Things are dicey at La Mina in the wake of the Misty boot, and they're also dicey at Casaya in the wake of Shane being Shane. Dan adopts Ruth Marie into the La Mina Boys' Club without asking anyone. Cirie sits back at Casaya waiting for things to explode. Casaya wins the coveted potty reward, and it takes the opportunity to try to behead La Mina by sending Terry to Exile Island. While Shane contemplates how Terry is suffering, Terry is finding the hidden immunity idol. When Terry gets back, he's just in time to see his team lose the immunity challenge as well, which puts Sally on the apparent chopping block, seeing as how everyone else in her tribe is supposedly in an alliance. It occurs to Austin, however, that Sally is much better in challenges than Ruth Marie, and that if they stick with Ruth Marie, they have a much greater chance of losing challenges and being down to four people heading into a merge, in which case they will be dead meat. With some help from a crusading Sally, he turns the tribe around, and in the end, everyone but Dan goes along with shifting over and getting rid of Ruth Marie. It's not a great season for women. It's especially not a great season for women over thirty-five.
Previously on Good Night, Female Ladies: Bruce joined Casaya and kept Shane and company from baking like sun-dried tomatoes. Thanks, Bruce. La Mina struggled to make anything of its remaining fishing equipment, but it did win the reward challenge and banish Bruce to Exile Island again. The Casaya Alliance Of Suck began to self-destruct, which was pretty funny, especially to Cirie, because...you know, watching a Vegas casino implode and fall into ruins is pretty entertaining as long as you're not in there playing blackjack at the time. The immunity challenge was fabulous, featuring lots of grabbing and hair-pulling and "Stop choking me!" like we were all in the back of one big car driving to the Grand Canyon. Oh, and like we were all twelve, but: obviously. Casaya won, forcing Austin and Nick to make a choice between aligning with Misty and Sally and aligning with Terry and Dan. They chose the latter, and Misty and her cowboy hat got on the midnight train to Loserland, which was rapidly becoming an all-singing, all-dancing, all-girl revue. Who will be voted out tonight?
Credits. It's nice how they give you that shot right down Chiclets's swimsuit at the very beginning. The breasts of Chiclets are the new ass of Cindy.
A veritable visual feast of tiny wildlife -- highlighted by a yellow-and-black frog so cute it could have been designed by a Project Runway contestant (other than Santino) -- brings us back to La Mina on Day 9, the morning after tribal council. The guys are all sitting around working on the fire as Sally approaches. She reminds us in an interview about Misty being sent home, in case we forgot since we watched the credits. She explains that she had been told that the vote was going to be for Ruth Marie, so Sally's clearly the odd person out at this point. She also says that there's not much she can do except work hard and try to make herself useful. It's no wonder she embraces defeatism; she is from Duluth. Do you know how cold it is up there? It's, like, the "I can't come to work today, because I didn't get my hair entirely dry and after I got outside, I stabbed myself in the neck with some of it" kind of cold.
Behold the hermit crab, how he keeps to himself.
Dan and Ruth Marie take a walk on the beach, during which Dan decides to propose alliance to her. Dan seems to compulsively offer alliances to people in this way I find vaguely unsettling. I understand that they'd be much better off in an alliance of five than in an alliance of four, but I think you have to talk to the other people in your group before you go bringing other people into it. Furthermore, as much as Ruth Marie seems like a nice lady, she has been useless in challenges so far, and unless this crowd likes the idea of being picked off like Pagong and all its children, they need to start winning some immunity challenges, and I'm not sure Ruth Marie is the best bet for that to happen. Even furthermore, what does offering a spot in a five-person alliance within a six-person tribe really mean? "Say, Ruth Marie, if we wanted you to vote with us to get rid of Sally, rather than having us, say, vote to get rid of you, would you be down with that? Take your time; no rush to answer." Of course, Ruth Marie is thrilled, given that she's been without allies since the tribes mixed up. Dan voices over that he'd given this a lot of thought, and that he'd decided she was the one they should go with. I just don't understand why he would think he had the authority to add to an alliance without telling anyone, and I would hope Ruth Marie knows that if the offer comes only from him, he's the only one who's making any promises to her. At any rate, Dan's explanation for choosing Ruth Marie instead of Sally is that he doesn't think Sally feels like part of the group, so he thinks she'll flip as soon as they get to the merge. Ruth Marie, on the other hand, will stay "all the way to the end." There's something that's so hyper about the way Dan approaches the game, you know? I mean, there are still thirteen people left. It's very, very early. You have no idea what tribe switches might be coming up, what bonds are going to form after a merge, if you last until one happens...at this point, you can be thinking F5 if you want to, but you need to have a short-term plan as well, and Ruth Marie is not a good short-term plan.
