Survivor: South Pacific recap, Wednesday September 21, 2011

Welcome to the second episode of Survivor: South Pacific!

After some brief recaps of last week’s events leading to Semhar’s eviction from the Savaii tribe, we join her on Redemption Island on Night 3. She reads the notice at posted at the shelter where she is staying along. She feels abandoned, wondering how her tribe members could have been “so cold-hearted.” She briefly sets up a place to sleep, reciting some semblance of poetry to herself and goes to sleep.

Meanwhile, the Savaii camp returns from tribal council and prepare to call it a night. Cochran thanks his tribe mates for keeping him around. He privately says that he felt like he was in “flight or fight” mode and it caused him to change from being “mellow” to making an effort to stay within the tribe. Ozzy says in confessional that he understands Cochran’s passion for the game and felt he deserved another chance to “redeem himself”. Ozzy is confiding with Keith, telling him that they should also keep Jimmy (the medical marijuana dispenser guy) around. Keith says privately that having Ozzy as an ally could be the best bet as far as he’s concerned.

We switch over to the Upolu tribe, where Coach is talking with Edna Ma. He tells her that he gets some bad vibes from some of the other girls and that he felt like she covered his back. In confessional, he says that at first he felt like the “Dragon Slayer” was in trouble, but now he has a good working alliance with Rick, Sophie, Brandon and Albert. But he also says Edna is like a friend who helped him out on the first day. He tells Edna that “loyalty, I think, is the most important thing.” He mentions that he knows Christine went digging around for the individual immunity Idol and Edna tells him that Christine and Stacey seem to be close. Edna in confessional says that she is not a physically strong player, so it is good for her to have an alliance with a strong male like Coach.

Back at the Savaii camp, we see Cochran chopping open coconuts with him telling us that he’s the “new Cochran” doing these sort things without having to be told. Ozzy goes out and hunts for the individual immunity Idol, climbing trees and crossing branches high up agilely like a monkey. His persistent search pays off as he sees a rock in the middle of a crack in a tree. Lo and behold, there is the pouch with the Idol in it! Very cleverly, he hides the Idol way up in some trees that probably only he can get to, the way he climbs. He says that he doesn’t want to squander it like he did in a previous season and instead save it until after the merge when he can “use it an opportune moment”, with it as “the ticket to win.”

Returning to the Upolu tribe location, Coach and Brandon are walking and Brandon decides to show him his Hantz tattoo. Then Brandon lets him know that he’s Russell Hantz’ cousin. Coach’s jaw drops. Brandon is the nephew of “my number one nemesis!” Coach doesn’t want to be played as a fool twice (like he was with RussHell), but he also trusts Brandon, aware that Brandon wants his trust “as a man of God.” They shake hands over a prayer as if it were a holy vow, “Father, we thank you have brought us together. In Jesus’ name, give us strength.” Coach says he hopes that instead of getting fooled once again, this will lead to the redemption of the Hantz family name. Wow.

The Savaii camp looks like a holiday, with Ozzy tethering a boat, two people going for a swim and Elyse complaining about the beach resort’s cabana boy service since she’s getting hungry. Jim joins her, but without any food or drinks. Instead, Ozzy, Jim and Keith go fishing, leaving the beach babes to their swimming in the shallows. While out fishing, Keith and Jim talk strategy, discussing who to take how far in the game. But Jim’s the one being fooled, as Keith and Ozzy have been talking since the time Ozzy hung out with Whitney, Elyse, Keith and Jim wading in the lagoon. Jim, tournament poker player that he is, thinks he’s “orchestrating” a solid plan to get rid of Papa Bear, Cochran and Dawn the English Prof. We’ll see — or not — who ends up getting sloughed from a reshuffled deck.

The Upolu camp is also gathering firewood and food, with Brandon and Mikayla taking a fishing net out in the shallows. She says that she doesn’t liken herself to a “girlie girl” and she’s willing to rough it like a guy. But girlie girl or not, that’s all Brandon sees as she’s out there with him. She is in the barest of undershorts and bra that don’t leave much to the imagination, especially his. He has this impression that she’s posing like a model, with her “seductive ways and young girl attitude”, comparing her to Parvati from a previous season. Just for this misogynistic reason, he wants her out of the game.

