Surviving Africa, Episode 5: Twisting the Night Away

So here it is – the big night where the two tribes are, according to rumor and promo hints, supposed to be split into three. Would it happen, or was it all a publicity ploy by Mark Burnett and CBS? Or did I fall for a promo yet again?

Actually, a combination. It looks like the three-tribe thing was put out as disinformation so we wouldn’t think about the real twist. And does anybody think it was a coincidence that the show was sponsored in part by new Pepsi Twist? I’m surprised host Jeff Probst didn’t hand ‘em out.

But before the twist happens, we have the night in Samburu immediately after last episode’s Tribal Council. Silas and Lindsey are pissed that Frank, Teresa, and Linda had the nerve to not go along with his plan! How dare they?! Silas demands to know their logic and Lindsey whines. Teresa tries to explain, but even though the youngsters demand such an explanation, they really don’t want to hear it. Silas goes on about how it’s revenge and the older two just want to screw them. Brandon tries to calm everybody down because they are too emotional, but doesn’t get very far. Silas goes on about how the older folks talked about character and loyalty and honesty, but their actions proved they were full of crap.

Excuse me? They never promised to be loyal to you. They were loyal to each other. They have showed a hell of a lot more character than you have. And all you can do is whine like a three-year-old who hasn’t gotten his way. Go suck your thumb, boy.

The next day dawns and Frank tells the camera that they are still two tribes in one. The younger members think they can do it alone, but they don’t realize how much they need he and Teresa. If they isolate ‘em, they’ll fight. Teresa adds that the kids keep talking about how it’s a game, well, it sure felt good to get to them.

Silas, still whining like Lindsey, says that the elders basically said “up yours” to him – it was all revenge and it shows their maturity level. My God, man, I do believe you have now knocked out all the glass in your house with that last stone throw.

Brandon says he is not used to all these emotional people, and they just need to win one more immunity together. He adds that the things people are saying have huge consequences. I guess they all should have thought of that earlier – like the previous day when Brandon very frankly told the elders that there was nothing in it for them if they went along with Silas’s master plan.

Now for the twist. Both tribes get mail saying three members have to go on a quest. They have to pick the three, who go to the original drop-off point, but are not told why. Samburu picks Frank, Teresa, and Silas. Boran picks Lex, Tom, and Kelly.

When they get to the meeting point, Probst is there waiting. He tells them to take off their “buffs” (the bandana things that identify their tribe by the color). They do so and he hands out new ones of the opposing colors. He says Lex, Tom, and Kelly are now on Samburu; Frank, Teresa, and Silas are on Boran. Teresa has a huge smile – and with good reason.

Tom is less than thrilled. In fact, he says he would have rather run all the way back to camp than have to switch. Kelly quickly realizes that they should figure out who has votes against them so they can aim at that person. Still, when they get to Samburu, it’s hugs all around until reality sets in for the three remaining kids and they realize that their fearless leader is gone.

At Boran, Ethan realizes that his two closest friends in the game are gone while Frank and Teresa enjoy nice clean water. Silas gripes about how his old tribe had the alliance and he ended up coming with the two people he certainly didn’t want to be with.

Several folks on each team talk about how carefully they’d laid everything out, and now it was all up in the air again. But at Samburu, the former Borans quickly realize what a mess they’ve gotten into. Lex is pissed that lazy people were obviously running the camp – not taking care of the fire, not getting firewood, etc. Brandon claimed there was simply no wood around. Funny how quickly Lex and Tom found a whole lot of it. Oh, wait, I guess you’d actually have to get out of bed to find that stuff.

Kelly talks about how they worked hard in Boran and the three native Samburu folks don’t take it seriously. Lex adds that these people are napping all day and weren’t doing squat. Tom suggests they were perhaps waiting for firewood to fall out of the sky, along with several other miracles. Yes, folks, welcome to the wonderful world of Samburu.

In Boran, Silas realizes he’s gone from being on top to being on the bottom. Clarence tries to get on Silas’s side because, well, he knows he has no allies in his own tribe. But Frank and Teresa are rejuvenated. As Frank says, “Never give up.” They even rub it in a bit by sitting around the fire and discussing how Silas and the other kids treated them while Silas is sitting only a few feet away (not around the fire like the others, but definitely within earshot). The others can’t believe the kids expected the elders to just go along with their voting scheme. Neither could anybody else with half a brain – which may explain why Silas & Company thought it was such a great idea.

On day 14, Tom is up and working early in the morning. Kelly says that no matter what their tribe is supposed to be, the three of them are still on Boran. All three of them quickly realize that Lindsey is an annoying whiner, but Lex thinks Brandon has a vote against him so they might have to target him first.

Lindsey plays true to form by whining, but then we find out that she really does have a bug up her ass. Well, on her ass, anyway – it’s a tick. Of course, Lindsey should definitely know how to get a tick to let go – it was the question that saved her now-infested ass in the tiebreaker against Carl. Lex and Tom heat up some water and start pouring it over the tick – and, of course, Lindsey’s butt. Tom says it was one of the nicest jobs he’s ever had to help with – quite a refreshing reward. He even gives her a nice butt-slap when the tick is gone.

