Surviving the Marquesas, Episode 12: His Own Worst Enemy

It’s day 34 – things are starting to wind down, but they’re also heating up. People are tired, hungry, and weak. Sean says he is tired of strategizing and thinking, but will go down fighting. Vee begins with the main theme of the night: Kathy is the swing vote. She goes right into the second theme: race is/is not an issue. Vee complains that people have been assuming she’s tight with Sean just because they are both African-Americans. Well, maybe it has something to do with the fact that you two are, well, tight. Ya think?

Kathy says Vee is playing the race card. Separately, Neleh says the whole race thing is ridiculous – it’s never played a role and it’s really irritating to hear about it. Paschal says the way Sean and Vee are acting gives him resolve – they are acting like the others owe them something. Vee, he says, is foolish to believe Kathy will allow herself to be put in that spot. Neleh chimes in that Sean’s attitude is dragging her down, with his constant complaining. And she didn’t even get to hear him making fun of her over and over again in the past couple episodes!

Kathy, meanwhile, is trying to figure out her best play.

The reward challenge is made up of parts from previous challenges (what’s this? reruns during sweeps?). They have to assemble a tiki with pieces scattered around the jungle, break coconuts and fill a bamboo shoot, find and untie stilts, walk with them across a line, find a key, open a box, get a slingshot, and break a pane with it to get sand on their tiki. Phew.

Vee starts out ahead, getting the tiki together first. Neleh finds all her pieces last, but is second to get the tiki done. Sean is next, and then Kathy. Paschal looks totally stunned; he stands there and stares at his pieces stacked up in the wrong order, eventually just knocking them over altogether. Sean pulls ahead in the event that won him (and Paschal) the Marquesan feast – breaking the coconuts and pouring milk into the bamboo shoot. And he never looks back. As host Jeff Probst says, there is “nobody close” while Sean cruises through the rest of the tasks and easily wins. Then he pulls a Vecepia and yells, “God is good!” and “I can do all things through Christ!” So I guess Jesus didn’t favor Vee today? I wonder what made Him change his mind. And why didn’t Vee complain about God today if she praises him for helping her when she wins? Ah well, I digress.

Sean is happy. Oh, wait, I forgot to tell you what the reward was. It’s a Saturn Vue SUV! Ah, no wonder he’s excited!

But now it’s back to everybody complaining again. Paschal says a person his age can’t take the abuse of this game – he’s a physical wreck. Sean says none of them are in the right frame of mind. Five or six weeks of diarrhea will do that to a guy. Not to mention the challenges, mental games, lying, etc. He doesn’t know which way is up.

But then it’s time to find some food. Kathy calls out for anybody who wants to go find troca (the shellfish). Sean decides to go – for the first time. Let’s see, he’s been at this site how long? And this is the first time he’s bothered to go. But he was complaining in the past two episodes that Neleh is lazy. Please. Anyway, he even manages to find some. Woohoo!

OK, back to the scheming. Vee wants to bring the problems out into the open, and Paschal agrees. So that night, they let it all hang out. No, no – not Rich Hatch style. They keep their clothes on, but let their opinions out.

Paschal says that he feels it’s obvious that Vee and Sean will vote together and he and Neleh will vote together. However, he says he and Neleh don’t have a pact to vote together – they just have agreed not to vote for each other. Kathy says she didn’t know they had that agreement (remember this – it comes up later). Neleh says Sean and Vee have a tight bond and are sticking together, but that’s not coming out in this discussion. Sean argues that Neleh shouldn’t use he and Vee as scapegoats because of her assumptions. He and Vee have had their disagreements. (Scapegoats? For what? She’s just making a point.) Neleh notes that at least she and Paschal have been open about things, but Sean and Vee are trying to deny it. Indeed, Sean says he has no pact with Vee. I suspect he’s right – technically. They probably did not specifically agree to have a pact. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t one in effect anyway.

Moving on, Vee says they haven’t walked around saying they have a bond because they are African-American. Um, yes, actually, you have. Sean says he and Vee do have a bond the others can’t understand (er, that rather contradicts what Vee just said), but that doesn’t automatically mean an alliance.

The discussion seems to end with Kathy saying that she doesn’t think Paschal and Neleh are wrong to be a pair, but it throws a skew in things as they progress. Oh, like this is big news?

The next morning, Neleh last the previous night was intense and she feels vulnerable. She hopes Kathy doesn’t fall for it. For her part, Kathy is totally confused. Paschal says she shouldn’t be – it’s plain as day to him. So she asks him to explain it to her. Basically it comes down to Vee and Sean skating along for 33 days and not contributing until the very end. Kathy says she didn’t see it, but maybe she’s just naïve. Paschal says this goes deeper than the game – Vee and Sean are deceiving the others.

Privately, Kathy says the tension is too high. Paschal thinks Sean and Vee have been up to something since day 1. So she goes to fly her kite, but even that doesn’t work. Getting back to thinking about the game, if she goes into the final three with Paschal and Neleh, she will be voted out. She thinks she has a better chance with Sean and Vee.

So she talks to Sean. He tries to convince her that since Vee has changed sides several times (which is true), he might not want to keep her around in the final two. Uh, yeah, sure. But he thinks he has Kathy convinced – she is feeling what they’re saying. Kathy, though, says the immunity challenge will really swing it. Um, why? She is in the middle and there are two on each side. If Sean wins immunity, the others could vote out Vee. If Neleh wins it, the others could go for Paschal. I don’t see that immunity really plays an overall team role, though it certainly plays an individual one.

