So, this was awesome. First, there was a reward challenge in which Aitu kicked Raro's fanny, in spite of the buff-guy advantage, mostly because Raro can't work together at all. So Aitu took home some nice blankets and things. Then, in the immunity challenge, J.P. got himself smoked by Ozzy, and then various other things went wrong, and Aitu walked off with immunity as well. Not a good week for the gym crowd. As it turned out, J.P. had dug himself into a hole by aligning with the rest of the guys and proceeding to sit around on his ass expecting to be served. By the time the immunity challenge ended badly, some of the women were ready to be rid of him, and when Jenny led a rebellion with which she attempted to get either Parvati or Brad to be the fifth member, J.P. received his walking papers. For once, the big, buff, arrogant blowhard actually got what was coming to him, which never happens! Turns out that in addition to Parvati and brad, J.P. also got a vote from Adam, so J.P. went home handily. Well played, women of Raro. That's one less jackass for us to contend with.
Previously on Hey, We Never Said It Was A LENGTHY Social Experiment: the four tribes were collapsed into two, and the new Raro gave a beating to the new Aitu in a sandbag-hauling, old-skinny-dude-rassling, walking-in-circles challenge that really played to Raro's knuckle-dragging strengths as a tribe and made all the women look like candy-asses, not that the latter is especially difficult. Facing the prospect of throwing someone off, Yul and a surprisingly non-annoying Jonathan scrambled to assemble an alliance including Becky, JessiFlicka, and Cao Boi -- plus an absent Candice, sent to Exile by Adam and Parvati, who may have been scheming, but may also have been merely saying the name of the only person they remembered. Yul and Jonathan's little team managed to get it together and gang up on the awesome Cecilia, which was too bad, given that she was...awesome, kind of, even though she aligned herself with Ozzy. Delightfully, it appeared as though Ozzy was successfully marginalized and will simply have to sit around and pick bugs out of his hair for the lengthy interval. It appeared that Aitu was badly outgunned, and was on its way to a few weeks of ritual stomping before the merge, and it also appeared that we were going to have to tolerate a heck of a lot of footage of JessiFlicka talking about strategy, which was even more regrettable, since it resembles watching a sandwich do math.
After the "previously"s but prior to the credits -- which is a very unusual time for new footage -- we settle on a starry sky, and we learn that we are taking our post-tribal-council visit to Aitu on Night 8. ["WHAT?! I fast-forwarded through all of that on the assumption that it was part of the 'previously's! Damn you, Burnett, this isn't The Apprentice!" -- Wing Chun] A whole lot of rats are running around, so the wildlife population is basically rats and chickens, for those of you keeping score at home. It's a great opportunity to see animals you'd never see back home in your workaday life, unless you happen to work days at a KFC. Aitu returns from the tribal council in which Cecilia was booted and Ozzy was thwarted. One imagines that Jonathan is probably feeling pretty good, because this is the coolest thing he's done since he killed Bill Paxton and buried him in the tomato patch. Yul, on the other hand, still has a feeling that this should all be more like a team-building exercise and less like playing dodgeball in gym. "Oh, man, that sucked," Yul says of his own triumph. He may have a lot of degrees, but he totally sucks at gloating. "No matter how we sliced it, it was not going to be nice," Sundra tells him. I hope Yul doesn't keep doing this, because it does not endear you to people when you sit around feeling sorry for yourself about getting your way, even if you feel sincerely bad. Buck up, little camper! This is what it's like when things go well.
Becky interviews in night vision that it's not particularly pleasant knowing that she received three votes, but that she feels pretty good with her alliance of Yul, Candice, and Jonathan. She does not mention the add-on members, Flicka and Cao Boi. They're just padding. They're just nonconformist, tattooed, not-like-other-people padding. Stuff 'em in a locker! Throw 'em in the trash! Fill their shorts with pepper! Yul offers Ozzy a hermit crab as a peace offering, but Ozzy turns it down. "I don't like hermit crab," he says, dead-eyed and resentful. I think Ozzy needs some new things to feel bitter about, because the fact that what he was trying to do to others got done to him instead just isn't doing it for me. Ozzy tells us that he feels like an outsider in his tribe. Wonder if Billy felt anything like that, ass. He also claims that Cecilia was the one who helped him "lay the foundation for all the things these people are going to enjoy." I see. They shouldn't have booted Cecilia because of the high-quality fire pit. Good one. "If they want to vote me out, they should do it soon so I don't have to keep catching food for them," Ozzy grumps in a voice-over. From your lips to God's ears, Fuzzy Bare.
