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Hello good people and welcome back to the BOP Survivor Recap! After last week's recap show and my birthday the previous week, it feels like forever since I've been here. Thanks to David and Kim for filling in for me a couple weeks ago. And while I'm thinking about it, in the whole "way too pretty for him wife" category, David's a founding member of that club. The entire BOP office is still trying to figure out what kind of Voldemortian spell he has on Kim.

Now, let's get to Survivor. I'm still recovering from the World Series parties (GO CARDINALS!!!!), so forgive me if I'm a little slow tonight. While I was away, one of the most gratifying episodes ever took place. Generally speaking, I'm forced to deal with the most annoying Survivors (to me) into the final 4. But this time, in one episode, they not only got rid of my most annoying Survivor in the Cook Islands, but they took out my #2 as well. Banner week for Cook Islands. If I had to suffer through one more episode of Cao Boi's idiocy or Christina's "why don't they like me? COOK MY DINNER" whine fests; I might have hung myself with my signed Survivor: Amazon merged tribe buff. One other thing to mention before getting to the new stuff, Candice and Adam at the dual Tribal Council was one of the more sickening displays I've seen on this show. When she smiled and mouthed the words "I love you", I actually started to gag. With that being said, let's get back to the action. Who will be voted out tonight?

We begin the episode at Aitu with the Aitu members comparing the tribes with Nate. And to prove that Cao Boi wasn't the only bold one on the team, Jonathan actually starts grilling Nate about what he's good at (swimming, etc.) Naturally, Nate only tells a couple things here and there and keeps his information incredibly guarded. As I watch this exchange, it hits me even more how I wish Nate was on this tribe and Jonathan was on Raro. Then I could totally have a tribe to root for and a tribe to hate.

To continue the idiocy, with Nate in camp, Flicka starts whining about not knowing about the Cao Boi vote. I can only assume the term "playing it close to the vest" means nothing to these chucklenuts. As the power trio of Candice, Yul and Becky discuss strategy, Yul is the only one who felt uncomfortable with Flicka complaining in front of Nate. More importantly, however, we learn that Jonathan is not one of the decision makers. Ozzy has been deemed the next to go, then Flicka, then Jonathan. Meaning, without even knowing it, Sundra has leapfrogged him in the pecking order. Yul is definitely the brains behind this operation. Getting the girls to boot Ozzy and Jonathan, he sets himself up real nicely. With the Idol in his pocket, he could very well have a lock on the final two. Especially when you consider that Raro may never win another challenge.

Tree mail comes in the form of a Survivor catalog. The tribes are given a list of items to play for and they have to select two. Aitu handles everything with a majority vote. Our first glimpse of Team Turmoil (aka Raro) shows them arguing over what items to play for. I think it's cute how they still think they have a chance to win a challenge. Brad really wants peanut butter and potatoes for the carbs and strength those will provide later on. Everyone else wants peanut butter and bread.

Probst sighting! Each tribe will select three swimmers and two puzzle makers. The swimmers will swim out to a platform with a club in hand. They'll climb the platform and jump off, piñata swinging at ceramic cases holding keys. There are six of these and each swimmer has to go out at least once. Once they have all six keys, they'll unlock puzzle pieces and the remaining two people will put the puzzle together. With Nate at Aitu, they have a three person advantage and must sit three people. They choose Flicka, Sundra and in a weird twist, Nate. I guess the plan was only to weaken the other tribe. I can't say as I blame them. Why would Nate have helped them win a reward he will see none of? One other interesting note here - with Raro arguing over bread or potatoes, I want to note that Aitu chose to play for peanut butter and potatoes, just as Brad was wanting Raro to do.

The teams break down like this: Ozzy, Candice and Yul will swim for Aitu while Parvati, Adam and Rebecca will swim for Raro. Wait a minute...Rebecca??? Apparently Brad thinks his ability to assemble an eight piece puzzle is more important than trying to keep his tribe in the contest by swimming. As expected, Ozzy proves to be a stud once again. As he heads into the water, he tomahawks the club almost all the way to the platform and has an easy swim. Rebecca meanwhile is dying out there. By the time Rebecca makes it back with no key, Ozzy and Yul have both come back for Aitu. During the challenge, Nate questions Brad about not swimming. Let me say, when you have a tribe member questioning you in the middle of a challenge, your days are numbered. If Brad makes it through this episode, I will honestly be shocked. The only other interesting bit of this challenge was Ozzy going out to grab a key that Candice couldn't find. Turns out the key didn't fall and was hung up in the box. Ozzy, not having a club, climbs the platform and punches the box to get the key. This kid is hard core. If they don't get rid of him soon, he could make Yul's like hell later on. Aside from some nice underwater shots of "Poverty", this challenge is a yawner and Aitu wins easily. Nate heads back to Raro and Adam packs his bags for Exile Island. One last note on the challenge, since I still have a bit of a Beavis mentality, I have to point out Probst's quote when Parvati's key doesn't fall after one hit, "Poverty back up for a second hit at her box." Uh huh huh huh...he said "her box."

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