Last night’s Survivor was full of twists. Brandon Hantz didn’t exude the crazy, and Ozzy is part of the most dramatic rose ceremony ever…oh, sorry…wrong show. Seriously, Savaii uses a risky strategy at the leadership of Ozzy, and Upolu is finding a togetherness and trust that has been lacking among the tribe.
After tribal council, all of Upolu is discussing what a loose cannon Brandon Hantz Crazy Pants has been since their raft hit the shore episode one is becoming. Edna is thinking that she shouldn’t worry about sitting out of all the challenges if BHCP keeps acting like he’s one sandwich short of a picnic.
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Ozzy and Cochran go from Savaii to watch the Redemption Island duel, while Albert and Sophie are in the audience for Upolu. They will be watching Mikayla and Christine, two of their former tribe mates, go head to head in what is definitely not a shuffleboard match. Each lady must build a bridge out of planks from a crate, cross the bridge, deconstruct the bridge, and use some of the planks to form a puzzle. Albert is cheering on the ladies, but I am unsure as to who he wants to win until I remember that Christine flicked him off last week. Christine has a small lead over Mikayla who is getting coached by Albert. Something about the way Ozzy and Cochran are watching reminds me of either Beavis and Butthead or the two old men puppets who sit in the tear of the Muppet’s theater.
Mikayla is first to get her puzzle put together, but after a quick check by Jeff, it’s incorrect. The women are truly neck and neck, but Christine is able to sweep the duel yet again. Upolu better be rull skeered of Christine, as she’s five for five. Sophie looks more defeated than Mikayla that Christine is still in the game. Ozzy believes Christine is a force to be reckoned with, and as he’s unsure who she will choose if she comes back, he thinks Savaii needs to up it’s strategy. His plan, in the event of losing immunity, is to send in one of their strongest players to battle Christine. That sounds very risky to me.
Ozzy shares his “worst case scenario plan” with Cochran, and he pretty much volunteers himself as the Savaii martyr. He says he’ll give away his immunity idol in the hopes that his honest tribe mate will give it back upon his return from Redemption Island. Cochran is thrilled, as it means he’s safe another week. Across the island, Coach is praying and doing some sort of water martial arts. He thinks his team needs major unity. Everyone seems to be concerned about the upcoming merger, predicting it will occur after this next challenge.
Unfortunately for Coach, Rancher Rick, Edna, and especially BHCP are hellbent on finding the already found idol. Coach leads the group in prayer to direct them to the idol. Sophie thinks it’s a tad sketchy of him, seeing as she and Albert know Coach has already found it. Agreed. Sophie and Coach find some tree-mail which refers to “twins” and “warriors.” Coach’s plan is to grab the idol before heading back to camp and pretend they just found it. BHCP couldn’t be more excited. Their prayers have clearly been answered.
For the immunity challenge, everyone is decked out in war paint with an identically painted partner. Props to Upolu for going so far as to paint a blue bikini top on Brandon (and kudos to him for being a good sport) so he really matched Edna. The reward from tonight’s challenge not only is safe from tribal council and will enjoy a one player advantage, they will also get to see watch a sneak peek of Adam Sandler’s upcoming movie Jack and Jill at Survivor’s South Pacific Cinema. One, really? A movie theater? That kind of puts their “braving it out in the jungle” into perspective, and two, what is with the constant cross-marketing? If I wanted to watch commercials, I wouldn’t have DVR.
The movie is about Adam Sandler playing a pair of twins, and the sister gets on the brother’s nerves…until they realize how much they need each other. Thanks for the spoiler, Jeff! 🙂 Seamlessly transitioning into how the film relates to the challenge, Probst reveals that two sets of twins will be blindfolded, while the third set must coach the teammates from the sidelines. The blindfolded sets of twins must use those commands to retrieve four bags of masks, and one of the blindfolded duos must pair the like masks together based only on their sense of touch. Shockingly Coach is coaching for his team, along with Rancher Rick, while Marijuana Jim and Cochran will be the eyes for their tribe.
