Survivor Cook Islands: Episode 5
Previously, it was the seasonal episode where an arrogant twerp would get blindsided and booted. This pattern is getting predictable after so many seasons but JP made it so easy to mock him and his increasingly atrophic pecs, so it was still a fun kind of predictability when he didn't see his boot coming. Will the Aitus win once again Albert in this episode or will fate throw Raro a bone?
Day twelve, morning, Rarotonga. Ever wondered how a gorillia brushing its teeth looks like? Here's a close comparison: Adam is brushing his teeth, in close-up glory as well with the show providing squeaking scraping sound effects for good measure. Nate is also brushing his teeth while Brad prefers to retain some dignity by opting to eat coconut flesh for breakfast instead of impersonating hygienic primates in a zoo before the camera.
Nate realizes that the women are still asleep. "What you ladies sleeping for?" he can be heard asking. Well, Nate, what were you guys sitting all day and talking for? He goes on to mutter that he's no "hater" but he objects to the women sleeping all day when there is work to be done. The other two men agree. Clearly, these men have no self-awareness at all. Why am I not surprised? As Adam productively brushes his teeth with his eyes wide open like he has accidentally seated himself on a sharp branch, Nate tells the men that the women have turned on them and these women can "eat them off" if the three men aren't careful. Hindsight is everything, especially for a dumbass like Nate. Nate tells the camera that the men have to show these women that they need the men around after all.
Therefore, as the women wake up, Nate gets to work cutting down firewood while Brad fish. Adam is scraping at some rocks by the bench. I don't know what he's doing, scraping snails, I suppose, but I hope he knows what he is doing. With Adam, one can never tell. As Parvati observes Nate stacking up the firewood he has collected, she chuckles to the camera that the guys have "stepped it up" ever since JP was given the boot. Rebecca, seeing Nate, says dryly, "Unbelievable!" I don't know if she's complimenting Nate for his work or is being sarcastic towards him. Says Parvati in a voiceover, "Nate did get a massive pile of wood this morning! I've never seen a pile of wood bigger than that!" I don't believe her, not that I'm been staring at Nate's shorts or anything, of course. Oh, she means something else? Never mind then. She adds that Adam has caught some crabs while Brad brings back some fish. Parvati tells the camera that the men have become more "manly" trying to prove themselves to the women and naturally she's pleased about the situation.
Aitutaki. Cao Boi and Flika are out in the shallow waters to catch something for breakfast while Sundra, Becky, and Candice prefer to sit on their raft on the beach. Candice suddenly asks Sundra, "How's your armpit?" I'm afraid to even ask if this is Candice's typical way of starting a conversation. Sundra immediately lifts her left arm straight up for Candice to study her armpit. Next thing I know, all three women are showing off their armpits to each other and asking how their armpits look. Sundra announces that she thinks her "right one" is worse and show the other two the armpit in question. They all laugh as if they know how silly they are in that particular moment. Cao Boi, watching the three women, exchanges a look with Flika. To the camera, he says that the three women just sit around on their behinds all day without doing any work. "They don't even try!" he scoffs. The camera cuts to Candice telling the women this is a good day since they are all feeling so relaxed, heh, even as Cao Boi adds to the camera that if the women don't "correct" themselves, they will be "eliminated". By who? Will Cao Boi personally boot all of these women in some magical Tribal Council?
Sundra returns later that morning, announcing that she has their tree-mail with her. Ozzy demonstrates that his public reading isn't as good as his public, er, naughty antics as he stumbles with a bad poetry that talks about last pair standing getting food or something like that. Then again, it can't be easy to read such bad poetry so I'd give him the benefit of the doubt. Ozzy makes some happy statements to the others about how they will all be eating that night. Hmm, we'll see.
