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First of all, Carolina's real name is Joyce. This matches up nicely with the actress who portrays her. Second, the reason we haven't seen footage of what happened to her and Johnny in the woods is that the camera operator mysteriously vanished. But the camera gets found by Sabina, who carries it into her secret cave, which is well stocked with canned food and rifle bullets. Then Sabina takes a bath in the lake, but she has to stop Miljan from looking at her very special locket. This is a locket that she's had since childhood and it's very important to her. Even later, Sabina sees a mysterious native girl who vanishes, and then she stumbles upon an old skeleton half-buried in the dirt. And around the skeleton's neck is the very same locket that Sabina's wearing! So that's pretty neat, right?
Annie, meanwhile, is very sad because Natalie left her a Dear Annie letter and left the game. Or so the letter claims; we never actually see it happen. At any rate, there's no Natalie this week.
Irene goes hunting on her own and does not do a good job of locating any game. She does find Miljan, who's staring at his totem pole again (not a metaphor; an actual totem pole). So Miljan distracts her by leading her to a place he saw some deer. But what she shoots turns out to be a deer head on a stick, and then she gets pinned to the ground by a spiked trap. Once she's back at the camp, she doesn't want to go home. But there's an unwashed wound right through her leg, so something's going to have to be done. Esther volunteers to go push the button that calls the helicopter.
Esther tells everyone that the rules have been suspended so Irene can be carried to the helipad. But it's a lie, which means that Irene, Daniel, Sam, and Joyce/Carolina are all tricked into officially quitting. Luckily for them, this is when they find out that the panic button isn't attached to anything and the camera crews' radios aren't getting any signal. And when they go to the place the crew sleeps, all they find is a campsite with empty tents and no supplies. And back at the camp, Miljan has started giving himself tattoos with a razor blade. So things have looked better.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!Carolina has been revealed to be an actress, who was hired to "move the story forward" because there are no producers around. She says she's sorry, but now people are assuming she was responsible for everything that happened. She insists that she really did get hurt while blacked out, but that's not going over terrible well. Especially when she admits to burning the food shed down.
Sam is concerned that her actions were leading him and Neeko to go hunt down Johnny. Neeko is also angry about the whole thing. Which you can understand, right? Carolina tearfully apologizes, except without the actual tears. Then she goes to the women's cabin to be alone.
Sam thinks the women should go in there and get more information out of her. They don't want to do it, though. Esther points out that the glowing green sky seems outside of Carolina's ability to create trouble on her own.
Inside the cabin, Caroline tells her camera operator that she wants out and she wants the footage of whatever happened to her in the woods. In a Russian accent (which is subtitled in spite of not being all that thick), the cameraman says, "Camera got lost in the woods and no one can find." Oh, great. I don't mind the crew being callous about the misfortunes of the Siberians, but you'd think they'd be at least a little worried about their coworkers vanishing.
But then we see footage from a camera on the ground, so I guess it got found at some point. Someone's feet walk past, then the unseen someone picks it up and carries it to a stone cave. So I guess it's Sabina, since she came out of that stone cave when Johnny was out exploring earlier. The cave contains bottles, jars, and cans of food, along with a flashlight and the rifle bullets. And what looks like a bag of mini-bagels. Then the mystery person (who is probably Sabina) pans up, and it's Sabina. That was less shocking than it was probably supposed to be.
The morning, Annie asks Esther and Sam if they've seen Natalie. She's already pretty clingy, huh? Miljan is sitting by a tree studying his mystery book, and Sam comes up to tell him to get up and get some work done. His basic message is, "Go get some water, ya bum!"
Apparently Miljan's been lazy for a couple of days. , Sam asks Daniel if he'd like to learn how to fish. Daniel says he's from Minnesota, so he's already a great fisherman. I guess that's possible. Sam has a net at the end of a long branch, which looks a little iffy to me.
Irene creeps through the woods with her bow and arrow. There's a generic "jungle bird" noise from the distance, and she says it sounds like a child. And then she hears the noise again from a different direction. It really didn't sound much like a child to me.
Annie returns to the cabin and pulls her notebook from under the mattress. Then she starts reading it. Not much happened here, but it's setup for later.
