Don't Come Back, Shane

S12E12

It's Loved Ones Week at Gitanos, and the reward challenge brings out Cirie's husband, Chiclets's mom, Aras's mom, Terry's wife, and the one and only Boston Powers. Who, incidentally, is much too cute to be related to Shane. The challenge is entirely physical (duh), so Terry wins (duh), and he's put in charge of deciding who gets how much time with loved ones. Terry gives himself and Shane the overnight resort visits with wife and son, respectively; he lets Cirie's husband come to camp with her for a while; he lets Aras get a hug from his mom; and Chiclets gets nada, and goes to Exile Island. Rather than just acknowledge that the situation sucks and nobody needs to say otherwise, Terry comes back to camp and declares that Chiclets shouldn't be mad, because it's "just her mom." Aras takes offense, and Terry proceeds to explain to him how all married people know more about what emotional relationships are important than anyone else does, which is why, after all, no marriages ever end. Jerk. There is another immunity challenge, it's physical again, and Terry wins again, which is absolutely mesmerizing, except not at all. Shane wants the Chiclets boot again, but for some of the same reasons that Courtney was removed last week, Cirie and Aras are both thinking that it would be a good time to get rid of Shane, who is cruising to a nobody-likes-you F2 spot if they're not careful. In one of the season's few actual surprising boots, Shane is finally dispatched, separated from his Thinking Seat and wood Blackberry, and reduced to ranting in private.

Previously on Cirie-ously: It looked like Chiclets might be on her way out, and then it looked like Aras might be on his way out. But Cirie took note of both Terry and Shane's determination to take Courtney to F2, so she engineered a split-vote -- in which Shane's vote against Chiclets and Terry and Courtney's votes against Aras went to waste, because Cirie, Chiclets, and Aras ganged up on Courtney and sent her off for a hot-oil treatment. Oh, and Terry won a car, but his winning ways were such old hat that they had fungus growing on them. Now, five are left. Who will not make it to the weird extra episode we're getting week before the finale?

Credits. The long ones! Remember Melinda? I know, it's been a really long time.

Gitanos, Night 30. I hope you're enjoying Bruce's beautiful tribe flag, now that Bruce is off enjoying a barium enema. Shane and Aras are talking in the wake of the surprising-to-Shane Courtney boot, and Aras tells him that he found out Chiclets had planned to vote for him in the original plan that was hatched by Terry, as well. Shane asks Aras how he knew this, and Aras says that Cirie clued him in. Shane interviews that, indeed, at tribal council, he thought that Chiclets was the choice, but it was not to be. Shane confronts Cirie in night-vision cam and asks her what happened. Cirie claims that everything went down really quickly in the ten minutes before they left for tribal council, and that there was no opportunity to talk to Shane, because he was...off somewhere. This what's known as the "You were way up there in the thing" defense, and it's hard to believe that it could work. Cirie interviews that this story is something that she and Aras cooked up ahead of time to try to cover their asses so that Shane wouldn't freak out. Well, so he wouldn't freak out any more than is an ingrained part of his personality.

Shane responds to this by lightly scolding Cirie that she should have "run up" and told him what was happening, but he is happy in announcing to her that the two of them and Aras "have the numbers." Now, they can boot Chiclets and be done with it. Shane pauses: "You're not trying to pull no fast..." Cirie reassures him that she isn't. Fast? Cirie? No! Shane interviews that F2 with Courtney would have been the "easiest" thing for him. But he's been assured that Chiclets will be out , so it's all good. Around the fire, he tells the rest of the tribe, "It's nice not to have that moron here running her mouth." And then he uncorks a line that I laughed at in spite of myself: "It couldn't have happened to a loopier broad." There's a lot of truth to that, although it is kind of the pot calling the kettle loopy.

