Big Ball, Big Mouth, Big Trouble

Previously on Not So Fast, There, Toothy: Margaret and Judd yelled ineffectually at each other over his decision to team up with the former Yaxha to boot Brooke. At the reward challenge, Jamie thoroughly humiliated himself by being unable to cut through a rope, and then Bobby Jon irritated Stephenie by waggling his legs in the air in a celebratory manner. Or possibly a "gay" manner, for those of you with limited vocabularies or a desire to field hate mail from every liberal arts college within the sound of your voice. Yaxha (the current one, with Gary, Amy, and Brian) went home with a croc-proofed swimming hole, as well as with margaritas. The margaritas don't even make the previouslies, which is frankly scandalous. Stephenie continued to be the one wearing the clown suit and carrying the balloons at her own personal pity party, and Blake "amused" his tribemates with tales of his own personal amazingness. At the immunity challenge, a dull game of catapult resulted in victory for Steph, which would, one hoped, quiet her down for a while, and in a celebration for Jamie, who just wanted a tiny bit of satisfaction after the humiliating ope-ray ing-thay. It also resulted in great peril for Blake, though he never saw it coming. Ultimately, Danni and Bobby Jon voted with Gary, Amy, and Brian to send Blake back to Novelty Boobs Girl for some TLC. Thirteen people left. Let's get rid of some more!

Credits. Wait, Brianna? Who?

We return to a spooky mist murmuring, "You will watch The Ghost Whisperer, tomorrow night at 8/7 central...Jennifer Love Hewitt is a fantastic actress...the new Audrey Hepburn [Hepburn, Hepburn, Hepburn]...." And then, it is the morning of Day 15 at Camp Yaxha. Amy, resplendent in the dirtiest yellow shirt maybe ever, looking like Exhibit A in Tour de France, Inc. vs. Sacre Bleu Dry Cleaning, is staring at the fire. Farmer Beavis is trying to use his facial hair as a visual aid to figure out what the hell happened. As they return to the rather suggestive corn-pounding footage they've been favoring all season, Farmer Beavis voices over that the ouster of Blake "opened [his] eyes" about the way his "four strong" alliance doesn't seem to be so much "four strong" now that everyone on it except him either was Blake or voted against Blake. "You'll find yourself voted off, and you won't even know how the heck it happened," muses Farmer Beavis. You know, he's been substantially less cocky and Beavis-y since things began to get more difficult. Maybe he's only like that when he has access to toothpaste. Like it's a reverse-Samson thing where his weaknesses come from hygiene.

Down by the dock, Farmer Beavis confronts Bobby Jon, who seems to be attempting to catch minnows in Lydia's little cove. "Any regrets about last night?" Bobby Jon stops to think about whether he has any regrets. And also to peruse the limited selection in his brain's Vocabulary Department. "Yeah, some," Bobby Jon says, "but that's just, it was just a part, a part of that, that, that was a stage in the game where, where I had to do what I had to do, you know?" Glad he cleared that up. Bobby Jon goes on to clarify that while he and Brandon might have liked Blake, everyone else kind of hated him, which made it tough. I suspect what this means is that Bobby Jon realized (meaning he was most likely told) that Danni was going to vote for Blake, and he didn't want to be the odd person out the way Brandon is right now. You'd think, though, that with Bobby Jon's "honor" talk, he'd have felt obligated to warn Farmer Beavis himself.

Around the fire, Brian and Gary have a chat in which Brian comments that he suspects Nakum will be very surprised to see that they booted Blake. Looking at Gary, I am reminded of one of the things that always confuses me about this show: why do the men always look like old ladies in the morning? Brian then interviews that getting rid of Blake was "a get-out-of-jail-free card" for the former Yaxha on the tribe, because they really should have been gone. And now, it's gone to a tie, so they theoretically don't have to make any more deals if all three of them stick together.