Reward Challenge time. Jeff "Simple Simon Says" Proboscis waits in a circular clearing until the two tribes have filed in and points out to the stunned/bemused Aitus that JP had been booted from Raro. Probby explains how this Challenge will work and it's a simple one. There are eight members in each tribe. Each tribe picks six members to form three pairs. Each pair stand on a platform where each person will be holding on to a lever. The two person of the opposing tribe will load a five-pound bag onto each lever of the pair of their choosing. The last pair that manage to hold on to their levers will win the reward for their tribe. Probby reveals the reward: a box of "fishing stuff" (looks like scuba-diving fins to me), spices, and wine. Wine for cooking or for drinking, you ask? What do you think? Oh, and as usual, the winning tribe can send someone from the losing tribe to Janu Island.
The two tribes manage to realize that they have to pair two of their strongest tribe members together so that at least one pair will be left standing at the end of the Challenge while two of their weakest members will load the weights on the pairs of the opposing tribes. On Aitu, Cao Boi and Becky are the "loaders" (as Probby calls them) while the pairs are Yul/Jonathan, Candice/Sundra, and Ozzy/Flika. On Raro, Parvati and Jenny are the loaders while the pairs are Adam/Nate, Stephannie/Rebecca, and Cristina/Brad. The pairs will be bound together by a belted contraption around the torso so it makes sense, I suppose, to pair Yul and Jonathan together rather than Yul and Ozzy since Yul and Jonathan are about the same height and therefore they can center themselves on the platform easier as they have more and more weights to support.
The Aitu loaders go straight for Nate/Adam while the Raro loaders target Candice/Sundra. As Probby makes them wait to see whether any pair will let go of the lever, Adam whispers to Nate that he hopes the other tribe will target all the loads towards them so that they can hold on for as long as they can while Nate whispers in a Darth Vader way to Parvati to take out the Aitus. Adam must think he's a genius instead of Mr Duh telling the obvious when Probby gives the signal to the loaders to load another round of weights and Aitu once again targets Adam/Nate. Nate snickers unconvincingly because he thinks that he's a badass. Raro on the other hand now load the weighted bags onto the pair of Yul/Jonathan. "And we wait a little more," Probby says. As if he's just woken up from a long sleep, Jonathan looks up and tells Probby somewhat contemptuously, "Weight a little more? Looks like a bad pun, Jeff." Probby just looks down to the ground and drawls, "Aww." Please, there's no use pretending that he's busted - does Probby expect me to believe that he's deliberately trying to make a pun there?
Time passes. Probby lets the loaders make their move again. Aitu loads Nate/Adam once again, which means Nate and Adam are now holding on to fifteen pounds each. Raro loads Ozzy/Flika, which means everyone in the Aitu pairs is now holding on to five pounds each. Adam and Nate are bent over now - remember, they are each holding on to the weights with only one hand, so it's not easy - and Probby asks them how they are feeling. Cristina laughs when Nate says with bravado that he's not going to falter anytime soon because they intend to go "wining" that night. "Whine-ing," Flika teases with a wink and some air kisses at Nate as Parvati goes, ooh, Flika is "hardcore". Adam and Nate take Flika's ribbing in a good-natured way. The show then speeds up and it's not clearly shown who the loaders are loading up on, but Flika is showing the strain while Adam and Nate are really struggling as more and more weighted bags are loaded on their levers. Finally, Probby reveals that Yul/Jonathan and Nate/Adam have thirty pounds per person, Brad/Cristina and Sundra/Candice fifteen, and Ozzy/Flika and Rebecca/Stephannie ten.
Of the pairs, Yul and Nate can be seen clearly struggling to be holding on to their levers. It's therefore probably not that shocking when Yul finally loses his hold on his lever and the weighted bags crash onto the ground. It's probably just as well that he drops his lever because I can see Jonathan beside him struggling to maintain his balance and Jonathan's weighted bags are barely inches from the ground. If it's not Yul, it will be Jonathan, I suspect. At any rate, both men are out of the running.
