Surviving the Outback, Episode 12: Who Makes the Final Four?

Day 34 begins with Rodger patrolling the beach to pick up items that might be washed away if there should be another flood. I’m sitting here wondering why they were left out to begin with! Some people just don’t learn. But anyway, it did indeed rain the previous night, as Elisabeth shares with us that she was so wet she thought she’d, um, how can I say this nicely? – wet the bed. (No, she hadn’t. The new shelter is just leaky, which Keith immediately explains.)

Talk turns to (not coincidentally, I’m sure, as we’ll see) to missed loved ones, including Tina’s husband of only a year-and-a-half, and her kids (apparently from an earlier relationship). Then Colby talks about how Tina has hit rock bottom, which is where Elisabeth has been for awhile as they’ve tried to nurture her. Elisabeth agrees that the past four days have really wrecked her.

But tree mail brings something that perks them all up. They get to go online with their loved ones. Indeed, their loved ones will be part of the reward and the reward challenge. This immediately starts Elisabeth crying when she realizes she’ll be able to have contact with her mom. She says her mom is her hero – she survived breast cancer and chemo, and Elisabeth thinks about what she went through when things get tough in the Outback.

They all show up and find the “Outback Internet Café” with coffee and a Danish for each, and a satellite hookup to the Internet. They are allowed to chat briefly with loved ones first, and then the challenge will begin. The loved ones will have to answer Outback survival questions, and the winner gets a 30-minute private chat. Not only that, but the contestant whose family does best also gets a $500 Visa online shopping spree. Yes, you guessed it, Visa is a Survivor sponsor. Indeed, according to commercials, Visa is the official credit card of Survivor.

Tina goes first and says hello to her husband and two kids while cameras in their house record the other side of the computer chat. Elisabeth then talks to her parents and brother. Rodger has his wife, daughter, and son-in-law. Keith has his “sweetie,” who he calls “Peas” – she calls him “Carrots.” Ain’t that just the cutest thing? And Colby has his Mom, who he says is also his best friend. True to form, she has a Texas flag hanging in the background. Lots of tears flow – even Colby the cowboy cries. Rodger points out that the men fell apart worse than the women!

Now it’s quiz time. Each family group gets asked the same five questions:

• 1) In the Southern Hemisphere, where does the sun rise? Answer: East.
• 2) True/False: The emu is the largest bird in the world? Answer: False – the ostrich.
• 3) What are heat cramps caused by? Answer: Salt.
• 4) Australia is famous for its snakes. How many of the 10 most venomous snakes in the Outback live in Australia? Answer: Trick question. Obviously 10 of the 10 most venomous snakes in the Outback live in Australia.
• 5) If you are one mile from a lightning strike, how long does it take to hear the thunder? Answer: 5 seconds.

After another Visa mention and a nice shot of the Visa card that will probably appear in future Visa commercials, host Jeff Probst announces that Tina wins with four correct answers!

Before she gets her 30 minute chat (and Visa reward, of course), the others get to say goodbye. Keith uses this opportunity to ask Peas to marry him. She says yes! And there is much rejoicing.

Spirits are much higher after this reward. As Rodger says, they really all won. Colby talks about how miserable he feels, sopping wet and all, but he’s still happy from his short chat with Mom. In fact, Tina and Colby actually play Frisbee for a while. They all seem to have gained psychological energy.

Colby ends the day by saying there were no thoughts of politics today, but he was sure they’d start up again tomorrow. And he was right.

But first, day 35 dawns to a soaked-out fire. Hark! What is it that Keith spots? Smoke? What could be causing that? He goes over and finds a piece of tree that is apparently still smoldering from a fire that passed through two weeks earlier! (Though I have to wonder if it might have been a more recent lightning strike instead.) They easily start a nice fire with it.

And here is where politics comes back in. Colby talks about how they must continue to strictly ration the rice so they don’t blow their food stores like they did earlier. But Keith is, in Colby’s opinion, cooking way too much rice at each meal. For his part, Keith says he intends to be here with Colby and Tina at the end and so he has to show the future jury members how useful he is by cooking up a storm.

If that’s his plan, I’m not sure it’s working too well. Elisabeth says Keith did an experiment with mixing the brown and white rice and ended up making huge portions. He says he knows what he’s doing, but Colby isn’t too sure and they start sniping at each other. Keith is a little concerned that his voting partner is upset – especially since Elisabeth was taking Colby’s side.

When he’s alone with the camera, Colby lets loose with what he really thinks, calling Keith a fool and a bozo. He says he’s tired of it, doesn’t like the way Keith is playing, and can’t take anything he does – not even his online marriage proposal – at face value. He says he’s done with him. Hmmm.

Next we see what is possibly the most exciting moment in Survivor history: The five of them are sitting around, staring at the fire. That’s it. No movement, no discussion. Just sitting, staring, silently.

Colby tells the camera (at a different time – wouldn’t want to interrupt that tense moment) that the long days of boredom are really getting to him. He says the fire is “Outback television.” They just stare at it, watching as the logs burn and break. I get giddy just thinking about it!

They have other diversions, of course. They have a coloring book and a backgammon game from contestants’ luxury items. And they can talk to each other about the things they’ve already discussed several times over. Even with the cold and hunger, he says nothing compares to the boredom.

