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Anyway, Malcolm – blurred bottom and all – pretty much drags everyone over to the “favorites” pole and after some more tussling, manages to touch it. The “favorites” are all very excited and Malcolm gets hugs from Dawn and then Brandon. I hope he had time to pull up his shorts first. “Favorites” get fire and beans. Nothing for the fans. The boats will take the tribes off to camp for the ritual shelter building and identification of the bossy control-freaks.

After the break and some gratuitous manta ray footage, the fans arrive at their newcamp. Shamar was very disappointed to lose because he “had such confidence in my team” of people he’d never seen before, but it’s a lesson that he “doesn’t have full control over this game.” But Shamar won’t be learning that lesson any time soon, because almost immediately he’s at the center of an argument about whether it’s more important to get fire or shelter.

Shamar, who seems to be taking the heat and dehydration pretty badly, doesn’t want to waste energy building a shelter now, and thinks the tribe priority should be on getting a fire lit so they can get water. Matt interviews that his focus is on building a shelter, and a bunch of them get started on that. In interview, Matt says he wants to do his own thing and see how it plays out. They are both non-self-aware idiots, but Shamar's probably the bigger idiot of the two, as he doesn’t see that ten people can work on more than one thing, and that he's not helping his case when his activity is limited to sitting down, telling the working people that they are achieving nothing by building a shelter and sweating.

Anyway, Shamar and Matt start a discussion that ends with a “Shut up! Stop talking!” from Shamar. Reynold says that “Shamar just went nuts” and talks about the need for camaraderie on his tribe. He has already started to build some by commenting to two of the so-far interchangeable blondes how he’s never seen two prettier sunburns.

The “favorites” arrive at their beach, and Malcolm gets an interview about how good it was to make a positive first impression with the others by winning the game point while mooning everyone. Phillip is next, saying that on his first season he had insecurities along the lines of “Can I survive the heat? Humidity? Starvation?” But now he knows that he can get through all the sufferings of being a Survivor and can focus on playing the game.

The “favorites” get to work building a shelter, with the only thing close to conflict being that Phillip wants to orient it so he wakes up facing the ocean. Brenda mocks him playfully, asking why he can’t just turn his head, but he doesn’t take it seriously. Francesca interviews that she stands by her assessment in the Redemption Island season that Phillip is a crazy person. “Hopefully they won’t be thinking about me,” she says. Then don’t give them a reason to.

In the jungle, Andrea, Dawn and Francesca make an alliance of “us three for sure” and they agree on Cochran for a fourth. Francesca is “traumatized” by going first and now is going to align with everyone. Shots of Francesca talking with everyone. Over-compensation. Francesca even makes overtures to Phillip. “Even though we did not get along so well, I was never gunning for you.” No response from Phillip.

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