Survivor: Fiji
An Evil Thought
By Jim Van Nest
April 2, 2007
BoxOfficeProphets.com
As usual, we start out at the losing Ravu camp and the discussion is about Lisi joining the tribe. Alex is worried about her little meltdown before she went to Exile. She comes back talking. She tells the guys that Exile isn't as bad as she thought. Yet, she tells us that when she first got there, she broke down. And then over the next two days, she built back up and now has her head back in the game. Of course, it took her much longer to tell the guys that. Dreamz tells us that he never did like Lisi and he still doesn't. She tells us about her alliance with Edgardo and Alex, but is a little worried that Dreamz may join up with Rocky and Mookie to try to get her off.
At Moto, Yau Man seems to have fallen into the role of fire and water guy. Earl tells us that he needs to find a way to change the 3-3 tie they have in camp. He decides to take the tribe out to get their boat (which for some frickin reason is beached pretty far away from camp.) Yau will stay behind to "tend the fire." This is better known as "dig for the hidden idol." And on Moto camp, he has some tools with which to dig.
He goes at the ground with a pick axe and a shovel and quickly has a decent sized hole dug in the ground. And then...there it is. He's like a school kid finding a quarter on the playground. Dude is shaking, he's so excited. When it's finally unwrapped, we see a rope necklace with a metal turtle at the end of it. He fills in the hole and tells us that he will need to let Earl know as soon as he gets back. When the folks come back, they tell him they couldn't get the boat. Right after, Yau and Earl go out fishing. Yau tells him right away that they have the idol. And he tells us that he is blown away that he found a friend out here and that of all people; it was a big strong black man. Earl is very stoked. The plan is to share it. They'll keep their ears open and if either of them is ever in trouble, the idol will be shared.
Probst sighting! Today's challenge is a fun one. Each tribe will use a metal flame thrower to throw fire balls at targets. The first tribe to catch all three targets on fire will win reward. The reward will be a plane trip to a Fijian arcade. There will be foosball, air hockey, bowling and hot dogs and beer. Also, the winning tribe will send someone to Exile.
First up are Earl and Dreamz. Earl falls just short while Dreamz is right on target. Michelle and Lisi are up next and neither of them hit the mark. Yau and Edgardo are up next. As Yau is getting ready, we see Mookie (tool that he is) making fun of how Yau is holding his thrower. And right after that, Yau plants one on the first target. Edgardo misses. Boo and Mookie are next. Boo just misses and Mookie is dead on. 2-1 Ravu. Cassandra and Alex are up next. Both come up short. Stacy and Rocky also miss the mark. We're back to Earl and Dreamz. Earl comes up short again and Dreamz scores his second point and wins the challenge for Ravu. And there is much rejoicing. Ravu chooses Earl to go back to Exile. You can see Earl and Yau Man practically laugh they're so happy with that choice. The more each of them go, the longer it will be before someone else even knows the idol is on their beach.
We come back from break to join Ravu on their first reward of the season. Mookie has decided that this win is the beginning of the end for Moto. Um, yeah, dude. That's a little like the Detroit Lions declaring the Super Bowl theirs after winning the home opener. What comes next is actually pretty gross. We get to see the entire tribe gorging themselves on hot dogs. As in, three and four hot dogs on a big bun and shoving it all in their mouth at once. Rocky tells them to slow down or they're going to make themselves sick.
Lisi is excited to be around a bunch of boys and Mookie tells us that she's the type you go to the game with and drink beer with. She feels like she's mingling with the tribe and thinks she's integrated herself pretty well.
We join Earl at Exile and he says it's pretty boring there. Um, Earl, you couldn't be more right. The only highlight is Earl renaming the island Earl Island. To show how bored he is, he even scrolls a logo for his new island in the beach sand.
Back at the Acid Reflux Arcade, the Ravu tribe is now pretty sick. Ed, Mookie, Alex and Lisi are all feeling ill. Rocky, who didn't gorge himself, starts talking about how good the food was and no one wants to hear him talk about food anymore. Naturally, he sees that he found a hot button and he feels the need to push it, over and over and over. Edgardo tells us that Rocky is just too over the top and he's getting tired of him.
Back at Moto, they're all eating a bit of humble pie. Boo tells us that winning the immunity is huge now...especially for Yau Man. He says Yau will be the target if they lose. Yau tells us that he is excited about having the idol and that he now has to make sure it stays hidden from the tribe. He also tells us that he has a really evil thought.
And then, it happens. In the history of Survivor, we've seen some brilliant moves. The way Yul handled the idol last season, Rob Mariano stabbing Lex in the back during All-Stars, Richard Hatch's original plan of being the provider and the crown jewel of strategy, Jonny Fairplay's dead grandma. What happens next easily ranks with the best of these and if something actually comes of it, it could go down as the savviest move in the history of the show.
