Surviving the Outback, Episode 13: One Down, Three to Go

Day 37 in the Outback, or Day 1 A.R. (After Rodger). Elisabeth, the last of the Kucha, talks about how lonely it was the previous night and how different it is without Rodger. She describes him as a little treasure she happened to find in the Outback and says it was emotional to see him voted out. Be that as it may, she knows he wouldn’t want her to lie down and die, so she’s going to fight to win this thing. You go, girl!

With Rodger’s departure, Elisabeth also feels worse about missing her family. She talks about family with Tina, Colby talks about it, etc. Tina says they knew they couldn’t afford the luxury of thinking about their families early on, but now, as they approach the finish, they can think about that endpoint.

Treemail breaks up the family talk and brings news of the final reward challenge. This one is a doozy. It includes a bunch of elements from previous challenges. They start blindfolded (Episode 6) and shackled (Episode 12), and have to run a carabiner down a rope course (Episode 11). When they get to the end, they run into a bell, telling them it’s okay to take off the blindfold. Then they have to complete a 3x3 sliding puzzle (Episode 4), which gives them the key to unlock their shackles. From there, they have to take water in a pail across a beam (Episode 1) to a bucket with a hole in it that is on one end of a balance also holding a fire bucket (Episode 10). Once the water is filled to the level that it comes out the hole, they run to the other side to start the fire. Unlike in the original challenge, they don’t have to keep loading the water; this time, the bucket is held down by a rope across the top of the bucket. Once the fire burns through the rope, the bucket goes up and lights the flare showing they have won. Got all that?

And they’re off! Colby takes the lead, and doesn’t appear to cheat the way he did in the first one (where he was caught on tape having both carabiners off the rope, which was supposed to be a no-no). Keith, Tina, and Elisabeth follow. Colby also leads out of the puzzle portion, but now Elisabeth is in hot pursuit, and then Keith and Tina. Colby continues to stay ahead in the bucket portion, while Elisabeth continues in a fairly close second. Keith keeps falling off the beam and having to start over.

And, in a completely unsurprising finish, Colby wins yet another challenge.

Oh, did I mention what the prize is this time? How could I forget? It’s a new Pontiac Aztek – with full camping package. Colby gets to spend the night in the Aztek tomorrow, and also have a hot meal and hot shower. Then he gets to keep the Aztek when he gets home. Not a bad reward, eh? And in case you couldn’t figure it out, Aztek is one of the main sponsors for Survivor. They were their usual subtle selves about promoting it.

So day 38 comes along, and we hear Elisabeth talking about how the challenges are tough, but day-to-day life is the really hard part. Then we see her pulling out her own hair – not from stress, but malnutrition. It’s coming out in clumps. Yuck.

As a way to kill time, the four-person tribe gets mail unrelated to any challenges. They find a small mirror and a scale, and are encouraged to take a look at themselves and see how much weight they lost. After doing the calculations between kilograms and pounds, they find that Tina has gone from 115 to 99 pounds; Elisabeth has gone from 113 to 101; Colby has dropped from 190 to 165; and Keith is the big winner by dropping from 170 to 143.

So they sit around for a while and talk about how losing so much weight blows their minds. Yes, the Outback is a rather dull place after 38 days.

But then it gets a little more interesting as we hear about some of the strife between Keith and Colby. Colby says he hasn’t had much to say to Keith lately, and figures Keith thinks he needs to win immunity to stick around. For his part, Keith has been going on long walks by himself, just to think about his family and fiancé and how he might as well enjoy his last few days in the Outback because a lot of it is outside his control.

Back at camp, Tina and Elisabeth pick some flowers for a bouquet and give Colby a “carwarming” gift. He says some of the people on the show have been fake, but these two are the real thing. Elisabeth is just sad that she couldn’t pull out a reward challenge for herself, but she wants that prize at the end.

So Colby is taken to his prize, a bright yellow Aztec. He’s still in disbelief, and goes on and on about how cool the Aztec is and how many amenities the Aztec has. All in all, it was a very nice Aztek commercial – but it was during the show itself.

So Colby and host Jeff Probst sit around and eat some crackers, and eventually Probst asks Colby if he wants somebody to bring out the main dish. Well, of course he does! So Colby’s mom walks out with the food, and Colby doesn’t notice it at first, but is rather shocked (to say the least) when he finally looks up.

So Colby gets the flowers out of the Aztek, puts them on the table, and starts telling her about Tina and Elisabeth – two incredible women. All in all, he just can’t believe it.

