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On what is presumably the next day, A-Jen heads out to pick up some treemail with Tom and Steph, and she brings out a cage-like plank with a note attached that references claustrophobia and panic. Betting that this isn't some kind of Jeff-Probst-ian sex game, they quickly come up with the idea of an underwater cage. Steph interviews that, as she understands it, whatever this challenge turns out to be, she needs immunity as the finger-quoted "strongest girl," and someone who is perceived as a threat. Despite, you know, never having won immunity, ever. Stealthy! She says that she's "doing the best [she] can out here."
The tribe converges on a beach. Jeff takes back the necklace from Tom, and then he tells them that this will be an experiment in not panicking. They'll go out and set themselves up under a sort of a grate out in the water. They'll start in water up to their necks, but as the water rises as the tide comes in, they'll gradually get squashed against the grate and run out of breathing room. Person who stays in the longest will get immunity. Also, the first person who bails will be taken off to a separate beach to spend the night alone with just flint and steel, a can of water, and a machete. It will be like your own private Jack London story. Or maybe that Stephen King one where the doctor eats his own foot. With that bad news delivered, Probst sends them out into the water.
Everyone heads out into the water. As they all sit there, feeling a little like jackasses, Ian says, "So this man walks into a bar," and they all chuckle. "He's got a bar in one hand...and a bar in the other," Katie adds. As Jeff makes ominous remarks about how the first to quit will be sent off alone, clearly irked that they're not taking this whole thing seriously enough, Tom says, "I'm thinking of stepping out just to get away from this crowd for a night, Jeff," and there is laughing. "A little vacation from the tribe," he adds. Jeff asks A-Jen if she'd be okay alone, and she says she suspects that she'd find it "tough." Asked about her prospects, Janu says, "I would do my best." She then adds, "I'm already getting cold in here, so I don't know how long." Jeff asks her which is worse -- being cold in the water, or being left alone. "Probably hanging in this water cold right now," she says. "Are you starting to panic a little?" Jeff asks. "Yeah," she says, and swims out from under the grate. "Just like that, Janu's out," Jeff says. There is laughing that's shown here, but it doesn't make a lot of sense to me. It's not that I don't think they might laugh at a joke made there about her leaving, but it's hard for me to imagine that they would all spontaneously laugh at the same time just because Jeff said, "Just like that, Janu's out." I mean, she kind of deserves it, once you see the graphic that says she lasted all of six minutes, which isn't even enough time for once through "Paradise By The Dashboard Light," but still. (Did you know that song is eight fucking minutes long? I had no idea until recently.)