Surviving the Marquesas, Episode 9: She Sells Sea Shells -- See Ya

Day 25 dawns without John – but with a new spirit in Sean and the others of the new Maraamu alliance. They are playing in the waterfall as Sean sings, “Can’t you feel a brand new day.” Paschal says their aim is to give a chance to people who play fairly and don’t manipulate others. Neleh just thinks it’s hilarious that they beat the Rotu-4 at their own game.

Tammy isn’t so happy, though. She sees the good mood for the other five, because they’re sitting pretty. But she and Robert are outcasts, seen as traitors, screwed all because of the evil John. Waaah! It’s all John’s fault! We’re just innocent bystanders!

But Tammy says she is probably next because she was seen as the leader after John. She’s still allied with Robert, but doesn’t know where Zoe stands or what game she’s playing. So she goes to have a talk with the seawoman.

Zoe tells her it was always a loose alliance or friendship in her mind. Tammy responds that whatever her game might be now, that’s fine, but it’s not what Zoe had said earlier. So she tells Zoe to be honest. Zoe, um, does. Bluntly honest. She says that from the get-go, she never liked Tammy. Something about her eyes. She doesn’t trust Tammy. Well, fine, Tammy says, I don’t trust you either. (I’m rubber, you’re glue. Nyah, nyah, nyah!) Privately, Tammy says Zoe’s a bitch who is trying to save her own butt. Um, Zoe, what are you trying to do? Yeah, that’s what I thought. Zoe says she is trying to distance herself from Tammy. Zoe is here to win, and if she has to say something opposite to what she’d said earlier, that’s the way it goes.

We quickly move into the Reward Challenge, where teams of two (randomly drawn) will be competing to get coconuts, crack ‘em open, and pour the milk into a three-foot tall bamboo shoot. First team to fill it wins a helicopter ride to the top of a mountain for a horseback ride to a Marquesan feast. They can either get the coconuts that are scattered around the beach or they can swim out to where bunches are moored offshore.

The teams are Sean/Paschal, Tammy/Vee, Kathy/Robert, Neleh/Zoe. As they begin, Robert, Sean, and Zoe head straight out to sea with Zoe apparently being the first to get the bunch of coconuts. Robert has problems getting his. Sean and Paschal take an early lead, with Sean doing the cracking and pouring. Tammy and Vee hit a number of milk-less coconuts and Tammy makes a snide comment about checking the coconuts for liquid every once in a while.

Sean and Paschal definitely work together the best, and they maintain their lead all the way to the end. When they win, the two of them fall to the sand hugging in a tangle of arms and legs.

The next day, before the two winners head off, Vee says Sean deserves the reward after what some of the Rotu put him through. He was down but never out.

So they’re off. They are flown up and dropped off to get on the horses. Sean notes that the only horses he’s ever been on were the ones on the merry-go-round. His horse decides to get ornery, which Sean doesn’t appreciate, but they eventually straighten things out and head to the feast.

Paschal says privately that two days ago he’d have mortgaged his house on a bet that Sean would be voted out. But since then they’ve become much closer. Sean is honest, and Paschal appreciates that.

Sean appears to appreciate their new closeness as well. When he says grace over the food, he says he hopes his friendship with Paschal will be a lifelong one.

So they eat, they drink, they dance, and they smuggle food in their pockets to bring back to the rest of the tribe, which greatly brightens everybody’s spirits when they return.

The next day, Tammy is feeling desperate again. She tells Robert their only chance is to bring Paschal and Neleh back to their side again. So they go to talk to the twosome, claiming that John was never speaking for them. Paschal points out that they never disassociated themselves from John at the time, but Robert and Tammy claim they just didn’t know what John was saying (uh, yeah, right). Robert gets pissy and says he’s never lied. Tammy asks if Paschal and Neleh want to be with Sean and Vee in the final four, and Paschal replies that they want to be with people who has not tried to manipulate others. Eventually Robert stomps away like a child who hasn’t gotten his way. He privately says he won’t beg (that’s okay, even begging wouldn’t have done you any good). So he goes off and sulks for a while.