Now Aitu loads on Rebecca/Stephannie while Raro loads Ozzy/Flika. Flika is struggling so Becky tries to encourage her tribe with a deadpan, "Come on, Aitu, you're doing awesome." Maybe a little more exuberance in the delivery would have helped. Meanwhile, Nate and Adam are struggling to hold on to their levers to the point that they're embracing each other hard with Adam burying his face in Nate's shoulder. That's so hot, it's like two gay chimpanzees doing Brokeback Cook Boys. "Handsome boys, make quite a pair," Cao Boi points out, probably hoping to scare the guys into moving away in case people will assume that they're really into each other. Nate doesn't bite the bait, instead saying, "Ebony... and ivory!" in response to Cao Boi's taunt. Finally, Rebecca lets go of her lever. She and Stephannie are out of the running so each tribe is now down to two pairs. Candice is trying to encourage Sundra by telling her they will dine well if they win while Jonathan also tells Sundra to hold on but poor Sundra really can't so she lets go of her lever and apologizes to her tribe mates.
This means it's down to Ozzy/Flika versus Brad/Cristina and Adam/Nate. Flika and Cristina are struggling. But it is Flika, despite her taunts to Cristina in her attempts to get Cristina to let go, ends up losing her grip first. She's really in pain so I don't blame her for doing so. Raro wins this Challenge and gets the goody box! As for the person going to Janu Island, Adam for some reason advocates sending someone who's already been there back to the place. Hey, it's Adam. I don't know what he's thinking and I won't even try to guess because I think it will be a pointless endeavor. At any rate, poor Jonathan is the person who will be camping overnight in Janu Island. He walks off to the beach where the boat is waiting for him after waving goodbye to the other Aitus. With that, Probby asks the Raros to come over and collect their goody box and sends everyone away because he'd like to return to his rented bungalow and watch soap opera on cable TV.
Day thirteen, morning, Rarotonga. As expected, the two bottles of wine are completely empty. Nate wakes up looking worse for wear and tells Brad that wine puts him straight to sleep. Ladies, that's something to remember the next time you're stuck in a blind date with this loser. Adam then shows up, laughing in that uniquely Neanderthal "Hugg, uggg, ugggh!" way of his, and shows off an octopus that has wrapped itself around his ankle. Nate helps him pry that octopus loose and drops that slimy thing into a bucket. Brad says that it will make a good lunch as well as dinner. He's talking about the octopus rather than Adam. I think. With the way he's lifting up his shirt and caressing his stomach like that, I can never be too sure.
The octopus is chopped up - let that be a lesson to octopuses everywhere: stay away from people like Adam! - and Cristina tells the others that they need coconut milk and water to cook that thing. This causes Jenny to tell the camera that Cristina thinks that she's an "asset" to the tribe because she cooks for them but Jenny believes that anyone can cook if they want to. Really? "If they want to" must be the qualifier. At any rate, pinch-faced Jenny complains that Cristina is being bossy. The show cuts to a montage of Cristina telling everyone else what to do or how something should be done or how she needs them to do something for her. I don't know, it looks to me in that montage that Cristina is at least telling people to do things in a pretty pleasant tone so it's not like she's on a control queen rampage or something.
Next is a pretty confusing sequence where Cristina and Jenny are by the sea cleaning the octopus as well as their knife. Jenny clearly takes her leave and she says to the camera that she's told Cristina that she's going back to camp. We have only her word for that since the footages in this episode see her leaving without a word to Cristina. Then Cristina dips the pot of chopped octopus bits into the sea to rinse the meat when a few pieces fall out. A few pieces, mind you, maybe six or seven pieces with plenty left in the pot. I've watched this scene a few times just to make sure. But Cristina starts calling out to the others for help and Brad comes to her aid after telling the others that "the octopus fell all over the place". Rebecca, having heard only Brad's words and seeing nothing, chops coconuts and asks Jenny whether it's horrible if they boot Cristina next. Jenny laughs not very nicely.
