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It’s the first Tribal Council for the “fans”, and as several of them have never seen the show, Probst fills them in on the drill. Grab torch, Approach flame, Dip it in, Get Fire. Fire represents life. Boom! Good to know!

Probst’s opener is for Michael. How is it going with this bunch of people who have nothing in common? Michael says that Matt and Sherri have families in common, and the four pretty people are getting on well. Allie explains that they are all the same age group, and they aren’t excluding anyone.

But Probst asks Shamar about his take. “Eddie and Hope are a couple. The other two are part of the foursome.” You can learn a lot, lying around in a shelter all day. Is Matt concerned that there are people who say they are a foursome? Matt says he doesn’t care.

How is Shamar finding things? Shamar says that he’s three hundred pounds and has had two scoops of rice and three coconuts, so he’s drained and conserving energy. Probst asks Shamar about his background, and Shamar says he did two tours of duty in Iraq, but it was easier there because they had leaders in the US Marine Corps, while people here are individuals. Michael agrees there were too many voices at the challenge, that when they were strategizing before the challenge he knew they were in trouble because they did not assign roles.

Reyold agrees that the tribe needs to be one cohesive unit, and says that people are frustrated with Shamar, who critiques everyone on their jobs while lying in the shelter. Eddie chimes in to say that Shamar was in the hut for 19 of the last 24 hours while everyone else was working. With such great time-keeping skills, Eddie is proving to be his alliance’s middle-management.

Shamar actually owns it. He seems thrilled to have gotten away with spending 19 hours lying down. He says he’s a “good scapegoat” because he’s “big and loud. I think I’m just a big loud guy." Obviously Shamar would annoy me to death if I was on the same beach as him, but I can’t hold it against him at Tribal Council because he looks like he’s having such a great time. I realize that Brandon gave us the episode title, but if there’s anyone this season who exemplifies honey badger, it’s Shamar.

So what does Laura think about the situation? Laura says that she thought they were all voting “as a family” but just before coming here, she saw a bulge in someone’s pocket. She won’t say who, but Probst says “You’re looking directly at Reynold." Feeling the pressure, Reynold does not claim that the bulge was actually an erection, and reveals that he found a hidden immunity idol. Why say that? Why not say “I found this cool necklace washed up on the beach”? It’s not like any of them are fans and know what a hidden immunity idol is. “Why did you bring it to Tribal Council?” asks Laura in this don’t-you-trust-us way, and Reynold’s reply is basically “Because this is Survivor, duh!” which is obviously reasonable.

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