Terry is dragging water out of the well as the other guys look on. They discuss the need for a fifth person. Dan reports that he has actually already promised this spot to Ruth Marie, and Terry says that's fine with him. Terry interviews that there are four guys together, and then Ruth Marie is "kind of a fifth." Uh-huh. "Kind of." He thinks their alliance will get to the merge. Terry totally has that Dread Pirate Roberts thing happening, like, "I will let you live...for now." When a pirate does it, it's pretty cool, but coming from Terry, it bugs.
At Casaya on Day 9, Shane is collecting snails with Aras and Bruce. Aras lectureviews that while they were out working, they looked back and saw Courtney doing yoga. How dare she! Aras explains that "some people don't realize what being on an island by yourself means." Oh, how I always hate this argument. It's not like yoga takes all day. I hate it when people chalk up to laziness what's actually scheduling. The fact that somebody else is not working while you are working doesn't automatically mean she's not doing any work, and the fact that she doesn't work in a way you're capable of noticing -- like doing yoga -- rather than in a way that's just inert -- like sitting around yammering about Thinking Seats -- doesn't make you superior. I'm not saying Courtney never slacks, but if she does, it's not because she takes a few minutes to do yoga. They don't exactly have a punishing schedule.
When the guys get back to camp, the fire is failing, which Courtney says was the case when she got here as well, and she's working on poking it back to life. There is also unhappiness at the fact that Chiclets is sleeping. Again, I hate it when people get judgmental about sleeping. If you're asleep, you're asleep. You wake up when you wake up, and unless somebody wants to wake you up, the mere fact that you didn't wake up on your own cannot possibly mean you're lazy. Nobody's got an alarm clock, so how can still being asleep be a reflection on your character? At any rate, Aras announces, "We've got to talk about effort at camp." I would remind you here, by the way, that we have already seen Courtney doing a fair amount of fire-tending and water-boiling, and we have seen Cirie gathering wood, and there is no indication that, up until this point, the women have refused to work. But here we are, with Aras delivering a goddamn lecture about "effort," as if he's the counselor. I am really beginning to despise him, and it goes right back to that fuckwit moment when he tried to make Cirie and Melinda feel guilty about not being willing to agree to leave voluntarily. He's just your basic self-important yoga dink, and there is very little that's more distasteful to me than that. Instead of announcing that we're going to discuss Effort, a/k/a Your Character, why not just say you need to talk about ways to make sure the fucking fire doesn't go out? Does it require three guys to hunt snails? I realize they can put up a pretty mean fight when you try to wrestle them to the ground, but these guys didn't exactly kill a buffalo and bring it back on a pole.
Anyway, it appears as though President Beefcake was sleeping, just as Chiclets was, so Aras drags them out of bed for a talk about being responsible and blah blah blah your-mother-and-I-are-disappointed-cakes. "We can't be out catching food for a whole day and then the onus of fire is on us," Aras says with disgust. I don't think they were out all day; I really don't. If they were out all day fetching a bag of snails, then there might be a better use for their time. Courtney points out -- and there seems to be evidence to bear her out -- that this is bullshit, because she works at camp a lot. Aras responds by ratcheting the bullshit up an additional notch: "What if me and Shane and Bruce got voted off the island? Would you guys just fall asleep if the fire wasn't going?" Well, no, asshole. Probably, Courtney would tend the fire just as she has in the past, and just as both tribes of women managed to survive for several days without your ass prior to the time the tribes merged. In fact, it is my recollection that it was Aras's tribe of Young Dudes who admitted that their shelter sucked, their fire sucked, and they didn't have a goddamn clue what they were doing. He is lecturing about the fire, and his idea of helping the fire along involved healing touch. It's only when he gets around women that Aras decides he's in a position to deliver lectures about survival. This guy is my least favorite kind of sexist on the planet. I'd rather a guy were just straightforwardly Donna Reed-obsessed than this self-justifying, I'm-all-sensitive bullshit. Have you ever read "One Look At My Music Collection Will Show You How Much I Respect Women"? Aras is totally, completely That Guy. Trader Joe's granola, indeed.
