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

Chelsea continues the debate, asking Tarzan why a random piece of bamboo would just happen to be laying against the wall. Why is she debating with Tarzan about the wall? She’d be better off arguing with the wall itself. Anyway, he declares, “I’m not stupid,” and tells her not to get an attitude with her. He doesn’t like being accused of things when he’s right! He keeps going after she’s stopped discussing it.

Tarzan says when you’re around somebody a lot, you can determine if you’re an irritant to them. If that’s the case, he should have figured out by now that this applies to everybody on the show. But he says it seems Chelsea has been “subliminally harassing me.” Huh? That doesn’t even begin to make sense. He keeps muttering about it to others, who tell him to drop it, but he admits to us that when he feels he’s been maligned, he has to say something.

Tarzan, showing he has no clue whatsoever, tells us he thinks he knows why she’s annoyed with him. He approaches her and says he doesn’t know if she’s bothered by him because he’s a plastic surgeon and she’s had surgery and doesn’t like her plastic surgeon. Wow. How far out in left field can he get?

He continues that she’s been negative towards him since they got together. Gosh, maybe that’s because you’re annoying everybody! She can’t believe it. She wonders to us, “Is this guy for real?! I can’t believe he’s talking about my boob job. He’s just… he’s crazy.” She wants Tarzan gone as soon as possible, but she knows she has to go according to strategy and taking out threats. “Tarzan’s not a threat at all.” (Oh, and by the way, Chelsea tweeted, “For the record... I am VERY happy with my plastic surgeon.”)

After the main rainstorm seems to pass, Kim and Troyzan take a walk for treemail as Kim begins stage one of the plan by saying Mike is planting seeds that Troyzan is going to win and they can’t let him make it that long. So they need to get rid of him right away so he doesn’t pull over any other votes. Troyzan says he hates Mike and he’s going to do his best to make sure Mike doesn’t win immunity. Kim wants to blindside Mike so he doesn’t have a chance to change things up. Troyzan falls completely into Kim’s trap as he rants for a couple minutes about how horrible Mike is.

Immunity challenge time! The contestants arrive and Probst explains what they’ll have to do: They will race across a ladder-bridge while maneuvering bags of puzzle pieces along a rope that twists in and out of that bridge. The first four to reach the end will move to the second round, where they will use those pieces to solve a complicated three-dimensional puzzle.

And they’re off! Jay takes an early lead. Troyzan and Mike seem to be in it as well as the rain starts coming down. Not much to recap here – we’re just watching them go. Jay is first to finish, followed by Kim. Mike and Troyzan have blown their leads. But Troyzan finally frees up his pieces and makes it. Chelsea falls off the bridge and has to go back to the beginning. Alicia comes from nowhere and, while her top is falling off, makes it to the end as the fourth. Mike looks stunned, like he cannot believe what just happened.

Puzzle time! And they’re off again! Again, there won’t be much to recap as they try to put together 60 blocks of wood to solve the puzzle. They’re all working on it… and working… and working. Kim seems to be close, as is Alicia. “Jay is dead last,” as he says, “I hate puzzles.” Probst notes the puzzle could look right until the last piece, when you find out you’ve done it wrong. That seems to be what has happens to Alicia. Kim then finds herself in the same situation.

Because of these issues, even Jay is back in the hunt. But Alicia seems to be back and – nope. Still wrong. What about Kim? She seems to be almost there. Jay too. It’s down to one or two final pieces. Kim puts hers in but it doesn’t fit. Jay’s does, though. Jay – the puzzle-hater – wins immunity! Nice comeback! “Slow and steady wins the race,” he says.

Back at camp after the challenge, Jay tells us they should knock out a woman. She’s “old Manono” (No! She’s new Manono! Learn this, people!) and a woman, so it hurts the supposed opposition alliance and evens out guys vs. girls in case that becomes an issue (which, unbeknownst to him, it is). But Kim makes sure Troyzan is on the same anti-Mike page as she tells us about her two alliances and how she thinks it’s time for the girls’ alliance to step into the forefront.

Troyzan asks if Kim has talked to Jay and she says she hasn’t, but she’s sure he’s okay with it. She tells us, however, that she doesn’t want Jay to know because he might get suspicious and get Troyzan to change his mind. She still has to keep her options open and might need them for a vote down the line.

Well, Kim needed to keep her own house in order, it seems, because Chelsea brings up the anti-Mike voting idea to Jay, who says he’s afraid of giving the women too much of a numbers advantage. He says if they boot Mike now, the ladies could come after him next. Chelsea horribly answers, “That’s not necessarily true.” He picks up on the “necessarily” part right away.

He tries to get Chelsea of Alicia or Christina who is nearby to come up with an idea, but none say anything. He notes to us that it’s odd how Chelsea would have brought this up in front of the other two women, who aren’t part of their new Salani alliance.

Chelsea reports back to Sabrina and Kim, and Kim can’t believe how “asinine” it was for Chelsea to do what she did. Now she has to do damage control and try to keep Mike from finding out about the situation. The women scatter to try to keep that from happening and provide Mike with a bogus plan.

As Kim catches up with Mike to feed him a fairy tale, Jay also shows up and starts to tell the story about Chelsea. Kim interrupts to say they should vote out Christina so he can’t finish his story. Mike seems onboard with the plan and suggests they alternate guy and girl from the new Manono crew until they’re gone.