Adam comes over to help Cristina, although "help" in this case means him standing there and patronizingly telling Cristina to be careful. Brad's the one picking up the fallen pieces of octopus meat while Adam's the one telling the camera that he "worked hard" to catch the octopus - by offering his leg as bait? - but Cristina "dropped the bucket" - which is not true, as we've seen - and now there are "pieces of octopus all over the water". The camera zooms in on one miserable piece of meat in the sea. One piece. So basically this is like a telephone game gone wrong, where one person says something into another person's ear and the message gets garbled as it is passed along, to the point that Cristina ends up being some careless bitch who goes wheeee as she drops hundreds of pieces of octopus meat into the sea.
Cristina doesn't improve matters by telling Brad and Adam as well as anyone else who will listen that she thought Jenny would be there to help her. Help her to do what? Sit on the pot so that nothing can fall out? Adam returns to camp and tells Jenny that Cristina said to him that she thought Jenny would be there to help her. Jenny quickly jumps to the conclusion that Cristina is blaming her for the mishap with the octopus and bitches about Cristina to the camera and to everyone who would listen. She also calls Cristina "the new JP" to the camera, adding that Cristina should "watch herself". Ooh, so now Jenny fancies herself the Godfather or something, I see.
Maybe it's time to see what the Aitus are doing so that some semblance of maturity will return to this show. A crab shows its claw to the camera - it doesn't have a middle finger, after all - before I get to see Flika asking Yul, who has just woken up, whether he'd like to go fishing with her. He says that he'd rather catch a chicken. Flika expresses an interest in seeing the "other island". Ozzy tells the camera that they are "running out of resources" in their island so they are exploring the other island. Ozzy must have caught all the fish and Yul must caught all the chicken if they are actually running out of "resources". Ozzy asks Candice whether she wants to come along and she gives a transparently lame excuse about wanting to stay behind because she is able to do more things in the camp than when she's out there trying to hunt. Candice explains to the camera that Cao Boi, Ozzy, and Flika are going to the other island and she doesn't want to join them because the paddling itself will take a lot of her energy and also because the three are clearly looking for a fourth wheel in their alliance. She's already in an alliance with Yul, Becky, and Jonathan. Sundra also tells the camera that she's been approached by the three and like Candice, she knows that they are trying to recruit someone into their alliance. To the three misfits, she tells them that the water is "freaking" her out. Maybe she sees reflections of her armpits and she doesn't like that. Sundra explains to the camera that she doesn't really like those three people so she'd not want to be in the same boat with them for hours, much less in an alliance with them. So who is Sundra allied with?
So it's just Yul, Becky, Candice, and Sundra at camp. As Yul explains to the camera while scratching his lower left leg - am I going to come off as one sad person if I say that I would love to volunteer to scratch his leg for him? - the current alliance of him, Becky, Candice, and Jonathan needs a fifth person because while Cao Boi and Flika voted with them to send off Cecilia, Yul realizes that those two are not the most trustworthy people around since half the time nobody can predict what Cao Boi and Flika will do or say. Therefore, Sundra is the best candidate for the fifth wheel position. She's dependable and can be trusted, says Yul, and she also tends to be by her own most of the time. "As if she's looking for a home," he puts it so sweetly. Yul therefore invites Sundra to sit with them and tells her about the alliance that she now has an invitation to be part of. She asks them whether they have asked Ozzy to join the alliance as well and Yul tells her that he doesn't trust Ozzy. Sundra agrees about Ozzy and gives a tentative okay to joining the alliance. To the camera, she says that it feels good to be part of the gang instead of being merely an outsider but she is still not feeling too secure about her position in the tribe. As she thinks about her situation while wandering around the camp on her own, she tells the camera that clearly anything can happen in this game.
Meanwhile, the three misfits have paddled themselves to the other island and are happily scouting around the jungles looking for, as Ozzy puts it, "anything they can get", Ozzy babbles in a monotone about some noni fruits he has found and some cuts on his fingers. He ends up showing his middle finger to the camera. That's nice if it hasn't been done already by the Great Porno back in Thailand. Meanwhile, do you notice how they blur out the front of Ozzy's shorts? I think the shorts must have slipped low enough that some, er, fuzz must be showing. Has America reached a stage where it's now offensive to show body hair on TV? The three keep walking and walking and...
