Surviving China, Episode 2: Don’t Step in the Leadership

We enter the second week of Survivor: China with one tribe that seems to be working together and one that… doesn’t. Can Zhan Hu pull it together? Or will Chicken only be the first of the tribe to get fried? Let’s find out!

We begin this week with Zhan Hu, the following morning. Dave is telling people they need to build their fire pit right the first time – unlike they did with the shelter. He tells us about how he didn’t want to be in a leadership role, but instead of resisting, he felt it was better to embrace it in this case.

Peih-Gee doesn’t like Dave’s idea on a location for the fire pit, so she argues with him. He becomes Dictator Dave and says no, he wants it where he wants it and he’s not going to belabor this sort of thing. Peih-Gee claims to us that she and Dave work well together and they’re not competitive about who the leader is. Indeed, she caves in to him on the fire pit thing.

Erik tells us Dave is the leader and Peih-Gee is like the balance. Erik adds that while Dave has a lot of good ideas, whenever anybody has a different idea, Dave is always going to go with his own. According to Erik, people are getting fed up and talking about how Dave isn’t really a good leader.

Over at Fei Long, James is pushing down trees with his bare hands and rippling muscles. Women all over the country oooh and aaah at the sight of it. Others on the tribe are working as well – but Jean-Robert is sleeping… and snoring loudly. Whiner, er, Courtney says Jean-Robert won’t do anything – he gets up and then lies right back down again.

Meanwhile, Amanda approaches Todd and they agree to form an alliance until the end of the game. She says they’re both doing what they’re told and playing the game similarly. Both decide Aaron is working hard too and they should pull him in as a third partner. Well, not really a partner – they believe they can swing it so they make the plans and he will be the mouthpiece, so if anything goes awry, he will be blamed instead of them.

They do indeed invite Aaron in and swear to go to the final three. All shake on it. Todd says, “Amanda and I have this game in our hands.” Oy. You just know the producers would only put that statement in there if A) Todd is dead meat tonight, or B) Todd and Amanda make it all the way. We’ll just have to see which it is.

Aaron pulls together the whole tribe for a “pow wow.” He suggests that they need to get into a routine, but Jean-Robert thinks they should all rest. Aaron retorts that Jean-Robert needs to start pulling his weight. Jean-Robert says he knows he’s not working as much as he’d like to work, and blames it on not having slept as much as everybody else previously (recall at the challenge last time, he said he hadn’t slept a wink).

Leslie tells us Jean-Robert needs to step it up. She says he is trying to divert attention from himself but nobody’s buying it.

Jean-Robert continues, saying he contribute a lot with his mind, and once he is rested and they have water, he will be able to contribute a lot more. He tells us that he is considered “one of the bad boys of poker” and is using a similar strategy here. He wanted to give a perception that he is a little lazy so that when he steps it up, people notice. That’s great – if he’s still there to step it up later! But in the meantime, all people notice are that he’s not stepping up.

He says even though it looks like he’s in trouble now, it’s all part of the plan and he can only go up from here. Uh, yeah. Great plan.

Bach as Zhan Hu, players are carrying rocks around to get a fireplace going. Dave thinks it’s an achievable goal, but Jaime thinks they’d all be doing a lot better if they had food in their system. Dave thinks otherwise, and we all know Dave is king. Jaime wants to make a small fire so they can cook some rice, but Dictator Dave doesn’t want to – he wants to just focus on the main one.

Jaime talks to Sherea, who agrees that she can’t do anything until she gets some food. Ashley agrees as well.

Ashley and Sherea complain to Dave about the situation, but he says there has been no wasted energy and he moved half the stones himself. Twice they try to talk to him and he tells them, “Let me finish!” He wants to stack all the rocks around where the fire will be before the fire is going. Ashley wants to start a fire before the rain. But she says, “But you’re the leader and I’ll let you do what you want,” and walks away.

As she’s walking away, he snidely asks, “How many fires have you built, sweetheart?” Ashley comes back, body slams him, pile drives him, and then throws him into the water. OK, she doesn’t, but don’t you just wish she had for his “sweetheart” remark? I do.

Dave tells us that he doesn’t want to fight with Ashley, but if she wants a fight, he can give her one. Dave, I’m thinking you’re outclassed if you get into a real fight, but okay. They keep jabbering at each other for a while, with Dave continuing to be rather obnoxious.