And now, credits. I'm so disoriented. My world has been turned upside-down. Night is day. Black is white. Who are you?
On Day 9, we see a boat skimming across the water, and of course, it is carrying Candice back from Exile Island, where, based on her stance in the front of the boat, she apparently took the time she otherwise would have devoted to searching for the immunity idol and spent it instead on intense study of posing for magazine covers. When she returns to camp, she says, "No idol." Yul looks guilty. Does he ever not? Asked why she thinks she was sent to Exile, Candice says she thinks it's because she was the youngest. In other words, she's advocating the "they didn't want you to be able to improve the tribe by booting me" theory, rather than the "they wanted me there after the merge to help them kick your asses" theory. JessiFlicka says that she thinks it must have been Parvati and Adam, but that she "can't figure out why they would do it." She speculates that maybe they were trying to "protect" Candice. Candice looks around uncomfortably, and then laughs it off by saying that these are all good questions she hasn't thought about. In an interview, Candice says, yes, she suspects that this was Adam and Parvati's doing, but that she doesn't want the rest of her team to think she has some bond with her former tribe, so she played it off. Not particularly successfully, I might add. Indeed, when Sundra mentions that they might have been preserving Candice, Candice goes wide-eyed and says, "Oh, I didn't even think about that." What's great about this is that the show is kind of playing it to be crafty, like Flicka is trying to expose something and Candice is trying to conceal it, but I actually think they're both fairly guileless. I get the sense that if you put thought bubbles over their heads while they were having this conversations, the bubbles wouldn't have anything but ditto marks, referring to what was actually coming after their mouths. Or there would just be a lot of repeating. ("I never thought of that." "[I never thought of that.]")
It is Day 9 at Raro. Their tribe still looks healthy, as does the lizard that's slinking around. I always think that, if I were starving, I'd just start following the lizards, because they have to be eating something, and they always look chipper. Jenny and Parvati are stripping leaves from palm fronds, and Rebecca is fussing around the shelter. Cristina is working as well, but they are all momentarily distracted by the fact that they can hear the men off in the distance laughing hysterically. And not, so much, working. Parvati comments that it wasn't so great seeing the guys all lazing around like it was football-watching on a Sunday, while all the women were working around camp: "They're starting to, like, rule the roost a little bit. I think they're getting very comfortable with their position in this tribe. Because they know that we need them. They're strong." As the men laze around, they discuss whether the women are mad at them for not doing anything. "No way," J.P. scoffs. "Even if they all do think...what's that going to do to us?" Well, seriously. What can a group of five people do to a group of four people in a show that involves the creation of majorities? He tells us that the guys are all excited about how dominant and strong they are, chuckle-smirking, "As a group of guys, we're way stronger than the other tribe's group of guys." He goes on to say that the "testosterone's flying," and that the guys are all excited about sticking together: "These girls are going to need manpower for sure, so the four-guy alliance is definitely relaxed." Adam mouth-breathes and ties a knot. He's certainly relaxed. Mouth-breathers are generally a laid-back group. Not a lot to think about, after all, other than "In...out. In...out."