Time for the reward challenge. This one should be right up Tom’s alley. There is a pen with 40 goats – 20 marked for each tribe. The winner is the first one to get their 20 in their pen. One person acts as gatekeeper to make sure their goats get and stay in, and the other team’s don’t. Brandon is gatekeeper for Samburu and Teresa for Boran.

The big pen’s gate is opened and goats run amuck! When herding them proves to be rather slow, Silas actually does something smart and picks one up to bring it over. Clarence follows suit. Boran quickly takes the lead in this way. Soon everybody – even Kim J. – is picking up goats, with Silas and Clarence grabbing two at a time. Then, while others keep herding, Silas and Frank move to the other side to try to scare goats away from the Samburu pen. I rather liked that move – and it helps Boran to win the challenge. The reward is three egg-laying chickens and a rooster, along with the chicken feed, which – everybody now knows from Survivor 2 – is a good food source in and of itself.

When they return, Kim P. talks about how strange it was to see her old teammates – especially Silas – working against them. Lindsey is upset, crying, drained, hungry, tired, emotional, and, of course, whining. Brandon starts to take control of his little crew, talking about how Lindsey has no strategy and just runs her mouth. He tells the two girls he’ll try to get votes thrown his way so they don’t vote for Lindsey instead. But he tells the camera that he has to tell them who to vote for, how to act, etc. All they do is cry, whine, moan, and bitch (now he knows how Frank felt). He says it’s a good thing he’s gay because he couldn’t put up with women.

Over Boran’s way, there is some scheming going on. Clarence – apparently being not very bright – admits to Silas that he has votes against him. He thinks he and Silas are targets, so they should team up. Kim sees what Clarence is doing and talks about how foolish he is. Meanwhile Ethan suggests that perhaps they should throw the immunity challenge just so they can get rid of a threat.

That immunity challenge is a simple one – take 20 pieces of a huge puzzle and put them together. Probst advises that each team has to work together or they will lose. Silas decides that he knows best how to get everybody to work together and starts telling people what to do. As they get started, he yells repeatedly, “Look at the colors,” as if the rest of them are idiots. He orders people around and tries to do it all himself while the others just kind of stand around half the time. It’s unclear whether they choose to throw the challenge or they are just amused and confused by Silas’s antics, but whatever the cause, Samburu wins.

So it’s time for more Boran scheming. Silas tries to convince Ethan to vote against Frank, claiming Frank is the most manipulative – sorry, Silas, that would be you. Ethan doesn’t want Clarence around, as he has not forgiven him for the bean-eating incident. Nobody is impressed by Silas’s schmoozing, but even as he tries to get Frank voted off, he hopes at least they’ll aim at Clarence. As they go to Tribal Council, the question is which strong man has annoyed his own teammates more. Will it be the bean-eater or the kid-leader?

At Tribal Council, Probst asks Ethan for his reaction to the switch. Ethan says it was mostly shock. Kim notes that it was hard because they had already been thinking about who would go next (um, Kim, that probably would have been you). Probst asks Silas if they are now in a single tribe. Silas says it’s a new game, and as long as they’re wearing the same colors, they are a team. Yeah, right – just like your old tribe, right?

Frank is asked if his situation has improved or weakened. Of course it has improved, and not just because he was probably next to go. The camp conditions are better and more secure, his new teammates are more mature (nice slap at Silas) – all in all, he really likes it. Finally, Probst asks Clarence if the new alpha male, Silas, lessens the tribe’s need for him. Clarence says no – they are stronger together, as evidenced when they each picked up two goats at a time. Yeah, nice try, Clarence.

So it’s time for the vote. The only one shown at first is Clarence’s, who votes against Silas while saying, “Love ya man, but I can’t trust ya.” Wow. If Clarence can’t trust him, that really says something!

The votes are read and it’s four for Silas, all in a row. They don’t read the last two, but we later see that, unsurprisingly, Silas voted against Frank.

Before they leave Council, Probst notes that there have been a lot of assumptions made – one is that in three days there will be a merger. Hmmmm.

In Silas’s final words, he says the twist was amazing – he had his cards all lined up and that just blew everything. He was voted out because he was a threat. OK, think what you want, Silas – and maybe part of it is true. But mostly you’re sitting there because you were an ass.

Next week, Boran is in a crisis because they have no food if there is no merge (I don’t see how this is possible since they won the chickens!). Meanwhile, Brandon and Kim keep trying to help Lindsey hide the fact that she has votes against her. Wouldn’t it be great if, at the next reward challenge, Frank and Teresa yelled out to Samburu about the votes?

In this episode, we saw a whole new side of Brandon. First he tried to play peacemaker. Then, after the switch, he took control of the kiddie alliance. Is he growing up?

I have to say, I was of course glad to see Silas get nailed, but I would have preferred to see how things would have played out without the twist. This was shaping up to be the first time when there would be a serious possibility of cross-tribal alliances. Frank and/or Teresa would almost certainly have gone to the Boran and joined against the kiddie alliance, and probably taken out Clarence easily as well. But now we’ll never know. Will there be a merge in two episodes? I suspect there will, in fact, be one. I think Probst is just scaring ‘em. But I’ve been wrong before. We’ll see soon enough.

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