The moon. The sun! Things change so quickly around here. Now, it is Day 31. Aras is resting and staring into the fire: "How calm is this camp?" "Calm," Shane agrees, and then he adds, "I wonder why." Yeah. Thinking Seat/Fake Blackberry Guy wants the others to know that other people were really making camp life feel a little wacky. Terry interviews that last night was his fifth failure to get the numbers to turn in his favor. Not a very good record, strategy-wise. Fewer wins than the Green Bay Packers. You see, Terry thought that all would clearly be well, since he and Chiclets "shook hands" and "looked each other in the eye" about taking Courtney to F3. He feels that because she lied to him, "[Chiclets] is on the chopping block." And if there's anyone who influences who's on the chopping block, it's Terry. He waves his wand, and princes become frogs! Worlds are destroyed! "Not my problem anymore," he says coldly, as if he's been protecting Chiclets this entire time up until now. Now, she will feel the wrath of the really, completely, utterly irrelevant!

By Miss Alli

And now: challenge jungle gyms. Gee, it's going to be a physical test of agility? I wonder how this will turn out. Wake me up when Terry is going "RUH!" in celebration. No, seriously. It's good they've finally devised a challenge that will reward physical strength and quickness, since the other challenges have been so overwhelmingly focused on mental ability and strategic and analytical thinking. You can't make every challenge favor the librarians. The contestants line up on their mat. Jeff tells them that the challenge is made up of elements of old challenges. First, dig in the sand and find a bag. Second round: untie a snake. Third round: Run up a hill, down a hill, untie a dangling fish. (Untie a dangling...fish? I believe I missed a challenge somewhere along the line, possibly. I think I would remember that.) Final round: jungle gym climbing. And what are we playing for? "Today," Jeff says, "you're playing for love." He goes on to explain that the winner of the challenge today will decide who gets love and how much they get. Greeeat.

First-round winners: Chiclets, Terry, Aras, Cirie, in that order. (Chiclets beating Terry in a digging contest, you'll notice. Also, Shane's out.) round's winners: Chiclets, Aras, Terry. (Aras and Chiclets both beating Terry.) You'll notice Terry's lack of actual invincibility, as opposed to his tendency to fortuitously win the right round at the right moment. Cirie gets eliminated. round: Aras, then Terry. Please note that Terry has yet to win a round. Chiclets has won two, but she came last in this round, so she's out. Now, it's Aras and Terry in the final round. Unsurprisingly -- not based on ability, but based on the way the fucking season is going -- Terry wins again, after they both fall in almost the exact same way, but Aras drops something, and Terry doesn't. So Terry wins one round out of four, and the only one he wins is the one when there's only one guy to beat, but nonetheless, he is the winner, again.

So this is how it works: Two loved ones go with their contestants on an overnight stay at a lovely house with food and separate bedrooms and whatnot. One loved one gets to come back to camp overnight. One gets a hug, and then...that's it. The last one gets nothing -- except sent to Exile Island. Terry takes his wife as the first person going to the overnight -- duh. Then he picks Shane and Boston to go to the overnight, which...I would have brought the kid to camp, no? And maybe given Cirie and her husband the overnight? The same way that Terry wants it for himself? I don't know. Instead, Terry picks H.B. to go back to camp, and Cirie is all giggly and happy, which is cute. They like each other a lot. Now, the two loved ones left are the moms. Aras is getting the hug, and Chiclets is getting the short end of the stick -- not even a hug from her mom. As Aras gets his hug, he tells his mom to make lots of food for when he gets home. Heh. With my mom, it would be margaritas, but still. After Chiclets's mom gives a tearful farewell and gives her the love of "Pugsy," Chiclets watches her go and then says, "She's so cute." Heh. So now, Chiclets gets on the boat for Exile Island. Trish and Terry and Shane and Boston head off for their overnight. Cirie, H.B., and Aras head back to camp.

We return from commercials to visit Chiclets at Exile Island. She voices over that she was very disappointed about not being able to hug her mom when everybody else was able to hug his or her loved one. She chops a coconut and fantasizes that it might be Terry's head. I know the feeling. Sometimes, I imagine I am closing the car door on Shane's toe. Chiclets tells us that Terry is mad that she ruined his plan to go to F3 with Courtney, but she's "not going to sit and cry about it."

