OK, let me offer up an apology for anyone who actually considered following last season here. If you read my other blog then you know I got distracted by some medical issues. I'm better now. Really.
On the other hand, it wasn't that long ago that I was dealing with those medical issues. And it's already time to consider a new season of Survivor? Well, what the hell.
This season opened up with the players already divided into tribes, named Jalapao and Timbira. It's not an obvious division like Boys vs. Girls or Old vs. Young or anything else, for that matter. We're not told how they were split up, which is fine by me. Probst goes through his usual spiel about how this part of the world is beautiful and unspoiled, and CBS is here with cameras and several dozen people to put an end to that. Not in so many words, of course. Eighteen people, thirty-nine days...one Survivor!
In addition to being laden with contestants, the truck is also burdened with assorted supplies. As the truck parks, Probst gives the teams one minute to get whatever supplies they think they're going to need off the truck, which they'll take to their camp. During that minute, Timbira managed to take all of the water and all of the food sacks (beans, rice). Jalapao got melons and such, but nothing that they can store for any appreciable length of time. It's at this point that they're told that the march to their camp site will take about four hours.
Probst then tells the teams that they're going to hold a vote right away, and that therefore two people will not be making the trip with everyone else. So the teams, who have had very little opportunity to speak to one another (only during the supply run), have to vote based entirely on first impressions. Jalapao votes for Sandy, because she's an older woman, and Timbira votes for Cierra because they think she can't hack it in the heat already. Both of them express anger and dismay, and Cierra points out that she's been on antibiotics for three days because she's got strep throat. No wonder she looks sick: she IS sick.
Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it), there's already a twist. This vote is not the elimination vote that everyone thought it was. All Probst had said was that the people voted on wouldn't be making the trip with the rest of the tribe. Instead, these two will be given a helicopter ride to their respective campsites. This is a good news/bad news thing: they won't have to march for four hours, but then again they won't be given the opportunity to bond with the rest of their tribe, which has already decided that they're not wanted.
At the campsites, Sandy and Cierra are each given the opportunity to either start building a shelter using the materials provided, or they can go look for a Hidden Immunity Idol. Cierra, seeing an opportunity to redeem herself in the tribe's eyes, starts building. Fortunately, the rest of the tribe apparently gets lost and takes what appears to be longer than the four hours to get there, so she's nearly done by the time they arrive. But still: she built a shelter for nine people with strep throat and a fever.
Sandy, on the other hand, thinks that she's going to be gone at the first Tribal Council her team sits in, so she goes looking for the idol. Which would be a great idea if she had some clue-solving ability. First she's told to go locate a stick in the sand by their beach and dig beneath it for the next clue. For all the time she had, she couldn't even complete this part--she hadn't found the next clue by the time the tribe arrived. Naturally, the tribe was pretty pissed that she hadn't done anything with the shelter.
The next day, Sandy managed to break away from the tribe, find the correct stick and dig down to the next clue, which directed her to walk ten paces toward "the lone palm tree". First there was the small matter of finding the tree, then she repeatedly noted that she didn't know what a "pace" was.
Come on in, Guys!
The first Challenge, which was a combination reward/Immunity, involved teams racing along a sandy course with some serious hills and valleys in it. At the end of the course is a raft full of planks, which are stair treads. The teams fish the planks out of the water, untie them and carry them back through the course to the base of the stairs, where two tribe members (from each team) are waiting. These two tribe members then put the right planks in the right places so that each team can ascend the stairway and another two tribe members can solve a maze puzzle at the top. It's probably not a coincidence that both Sandy and Cierra were selected to work on the stair treads.
Survivors ready? Go!
Both teams were roughly even for the retrieval portion of the challenge, but Sandy really rocked the stair puzzle for Jalapao, putting them into a big lead. Unfortunately, this came unraveled when Brendan and Erinn solved the maze for Timbira in short order, and we'll see Jalapao at Tribal Council tonight.
Still convinced that she's headed for the Loser Lodge Ponderosa, Sandy continues to search for the HII. However, Sandy's efforts at the Challenge were not unnoticed by some of her tribemates. Carolina, meanwhile, starts rubbing everyone the wrong way with her attitude. Apparently Brazil is too dirty for her taste or some such.
Tribal Council: Probst hates Sandy because she's old. Carolina admits she can be abrasive. Hardly anyone else gets to speak. The tribe agrees with Carolina's assessment and votes her out, 7-1.
Next week: There's going to be a beatdown! Or, you know, not.
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