Survivor: Cook Islands – Survivor Live, Episode 5

The second segment begins with Dalton asking Stephannie about Desert Storm. In December 1990, her unit was activated while she was in college. After a two-week training period, she was deployed to Saudi Arabia.

In the military, you get fed three times daily so although it wasn’t great food, hunger wasn’t a factor. Survivor was a similar challenge, though lack of food IS an issue.

Stephannie says she was used to working with culturally different people. In the game, being alone was the biggest factor for her. She admits she didn’t work hard enough to make alliances. She says, “I have no problem fading in and fading out. I’m independent, and have always been. I don’t need other people to make me who I am, I’m fine standing alone. Yet, I can also blend in when I have to.”

Jenna suggests this is a game where you need to force yourself to blend in and make alliances. With the Raro tribe, she had opportunity to get on the inside and did not. I have to say, what she saw as “down time” was in fact “alliance making (and maintenance) time,” and ignoring this aspect of the game is one of the main reasons she got tossed aside.

Dalton notes that Parvati is playing a very social game, and Jenna adds that she may be higher up in the pecking order that they originally thought. Stephannie says, “She’s in a younger state of mind, she’s carefree, and doesn’t have the responsibilities of a husband or children. She’s 23. At that point in your life, you can be carefree and not have any major cares or responsibilities.” She applauds that Parvati is playing the game.

Dalton hints that Jenna played the same game. Jenna reminds us, “Only one has taken it all the way to the bank.” All laugh.

Jenna gets the impression that both Parvati and Adam are generally well-liked in the game.

The immunity challenge is described by Dalton as “one of the best immunity challenges ever.” I agree, I loved both phases of it as well. I was sure one of the gals would fall off those stepping poles!

A clip of the last part is run. Again, it ends with Stephannie, sitting alone on the pylon, dejected. Dalton notes that it required teamwork to win. Stephannie confesses they didn’t have a strategy for the last part, except they knew to hold each other together. Jenna notes that Aitu used a “1-2-3-lift” approach to get over the top. Well-earned props are given to challenge designer John Kirhoffer.

It’s Mike from Montréal calling again. He wonders how annoying Cao Boi really was when he stumbled into their camp. Stephannie says, “Wow, he was pretty annoying, I have to admit.” Dalton notes some humorous editing here, when they showed the sun setting while he rambled on and on. Stephannie tells us he talked 30-45 minutes about “dogs and cats and Chinese culture, and all kinds of things.” The whole team seemed to find him annoying.

Stephannie does not know who said, “And it’s the three that we can’t stand,” but it was not her. I can tell you it was Rebecca. Tsk!

Dalton is a little surprised they were even allowed to meet with the other tribe, noting that it did happen once before (Danni’s birthday, in Survivor: Guatemala). Jenna shares that on Survivor: All-Stars ), tribes were roped off from other tribes on the same island, and also instructed not to make contact. Colby did step over the lines one time, but it was considered an accident. The hosts joke about wanting to get away from naked Richard Hatch, but then the idea of chafing less during rainstorms almost makes it sound like a good idea. “Naked gay man with a million bucks?” No, that still sounds like a bad idea!

Pardon that frivolous moment, but I was trying to avoid writing about this next segment. Jenna professes her Ozzy love again, and Stephannie agrees he’s cute. Dalton may puke and thankfully moves us to the next segment, “Probst’s Thoughts.”

On “Probst’s Thoughts,” Jeff Probst records a message to the departing player. Jeff says, “Early on, you showed the ability to somehow stay in the middle without offending either of the sides. That’s a really nice skill in navigating in a game like this, because it keeps your options open and you’re not offending anybody.” He liked her beautiful smile and hopes she’s happy how things worked out. Stephannie likes Jeff’s dimple. Stephannie agrees with Jeff’s opinion of her. She says Jeff is married and it’s news to the hosts. Perhaps she’s wrong, I’m not sure. [Editor’s Note: As far as I know, she’s wrong.]

Dalton asks about the moment after the tribes realigned. Initially, she was impressed with her tribe. “We had some hammers,” she says (meaning, big guys), and three original Hiki members. She wasn’t thrilled being the last one chosen. She now thinks, “Maybe we were a little too arrogant, a little too confident, because of the muscle we had on our tribe.”

Rod from New York asks about the performance of the Hiki tribe. She admits they struggled right off the boat, literally. Jenna helpfully reminds us they almost lost to a tribe that was throwing the challenge!

Stephannie tells us the tribe was consciously trying to not portray the usual African-American stereotypes, and in fact wanted to go against those images. She reminds us, they couldn’t start a fire, and when they lost the first challenge they didn’t get a flint from Jeff. She says, “We looked really ridiculous in a lot of our situations. When the Latino tribe decided to throw the challenge, they almost caught us, it was really embarrassing. We didn’t know it at the time and were celebrating, as jubilant as you can be. But a win’s a win, however you get it. But we should have represented a little better, and I was disappointed overall in our performance.” We see a little clip of that celebration, including the Caucasian team laughing at them. Yes, it’s still funny to me.