Survivor: Fiji
I've Got Strength Now To Carry The Flag
By Jim Van Nest
March 27, 2007
BoxOfficeProphets.com
We begin at the much quieter Ravu camp and the tribe seems to be overrun with flies. Amidst all the bugs, Yau Man is telling us how happy he is to still be around considering he is the most dispensable. Tree mail arrives and suggests there will be no brawn required and that some will get to feast. They're gonna switch up that early?
Probst sighting! The tribes come in and Jeff asks for one person from each tribe to step forward. Edgardo and Earl step up and here it comes. "Everybody, drop your buffs." Cue the opening theme.
And it's a playground pick-em format. The only stipulation is that you have to choose someone from the other tribe. There will be one person not selected, but Jeff doesn't say what's gonna happen to them. Let's start. Edgardo selects Mookie. Earl tags Boo. Mookie then takes Alex. Boo grabs Michelle. Alex, oddly, takes Rocky. Michelle selects Cassandra (WHAT?). Rocky, as advertised, selects Dreamz. Cassandra takes Yau Man (wow, can this tribe get any weaker?). Dreamz has to select Anthony, leaving Yau Man with a choice between Stacy and Lisi. He chooses Stacy. Which brings us to Lisi. Jeff tells her that she's still in the game and she's actually bummed out about it. She was thinking she would be out and she thinks it's a good time to exit. Jeff basically calls her out as not wanting to play anymore. He then tells her that she's going to Exile Island, which gets him a chorus of "Just great" from Lisi. And then the quote of the night so far, from Jeff, "So maybe a little time on Exile...straighten out your head and you'll come back wanting to play." And for those who missed the episode, he was not making a joke, he was not smiling. He was dead serious and very obviously pissed off. He goes on to tell her she'll stay at Exile until after the next Tribal Council and she will join the tribe that loses a member.
One last order of business...which tribe goes back to which camp? Earl and Edgardo rock, paper, scissors to see who gets to pull a buff out of a bag. Edgardo wins the battle, but loses the war as he chooses the orange buff of Ravu. Earl and Co. will be the new Moto tribe and head back to the lap of luxury. Considering one tribe is all men and one tribe is Michelle, Cassandra, Stacy and Yau Man...They ended up at the camps where they should have. Oh yeah, and there will be a house warming gift left at each camp when they get back.
We come back from commercial to Lisi and her wonderful attitude on Exile Island. She's whining because her alliance is blown away. She has to be one of the more vile Survivors in a long while.
At the new Camp Cream-Filling, Earl is loving the good life. He's trying out all the furniture and eating like mad. He tells us that he and Yau will be looking for the idol soon and he's pretty exited to know that they're the only ones who could possibly know where it is.
Back at Ravu, Edgardo is rallying the troops by telling them that if he had his choice of tribes, he'd choose this one even with the crappy camp. Alex tells us that this camp isn't really that bad and he's thrilled to be rid of Stacy, Lisi and Boo. What follows is a bunch of male bonding and slams on women and blah, blah. Rocky's glad to not have any more Rita-type conversations. As these talks continue, you can see that Anthony is completely left out. As they decide to get back to work, Anthony gets assigned the task of tending the fire and water while everyone else goes fishing and crabbing. Anthony tells us that he knows he's a nerd and that he's on the burly man tribe now and that he's basically screwed.
Meanwhile, at Moto, Earl and Yau Man are planning to fish. Boo tells us that he was already counting his million and that his plan has been a little messed up now. Earl, meanwhile, is feeling quite a bit superior. With it being 3-3 Moto to Ravu on the new tribe, he says they're looking for the swing vote now and everything..."will have to go through me." Sounds like the last words of a guy getting ready to go home to me. Cassandra is digging the new tribe and she likes Earl and Yau a lot. As the three of them talk, it seems as though Boo just might be the new target on the Moto tribe. Earl tells us he has Michelle and Yau Man and that it only takes one more vote for him to have all the power. Ya know, I was liking Earl for a minute. This new "I'm the king of the world" Earl will get old real quick. Is there no one on this frickin' show that I can get behind?
I come back from commercial with only one thought on my mind...what the hell is Ice Cube doing making a sequel to Are We There Yet? What happened to the kid that helped start the most influential rap group ever? *sigh* Oh, well...back to the recap.
