Surviving the Cook Islands, Episode 1: “Karma’s a Bizzle”

But Brad tells us he did have a headache and now it’s gone! “But I do have a red dot on my forehead.” Ha!

Yul says Cao Boi is interesting. When he first met him, he wrote him off as a “crazy kook” (as opposed to a sane kook?), but in between the random nonsense, there are actually nuggets of useful information.

At Aitu, they get their first treemail. It’s for a challenge that is both immunity and reward. The four tribes arrive and the challenge is the one we saw on the TV Guide Channel preview.

But before we begin, Probst wants to know about the marooning. He saw Yul jump into the water for a chicken – did he end up with it? Yul says no, he handed it off to a tribemate, but the next thing he knew, he saw somebody else running off with it. That would have been Jonathan, I bet. Jonathan says he doesn’t know if it was him – he did get one, but it was so hectic, he can’t say where it came from. Oddly, Probst doesn’t follow up on what happened to the chicken at camp (or if he does, it’s not shown).

Probst describes the challenge. On go, they race to assemble a puzzle boat and use seven braces to hold the boat together. They have to paddle out to retrieve a lit torch. Then they use the braces and race back to shore, where they will find four more puzzles in the form of north, south, east, and west. Once they’ve completed those, they use the braces as rungs to build a ladder and place the compass puzzles in their appropriate spots, then get to the top.

First three tribes who get to the top and light their fire win. All three of them get flint for fire, and the first-place tribe also gets a fire-making kit with kerosene, waterproof matches, and kindling. And of course, the three tribes also each get a piece of the immunity idol. There is one other twist to the challenge, which is in a note that he won’t read until after the challenge is done. I’m guessing it has something to do with Exile Island.

And they’re off! The race to the beach involves going over a couple sand berms, and everybody gets through it quickly. Puka is getting their boat together, as is Aitu. Hiki is “having a terrible time,” Probst says. And Raro is getting close.

Aitu has their boat together first and heads out for the torch. Puka is in second, Raro third. Hiki is clueless. Aitu is already heading back with fire, as is Puka, but Raro is having trouble paddling. Hiki – still not even on the boat.

Aitu is back and starts dismantling the boat as Raro gets fire. Puka is back to shore just as Hiki sets out. Yikes. They need a miracle at this point. Aitu is going back over the berms, and Billy is slowing them down while Puka starts to catch up. They both get to the puzzles at about the same time.

Hiki finally has their torch and Probst claims they’re still in it. Yeah, sure. Meanwhile, Raro is on the beach.

Puka gets the puzzles solved as Hiki arrives to begin the puzzles. Aitu has the puzzles too. Up the ladders they go with Puka reaching the top first! Aitu is next for second.

Jonathan and Adam are trying to put together the puzzles and losing time, while Hiki actually does have a chance (okay, I take back the “Yeah, sure” from a couple paragraphs ago). Whoops! Raro has the puzzles done. They’re putting together their rungs. Up they go, but they forgot their puzzle pieces! D’oh! But Hiki just isn’t close enough. Raro goes back up and lights their fire to come in third!

Probst hands out the booty – flint, firemaking kit, and immunity idol pieces. Then he reads the note: The losing tribe must choose one person from any of the other three tribes to go to Exile Island, where they will spend two days! The island has one bag of water, a machete, flint, and a pot. But there is also a hidden immunity idol somewhere.

So who is Hiki going to send? Interestingly, only Sekou and Nate talk about who to send while the women stand aside. They decide Jonathan took the chicken, so they should send him. Really? He didn’t take the chicken from you! When the guys return to give the news, Probst notes the same thing I just did about the guys deciding. Sundra says it seems they’ve taken control. Probst shrugs and asks for an answer.

Nate says “karma’s a bizzle,” so they single out “the chicken man.” No, no, no – the chicken man was on Big Brother this summer! Sheesh. But seriously, Jonathan has karma smack him as he will be sent to Exile Island. And like I said, he didn’t even take the chicken from them!

I don’t think Jonthan was really a good choice. I’d have gone with somebody from the first-place team to try to weaken them a bit. Yul looks rather imposing with those muscles, so why not target him? But Jonathan gets his clue to the location of the hidden idol and heads off.

Jonathan is delivered to Exile Island and tells us he was so shocked at being picked that he didn’t even have a comeback. He reads the clue:

Sure, no problem! Riiiight. Jonathan thinks making a top grade means an A, so he finds two pieces of a shipwreck that’s on the island and are stuck in the ground in an upside-down V. He stretches his arms to make it into an A and starts digging there. Sounds to me like he’s completely missing the point of the rest of the clue – whatever point that might be. He tells us Exile Island is cold and miserable before we leave him to go back to Hiki.