Meanwhile, Christine is wandering around again looking for the clue to the Idol. Coach and some of the tribe are openly discussing whether she may already have it. They all know that there is a clue around that Stacey had unknowingly found but missed within the crevice crack at the bottom of a tree. But, visiting the same spot Stacey did, Christine doesn’t miss it. It reads:

It’s definitely near the jungle
Somewhere by the beach,
The important thing to realize,
It is just barely out of reach.

She tucks it into her pants and kind of freaks out. “I have to focus. I have to be focused,” she says. Now she doesn’t know whether to tell her tribe mates or not.

Now it’s time for the next tribal Immunity Challenge. Four members of each tribe must unwind long ribbons wrapped around a pole, releasing a key ring. The keys are used to unlock some heavy box crates that must be shuffled around on a platform by the other four tribe members until the largest box can be removed and placed on another smaller platform. Upolu does a good job teaming up to unwind the ribbons and take the lead. Savaii struggled to unwind their ribbons and use the keys on the locks. Upolu, however, has difficulty shuffling the boxes around and Savaii are the first the get the largest crate out of the platform and win the immunity challenge!

For their win, the Savaii tribe earn some pillows, blankets, a hammock and other amenities, as well as tribal immunity. They are also told that there is a clue to the individual immunity Idol (which Ozzy already found!) to be found somewhere on their beach.

Meanwhile, the Upolu tribe will have to go to Council to evict one of their own to be sent to Redemption Island and join Semhar who is already there. Brandon, holding a grudge that Mikayla is still unaware of, privately says this is the time to “make sure Mikayla goes home”.

Now, thanks to Sprint, we get to vote for the “Player of the Week” through texting a player number to #81818. There’s $10,000 at stake.

We rejoin the defeated Upolu tribe. Coach thinks they ought to split their votes 3-3 for Stacey and Christine in order flush out the individual immunity Idol. Christine is the real target with her calling Coach “a temporary player” and sneakily going around seeking for the Idol on her own.

Brandon meets with coach and tells him about his being worried about being around Mikayla and the way she tempts him. All he can think about is, “Parvati, Parvati, Parvati. She screwed many a man.” Coach knows now that Brandon “has demons”. The rest of the tribe is on to Brandon’s desire to vote Mikayla out and don’t quite get it except that he’s afraid of strong women. Christine stands by from a distance and watches, knowing they’re talking about her.

The tribe seems to be in some confusion as to what the deal is. Brandon lies to Coach and tells him that Christine and Stacey are voting against Mikayla, who he wants out. Coach privately warns there will be an “ass-whipping at the Council” if the six people he thought he could trust betray their alliance.

In tribal council, Coach mentions that he heard that Christine and Stacey wanted to vote out Mikayla, and they are incredulous! Now they all know something doesn’t quite jive. Then it comes up that they know Christine was actively looking for the idol. Christine says she never even mentioned Mikayla’s name. Stacey goes a step further and looks squarely at Mikayla, “Never did I say I am writing your name down, so you can look at my eyes and know the truth of that.” Then Brandon raises his and lets out a huge sigh. “I gotta come clean, man” and tells them lied about Christine and Stacey saying they were going to vote Mikayla out. Know they all know Brandon lied and Coach is surprised as they are.

It’s time for the vote… Sophie, Edna, Christine, Stacey, Christine (now two), Stacey (now two), Christine (now three), Stacey (now three)… and… Christine gets her torch snuffed. How odd it is that nobody voted for the big liar who put his tribe into disarray. And so much for flushing out the individual immunity Idol that Christine did not have enough time to find, even with the clue.

Jeff says “We are only 5 days into this game and the biggest obstacle for this tribe is trust.” Indeed!

Next week: At Savaii, the pressure is on Ozzy, who says that he is not going to tell anyone that he has the individual immunity Idol. Members of the tribe belatedly begin to wonder about Brandon.

“It’s always the same battle for me: Good, evil… good, evil…”