Jeff calls everyone to a challenge. Neither J.P. nor Cristina looks too happy about Cecilia being the one missing from Aitu. Jeff announces that this is a reward challenge. It involves choosing two members of the tribe to be attached by clips to ropes, and then working those team members through a series of rope obstacles. So you're basically untangling the person from a whole bunch of knots and unwinding him or her around poles. These challenges generally work out to be about two things: how small your tribe members are, and how good your tribe is at working together and not freaking out. When the whole tribe gets to a table at the end of the course, one person swims out to retrieve a ring the tribe will use to decipher a phrase that's in code on the table. First tribe to finish gets reward. The reward is blankets and pillows, plus the right to send someone to Exile Island, where that person will stay until the immunity challenge. So Aitu has clipped up Becky and Candice, while Aitu has clipped up Cristina and Jenny, and Stephannie is sitting out. So far, the advantage is with Aitu, since their girls are littler, I think.
Ready? Go! Both tribes start to wind their team members around the ropes, and at first, both are doing well. Aitu gets through the first obstacle first, but then they have to dig under a log, and the buff dudes seem to have some advantage. Becky gets stuck under the log, and winds up with a mouthful of sand. Jenny and Cristina get through, and Becky is over at Aitu fussing over the way they're yanking on Candice's foot. "Don't worry about her, Becky, you worry about your job," Cao Boi orders. Hey! It's not your foot, jerkweed. Shortly thereafter, as they're tossing Becky and Candice over a post, Jonathan admonishes, "Gently, guys, let's not kill these girls." Well, seriously. Women aren't sandbags, Cao Boi, The 40 Year Old Virgin notwithstanding. Cao Boi actually argues with Jonathan, basically, saying that it doesn't matter, because if they win, they can always give the women a pillow later. Reminder, Cao Boi: broken ankles aren't cured by contact with a pillow, as much as I like a pillow. Meanwhile, Cristina tells Raro to stop, because she's tangled. At the obstacle, this keeps happening, where Cristina tells the guys what she needs them to do, and they keep arguing with her. Aitu makes its way to the puzzle table, and when they've all tagged in, Ozzy makes a run out into the water. Raro is still tangled up.
Ozzy dives for the wheel, as Raro lags way behind. Ozzy heads back. He plops the wheel down, and basically, the wheel has numbers on it, and you have to figure out how to spin it so that the code is right and the numbers in the puzzle come out as words. Aitu is solving, solving, solving, all the way until Raro finally finishes the ropes and Brad runs out to retrieve Raro's puzzle wheel. Raro actually gets into the solving part, but then Aitu makes the claim that they have it right. And the puzzle reads, "Last Castaways Back Cast One Away." That is a horrible solution to a puzzle, but it is correct, so Aitu wins. Take that, Testosterone Q. Pumpsalot. There is much celebrating, other than from Becky and Candice, who had all their bones broken. Okay, not really. Jeff hands over the pillows and the blankets. Given the opportunity to send someone to Exile Island, Aitu sends Adam. J.P. gives the tentative punch-style Rub-Free Man-Hug, and Adam gets on the boat to exile as J.P. openly stews. Aitu takes its gear, and Raro takes nothing.
When we come back, whales are frolicking. At Aitu on Day 10, the tribe is celebrating its victory. Flicka tells us that she enjoyed winning, because they all feel threatened by the brawny other team, giggling, "They're so beefy, you know?" Ozzy continues catching fish as Jonathan hands him huge props. When they return to shore, all the fish are laid out, and Ozzy is appropriately congratulated. Ozzy explains that, of the eleven fish they have, he caught nine, so he's happy to be the "sole provider." Fish pun or moment of mathematical imprecision? You be the judge. Ozzy tells us that he has "the most power," because of the way he gets all the food, so if he leaves, everyone else on Aitu will die. We know how popular that argument has proved to be over the years. Yul tells the rest of the tribe that they should call Ozzy "Poseidon." I think not. Someone else suggests "Neptune." I scream "Dork!" at my TV, but nobody reacts. Sometimes, it's like I'm just screaming "Dork!" in a forest and no...trees are falling. Or something.