... Flika giggles when they emerge at the Raro camp where the Raros are seated around the fire doing their usual things like finding people to blame for petty things that annoy them around the camp. The Raros, needless to say, are like, "Why are the other tribe here?" instead of running into Cao Boi's open arms. They are probably worried that some twist must have happened where these Aitus are now moving in permanently with them. And judging from the expressions on the faces of Adam, Parvati, and Stephannie, living in close quarters with Ozzy, Flika, and Cao Boi is a fate too terrible to even contemplate. Rebecca even mutters aloud, "It's the three that we can't stand!" As Cao Boi happily mingles and tries to get Parvati to teach him how to pronounce her name, Adam shakes his head and voices over that he's shocked to see the three Aitus. I suspect that Adam shocks very easily. He'll even be shocked to learn that all his ex-girlfriends faked it and counted sheep. Adam adds that this is the Raros' turf and territory, so the Aitus shouldn't be here. Yeah, well, Aitu and, I suspect, most of the world don't want to be with the Raros. At least, I know I won't want to be even in the same neighborhood as the Raros.
Cao Boi's conversations go nowhere because the Raros are not exactly willing to have one with him so in the end, as Parvati tells the camera, he resorts to babbling about "Chinese symbology". She means that Cao Boi is babbling about something like wedding stones, dragons, turtles, monkeys, and rats. Jenny, who knows Cao Boi, yawns while everyone else looks like they wish they can just disappear as Cao Boi babbles on and on and on. Rebecca's stoned expression of disbelief is especially too funny. The show cuts to the sun setting in order to drive home how tedious and long-winded Cao Boi is to those people who aren't watching this show carefully. Stephannie chuckles and tells the camera that listening to Cao Boi talk "over and over and over again" is "a little bit much" and the Raros start exchanging "Okay, is he going to stop talking?" looks with each other.
Cao Boi finally closes his story. I am definitely not paying attention so don't ask me if the turtle ate the monkey and married the dragon or it's the other way around. He then shamelessly announces that the three Aitus are taking some of their noni fruits (he calls them "healing fruits") and asks whether the Raros want to join the three Aitus in cutting down coconuts and having some cozy soiree. This man doesn't read the house well, I tell you. Adam is like, not on this island, but they can all go to Aitutaki and work together there. Cao Boi just shrugs and asks whether the Raros will spare some of their spices. Predictably, the Raros won't. After the three Aitus leave, Adam tells the camera that it is "primal" out there and he doesn't like it when other people "invade" their camp. And Adam's the one to talk about "primal", naturally, since he has yet to catch up with the rest of mankind in the evolutionary process.
At Janu Island, Jonathan is reading the third clue in the captain's logbook. "Find what you seek, a charm of great worth," he reads aloud, "Get in the right spot, and look deep into the earth!" Maybe it's just me, but it sounds better when it's just "Look for the right spot and start digging, buster!" without all that flowery nonsense. He tells the camera that he's not surprised to be sent back to Janu Island. He then says something that not many nitwits on this show has grasped: it's crazy to send him back to this place several times because he has more chances at finding Waldo the hidden Immunity Idol as a result. Oh dear, it looks like Yul has only told Becky and no one else that the bulge in his shorts is merely Waldo happy to see everybody. As night falls, Jonathan keeps digging at what he calls his "million dollar sandbox". Of course, he will never find Waldo since Waldo has already been found, so when morning comes he has dug up a shallow trench like he wants to bury someone he has just murdered. Indeed, he jokes that the trench is big enough to bury Yao Ming. Get it? No? Not an NBA fan, are you? Finally, he says that he has been digging for hours so he's now certain that Waldo has already been found. If that's the case, he'll feel like a fool for having spent hours digging and digging like a crazy person. A fool? No, never a fool.