Anyway. "I think this whole question is kind of stupid," Courtney says, and just for a moment, I love her. Aras talks about how he has this Alliance Of Suck, but wishes he wasn't in it with Courtney, and that he wouldn't be "if [he] had [his] druthers." Oh, "druthers." Thanks for visiting from my high school's production of Li'l Abner. As the group sits around eating dinner, Cirie can barely keep from grinning at all the tension, and she interviews that everything around camp is drama, and that she finds it delightful. She says her strategy is to keep working and stay out of it. And: perfect planning, lady.
Challenge beach. Casaya sees that La Mina bumped Misty. Jeff explains that, in today's challenge, one tribe member at a time will swim to a bunch of floating puzzle pieces, unhook one, and drag it inside a frame. Now, these are big, heavy things, so the dragging and moving is no small task. Once all six of your puzzle pieces are in the frame, you solve the puzzle, which requires you to arrange the pieces so that the sides match up. And what are you playing for? Well, this is the bathroom reward, so you get towels, loofah, Charmin, sink and toilet, shower, and five gallons of fresh water. I love the idea that you will have a bathroom, despite the fact that you have absolutely no food to speak of. There will be all the comforts of home, except for the part where you are too weak to stand.
Ready...go! Sally and President Beefcake swim out first. They return with their puzzle pieces, and she's a little quicker than he is at muscling it into the frame, so Dan gets to go just before Bruce. Ruth Marie and Chiclets go , then Nick and Shane, and we're pretty much tied at this point. Then Austin and Courtney, and Austin loses a bit of time when he doesn't quite get the piece all the way into the frame on the first try. Terry and Aras go last, and they get back at close to the same time, so both groups start solving. For reasons that are sort of hard to discern and may involve luck as much as anything, Casaya moves faster in getting the puzzle solved, so Casaya winds up winning the reward. I wish I had more to say about this challenge, but I was so fulfilled on a spiritual level by last week's wrestling matches that it will be a long time before a challenge makes me feel whole again.
Now, Casaya is faced with deciding who goes to Exile Island. Following the "we take your leader" strategy last invoked by La Mina with Bruce, they decide to send Terry. Now, do you see why this is so stupid? I mean, it will be obvious by the end of the show why it's stupid, but you can tell it's stupid now, and if they had a brain in their heads, they'd know it's stupid. Let's review: you know that Misty didn't find the immunity idol. It's possible that Bruce found it, but if he didn't, then it's still there. And if it's still there, you know that the clues are going to get easier and easier, because this is Survivor, and they don't tend to present really difficult brainteasers, and they're going to want someone to find the idol so that it will be in play. Should you consistently send the strongest person on the other tribe to Exile Island, that's who's eventually going to find the idol. Should he find the idol, then if he makes it three or four more tribal councils to a merge, you are suddenly in a very bad position. Because now, you want to start by cutting off the strongest person in the other group, and if you take your shot at him and he has the idol, guess who's going to have the second-largest number of votes? That's right: someone on your team. Even if Terry didn't otherwise survive until the merge, it's still stupid, because now, you're giving him a far greater chance of doing so. And you don't really want to give the strongest opposing force to you a boost in making it to the merge. In short, absent a truly desperate team you honestly believe you can cause to crumble without leadership -- which I think is what was believed about Bruce last week -- the strategic significance of who goes to Exile Island at this point lies almost entirely in access to the idol, and there is no reason -- none -- why you would give a strong player access to the idol instead of a weak player. It's ridiculous. Not that I would expect the likes of Shane to notice. Anyway, Terry gets on the boat that will take him to Exile Island.
