Surviving the Heroes and Villains, Episode 2: One Voice!

We’re back with the second episode of Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains! We said goodbye to Sugar as several other players on the Heroes tribe wanted to make power moves but couldn’t get the numbers necessary. Will an unsweetened tribe be able to come back and knock out a Villain? Will there be more injuries like Stephenie’s dislocated shoulder and Rupert’s broken toe? Only one way to find out – let’s get started!

We begin not at the Heroes tribe after Tribal Council, as we usually would. Instead, it’s the night of Tribal Council and we’re at the Villains tribe, where a storm is rolling in. Indeed, the storm is bad enough that the Villains are all complaining, with one of them saying the luckiest person is the one who was voted out.

Rob says it’s worse in the shelter than it is outside it. He tells us half the people are whining and crying and he can’t take it anymore. They should have been working on the shelter but nobody wanted to step up. “Again, I’m on the buffoon tribe!”

Morning comes and our favorite (blech) Villain couple, Coach and Jerri (I’ve heard some people calling them “Jerroach”) are hanging out together on the beach with Jerri complaining about how rough it is. Coach says it will all come down to strength of mind.

So the Villains strip off the nonfunctional roof of their shelter to rebuild it. Randy tells us they are on the fourth or fifth shelter design. The first one was the best and each subsequent one has been worse, yet here they go again.

Rob is leading the design while Parvati tries to put in her two cents. Russell is right behind her suggesting that she let them do what they want to do and not complain. She doesn’t heed his wise words.

Courtney tells us Rob is “the bright shining star” who is getting “so frustrated with these fools.” She hopes he doesn’t drop dead or the rest of them are in big trouble. Courtney also gives her two cents, causing Randy to mutter to Tyson about how a waitress is telling them how to do construction. Sandra states the obvious, that they are going backwards instead of forwards. Jerri just mutters, “Good God,” and walks off. For once, I agree with her.

Over at the Heroes tribe, we get very heroic background music as we see the tribe working together to strip trees and put together a better shelter. Rupert and Stephenie talk about how nice it is to see people working together.

Rupert tells us it’s a good idea for him to get rid of Stephenie. She’s sweet but he thinks she would side with anybody who can get her one step forward in the game. Meanwhile, he instructs her on how to cook coconut. To contrast, Stephenie shares with us that Rupert is getting annoying, having an opinion about everything. She’s sitting back and being quiet, but Rupert is sitting back and playing up the good guy role – he is a good guy, she adds, “but it’s overkill.”

Back at the Villains camp, which is apparently more interesting if the best conflict we can get between Heroes is a disagreement on coconut-cooking, the building is still going on. Rob tells us the shelter still sucks. Thinking back, he should have just said, “This is the way we’re gonna do it” and if somebody didn’t like it, he’d threaten to vote ‘em off. But he wanted to be the diplomat instead of the dictator. “Look at where that got me.”

While he’s building, he tells Sandra that he feels weak and dizzy. Hmm, that may be a hint to take a break! And he does – he sits down to have some coconut milk and tells Sandra he’s done.

Meanwhile, Courtney, Danielle, and Parvati are on the beach, working hard gabbing like preteen girls about how the Heroes got all the good guys and they got guys like Randy.

Jerroach talks about Rob walking away. Coach says everybody will have a meltdown except, of course, for himself.

Rob is out in the jungle and Jerri is looking for him. Down he goes! Jerri finds Rob on the ground (she later tells us she saw the whole thing) and tries to wake him up, but isn’t having any luck. He finally mutters to her, “Get help.” So she goes off to do just that.

Apparently, you can’t get medical help without host Jeff Probst showing up. I would think the medical team would be a little closer than the host, but they both show up together. Meanwhile, Jerri is telling us how poorly she expects the tribe will do if they lose Rob, both in work ethic and attitude.

The medics arrive and start examining Rob while Probst asks if he can hear him. Rob is just kind of looking around, in a daze. Anybody who saw good Russell collapse last season will recognize the symptoms and behavior. The doc gives Rob a bottle of water and asks him to drink it, but Rob can’t even perform that task. He voices over that the funny thing about being unconscious is that you don’t remember anything. OK, kind of stating the obvious, but I’ll give it to him this time. He was feeling really sick and decided to sit down – next thing he knew, there was a doctor and Jeff Probst talking to him.

Probst gets a medical reading from the doc, saying, “He looks worse than he is.” Well, that goes without saying! Rimshot! Rob says he feels better and Probst says he looks a lot better. Rob apologizes, saying he feels like it’s getting the best of him. He loves and respects the game too much to not play. He wants to win!

He later tells us that when he came to, he had a moment of clarity: “Stop trying to be the good guy.” He’s made himself physically sick by doing it. So instead, he’s going to do what everybody wants – be the villain!