Over at Raro, there's a discussion of how frustrating the loss was. Nate tells them all that they needed to be humbled, so now they've been humbled and won't need to lose anymore. J.P. explains that they take pride in winning (the one time they've done it), so they feel bad about losing, and about Adam being in exile. J.P. says to the group, "Let's cook," by which he means, "You cook, and I'll sit here and boss you around while trying to figure out which way of arranging my limbs makes my pecs look bumpiest." He proceeds to direct the making of the fire, the placement of the logs, and the boiling of the water, all while lounging back in his seat. The editing suggests that the women all make unhappy faces. Parvati tells us that she finds J.P. "very demanding...in a very sly way." She refers to how much she did not enjoy the entire act in which everyone was "waiting on him." We cut back to camp just in time to see J.P. get Parvati to fetch him a machete. He does not recognize the making of enemies, even as it is happening. J.P., you are officially qualified to run the country.
The sun goes down, and it is nighttime at Raro. Parvati and Nate are chatting by the fire. They are supposedly cracking nuts, but suddenly, Nate notices that one of the nuts is kind of painful to crack. He throws it down suddenly, realizing that in fact, it is a hermit crab. That's terrifying. I think I'm going to have a hard time with Cheetos for a while. Parvati explains that this method of getting close to guys is the one that works for her -- blink-blink, gigge-giggle, and so forth. It's too bad if that's the case, because she's missing out on little things like...having friendships with men that aren't designed to be manipulative, you know? ["Um, that's for lesbians, Miss Alli, duh." -- Wing Chun] She says that she had to figure out how to "infiltrate the little group." Parvati asks Nate if the guys all have an alliance, and he confirms that they do. He also says, though, that he has Parvati's back, and that none of the other guys knows that they have this tight bond. In an interview, Nate says that he digs Parvati, and that he could be hot for her, but he's trying to avoid that. Good idea, Nate. "I don't want to find myself thinking like a dum-dum," he says. "Guys sometimes, we can't control ourselves." This message was brought to you by the Holy Brotherhood of Lowering Expectations. Parvati does tell Nate that she's not crazy about the way J.P. appears to be unilaterally running the show. Nate tells her that this is how you do it -- you let the king think he's safe. In an interview, Parvati repeats this "let the king sit pretty" motto. "Right now, the ball's in his pocket," Nate [sic]s, "but it can easily leave." Parvati says that would be "interesting." I'll say it would. I don't even know what that means, but the time I'm doing something sneaky, I'm definitely going to say to someone, "Well, the ball's in your pocket...but it can easily leave." Sometimes, all you have to do is confuse people in order to win.
We return to find that there is a rainbow over the tribes. That's a symbol of God's promise, or else it means something about the weather. It is Day 11, and Aitu is walking into the woods. Ozzy, it appears, is pointing out a nest of boobies. As in: birds. Cao Boi starts talking about eating the birds, and Jonathan balks on the theory that the mother bird in the nest is probably guarding eggs. Cao Boi scales the tree as he voices over that "the kid in [him] wanted to get some eggs for everybody." Moreover, he explains, that same "kid" just wanted to know if he could do it. So as everyone else watches, Cao Boi climbs up the tree, gets a stick, and pokes the nest. When the nest falls, however, it turns out that there are no eggs in it. What there is, however, is a baby booby, which Jonathan picks up. Cao Boi feels very bad, and he stays up in the tree as they debate what to do. "This thing is newborn, like, today," Jonathan scolds. There's a great moment when Jonathan says that the chick is "covered in...in all of its stuff." You can trace his exact thought pattern, and you can find the precise moment when he thinks, "Huh. I thought I knew the word for that fuzzy feathery coating on a baby bird, but it turns out that I don't. I'll be darned." He interviews that the thing was so little that it couldn't even hold its head up: "I wanted to cry; I felt terrible." Cao Boi apologizes to the booby (heh) for knocking down the nest, and says that he's going to put it back. With the baby inside, Jonathan hands the nest up to Cao Boi, who sets it back on the spot where he knocked it down. Cao Boi keeps apologizing as he sets the nest back in the tree. It appears as though the booby returns to the nest (the thing about mothers refusing to touch babies in this situation is an old wives' tale, I'm told), but I'm not confident this is all going to work out so well, given the fall that baby took. Cao Boi agrees in an interview that he constantly gets himself into trouble by acting without thinking: "I should know better." Well, at least he's aware. And it's not like there aren't 400 "not the first guy to get bewildered, immature, and stupid in the presence of boobies" jokes available here, but I'll just assume you made a great one in your head, okay? I mean, even Beavis would be ten steps ahead of me here, so I don't really want to strain myself unnecessarily. Cao Boi closes with "I'm really humble." It's one of those self-canceling words.
