Episode Report Card Sara M: B- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Women Are Useless And/Or Bitchy
By Sara M | Season 22 | Episode 5 | Aired on 03.16.2011
Krista and Stephanie reluctantly return to camp. Stephanie says they should tell the rest of the tribe everything that happened except for the part where they made it clear that they hated their own tribe. Stephanie says Rob is probably nervous about his position in the game since he just saw Li'l Russell get voted out of his tribe "for no reason" (uh ... ), so he'll be very interested in having two more votes on his side. Stephanie says they just need to keep winning challenges. "Yeah, okay," Krista says, her input always so useful.
Lucky Day 13. Steve randomly mutters about teamwork and being successful and whatever else was drilled into his skull in his years of football training. Krista says that since Li'l Russell left, there has been zero talk of strategy and all people in her tribe seem to do is praise each other and talk about how awesome they're all doing. Why would Krista think they would discuss strategy in front of her? And what strategy do they really have to discuss at this point? They're good until they lose two immunity challenges and have to pick each other off. And it's not like Krista is some brilliant strategist, seeing as how she can barely keep up with Stephanie's machinations. Krista and Stephanie decide to make lunch for the group to further isolate themselves, or, as Stephanie puts it, so they won't have to hear the same boring stories over and over again. The others notice, but, like Julie earlier, aren't too concerned. Mike interviews that it's risky to have them there plotting against everyone else, but he can't see how Krista and Stephanie can possibly hurt them. Everyone gets ready for the challenge, and Julie interviews that people on her tribe are "overconfident" about their chances of winning, although they do have reason to be. Once again, she says she hopes throwing that challenge doesn't come back to bite them in the ass. Did they just recycle that from last week? Or is that all Julie says?
The tribes arrive at the reward/immunity challenge. This week, it's a blindfolded challenge! Hooray! I love these. I especially love how the challenge builders intentionally make the barriers so they're taller than the contestants' knees but shorter than their hips to maximize the chances of them all falling on top of each other. This time, one caller from each tribe will guide the rest of his blind tribemates through a maze to collect bags of letter tiles. There are also coffee beans in the bags, because we're in Nicaragua. Once all the tiles have been collected, the caller must then use the tiles to spell out a phrase. Basically, this challenge has been designed so that Rob, veteran of three seasons and plenty of challenges like this, will be able to win the challenge for his struggling tribe. And not only will his tribe win immunity, but they will also get a bunch of breakfast items. The tribes salivate, especially Ralph, who says he'd be willing to eat the actual basket the pastries are sitting in. Okay, termite. Zapato elects to sit Steve and Julie out and then they need to pick someone to be the caller. Sarita nominates Stephanie, saying she's really bossy and so should be good at the calling part of her job, and has faith in her puzzle-solving abilities as well. This doesn't sit well with David, who doesn't appear to speak up in the strategy session but does interview that he's the best puzzle-solver on his team and so should be the one to do this, but Sarita is trying to give everyone a chance to play like it's a kids' sports league. Actually, I think Sarita is giving Stephanie a chance to win or lose this challenge for the tribe, which is kind of win-win for them. If she wins, obviously, then they win. If she loses, then they have another reason to vote her out at Tribal. I doubt David would want to have that kind of pressure resting on his shoulders, which is why I didn't see him volunteer to take the role on at any point before the challenge. Over at Onomatopoeia, the decision is simple: Rob does everything.