Surviving the South Pacific, Episode 1: White & Nerdy

Several people start looking for it, so Stacey encourages Christine to do as well. Stacey thinks she’s fooling people by pretending to work while she’s looking. Here’s a clue for you: You’re not. She tells us she’s looked everywhere and probably stumbled over it without knowing it. The cameraman helpfully points out that she did just this, as she looked within the hole of a tree stump but then walked away without realizing it contained exactly what she was looking for. Whoops!

Spirits are lower at Savaii. Semhar comes right out and says she feels awful about losing the challenge (she apparently now feels worse than “sort of bad”) and knows she was a big part of it (I’d go so far as to say the main cause of it). But for Jim to single her out and make faces behind her back when she feels bad means she can’t trust him. Jim continues making faces while she’s saying this (how does he play poker and can’t keep a poker face?!), which only further angers Semhar.

Jim says he felt worse than she did, but she argues that nobody could feel worse than she did. Why did he call her out when she felt bad already? Jim says he doesn’t like to lose, but also notes that since it was behind her back, she didn’t actually see him make faces. All he did was roll his eyes when she said she felt “sort of bad.” She just doesn’t want people to turn on one another so quickly (hello, this is Survivor!) and Jim apologizes if that’s the way it came across. He adds that nobody would deny she gave 100%. (The unspoken part is that if that was her giving 100%, it means she’s pretty damned weak.)

Semhar tells us one thing that may hold her back in this game is that she’s too honest. She either loves you or hates you and you’re going to know which it is. She knows it was wrong to go off on Jim in front of everybody and she also knows she’s not safe.

Another person who isn’t safe? Dawn. But Mark is assuring her that he won’t write her name down. Dawn, however, knows her emotional outburst may be seen as a liability. She’s hoping the tribe will base their votes on today and moving forward, especially with the conflict they’ve seen.

Mark things Semhar deserves to go. She screwed up the challenge that she should not have volunteered to do. That’s the name he’s writing down.

However, Ozzy is not of the same mindset. He’s out in the water with Jim, Keith, Elyse, and Whitney, saying they shouldn’t base the vote on this one challenge. He feels having the three young women is an advantage. Dawn did well also. Ozzy hates to say it, but Cochran is not going to be a strong player. He’s just not athletic.

Ozzy gives Semhar points for stepping up, even if she did follow that by screwing up. Jim, however, says he’d rather have somebody who knows their own limitations. Jim tells us that he knows Ozzy wants Semhar around for a reason (we saw that reason earlier in the episode) and it scares Jim that Ozzy is already fighting so hard for her. Jim worries that Ozzy is already aligned with all the girls. Sure, Semhar has a nice body, but it blows Jim’s mind that such a thing could be factoring in to Ozzy’s million-dollar decision.

Ozzy talks to Semhar, saying he’s on her side and wants her to say, but it’s a hard decision between her and Cochran. If she wants to stay, she needs to do some serious politicking.

And so she begins, talking to Whitney and claiming that Cochran is just “a huge fan of the game but not necessarily playing the game.” Yeah, because Semhar did so well at playing in her challenge role. (Insert one of Jim’s eyerolls here.) Semhar next approaches Keith and he tells her not to worry, he isn’t voting against her.

Meanwhile, Jim tells Cochran where he stands in the game – Ozzy wants him gone. Cochran insists he’s not the weakest, but he’s arguing to the wrong person. He admits to us that his biggest Achilles heel is “crippling insecurity and anxiety.” He’s on high alert and also depressed.

Cochran approaches Mark, who tells him not to get paranoid and that Semhar is going. Jeez, I hope he’s right! Cochran continues to us that it would be “insulting” to be the first one booted on this tribe! But he sure looks nervous about it, and tells Mark that people don’t always like the fun guy. “Survivor’s not meant to be a comedy routine. His dream has turned into a nightmare. He’s already convinced himself that he’s being voted out tonight!

Time for the first Tribal Council. Probst has each player grab a torch and get fire, reminding us all that, in this game, fire represents life – when your fire is out, so are you… except for the Redemption Island thing, of course. Speaking of which, Probst begins by asking Dawn if there has been any talk about whether people can handle being alone at Redemption Island. She says she was wondering who might be prepared for it. It’s hard enough to get shelter, water, fire, etc. with nine people – she can’t imagine going it alone.

Dawn also admits she didn’t even feel like she knew who she was on the first couple days. Everything that’s familiar is gone and she lost a lot of confidence. She admits to crying even though she doesn’t do it at home. She confided in Ozzy to help get an anchor and get her bearings back, but now she’s centered again.

Probst wonders who else might be worried about the vote, and Elyse says Semhar is probably concerned because of the challenge and the conversation once they got back. Probst turns to Jim for a summary of that discussion, and Jim says he’s a competitor and hates losing. She wanted to prove herself and was very confident in her abilities, but the only people who are good losers are those who are good at losing. (I’m thinking at this point, Jim’s tribemates should be doubting the whole “high school teacher” claim.)