Back at Gitanos, Cirie tells H.B. that she ate some snails, and that they were good enough when they were hungry. She says that H.B. definitely didn't know what to expect when they got back to camp. She asks him whether she smells bad, and he hesitates only for a minute before breaking the news: yes, she does. She interviews that she thinks he was shocked to see how "primitive" the conditions at camp really were. We watch, as Cirie holds up a little container to H.B. and tells him that it contains "snail butts." To which he hilariously responds, "Snail who?" I'm not sure whether my reaction is that I didn't know that snails had butts, or whether I thought the entire snail was the butt. Cirie clarifies that she's referring to the bad parts of snails, and she uses it to attract fish. Aras, for his part, gives H.B. a fire-making lesson, and H.B. gets a little alarmed when the fire spits at him. Cirie chuckles in her interview that, like her, H.B. has never been anywhere, and that he's a "couch potato." We now observe, as she pours some water into a canteen, and he's a little surprised that she's drinking water that looked so grungy. "With the dirt and stuff in it?" he asks her. "It's good for you," she laughs. "I thought that was, like, a basin that y'all wash y'all feet in or something," he tells her. Oh, H.B. Their feet would leave water much dirtier than that. Cirie tells us that seeing H.B. there made her appreciate how far she's come, and made her feel like maybe she's been underestimating herself all along. I would not dismiss that possibility, certainly.

Happy resort music brings us to the lovely estate, where Terry and Trish and Shane and Boston are vacationing. Shane forages in the freezer and finds ice cream. Terry explains that the kitchen was packed with food and drinks, including a honkload of alcohol and bacon. Trish takes a moment to look at how skinny Terry is -- he insists that his is his 1978 body, heh -- and she interviews that she was shocked at how thin and tired he was. She can't wait to make him shave, and get him "hot" and "studly" again. I sincerely hope she's using the word "studly" ironically, which is the only way it is ever permissible. I am giving her the benefit of the doubt, in spite of...lots of things.

Shane tells Boston how they first got to camp, and Shane interviews that being with his kid on an overnight is the only reward he really cares about anyway. I also like the part where Shane tells Boston that he ultimately didn't quit, because the kid would kick his ass if he did. Boston smiles and nods with a thrilled tickle of satisfaction, like he's trying to be all "of course, of course," but really he wants to take out a tape recorder and ask Shane to say it again, because it sounds that good.

And now, Terry unveils the hidden immunity idol to Trish. It sort of seems like he feels stupid, because it's so small and fuzzy, and it suddenly makes this entire thing seem cheaper and less important than it did when he was able to keep it hidden. It's like how the giant you-know-what at the end of It wasn't that scary on TV, the way it was in your head. Terry says that Trish is so perceptive and good at strategy that she immediately started jumping into the game and giving advice. She could hardly be any worse at strategy than Terry is, so she at least isn't going to make it worse. Outside, all four overnighters chat, and Trish wonders whether the end will come down to all men. Shane says that at F4, he and Cirie intend to get rid of Aras. Trish suggests that Chiclets should be looking for the idol right now, and Shane says he knows perfectly well that Terry has it. Trish lies that Terry hasn't told her, which is really not accomplishing anything at this point. Terry has already shown it to people, dear. It's too late to be cagey. Shane comments that Trish is more competitive than Terry is, because she was bringing up the game. "What a lovely woman, but unbelievably competitive," Shane says.

Shane and Boston chat. Shane says that it's been hard being without Boston. "I know," the kid says. "Seven more days." Boston tells us that his dad is doing great, and then he says, "He's like a brother to me, more than a father." And...yeah, you can get on that, and it's probably not ideal, and I'm sure that Shane's various ways of fucking up have contributed to that. But, you know, here's a guy who has absolutely no problem telling everybody who will listen how much he loves his kid, and whose kid clearly feels loved, and who went on The Early Show (spoiler!) and had nothing but nice things to say about Boston's mom, as I understand it, even though they're not together. It's like...Shane is crazy out the wazoo, but this part, I do not question, particularly. Shane was, in fact, extremely young when Boston was born, and while the "brother" thing is not, as I said, probably ideal, that may be the best he can do; he seems to be trying. I have a jillion problems with Shane's behavior -- from the fat jokes to the self-indulgent bullshit -- but I think he loves this kid a lot.

