Survivor: Cook Islands – Survivor Live, Episode 4

J.P. says again, “I don’t get it. Maybe it’s the esthetic of being an athlete. If you call me out I don’t get my feelings hurt. You talk it out, you’re done with it, and you move on.”

I remember Billy telling us he was very uncomfortable with J.P.’s in-your-face style of discussion. Obviously, Billy was not alone. One needs to adapt one’s style on this show, or else you end up on doing your post-game interviews this early in the season.

J.P. now suspects he may have relaxed too much after making his alliance. He gives Parvati a little credit. He knows she didn’t like him on the island, but could see she had some doubts when Jenny first presented the idea of a united female vote.

J.P. insists, “My goal was to get the strongest team into the merge.” He knew that post-merge, both teams usually fight with each other and he was hoping Ozzy might flip back to their side.

Mike from Boston asks about the strategy when Candice was sent to Exile Island last week. Was this a result of a team discussion? J.P. says, “No, not at all. A big problem with our team is that we never talked strategy.” He admits that for him it was “a spur of the moment decision,” and that Candice and Sundra looked like the weaker players they should pick on. It didn’t occur to him that by sending Cecilia or Ozzy, it would save them.

J.P. adds that he can’t speak for the others so he doesn’t know if Candice and Adam were in fact trying to save Candice by sending her to Exile Island. I’m betting that was indeed their plan, and he got caught unprepared.

Really, you need to discuss this kind of thing in your alliance and be on the same page long before you arrive at the challenge. Jeff should not catch you unprepared when he asks about a recurring event as predictable as naming someone to go to Exile Island.

Dalton starts to talk about the poor quality of the original Raro camp, which was much inferior to the Aitu setup he had helped create. J.P. says, “Can we be P.C. here? Am I allowed to call them “White”?” Jenna says, “I’ve never had anyone call me “Caucasian” before.” They seem to settle on the joke term “White-casian.” In this series of articles, “White” is going to be the word I will be using.

J.P. says the camp was “kind of dirty” and the fireplace was too little for nine people. He admits this may be where he started to take over, but he knew a better fireplace was a priority. He insists he didn’t assign tasks, just put forth his ideas of what was required. He doubts any of the others would have spoken out about the inadequate fireplace.

Andy from Wisconsin has called about something J.P. said on The Early Show, that Stephannie was not his first choice of who to vote out. Andy’s wants to know, who was it? J.P. tells us it was either Rebecca or Jenny, he had no real preference. He might have also considered Parvati, but he knew she and Nate had made an alliance and wanted his alliance with Nate to remain intact. He recognized her flirtatious ways and admits to having played that game himself in the past, but he wanted to retain people who were more productive. He wonders if the women sensed it. I bet they did.

J.P. thinks he probably played the game “too straight up” and should have tried to be more devious. Dalton promises Jenna we’ll see the softer side of J.P. after the break.

After the first break, Dalton tells us that pre-show, J.P. was upset that he had to drop a young girls’ team he coaches and couldn’t even tell them why he was quitting on them. Dalton wonders how that worked out. J.P. doesn’t love that this was brought up because, “According to Billy I’m the bully, I’m the chauvinistic, alpha-dominant male…” and now, he disappoints young girls.

“Being an alpha male doesn’t always have to be a bad thing,” says Jenna. Huh?

Look, up in the sky… what a gorgeous set of wings on that pig!!

“Well, those girls took it in a bad way,” confirms J.P. He admits he was very upset about leaving his volleyball team in the lurch and almost dropped out of Survivor over it, saying, “Trust and loyalty are two huge factors in the way I live my life.”

J.P. says he told them “a stupid lie,” and they supported him over it, “which killed me even more.” They gave him going-away presents and left encouraging messages on his cell phone.

However, when they found out the truth, “they were so fired up.” The event was actually the Junior Olympics. The team did well, finishing fifth. And that’s the softer side of J.P. Calderon!

Jenna says that athletes often have it hard on Survivor, as the work-hard-and-be-rewarded ethic doesn’t necessarily hold true.

Andrew from L.A. asks J.P. if the thrown challenge was discussed on the new Raro tribe. He says it was not, but he admits that had they asked, he probably would have confessed. He doesn’t know if Cristina spoke of it or not.

Dalton still hates the idea of throwing a challenge and figures an athlete would be the last one who throws a challenge. J.P. says, “I’m sure Billy’s a great guy, and I never looked at anyone whether I liked them or not. I just wanted to get the best people to move forward. If you review, I only talked about Billy’s laziness at Tribal Council. The rest of the time I talked about Billy, it was the trust factor.”

J.P. continues, “I had a problem from day one, I just did not like his game, I did not like Billy-the-player. I’m sure Billy-the-guy is a great person.” He adds that if the situation came about again, he would do the same thing and continues, “We all felt in our hearts that at a merge, he would defect and talk about us. They didn’t show it, but he made an alliance with all four of us and when we talked, it was, uh-oh, he’s playing us!”

He also boasted about being a big fan and “knowing Survivor techniques” that made us nervous. Apparently the girls got together first, compared notes and then approached Ozzy and J.P., mad because the guys had allegedly said they didn’t like the girls. After swapping tales it became evident that was just a story Billy had told the girls to try and divide the rest of the tribe.