Episode Report Card Sara M: D | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Magic!
By Sara M | Season 19 | Episode 7 | Aired on 10.29.2009
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.Galu appoints an unlikely new leader in Shambo, as the guys figure she'll take it as a compliment, and that it will secure her as an ally against the women. Shambo's first (and second, and third) order of business is to tell us all that she was in the Marines. Her fourth order of business is to relinquish her command as soon as possible, as she sits out the memory reward challenge and gives her leadership power to Brett to choose whether he wants to keep the matched survival items for camp or give them away and win a point for the tribe, with the tribe that gets the most points winning a sailboat and lunch reward. Galu, of course, get plenty of items for Brett to choose from, the first being a fire-starting kit wrapped in a precious, precious tarp. That's the only item Brett keeps, trading the rest for points and giving Galu an easy victory over the increasingly terrible Foa Foa. Shambo sends Laura off to Foa Foa, where she bonds with Natalie and Li'l Russell over Christianity, although one or both of them are lying to her about their devotion to win her trust and form a post-merge alliance with her. At the immunity challenge, Foa Foa manages to get a good lead going until Jaison pretty much quits in both the physical and mental sections. This makes him a target at Tribal Council, something he doesn't seem all that upset about. But in the end, his miserable existence will continue, as Liz is voted out.
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Want more? The full recap starts right below!I love how Probst says that the two-player Tribal Council vote was cancelled "out of respect for Russell's traumatic medical evacuation" and not because, you know, they'd already had two unplanned contestant departures due to medical problems and so the combo-Tribal was no longer necessary to keep the numbers appropriately low. Because if that was really the case, wouldn't they have cancelled the Tribal Council after Jeffrey Tambor was evacuated? He gets no respect. Not even from me, as I refuse to use his real name. Also, the shot of Russell in that angelic white lighting is hilarious. I love it when this show gets over-dramatic and thinks it's way more important than it really is.
Galu return to camp. Erik interviews from his tree that Russell's departure is a huge loss for Galu and him specifically, since he had more confidence in him than anyone else on his tribe. Perhaps more importantly, though, the male alliance no longer has the numbers over the women. They decide that Shambo is their best bet to get the numbers advantage again, and they'll even "reward" her for helping them by getting her to the jury. The men nod and agree that this is a good plan and probably think they're really generous for allowing Shambo to make it all the way to the jury. Which they kind of are, actually, but only because of how she lost the snorkel and the chicken and would have been eliminated several episodes ago if Foa Foa wasn't so terrible at everything. "Even though she's a chick, Shambo doesn't fit in with the other girls," Erik explains diplomatically. The only way their plan will fail, they say, is if the women are able to win Shambo over to their side. And since Monica kind of hates her, I do not see that happening. Nor do I see the women even realizing that they should try.
We have gone like three minutes without seeing any Li'l Russell, and that simply will not do. Day 16 at Foa Foa, and the rain appears to have stopped for now. The tribemates sleep in their shelter, with Jaison shivering and cold but not trying to huddle up to anyone for warmth. What is up with these people? Why are they trying to get body heat from trees before other people? Li'l Russell says things are looking up for Foa Foa since they didn't have to vote anyone else out last night and Galu lost their Russell. "It's pretty damn close," Li'l Russell says of Galu's eight members over Foa Foa's five. Um, not really. Last time I checked, 8 was a larger number than 5. By 3, actually.