Over at Nakum, also on Day 15, Howlie or Howlie Equivalent lounges in a tree, bored out of his highly evolved skull at being left behind to hang out with the less evolved Jamie and Judd. Speaking of whom, the boys have a highly cerebral chat in which Jamie expresses how tired he is of "jungle noises." They agree that they don't like the mosquitoes buzzing in their ears. Elsewhere, Steph muses on the fact that the mosquitoes have the irritating ability to bite her through her shirt. I think there's a joke here having something to do with being thin-skinned, but it is eluding me. Rafe, wearing an adorable little headwrap that makes me want to ask him how much he charges for a fig, explains with a smile that the mosquitoes are indeed horrible, just as they always are after it rains. I can't believe he's smiling while saying that, except that he smiles while saying everything. Cindy, gathering wood with as much covering her up as she possibly can manage, agrees that even the worst swampiest Florida conditions aren't as bad as this.

Back at camp, Rafe asks Margaret how she's feeling, and Margaret says she's simply "wiped." Even sweet Rafe, who clearly cringes at making a negative remark about anyone, admits that as hard as it is to stay positive, it's harder when somebody like Margaret is walking around being a sad sack. Or a pouting sack, or whatever it is she's being. Rafe chalks it up to Margaret's extreme reaction to Brooke's being voted off and, logically, the Judd flip. He says that the other six of them (himself, Steph, Judd, Jamie, Cindy, and Lydia) get along well, and Margaret is just sort of there. "Fading out," as Rafe says. I think I'd tend to "fade out" if I were around Judd, too. Or else Judd's eyeballs would fade out as a result of excessive poking.

Judd gives his teammates a little speech in which he says that Margaret is probably all bummed because she's on a tribe with him instead of with the other guys. As for Margaret herself, she admits in an interview that it hasn't been easy adjusting, because she used to be better placed within the tribe than she is now. I think she felt at the original Nakum like she was in with enough people that she'd be safe for a while, and now she knows precisely where the lines are drawn, and she knows Judd can't stand her, and she knows Judd is in with Steph and Jamie and so forth, so she knows there's probably very little she can do to save herself. Judd says, "You have somebody that has a sore thumb walking around camp, man." "Has a sore thumb"? Does he mean she sticks out like a sore thumb? I'm not sure he does, because he goes on to make it sound like he's saying she has a negative attitude, so that makes even less sense. Quiet down, Judd. I can't understand what's going on when you talk.

We make our way to a challenge course of some kind, where Probst awaits in his dweeby hat, to a blanket that is covering, presumably, some sort of a reward. Nakum is brought in, and then Yaxha is brought in. Steph grins when she sees that Blake was voted out, which: of course. She's working on what may well be a five-person group she can take into the merge. She's logically going to want other possible natural alliances broken up as quickly as possible, plus Blake was an individual immunity problem. Aside from Bobby Jon the So Gay Girl-Screamer, Blake is probably the person Steph would have most enjoyed seeing gone.

Jeff takes back the immunity idol from Nakum, which brought it along. He explains that he's glad they brought it like they were supposed to, even though it doesn't play a part in the challenge. He'll explain later, so don't ask questions. Do not! Today's challenge involves rolling a giant ball. Each team puts two people on one side of the ball, and they push against each other, trying to roll it over a goal line. So it's partly just pushing really hard and it's partly strategy on how you might move the ball to get it going. They'll play a round with two women, then a round with two men, then one of each, and repeat. First tribe to score three goals wins reward. And what's the reward? It's a cookout, complete with grill, meat, rolls, and -- of course -- beer and root beer. Because we would not want to imply that you have to drink beer in order to have a good time. Sometimes, you just want a root-beer sort of good time, and Jeff Probst is here for you. That's the good news, as Jeff explains. The bad news is that both tribes are going to tribal council tonight and each is getting rid of someone. Yes, this is double-elimination week in Guatemala. And because there's no team immunity, it's being replaced with an individual immunity challenge in which the winning team only will compete after the reward challenge. Whichever person wins immunity during that challenge will not only have immunity, but will also win the right to sit in on the other team's tribal council, which I really think...isn't such hot stuff. I would barely find my own team's tribal councils interesting, let alone anyone else's.

Nakum is sitting out Lydia. I know that they can't possibly be sitting her out of every challenge because you can't sit the same person in back-to-back challenges, but God, it certainly always seems like they sit her out. Jeff says, "We'll randomly draw for each round." So that's one question answered.

