Survivor Gabon, October 16, 2008

Its night 12 and Fang returns from Tribal Council. With Jacquie, Ace has lost one of his two closest allies. It seems to me that Ace is also losing something else near and dear to him...his accent. There are times during this episode when Ace sounded - well- American. That aside Ace has lost none of his arrogance as he tells us that he is still ok since he has Sugar in his pocket. For her part Sugar makes it plain that she chose comfort during this trip to Exile Island and wasted no time searching for the immunity idol. This wasn't perhaps the smartest move if she wants people to believe she hasn't found the idol.

Over at Kota their greatest hardship is that one of the fish Bob caught is electric and shocks everyone who touches it. In spite of this Randy is loving his new life at Kota. Not only has he been made to feel welcome but these dudes have corn and beans and even electric fish.

On Day 13 Matty finally spots the elephant they have been hearing around camp. He calls everyone to come and look. The Fangaluvians sit on the river bank in awe, watching the big elephant rip through the foliage looking for tender shoots. It may not have been the smartest move of their lives, but Ace and Matty decide to take the kayak out in the water to get a closer look. Fortunately, other than a few warning snorts the elephant choses to ignore our two Wild Kingdom rejects.

The reward challenge is an event where one tribe member must throw fruit through a goal to a fellow tribe member, who must catch the fruit and throw it through a second goal to another tribe member who must put in in a basket. The catch is that in each goal is an opposing tribe member with a big stick whose job is to stop the fruit from going through the goal. The reward is all of the fruit they collect, a herb garden, some salt and oil and other flavourful (flavorful)* additions to their diet. Although Ace is good in net, Kota wins the event by 2 pounds of fruit. Kota elects, once again, to send Sugar for her third visit to Exile Island. However, this time she will be back in time for Tribal Council. Kota heads back to camp with their bounty. Flush with the win, Dan begins to take charge, suggesting strategy. Marcus thinks Dan is just a little too vehement about his love for Kota and conversely he wonders if Susy is committed enough. Marcus tells us that he is not confident that either of these two will have his back if he needs them. For his part, my boy Randy is just trying to contribute and not rock the boat. Sugar, meanwhile, is literally skipping on her way to Exile Island. There she has all the food and rest she needs. Not so at Camp Fang where GC complains about his rice ration and Crystal tells him to just eat his rice. Offended at being told what to do, GC gets a little pouty. Ace comments, smugly, that his tribe is cracking at the edges and apparently nothing makes Ace happier. GC is not as happy, though, telling us he needs to get back to real life.

Tree mail arrives with a wicker ball implying some sort of sporting event. Given their track record and their current disarray, Matty isn't holding up much hope for a win. When they pack up to go to the immunity challenge, GC is nowhere to be found. Kelly, Matty and Ken go out to look for him while Ace and Crystal wonder why they are wasting the energy. GC shows up in the nick of time though, and off they go to the challenge. The challenge is a little bit like a game that Bob Barker used to play in the Price is Right (Kerplunk?) where you roll a ball down a board covered with little thingies that divert the ball. Of course I never actually saw this game but I remember my mother telling me about it. Ahem. Anyway in this case they take a giant wicker ball and roll it down a hill through a bunch of little thingies that divert the ball. At the bottom one member of each tribe is blindfolded and armed with a shield. Directed by an unblindfolded tribe member they must try to stop the progress of the ball with a shield. If the ball gets past them and rolls into one of several goals, it scores a varying number of points. Ace is the blindfolded member of Fang and Sugar is assigned to direct him. They are an ineffective team compared to their opponents, Randy and Dan. It comes down to the last ball and Randy yells for Ace to freeze....AND ACE FREEZES. Let me just point out that Randy is my guy! So Kota wins again and Fang is off to their fourth Tribal Council. It seems like a no brainer. GC wants to go home and everyone is happy to oblige. At least until Crystal takes it upon herself to look in Sugar's bag and finds the immunity idol. Suddenly it seems like a really good idea to use the opportunity to blindside Sugar and take her and her idol out of the game. However, for some reason Fang opts not to do it and when Dimples, in a decidedly(man, I don't know if I can even type this) PURPLE shirt, counts the vote, GC is indeed going home. GC (aka Danny Brown) take our own faithful pool member Lisa with him. I am pretty sure Lisa is not nearly as eager to leave the game as GC was! No one picked GC as the ultimate winner so we have only one sad face in the pool this evening.

Until next week,
Outwit, Outplay, Outlast
Pat (aka Randy did you see me mess up Ace in that challenge Bailey)

* while our Canadian words (eg flavourful) are sometimes longer, I would like to point out to our US members that our elections are blissfully short. We had a Federal election on Tuesday. It was 38 days from the time the election was called until we went and voted. If you blinked you missed it. We spent a Toonie and a couple of Loonies. Of course nothing changed but we like to get our politics out of the way so we can get back to the important things like beer, hockey and critiquing the US election candidates. Are you taking notes?