Episode Report Card Sara M: B | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Probst Hates Fang
By Sara M | Season 17 | Episode 2 | Aired on 10.02.2008
Corinne reads the latest treemail: it's a reward challenge for "comfort." Corinne cheers at the prospect of getting bedding, but Ace the Prat totally drops his "accent" and says that they should focus on the immunity challenge rather than the reward. Paloma protests that they should try to win every challenge. Ace agrees, but thinks they should sit the "stronger" people out for this challenge so they'll have them for the immunity challenge. "I can live without bedding but I'd rather not go to Tribal," he says. And his accent is completely gone. Ha! I was right. It was fake. Did he really think he could keep it going for 39 days? He didn't even make it past six! Even I could do better than that, although we'll never know for sure since I don't put on fake accents because I want people to think I'm all smart and sophisticated. The tribe agrees with Ace, and Paloma says it seems like everyone is bowing down to him. I think it's more like they hate him as much as you do, but are much better at concealing that for strategic purposes.
The tribes arrive at the challenge, and Corinne is way too shocked to see that Gillian was voted out last night. Like, she almost had a heart attack. Probst explains the reward challenge. It's a brutal physical challenge with many opportunities to injure and be injured. I thought they learned their lesson last season about things like this, but clearly they did not. One tribe member hugs a pole. Two people from the opposing tribe have to physically pry him off the pole and drag him across a dirt field and over a line. The first tribe to do so gets a point and first team with two points wins pillows, bedding, and a hammock and gets to send a member of the losing tribe to Exile. With that, Probst says the challenge requires a specific number of men and women (although we never really find out why) and tells Fang to sit out one man and Kota to sit out three women. Ken sits out for Fang while Corinne, Jacquie, and Kelly sit out for Kota.
We begin with Marcus and Charlie going after an intense-looking Dan while Matty and G.C. will be taking on a yawning Ace. Probst notes Ace's yawn with a "you're that relaxed?" Yeah, well, Probst, you're the one talking about how hopeless and doomed to lose Fang is every possible second, so it's no wonder. Plus, Ace is a prat. Although ... should I really call him that? It's an English term, so he probably won't know what it means. The first round starts, and as the attackers run towards the poles, Probst cries out "it's gonna be good and physical!" Yeah, it's "good" until one of the best contestants in the game has to leave because of an injury and that throws his entire tribe off and then freaking Parvati wins a million dollars. While Marcus and Charlie work together to pry Dan off the pole, G.C. and Matty have a terrible strategy of trying to remove one of Ace's limbs at a time. They get an arm off and go for a leg, and Ace just puts his arm right back. Matty would probably like to tell G.C. hold Ace's arms back so he can't put them back around the pole, but he knows that G.C. would then accuse Matty of telling him what to do and quit. Charlie -- who must be having the time of his life right now -- and Marcus get Dan off the pole and start dragging/pushing him towards the finish line while G.C. and Matty continue to struggle with Ace, who has a really annoying "ho hum, is this the best they can do? I'm sooo bored" expression on his face. Matty and G.C. manage to get both of Ace's arms off the pole, and Probst lectures G.C. by telling him to "dig deeper," which would have been better advice during the last challenge, when he was supposed to dig but took a nap instead. As Charlie and Marcus are just about to get Dan across the line, G.C. takes yet another freaking break in the middle of a challenge. God, he sucks. He so does. If Fang does win this thing, which I'm starting to doubt, I hope they tell him he can't have any pillows. Kota gets Dan across the line and scores a point while Fang looks on, already defeated.