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Dawn tells us that she won't be telling the rest of the tribe about his plan. She seems to think that he may change his mind. A couple thoughts right here before we go to Tribal. The first is that by not alerting her tribe, she is continuing the tradition of wishy-washy play on the Savaii tribe. Too many of these people are afraid to actually step up and make a decision, so they make no decision and let the blindsides happen. The second thing is, Ozzy has the power to stop this right now. Give Cochran the idol. He says he's afraid to pull rocks...so give him the idol so that he doesn't have to. The way I see it, you're wasting the idol on Whitney anyway. Any tribe worth anything is going to take their shot with either Keith or Jim. And if you're gonna waste the idol, why not use it to protect your most questionable member? And therein lays the problem with Ozzy's game. He's not smart enough to think of those things and he's not observant enough to know that Cochran is thinking of flipping on him. If Savaii loses tonight because Cochran flips, the fault lies as much with Ozzy as it does with Cochran.

We get to Tribal and let's be honest. This whole thing boils down to "will he or won't he?" They talk about the odds and the possibility of a tie vote. They also talk about whether or not someone should or would flip. Albert makes the most interesting comment about Ozzy's acting job at Redemption Island. Basically, the Upolu tribe didn't buy it for a minute. Ozzy then comes clean and admits they still have the idol. And with that, it's time to vote. They don't show us any votes this time around.

Ooooh...suspenseful. Anyone want to play a hidden immunity idol? Ozzy stands up to play his (you still have a chance to save yourself, big guy) for Whitney (OH!). Time to read the votes. First six come up Keith, nextsix6 come up Rick. And we're tied. And we'll have a revote. This time around, you can only vote for Keith or Rick. If you want to switch your vote, now is the time to do it.
Once again, the first five votes come up Keith. The next four come up Rick. One vote left. Eighth person voted out of Survivor: South Pacific...Keith. And with that, Cochran, horrible player that he is, decides to say "I swapped. I'll explain" to Ozzy and Jim, like they're going to give a crap why he did what he did. He just completely throttled their game and seems to think he can talk his way out of it.

As Keith heads down to Redemption Island, a very interesting exchange of words takes place. Jim is calling Cochran a coward and Brandon chimes in, "Don't talk to him like that. That's what you get for talking to people like that in the first place." And he tells Cochran, "Just stay close to me." I've given Brandon a pretty hard time in this column. And I still think he's a miserable Survivor player and borderline stalker/psycho with the whole Mikayla thing. But, he meant every word he said right there. IN his mind, Jim and Co. got what was coming to them. Further, I have no doubts that had someone tried to go after Cochran, they'd have had Lil Hantz to deal with. Say what you want about him, but he meant that shit right there. And I have to say, I gained a little respect for him for that.

I'm sure you're all wondering "Hey Jim...what do you think of Cochran's move?" Well, I'll tell ya. If you ask me, he should have tried to broker a deal with Ozzy for the idol. Flipping like that will not work out for him. He should know that. No one who flips on their tribe like this EVER wins. That being said, he was never in with his tribe. They talked down to him and then had the nerve to ask him to be the double agent. I can certainly understand what made him flip, but I think he did in the wrong way, for the wrong reasons.

But no matter what you think of Cochran's move, you can't deny that Ozzy is on a streak of horrible game play of epic proportions. It started with voting himself out, which was totally unnecessary, and then it ended with him burning his idol on the least likely person instead of the guy that was obviously teetering on the edge of his alliance. I have no love for Cochran as a player, but he did take his own fate in his hands and he may have just improved his status in the game. At best with Savaii, he was #6 out of six. With Upolu, maybe he hangs around a bit. Maybe Coach rewards him for making the jump. Maybe he becomes the swing vote when they get down to the six Upolus and him. If that happens, then he's looking at Top Four. One thing's for sure...tonight around camp is going to be rough going for one John Cochran.

Next time on Survivor: Everyone hates Cochran. Ozzy hates him. Jim hates him. He disgusts Whitney. Jim wants to get some votes for Cochran. Sophie and Albert seem like they might be listening. Can't wait to see them roll that one by Coach. Either way, next week should be an explosive episode and I can't wait. 'Til then, take care

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