And then, we are in Terry and Trish's room, right where I do not want to be. He turns out the lights, all chicka-wocka and so forth. Terry gets into bed, and Terry (I think) says, "Be gentle with me," which is both funny and dumb. Terry interviews how great it was just to sleep in a bed with his wife (I am a particular fan of the waking-up part, speaking solely for myself). "I'll be good to you," she says, as they turn out the light.

Back from commercials, we are at Gitanos. It is now Day 33. Cirie is showing H.B. where there are branches that he can bring down for her. It appears that even on a desert island, H.B. has a very intensive honeydew list. He interviews that he was indeed given a lot of work to do around camp, and Cirie agrees in an interview that he "needs to help," because the tribe needs to hang on to the energy it has. And I think I agree with that, mostly. H.B. interviews that being bossed around to get water and such was getting a little old, although my sense is that most of the bitching is being done in a good-natured way. In other news, Cirie apparently calls H.B. "honey bunny." Hee. They even get him so worn out that he drinks the water, and it looks like he is very much loath to do so.

And then the boat approaches, and Cirie knows that H.B. is about to leave. He starts to tear up in an interview as he talks about how proud he is of her. They hug and smooch as the boat bumps up on shore. "She's my hero," he voices over. He climbs onto the boat, and Cirie says that having him there reminded her why she's there -- she's there for her entire family: "I want us to have, like, a wonderful life," I think I want them to have a wonderful life, too. I have a feeling H.B. will spend their first few thousand dollars on bottled water.

Now, Terry and Shane return. Aras asks whether everyone at camp got a good night's sleep, and Terry -- apparently unconcerned about the fact that Aras just didn't get to hang out with his loved one for a day -- smarms, "There wasn't any sleeping on my part!" Cirie hugs Terry and kisses him, and she thanks him. Terry says she's welcome, and then -- without prompting -- takes it upon himself to haughtily say, "You know what? The choices were so...were so clear to me." And this is where you find out that, for all his challenge abilities, Terry has fewer social skills than almost anyone, ever, which is why he can't get anyone on his side. It is hard to believe Terry's rank stupidity, by announcing in front of Aras -- whom he screwed -- how obvious it was for Terry to decide that Aras was one of the ones to be screwed. Cirie says that Terry went on to explain his thinking in dividing up the love the way he did -- a conversation that, it appears, he initiated.

"So anyway," Terry says around the fire, "that's what it came down to. Danielle's twenty-four years old, and it was only her mom." Without raising his voice, Aras says, "Just so you know, man, twenty-four or not twenty-four, everybody out here wanted to see their families. Just as bad as you wanted to see Trish, I wanted to spend a night with my mom. And to think, 'Well, it's just a mom' -- that rubs me the wrong way when you say that." Again, Aras has not raised his voice, he has not lost his temper -- he has done nothing but express his opinion that it's unfair for Terry to assume that a relationship with someone's mother can be dismissed out of hand as "just her mom." Note that Aras is not addressing all people's relationships ever; he is just saying that in this situation, everyone wanted time with family just as much as Terry did, and it's unfair to assume that's not true just because the relationship is with a parent. And what in the hell does being twenty-four have to do with it? Nothing, that's what.

Terry, on the other hand, climbs right up on his high horse and opens his lecture about how Aras is single, and thus knows nothing: "When you get married, in my viewpoint, there's no choice. If I had a choice to see my wife, or I had a choice to see my mother, I'm seeing my wife." That is the stupidest analogy of all time, you asshole! That's not the question! It's not who a person with both a wife and a mother would choose to see; that's asinine. Aras interviews that Terry could have at least shown a little sympathy, given that he just got to be with his family overnight, and Aras didn't. Which: seriously. Even if the rest of this wasn't horribly presumptuous, it's unbelievably tin-eared, selfish, and insensitive not to recognize that Aras is a person who got screwed -- whether it's the only way Terry knew of to do it or not, there's no need to be an asshole about it. As if we would expect Aras to say, "Gee, Terry, you're right -- I actually don't give a shit that I didn't get to spend any time with somebody who loves me."