Miljan creeps up to the lake. And I use the word "creep" on purpose, because he's hiding behind a tree, peeping at Sabina bathing. She's wearing underwear, but the rest of her clothes are hanging on a branch. Miljan carefully takes a locket off the branch and has trouble popping it open. He should probably have snuck away with it, because Sabina suddenly pops up behind him and puts him in a sleeper hold.
She makes him give it back, then tells him that if he touches her stuff again, she'll kill him. Once he's free, he acts offended and tells her not to touch his stuff either. Whatever, dude. It's quite clear that Sabina could crush you. Sabina interviews that it's a necklace she's very fond of, and she considers it her heart. There's a picture of a baby inside it. She kisses it, but then she switched to survival mode when there's a noise from the bushes.
Irene is still creeping through the trees when she comes upon Miljan, staring at his totem pole. I'm told it's probably not actually a totem pole, since they don't have those in Siberia, but that's what it looks like to me. And unless the show finds a way to drop some exposition, I'm going to keep calling it that. It takes Miljan a moment to shift his attention to Irene, and he immediately leads her away from the pole, insisting that he saw at least six deer, right over there away from the totem pole.
Annie is still looking for Natalie. She opens her notebook and rips out the drawing she made of Natalie, then throws it into the fire. Neeko and Esther, who don't have much to do this episode, are hanging out at the campfire. I went camping last week, and I can verify that a large part of your time is spent sitting around staring at the fire. There's also some Frisbee.
Anyway, Annie reads them a note Natalie wrote in her notebook: "Annie, I made a big mistake. This morning I realized I miss my ex too much to jeopardize things with him by staying here. I need to leave before things get bad. I hope you understand." So Natalie's gone, then, I guess. We also haven't seen Carolina all day. Neeko thinks it's weird that Natalie left without saying anything to anyone. I also think that! Maybe Natalie is playing an advanced game where she sneaks off to hide in the woods to be safe from the nonsense. Esther noticed the "special connection" between Annie and Natalie and thinks it might make Annie leave as well. She's looking forward to that.
Sam and Daniel are having some success fishing with the net, although the fish in their bucket are tiny minnows. Except I don't know if they're really minnows; I'm just using that word to mean "teeny little fish without much to eat on them." Sam is not impressed with Daniel giving Irene a rock, but Daniel insists that she liked it. Sam once threw a snowball at a girl, which he thinks is kind of the same thing.
Oh! There's Carolina, who hasn't left after all. She sort of waves at them from the trees, but Sam wants to ignore her. Daniel's too nice, though, so he runs after her. He asks what's up with her whole deal, and she shrugs that she's probably fired. He says that he doesn't think she did anything wrong, because, "This is just a show...isn't it?" He doesn't really have any reason to be saying "isn't it" at this point, but they needed the soundbite for the previews. He should probably be more upset about her burning down the food shed and making everyone think Johnny did it. Even if the lack of food is really part of the game, the part where everyone was encouraged to ostracize another player is unacceptable producer meddling. I'm kind of outraged at the lack of fair competition in a fake game.
Speaking of Johnny, he's sawing up some firewood. Neeko asks him if he remembers anything about what happened in the woods the other night. Nope! He doesn't trust Carolina anymore, but says that doesn't mean she's necessarily lying about what happened. He's pretty fair-minded here. Neeko also asks about his finger, which is how manly men make amends. That's a fun sentence. So now Johnny and Neeko are pals again.
Sam and Daniel come back with a bucket of basically-minnows. Neeko razzes them a little about who really caught them, and Daniel says it was a team effort. For some reason, Esther tells Sam that Natalie is out hunting. I guess she doesn't want to talk about Natalie being gone in front of Annie? Johnny walks past and declines any fish. The back of his jacket is coated in dried blood, but that's probably from the deer carcass he had to carry.
Miljan leads Irene into a random part of the woods and tells her to trust him about the six deer he saw. He gets very quiet and points into a clearing. There's a deer head over there, but it's not moving at all. I tried freeze-framing to get a better look at it, but that just made it even more immobile. It's pretty fake-looking even at a casual glance. Irene draws a bead, then shoots. She goes to investigate, and discovers that it's just a deer head on a stick. It's a trap! A literal trap, where this has been set up to trap someone. Miljan looks to the sky, and a spiked platform drops out of the sky! One of the camera angles is from directly under the platform, which I think breaks the concept of the show a little.
