Survivor South Pacific episode 10 recap, November 16, 2011

We begin with a beautiful shot of the Milky Way in the sky on Night 24 over Redemption Island. Ozzy and Jim are talking about what’s happening with the Te Tuna tribe, with Coach’s grip on his original Upolu tribe and Cochran’s defection to them. “I hate to say I told you so, gentlemen,” Ozzy remarks after Jim gives his report, “so I won’t say it.”

Meanwhile, back at the Te Tuna tribe after tribal council, Coach says, “I shouldn’t be saying this, you guys are going to roast me for this” and he goes on to say that “Jim is the most dangerous kind of person”. He adds now that Jim is gone, they’re going to be a “close family” again. In confession, he talks about “Survival 101, Rule 37: Anyone one the bottom of the alliance better not feel like they’re on the bottom of the alliance or they’re going to revolt and scramble to find a better place.”

Whitney hears this and sees through Coach’s influence on his old tribe. “I don’t understand how these smart people can be so stupid,” she comments privately.

Day 25 begins with Coach doing his tai chi prayer ritual on the beach. Interestingly, Cochran is joining him and following his movements. Privately, Cochran says, “As painful as it is to admit it, I’m am drinking Coach’s Kool-Aid, not in gulps but taking ginger steps.” Coach tells Cochran that he’s a little worried about Albert acting “a little squirrelly” and Brandon “running around in Brandon mode.” Cochran privately says he “felt comfortable twenty-four hours ago; today I’m not so comfortable.” It seems Coach’s worries have affected him as well.

It’s now time for the Redemption Island duel. Keith, Ozzy and Jim walk into the dueling arena with the whole Te Tuna tribe as witnesses. For the duel, the guys will have to balance two poles, one on the top of each of their hands up to a board and hold them there. The last one to hold their poles up stays in the game, remaining on Redemption Island. The other two who lose the duel are out of the game and become the first members of the Jury.

Ten minutes elapse and Jim, Ozzy and Keith are all still holding up their poles. Jeff creates a distraction by openly asking Brandon who he’s rooting for. Brandon replies that he’s rooting for Jim. Jeff asks if anyone else has favorites. Whitney says she’s for Keith. Jeff asks, how about for Ozzy? Nobody volunteers. “Ozzy,” Jeff states solemnly, “is on his own.”

Jim’s poles are the first to fall and his cuss word is visually blurred out. Both Keith’s and Ozzy’s poles scoot a bit on the boards above them, but they both recover. Ozzy somehow gets one of his poles from near the very edge of the board back to fully under it. The poles slip an inch here and there for both of them. Then suddenly one of Keith’s poles drops and he’s out. Ozzy is still in the game! Again! Both Jim and Keith congratulate him with a handshake and hug and encourage him to “go get ’em, bro.” First Jim, then Keith are seen off by Jeff. We will later see them in the Jury during the tribal councils.

It’s Day 26 on Redemption island and Ozzy is out for his usual dive in the reefs. He seems to be totally enjoying this, away from all of the tribal tensions and safe from any tribal politics. “Redemption is a beautiful thing. I’ve really scored out here. Like my own mini paradise,” he comments. He’s agilely climbing trees to collect coconuts and wandering the island at will. “The next couple of people going through Redemption are going to have a big challenge in front of them, and that’s me.” Whoa!

Meanwhile at the Te Tuna tribe, Rick is out casting a net for fish and comes up with an empty net. “Nothing, huh?” Coach asks. “We definitely have to eat. We’re eating less,” Dawn remarks and Cochran replies, “I’d just be happy with just some coconuts.” What a contrast to the feast Ozzy is treating himself to! The Te Tuna tribe’s hunger is surely bound to cause some grumpiness and short tempers in the coming days.

Cochran and Dawn are talking and she’s already saying that she’ll do anything to stay in the game. “It’s possible our interests intersect, then,” Cochran replies, telling her that she’s the number one person he wants to work with. Cochran is looking ahead in the game, where he may need to make “a big move” to escape his 7th place position in the Te Tuna tribe behind the original six in Coach’s old Upolu tribe.

It’s now time for the individual immunity challenge. The survivors will have to fill a bowl with dried rice and balance it on their head. Then they will have to carry it on their head without touching it with their hands, going over some teeter-totters to a collection basket to dump their load. They will need to do this several times until the collection basket of rice is heavy enough to flip up a flag signifying that they’ve won the challenge.

The challenge starts. Albert, Coach and Cochran all lose their loads as they reach the teeter-totters. Rick drops his on the teeter-totter. Dawn, Brandon and Sophie manage to make it all the way and drop their loads in the first round. Coach, after going back and getting a new load makes it all the way the second time. Brandon is the first one to get a second bowl of rice in, followed by Dawn and Sophie. It’s definitely a battle between these three. Brandon gets another load in, but it’s just short of tipping the scales. The same goes for Dawn. Sophie drops her larger load in and the balance tips and the flag goes up! Sophie wins immunity. Rick gives her a hug.

Jeff tells them that there will be a tribal council to vote someone out, “with a twist that will be revealed at tribal council.” Hm, what could that be? We’ll soon find out.