Day fourteen. It's now time for the Immunity Challenge. Probby waits by the beach until the two tribes have filed in before bringing in Jonathan to rejoin the Aitus. Probby asks and Jonathan says that he spent a lot of time digging and says, "I think I know where it was... but it ain't there now!" Ooh, that's a pretty clever way of hinting that he has Waldo, but unfortunately, I suspect that only a few people will get that hint and one of these people already has Waldo so the ruse may not work like a charm for his benefit.
Probby now explains the Challenge. Each tribe must first assemble three "stepping poles", which are like small pedestals, and one person will make his or her way across a considerable distance over the sea from one platform to the other by stepping on these stepping poles. Therefore, the other tribe members will have to hold up the stepping poles in place for this person to step on and keep moving the stepping poles towards the other platform to create a "path" for this person. Get that? Each tribe must move two tribe members from the starting platform to the other platform in this manner. Then, all tribe members will swim to a third platform. This one is very narrow, allowing two people at best to stand on it. However, the tribe must find a way to get all eight tribe members on the platform with every part of the body being above the level of the top deck. Now, this will be interesting to see! The first tribe to succeed in this impressive test of literal tribe flexibility and dynamics will win Albert for the next few nights.
Assembling the stepping poles is pretty much figuring out which tab goes into which slot. The stepping poles are twice as high as the tallest nitwit on this show so I can imagine how heavy these things are. The Aitus have a slight lead in this and they head out to the water first, but the Raros are really just behind them. Jenny and Flika will be the first to move across from platform to platform. However, one of the Aitus' stepping poles falls apart and they lose some time reassembling it before Flika can make her first step forward. Jenny attempts to bend her body forward as much as possible as she makes her way from stepping pole to stepping pole while Flika chooses to spread her arms horizontally for balance as she tries to move like she's walking on a tightrope. The stepping pole can barely fit the two feet of each women so it's really not easy, this task.
Another difference is that Aitu uses only two stepping poles, which means they have to keep moving around to place another stepping pole in front of Flika. This way could be slower, but it also means three people are supporting a stepping pole and therefore it can be balanced better when the woman steps on it. On the other hand, Raro use all three stepping poles so Jenny may move faster across the water but her stepping pole is noticeably more unsteady since only two people are holding it upright for her. In fact, Jenny nearly loses her balance when Nate and Rebecca momentarily lose control of the stepping pole that she is balanced precariously on.
Aitu's strategy works better than Raro's when despite having a lead on the Aitus, Jenny struggles more often to balance herself on the unsteady stepping poles and Flika easily catches up with her. Eventually, Raro wisens up and ditches the third stepping pole. Jenny manages to reach the platform first but Flika also reaches her platform.
Parvati and Becky now make their way across the platform. Both women have the same method of approach: they crouch down to help balance themselves on a stepping pole and slowly move to the next stepping pole while bending forward as much as possible. However, Parvati is really off-kilter in her balancing act at the start because her foot actually misses the next stepping pole but soon she finds her rhythm. Becky on the other hand moves very steadily across and Aitu tries to catch up by putting the stepping poles farther apart. Despite the farther distance between the stepping poles, Becky manages to move steadily across. Parvati reaches the next platform first but Becky is also closing in on her platform. Flika in a pretty smart move stretches out her hands when Becky is close enough to jump and Becky jumps right across and grabs them, thus removing the necessity of one more round of stepping pole hoisting on her tribemates' part.