Back in their conversation, Aras points out to the rest of the group that they have been out here for thirty-three days. "[My mom] is my rock," he says. Aras adds that Terry is denying that one person's rock is as important as another person's rock. Terry interviews: "Here I have some twenty-four-year-old kid lecturing me -- 'my mom is my rock, and she means as much to me as your wife means to you.'" He goes on to brag how cool it was that Aras got upset, and hell -- all he had to do was denigrate the guy's relationship with his mother, right? What could be cooler than that? Back in their discussion, Terry announces: "When you have a wife, you'll know this. When it happens to you, it'll happen."

Man, what an arrogant prick. This entire thing is nothing but Terry saying, "Your emotional life is less important than mine, because it is not arranged like mine." Terry is actually refusing to acknowledge that it sucked hard for Aras and Chiclets not to see their mothers. It's mind-boggling to me that anyone could look another person in the eye and announce that he is so sure that he knows how everyone's emotional lives are and should be arranged that he knows for a fact that you don't love [this person] as much as he loves [that person]. It's such bullshit, you know? What Aras is trying to say with all that silliness about rocks is that most people have someone who's primary to them -- that's the person you go to first. If you are at the end of your rope, you go to that person. If you need a favor that's hard to ask for, you go to that person. If you fuck up and you don't know how to fix it and you're embarrassed to admit what you did, you go to that person. If you're scared, you're lonely, you're hurt, you're discouraged, you're ecstatic, you're amused -- you go to that person. They keep you from screwing up; they help you keep your perspective; they are blindly loyal to you; they cover you and protect you and remind you who you are; and they let you do all that same stuff for them -- that's who that person is.

And as much as I often find the "I haven't seen my family in ten days, WAAAAAAH" stuff kind of overblown, having that person vanish is undoubtedly very difficult. I agree with Terry that for most married people, that person is their spouse, which is perfectly appropriate. For kids, it's probably a parent. For some parents, it's a child. For some people, it's a best friend. And it's not just that the person is your spouse that makes that loss, even temporarily, so difficult to bear -- it's that the person is primary to you. The fact that Terry's mother isn't that person to him, doesn't mean that Aras's mother isn't that person to him. The loss of your primary support system and the person who stands at the center of it -- whoever that person is -- is very difficult and very disorienting, even if you're not married. For Terry to stand here and blow smoke about how nobody's mom is as important as anybody's wife is...well, really, what it makes me feel is sorry for Terry, because it doesn't sound like he's had a very rich collection of relationships if he doesn't understand that anybody other than a spouse can be important enough for it to really hurt not to see them. I'm not saying marriages aren't unique relationships, because they are, but they're not unique because other relationships can be dismissed as "only her mom." "Only her sister," "only his best friend," "only his daughter." It's ridiculous. Not all marriages are perfect emotional bonds. Not all family relationships or other relationships are inferior to them. God. Open your eyes to a complicated emotional world, you close-minded dick.

At any rate, Aras interviews that Terry should show him respect because Terry is so old, which is stupid and lame, and reminds me that Terry is the arrogant prick in this conversation, but Aras is still a pencil-neck yoga dork. Aras insists that this is "fueling [his] fire." Surely, he'll beat Terry now, right? How much hotter can his fire burn before he pretty much has to stop losing?

Immunity challenge. Stand on a post, drag a bucket up from the water, pour it into a bamboo tube until the tube fills up and you can grab your flag. Hand-eye coordination, physical strength, and balance. Terry the fighter pilot wins. The end. Was that too quick for you? Oh, and Shane keeps aiming for the wrong hole, which somehow is very easy for me to believe. The best part is that at the end of the challenge, Shane speaks the ominous words, "For one of you, the game will end tonight! Dun-dun-dun-dunnn!" Hee. Okay, that was funny.

