Survivor: South Pacific premiere recap, September 14, 2011

Tonight begins with a helicopter ride over Upolu, Samoa along with Oscar “Ozzy” Lusth” and Benjamin “Coach” Wade, both seasoned two-time veterans from previous Survivor seasons. Ozzy comes from Cook Islands and Micronesia and Coach is from Tocantins and Heroes Vs. Villains. Coach and Ozzy share their experiences from the previous seasons and how they might do things differently this time around.

Then we get some brief confessionals from newcomers Cochran, Elyse, Rick, Stacey and Brandon. Cattle rancher Rick says “if you didn’t learn to build a fire, you might as well spit in the wind.” We’ll likely be hearing some more anecdotes of ranch wisdom from Rick in the coming weeks.

“Thirty-nine days, eighteen people and one survivor!” our host Jeff Probst exclaims before we are introduced to all of the 18 cast members beginning with Ozzy and Coach. In the Savaii tribe are Whitney, Keith, Dawn, Mark, Semhar, John, Elyse and Jim. In the Upolu tribe are Edna, Sophie, Albert, Christine, Rick, Mikayla, Stacey, and Brandon. We find out Brandon Hantz is Russel Hantz’ nephew as he shows off is HANTZ tattoos. Easy name to remember — Brandon has the HANTZ brand on!

As Jeff welcomes the Survivors, he tells them they’ve got company as the chopper flies in. They see Coach and Ozzy depart and greet them as they walk up and join them. Coach and Ozzy pick an egg which determines which tribe each of them are on. Ozzy is warmly received by the red Savaii tribe while “Dragon Slayer” Coach joins the blue Upolu tribe.

We find out that the Redemption Island rule is in play. When a person is voted out of their tribe, they are not out of the game. Instead, they will go to live alone on Redemption Island. When the next person is voted out, the two who were voted out will join and square off at the Redemption Island Arena. The loser will be sent packing, while “at a certain point” the winner will resume their participation in the game.

It’s time for the first challenge! Ozzy and Coach will duel in this contest as representatives of each tribe “to prove their worth”. They must climb a 12′ pole, retrieve a wooden turtle, crawl under a log, and then transfer pieces of a pyramid puzzle from one table to another, always putting a smaller piece upon a larger one. There’s some step-by-step logic involved in this puzzle exercise that isn’t obvious for someone who hasn’t done a similar type of puzzle before.

The first one completing moving the puzzle to a third table — with a wooden turtle on top! — wins their tribe a reward. It’s a large basket full of starchy potato-like tubers and, even better, a flint to start a fire with. Jeff says this reward gives the winning tribe “a gigantic advantage to start this game off” and indeed it does.

Now it’s up to Coach and Ozzy. Both scramble quickly up the pole and Ozzy is the first one to dig a hole under his log and crawl under it and start the puzzle. Both Ozzy and Coach mess up on the puzzles, as Ozzy moves more than one piece at a time and Coach puts a larger piece onto a smaller one. This would be a good time to stop a few seconds and think out the sequence before moving pieces around helter-skelter and against the rules! Ozzy does just that as he considers how to solve the puzzle.

The tribe members start getting involved, as they’re allowed to shout out instructions to help, starting with Ozzy’s tribe after he asks them for advice while working on the puzzle. With their help, it looks like Ozzy has figured out the sequence and gets the base of the pyramid onto the third table with the remaining pieces still in sequence. All he has to do now is continue the same steps. Coach, meanwhile, seems to have gotten it right, then wrong. Ozzy gets piece #2 in place and quickly assembles the rest of the puzzle while Coach never really figured it out.

Ozzy and the red Savaii tribe are the winners! They collect their reward and map and cheerfully move out to their camp. The blue Upolu tribe then move out to their tribe, with Edna stopping first to help Coach with the rest of the tribe already departing. Coach feels their coolness after his loss, thinking “don’t let the door smack you on the ass on the way out” and “right off that bat, I’ve got to come face-to-face with that greatest fear — you’re going home first.”

We rejoin Ozzy and the Savaii tribe and they’re looking to him for advice. The tribe members introduce themselves to each other about what they do and a few of them are already talking about game strategy. Ozzy is enamored by Semhar’s poetry performing. They decide to enjoy themselves and just go swimming, like it’s a holiday on the beach. John Cochran, the Harvard law school geek of the tribe, is shy to wear his underwear to go swimming, but he also loves being around the beautiful bikini babes like he’s on 90210, with him as one of the zeroes!

We switch over to the blue Upolu tribe as they reach their camp. Coach tells them that he’s not a strategic player, “straight as an arrow”, and apologies for losing the competition. They share a little bit about themselves and, unlike the other tribe, get straight to work on selecting a site to build on. Coach helps out with some of the minor details about how to construct their shelter (apparently with already some already provided materials, including rope and machetes).

Christine goes wandering off from the Upolu camp saying, “I’m looking for firewood” and, as a Survivor fan aware of its existence, immediately goes searching for the Immunity Idol. But she’s not fooling anybody. Coach notes that she says right off the bat, “you are a temporary player” and he knows full well that she is already scrambling to look for the Idol. So, “no question about it, Christine is target number one.” Oops. As Rick would put it, it looks like a calf just got caught wandering off from the herd!

Meanwhile, the Savaii tribe are having fun, all in a social circle wading in the lagoon waters. We find out in confession that Jim is gay, an MBA, won 20 poker tournaments and owns two medical marijuana dispenser shops, but he tells everyone that he’s a forensics science teacher. Hmmm. Mark is also gay and would like to be known as Papa Bear to the tribe. The tribe finally ends their swim and set about their business to build camp. Dawn, the English Prof, says she’s a planner and used to having things managed with leadership. She compares Ozzy to Bob Marley, but she says she doesn’t really know who Bob Marley is.