First round puts Steph and Cindy against Amy and Danni. (Remember, girl-wise, Yaxha only has Amy and Danni, a fact that will become important later.) Ready...go! Cindy and Steph reach the ball first and get a lead of a few inches as a result. Danni's extremely short shorts take center stage as she shows off her quite impressive ass. Part of the trick to this challenge, it turns out, is that there are trees around the course against which you can get pinned, and past which you have to move the ball. Basically, the way this one ends, Amy and Danni figure out how to roll the ball around the end before Steph and Cindy learn to adjust fast enough. So that's a point for Yaxha.

The round pits Brandon and Bobby Jon against Judd and Jamie. My favorite part of this one is how it starts, and how Farmer Beavis and Bobby Jon, in particular, just wham themselves into the side of the ball with all their strength. Of course, by then, Judd and Jamie are there, so it's like slamming themselves into a brick wall. This comes down to Large Guys Pushing Against Each Other. Farmer Beavis gets knocked over a couple of times, and ultimately, Judd and Jamie take the round. When the ball goes over the line, Jamie turns for a general victory yell, not really directed at anyone, and Bobby Jon chooses this moment to lose his shit. He gets right up in Jamie's face and bumps his chest, screaming like a crazy person the entire time. Some people think they hear "that's what I like to see" coming out of his mouth, some think they hear "that's not nice"...I, personally, can't make heads or tails of it. He's just being Bobby Jon, and that thing that makes him babble meaninglessly in that honey-drenched-bale-of-hay kind of way is showing its other side. He does say something that sounds like "that's not nice" or "that's not right" or something at the end, but mostly, he's just screaming because he's nutty and kind of a sore loser. Everybody else kind of stares, like..."Ooooookay." This is where, on Friends, they would say, "The word you're looking for is...anywaaaaay...."

round pits Judd and Steph against Gary and Amy. It's a good thing, since Judd and Steph are the only people Judd and Steph consider good enough to compete alongside Judd and Steph. Ready? Go! After a bit of a tussle, Amy gets herself turned around the wrong way and falls under the side of the ball, but really, her issue is that she twisted her ankle on the way down. That same old damn ankle. And she is in a lot of pain. She's lying on the ground for a bit, Gary single-handedly holding off Judd and Steph. Amy recovers as well as she can and gets back on her side of the ball. But she can barely stand, and in the end, Gary and Amy take the defeat and Nakum is up 2-1. I'm sure Stephenie went home and told herself how lucky she was not to be stuck ["back" -- Wing Chun] on the team with the injured ankle, because I'm not at all convinced Steph and Judd would have taken that round had Amy been 100%. I'm sure Steph took note. I mean, don't you think? I bet she was like, "I got to come back for a second run, and then I got rid of the lady with the bum ankle! I cannot believe how much better my luck is than almost everyone who's ever played, ever!" I can almost hear her. Gary walks Amy off the field.

But there is no rest for Amy, because the round is all women, and Nakum only has the two women, so she has to go again. Jeff asks her if she's all right. "You ready to go?" he wonders. "Not really, but I'm going to do it," she says. And so she does, lining up with Danni to take on Cindy and Margaret. Nakum is up 2-1, so if Cindy and Margaret can beat the Hobbler, they'll take the victory for their team. Amy is very, very slow in even getting to the ball, but Danni keeps Cindy and Margaret at bay until she gets there. Ultimately, Cindy gets herself out of position, and once Danni and Amy turn the corner, it's over. Cindy and Margaret are outweighed, but that one was more an issue, like I said, of getting caught out of position. And Amy turns around and clenches her fists and yells, "YAAAH!," and she's really one of the only people to ever deserve to do it. That lady is a bad-ass.

So now, with the score locked at 2-2, and Amy resting her weary ankle, we go to a battle between Judd and Jamie on one side and Bobby Jon and Brian on the other. Everybody plays the round tough, but Judd and Jamie outweigh Bobby Jon and Brian by about a million pounds, and it seems to be ultimately just too much to make up for. So Nakum wins the cookout, and Steph jumps up and wraps her legs around Judd (YUCK), and Bobby Jon looks plain old miserable, because all his hooting didn't do a whole lot of good. If he had won, you just know there'd be no celebrating. Jeff sends poor, sad Yaxha back to camp, because all they have left is tribal council. Losers!

