Survivor: Exile Island – Survivor Live Recap, Episode 5

Let’s start off this article with an easy trivia question. It was interesting that Aras, Courtney, Bob, and Bruce all got votes this week, but this is not the record. What is the largest number of different people getting votes at tribal council, and when did that happen? The answer is near the end of this article.

The show starts with Dalton introducing a new giveaway – Survivor buffs. They’re handing them out to selected folks who call in. If they like your call, you win! Jenna recommends complimenting her. Ha!

Dalton starts off the show by commenting that we never really saw the big personality of the Bob Dawg unleashed. Bob strikes a pose for us; he calls it “King’s Ransom.” Bob says he had to “get on the defensive right away because of the way the alliances went down,” but insists he did cut loose in the confessionals and “lettin’ fools have it.” Bob doesn’t know why he got edited out and it’s too bad we never saw this. His carefree view would have been an interesting contrast to Shane’s fidgety antics.

Dalton asks Bob about the impact of the tribe switch on him. Large. Bob liked Aras, Nick and Austin and expects to remain friends with them. He felt he and Aras were “the two most complete Survivors out there,” and could do some damage together.

The hosts are not Aras fans, because he convinced a quitter (Shane) to stick around. Bob feels he needs to “go to bat” for Aras, saying he was “a little bit misunderstood” and “well intentioned.” Bob thinks that Aras’ efforts to keep Shane in the game was a desperation move, in that Aras needed someone to watch his back since he wasn’t allied with Bob.

Jenna comments that in this week’s vote, Shane and Aras were not on the same page. There’s a bit of stumbling to correctly recall the votes. Just so everyone’s on the same page: all three ladies against voted Bob, Aras and Bobby voted against Bruce, Bruce threw his vote to Courtney and Shane threw his vote to Aras.

The hosts don’t understand the logic of throwing your vote away. Neither do I. Although Shane felt he was throwing his vote away, what he did by not voting for Bruce was to insure that Bobby was going home – so, it did matter.

Jenna doesn’t understand why the tribe threw out Bob’s strength in favor of Bruce. Bob strikes a pose. Jenna continues, even if you don’t like the individual, until the merge you need to focus on keeping teams strong to maintain numerical superiority.

Dalton segues to the clip of the reward challenge clip, with Bob cutting the fish very effectively, Sally seeming to dislike touching the fish, and Bruce having problems both chopping and catching. At the end of the clip, Shane jumps on Bob to celebrate. Bobby says, “I don’t usually like guys with Greg Louganis shorts on jumping on me like that, but this one time I’ll allow it.”

Bob thought wielding the axe in the challenge was the right position for him from the beginning, but was voted down by “the brain trust” after Bruce asked for that role. Bruce related his experience in filleting fish to convince them. All agree, that’s not the same thing. As he continues, Bob refers to his tribe mates as “The Asses of Evil.”

L.A.’s Ryan is the first caller of the day. He calls Bob “the only real player in a group of real player haters” and asks when Bob realized he was an outsider on his tribe. Bob thinks the others bonded out of desperation, as they were the weaker players. He thinks Courtney, Shane, and Danielle didn’t really know the game and thinks “you can’t bond with somebody in ten minutes.” Well Bob, apparently that’s about how long it took!

Bob saw himself as a strong player and doesn’t know why he wasn’t even considered for the alliance. He isn’t sure what the true bond is among them and calls it “unnatural and weird.” Bob isn’t sure why Aras joined with them, either. He’s also not sure why Shane was a sought-after alliance member, instead of the younger guys, or why Danielle picked Shane first over all four of the younger guys.

So to summarize for caller Ryan, Bob isn’t sure why he ended up on the outside. Good question, but no buffs for you.

Both hosts question the alliance on their teamwork and loyalty. I must disagree. The alliance is certainly not very likeable, nor is it based in trust, but it has been effective… so far. They have shown enough teamwork to win most of the challenges. They have all almost made it to the merge and even if they have to go to tribal council soon, there are still outsiders Cirie and Bruce to put forward first. One has to join in with the people who can get you past the merge and toward the end of the game, and friendship comes second. Isn’t that one of Jenna’s stock lines? Mind you, the previews… well, I’ll save that for later.

Bob describes his team by saying, “As loony as they are, they are good athletes and tough competitors.” He compliments the efforts of all the women in the challenges. He adds that Casaya’s downfall is in areas of logic and common sense. He suggests that Danielle’s bikini top cuts off the flow of blood to her head.