We back with the Upolu tribe again, with Coach walking along with Brandon Hantz. He’s got a “Loco” tattoo on his neck he says is a thing of the past and now he’s a different guy, with “God as number one.” They talk about Mikayla being a beautiful gal. She’s busy in camp actively supervising and participating in the construction of the shelter along with Rick and some of the others. He’s watching her (totally unaware of him), a bit uncomfortable about her as she “flaunts herself off”, him being “in the Church… a married gentleman… and I know I could get myself in trouble.” Well, don’t let yourself fall to temptation, or there will be consequences of biblical proportions, Brandon! This guy is Russel’s nephew? Creepy.

Night falls and we get some beautiful shots of the starry sky. The Upolu tribe hangs out in camp and get to know more about each other. Coach gives them some advice about the importance of winning competitions, finding the Immunity Idol and forming a strong group of five to finish the game out with. “I’m not going to do anything sneaky or dishonorable, but this is Coach 3.0 and I’m in here to win.”

The next morning, Dawn the English Prof is already going into a “mini-breakdown” and Mark tells her that she’s got to be strong and they’ll stick together as the oldies. Dawn can’t seem to do anything right, spilling water on the fire and falling down trying to pull down vines. She goes and talks with Ozzy, already in tears. Ozzy warns her that “the person that has the breakdown goes” and tells her to dispel her fears and doubts, to be strong and fight to stay. He says in confessional that she’d make a great ally, but with her emotional weaknesses, she could very well be going home.

It’s time for the first full tribe Immunity Challenge. Upolu has a lot at stake in this one, as they will get a flint as a prize if they win. The teams crawl under a maze of erected horizontal poles on their way to a mat where they must all gather before moving on to the next stage. Then they duck through a sets of hanging coconuts to the next mat. So far, it looks fairly close with Upolu getting to the next wall first. After scaling the wall himself, Rancher Rick is quickly pulling the some of his teammates up over the wall and then as a group they pull the remaining teammates. Quick work there as they keep their lead over the Savaii tribe just seconds behind them with Ozzy the last one over.

Now, one member from each tribe digs in a sandpit for a machete. Rick finds his first, with Ozzy finding his very soon after that. They both chop away at ropes holding up the door to a pen holding coconuts. Some members from both teams then start shooting the coconuts into hanging baskets, much like free throw shooting. Mikayla “is a scoring machine” while Semhar can’t even get the coconut going the right direction, much less into the basket. After enough coconuts go into the baskets, it basket drops under the weight.

And Upolu wins the Immununity Challenge! Jeff shows just how close it was, with Savaii just one coconut away from dropping their own basket. Jeff tells the Upolu tribe that there will be a clue somewhere in the vicinity of their camp that they’ll have to find and the clue will in turn give a hint where they can find the Immunity Idol. The Savaii tribe, on the other hand, will have to vote to evict one of their tribe, who will go to Redemption Island and live alone until the next person gets voted out.

The Upolu tribe are delighted with their win and they begin the task of searching for the clue to the Immunity Idol. Presciently, Stacey mentions that she may have missed the clue right in front of her hidden in a tree and, lo and behold, she did!

Meanwhile Semhar goes at it with Jim in the Upolu tribe, complaining about him being critical of her. The English Prof lady is holding herself together and is in better spirits when talking with Mark. Meanwhile, Ozzy hangs out in the with Whitney, Elyse , Keith and Jim wading in the lagoon. They talk about targets. They agree that Semhar messed up with the challenge. They see Dawn as an asset while the geek John Cochran is not physically athletic. Already, Ozzy has an inside team of five going along with him. Ozzy approaches Semhar and tells he’d like to see her stay and lets her know that there’s a consensus that she and Cochran could be on the block and she has some politicking to do.

Semhar goes around to talk with some of the tribe and she gets brushed off or told not to worry about it. Meanwhile, Jim tells Cochran that he’s going on the block and Cochran asks why. He gets it that Ozzy thinks he’s physically the weakest person in the tribe. So Cochran goes around politicking too, realizing that “it’s not a comedy, it’s a nightmare.”

It’s time for the first Tribal Council where the Savaii tribe must banish one of their members to Redemption Island. First, Dawn answers Jeff’s question about how to prepare for being alone on Redemption Island. Then she talks about how her mini-breakdown was temporary, like a flu and it’s gone, with Ozzy helping her get her bearing back with things not at all like being at home. The talk continues with the other tribe members with hints dropped that Semhar is in trouble, leading to Cochran defending himself in spite of his geeky appearance. Semhar tries to throw Cochran under the bus with her comments about how his “name has come up”. He comes back with the statement that Semhar doesn’t have “same passion for being part of Survivor.”

The Savaii tribe members vote… and it’s a unanimous 5-1 against Semhar, with her being the only one to vote for Cochran. Semhar goes to Redemption Island! Ozzy comments as she leaves, “I should have taught her how to make a fire”. Uh, oh, Semhar could be in for a rough time if she can’t figure this out on her own.

Next week: We see Semhar on Redemption Island reading a posted notice about the rules regarding her time there. Then we see her lying down with a lamp next to her in the dark, crying about her tribe “being so cold-hearted”. Sorry, Semhar, somebody had to go, largely thanks to you in losing that Immunity Challenge.

Which tribe will win the next challenge? Will Upolu find the Immunity Idol? Will Semhar survive the rigors of Redemption Island? Stay tuned!