As we join the Ravu camp, Anthony is feeling pretty lonely and on the ropes. Honestly, if he doesn't go home tonight, it'll be because Ravu won immunity. We join the rest of the guys on the hunt. As they beat the hell out of some crabs, Alex tells us that he can certainly see why things were so down for this tribe. Losing all the time will do that. As they crab, Rocky gets mouthy about how weak Anthony is. Alex takes this info to decide who he wants as his fourth alliance member on the new tribe. Rocky is too annoying and Anthony is weak, so Alex approaches and makes a deal with Mookie. Mookie says he thinks Anthony needs to be the next to go...and a new alliance is formed. With that settled, Mookie uses some of the crab meat to fish. Several large fish later, the Ravu tribe begins to prepare their best meal since landing on their island. Mookie's pumped with the fish and the new tribe dynamics. Rocky is feeling pretty solid right now too. "Right now, on paper, we're a super power." I hate when they do that. As soon as someone talks about how great their tribe is, that tribe loses.
Probst sighting! The tribes come in and are treated to a very interesting obstacle course. Each tribe will be connected to a six point sliding hub. Basically, each person is attached to the end of a pole. The poles are of varying length. The key to the challenge is to move themselves backward, forward and any other way to maneuver this huge rig through a pretty small course of bamboo posts. The course, of course, intersects so there will be a chance for the tribes to meet on the course a number of times. As it turns out, that's exactly what happens on three occasions. As the challenge progresses, the teams are virtually even. When they lock up at the final crossover point, it becomes apparent that the first tribe to get through the logjam will likely win the challenge. After a lengthy battle between the tribes, Moto brakes free first and by the skin of their teeth, Moto holds on for the immunity victory. So Rocky, Mookie and Anthony get to head back to Tribal Council....again.
And now it's time to play "It's Anyone But Anthony." Anthony is complaining about being left behind at the fire again. Anthony overhears Edgardo and Anthony talking. Rocky is talking all about him. Anthony goes to Dreamz to try to sway him to his side. Dreamz actually thinks Rocky should go first, but Anthony's weakness is probably gonna hurt him. He goes to Alex and he can get no reaction from him. Edgardo tells us how messed up Rocky is and how Anthony's "his little bitch." Ed really doesn't want to see Rocky make the merge. Anthony works on Ed next and he says it's up in the air between Anthony and Rocky. Rocky tells us that Anthony has got to go and honestly, do we really care why? I didn't think so. I've seen plenty of Survivor and it's clear who's going home tonight. It'll take a miracle to save Anthony now.
We get to Tribal and Jeff asks how things were at the new camp. Mookie talks about everyone doing their part and he mentions Anthony staying behind to tend the fire. Jeff asks him about it and he gives his typical politically correct answer. Which sets Rocky off on a rant about how Anthony needs to put his cards on the table and stick up for himself. When Jeff asks him about this, it gets Rocky started again. He just goes and goes and goes. As he slams Anthony around every corner, you can see the rest of the tribe pulling away from him. Jeff finally asks Anthony about all of this and he gives a real good speech about how he's been trying to keep the peace and make sure that the tribe works well together to finally win a challenge. He says that it makes no sense, but if he has to piss people off to stay in this game, then that's what he'll do. He wants to be there, he deserves to be there and if they want to continue on as a tribe and be successful, they need him to stay there. As he's saying this, we see clips of Alex and Edgardo both nodding and I can't help but think that Anthony might have gotten his miracle. It's time to vote.
We see Rocky's vote for Anthony and Anthony's vote for Rocky and that's it. As Jeff reads the votes, vote number three is for Anthony, which sets the table for the rest of the votes. And Anthony becomes the sixth person voted out of Survivor: Fiji. And for their stupidity, the Ravu tribe will be rewarded with Lisi's return to their tribe. Egads!
Next time on Survivor: Lisi joins the Ravu camp and it seems that Dreamz and Lisi might have issues. While at Moto, Yau Man continues his search for the hidden immunity idol. A blindfold challenge looks to be an injury waiting to happen and the best snippet of preview is Michelle (who isn't blindfolded) falling off a perfectly still platform. Can't wait to see how that happens.
A quick programming note, Survivor will return to its regular time slot next Thursday at 7p.m. Hopefully it'll be followed by a new CSI and Shark...because as it is, the Thursday lineup is sucking. Until next week, take care.