Colby’s mom says the look in his eyes bothers her. She can see the effects of hunger and isolation. She knew he’d lose weight but, as a mother, wasn’t prepared to see it.

The two of them go to sleep together in the Aztek (no, not like Debb and her step-son!) as Colby continues to talk about how lucky the four remaining players are to still be there.

The next morning, after a hot shower, Colby brings his mom to the camp, where “hugs from home” are shared among everybody. After filling in as the token loved one from home, Colby’s mom fills them in on details like who won the World Series and what’s going on with the presidential election (remember, they didn’t even know who won yet when this was filmed). Elisabeth says it makes her realize that life goes on while they’re in the Outback.

Mom also brings out a sack of care packages from everybody’s home, including some photos and snacks and the like. Keith is so overcome on seeing the pictures that he has to get up and walk away to cry. Tina tells Colby’s mom that if her daughter marries a man like Colby, she’ll be very proud.

But then, it’s over. A helicopter comes to pick up mom, and there are more hugs all around. Colby says he is lucky to have gotten this, but now it’s back to playing the game, winning the challenges, and getting rid of one of them. He mulls over how weird the situation is. Right now, his only loyalty is to Tina, so he could go for either Keith or Elisabeth, and he figures one of them needs to win immunity to stick around.

Speaking of which, the immunity challenge is one requiring “Outwit” skills this time. It’s a big game of “Memory,” where various items are hidden and they have to go around and try to find matches. Keith goes first (picked randomly) and gets a nest and a femur. Tina finds a wooden kangaroo and a gourd. Elisabeth gets an emu egg and a wooden kangaroo. Aha! Colby remembers where both Tina’s and Elisabeth’s wooden kangaroos are, and gets the first match.

Play continues, with Colby and Keith taking a lead. Eventually, Colby has six, Keith five, and Elisabeth and Tina three. That means if Colby gets one more, he wins. He turns over a jawbone and knows he has seen one before – but where? He thinks and thinks and picks… and wins! Yet another immunity challenge under his belt!

They have a few hours to sit and think and talk and figure out who will get the boot. Keith says it’s anybody’s game and Tina notes the sense of doom and gloom about Tribal Council. People are whispering and talking, and paranoia sets in. Colby comes back to the question he was mulling over last episode, which is whether to play to win or play to see that a person who deserves it keeps going. Basically, he says, it comes down to how much you want the money.

At Tribal Council, Probst addresses a question to each of them. He asks Tina how frustrating it has been for Colby to win so much. She says it is frustrating that he wins the food prizes (remember, she won the Internet chat/Visa prize last time, but no food), but she doesn’t resent him for it. Instead, she admires his abilities.

Probst moves on to Keith and asks him if he still feels competitive. Keith says he does, although he’s obviously much weaker now and it’s harder to do things. So Probst asks Colby what kind of impact his vote today will have on the jury if he makes it to the final two. Colby answers that there are all sorts of strategic moves, and you never know what the jury might think of them.

Finally, he asks Elisabeth why she will vote the way she votes in a few minutes. She says she votes based on her gut. Her parents taught her to let her conscience be her guide, and that’s the way she does it.

So, it’s on. Keith votes first and, unsurprisingly, picks Elisabeth. He says she’s a wonderful person and he’d love to have his daughter spend a day with her to learn some things, but she has to go. Tina and Colby vote, and finally Elisabeth. She (again unsurprisingly) picks Keith, saying that he has calmed down some of his cockiness, but she still has to vote for him and it’s nothing personal.

In a final unsurprising move (especially for those of us who listened to The Unbelievable Bloombergini’s predictions), Elisabeth ends up with three votes and Kucha is extinct. The Tina/Keith/Colby alliance has held, and Colby has obviously decided to bring Keith along in the hopes that he can beat him in the final two – he’s going for the money.

In her final words, Elisabeth says this game has been the most trying part of her life, and has contained the most highs and lows packed into a short time. She also says what most of America is thinking – that they voted her out because they knew she would have kicked some major butt if she’d gotten to the final two. Yes, you would have. But, alas, you didn’t make it.

Next week, of course, features the big finale. There are three more days and two more Tribal Councils. Then, there will be one winner. The show itself will be two hours long, including the unveiling of the winner in a live portion of the show. After that will be a live, one-hour, contestant reunion. CBS has also said that the following week will feature a show about the Survivor contestants after they got back home, pushing them further into May sweeps and making sure they can wring every possible dollar out of this thing. But, I think it could actually be interesting.

So, we finally find out who wins next week. Look for another Unbelievable Bloombergini prediction before then – he’s five for five so far!

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