Survivor: China

Ride the Work Horse Til the Tail Falls Off

By Jim Van Nest

October 14, 2007

*This* is a knife!

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Hello, good people. I'm thrilled to have you back for Week 4 of Survivor: China. Back on my normal timetable, I feel like I just wrote about Week 3! But, to stay on track, let's talk about what happened last week. Previously on Survivor: James got crabs, Dave got naked, Leslie got kidnapped, Courtney got exposed as the weak link, Zhan Hu got to the winner's circle twice and Leslie got excommunicated (from Survivor anyway.) This week promises fireworks: both literally and figuratively as Dave and Sherea square off. Let's get right to it...

We begin in Fei Long and Jean-Robert is starting part two of his plan. He's up early and working. He realizes he was close to going home the night before, so he knows now is the time to kick it into gear. He knows he'll last through the next vote because Courtney is so weak. We flip to him and Courtney working together and as she reaches for a pot, he quickly tells her watch out because it might be hot. As it turns out, she gets pissed because he "yelled at her." Ok, now I don't care for JR much, he seems like a scumbag. But in this case, he was simply worried that she would burn herself grabbing a pot that was just taken off the fire. He raised his voice, but not in a mean way. It was no different than any of us would have been if we saw someone getting ready to burn the crap out of themself. This little discussion lasts way longer than it needs to and Courtney tells us how she just wants him gone. She clarifies by saying that she really doesn't care who goes as long as it's not her. Cue the theme...

We check in with Zhan Hu and the rice supply has gotten moldy. Sherea sits down and sorts through the rice to dump the moldy part and save the decent stuff. Apparently, she didn't do it good enough for Dave as he corrects how she's doing it and then refuses to offer a suggestion on how to do it. Sherea has finally had enough. She begins to clean up around camp, including some shells that Dave was apparently saving for his mother. As he goes after her, she completely loses it and tells him to get away from her. It becomes a war of wills, really, and finally, Frosti comes in and breaks it up a bit. As Dave is complaining about it, Frosti tells him straight up that the problem is people are seeing him as someone who's going off all the time. He tells him that if he plans to lead, he has to work well with the people he's leading. "Crazy Dave may have just worn out his welcome."

Let me take this time to mention that if Sherea was a blond rassler, I'd be thinking that they're showing me Episode 2 again. This is the same thing that happened with Ashley. And here I thought things were supposed to get better when they got rid of problem child Ashley. As it turns out, and as most of us already knew, Dave is the problem here. They dumped Ashley and it didn't work out so well for them. If they dump Sherea and keep this tool-bag they will completely screw themselves again. This is now a pattern and Dave will just pick a different woman to order around and berate. I'm not sure what happened to him when he was younger. Maybe his mom wouldn't let him take ballet; maybe a bunch of girls beat him up a lot. But he definitely has issues with women and they will continue to rip this tribe apart until they dump his ass. And I haven't even gotten into how useless he is in a challenge. It's one thing to be an ass that leads his tribe to victory. It's a totally different thing to be an ass and the weak link in all the challenges. Moving on to Fei Long...




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Welcome back as Aaron comes down with Tree Mail. The mail tells them to go to Tribal Council tonight for their next challenge. The clue suggests that the winners will be eating. While the promos made it seem like a double boot was coming with "both tribes going to Tribal Council", it seems that the reality is that they'll be having a challenge on the Tribal Council grounds. JR tells us that it is very important for them to win a food challenge as he hasn't eaten in about three days and he really needs to keep up his strength.

Probst sighting!!! As the tribes arrive at Tribal, Zhan Hu looks VERY surprised to see Leslie gone. Today's challenge is a fun one. Two members at a time will use huge chopsticks to carry a flaming ball across a course and drop it into a chute where the ball will roll down into a wok igniting some fireworks. Each round, the chopsticks will get longer and heavier. The first tribe to light all three fireworks wins reward. Wanna know what they're playing for? Tomorrow morning the winning tribe will be visited by a Chinese family that will teach them how to fish. They will bring vegetables, spices and everything needed to cook a great meal. They will leave the spices and stuff behind as well as the knowledge of how to fish these waters. In addition, the winning tribe will get to kidnap someone from the losing tribe. Worth playing for? I think so. Not surprisingly, Fei Long sits Courtney out.

Squaring off with the first ball are Todd and Denise against PG and Sherea. Both teams are having a hard time...this is not an easy challenge. It is, however, one of the neatest challenges they've had in a while. Todd and Denise have taken a huge lead right off the bat, but PG and Sherea come back and make it a near tie putting the first ball in the chute. Amanda and Aaron are on the course against Jamie and Frosti with the second ball. Amanda and Aaron work very well; meanwhile, Frosti is stuck over the fire burning himself as they try to move the ball. Aaron and Amanda drop their ball way before Jamie and Frosti but with the longer chopsticks, it's still anyone's game. James and JR are now against Dave and Erik. Is it any wonder that Dave is completely tanking yet another challenge? James and JR get up next to the chute while Erik and Chucklenut are still back at the beginning. As Frosti tries to coach, James and JR drop their ball down the chute and the challenge is over. Fei Long wins reward! And now it's time for the kidnapping and much to the joy of the Zhan Hu tribe, they kidnap Dave. Sherea can barely contain her excitement. I've never seen a team less upset about losing a challenge as they just shrug off Jeff's patented, "I got nothing for you." I think they're all relieved to be going back to camp sans Dave.


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