Yau decides to create another immunity idol to bury and leave for someone else to find. He takes a coconut shell, decorates it all up, wraps it up and buries it back in the hole he dug up earlier. "There are so many immunity idols running around here", he says as he plans to hide the new one. Also, he doesn't bury it very deep, so it should be very easy to find. This opens up so many possibilities. I mean, can you imagine Lisi or Rocky finding that thing after the merge? And then at Tribal, they think they're in trouble and decide to play their "immunity idol"? Talk about the potential for the greatest moment in the history of Survivor. Watching Jeff have to issue the smack down on someone for playing a false idol. And I'm sure some of you are thinking, "But, Jim...while this seems like it could be a real good prank, what makes it so savvy?" Well, I'm glad you asked. We've seen in the past that having the hidden idol has changed the strategic game of the person possessing it. While they still go all out in the challenges, (with the exception of Yul) they sorta take a break from the strategic part of the game. They're content to let the game unfold around them, while they sit their knowing they're in good shape. The perfect set of circumstances for Yau would be for Boo to find the new idol. He already thinks he has a good strategy. He'd be the perfect guy to get duped by this idol. So Yau buries the idol not very deep in the ground, so it should be easily found. He then tells us how important this next challenge is for his as he feels he's on the chopping block and he really doesn't want to be forced to use the idol this soon after finding it.
Probst sighting. Today's challenge will be a blindfolded piñata-like contest. There will be one caller leading the rest of the tribe onto a course with dangling skulls hanging over it. The blindfolded member will need to break the skulls with a Fijian war club and collect the puzzle tiles that fall out. There are five skulls. Once a tribe has collected all five sets of tiles, they have to solve a two-word puzzle. First tribe to solve the puzzle wins immunity. During the challenge, tribes are allowed to switch out callers if they so choose. Michelle and Lisi start off calling. Stacy and Alex are the first ones out on the course. Michelle is very good at this, while Lisi is pretty bad at it. Stacy has a huge lead on Alex - so much so that when Alex finally gets back, he takes over the calling duty. And he is much better. He gets Edgardo out there and Ed almost catches up with Cassandra for Moto. Earl and Dreamz are about neck and neck for the third set of tiles. Boo and Rocky are the next ones out. Boo seems to have some trouble with which way is left. Even so, he still manages to get the skull before Rocky. As Yau Man heads out for Moto, we have what is most likely the most rewound scene on this season of Survivor. As she's jumping and dancing on her platform, Michelle gets a little too close to the edge. You hear her voice stop and the camera angle, which is focused on Yau, catches Michelle in the background flying off the platform and down about six feet to the ground below her. She hops right back up and that's super, but the hilarity of the moment is something I'll remember for a long time. In fact, here's a clip so you can enjoy it yourself.
Back to the challenge. Yau Man and Mookie are on the course now. Boo jumps up to take over calling duties from Michelle because he says he has a loud voice. As he gets on the platform, he has to pause because he is having trouble seeing. Um, Boo...chucklenut that you are, when you're the eyes for the entire tribe, maybe you shouldn't volunteer if you can't frickin see. Despite Boo, Yau gets to his skull, breaks it and collects the tiles before Mookie. Moto gets first crack at the puzzle. What follows are a bunch of close up shots and suspenseful music, but you really can't tell who's doing what until Moto calls Jeff over to see their puzzle solved as Cannibal Isles. Moto wins immunity and continues their winning streak for the ICs.
We come back to Ravu and it's time to play, "It's anyone but Rocky." Edgardo has had enough of Rocky. His over the top attitude has worked over his nerves pretty well. As he and Alex talk, the conversation turns to whether or not they should tell Mookie about the plan to boot Rocky. They decide not to. Alex and Lisi are discussing the Rocky boot and their three person alliance. It's here that Lisi tells Alex that the idol is on the island. She tells him that she thinks the three of them should work as a team to find the idol. Alex agrees. I can't help but notice that this agreement doesn't seem as tight as Yau and Earl's agreement. We join Mookie and Dreamz in discussion and Dreamz tells Mookie that Rocky is the target. Mookie mentions that he won't vote for Rocky due to a previous agreement. Dreamz says he may not even vote for Rocky. Dreamz would rather see Lisi gone than Rocky. So, we're seeing the potential for a 3-3 tie. Just depends on if Dreamz really goes against the alliance. Rocky is definitely feeling the heat and it's made him...wait for it...cranky. He tells us that he's used to pulling the strings at Tribal and this time he's not. He still feels confident that Lisi is going home. Meanwhile, Lisi is feeling pretty confident too, but not confident enough to NOT dig for the idol a little bit before Tribal.
Tribal starts off with Lisi being added back in. Jeff points out the meltdown and asks her if she was worried about her welcome. She says she wasn't too worried about that as she knew she'd be with members of her former tribe no matter where she ended up. He asks Dreamz about the meltdown and he said that he didn't want Lisi on his team. He didn't want someone on his team that wanted to go home, but she came back from Exile totally different than how she went. He asks Mookie about the tribe's physical strength and how that determines who to vote for. Mookie says it's hard to decide who to vote out, especially since the whole physical thing isn't working out for them thus far. He asks about adjustments and Lisi states the obvious - that this tribe needs to win. She seals it with quite possibly the most annoying laugh ever heard on television. Good lord, I do not like her. And it's time to vote.
We see Rocky's vote for Lisi and Lisi's vote for Rocky. I'll go tally the votes. The first two votes are for Lisi followed up by four straight votes for Rocky. And a cheer ascends from all the houses in the Survivor world. Rocky has become the seventh person voted out of Survivor: Fiji AND the first member of the jury.
Next time on Survivor: Lisi is having a hard time and seems to be cracking up. The tribes appear to be learning some sort of tribal dance, and Boo looks like a moron. And Alex, Mookie and Edgardo go out to find the idol without Lisi knowing about it. Uh oh. Until next week, take care.