The blindfolded pairs are having a difficult time navigating this crazy obstacle course, with Edna almost being knocked out cold. The second pairs maneuvering the course are neck and neck, but Upolu is just a hair ahead of Savaii. Edna causes her tribe to fall behind, as she clings to BHCP. Savaii has a rope issue that causes them to fall very far behind on their search for the first bag. Sophie and Albert are in the lead with a pretty bad wardrobe malfunction for poor Sophie. Savaii is still behind due to Cochran’s poor performance of hooking Ozzy and Whitney onto the rope. Once it comes down to matching up the masks, the pairs can have not verbal clues, so Coach commences a prayer. Upolu wins immunity, with Coach making all his tribe mates join him in prayer, while Ozzy admonishes Cochran about his mishap with the ropes. I’m wondering if he’s second guessing his earlier “worst case scenario” plan…
Ozzy takes to punching and karate kicking a wall. Coach believes that God granted his team mates the unity to win this challenge. Savaii is not feeling it at all. Ozzy has a bit of a BHCP tirade, and Cochran has a feeling that Ozzy may not feel like sacrificing himself anymore. No worries for Upolu, as they are enjoying all the movie theater trappings of junk food and sodas, while we viewers get our own sneak preview of Jack and Jill. Coach views the movie’s message as an important one to his newly rejuvenated Upolu family.
Back at camp, Ozzy’s temper is still flaring, and as much as I lurve Cochran I can’t say I blame Ozzy for his anger all that much. Cochran feels more ostracized than normal, and my heart goes out to him…he had finally made it into what he thought was the “in-crowd.” It’s kind of like watching the movie Lucas. The tribe decides to discuss who should be voted off, and Cochran sacrifices himself…at the urging of his teammates. Dawn sees it as Cochran getting the ultimate redemption, as she thinks he can prevail against Christine if only he believes in himself.
Whoa, wait. What? After a night of fitful dreaming, Ozzy appears and gives the immunity idol to Cochran. Ozzy feels that he needs to be redeemed, not the little guy. He only hopes that his tribe will go along with him. Cochran, obviously, is in hog heaven. The tribe isn’t on board, especially if they have wrongly predicted the merge. What if they have another team challenge before the merge? Savaii would be down one of their strongest contenders.
At tribal council, Ozzy reveals to Jeff that there was a lot of finger pointing at Cochran after the recent challenge. I really feel badly for this tribe because I do think they sincerely like one another. Jeff is confused by their plan…what makes them so sure that Cochran can win, and even if he does, what will make him want to join Savaii if they voted him out for messing up the immunity challenge? At this point, Ozzy reveals that he is going to Redemption Island, not Cochran. He gives a pretty impassioned speech in favor of his ousting.
They actually have a pretty great plan in the event of the merge. Ozzy is going to tell Christine that Cochran was voted off but used the immunity idol he found but kept hidden from his teammates. The rest of the tribe is still on the fence about voting off Ozzy. Only Cochran’s vote shown, and when Jeff asks if anyone has the immunity idol to use, Ozzy is all, well, I think I may actually use it and send Cochran to Redemption Island. For a split second I am flabbergasted, but Ozzy is very OMG, LOLZ little guy! Good luck against duel master Christine, Ozzy! Jeff declares Savaii’s decision as the biggest one in the history of the game.
Next week, will Ozzy be able to beat the unbeatable Christine? And if he is, will Cochran keep his word and return the immunity idol to Ozzy?
WHAT DID YOU THINK OF TONIGHT’S EPISODE? DO YOU THINK THE MERGE IS IMMINENT? WAS OZZY TOTALLY STUPID TO SACRIFICE HIMSELF? WHAT WOULD YOU HAVE LIKED TO SEE HAPPEN WITH SAVAII?
