BACK TO BASICS

The Malakal tribe arrives and immediately starts to pull together to get their shelter built. James is impressed by the work ethic of the returning players. I’m impressed by James. Jonny Fairplay doesn’t do too much more than walk around whining about missing his pregnant girlfriend. Parvati flirts shamelessly with James, and even admits that he’s the only diversion on the island for her. He admits he likes her, saying she reminds him of a sex kitten. We’ll check back in after two weeks with no soap. Ozzy and Amanda bond via night vision, and try to pull Yau-Man into their alliance as they notice the groups dividing already. Jonny Fairplay walks around and aligns himself with whomever is standing in front of him at the time, but it’s expected.

NOT QUITE PREPARED

The Fans, I mean the Airai tribe, must not have watched the previous seasons. It’s raining again, it’s dark outside, and they still haven’t made any shelter. In her Flying Nun hat, Kathy cries, literally, that she wasn’t prepared for this. What is she doing there? Oh yeah, she’s holding the idol. It’s her party, and she can cry if she wants to.

BACKSTABBING BEFORE THE FIRST CHALLENGE

The next morning, Amanda complains that she is tired. James says he knows she is, since she was playing with Ozzy all night. Not that he and Parvati got too much sleep either, but at least they aren’t complaining. Knowing from past seasons that alliances are everything, Malakal starts to divide already. Parvati, James, Amanda, and Ozzy, form an alliance, because they’ll all be spending a lot of “quality time” together. Eliza, Jonathan, Ami and Yau-Man form one because they won’t. Yau-Man is busy making fire with his glasses as Jonny Fairplay watches in awe. As the freaky foursome swims, Eliza starts to target Parvati to go home, but with no good reason other than she probably wants James for herself. On the other hand, no one trusts Eliza, but they think Jonny Fairplay should go home first. No one is even talking about their strengths or the possibility that someone from the other tribe may go home first.

Over at Airai, they receive a treemail, which insists that they “don’t reinvent the wheel.” Hmmm. They correctly deduce that whatever the challenge is, they need to just do it and not overcomplicate things.

THE CHALLENGE

This challenge involves all of the players. They have to assemble four wheels, place them on a makeshift buggy, pull two players across a bridge they make after finding and assembling the planks, then get to the other side of an embankment, disassemble the wheels and place them in a puzzle, and turn a gear to make fire go up. That’s as much as I can relay without getting dizzy. Right out of the gate, Airai works well as a team and assembles the wheels, assembles the bridge and gets to the other side to get the fire in the sky. They win fire by flint and immunity. Malakal, on the other hand, get in their own way trying to get things done, with Eliza falling out of the buggy on the way and getting a knick under her eye. Embarrassingly, Malakal will be the first tribe to lose a member.

WHO DO WE GET RID OF?

After the walk of shame back to camp, the members discuss their options. Jonathan says that Airai had more energy because they were enthusiastic as opposed to being overly confident. Ciria says she trusts no one, but she has no plan. Jonny Fairplay says he’s good to keep around for morale, but he really wants to go home with his girlfriend. Parvati tells Jonny Fairplay to distract the others by acting like he really wants to go home, since she knows she’s a target. Actually, it ends up being more than a distraction. No one cares if he goes home.

TRIBAL COUNCIL

Jonny Fairplay tells Jeff that he thinks they are at council because they were over-confident. He also says that he thinks every one of his team members trust him, but he’s only thinking about his new baby. Jeff reminds him his baby hasn’t been born yet. When Jeff asks Eliza if she believes Jonny really wants to go home, she says they all need to remember past reputations of the players. Yau-Man says Jonny Fairplay has a crazy scheme, and Jonathan says he thinks Jonny Fairplay does want the votes. Not sure where that conversation was going, but glad it didn’t take us two hours to find out. When asked, Yau-Man decides he doesn’t need to play the idol, so it’s null and void. And taken away. As he places his vote for Jonny Fairplay in the thingy, he offers to be available for childcare advice in the future. Jeff counts the votes, and everyone voted for Jonny Fairplay. Parvati looked happy. Jonny Fairplay looked relieved. The rest just looked like they were ready to get on with the game. I’m just glad I don’t have to type Jonny Fairplay anymore.