Nakum, on the other hand, now has to play in this wonderful individual immunity challenge. Recapping back-to-back challenges! Has anything ever been so exciting? No, I tell you. No. Jeff reminds the group that someone is about to win individual immunity from tonight's vote. Jeff shows off the immunity necklace, and then explains that each person will run out to collect three bags of letter tiles, which are tied closed, and which they have to retrieve one at a time. Then, each will stand at his station, open the bags, and use the tiles to spell out a two-word phrase. First person to get the phrase wins immunity. Clear? Good.

Ready...go! What you may or may not notice about the beginning of this challenge is that bags are returned in almost perfect order of the littleness/delicacy of fingers: Steph, Cindy, Margaret, Lydia, Rafe, Jamie, Judd. Steph, Cindy, Margaret, Rafe, Lydia, Jamie. Then all, with Judd in last, wind up back at their stations, untying their bags of tiles. Judd has trouble even untying the bag, because he has the big meaty paws, but as it turns out, he is standing to Rafe, and is looking over Rafe's shoulder. Now, you'll remember that, on many occasions, they've made people work in little booths with walls so that they don't cheat off each other's papers, but apparently, that isn't the case unless they say it is, because Judd starts giving Rafe -- who got very close on his own, in fairness -- the answer, in an urgent low tone. "'Ancient ruin,'" Judd says. "'Ancient ruin.'" And with that, Rafe wins the challenge and gets individual immunity. Aw. Rafe is cute. That's an okay outcome, all things considered. I think Steph winning would have made for an unpleasant outbreak of Steph brimming with smugness, while anyone else other than Steph or Judd (ew) winning would have made for an unpleasant outbreak of Steph sniffling with misery. Rafe thanks Judd, who makes a big show of how awesome he is for knowing the answer, of course. "time, I've gotta keep my mouth shut, man," Judd says, obviously not serious. He does manage to say it, though, just as if he actually maintains conscious control over whether he keeps his mouth shut or not, which he fairly clearly does not. Jeff gives him a little ribbing about giving Rafe the answer, and then puts the necklace around Rafe's neck. He tells them to go enjoy their "barbecue feast," and they take off. Steph is the luckiest girl in the world!

As Nakum returns to camp with their haul, they're all quite happy with their victory. "We're on a winning streak!" Steph yells. Well, at least she noticed. Rafe burbles happily in an interview about how they won the challenge, and then he won the first individual immunity. "Which is awesome!" he adds. Judd declares it an "all-around good day." Well, he actually declares it an "all-around good day, man," because if there's one thing this episode proves, it's Judd's firm attachment to the word "man." And then talk turns to Bobby Jon, and to the fact that, as Jamie puts it, he "hit a new nut level." Hee. They all wonder aloud what the heck happened to Bobby Jon. In an interview, Jamie refers to Bobby Jon's outburst as the hitting of a "flip switch." ("Man.") (Jamie speaks this language, also. In fact, it may be what bonds them.) My favorite part is where Rafe adopts this sort of "tell me the truth" tone and says to Steph, rather earnestly, "Is he crazy?" "Yeah," Steph says, and Rafe seems somehow reassured by this. Like now it at least makes sense. Now he knows Bobby Jon just needs special handling. Jamie has a different theory: "Just southern people. We're crazy and we know it," he tells us. Nakum shares a toast with cold drinks. Oh, and they also thank God, but it seems very afterthought-ish. Like they thought of God only after thanking Michelob and Hires.

