Survivor Nicaragua - September 22/10

If I may sum up this episode in one sentence - The Survivor producers have packed a lot of nuts in this can of Planters.

We begin on night 3 as Espada returns to camp from their first Tribal Council. Holly is feeling bad about betraying her BFF Wendy. She tells us she needs to rethink everything in order to better prove that she can kick everyone's ass. Man, you just barely made it through your first tribal council without having a nervous breakdown. Maybe we should save the talk about ass-kicking for a later date, Holly!

In spite of a sleepless night (and we old people get crabby without sleep)Espada has their morning team meeting where they decide what they need to accomplish for the day. While it looks like a pretty well-oiled system, Jimmy T. resents the fact that Jimmy J. seems to be calling the shots while he is largely ignored. He wants to boss a few people around too. Marty figures he will just let himself be bossed by everyone right now, while he figures out how he can turn it to his advantage later on.

Meanwhile things begin to get seriously weird. Jill is tentatively tasting some snails. She frowns a little but continues eating, while Holly watches. She then offers Holly some snails and says they are good. Holly flips out seeming to believe that Jill is trying to poison her. She runs off in a rage. Not unpredictably, this causes some talk among Holly's tribe-mates. Holly sees them talking, assumes they are talking about her and decides to get revenge on Dan. She steals his shoes, fills them with sand and puts them in the water. The next morning Dan notices that his 1,600.00 alligator shoes are missing (puleeez...you were coming to the jungles of Nicaragua. Wear a pair of hikers!!) Filled with guilt Holly steps forward and confesses to the shoe caper, prompting Tyrone to comment that he is going to keep one eye on Holly and the other eye on his shoes. Later Holly cries and tells Coach Jimmy that she wants to go home. He gives her a pep talk and persuades her to stick around to help the team.

Meanwhile, things are no less crazy at Camp La Flor. NaOnka can't find a sock. Having no dryer to blame it on, she concludes that someone has deliberately stolen it to mess with her mind. For revenge she randomly picks up someone else's socks and puts them on. When Jud sidles over with the intent of asking her if perhaps she is wearing his socks, NaOnka explodes at him. This is a woman with a chip, (no, make that an entire giant redwood) on her shoulder.

The challenge is a combined Immunity and Reward challenge. The goal is to slither one by one through a mudpit, under some logs and over to a haystack. Hidden in the haystack are 4 balls. Once a tribe has collected all four balls, tribe members must bounce the balls, relay-style, along a series of shields and deposit them in a barrel. The first tribe to get all four balls in their barrel wins both immunity and the choice of either fishing gear or a tarp and a rope. The Espadites elect to use their Medallion of Power that allows them to start with one ball already in the barrel. They also get to sit out a weaker player. It pays off as the Oldsters win the challenge thanks to some fine ball bouncing by Tyrone.

When the Espadrilles get back to camp they find a clue to a hidden immunity idol among their fishing gear. Together they solve most of the puzzle but it is Jill (my girl!) who figures out that the last bit of the puzzle refers not to a tree that looks like a man but to tree mail (tree male...get it!?) She passes this bit of information along to Marty and shortly after Jill and Marty find the idol.

At the La Flor camp NaOnka is regretting her choice to sit out the challenge. She had hoped to catch Kelly B using her artificial leg as an excuse. Little did she expect that Kelly would shine in the challenge. Chase and Brenda are starting to get very cosy and Kelly B, Alina and Shannon think it might be wise to split the pair up. Shannon tells Chase that Brenda is playing him and that he should vote for her at Tribal Council. Chase feels trapped between his alliance with Brenda and his all-boy alliance. Meanwhile Brenda and NaOnka notice that Shannon is talking to everyone but them and decide to they might have enough clout to get rid of him. Brenda talks to Chase but is overheard by members of the Shannon faction.

At Tribal Council, Shannon goes off the deep end, blowing more hot air than Hurricane Igor. He trashes Chase for being friends with Brenda, he asks Sash if he is gay, saying he just has to throw it out there. He tells a disbelieving Dimples that New York is full of gay people. Jud keeps shushing Shannon. But no sooner does Shannon quiet down than NaOnka goes off on a tirade against Fabio (Jud). We are only five days into this thing and everybody hates each other. This is going to be such a great season!!

Eventually they actually get around to voting and it is Shannon who goes home along with Barb. Barb has a family wedding coming up very soon so its probably just as well she isn't distracted by having to help Shannon count gays in New York.

Until next week,

Outwit, Outplay, Outlast
Pat (aka Jill they're called escargot you idiot Behm)