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But first, we go back over to Hunahpu, where Keith is pretty pleased with his team’s performance. He introduces himself to the group, and has a conversation with Jeremy, who feels like he owes Keith for taking care of Val over at Exile Island. Keith figures that Jeremy may be all right since he’s a fellow fighter, but he’s still wary. And he doesn’t harbor any illusions that he can trust anyone else, either.

Over at Coyopa, Val is paying the price for her husband’s stupidity in volunteering for the first challenge. With the realization that she’s a woman without allies at the moment, she sets out to look for the idol. Val seems like an incredibly cerebral person, which means that whomever she allies with will go far while she gets sacrificed.

A segment we heartily encourage occurs. Nadiya is being… Nadiya. She’s talking about her Amazing Race experiences, and Dale takes this opportunity to mention her past backstabbing tendencies to the male members of the group. He suggests that they should eliminate her before she has the chance to double cross one of them, too. That’s right, people. Vote Nadiya!

The tribe is pretty evenly divided between men and women, and both groups are trying to curry Josh’s favor. He’s listened to Dale’s suggestion that Nadiya should be the one to go and his analysis is absolutely right. As long as other people are being mentioned as targets, you make sure you listen.

Then, Nadiya (don’t call me Natalie, dude!) approaches him and attempts to gain his alliance. Josh is pretty pleased again, because he wants to be the person that people approach with suggestions. It’s a good strategy in the short-term, and can benefit him in the long run as well as long as he doesn’t make conflicting promises to too many people.

Of course, we start to see which way the wind is blowing when Nadiya says to him, “Oh, I’m counting you as one of the girls.” He… does not react well to this and in fact finds it terribly offensive. She even calls him “girlfriend” and we can’t believe she’s not seeing his body language that is telling her, “I can’t believe you don’t shut up.”

Josh says that if you want proof that this is the worst thing you can say to him, just ask his boyfriend. It really didn’t take long for Nadiya’s big mouth to start getting her in trouble. We can only assume that Natalie is doing the same thing over at her camp.

The women get together to discuss the mythical “Girls Alliance,” and they all agree that Dale is the vote tonight, as long as they can pull in one of the guys. Nadiya tells them that Josh is going to be with them, and Baylor heads off to discuss the impending vote with him.

He doesn’t really commit to anything, but notes in confessional that he realizes he is the swing vote tonight and his vote will really need to be about what’s best for him moving forward in the game. A lot of people claim to be Survivor fans but then show no real gameplay ability. Josh is definitely a step above these sorts of frauds. He clearly has studied the game and learned from it, and so far, he is playing a calculated, intelligent game.

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