Jeff sends the tribes home, where Casaya will await its bathroom.
Later, we find La Mina at camp without Terry on Day 9. Sally talks about how they all knew Casaya would send La Mina's leader off, and then Dan makes this twee speech about making Terry proud of the way the camp is when he gets back. Barf. ["It's like Dan's in love with Terry, but felt he had to hide it, so he hooked up with Ruth Marie so she could be his beard." -- Wing Chun] There's an effort to make it look like they're all at loose ends without Terry, what with talking about whether to get firewood, eat, or nap. Honestly, when you're out in this environment, I imagine there is a fair amount of meaningless discussion about whether to scratch your ass or whistle, so I don't know that Terry's departure is really why that's happening. Austin interviews that nobody's in charge since Terry left, but it's very suspicious how we switch interviews before getting to the part where Austin says he misses Terry and awaits his return.
Over at Casaya, the tribe members return to find that their bathroom has been installed. Chiclets interviews again that they won the reward challenge and got this great little bathroom. Aras decides to call for a discussion of how they're going to use the bathroom. Oh, why don't you lead a drum circle about it, asshole. He wants to use the bathroom for storing firewood and "just keeping things dry." President Beefcake has this to say: "Anyone mind if I break in the dumpster?" Ha! And then he continues: "I've got a deuce to drop." I realize that I am finding this much funnier than would a dignified person. "We should use the bathroom to keep the wood dry," Chiclets snots. President Beefcake interviews that his confederacy of brilliant minds decided they should store wood in the new bathroom. He describes his thinking thusly: "All right. I'm going to go in here and take a dump before you start storing wood in the toilet." Chiclets responds by complaining in her interview that President Beefcake "is not a gentleman." My favorite part is how President Beefcake returns, patting his stomach and saying he feels "about ten pounds lighter," adding, "I'm a whole new man."
See, that whole thing is so stupid. It's not either/or, especially to President Beefcake. I don't think he necessarily thinks they're intending to store wood down the hole; I think he just thinks they want to store wood inside the structure. In other words, I think his attitude was that he was going to get his pooping done before they covered the thing up with wood or whatever. If they really planned to store wood down the hole of the potty, I don't think that's going to be very efficient. There's a shelf where the TP is, and there's a decent bit of space in there -- I totally agree that you could stick some dry wood in there so that you'd be assured of always having some, but I don't see why that necessarily precludes periodic use of the toilet as a toilet, if you see my point. It's easy to argue that President Beefcake could go anywhere in the jungle, but I think unless you've ever tried to have a significant bowel movement in the jungle, you'd probably underestimate how much more comfortable and more pleasant it would be to have a decent outhouse going. Furthermore, Chiclets is off her rocker -- if you want to talk poop etiquette, that's not about being a "gentleman." You're all using the jungle together for this purpose, so standing on ceremony is a little bit dumb, and "gentleman" implies that he's held to some standard higher than the one women would be held to. And really, after all, it's a toilet.
Anyway, this is where Shane gives his lecture about how Terry will return from Exile Island a weak and broken man. "Terry's in hell," Shane declares.
Exile Island. You knew that cut was coming. Terry climbs to the top of the skull-shaped playhouse, and he reads the idol clues to which he has access. The new one says that the idol is under a rock. It looks like the one Bruce got last time said that the idol is underground. Then, there are the "above the tide line" clue and, of course, the written version of Misty's original clue, which uses the word "why" repeatedly and puts it in quotes. As Terry stares at the word "why," he repeats it a couple of times, and then he looks around, and then his eyes settle on a very prominent, very Y-shaped tree. You can't get anything past him, man. The only thing that would have been better would have been creating a voice-over with an echo, so that we could hear "Why (why, why, why)...why (why, why, why)..." before they showed the tree.
Behold the owl, how he is smarter than most of the people he will see over the month.
Terry finds a rock right near the Y tree, and he pries it up. He starts to dig. Before long, he uncovers a buried box. "This doesn't belong in the Panamanian jungles," he observes. Sharp as a tack, Terry. In the box, there is a bottle, and it comes with instructions to break it and remove the idol. He does. And then he lights a fire, Bruce, and he explains that finding the idol obviously makes it completely worth it that he dragged his ass out here: "They ended up doing me a big favor." No kidding.