Yaxha. Still Day 15. The returning tribe is glum, and Amy talks in an interview about how much they don't want to go to tribal council. They all talk about how they gave their all, and Danni tries to buck up the group, saying how Nakum was just ultimately too big to beat, which I think is basically accurate. "We just can't dwell on it," Gary says. Farmer Beavis says quietly to Bobby Jon, "When you got in Jamie's face, man," and it's not exactly clear whether he's going to say it was awesome, or it was scary, or what. Bobby Jon interviews that Jamie is "cocky and arrogant," and that today, he crossed some sort of a "line," and so forth and so on. It doesn't make a lot of sense, really, considering that all Jamie did was hoot in precisely the same way Bobby Jon does when he wins. This does not make Bobby Jon look very graceful, all this business. He's lost enough that you'd think he might take it better than this. Bobby Jon also seems to think he "put [Jamie] in his place," when it really didn't seem like either of them got the best of the situation, and what Bobby Jon mostly accomplished was making people think he's kind of nutty and unstable -- especially Jamie. Nevertheless, Bobby Jon rather proudly gives Farmer Beavis some speech about how he was just trying to teach Jamie that it's fine to "buck up," but -- and I'm not making this up -- "there's another bear out in the woods, too." You can scribble that one down in your Colorful Bobby Jon Metaphor Notebooks. Bears...in...the woods.

Amy, bless her heart, is fretting over having let the team down when she rolled her ankle during her second run. As usual, she minimizes how bad it is. "It's swollen, but I can live with it," she tells us. She should feel free to tell the camera the truth, you know. It can't vote for her. Brian counsels her to maybe keep it up, but it looks like he may do so in front of other people, so, not wanting to talk about her ankle at all, Amy quickly insists that it's swollen, but it's fine. Speaking of Brian, he tells us that, given the current makeup of the tribe, everybody is potentially on the block. He says that it would be easy, on one hand, for him and Gary to vote out Amy to protect themselves in the short term, but that might not be the right move in the long term. He whispers to Gary that the three of them should try to hang together, but Gary fails to reassure him, replying, "So long as it's not a tie." We hear Brian tell Gary that he wants the three ex-Yaxha to vote for Bobby Jon, but what we don't hear is what Brian revealed in a post-game interview, which is that he had a better strategy here than meets the eye. His plan for avoiding the tie was to try to get Danni, Brandon, and Bobby Jon to split their votes by telling them all that he and Gary were going to vote for Amy on the ankle theory, and then by telling Brandon that Brian wouldn't mind if Brandon voted for him instead of Amy. The idea was that Brandon doesn't like to vote against anyone and definitely wouldn't like voting against Amy. If this plan had worked, Gary, Amy and Brian would actually all vote for Bobby Jon, leaving it as a 3-2-1 vote. It sounds convoluted and kind of unlikely, but it's something I've always been surprised people don't try -- avoiding the tie by fooling the other bloc into splitting their vote somehow. It's at least an interesting idea, better than just walking around going, "Please? Please? Please?"

Gary tells us that the weak point in Brian's plan is that it's not necessarily smart to get rid of a strong player like Bobby Jon. And then we revisit Amy's ankle, which is really, really gross and huge. Brandon interviews that Amy and Brian, due to being perceived as physically weaker than Gary, are at greatest risk of being voted out. Brian interviews again that it could be anyone going tonight. You can tell he's smart enough not to be just jawing when he says that anything is possible, either -- he knows that there's always a chance of things going in just about any direction you want to come up with. It's very true. Not all of these "student of the game" people are very much fun, but I had a soft spot for Cesternino by the end, too, so it's not unheard of.

Over at Nakum, it is feasting time. Cindy thinks it's the best hamburger ever. Judd says that the only bad thing is going to tribal council. Rafe recaps the situation again, and says that it "takes a little something out of the victory."

Claymation coatimundi.

Judd has a chat with Jamie in which they discuss the inevitability of Margaret's ouster. Jamie doesn't even think Margaret is all that inclined to fight it. Judd gives Jamie's head yet another hug and kiss, but in a really studly kind of way. Then Judd smirks and smugs his way through an interview in which he clarifies that he is extremely confident that he's going nowhere at tribal council. It really would be the ideal time to vote him off for...well, for so very many reasons. Judd asks Rafe if he's sure he doesn't want his beer, and Rafe says he's sure. So, of course, Judd takes it. As he chugs, Margaret tells us that she finds Judd "the most offensive," both as a tribe member and as a human being. Hee. As a tribe member, Judd's offensive act is to continue trying to score beers, arranging a trade in which Steph gives him her beer in return for his hot dog. (Not. A Euphemism. EW.) So he's trading food for alcohol. Smart move when you're in the middle of that 400-calorie-a-day restriction. Margaret quite correctly says that Judd is the kind of guy who tends to be his own worst enemy, and then we view a sequence in which it becomes clear that Judd has taken more beer than he was entitled to. He makes a big deal out of denying it, and actually out of wanting to know who did it in that patently phony and indignant way people tend to adopt when they're guilty as sin. But then he ultimately says in an interview that if he did take an extra, of course, he would have deserved it, because they wouldn't have won if not for him. So while it's not exactly an admission, it certainly speaks to his state of mind, you might say. Rafe kindly blows the whole thing off as a misunderstanding, which...there's just not that much beer available. You ought to be able to keep track. In fact, it's sort of your sacred duty to keep track, in a way. Cindy adds that Judd really needs to watch his mouth, which has a tendency to go off unchecked, not to mention its tendency to guzzle beer that belongs to others.

