Survivor Gabon- October 9, 2008

Its night 9 and Kota is returning from Tribal Council without the diminutive Paloma. Kelly worries that she is next and Ace thinks she is too. He is wounded after her outburst at him at Tribal Council.

The next morning over at Fang, Randy is having another look at the dwindling rice situation. "It's time", says he "to cut back to one meal a day". The general response is "What?" "Huh?" "Duh?" and my personal favourite, "but we'll be hungry". GC, Crystal, and Ken withdraw to strategize. They feel it is the three of them vs. Matty, Randy, Susy and Dan. Over in the other secret meeting spot, Matty, Randy, Susie and Dan are confirming that very thing, and Matty feels that the four of them have a very solid alliance.

Dimples, in a sky blue shirt, brings the tribes together. In a challenge guaranteed to make everyone squirm, he asks the tribes to rate their members in order of most to least useful. Once the rankings are complete he has them stand on posts according to the ranking assigned by the tribe. At the top of Kota stands Marcus, obviously feeling awkward at being singled out. On the short Kota post (ie the least useful) stands Kelly. Over on the Fang side, Matty takes top honours, while Susy is positioned at the bottom of the Fang-heap. Dimples suggests they take a look at the rankings of the opposing tribe and use the information TO FORM NEW TRIBES. Yikes! Just when Matty is feeling comfortable with his alliance its all going down the toilet (if there were a toilet for it to go down). And so Marcus and Matty get to kick off a school-yard pick to form new tribes. The new Kota ends up with Marcus, Dan, Charlie, Randy, Corrine, Susy and Bob. Fang is now made up of Matty, Ace, Crystal, Jacquie, Ken, Kelly and GC. At the end of all the side-choosing there is one person left...Sugar. Dimples tells Sugar that she will head off to Exile Island again and will return after the next Tribal Council. At that time she will replace whomever is voted off, to make the sides even at 7 members each.

The new Kotaxians head to camp to get acquainted. Susy quickly sees that Bob is the worker at camp and that he is respected for it. She decides to keep her head down and work hard to try to avoid elimination. At Fang, GC is happy with his new position as the numbers are now on his side. In addition to that, they learn that Kelly is more than happy to jump ship since she felt she was treated as an outcast in Kota. Needless to say Kelly is embraced by Crystal, GC and Ken.

On Day 12 treemail arrives promising a game that combines lacrosse with water polo.* As the Kotaputians practise with the paddle, Marcus ponders the next elimination. He has noticed Susy's hard work around camp and decides that, pending his performance at the challenge, Randy might be the next to go. (No, not Randy! He's MY guy!!) The tribes are put in separate colour-appropriate life rafts and given a paddle with a hole in the blade. They must move their rafts to the ball, pass the ball with the paddle and ultimately put it through a goal. The first tribe to score three goals wins immunity. This show pretty much belongs to Marcus and Randy. Marcus controls the ball, and a well positioned Randy gets three consecutive goals (that's my guy!). Meanwhile everyone else spins in circles, or worse, can't move at all. Its kind of like bumper boats with the batteries removed.

So Fang has to send someone home. Ace laments their performance at the challenge saying they performed like legless chickens. GC thinks Kelly's performance was the worst of all and that she should go. However the Fangrubites have enough sense to think about the absent Sugar. If she has the idol (and she had now had four days to find it), who would she be most likely to give it to? The answer is Ace or Jacquie, hands down. Ace is too strong a competitor to send home, bringing Jacquie up to the top of the hit list. A sympathic Matty tells Jacquie about the plot against her and she makes a heartfelt appeal to both Ken and Crystal. Its not enough though. When Dimples tallies the vote Jacquie is the one heading home. With Jacquie goes New Hampshire Kathy's worries of trying to convert her Canadian winnings into US dollars. I was the only one who saw fit to vote for Jacquie to make it to the end, so I am the other person crying in my wine this evening (which reminds me...scuse me while I top up my glass).

And so Sugar will return to join Fang and we will be at 7 members per tribe.

Until next week
Outwit, Outplay, Outlast
Pat (aka Randy I dedicate those goals to my friend Pat Bailey)

* Water polo? Please! They are neither in the water nor allowed to touch the ball with their hands. The only similarity with water polo is the presence of a ball and water.