in school that isn't destined to fit in, in this case because he was outnumbered. But just like the misfit who's more than willing to join the crowd in heckling someone else just to get everyone off of HIS back, Rory pounced on the opportunity to oust Lisa like a lion pounces on raw meat.

The irony is, he's still not cool with Ami, the leader of the clique. In fact, he privately told me he was surprised she didn't come dressed as a witch, but then commented that if she did, it really wouldn't be much of a costume. Later, I saw him talking to Ami and Leann, who came dressed as a lifejacket, because after the last immunity it was clear she wasn't exactly Mark Spitz.

Rory was ranting and raving about how he wasn't going to do all the set-up work for the party if he wasn't going to get to stay long. Exasperated, Ami finally told him, "Fine, go sit on your butt and drink punch all night." She and LeAnn tried to explain to him that because he wasn't a women, he was excluded from their alliance. In fact, Ami can be so honest sometimes, it's downright frightening. Remember this is the same person who announced she'd be voting for Lisa IN FRONT of Lisa. Boy, Ami is SO dressed like the tribal decision maker. Not only that, she makes sure everyone KNOWS she's dressed as the decision maker. If you ask me, she's just begging to be overthrown from the top of the hill.

On the other hand, she and Le Ann weren't buying it one bit when Rory claimed he was dressed as someone loyal to them and not to Sarge and the other guys. While I think Rory was sincere and telling the truth, if I were those two I wouldn't have bought it either. They seemed to regard his posturing as an attempt to buy a little more time at the party, to be honest, I couldn't say I blame them.

Later Rory confided in me that if he was indeed asked to leave the party, he had in his possession a arsonist costume that no one knew about, complete with matches and lighter fluid, and if he couldn't stay at the party, he'd at least make sure the others would have a "hot time in the old town tonight." I asked him to show me the costume, and the mask bore no small resemblance to Butch from Survivor: Amazon. To refresh your memory, Butch, who had played the game dressed as an upright high school principal and family man who wouldn't even look at emaciated women stripping for food, was always gathering firewood, almost to the point of obsession. When the campsite burned to the ground, he seemed to get most of the blame from some of the others.