Paschal says this was Robert and Tammy’s last gasp, but it wasn’t sincere and didn’t make any sense. Neleh says she and Paschal won’t fall for being manipulated.

Zoe says Robert is like a bull in a china shop. She’s had enough of him and Tammy. She had no intention of standing with them and didn’t trust them from the beginning. So she’s letting people know she’s out on her own – no longer part of an alliance. She even makes shell jewelry for them (a new necklace alliance?) Tammy calls it sucking up and calls it “fake” and “apparent.”

Treemail brings news of the Immunity Challenge and a pair of stilts for practice. Hmmm. Tammy watches everybody else fall repeatedly, and just laughs “because they sucked.” She takes the stilts down the beach where nobody can see her and practices by herself, doing a fairly respectable job. This is good because she knows winning is the only chance she has of sticking around.

The challenge pits two players against each other. They enter a ring on stilts and the first one to fall off loses. The winner moves on to the next round, with the last person standing as the winner of immunity. First is Vee vs. Robert, and Vee wins. Next is Paschal against Kathy, with Pappy staying on longer. Both of the first two took mere seconds, if that. Third is Tammy against Neleh. They both stay on longer than anybody before, but Neleh drops first. Last is Sean against Zoe, with Zoe coming out ahead.

The second round stars with Vee against Paschal, and Vee wins. Then Tammy beats out Zoe. So in the finals we have Vee against Tammy. Tammy seems calm and well-balanced on the stilts. She even stops dead while Vee keeps trying to walk and stay up. But in the end, Vee can’t do it, and Tammy claims immunity for the second time in a row.

As they are walking back from the challenge, Robert thinks he’s gone. Tammy tells him not to give up. Paschal privately notes that Tammy was obviously the next to go, but with her immunity win, they now have to target Robert or Zoe. Neleh says Robert has had a horrible attitude lately, but Zoe has a better chance to win immunities. For his part, Robert says he can accept his fate if he goes, because he’ll be on the jury and the others will have to accept their fate from his final vote.

At Tribal Council, host Jeff Probst doesn’t elicit much from the players. He asks Sean what it’s been like, and Sean tears up and says he’s missed his mother because everything he is and has accomplished is due to her. Robert says the past three days have been his days of reckoning, and he’s been analyzing himself and others. He says one person is in denial and sucking up (hmmm, wonder who that could be…), some looked like nobodies but now control the game. He came in with pride and dignity and all of that, and he’s leaving with it plus a few new bonds with friends.

Zoe says things change and she may conduct herself differently now. She works hard and plays hard. No, I’m not really sure what she was talking about either.

Tammy is given the opportunity to pass along immunity to somebody else, but she bluntly says there is “no chance in Hell I’m giving this immunity up.” Well, if she had it would have made for an easy “Why Tammy Lost” column. Alas.

So they vote. We see Zoe vote for Robert. Robert returns the favor saying maybe it’s the one valuable contribution he can make to the tribe. Ouch. We don’t see who Sean votes for at the time (it turns out to be Zoe) but he talks about how it’s based on strategy. Tammy also votes for Zoe, saying, “I just don’t like you.”

As you’ve probably guessed by now even if you didn’t see the show, Zoe is a goner. It was unanimous (with the exception of her vote for Robert, of course). But she didn’t see it coming. She says in her final words that it’s a bit of a surprise to be out this early, but that’s how it goes. She repeats her Tribal Council line about working hard and playing hard, but now it’s time to leave.

Next time, it looks like Kathy is going to hunt for some fish to eat. And Vee has a birthday but it’s not a happy one until they get a reward on a cruise ship.

Well, all this time we’ve been trying to figure out what the hell has been going through Zoe’s head, and now she leaves and we’re still kind of in the dark. But more about that in my “Why Zoe Lost” column.

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