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In interview, Phillip says that Francesca is “stuck in a time warp. I just think that… she annoys me greatly.” But back on the beach, he tells Francesca without making eye contact that they are on the same page. In another Francesca interview, she says that she is resigned to playing nice with Phillip and is not gunning for him. Also, if she gets voted out first she “will eat this rock.”

After the commercial break, at the “fans” camp Matt us still hacking at the bamboo and Shamar is still sitting down and sweating. Shamar wanted this to be a miserable experience where everyone suffered, but I don’t think he figured that he would be getting it worse than anyone. Anyway, five people have gotten together to start making fire... though not Shamar, who wanted everyone to focus on fire in the first place.

But it plays out to his advantage, because he watches them fail, thinks through what they are doing wrong and then gets to “be the Marine who came in at the end and just smashed them.” There’s Shamar’s gameplay right there – crash through or crash. (My money is on crash.) Anyway, the fire gets lit, everyone is happy the fire is lit, and Matt claims that things are “smoothed over with Shamar.” Sure.

We are treated to another Phillip interview, where he talks about what a good crowd they are (See? Delusional!) and then leads us through what he learned from Boston Rob. Phillip’s even “created” what he calls the BR Rules. Phillip’s BR rules: 1. Be in an alliance. 2. Be in an alliance within an alliance. 3. Get rid of your alliance before they get rid of you. “And by the way man, you don’t owe anybody anything. It’s all about family.”

Phillip puts the BR rules into practice with Corinne. “Listen, this is important!” “OK, tell me,” says Corinne all wide-eyed, which is exactly the way to play Phillip. Anyway, Phillip and Corinne agree to work together, and they talk about maybe bringing in Malcolm and Andrea. “I’m in, I love it,” says Corinne, who clearly cannot believe her luck. Half the conversation she had her buff at her mouth to stop from grinning too wide. Phillip has already invented names for them all – Corinne is the Dominatrix and Andrea is the Eliminator! Phillip remains the Specialist, staying in the background and giving the directions, unknown to everyone else. But Phillip has plans to expand the alliance, approaching Dawn (maybe she’ll be the Intuitor?), Cochran (the Poindexter?) – and Erik (the Pushover?).

Phillip’s overture to Erik gets off to a bad start, with “You’re the last one” and “I have the numbers without you, but I want you in, as long as you don’t get nervous.” Phillip’s big finish is, “I’m just the messenger, I was sent, I’m an errand boy,” like that’s at all convincing after everything else he has said. Then he goes off to think about what a successful alliance-maker he is.

Erik’s recollection is a little different than Phillip’s. He describes it as “you’re with me or out” and complains that he wasn’t even given a choice. Boston Rob-style power-plays don’t fly with Erik, who thinks that Phillip is a “combative idiot loser who makes everybody crazy.”

BOP agrees with this assessment. Check back tomorrow to read the second part of Ben's hilarious opus on the Survivor premiere.

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