The platform got Irene's leg, and she's screaming in pain. One of the spikes went right through her calf and into the ground! Miljan runs off. The camera operator stays behind to get shots of Irene in pain.
Johnny is bathing in the lake. He's naked! Esther is enjoying the sight of his pixelated butt, so he comes up out of the water to ask for his pants back. He doesn't mind being naked in front of her, though. She's being flirty with him, but he's not really into it. He's not as sad about Carolina as she thinks he should be.
And then! Carolina runs up to tell them about Irene being hurt. Johnny doesn't believe her, and demands that Carolina tell them her real name. It's Joyce, which brings her in line with all the other characters on the show, who are played by actors with the same name. Carolina runs off. Esther is a little gleeful about Irene maybe needing to leave. She seems very fixated on the idea of getting the other people out of the game, but she seems to have given very little thought to the question of how to survive through a Siberian winter on her own.
Miljan runs into the camp and tells everyone about Irene. They make him explain it for a really long time, then he's finally able to get them to go with him. When they get to Irene, Neeko has to get Daniel to help lift the trap instead of dote on Irene. But they can't lift it because it's right through Irene, and sticking all the way to the ground. Johnny gets there and wants to lift it. Daniel says that she'll bleed out if they pull the trap out of her leg wound, so everyone decides to apply a tourniquet first. I guess that could work.
They use Daniel's shirt. Then Daniel distracts her while the spiked trap gets pulled off her. She screams, which is reasonable. Neeko and Daniel yell at the camera operators for not helping her. They carry her away, and Johnny has to repeatedly tell the person holding the injured leg to hold it higher than her heart. Carolina is distracted by shouting at the camera crew to help them. But no help is forthcoming.
They carry Carolina to the camp and put her on one of the bunks. Esther is pretty disturbed by how hurt she is, which is a good thing. She explains that when she was talking trash, she thought Irene had just gotten a sprain or something. Everyone scatters to get some kind of first aid equipment. Esther, Johnny, and Neeko huddle. Neeko says Irene doesn't want to go home, even though she obviously needs a doctor. Johnny says they can't take care of her.
Sabina is walking through the woods when she comes upon a whole new person! There's a reaction shot of Sabina's expression, which must have been taken by an invisible camera, since it's a reverse shot from the point of view of the new person. Oh! Or maybe this mysterious new person is also a camera in disguise! Or probably not, because it's just a blonde girl in furs and stuff that indicates indigenous people. Sabina tells her not to be afraid. Then there's a noise that distracts Sabina, and when she looks back, she's gone. I don't think the mysterious ghost girl is the one that needs to be afraid.
Irene is a little delirious. Esther strokes her forehead and tells her she needs to get help. But Irene will not even consider going home. She says, "I can't fail." Esther interviews that it's actually pretty impressive. Well, willpower is great and all, but gangrene is an actual thing. And they don't even have a knife good enough to cut her leg off.
Johnny, Neeko, Sam, and Daniel sit outside the cabin and talk about the situation. Miljan is also there, but he's just sitting there creepily. I can only assume they're making the decisions because they're the men. Johnny is talking about bone fragments, but Daniel is more concerned about an infection. Johnny says they need to get her to the helicopter, because clearly there's going to be no help while they're here.
Esther comes up and says that Irene is in a lot of pain and wants to stay. Sam thinks she's not thinking clearly. Esther is willing to push the button to get help for Irene, even if it means that both of them are off the show. This is because she feels guilty for mocking the possible injury. Well, that's fairly honorable. She says she doesn't want to play the game anymore. Sad music plays as she wanders around.
Annie talks about how no one expected Esther to agree to push the button, as we see Esther walk in slow motion toward the "FAREWELL SIBERIA" sign.
The campfire. Annie pours out a tub of red stuff that's presumably a mix of water and Irene's blood. She returns Daniel's shirt, which is probably pretty gross now. Sam says he can't do this anymore, because this is a really dangerous place. Neeko asks if he's quitting, and he points out that people are dying and being injured and there's no support. He feels helpless: "I wanna be able to help and I can't.
Esther comes back. She says there's a helicopter here and the pilot will fly Irene out. According to her, the pilot didn't know anyone was hurt, because apparently the camera people aren't in communication with anyone. And the rules are suspended, so people will be allowed to carry Irene past the line without being suspended. Shouldn't they have heard the helicopter from the camp? It's probably pretty quiet out in the Siberian wilderness.