As we’ve seen in previous incarnations of Survivor, this challenge involves remembering bits of a story and then answering questions about it. Probst tells them about a Marquesan warrior who infiltrates an opposing tribe, ambushes them, kills the leader, engages in cannibalism, etc. There are six stations where the players have to go to answer questions. Two answers are posted. They pick one and reach into the associated bag. If they are right, they get a little tiki that hooks onto their necklace. If wrong, they get a bone and have to go to the fire to throw it in as an offering. First one with five tikis to make it to the end wins.

Paschal, Kathy, and Neleh start off well, but Sean and Vee don’t. It becomes a neck-and-neck race between Kathy and Neleh, and both get five right. They run to the circle. But wait, Kathy has dropped a tiki. So Neleh wins, right? Nope, she dropped one, too. They both run out to look for the one that got away. Kathy finds hers first and sprints back. She wins immunity! The one person who didn’t need it, wins it.

So it’s day 36 and Kathy finds herself in the middle with two people on either side. She has been with Paschal and Neleh since the beginning, but those two have agreed not to vote for the other. Sean and Vee have also been together since the beginning, and both share a common culture even if they claim they are not tight.

Into Tribal Council we go. The jury walks in, and it strikes me how ironic this picture is. The Rotu Four – John, Tammy, Zoe, and Robert – expected to be in a similar position, with the four of them facing the other five. Except they expected their positions to be reversed.

Probst begins what is to become the liveliest Tribal Council I can remember by asking Kathy where she is in terms of voting. She says there are layers upon layers, with the first being strategy, trying to dissect how the vote will fall in different situations. Probst continues, noting that she’s the only one who didn’t need immunity, and asking if she had thought about trading it for something. She said she had considered it, but nobody came to her with an offer. Sean pipes in that he’s up for a deal. If she gives him immunity, he won’t vote her off, and they’ll go to the top. Kathy asks for an explanation. Sean repeats the tired old refrain that even though everybody thought he and Vee were tight, they never had an agreement. Vee joins in and says she would stick with Sean if Kathy were to give him immunity. Paschal jumps in and says that Sean explaining his position is amusing and contradictory. First he said he and Vee weren’t together, but then when Kathy asked for an explanation, Sean spoke for Vee. Paschal says that tells him a lot – mainly, that Sean is disingenuous (that would be a nice way of saying, “liar, liar, pants on fire”). Sean says he’s not disingenuous (“I’m rubber, you’re glue!”). He just put out a life raft because he’s desperate, and he was hoping Vee would help. It’s a last-ditch attempt.

After some more bickering, Sean questions Kathy as to how she didn’t know that Neleh and Paschal had promised not to vote for each other (remember, I told you that would come up again). He’s trying to imply it was somehow hidden. Paschal says they never hid that, and Kathy tries to explain that she didn’t specifically know but it was logically obvious (which she didn’t mention when they discussed it before, though I agree – it was obvious). Sean keeps on ranting until Paschal says he should just listen instead of running his mouth. Sean says they can vote him out but they can’t shush him – he’ll say what he wants to say.

But what he’s saying is not winning point. Kathy says Sean is putting words in her mouth. Sean just keeps right on going, saying none of this jives up, blah, blah, blah. He just keeps talking and doesn’t realize that he has become his own worst enemy. He isn’t convincing Kathy of anything, he’s just pissing her off.

And then there was the point where I knew the outcome of the vote. Neleh starts to argue with Sean, but Kathy tells her not to bother. At that point, it became obvious that Kathy would be booting Sean, which is why she knew there was no point in continuing the argument.

Knowing this makes the vote somewhat anticlimactic. But they did show us four votes – all but Kathy – since they were quite obvious already. Sean voted for Neleh, saying her “girl next door” act didn’t work on him, she’s here for the million just like he is. Neleh returns the favor and says Sean creates too much drama (what, has she been picking up phrases from Vee?) and she can’t stand it. Paschal also votes for Sean, saying he is a great competitor. Vee votes for Neleh, and says she’s a great girl but she started a little late in trying to play the game.

As already indicated, Kathy votes for Sean. As the final vote is read, Sean does a pretty good imitation of Homer Simpson and says, “D’oh!” Neleh just smiles. So although Mark Burnett has indicated in one of his books that eventually a lazy player will win, it won’t be this time.

As Sean leaves, Probst points out that the entire jury is wearing black, though he doesn’t know what that means. Well, it means they lost and they’re in mourning. Either that, or they were signaling Kathy to vote out Sean or Vee. But I rather doubt that.

In his last words, Sean says it had been a blast, and asks forgiveness for any mistakes he may have made. He is just a humble young man trying to find his way through this world.

So we’re down to four – and just one more night! Now, in case you hadn’t heard, there are two important pieces of news left. One is that if you missed this episode, it will be aired again on Saturday, at 8/7 Central. More importantly, the finale will be on THIS SUNDAY at 8/7 Central. It’s the standard two hours of Survivor and then an hour reunion special hosted by Rosie O’Donnell in New York. (Two RealityNewsOnline writers are planning to attend, so they should have some great stories to tell.) It will be really interesting to see how the Sunday special does in the ratings, because it’s up against a Cosby reunion and some other powerhouse shows.

Keep checking back with RealityNewsOnline, because all of our writers will be trying to get their articles in before the finale!

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