WELCOME TO AFRICA
This season we join Jeff in what is termed Earth’s Last Eden -- Gabon, Africa. The 18 Americans are led by natives to their new home away from home. Right off the bat, Jeff has the two oldest players, Gillian and Bob, pick tribes. The new Fang tribe consists of Gillian, Crystal, Susie, Matty, Randy, Dan, GC (f/k/a Danny), Ken and Michelle. The Kota tribe holds Bob, Ace, Sugar, Marcus, Charlie, Paloma, Kelly, Corrine and Jacquie. The first challenge starts before they can even remember each other’s names.FIRST CHALLENGE
The teams must race up a hill and be the first entire team to reach the top. On the top of the hill are two idols, one for each team, and a team member can grab the idol for individual immunity, or lag behind and help their team get to the top. The winning team wins a bag of essentials and some beans. GC skims the hill with no problem and grabs the idol. Matty slows his pace to help both Crystal, the former Olympic sprinter, and Gillian, the nurse, who can’t seem to get up the hill. Michelle, the last girl picked, is the first girl up the hill, and lets everyone know it. As a team though, Kota crosses the line first and wins the spoils. Marcus has the idol on Kota’s side. Jeff gives them their maps and tells them to get to going.HOME SWEET HOME
Kota arrives in a clearing near a dirty lake with broken huts. Bob, the physics teacher, climbs on tope of the huts to secure the roofs. Then he uses branches to make a bench. Everyone kind of stands around watching him work instead of helping. The Fang tribe is tired already of Gillian’s constant pep talks. Well, her constant talking period. She’s a little too upbeat for some of her mates, especially Randy, the pessimist who says he will never get married. Gillian yells out “BOOKALI”, which is supposed to mean “fierce” in Gabon. Okay. Then Gillian goes hunting for elephant dung, saying it burns well and has nutritional properties if you eat the middle. Yes, you read that correctly. Ken, the shy gamer from somewhere in America, decides he likes Michelle. He tells her to eat termites, and she does. I don’t know if it’s the bra and scarf on the butt ensemble, his admitted 5-year celibacy or the African heat, but he’s really digging her.Over at Kota, they are already on the next task: building toilets. Ace, who seems to like referring to himself in the third person, makes subtle suggestions, saying it’s best to make suggestions than to be so outright controlling. Everyone will still know he had the best ideas. Charlie and Marcus feel Ace is too obnoxious. Speaking of Charlie, he is totally in love with Marcus, who tells him he’s not gay. He says that Charlie is a nice guy, but they are in Eden, but there can only be one Adam.
Fang listens to the animals in the dark. I wonder if the night vision camera are a hindrance, but I guess not. Randy hits his head on a branch or something, and has to receive medical attention. The Survivor medics give him a few stitches and send him back out in the bush. The next day, Fang grabs insects for breakfast, since they still don’t have fire. Michelle is cold and complains that she’s too thin to be on the cold ground at night. She complains that her team is stupid. She complains about everything.
CHALLENGE NUMBER 2
They have to race through a swamp to dig up three bags of puzzle pieces. Twist is they are all tied to each other and cannot move forward without the weakest link. The team that digs out all three bags and puts their puzzles together first wins immunity and flint for fire. It’s a no-brainer for Kota, as they work well together and finish first. Fang spent too much time digging for the puzzle pieces. Fang will be heading to the first tribal council. Back at camp, Gillian still tries to keep them upbeat. Randy says they need a leader. Matty says Michelle is too negative and needs to go. Randy, Ken and Michelle want Gillian to go. Ken wants to keep his precious Michelle around.FIRST TRIBAL COUNCIL
They arrive at council and basically throw each other under the bus. Through all of it, Dan is wearing a tie which distracts even me in the heat. They argue and Jeff asks if they have a leader, which they don’t. Jeff ends up making GC the reluctant leader. Michelle is sent home to get under her blankie (or eat some carbs) and poor Ken faces another five years with no kissy kissy. Jeff allows them to keep their torches so they will have fire, and also gives them flint. Back at camp, the new leader, GC, lights their first fire. They are happy that now they can cook and be warm.Kota wakes up the next morning and jumps right into doing chores and eating. Charlie is really, really, REALLY digging Marcus. Charlie tells Marcus he feels so safe in his alliance with him. Marcus admits an “inner circle” bond is brewing with Charlie. Let me find out Charlie is gonna turn Marcus out! Anyhoo....they decide to bring Corrine and Jacquie into their circle, which is just fine with them.
Back at Fang, GC asks Crystal and Susie to go find some fruit. He asks Matty and Randy to find things they can use for utensils and bowls. He asks Ken to find grass and lay down piles to soften the area under the mats they need to make. Sounds like a good leader to me, but he’s not exactly appreciated. When GC starts to make rice, Randy tells him to use the lake water so they don’t have to boil more water for drinking. GC doesn’t listen and Randy decides he doesn’t quite like GC either. Over at Kota, Marcus and company decide they need an alternate for their alliance, and wonder if Bob can be trusted.
That night, GC gets up to wash clothes because someone is snoring so loudly he can’t sleep. The next morning, Gillian asks if they can have quiet time before the sun comes up, but it ends up being a stupid argument between her and GC. GC gives up his position as leader, and no one else steps up. Back to square one.
