Surviving the Cook Islands – A Closer Look and Some New Scenes

On day 11, we relive Cao Boi knocking down the bird’s nest – and then replacing it. And the Raro men lie around doing nothing. This makes it all the more amusing when J.P. reassures the other men that even if the women are upset about them being lazy, they can’t do anything about it. Famous last words.

So after they lose the challenge, even though Stephannie has a bad moment and says she’s the weakest link, the others plot J.P.’s downfall. A new scene shows Rebecca trying to bring Nate onto their side. He freaks out and repeats “no” over and over again, then says it’s stupid. J.P., however, never sees it coming. We see another new scene of Stephannie vying for a “best actress” award in playing along with J.P. talking about how she will be going.

At Tribal Council, of course, everybody but Nate votes out J.P. and he is totally shocked. In his post-vote interview, he says his biggest attribute is loyalty, and that was his downfall – trusting people too much. Funny, I’m thinking his downfall was at least in part his ego in assuming the women couldn’t do anything about his laziness.

Next up, we relive part of the reward challenge from day 12, when duos had to hold onto weight for as long as possible. Damn, Jessica has hairy pits. Didn’t notice that before, and I could have lived my whole life without noticing it this time.

Raro takes home wine, which leads to a celebration we see in the new scene. They send the wine bottles around. Stephannie doesn’t drink much, but she is sloshed! She’s practically falling over as she sits around the fire. When Nate tries to get some food into her, she just looks at him like she’s in outer space. They eventually need to walk her to the shelter for the night.

In the morning, we relive Cristina getting on everybody’s nerves. At Aitu, meanwhile, several of the women (Candice, Sundra, and Becky) compare underarm hair. Jessica isn’t in the group, but she wins easily. Ozzy has a difficult time getting the three of them motivated to go fishing, as we see in a new scene. They each make excuses and Ozzy is getting annoyed that he puts in all this work and feeds the lazies.

Cao Boi says similar things – the princesses sit around, consume the most calories, and expend the least. They appreciate that the food tastes great when they eat it, but they don’t appreciate the work that goes into getting it.

Then we see Ozzy, Cao Boi, and Jessica arriving at the Raro camp and annoying that tribe. Aitu then wins immunity on day 14 and they agree to vote out Cristina. Well, at least until Nate plays up Stephannie’s talk of mashed potatoes and gravy, which turns things around on her.

Before Stephannie is sent packing, Cristina is told how annoying she is. Stephannie tells us in a post-vote interview that she missed her family.

That night, Cristina confronts those who called her annoying – especially Adam. We see a new scene of the next morning with Cristina continuing to talk to her tribemates about it. Adam tries to explain when she’s been annoying, but she doesn’t really want to hear it. So I’m not sure why she brought it up again.

The next challenge turns out to be for reward, because both tribes are voting somebody out. Aitu wins and Cao Boi reveals Plan Voodoo. Unfortunately, the plan doesn’t work and Cao Boi is sent packing, with only Jessica out of the loop. In his post-vote interview, Cao Boi says he was perfectly comfortable in terms of survival, it was the human element that got him. He adds that his original Puka tribemates caught him by surprise. He thought their parents taught them honor, but they didn’t know right from wrong when it came to stabbing somebody in the back.

Then Aitu feasts while listening in to Raro’s Tribal Council. They save Nate and pull him to their tribe for a little while, and Cristina is sent packing. She tells us in her interview that she tried to play using her experience but she has emotions like anybody else.

What can we expect in the rest of the season? Probst tells us there will be further adventures, and we see what looks like a plane trip to a native gathering that involves cliff diving. There will be a future twist that affects the game. And the tribe that loses a challenge will head back to camp with… a bottle. We have no idea what that’s all about, but the contestants seem upset about it.

We get some glimpses of future competitions, and then Probst is telling people that they have 10 seconds to decide if they change their fate in the game. Hmmm. Guess we’ll just have to keep watching to find out what this is all about.

As for this episode, I have to say it may be the best recap episode ever. OK, so that might not be saying much, but the new scenes filled in a few gaps and showed us some things we hadn’t seen before.

Next week (for real, this time): Nate causes stress for Aitu as there are strategy discussions held in front of him. Ozzy’s stock skyrockets as he gets food from the trees as well as the water. And one player on Exile Island takes a beating in a nasty storm.

If you haven’t already, be sure to check out these other recent Survivor: Cook Islands articles here on RealityNewsOnline:

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