Surviving China, Episode 12: The Last of the Zhan Hu

Last week, we said goodbye to Erik, leaving Peih-Gee as the last of the Zhan Hu. The big question this week is whether she can find a way to either crack the Fei Long alliance by getting a couple of them to believe she would be better to face in the finale or by winning immunity.

While winning immunity is by no means easy, it will likely prove the simpler of the two tasks, because I just don’t think any of the final Fei Long members will turn. Todd was right last week when he pointed out that by going to the final three (presuming there will be three instead of two) against two fellow Fei Long conspiracists, it will blunt the anger any jurors might feel – because they’d be angry at all three of them! Going against Peih-Gee, though, gives her a guaranteed two or three votes (at least Jaime and Erik, probably Frosti too), with the possibility of more (Jean-Robert). That’s not a head start you want to fight.

So with that in mind, let’s see what happens tonight!

We begin the night of Erik’s eviction from the game, as the final five come back to camp. Denise explains that she knows if she had accepted the offer from Erik and Peih-Gee to jump ship, she could have been in the final three and maybe gotten to face the jury, but she decided to play it safe – which could be the biggest mistake she’s made in the game so far.

Yes, it could be. But we have to remember that if she had switched sides, it would have been a tie. There would have been a chance that she could have ended up on the winning side, but also a chance Erik would still have gone and she would have been shown to betray her alliance. So I can certainly understand why she did what she did.

As they all cuddle up for bed, Amanda says Erik is quite possibly the nicest person on the planet – and Todd agrees. But, she adds, that doesn’t mean she’s handing him a million dollars on Survivor. I’m sure Todd agrees with that too – I know I do!

The next morning, Peih-Gee is awake first, telling us how she’s not the most popular person there, what with the four original Fei Long members sticking tight. Considering the way she’s behaved over the course of the season, I’d say she wouldn’t be the most popular person there almost no matter who was left. She continues that it’s not easy feeling like you’re the least-liked or the outsider.

But she does get treemail, which contains some arrows and a clue that suggests to me they will be shooting arrows at each other’s targets. The reward is going to be “one of a kind.”

They show up at the challenge and host Jeff Probst explains what they have to do. They will each fire arrows from a replica of a fourth-century Chinese repeating crossbow. Each time you (or anybody else) hits your name, you get a point. They are each given five arrows, but they secretly distribute those arrows to the other players. So that means Peih-Gee might well end up with zero! The player whose name has been hit most often wins reward.

And what is that reward? The winner will be flown by private jet to the Great Wall of China. They will enjoy a meal on the Wall and spend the night there.

Each person has arrows to distribute – and they are color-coded, so everybody knows who gave what to whom. Peih-Gee has received one whole arrow, from Courtney. She says she expected it. Todd gets six. Denise has only two and comments about being on the bottom of the totem pole. That wasn’t very bright – the others should have been smart enough to throw a couple more her way. Courtney gets twelve arrows! Maybe they just figure she’ll have such bad aim that she still won’t be able to win. And finally, Amanda has four arrows.

Peih-Gee shoots first. Ready, aim, fire! And she misses the board completely.

Denise aims and… misses high. On her second shot, she squarely hits her own name.

Amanda misses, hits Denise’s name, hits Denise’s name again, and misses. Whoops!

Todd begins by hitting his own name. From there he hits his own again, hits again (mind you, he is hitting different squares with his name – not just aiming at the same spot over and over), hits again (prompting Probst to say it’s like he’s been shooting a Chinese repeating crossbow his entire life), hits again, and… finally misses. Todd’s in the lead with five points.

Courtney is up for her dozen shots. She misses, hits her own name, hits Denise’s name, hits Amanda’s name, misses, hits Todd’s name, hits Denise again, Denise again (tying Denise and Todd!), Todd, misses, Denise (whoever wins this will have to take Courtney with them, because she is basically the deciding factor – though it’s not like she really seems to have any control at this point), and hits Denise again! Denise wins!

Denise is allowed to pick one person to take along, and she does indeed pick Courtney. Peih-Gee looks forlorn, still smarting because she took Denise to the Shaolin Temple and Denise hasn’t repaid the favor. But wait – Probst says they could let the two of them go alone, but that’s not what they’re going to do. Todd immediately starts begging. Denise can pick one more person. Peih-Gee chimes in that she is going to be on the jury and took Denise to the temple.

But Denise whispers to Courtney, saying she doesn’t want Peih-Gee to go and get stronger. So she instead picks… Todd!