The second platform has several rungs below the top deck for people to step on. Probby however said that everyone's feet have to be above the level of the top deck so it's not a simple matter of everyone holding each other as they stand nilly-willy on the rungs of the platform. As both tribes group hug, Cao Boi tries to step up and join the Aitus but he falls off. Rebecca has a similar situation in Raro, she tries to step up to the top but in her case, she sends the other Raros tumbling into the sea, oops. This gives Aitu a significant advantage since it's only Cao Boi that has to get up on the platform. As Raro try to get back up and find a suitable eight-fit-all group hug, over at Aitu Yul and Cao Boi are the only ones who need to find some footing on the top deck of the Aitu platform. It's almost beautiful how Aitu does this: Jonathan and Becky are in a very tight embrace and the other tribe members are holding on to these two as well as each other. And then, slowly, the others all lift Yul and Cao Boi up just as these two men push themselves up with the one foot each of them has on the platform. Just like that, with the other foot of each man dangling in the air just long enough for Probby to proclaim them the victor because they all collapse and fall into the sea, the mighty Aitu group hug has won this Immunity Challenge. This is an awesome Challenge, I tell you. You have to see it to appreciate how exciting it actually is.
As the Aitus cheer and hug each other, the Raros disconsolately fall back into the sea with Nate giving a loud roar as he bitchslaps the sea. Aww, someone is not happy. There is also a foreshadowy scene of Stephannie seated alone on the Raro platform, looking defeated. Probby hands over Albert to the Aitus and reminds the Raros that they naturally have a date with him at Tribal Council.
The Raros return to their camp understandably not in the best of moods. The first thing Cristina does once she dumps her bag onto the ground is to wander off to be alone. I can understand her being sick and tired of her tribemates or wanting time to be alone to sulk about the tribe's latest defeat, but her timing can't be any worse because this prompts the other Raros to talk about getting rid of her for real now that they have the opportunity to do so. Jenny tells the camera that it's an unanimous decision among the other Raros (and her, of course) to get rid of Cristina because she is annoying and she also doesn't do anything. Cut to Cristina lying on a hammock and watching as Adam collects some coconuts. Huh? Didn't Cristina cook like Jenny said earlier in this episode? And now Cristina is lazy? Methinks pinch-faced Jenny is trying to come up with excuses to ennoble her decision to get rid of Cristina and it isn't working.
Meanwhile, Nate and Stephannie collect water for the tribe. Naturally, they also talk about Tribal Council and Stephannie, having learned nothing from her close escape in the last few days, tells Nate that she knows it's either her or Cristina getting the boot at Tribal Council and says in what is clearly a joking manner that she doesn't mind going home to eat "mashed potatoes and gravy". However, never let it be said that dumb Nate here will know someone else's joke if it isn't delivered with a "nyuk, nyuk, nyuk" so he tells the camera that oh no, Stephannie is hinting to him that she wants to go home because she is telling him that she wants to eat "smashed potatoes". "This girl's done," he tells the camera, adding that Stephannie's words are just "icing for the cake". I don't think Nate is using that phrase correctly. He should stick to simple sentences that will not tax his limited brainpower, such as, "Hi, I am Nate. I am stupid. Please kick me."
This leads to another telephone game session where the message completely gets garbled up by the time it is whispered into the ear of the last person - Nate runs off to tell Adam and Brad about how Stephannie has seriously given up. Listen to the way he is talking to Adam and Brad, by the way. Nate comes off like someone trying very hard to impress his new buddies that he has adopted an entirely new pretentious accent just for the occasion. His chin is held high, he's trying too hard to sound like a tough guy, and he's just so laughably desperate to be perceived as a cool guy here. It's as if he thinks Adam and Brad are the coolest, smartest, and most fun guys around and he is desperate for them to perceive him as one of the cool kids. It's official: Nate is Carlton of Bel Air.
Thanks to Nate, the guys talk about how Stephannie has mentally "checked out". Brad then tattles to Parvati, with the official storyline now being that Stephannie is telling Nate that she wants to go home and eat mashed potatoes. It turns out that Brad is trying to convince Parvati to vote out Stephannie instead of Cristina because Parvati now puts on the same thinking face that she put on in the previous episode. Which is to say, she scrunches up her face most unappealingly as if thinking is really something she doesn't do often because thinking is very, very hard. She says that she will think about what he has told her and walks off. Of course, Parvati being Parvati, she'll go with the rest.