Jeff brings the tribes to a challenge course. When they're on their mats, he invites Adam to return from Exile Island. Raro gives Adam lots of big hugs. Aitu stands there indifferently, like, "Whatever, I liked them better when they only had three gym guys." Jeff takes back the immunity idol from Jenny. He explains that the challenge will begin with four tribe members on each side assembling a stretcher. Then, those four will run through the jungle carrying the stretcher until they get to the beach. Out in the water, another tribe member will be up on a mast in shackles. One of the four stretcher folk will swim out to the mast, climb up a rope ladder, and unshackle the one who's waiting. They'll swim back to the beach together with a life ring. Then the stretcher-builders put the rescued person on the stretcher, and they carry her (it will inevitably be a "her," after all) back to the start, where your three remaining tribe members will be waiting. Those three will have to make a fire that's big enough to burn through a rope. When the rope burns, the flag drops, and you win immunity. Tribal council is for losers. Raro chooses Cristina to sit out, which seems insane to me. She's a police officer! Doesn't that logically make her more useful in a situation like this than, say, Parvati? Whatever.
Logically, both tribes put the smallest people in the damsel-in-distress position up on the mast -- Candice and Parvati. Stretcher builders/carriers for Raro are the Four Buff Guys, and at Aitu it's Jonathan, JessiFlicka, Ozzy, and Yul. Ready? Go! Aitu falls slightly behind on the puzzle stretcher, which appear to be largely the luck of which pieces you happen to try putting together first. So the Raro boys have a slight lead running through the jungle, but Aitu isn't far behind. In a particularly dumb-looking and therefore enjoyable shot, Probst runs through the jungle between tribes, looking back over his shoulder to narrate. Doof. Raro gets out into the shallow water, and J.P. plunges into the water to swim out to Parvati. Ozzy is swimming for Aitu, unsurprisingly, and when he gets into the water, he runs like the wind, picking up his feet and just sprinting, ultimately making up Aitu's entire deficit by the time he and J.P. start swimming. It kind of felt at the time like he ran a lot longer than J.P., but he really didn't -- J.P. just wasn't very fast running through the water before he started to swim. Rather delightfully given the arrogance quotients involved, once they're both swimming, Ozzy completely smokes J.P., who is really not a strong swimmer, as you can tell from watching him. Ozzy gets to Candice on the mast with a healthy lead, and he scrambles up the rope ladder. Ozzy and Candice drop into the water and start swimming back. Once Parvati is released and they start back, it's another mismatch, because as overmatched as J.P. was on his own, he and Parvati are more overmatched as a team. Candice plunks herself onto the stretcher, and the four Aitu carriers lift her up and go.
Back at the start area, Aitu rests its hopes on the fire-making abilities of Cao Boi, Sundra, and Becky, and Cao Boi is clearly in charge. Raro runs back carrying Parvati, and Stephannie, Jenny, and Rebecca start working on fire. Once Cao Boi has scraped the magnesium shavings into a little bowl, he gets a little flame with about four strikes of the flint. As he moves the flaming grass over toward their big pile of wood, it starts to go out. Cao Boi picks up the smoldering grass and starts to wave it in the air, presumably to give it air, much as you would by blowing on it. It kind of looks like a dance. As Cao Boi leaps and yells and waves his little smoking wad of dry grass, Jeff can't help commenting, "Cao Boi's either going to be a hero, or very silly." I think that, sometimes, Jeff underestimates the viewer's ability to draw her own conclusions. Notably, Jenny is trying crazily right now to get a flame, but she whacks herself with the little hatchet she's striking with, and now her hand is bleeding. Injury! Injury! By now, Cao Boi has his little flame back, and he's blowing on the fire. Now, Stephannie is striking the flint and trying to get a flame going. But it's probably too late, because Cao Boi has Aitu's fire to a sustainable point now, and it seems like a matter of time. Stephannie is still trying, but there's nothing doing. Rebecca takes over, but she can't get anything either. Meanwhile, the Aitu flame reaches the rope. Cao Boi calmly blows on it. And there it goes -- the rope snaps, the flag drops, and everyone at Aitu cheers. Raro looks very sad. Jeff congratulates Aitu for not having to go to tribal council. Raro? Too bad for you. Jonathan gives Cao Boi a little hug, and Cao Boi kisses him on the cheek. Aw!