Tribal council. Well, Tribal Council, Part One, anyway. We are with Nakum. When everyone is seated, Jeff asks about the feast they had. "It was awesome," Steph says, and she tells the little tales of horse-trading, and of how she got a hot dog in return for a beer. Jeff makes it clear that he thinks trading food for beer in this game is insane, but Judd has no regrets. Judd is a trading-food-for-beer kind of guy, really, and he's also a does-idiotic-things kind of guy.

Jeff then turns to Jamie to ask about what exactly was going on in the chest-bumping between him and Bobby Jon. Jamie pretty much says that Bobby Jon yelled at him first. And here you thought he wouldn't have a good answer.

And then Jeff kicks off the follies by asking Margaret whether the tribe has good sportsmanship. She says that Judd is "vocal" and Jamie is "expressive." So the implication is certainly there, but she's not being too over-the-top nasty about it, given what she was asked. Because Judd is making faces like he's going to blow up, Jeff asks him what his problem is. Judd insists he doesn't know what Margaret could possibly mean. "It's not like we're being bad sportsmanships [sic]," he says. He insists that it's just a matter of "giving it [his] damn all, man." Wait, irrelevant! Not that I'd expect him to get that. Jeff, of course, does get it, and says that giving it 100% doesn't make you either a good or a bad sport. Judd doesn't agree. "A win's a win, man," he says. He says "man" a bunch more times, until I start to feel like he's not even talking to me, while he explains how all this winning gives them more energy, blah dee blah. Jamie starts rubbing Judd's shoulder at one point, because they are totally dating, and Judd just keeps rambling on about how they "keep driving and driving," but it's not meant to be hot or anything. When Margaret makes the mistake of saying "Judd?," Judd turns on her and starts ranting that she probably never played a sport, so she doesn't know, blah blah. "So, you know, you should just shut up," he blusters. Margaret, cool as a cuke, says, "This is what happens all the time, though. When Judd gets vocal, Judd plows over anybody in front of him, he trash-talks anybody he doesn't like, and that's not good sportsmanship."

Jeff comments on Judd's apparent seething rage toward Margaret. Judd says that he doesn't consider himself "a bad sportsmanship." Considering that he clearly doesn't even know that sportsmanship is an attitude and not a human being, I'm not sure he can be considered much of an expert on it. In fact, it makes me strongly suspicious that Judd has never discussed sportsmanship with anyone, ever, which he probably should have at some point. Judd goes on to rail that he loves the whole team, except for Margaret. Asked whether the hostility between Judd and Margaret worries her, Cindy says it concerns everyone, because it creates "negativity" in what are already pretty close quarters. I think Cindy is just about the person I feel most sorry for, here. Cindy and Rafe. They just want everybody to stop yelling, you can tell. It's like being at Thanksgiving with the worst set of relatives you can imagine.