Daniel comes in and tells Irene that there's a helicopter waiting for her. Irene doesn't want to leave, so Esther tells her that they'll just take her to a hospital and bring her back. That's definitely a lie, right? But Irene accepts it. Sam and Johnny carry Irene out, and she seems to be in a lot of pain. Esther and Daniel walk along with her. Annie is back in the cabin, crying to Neeko about how she hates it here. Everyone comes up to the Siberia sign, and Irene suddenly remembers the rock she got from Daniel. Esther runs back to get it.
See, at this point we haven't actually seen Esther cross the line, and now she's leaving everyone else to cross the line without her. I suspect trickery! I hope so, anyway, because if everything is exactly as it seems, that would be kind of disappointing.
Sabina wanders around in the woods, calling out for that mysterious girl. She comes upon a skeleton, half-buried in the ground. And it has a necklace just like Sabina's. The picture in the locket is the one from Sabina's locket! This is a cool development, because the only way I can see it working is for Sabina to go back in time quite a ways and then die right there. I think that occurred to her, too, because she's freaking out. She runs off, and I think she should have grabbed that duplicate locket. If it's so important to her, it couldn't hurt to have a spare copy.
Back at the camp, Annie is moping around. And she sees Miljan carving a hole into his forearm with a knife. Huh! Things are really starting to get weird around here! And about time, too. Annie gets Neeko, because she doesn't want to get involved by herself. Miljan says he wants to remember this day for Irene. Neeko warns him it'll get infected, then he and Annie leave. Miljan interviews that it's a perfectly normal case of a guy giving himself a tattoo with a razor. I feel that people should be reacting a little more strongly to his behavior, but I guess they're distracted.
The crowd carrying Irene gets to the helipad. There is no helicopter, and Johnny realizes that Esther tricked them. Back at the camp, Esther is holding the blue rock and smirking at Neeko about getting five people to eliminate themselves. It's a pretty good move. We see footage of her walking up to the line and turning around without crossing it. Neeko is mad at her. At the helipad, Sam is surprisingly relaxed about the whole thing, crediting Esther for playing them really well. Johnny, however, is shouting and stomping. He says he wants to go back to the camp and rip Esther's head off, which I guess is understandable.
Daniel pushes the panic button, and nothing happens. He pokes at the button and soon discovers that the power cord doesn't go anywhere. The button doesn't work! Johnny starts shouting at the camera operator and demanding to know what's going on. Sam recommends grabbing the crew radio.
Good plan! Sam's on top of things today. So there's a scuffle that's hard to follow, since it involves people attacking the camera operators that are supposed to be showing us what's happening. Johnny shouts into the radio that there's an emergency while Sam throttles a camera guy. The other camera operator tries to get him off, but he's also still operating the camera, which kind of limits his effectiveness. Sam demands to know what kind of game this is. Man, forget that. I say you find out where the crew sleeps and what they've been eating.
Some time later, the helipad camera people have apparently convinced everyone that they don't know anything, so they have their cameras back. There's no signal on the radio, and no one came today to drop off new tapes. Carolina says they should go to "base camp," which is where the producers live. Sam will stay with Irene while Johnny, Daniel, and Carolina go for it. Oh, that's right, she's "Joyce" now, not Carolina. I'll stick with Carolina for the rest of this episode, then switch week. Daniel leaves his jacket for Irene.
Sabina hears some shots in the distance. She runs into the trees. By that I mean she runs around the trees and into the woods, not that she runs into an actual tree and falls down. That would be silly.
Carolina leads Johnny and Sam. Johnny is still a little suspicious of her, which is reasonable. She says the base camp is just over that hill. Back at the helipad, Sam tells Irene not to blame herself because it's Esther's fault they all got eliminated. It is!
The team reaches the base camp. Johnny says, "What the hell, guys." It's a bunch of tents, and they're all kind of blown over and empty. No one's here. So we're finally caught up to the things that happened in the commercials that happened before the season even started. Finally! Attention, show: now start having really crazy things happening on a regular basis. I want you to make Lost look like The Andy Griffith Show.
Follow Monty on Twitter at @monty_ashley and read his blog, Mysterious Exhortations.