When we return, it is Day 11 at Raro, after the challenge, and everyone is downcast, including the music supervisor. In an interview, Stephannie says that nobody is happy about the fact that they have to go to tribal council later. As they all stand around, Parvati comments, "Too bad we went up against a Zen fire master." For some reason, in an interview, Stephannie is intensely blaming herself for their loss. It's insane, because while she didn't see J.P. get smoked, she saw her tribe leave ahead and return behind, so she knows that there was a breakdown somewhere. Furthermore, Jenny and Rebecca did no better than Stephannie did making fire. I don't really understand where Stephannie's individual feelings of responsibility come from, or why she fastens on this idea that she's "the weakest link." In fact, not to harp, but I don't see how anyone could feel like the weakest person on a tribe that included Parvati. She looks like Survivor Barbie. In an effort to make the failed fire-makers feel better, Brad tells the group that Cao Boi is always the fire maker, so he has special powers, and they really shouldn't worry. "That fool's been making fire since he was like two, so I ain't trippin'," Nate agrees. All of a sudden, however, Stephannie announces that she's the one who caused the loss, and that she's "probably the weakest link." Nate looks at her in disbelief. In an interview, he talks about how weird this was, and that he was bummed, because he and Stephannie have "Hiki hood love" (heh), and that she's one of his "Supremes." You can kind of see how desperate for inside jokes you become when you have nothing to do. In a completely different interview, he says that if somebody wants to leave, he doesn't feel like you make them stay. ["Which everyone should have kept in mind last season when the one who wanted to leave was SHANE." -- Wing Chun]
Cristina and J.P. chat with Nate, and Cristina thinks that they should just come clean with Stephannie about how they feel if they're going to vote her off for professing her own weakness. They talk about giving Stephannie "respect," and Nate says, "She leaves on a red carpet, all right?" Oh, so it's to be one of those. An honorable exit. I understand the instinct to give people a chance to walk away under their own power with a shred of dignity, lest they become Brett Favre (BOO-yah!), but I still think that falling on your sword is lame. "I'll be in the tent if you need me," J.P. says to Rebecca as she chops a coconut, and he wanders off to take one of what appear to be frequent naps. Jenny hangs laundry and eyes Rebecca. "So," Jenny says, "did they tell you that's the decision? Stephannie?" Rebecca says yes, because Stephannie apparently wants to go. Jenny supposes that makes the voting easier. "I wish she hadn't, though," Rebecca adds. "Because I feel like it makes us weaker." Something rustles in Jenny's head. "You mean us girls?" she asks. Rebecca looks meaningfully at Jenny and nods. Jenny glances over at a hovering Parvati, and then says to Rebecca, "You want to go fetch coconuts?" Rebecca nods again. J.P. snoozes. Rebecca and Jenny walk off past him into the jungle.
As they walk, Jenny and Rebecca talk about how J.P. seems to think he has the entire game knocked, and that they don't trust him at all. Rebecca interviews that she understands the importance of physical strength in challenges, but that there are now five women and four men on the tribe, so if the women are going to do anything, it has to be now. I appreciate this so much, because I'm so tired of people being like, "Well, okay, I'm just going to be quiet now, and then when I'm down to a situation where I have an unmanageably tiny minority, that's when I'll make my move!" Rebecca tells Jenny, "I would love to see us girls align and take out some of the guys, because the guys are already starting to align together and stick together." "So then why don't we just switch this up and have all the girls align right now and get rid of J.P.?" Jenny asks. Why indeed. They agree that this is the plan: get the women together; vote out J.P. "I'm not ready to go home," Jenny says. "Girl, I'm not either," says Rebecca.