We return from commercials to find the tribe coming back to camp again, and Terry talking about how great it was to win immunity again. And it certainly was, because he has literally not done one thing right in this entire game, other than win the equivalent of corporate-picnic party games a bunch of weeks in a row, and now he's through to F3, meaning that Terry may very well be the first person in the history of the game to win without having to do anything -- not anything -- that was strategically intelligent. It's literally a million dollars for winning a bunch of dumb games. There's nothing wrong with that, I guess, but I don't find it very satisfying. It's all in whom you like, I guess.

Terry talks to Shane, who tells him that Chiclets is "depressed because she knows she's ." Shane confidentially tells us that the plan is for him, Aras, and Cirie to get rid of Chiclets tonight: "I've set myself up so that I'm safe." Shane also tells Terry that Chiclets is "a princess at home," and that she gets whatever she wants from "daddy or the boyfriend." Terry interviews that after what Chiclets did at tribal council the other night, he wouldn't feel too terrible about getting rid of her: "And from what I know, she's going anyway." Shane and Terry talk, and when Terry asks whether it will be he and Shane in the finals, Shane agrees that it will "go down that way, yes." Terry interviews that his case for the million, if he were in the final two, would be perfectly obvious -- he fishes for everyone, he works in camp, he gets firewood, he won all the challenges: "That would be a no-brainer, even for a heavily loyal Casaya jury."

Oh, my God. Terry is seriously the stupidest person ever. Has he learned nothing -- nothing -- about the way people on a jury vote? No significant number of jurors have ever considered work around camp or the winning of challenges when they cast their final votes. Listen to me, and listen well: Nine times out of ten, a juror's vote is cast to make the outcome consistent with the story as they want it to end, based on where they want to place themselves in the story. If you never learn another thing from watching this show, you should remember this: people vote in order to make the story end in a way that allows them to live with their role in it. Lex voted for Amber, because in the story in Lex's head, Boston Rob is an evil manipulator who was, in the end, foiled by the jurors he betrayed. Ami voted for Twila, because in the story in Ami's head, she played that game attempting to unite the women, and she ultimately showed her loyalty to that goal. People cast votes in order to build a story they can live with that will cause them not to hate themselves for losing a million dollars. They do not vote for the person who worked the hardest, or for the person who won challenges, or for the person who overcame the largest odds. Spite! They vote out of spite! Even the nice ones, they usually vote out of spite! It's what makes the show irresistible! Don't fight it!

Aras and Chiclets have a chat. "Shane had my word, and he lost it," Aras says, presumably talking about the part where he found out that Shane intended to take Courtney and Cirie to F3 and throw him over. Chiclets says that she thinks it's kind of amusing how Shane thinks he's in control of the game and everything. Aras interviews that Shane's maneuvering makes him no longer feel at all guilty about getting rid of Shane. Therefore, he pulls Cirie aside for a chat. He tells her about the plan to boot Shane. Chiclets tells us that she and Shane are looking to get rid of each other, but she trusts her bond with Cirie: "It's so key in this game to have one person that you can trust." Cut to, of course, a highly metaphorical snake. Shane and Cirie discuss how they're going to get rid of Chiclets, and then they'll get rid of Aras -- but not in a way that will make it look like they're betraying him, because he'll remember that when they get to the jury. Cirie promises Shane that she's 100% with him. Shane asks whether she, Chiclets, and Aras are after him, and Cirie says that they're not. "I feel good," Shane announces. "I think we're probably good to the three."

Cirie interviews that Shane believes that Aras is voting for Chiclets, when in fact, Aras and Chiclets are voting for Shane. She says that while she's had the most long-standing alliance with Chiclets and Aras, Chiclets might beat her in an F2 situation, and Shane, of course, will not. She's counting up votes, and she thinks Courtney might stay with Chiclets, and then there's Austin, and there's Bruce, who Cirie thinks had a sort of thing for Chiclets, I guess...she's nervous about going forward with Chiclets. Shane, for his part, says he thinks he could beat any of these people. Ha! Shane then tells the tribe, "No tricky votes, like, 'I can't get him; he's on the ridge.'" He tells them -- ha ha! -- that if he's going tonight, they should just tell him. Ha ha! And they assure him that he's not, ho ho! Of course not! Cirie interviews that she loves Aras, but she's going to do whatever she can to stay in the game. "Somebody's going to be surprised tonight," she declares.