To give Parvati credit, she doesn't merely buy what Brad told her, she instead heads straight to Stephannie for a quiet chat. She tells Stephannie that "people are saying" that Stephannie wants to go home and eat mashed potatoes. Stephannie laughs and says that these people are taking her words out of context. Parvati tells Stephannie to be careful about what she says to other people because her words can be "extorted" by other people to be used against her. I think Parvati's mind is a little, er, distorted although her advice is sound indeed. Stephanie just goes, "Wow." Parvati makes some sympathetic sounds as the two women now lay side by side on the raft, lost in their thoughts. To the camera, Stephannie says that it's probably better that she hasn't said anything since she was just "having fun" but what she said ended up getting blown out of proprtion. However, she adds that if they want her to leave, that's fine since she's not going to beg them to let her stay. Of course, that's what she says at that moment. They always do, but when they get booted, that's when they change their mind and call their former tribemates all kinds of names.
Parvati tells Adam and Rebecca that Stephannie wants to stay and she even adds that she believes that what Nate reported and what Stephannie actually said were two different things. Rebecca wants to boot Cristina because Cristina annoys her. But Adam, in between chewing some kind of yucky stuff in his mouth, mumbles something about Stephannie being "dead weight" in challenges. He's going with the plan to boot Stephannie. Parvati is trying to save Stephannie by mentioning what a sweetheart Stephannie is while Rebecca is trying to save Stephannie because she'd rather see Cristina go but alas, Adam is not budging from his decision to go along with his himbo buddies and write down Stephannie's name come Tribal Council. Finally, Parvati says, "I'm voting my conscience." She wants to boot her conscience from the tribe?
Night, Tribal Council. Probby invites the morons to take a seat and begins the chit-chat, which is pointless as usual. Adam insists that the tribe is improving when it comes to Challenges and they only lost at the recent Immunity Challenge towards the final stage. Does it matter? Raro still lost. They are still stupid and they are about to vote someone out using mashed potatoes as an excuse, a ridiculous one at that. I mean, if these people actually want to save Cristina, fine, then any excuse to boot someone else is kosher. But nobody likes Cristina so they are just booting Stephannie because Nate thinks he can be a schemer just like Jenny and his himbo buddies probably go, "Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk, payback time!" It's all so stupid! Why not just say that they're booting Stephannie because she's a dead weight in Challenges? Stephannie reveals the reason for her predicament when she tells Probby that she hasn't formed close bonds with anyone. If you remember, she had this same problem when she was in Hiki as well. I guess she's just not social enough to last in this game. At any rate, she has no close allies so there is no one to defend her against Nate's nonsense. Cristina is "accused" by Nate of trying to be a leader and she reasonably defends herself by saying that it's just her and she's used to hanging around cops who understandably behave differently from the playschool brats of Raro. This has the other Raros shaking their heads and rolling their eyes because they are more mature than Cristina that way. I don't even know why Probby wants an opinion from Adam unless he wants this episode to have some elements of comedy, but he nonetheless asks Adam of his opinion of Cristina. Adam says that Cristina is just "that way", just like how Adam is unfortunately this way, the way pointing straight down into the toilet. After some more insipid moments with Raro, Probby ends the whole "Discover enlightment the Rarotonga way" chit-chat session and send them off to vote.
Brad votes. Cristina writes down "Stephanie". No hard feelings there, of course. Adam votes, then Jenny. Stephannie writes down "Kristina", saying that the K is her payback for the missing N. No, not really, she just says that it's nothing personal on Stephannie's part, her vote. Nate votes, then Rebecca, then Parvati. Probby tallies the votes and happily reveals them. Apart from her vote for Cristina, Stephannie is unanimously booted from Raro. Wow, I never knew Parvati considers Stephannie her conscience. Does this mean that Parvati will remain unconscious for the rest of the season? Probby babbles some faux-enlightenment that seems to be directed specifically at Cristina, the dead woman walking in Raro, and banishes them from his sight. Another Tribal Council done, another episode done. Can we declare Raro officially the most irritating tribe on this show ever?
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