Rodger talks about how he can’t just sit around in the shelter, but has to get up and do something. Colby has noticed that Rodger always chips in more than his fair share. He says Rodger’s the oldest guy there but has the most energy. He also adds that Rodger, Elisabeth, and Tina all deserve to go forwards, but Keith hasn’t done anything to show that he deserves it.

But before we need to worry about voting, there first needs to be an immunity challenge. In this one, they are all shackled up like the prisoners who were the first colonists in Australia. Then Probst tells them a story about those prisoners, who often tried to escape. Within the story are answers to questions that form the challenge. They have to run to one of eight outposts and choose one of two answers. If they choose right, they get a key that unlocks one of the five locks on them. If they don’t, they have to move on to the next one. The questions talk about how long you can go without food as compared to going without water (10 times along without food), whether you should keep your clothes on or take them off (keep ‘em on), whether insects or lizards are a better source of protein on a pound-for-pound basis (insects), whether birds or bats lead you to good fruit (bats), whether the prisoners used to think China or India was only 150 miles away (China), when the Seven Sisters constellation is not visible (winter) and how long the Aborigines have been there (40,000 years).

Rodger starts off like Rudy did in the similar challenge last year. He didn’t say, “I dunno” at each outpost, but it looked like he got the first three in a row wrong. Colby took an early lead with two open, and Elisabeth tied and then went ahead of him. Keith also had three. Colby caught up, Keith and Tina went ahead with four. Keith got all five and took off running towards the finish. One problem – he had dropped one of his locks and one of the rules was you have to bring all five locks back. So he heads back to find the missing lock somewhere in the tall grass. Meanwhile, Colby gets his fifth undone and heads for home to win immunity for the third time in a row. It’s Kelly #2 here.

Day 36 dawns with Rodger suspecting that either he or Elisabeth will go next. Bright guy! Tina actually asked him who needs the money more, and Rodger says Elisabeth probably does because of her mother’s illness and what that sort of thing can do to a savings account. So Rodger volunteers to take the fall this time if it’s between the two of them. He doesn’t want her to know that he told them this, though. He says he thinks of her like family and has been looking out for her.

Keith says he also heard that Rodger wanted it known that he should be the target if it comes down to Rodger and Elisabeth. But Keith recognizes that it could well be him because of his tiff with Colby. Elisabeth wonders the same thing. She knows Colby is “supposed” to vote for Rodger, but doesn’t know if Keith has succeeded in driving him far enough over the edge such that he’d cast a vote that way. Heck, even Colby says he doesn’t know which way he’ll vote. He says his biggest struggle is to decide if he should try to make it so he sits next to a person who will almost guarantee him the million bucks, of if he should bring somebody who he will feel good about losing to if it comes down to that. He leans one way and then the next.

At Tribal Council, it’s time to find out. After bringing in the jury, Probst asks Keith how big an impact daily life has on voting. Keith says you are your own worst enemy because you are constantly second-guessing yourself. Probst asks Tina if there is a sense of paranoia whenever they see two other people off to the side whispering. Tina says there definitely is, and you really don’t know what will happen.

Then he moves on to ask Elisabeth about her relationship with Rodger. Elisabeth says Rodger is her Outback Daddy and that they have a special bond. “I love him.” Rodger says he’s flattered, but that Elisabeth is herself a fine young lady with good morals and is just the tops. Unfortunately, they didn’t show the jury to see if Jerri was vomiting with all this nicey-nice going on.

Probst ends by asking Keith what goes through his mind as he sees Colby with the immunity necklace that could have been his. Keith shrugs it off as part of the game – it was his own fault, after all.

And with that, they vote. We see Elisabeth vote for Keith, saying they have a great group but that Keith is overconfident and cocky. Uh oh. That’s pretty much exactly what various people said about Rich Hatch last time – and we know what happened there. Anyway, the only other vote we see is Keith’s, who votes for Rodger while saying he looks forward to a home-cooked meal in Kentucky.

Probst draws out two votes for Keith, two for Rodger. So, did Colby switch? Nope. Of course not. Rodger is, as most people (including the Unbelievable Bloombergini) predicted, gone. He leaves after a big hug from Elisabeth, accompanied by some tears on her part.

His final words note that he was the oldest person to step off the plane 36 days earlier, and he was ready to finish up these last six days – even if he had to go without food. But he wishes them all the best – especially Elisabeth, who he hopes goes all the way.

The promos for the next episode show Elisabeth’s hair falling out (yuck) and a surprise guest coming in via helicopter. So who will go next? Unfortunately, it’s looking like the threesome of Tina, Keith, and Colby are still solid, despite whatever other problems may have occurred. Surprisingly, at no time during this episode was anything mentioned about the vote in the previous Tribal Council, when Tina and Keith apparently didn’t let Colby in on their plan to oust Amber. But Colby may be sticking it out with Keith because of those problems, hoping to face him in the final two where he can paint Keith in a bad light for the jury. We’ll see next week if the photo spoiler that surfaced this week is true or not.

Remember to take a look around the site. Check out the main Home page for other Survivor, Boot Camp and The Mole articles, as well as book reviews. Here are some of the most recent articles:

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