After the challenge, Coach and Cochran talk tribal politics. Not surprisingly, Dawn and Whitney are the two remaining targets from the old Savaii tribe. Dawn and Whitney talk and they know that they’re next on the block. Dawn thinks she’s the next one up of the two. They know they need to make a move to survive and they consider who they might be able to swing, “picking the right people” as Whitney puts it. Brandon “is such a loose cannon, you don’t know what to believe”, Rick “is not even playing the game”, and Edna is “so far up Coach’s butt, it’s ridiculous.” Whitney thinks “Coach is gonna take Edna and Sophie to the end.”

Thus, this only leaves Albert and Cochran who Dawn and Whitney can possibly connect with and they decide to have a chat with them. Albert seems to go along with this, adding that he’ll try to swing one more vote into their circle to get the 5-4 majority to vote Edna out. If all else fails, he thinks that at least he has “curried favor” with Dawn and Whitney for a future jury vote while Edna wouldn’t vote for him anyway. Whitney says, “I am in with that” and why wouldn’t she be, already on Coach’s chopping block?

Albert and Cochran are playing checkers on a makeshift board with colored shells. Albert tells Cochran that “it’s bad for you, bro'” with Cochran being the seventh in the pecking order. Albert and Cochran approach Sophie, a potential swing vote. Albert asks her, “Who would Edna have the most alligiance to as a jury member?” They all know the answer as Sophie responds, “Coach.” None of them care for Edna at all, with Albert joking that Edna can “out organize, out clean and out gather” as her game objectives. So now Sophie, as the potential swing vote, has to consider whether it’s to her advantage to go along with the new plan or to stick to the original alliance with Coach.

Coach isn’t fooled by all this, as he knows something is going on, just by watching who’s talking to who. “Albert’s getting a little sqirrelly right now,” Coach warns Edna. “He’s really playing for jury votes.” Privately, Coach says, “I feel at the moment like an old mob boss. If anyone goes against the family, they’re dead.” Whoa!

It’s time for tribal council. Jim and Keith also witness the tribal council proceedings as the first two jury members. Jeff asks Dawn, the next obvious target along with Whitney, about whether there are any cracks in Coach’s alliance. Dawn says that some of the original Upolu tribe should think “about using the two of us”, indicating those who are “five, six and seven” in that alliance have an opportunity to switch things around. Jeff asks Whitney who are five, six and seven? Whitney will only reveal that she thinks Cochran is number seven.

Jeff makes the obvious statement that Dawn and Whitney are next or there’s a crack in the original Upolu alliance. He presses the question with Cochran about his being number seven and what he intends to do about it. Cochran doesn’t give much away, so Jeff asks him, “True or false, this is a time to make a big move?” Cochran agrees that, yes, this is the ideal time to make a big move if one’s going to be made. Jeff asks Coach what he thinks about a possible shift within his alliance. Coach says, “contrary to popular belief, I’m not running this alliance or running the show.”

Jeff pries Albert with a question about Coach’s leadership, “Is Coach your leader?” and Albert says no but he might be the figurehead and pulling the strings and from that connection he goes from “Coach to leader.” Hm, mob boss Coach just might put out a contract on Albert first chance he gets, if he hasn’t already!

It’s time for the vote. This should be interesting…

Jeff tallies the votes… Dawn, Edna, Dawn, Edna, Dawn, Dawn, and… Dawn is the seventh person voted out and sent to Redemption Island.

In case we forgot, Jeff reminds us… “Now for the twist I told you about earlier… we are going right into another immunity challenge with a vote to follow.” Jeff says that he is going to ask them a number of Survival related questions. After 27 days, they should know the answers to these. The survivors pick up cubes with a combination of letters A-D and True-False on the six faces.

Question 1: How much should survivors drink in one day to prevent dehydration?
A. One pint.
B. One quart.
C. One gallon.
This seems pretty obvious, given the climate, but Albert, Edna and Rick get it wrong. The correct answer is C.

Question 2: True or false, the coconut crab gets its name because its favorite food is coconut? The answer is True and Cochran and Brandon are out of the challenge, leaving Whitney, Coach and Sophie.

Question 3: The soft edible flesh found inside the shell of a fallen coconut is called:
A. Pacific artichoke
B. Heart of palm
C. Palm fingers
D. Coco sprouts
Whitney and Sophie get it right.

Question 4: True or false: Although they are quite delicious, you should should not attempt to remove giant South Pacific clams from the cocean as they are considered dangerous.
Whitney says True, Sophie says False. The answer is False and Sophie again wins immunity.

Now it’s time for yet another vote. And the tally is… Cochran, Whitney, Whitney, Whitney, Whitney and… Whitney, who joins Dawn to greet Ozzy on Redemption Island.

Next week: Brandon stops catching fish and the tribe is going hungry. Albert and Sophie talk about targeting Brandon next. Coach privately says Brandon “doesn’t have any business in this game” and tells Cochran, “my name should be Zeus.” Ozzy greets Dawn and Whitney on Redemption Island with a hug.

Stay tuned!