Surviving China, Episode 7: Dumb and Dumber

Last week, we saw a bizarre turn of events that had the Zhan Hu who wanted to throw challenges deciding to win them, while the one who wanted to win challenges tried to throw it. We saw Sherea go home in large part because she ignored Peih-Gee’s attempt to reconnect during the reward challenge. And we saw Courtney tell everybody she’s an outcast – much to their surprise. Let’s see what’s in store for us this week!

We begin the night of the vote, back at Fei Long camp. Jean-Robert, playing (or being) the idiot, says he was surprised at the tension – he had no idea. Amanda says it’s his and Courtney’s “thing” and they need to resolve it. Jean-Robert says if somebody did that to her, she’d be upset too. Meanwhile, it appears Courtney’s eyes roll back into her head and she shows her true face as Satan. It’s amazing what the night-vision cameras show.

Todd says he liked the Jean-Robert he can be, not the one he is, and reiterates that the two of them need to work it out. Courtney apparently sees this as “sucking up” to Jean-Robert, as she tells us privately. She doesn’t feel like she needs to be anybody’s friend in this game – alright, it’s the official reality TV villain catchphrase. I could’ve predicted it would come from her.

The following morning at Zhan Hu, Peih-Gee is trying to gain James’ trust by saying they told him they were going to stick with him. Uh, yeah, after you threw a challenge to boot Aaron. Good plan.

Peih-Gee continues, asking if they seem like loyal people. He says, “to each other, yeah.” Heh. Good answer. She continues, asking him to not let her down. He rightfully wonders how he would let her down. She says they should stick together if they merge and claims she really likes him and wants to see him go further. I think I’m going to throw up due to the sickeningly sweet BS she’s feeding him. But she tells us that her gut instinct is to trust James.

Meanwhile, James is staring up at the immunity idol, just waiting for some time alone. Peih-Gee leaves him and while the three original Zhan Huers talk about how they really hope they can trust James, he tries to figure out a casual way to pull down the idol.

When he gets the chance, he pops off a plaque. The first try isn’t the right one, so he sets it down and gets the second, real one. He hustles over to hide it in his bag, but doesn’t have a chance to put the second one back. James does enjoy being the contestant with two immunity idols, though!

Over at Fei Long, Todd and the others are in a good mood until the dark cloud known as Courtney walks over, sighs heavily, and plops down. She says Jean-Robert could have gone last night, but Todd says from the way he is playing the game, he needs Jean-Robert. Courtney whines that she complained to them about the way Jean-Robert treated her and they didn’t stick up for her and… well, I just can’t listen to her whining anymore. If one of my kids were talking like that, I’d send them to their room. I just want her to shut up.

Back and forth they go, Courtney whining and Todd trying to explain the way the game is played and how they can’t let him know they don’t like him because he’ll jump ship. None of this matters to the whiner. Todd tries to patch things up, but she just wants to whine some more. Todd tells us he needs to keep his numbers and Jean-Robert is one of his numbers. “Deal with it, bitch.”

Cut back to Zhan Hu, where James wanders off and Jaime points out to the others that the plaque is missing. Erik picks it up and tells us that James might know where the immunity idol is, and this “looks idolish.” He and Jaime think it might be the idol, so they hold on to it.

That night, James is away and the Zhan Huers are playing. Jaime reaches into his bag and finds the two plaques. Oddly, she isn’t too careful when pulling stuff out of the bag, and I wonder how she’s going to rewrap it all. In any case, she finds a plaque in each pant leg. She doesn’t appear to take them out, though, so she doesn’t realize that there is writing on the back of the real things.

The following day, James realizes the plaque is missing and figures out that one of the others picked it up and thinks it’s the idol. He thinks it would be “the best thing ever” if Jaime’s the one with the non-idol, and he would pass out with pure joy. With that, he laughs hysterically.

The two tribes arrive to meet host Jeff Probst. He starts as if he’s going to describe a challenge, but instead tells them to drop their buffs – it’s a merge!

There are hugs all around, as if it’s a family reunion. Oh how fake it all is. Probst hands out new buffs and tells them that since Fei Long has won the battles so far, they get to keep their beach. When they get back, they will find a new flag and paint. They need to come up with a new name and get creative.