Casaya, Day 11. The fire is out. Hey, how did that happen with all those strong boys there? Do we need to engage feminist process and get "general feelings" about how we let the fire go out? Shane and Aras decide that the fire pit should be closer to the shelter, and it is Cirie who starts digging. "I feel like if Shane pushes for something, it happens, or if I push for something, it happens, and Cirie works her butt off," Aras observes. But, he claims there are a lot of people in the tribe who are sort of "meh." And by "a lot," he means "Chiclets and President Beefcake," apparently, because we have seen Courtney work far too much for that not to be crap as applied to her. Indeed, Cirie digs while Chiclets watches.
Shane walks over. "[Chiclets], why do you have such an aversion to working?" he asks her. "That's nice," she says, which is not going to be recorded in the annals of great comebacks. I'm kind of rooting for no one here, because she pissed me off with "gentleman" and some of her other nonsense, but then...he is himself. ["And I really, truly fail to see the benefit to him of being this confrontational this early, except to wave his dick around." -- Wing Chun] Shane then does my least favorite thing, by saying, "I'm just telling you, because I think everyone has the same opinion." People who do that are such wimps. Just say it's your opinion, Shane. That should be good enough. "[President Beefcake], too, huh?" asks Chiclets, snorting, "He does a lot." Shane says that they're not talking about P. Beefcake; they're talking about her. Why is she trying to talk about things that aren't what Shane wants to talk about? Just because he said everyone had the same opinion doesn't mean Chiclets is allowed to point out that everyone probably doesn't. Get with the program, Chiclets! Having had enough lecturing, Chiclets says, "If you're going to be a dick about it, then, whatever." Heh. Cirie grins as she stares at the ground, which I love. Chiclets interviews that she was a sports captain (objection! Irrelevant!), and that when people are demeaning, you don't want to help them. Of course, doing your share of work isn't really "helping" other people on your tribe so much as it is not being a lazy-ass, but she's right that assholes aren't very motivating. Unless you're being motivated to seek revenge on them, I guess. I've been known to be very motivated under those circumstances.
Shane looks to the tribe for support, and Aras agrees with him. Chiclets confronts Shane, asking him what exactly he does; whether he gets water or whatever. She only ever sees him boss other people around about the fire. Listen to Shane's response: "I hunt every day." HA HA HA HA, he's talking about picking up snails! HA HA HA HA! "I go and get as much wood as you do, I find...whatever." Great defense! He's ready to join the debate team! Meanwhile, Chiclets says that she gets wood, gets water, and helps collect snails, so she has no idea what Shane's problem is. And then you can tell that she's right and he's full of shit, because he says, "[Chiclets], we're not going to have this discussion." Oh, Daddy, can't we please have it? Oh, can't we please? Chiclets says that they are going to have it, because Shane is insulting her. He insists that everyone agrees with him: "And everyone here won't tell you, because they're afraid to tell you the truth!" Oh, him! I Speak The Truth Other People Won't Admit Is The Truth Guy! Shane needs (1) a black coat; (2) ironic T-shirts; (3) longer hair; and (4) sexual inadequacy. Oh, wait. I'm pretty sure he already has the last one. At any rate. Shane drags Cirie into it, and although she says in retrospect in a very amusing interview that she should have stayed out of it, she admits at Shane's question that she thinks Chiclets doesn't work as hard as the other people in the tribe do, probably. Cirie does think, however, that Chiclets does some work. In other words, Shane may have a point, but he's blown it all out of proportion. Cirie thinks Chiclets does work, but that some other people do more work. Which is kind of a reasonable way to look at it. Also, Shane refers to Cirie as "Sheree," which is not her name. Cirie refers to their alliance in an interview as "some psychotic joke." She's very happy about how "it seems to be unraveling little by little."