Later, Cristina and Stephannie have a chat on the beach in which Stephannie says that she's really unhappy that she made the comments about deserving to go, because she was just mad at herself and now regrets it. In an interview, she says that it was nothing but a weak moment, and that she isn't giving up, because she doesn't want to be viewed as a quitter. As she and Cristina wrap up their chat, Jenny comes over and joins them. After giving a medical update on her bashed thumb, Jenny jumps right in with "You know, Steph, there's a way to save you." "How?" Stephannie wonders. "I don't know...if us girls come together," Jenny says simply. "Are you up for it?" Cristina immediately looks pleased: "I'd be up for it." "Is Rebecca willing to do that?" Stephannie wonders. Jenny confirms that Rebecca is ready. "So who [sic] will we get rid of?" Stephannie asks. "I say J.P.," Cristina says with a grin. "J.P. knows how to play everybody, I'll tell you right now. I really don't trust him. I don't." And then Cristina asks the question that is presumably on the minds of all the viewers at home who have seen this kind of thing too many times: "But is Parvati going to be on board?" Because usually, as you know, the women who decide to flirt and cling as their strategy do not give that up to rebel -- they just keep on hanging around, especially if they can make themselves the only trustworthy woman or whatever. Cristina also says that Parvati is guaranteed to tattle to Nate.
At this moment, Parvati wanders nearby, so Jenny hops right up and goes to talk to her. I just love how Jenny did this -- you might as well just take your damn chances, because if you sit there and do nothing, you're going to give up a perfectly good chance to be in the majority within your tribe, and instead, you're going to get picked off. I mean, if you actually were to get all five women, you could make that into a viable alliance that could last past the merge, you know? When you have five -- or even four -- people who can genuinely decide to stick together for a while, you don't want to let that just fizzle out because you're afraid to lift your head. As Jenny runs off toward Parvati, Cristina tells Stephannie that she just doesn't see Parvati making a break from the guys. And honestly, I don't either, at this point. Meanwhile, Jenny says to Parvati, "We're switching the game up." "What's going on?" Parvati whispers. "We're going to vote J.P. out," Jenny tells her. Now, I don't know if Jenny did this on purpose, but I think the strategy of treating this as a foregone conclusion -- J.P. is being voted out -- is very smart, even though Jenny still needs a vote to make this happen. Even if Parvati intellectually (ha!) knows that Jenny needs a vote, Jenny begins to psychologically treat the situation as what's happening, and Parvati can get on board or not. Predictably, Parvati is all, "I don't know if that's a good idea." "We have to play our numbers," Jenny tells her. She explains how Stephannie has told them her "weak link" remark earlier was only a moment of weakness. Ultimately, Jenny tells Parvati, "It's all on you." Just as we all knew she would be, Parvati is reluctant. "I just don't know if that's in our best interest," Parvati comes back, and it's not clear to me who "our" refers to in that statement, or whom she thinks Jenny will believe it refers to. Parvati agrees to think about it. When Jenny comes back to Cristina and Stephannie, Cristina immediately says, "No, huh?" Jenny insists that Parvati is only "hesitant." Just then, as it happens, Brad is coming up the beach toward the women, and Cristina (I believe) says that she thinks Brad might "fall for it," by which I think she means something more like "go for it."
Brad comes over and sits down with this group of women. "I need you, babe," Stephannie says, and she pitifully puts her head on his shoulder. "We need you," Cristina agrees. "Why? What's up?" Brad asks in Spanish, with a smile. Cristina tells him that they want to get rid of J.P. "Wow," Brad says with a little smile. In an interview, Jenny says that she doesn't entirely trust Brad, but that she trusts him partly. And either way, she hopes he'll act "for the good of our tribe, and not just for himself." She had me until the end.