Tribal council. The group enters and sits down. Jeff brings in the jury. Courtney is doing her best Sideshow Bob, and she blows a kiss with two fingers, which makes me think of hit men and Sammy Sosa at the same time, which is uncomfortable.

Jeff asks Terry whether he found it difficult to hand out love to other people. Terry immediately talks about being in "a God position," and Aras rolls his eyes. Understandably. That's just so...unnecessary, you know? "I'm afraid if I offended anybody," Terry says, "but I think it all worked out okay." Of course you do! You got laid, asshole! Jesus. Jeff asks Cirie how H.B. liked camp, and she says that he was glad to have the experience, but was very happy to go home. She says that it was "once in a lifetime" for them. And Shane, how was his time with Boston? Shane calls it "a magical, magical vacation with him." He says that he thought how there was nowhere else he would rather be than watching the sunset with Boston. Other than watching it with a young Jodie Foster. Just kidding! Mostly!

And now, the immunity challenge. Jeff asks Aras about the competition between him and Terry, and Aras says that losing over and over again just makes it "more fun," which: bullshit, and then Terry smirks insufferably, which: also bullshit, and this is where Judge Marilyn Milian would say it's time to call off the game of quien es mas macho? As Jeff asks Terry the question, Terry winks at the jury, which is so, so gross. Aras makes the excellent point that challenges are only one thing, and you'll never get your hands on the million if nobody likes you. Terry rolls his eyes again, because it's true, so he can't think of what else to do. Nodding as if Aras has a point is obviously not an option. Aras's mom probably told him to say that.

Jeff asks Shane whether he can be trusted. "Yes, absolutely," Shane says. He goes on to talk about how he hasn't betrayed anyone and so forth. Not lied, not cheated -- "My integrity is 100% intact." Asked whether she can be trusted, Chiclets has to think for a minute, while Courtney sticks out her tongue. No demonstrations, jury. Chiclets talks about how you lose trust in people when you hear that they're plotting against you. "You have to make moves in the game to further yourself," she says. Asked whether he was really trying in the immunity challenge, Shane says that he does feel like he's kind of being brought along on the theory that he's beatable in F2. "More easily than, like, Cirie, who's a mother of three and an unbelievable person. Or Aras, who's the golden boy, who at any point could levitate home." It's interesting to me that Aras is perceived that way, because "golden boy" was not so much on my list of descriptors.

Jeff asks Chiclets how worried she is, and she says she's nervous, especially after a couple of days away. She's not comfortable, to say the least.

Time to vote. Is Terry going to give away the immunity necklace? Nah. Terry would never engage in strategy that complicated. Aras votes for Shane: "Sorry, brother." Chiclets votes. Terry votes. Shane votes for Chiclets. Cirie votes.

Now, it's time to read the votes. First vote: Chiclets. Second vote: Shane. He flinches. Second vote: Shane. His mouth drops. Third vote: Shane. You're gone, dude. Shane actually does laugh, to his credit. He grabs his torch and goes to be snuffed. As he approaches Jeff, Shane turns and says, "Oh, my God, I'm going to have a chocolate ice cream bar in about one -- like, one minute." Ha! Shane's best moment ever. Snuff! Jeff says that in both of the last two rounds, the person booted has been shocked. Grab your torches! Get out of here!

In his final interview, Shane says that he was shocked, but he doesn't seem particularly bitter, and he calls his son "Bobo." Hee.

week: Cirie has had about enough of Terry. "Make an attempt to talk to people like you want to be talked to," she says, and...God, SERIOUSLY. Aras and Terry get in to something fierce at the challenge. Chiclets aligns with Terry. Boo!