La Mina. Day 11. They're all very, very weak from lack of food. Austin says, and post-boot interviews seem to confirm, that they really have eaten practically nothing for 11 days. Nick attempts to catch fish. He hits a snag, and his shoulders slump in despair. As he paddles back in, he tells us that he figures that, in about three days, their entire group will be unable to get out of bed. Austin calls it "the roughest day so far," and says that they seem to be having a hard time with their fire, especially without Terry. And then the rain comes, so that's not going to help the fire situation. Sally says she's not sure how much the guys have left, and she's frustrated by the fact that, if they lose immunity, she'll probably be sent home. Starvation, it turns out? Not hilarious.
Challenge beach. The tribes come in, and Terry returns to his group, looking better than his tribemates do. Jeff reviews the information that Misty obviously didn't find the mini-idol, and that Bruce or Terry might have it. He then takes the three-headed idol back from Shane. Immunity is back up for grabs! Jeff says that this challenge will involve balance, teamwork, and patience. He says that one person will be on a chair attached to a pole. Another will be over her in a crow's nest with an empty drum. The other four tribe members will be tied together in two pairs with buckets. They'll walk across balance beams to get out into the water and fill their buckets, and then they'll bring them back on the balance beams. They'll empty the water into a big bucket, and the crow's-nest person will pull the pail up and empty it into the drum. When the drum gets full enough, it will drop, and the person in the chair will rise. When the person in the chair gets to the top, she can release the tribe's flag, and the first to that point wins. Oh, and: if you fall off the beam while carrying water, you lose all that water and go back to the start. So you don't want to fall off. President Beefcake will be sitting out this challenge for Casaya.
Shane and Courtney are tied together for Casaya, as are Bruce and Aras. At La Mina, Sally and Austin are tied together, and Dan and Terry. In the chairs are Chiclets and Ruth Marie; in the crow's nests are Cirie and Nick. Balancing ensues. Of note: Sally and Austin are good. Shane and Courtney are good. Dan and Terry are slow, as are Aras and Bruce. Austin calls Dan "Dan Fuego." Heh. You get Dan near any actual Fuego, and he will burn to a crisp. He looks kinda papery. Dan falls off once, but fairly early in the run, and it's not clear whether it even matters that much, given the way they have to make way for each other on the course. Basically, it ends in a tie, with both tribes bringing back the last buckets they need at exactly the same time, and Ruth Marie and Chiclets starting to rise at essentially the same time. Casaya takes it by about three seconds, it looks like, so it's really not a very satisfying challenge. It's hard to identify where anybody went wrong. But either way, Casaya celebrates, and La Mina despairs. For another week, I am denied the opportunity to get rid of Shane.
Later, La Mina returns to camp. They ask Terry a little bit about the clues, and he says that, indeed, he got the full accumulation of clues. They ask how much time he spent looking, but stupidly, they do not actually ask him, it appears, whether he found it. They are suffering from a serious lack of intellectual curiosity. ["Or, they think it's gauche, like asking someone how much something cost them. Or, the editing is making it look like they are." -- Wing Chun] Terry says in an interview that he intends not to tell anyone he has it. The folks at La Mina also have a discussion about how much they hate losing. They're presumably at least getting used to it, though. Austin interviews that he doesn't think the voting out of Sally can be avoided.
But Sally does, maybe. She comes to Terry and the guys in the shelter and says that whatever happens, she respects them, and she knows that they all have a deal, but that she has "a lot of game left." Which is probably true. She says in an interview that she has no way of knowing whether it will do any good, because "Terry calls the shots around here." A discussion follows in which Austin tells Terry that he's thinking in terms of the strength of the tribe, and that if they don't look out for their challenge fortunes, they're going to find that it's just the four of them going into the merge. He also points out to Terry that he'd be the first target in the event they went to a merge outnumbered. Which is true. Austin points out that Sally has performed well in the challenges. Furthermore, he argues that the person who made a deal with Ruth Marie was Dan, not the rest of them. There is footage of Dan here in which I almost feel like his butt crack is showing, which...I mean, where is the blurring, people? Your blurring staff chose this moment to go on vacation?
Terry talks about Austin coming up and "pitching" the idea of booting Ruth Marie instead of Sally. He acknowledges that Dan made Ruth Marie a deal, but he's clearly starting to think that it would be better for the team to keep Sally. Which it almost certainly would be. Ultimately, Terry says, "I'm with you." Austin interviews that he thought this would take a miracle, but apparently, he has "some Jesus of Nazareth-like powers." Ew. Please don't go there, Austin. Aside from your dopey need to have a group discussion of the merits of napping, I mostly like you.