Tribal council. Everyone streams in. Jeff's first question is to Nate, about how he's feeling in the game. Nate says that everyone is still getting the feeling of the new tribe. He doesn't think it's good to be too powerful at the beginning. Jeff then asks Jenny whether the tribe has a leader, and after some hesitation, she says no. Jeff asks about the hesitation. Jenny, after throwing in a little "J.P., don't hate me," says that J.P. sort of tries to "take command," but that she doesn't see him as a leader. Jeff asks J.P. about this, and he says that he doesn't think he tells people what to do -- in fact, he points out proudly, he likes to go off and take naps! It's awesome that he missed the point to that degree. "Sure, I'm bossy sometimes, but when I'm not telling people what to do, I sit around on my ass!" Jeff asks Rebecca why she, Jenny, and Stephannie were the ones trying to make fire. Rebecca says that they all have made fire around camp plenty, and that they just couldn't get it to work. Jeff asks Stephannie whether it would be fair to vote one of them off for failure to start the fire. She says no, because it could have been any of them, and I basically agree with her. She says that you vote based on "the big picture." Asked if he agrees, J.P. says that he totally does. He acknowledges what everyone knows, which is that he got killed in the swimming portion of the challenge, and then he says, "There's no reason to vote me off today."
Jeff asks if it's too early to have a playing "philosophy." Brad says that he thinks "go with your gut" is good. He also claims that his gut is right 95% of the time. (Miss Alli's Sister, only half-watching: "Well, that must be nice.") Jeff asks Parvati whether she trusts everyone in the tribe, and she says that, mostly, she does. Same question to Stephannie; she says that she doesn't trust people, because you never trust anyone completely. But she trusts them some. Rebecca is asked whether she's going to be able to leave tonight's vote behind when it's over, and she says that it will be hard, but that it's a vote that has to happen to help the tribe to move forward. J.P. says that he's already realized that this will be the toughest vote for him in the game. ["Hee hee hee." -- Wing Chun]
Time for voting. Steph votes for J.P., saying, "Sorry, J.P., it was either you or me." Adam votes. Jenny votes. J.P. votes for Stephannie, saying he's sorry that she "voiced that point of weakness." Brad votes. Cristina votes for J.P., saying that nobody wants to be played. Rebeca votes. Nate votes for Stephannie: "Your wish is my command." Parvati votes.
And now, it is time to read votes. Did you notice that they only showed two votes for each side? That means it probably wasn't that close, which, in a coup situation, inevitably means that the attempted coup was a failure and that one of the coup-ers found out in time to switch. It also usually means that the first person to get a third vote is the loser. First vote: Stephannie. Then, J.P. Then Stephannie. Then J.P. I suspect that vote is quite concerning to him, because...where would that be coming from when they appeared to have unanimity? Aaaaand...J.P. Whoa. Really? And...a fourth one for J.P. Now, he knows he is in trouble. And indeed, the fourth person out of Survivor Race Wars is J.P. "Wow," he says in a whisper. And then: "Holy crap. Dang, you guys outwitted me big-time." I think it's safe to say that he did not see that coming. J.P. gets snuffed, and he says "That was pretty good" as he leaves. Jeff tells the group that they just voted out one of the strongest members, and that he's hoping it means they have a plan to unite the tribe and get back to winning. They head back to camp.
In his exit interview, J.P. notes that he did not watch his back adequately. To his credit, he says, "There's no hard feelings; that's the way the game is played," and it comes across as quite sincere. There's no "I wish you well without me, you fools" or anything, even though he'd be more entitled to it than many who have tried it. We learn that, in addition to both Parvati and Brad, J.P. even got a vote from Adam. I don't really get how that went down; how did Adam get the memo and Nate didn't? I hope they make that a little clearer week. I don't like it when I have to settle for less than perfect understanding of events taking place on this show.
week: Cao Boi thinks girls are lazy.