Surviving Vanuatu, Episode 4: Momentum Is a Funny Thing

In case you don’t remember, last week there were two Tribal Councils with two generation gaps showing. Mia and John P. were voted out. So how will the votes turn out tonight? Let’s find out!

We begin on Night 7, right after the Yasur Tribal Council. Eliza, of all people, is whining about Lisa having changed her vote. She goes on about how Lisa was “supposedly” in an alliance with her, Julie, and Mia; she even calls her “that bitch” because of it. Um, you mean the alliance that you voted against the previous Council? My, how things change.

Lisa counters that the reason she did it was that she didn’t trust Eliza because of her past transgression. Eliza keeps up the argument. Lisa says she’s not going to get into it with her – she said she didn’t trust Eliza and she was always honest about that. Eliza keeps up the argument. Lisa points out that Eliza has a lot of nerve. Scout walks away because of all the negativity. Twila says that if they want to beat the guys, they need to become a team. She doesn’t know how, but they need to do it. With that, she heads off to bed as well.

Lisa explains to us that she voted the way she felt she needed to vote, and that’s that. Besides, she’d much rather be in an alliance with the older group (well sure, now you would). She even goes to sleep in the elder area. Mind you, none of this tracks with what she said while voting against Mia, which was that she didn’t think Mia was actually going, etc.

Eliza, always one to have something to say, tells us that she will pretend to like Lisa but if she were gone tomorrow, that would be great. “She repulses me now.” God, what a freaking hypocrite this woman is!

The next morning on Lopevi, Rory tells Chris that it was hairy for him at Tribal Council with the three votes. But he tells us that it didn’t really bother him. Chris says they just need to stay the course and the numbers will take care of themselves. Rory echoes that thought.

But John K. (from now on, known simply as “John” since John P. is no longer in the game) tells us that he isn’t happy that all the cool young guys are being voted off. Awww. Cry me a river. John and Brady commiserate about how horrible a decision it is for the elders to get rid of the more athletic young guys. Then he shakes a tree and gets bonked on the head by a coconut. Heh.

Brady realizes that he needs to do something to try to stick around. So he tries the Richard Hatch/Rupert Boneham approach and decides to go spear fishing. He gets one! Woohoo! It’s, um, about the size of a goldfish. He gets a few other small ones as well, so they have a little (and I do mean little) meat.

Treemail! Looks like it’s a reward challenge based on a memory game. Bubba says he’s good at those, but the women think they are better than the men. They trudge off in the direction of a rainbow, likely hoping for their pot of gold.

Both teams arrive at the beach for the competition, and host Jeff Probst asks Yasur how life is at camp. “Peaceful” is the answer. He asks Scout how life could be made better, and she replies that if they could find more food, it would be great. He moves on to Lopevi and Brady says he’s been getting little fish and he’s getting better at it.

The challenge is a version of the simple card game memory test. Except there aren’t cards – there are various items covered up. The goal is to pair up matching items, one tribe member at a time. The first tribe to pair up five wins 24 hours with Daw (well, that’s what it sounds like), a member of a local tribe, who will teach them how to live in the wild. He doesn’t speak much English and they’ll have to draw information out of him, but he knows how to find and get food, how to better their shelter, etc.

Lopevi goes first, with Chad opening the game. He finds a wooden pig and a tamtam. Lisa finds a shrimp trap and a coconut. Rory finds a tribal drum and a wooden idol. Scout finds a gourd and a nautilus shell. Bubba picks a grapefruit and a tribal drum. Aha! Ami hopes she remembers where the first drum was… and she does! Brady finds a palm frond and a grapefruit, thus setting up a second match for Eliza to get the grapefruits.

Chris finds a pig jaw and then a shrimp trap, revealing another match for Yasur – even though Probst actually gave him a hint by wondering aloud if he was going to go after something familiar or something new! Julie gets the shrimp traps and the women are up 3-0.

John finds the pig jaw and tries to recall where the first one was – but blows it, instead revealing the second wooden pig. Well, John, that’s the way to show those old guys how valuable you are in the challenges!