Now, Austin and Terry talk to Dan about booting Ruth Marie, pointing out that they know he made a deal with her, but that they didn't. Terry takes the lead in pointing out that they need the strongest player possible, and that's Sally, not Ruth Marie. Dan gives a tormented interview about how they had this agreement about going to the end, and it's so bad to be "changing horses midstream." Do they use horses in NASA? He argues to Terry that there's no point in keeping Sally, because she'll just abandon them at a merge anyway. There's something about Dan's entire fretting demeanor that's just very unlikable to me. Dan is convinced that Ruth Marie would sacrifice herself for the team, which...if you think about how patronizing it is, you will realize that it's very patronizing. For his part, Nick thinks the distinction between Dan's promise and all of them making a promise is kind of a dorky technicality, and he feels guilty about turning on Ruth Marie, because she's "part of the five of us." Clever boy.
As Ruth Marie and Sally pick up snails, Sally laments her situation and her lack of power in it. "It's like the almighty men are upstairs plotting, and us little women are just down here going, 'I wonder what they're gonna do!'" She is so right, and that's exactly why this is all so icky. For her part, Ruth Marie declares herself neither confident nor paranoid. Shane, of course, is both. Ruth Marie says that Sally is going unless there is a change of plans. Austin says that Dan is still campaigning to save Ruth Marie, though it's not clear quite when that interview happened.
Tribal council. Jeff welcomes everyone, and starts off by asking Terry about Exile Island. Terry talks about the minimal supplies, and the "unique experience." Jeff asks Sally whether they asked Terry about the idol, and she says that they talked about it, but acknowledges that Terry didn't really say either that he found it or that he didn't find it. Jeff asks Austin what he missed about Terry, and Austin talks about how Terry is a "natural leader." They like it when he's in charge. Jeff then asks about individual challenge performance, and points out that Sally "dominated." She says that she always gives everything she has in challenges. She loves to compete, and she hates losing. Jeff asks Austin whether he's made any mistakes in the first eleven days, and Austin says that he poured the water too slowly ("like my grandmother") at the end of the challenge, not realizing that both tribes had enough at that point to finish.
Jeff asks Ruth Marie what holds her back, and she says that she's small, and she's twice as old as Sally. She does feel like she's proved herself, though. Jeff then asks Sally how she felt about having Misty go when she wasn't expecting it. Sally admits that she was surprised. "I was the only one who didn't know what was going on," she says, a little weakly. Asked whether she knows what's going on tonight, she declares it "hard to say." She says that she wants to stay, but notes that everyone else wants to stay, too. Jeff asks Ruth Marie what the tribe will miss tomorrow if she goes tonight. She gives a thoughtful answer, which is that they might not miss her tomorrow, but that they'll miss her steadiness and loyalty [zing!] over time.
Jeff reminds the group that Terry is the only one who might reveal the idol after the voting. Austin votes. Terry votes. Sally votes for Ruth Marie. "It's probably going to be you or me tonight, girl, so...I'll miss you." That was nice. Dan votes. Ruth Marie votes for Sally: "Sally, I adore you. But I'm voting my alliance." Nick votes.
Jeff returns with the votes. The first is for Ruth Marie. The second is for Sally, with a heart. The third is for Ruth Marie, the fourth is for Sally. Fifth is for Ruth Marie. Sixth is...Ruth Marie. She turns back to her tribe, and she holds her fist out, and they all put their fists in to meet her. That's nice. It's like...she's unhappy, but she gets it, and this game would be a lot more fun if more people got it. She is snuffed. Nice lady, but that's the right call. Nicely, as she leaves, she turns and blows a kiss, and they all reach a hand out in response.
I'm so pissed off that Shane is still playing.
Anyway. Jeff talks about how they seem to have a positive attitude and can still turn it around, and he sends them back to camp.
week: La Mina is on its last legs. Courtney is interrupting the Zen garden. Disaster swamps Casaya, which it deserves.