Now, Jeff returns to Margaret, who points out, "Judd doesn't listen to anybody. Judd only listens to Judd. That's the only --" Judd proves how very, very wrong she is by cutting her off midsentence. "Let's ask the other team [sic, again] if Judd listens to anybody." He turns to Cindy. "Cindy, do I listen to anybody?" Cindy hesitates for a long moment, and then she says, "Yeah, I --" Judd cuts her off immediately, having gotten a "yeah" and clearly unconcerned that it clearly wasn't the "yeah" he was asking for, but the "yeah" that means "y'know." Judd turns on Rafe. "Okay, Rafe, do I listen to everybody?" Rafe says, "I honestly think that --" And here, for some reason, Jamie jumps in and says, "Rafe, have an opinion!" Judd continues the bullying with "Just say yes or no!" As if he has the right to demand that Rafe answer questions precisely as Judd wants them answered. Rafe explains that this is his opinion, and that he's attempting to give it. That's too many words for Judd's dinosaur-sized peanut brain to process, so he ignores Rafe and asks Stephenie whether he listens to her. Having seen him beat the shit out of the first three people involved in that exchange, Steph, Lydia, and Jamie all obediently say yes when he demands to know whether he listens to them, because that's the only way the situation isn't going to get worse. And boy, that really was a pretty magnificent ringing endorsement from the team. Clearly no communication gap there!

Because Judd just made her point for her, Margaret calmly says again, "This is what Judd does. Judd bullies, and he...that's what he does." "You're so full of it, man," Judd snaps, even though all she really is doing is describing what he just did. For the cameras. In front of everyone. Does he not get it? I guess he obviously doesn't.

With a level of caution I think is interestingly endearing, Jeff asks Rafe whether Judd intimidates him. Not wanting to be the Margaret in Judd's abusive little routine, Rafe says that he's not -- he was intimidated by Judd at first, but Judd has been good to him. I think Rafe is well aware that he could easily be excised by the Jamie/Steph/Judd clump that I'm beginning to dislike very, very much, so he's probably doing a good thing by downplaying this particular issue. Making an enemy out of Judd by complaining that Judd is intimidating isn't going to do Rafe any favors. Steph makes some apologies for Judd by saying he's "high-strung" -- that, like her, he "can't sit still," and...that's all well and good, but none of it really has anything to do with being an asshole. Because Steph herself is a whiner, but she doesn't do this kind of yelling and blowharding, so I'm not sure why she's explaining it.

Judd, however, even cuts off his own allies while they're defending him, so he interrupts Steph to start insisting Margaret told him on the first day that he had ADD. This goes on for-freaking-ever, and the short version is that Judd repeats about ten times that Margaret said this to him, and Margaret steadfastly says she didn't. He also stands up and yells in a way that makes it pretty clear that he no longer has control of himself here, if he ever did. If she did mention ADD to Judd, I have to say, I couldn't blame her.

Ultimately, Jeff tells Judd it's apparently not hard to tell who he's voting for, and Judd preeningly agrees. Jeff starts to try to talk about what just happened, in terms of the crazy-ass outburst, but Judd -- you know it -- cuts Jeff off now and starts talking again. (Because he has ADD, but don't tell him I said so.) Totally off his bird at this point, Judd starts babbling that the issue is all about Margaret being unhappy that she didn't get to stay with her original tribe or something, which is...not the issue at all, but Judd is just around the bend by now. ["You know who must have been the most mortified, watching this whole sequence at home? Mrs. Judd, who...well, I hope she knows what all her options are. In life. Generally." -- Wing Chun] Margaret does allow that she wasn't thrilled at Judd taking all of two hours to flip on her, Cindy, and Brooke. I think that, if asked, Margaret would admit that some of this is just anger because she's been SOL since the minute Judd flipped on her, but I think it's also that she hates getting beat by this half-wit, who's just going along with a bunch of other half-wits who can barely win challenges anyway.

Jeff asks Steph how she can trust Judd when Judd already flipped on a past tribe. Steph completely misses the point of the question by saying that they are the new tribe and blah blah, and she's right, but she's not getting at what Jeff is asking. Jeff is asking, when a guy makes it clear that he blows however the breeze blows, what makes you think it won't blow against you ? In dissing the idea of saying you're "not going to talk to" new people because they're not in your old tribe, Steph crinkles her nose and calls this notion "retarded," so she's basically gone for the twofer between last week and this week. Jeff comments on the high level of hostility and asks Cindy whether she thinks tonight's vote will help, and she says, using more words, that it might help, but only temporarily. You can tell she knows that Judd is the problem, but she also knows what's going to happen. Unfortunately, she's probably missing one of a very small number of opportunities to act.

