Surviving the Cook Islands, Episode 4: Zen Fire Master

Raro is not quite as jovial. Nate says they needed to be humbled, and they were. Humbled, maybe, but J.P. hasn’t been reduced to, you know, working. Instead, he tells the women what to do. Put on a new log, put it there, put the water on the rocks, not wood. Etc. All the while, he just sits back and watches. This behavior is, of course, noticed by Parvati, though she says he’s sly about it and some people might not even notice. I’m not sure who these people are, ‘cus it looks pretty blatant to me.

That night, Parvati continues her strategy of flirting with Nate. She asks him if they made a serious alliance. Yeah, they’re tight. But Nate assures her he’s even tighter with her and he has her back. Nate tells us Parvati is a cool and smart girl he can trust and use as his ace in the hole.

Parvati figures out that J.P. is calling the shots, and Nate agrees. But he says they should let the king make the decisions and sit pretty… for now.

Back at Aitu on day 11, several tribe members find boobie nests and wonder how the birds taste. Or maybe the eggs. Cao Boi heads up a tree to see if there are eggs. Mama bird squawks at him as she tries to protect the nest, so he pushes the nest over with a stick. Um, if there were eggs in there, they’re scrambled on the ground now, Cao Boi.

But there weren’t – there were chicks. Jonathan is sad as he picks it up – it still appears okay. Awww. Oh, give me a break. They decide to put the chick back in the nest and replace the nest in the tree as they apologize to the bird and Cao Boi tells us he did something stupid and feels bad about it.

With that side trip done, we head to the immunity challenge, where Adam is reunited with his tribe. Probst describes the challenge: On his go, four tribe members will race to assemble a stretcher puzzle. Then they will run through the jungle and to the beach with the stretcher. There they will find another tribe member shackled to the top of a mast out in the water. Hey, depending on who it is, they might want to leave them there!

Anyway, one tribe member will swim out and climb up to release the prisoner. Then they both swim back holding onto a life preserver. They put the rescued tribe member on the stretcher and run back to the start. There, the three remaining tribe members have to build a rescue fire. First tribe to build a fire big enough to burn through a rope wins.

This time, Raro sits out Cristina. On the masts we have Candice and Parvati. Hot young women tied up in their bathing suits – sounds like a teenage boy’s dream! Raro has Brad, Nate, Adam, and J.P. building the stretcher. Aitu has Jonathan, Jessica, Ozzy, and Yul.

And they’re off! Raro gets a small lead in putting together the stretcher, but Aitu figures it out too. Raro heads off, with Aitu in pursuit. They get to the beach and J.P. hits the water. Not surprisingly, Ozzy goes in for Aitu – running further into the water before swimming and making up a lot of time. He takes the lead and heads up to unlock Candice. J.P. makes it up to let Parvati loose.

Aitu makes it back to shore first and Candice gets on the stretcher. They get back to the starting area, with Raro a little behind. The fire-making begins. Cao Boi gets a flame for Aitu and then starts waving around a smoking bunch of straw. Probst calls it his own system, but then says, “Cao Boi is either going to be a hero or very silly.” Ha!

Raro is trying to start a flame but Jenny ends up with a bloody hand instead. Cao Boi, meanwhile, seems to have accomplished his goal as he gets a big flame. Raro still has no flame. Aitu’s flame is burning the rope – it burns through and Aitu wins! Raro never even got a fire started.

Raro returns to camp, looking rather dejected. Parvati says it’s too bad they were up against a “Zen fire master.” Heh. Stephannie tells us she feels like she is the weakest link, and feels bad about it, like she should have done something better. Brad says when he was on Cao Boi’s tribe, Cao Boi was always the one making the fires and tending to it. Nate says Cao Boi’s been making fire since he was like two!

Stephannie tells the rest of the tribe what she already told us – that she caused them to lose the challenge and is probably the weakest link. No! Shut up! You never say something like that!

Nate tells us she just came out and said it. He’s got her back, but when he thinks about it, everybody is playing a game and if somebody is doubting themselves this early, he’s not going to keep them here.

Nate talks to a few other people about it and Cristina says he should talk to her and tell her how they’re going to vote. He wants her to leave on a red carpet, giving her the respect she’s given them. Nate goes off to talk to her, J.P. heads into a tent (obviously to rest from all his hard work). Jenny and Rebecca talk about how Stephannie made it easier on them, but it makes the women as a whole weaker.

They head into the jungle and talk about how J.P. has something up his sleeve. Rebecca tells us how it’s important to keep strength, but the women need to align against the guys if they want to have any chance. The two of them talk more and decide they should switch things up and align right now. You go, girls!