The Real Gilligan’s Island 2, Episode 4: Here, Fishie Fishie

This is the fourth hour of our coverage of the second season of The Real Gilligan’s Island. You can read about episode three in my review.

Well, we start the show right where we left off. Mary Ann’s fate lies in the hands of her teammates. Scott summons the teams down to the beach and explains the game. One of the Mary Anns will become the island’s domestic goddess.

Unfortunately, that means she will be doing the laundry. But, not just her own laundry, everyone’s laundry. Each player will have to strip down to their skivvies and throw their clothes into a big tub of water. Two of her fellow players will dunk the clothes, pin them to a clothes line and then send the clothes down the line to Mary Ann. She will take the clothes off the line and wring them out into another tub. Whoever fills their tub to the designated line first wins.

Mandy picks Zac and Charlie to help her, while Randi picks Shawn and Tiy-e. It’s almost funny how both women picked men to help them do the laundry.

Scott waves his arm and they’re off! And I mean “off,” this time. All the players take off their clothes and throw them into the wash tub. The first thing I notice was that none of the players are going commando on this particular day. Erika even thought ahead and made sure she was wearing her one-piece bathing suit.

Soon, the wet clothes are flying down the line. The girls are wringing their little hearts out. We get to hear an aside to the camera when Jim tells us that he’d rather see Randi win the competition because she is a weak player and he’d rather face a weak player down the road. Zac wants Mandy to win because he has a date with her later in the evening.

During the challenge, Jim notices that only two articles of clothing are holding any water, so they abandon the other clothes and just concentrate on using the Skipper’s shirt and Jim’s shirt. This seems to be a winning strategy and Randi’s bucket fills up about twice as fast as Mandy’s.

There is no come-from-behind victory and soon enough, Scott blows the whistle and declares Randi the winner. Skipper Charlie declares that the orange team just smoked them. Mary Ann Mandy is now banished to the other side of the island, much to the disappointment of Zac.

Mandy isn’t too pleased either. She’s upset that someone as lazy and whiny as Randi could beat her. She cries as she thinks of all the people she has to leave behind.

But, there’s no crying in baseball, as they say, and she struck out. Randi isn’t happy that Mandy said goodbye to everyone but her, but, she adds, she doesn’t have to deal with her anymore.

Back at camp, the orange team finds their reward for winning the challenge, a washtub and soap. They are not very pleased. Professor Tiy-e says that he’s hungry and wanted food. They pick through the towels and soap and ask, “Are there any clothes or fruit or candy?” No such luck. They stand around and argue over who is not going to use the washing equipment. Randi loses that argument and gets her reward of doing everybody else’s laundry for them.

Later, Tiy-e, Shawn, and Randi are sitting around talking about sex. Mary Ann is uncomfortable, but that doesn’t stop the boys. Tiy-e asks if she’s ever dated a black man. She says she hasn’t and then Shawn accuses her of stereotyping. Randi denies it. They continue to tease her.

Later that evening, as most everyone is sitting around the campsite, they hear a scream from the bushes and out rushes a naked mad man. It must be one of those crazy natives that we first saw on the original series.

Nope, it’s mad man Zac, streaking across the camp. But wait, won’t he be disqualified for not wearing his colored bandana? Nope, explains Erika, he’s wearing his green bandana around his “Johnson.”

Zac tells us that he needed to do something to pick up the morale of the green team. Everybody enjoys it except Randi. She is in complete disbelief and disapproval. Zac returns to the campfire, now with his hat covering his bandana covering his Johnson, and sits among the other players. The men move away from him.

Professor Tiy-e, the professor of human sexuality, remember, says that he was embarrassed by Zac’s stunt. The rest of the players kid him for being insecure with his sexuality. Shawn thinks that Tiy-e ought to take one of his own classes.

After Zac finally puts some clothes on, Randi announces that it’s time to go back to voodoo village. Of course, this is wasted effort because we all know which doll is in the box this time. So, let’s just skip all the pomp and circumstance and I’ll tell you that they get the box and the Gilligan doll is inside.

But, that’s not all that’s in the box. It’s a note telling them that the game will soon change. Those viewers from last season know that this means that they will soon switch to Survivor-style voting.

The next morning, the players are sitting around. Jim wants Shawn to win so that there will be four orange players to three green players. Charlie says that he won’t let his little buddy Zac lose. He says that Zac is like a little Superman.

The Gilligans are also chatting. Zac is explaining the details of the operation that his mom needs. He says that his goal is to make one person’s life better. Shawn looks bored by the whole thing and says to the camera that his goal is to make one person’s life better as well – his own.