And now, the vote. Jamie votes. Judd votes for Margaret with a really unhealthy and creepy level of anger in his voice. That guy would make me very uneasy to live with, I'll tell you. While Margaret may be a bit bossy and know-it-all-y, there's really nothing we've seen that comes anywhere close to justifying his intense, simmering rage at her. Except, of course, for how smart she is and how unafraid of him she is. I have to say, Judd is also very happy with himself for a guy who I'm pretty sure cannot win. Cindy votes, Lydia votes, Steph votes, Margaret votes for Judd, calling him "self-righteous" and "profane" and "a bully." Yes, yes, and yes. I think she knows she's doomed, but she's doing a good job of taking a jackass's faade with her when she leaves, and God knows that's the best souvenir of all. Rafe votes.

Jeff goes off to tally. Of course, when he returns, there is one vote for Margaret and one for Judd, and then they're all for Margaret, because Nakum is kind of a bunch of pussies. I have to say, I was really disappointed that, say, Cindy, Rafe, and Lydia didn't get with Margaret to get rid of Judd, and it makes me think a little less of all of them. Some people really do need to be sliced off like warts, and Judd is one of them. And it really isn't helping me feel better about it to watch the smirkfest between Jamie and Judd -- not because they were in danger and were relieved, like Brian was last week, but because they're just assholes. In any event, Margaret is snuffed and leaves. Jeff tells them that they claimed to be getting rid of the problem in their tribe, so if they're right, it should all be smooth sailing now. Yeah. Right. He reminds them that Rafe will now move over to the jury seats, while everybody else has to head back to camp. In her vote-off interview, Margaret says that the experience was very physically challenging, and predicts problems with Judd. Heh. Me, too.

Yaxha comes marching in for tribal council. Once they're seated, Jeff lets them know why Rafe is there, how he won, and so forth. He then asks about the challenge. "Bobby Jon, what happened with you and Jamie?" Bobby Jon calls it the "heat of the moment," and he makes a lot of bullfighting references, and ultimately, it's all kind of bullshit, because really, Bobby Jon started that all by himself. Jeff asks Gary if he considers Nakum good sports. I'm sorry; I think Jeff means to ask whether he considers Nakum good sportsmanships. Gary says that, for the most part he does, but every now and then, Jamie does a little trash-talking. Jeff asks Brian about working inside his head and about now being asked to be athletic. In fairness, Jeff is talking to Brian like he's...well, like he's Rafe, with the spaghetti legs, which he really isn't. Brian defends himself as basically a decent athlete, so he thinks he's capable of bringing either the mental or the physical, as required.

Jeff asks Bobby Jon for his opinion of Brian. "If you want to find a kamikaze that's going to bust a wedge, this is the man that's going to do it right here." I don't even know what that means, really, but Bobby Jon makes it sound like it has to do with being a big thinker. Kamikaze...bust...wedge. Or something. Bobby Jon says that Brian is "just a good old boy. He'd be a great neighbor." Jeff asks Danni if she would have believed she'd ever hear Bobby Jon call Brian "a good old boy." Which...good point. Heh. Danni says that they all originally thought Brian was "strong," but she also comments that he's "a gentleman." They're sort of buttering him up for the slaughter, but my impression is that these compliments are pretty sincere as well. "He's strong, he's smart, but he is a classy, classy guy," Danni says. Brian grins.

Jeff asks about Amy's bum ankle. She insists it got "tweaked," but that it's not too bad. Jeff asks Farmer Beavis about Amy's ankle and the way she rallied, and he prattles on for a while about how impressed he was. He likes how she went out the last time "limpin' and cussin'." Heh. Farmer Beavis "was like, man." Because it's certainly the week for being "like, man." Farmer Beavis says that what he likes to see from people is effort. Now it's Amy's turn to grin.

Jeff asks Bobby Jon how he's going to vote when it doesn't seem like there's an obvious target. Bobby Jon agrees that they don't really have anybody they're anxious to vote off, and I think that's essentially true. He says that everybody has given their all at challenges and at camp, and that you nevertheless have to get rid of somebody. I hate to say it, but when that somebody is Bobby Jon, I'll be ready. ["Fired." -- Wing Chun]