Surviving One World, Episode 8: Someone’s Getting Played

Previously on Survivor, the players were hit by an early merge. Some of the guys thought the battle-of-the-sexes would return, but those on new Salani felt differently. At Kim’s behest, they decided to get rid of Jonas, which also put the women in prime position if they do decide to go back to women vs. men. Meanwhile, Tarzan pissed off, um, everyone.

We pick up on Day 21, so I guess nothing terribly dramatic happened when they all arrived back from Tribal Council. Troyzan is telling Jay he knows the others in the alliance were worried because he’d been friends with Jonas since the beginning, but it was just luck of the draw – if Jonas had been on new Salani, he’d have been fine. I’m sure Jonas, sitting at home, is thrilled to hear his fate was determined by random draw.

Jay says the next one voted out has to be a girl, and Troyzan agrees “100%” (he’s not Lou Ferigno, so it’s not 110%). Jay explains the reasoning I just gave above as to why he wants to eliminate a woman.

The two of them find treemail with a sponsor soft drink bottle in it. Jay reads the clue, which indicates it’s a reward challenge that will probably involve a downhill race of some sort. They arrive at the challenge site and host Jeff Probst explains that they will be divided up into two fake “tribes” again. One at a time, they will race down a giant waterslide and run down the beach into the water, where they will have to lug a big puzzle crate. As more tribe members come down the slide, they can work together on the crates. Once they get all seven on their platform, they will use the crates to solve a puzzle. What do they get if they win? They will be taken to a sponsor oasis for burgers, steak, pie, and of course the sponsor drink.

Completely unprompted, I’m sure, Troyzan asks for a taste, and Probst gladly opens a bottle to be passed around for sips and the expected great compliments for the beverage. Once that’s done, they do a schoolyard pick to divide up, which we don’t see but results in the following teams: Jay, Troyzan, Kat, Alicia, and Chelsea vs. Mike, Kim, Sabrina, Christina, and Leif. Tarzan was not picked, so he’ll sit out. I guess unlike other similar situations in the past, he doesn’t get a chance to go at all. Sucks to be him.

And they’re off! Jay and Mike start for their respective teams. Both are pretty close, but Jay has a few-second lead. Troyzan and Kim are next and the duos work together to get their crates, with the Jay/Troyzan crew again holding a few-second lead.

Kat and Sabrina go next, with Kat almost face-planting. But Kim, Sabrina, and Mike have made up the time to be essentially tied. Christina and Chelsea follow and it’s still neck-and-neck, but Jay/Troyzan/Kat/Chelsea have a slight advantage.

Alicia, who had suggested the waterslide would cause a “giant wedgie” when she first saw it, hits the slide and does indeed appear to get what she expected, as she has to pull her swimsuit out after getting up from the sand. Leif flies off the slide a few seconds later. The team that was in the lead gets to the puzzle area first and starts to work on it. Meanwhile, Chelsea seems to think she’s not needed to help with lugging the final crate on her team, so she just runs off to the puzzle area as her teammates wonder what the heck is going on.

Troyzan is taking the lead in puzzle-solving for his tribe. Christina tries to do likewise for hers but too many people are talking rather than listening. But she eventually gets the upper hand and starts directing traffic – to the point that they believe they have solved the puzzle first. Probst agrees and they win! So I guess Christina wasn’t so crazy to run for a head start on the puzzle after all.

The winners hit their oasis and find a small pool along with their spread of food. In addition to the meats for barbecuing, they have all the sides as well. They all hold hands and Sabrina says a prayer about how they know what it means to be hungry, etc.

The guys are busily eating, but Kim is thinking ahead and calls Sabrina over after they’ve had their fill (at least for the moment). Sabrina says she wants three really good people at the end, and Kim agrees. It would piss off Sabrina to see somebody like Mike at that point and Kim says, “It has to be all girls.” Sexist!

Sabrina wants to keep up the illusion of new Salani but Kim wants to vote out Mike, and Sabrina agrees – which would put the women up six to four. They’ll tell Troyzan that Mike was trying to get him voted out. Once the women have the majority, they can “annihilate” the guys.

Back at camp, the losers are trying to rationalize not getting a barbecue by Troyzan saying a steak would have been too hard to digest. Kat says in 17 days, they can eat whatever they want. Meanwhile, Tarzan seems to be eating a bamboo pole. It’s quite odd.

Chelsea brings up who should be voted out next and Troyzan suggests voting out Christina. Kat says Christina may be annoying but she’s not a threat – they need to get rid of Mike right away (mind you, this conversation is being held without the benefit of them knowing it’s Kim and Sabrina’s plan – unless they discussed it ahead of time and we didn’t see it). Jay is starting to get worried about the women taking out the men, so he plans to talk to his alliance multiple times to make sure they’re all on the same page. Troyzan feels similarly.

The winners return to camp with a cooler filled with sponsor beverage. Hmmm, imagine that – this was the only part of the reward they were allowed to bring back for the others.

The next day, a storm looks to be ready to roll in, though apparently there was one the previous night as well. They need to fix up their shelter if they expect to stay at all dry. Instead, Tarzan seems to be taking pieces off for the fire. When he’s asked not to do that, he says the piece he took wasn’t connected to anything. Chelsea mutters, “The most educated people have no common sense.”