Series Recap (10/26)
Surviving the Cook Islands – A Closer Look and Some New Scenes by David Bloomberg -- 10/27/2006 It’s that magical time of the season when we don’t get a new episode of Survivor, but instead get the recap of what we’ve already seen. But we are promised lots of new scenes this time. Are there enough? Is there any new insight? You may be surprised. Survivor pulled a fast one on me last week. Silly me, I thought the “next time, on Survivor” promo at the end of the episode meant this week. Nope. This week is a recap episode that promises new scenes – 14 of them, in fact. We’ll see how well they do with that. So let’s sit back, relax, and relive the past few weeks. We begin with an old scene that relives an older scene as the contestants are told to grab provisions and jump off their boat. And surprise, surprise – the tribes have been divided by race! We hear from a few contestants that I don’t remember hearing from before. Jessica says she’s never been separated out because of the color of her skin before. Yul says kids used to pick on him because he’s Asian, including coming around and smashing his family’s Christmas lights. Billy says being a Dominican-American means “squat” to him. We relive Aitu’s arrival on the island and Billy trying to take the lead but being fairly clueless. At Puka, Cao Boi says he’s never fit the Asian stereotype. Sekou emerges as a natural leader at Hiki – and quickly burns out. This leads to our first new scene – helpfully labeled “NEW SCENE” on the screen. Host Jeff Probst voices over that Sekou was not the only one lacking outdoor skills. They find a boat and he gets in – and tips! The rest of them can’t seem to help him as it happens several times over. Sundra says it’s not the color of their skin, but the fact that they’re city kids that’s a problem. And Sekou gets dunked again. One of the women says they have an excuse – their people had a really bad experience with boats some 500 years ago. At Raro, we have another new scene involving a boat. Adam and Candice decide to go out fishing. The problem is that a storm rolls in and catches them in the water. It’s not really raining, but it’s windy enough to keep them from being able to paddle back to the island. Adam notices that the water where they are is shallow and they hop out to drag the boat to a sandbar. There they ride out the wind and cold for hours, holding on to one another for warmth. Candice is really shivering! They decide to sacrifice the boat and swim back to the island. Parvati tells us she was initially concerned about Adam and Candice. But when she saw they were okay, she became worried about the boat – they need it to fish, for example! Whoops. It’s not made clear exactly whatever becomes of the boat. Did somebody go back to the sandbar to get it? Did they not care and the merge from four tribes to two made it moot? Your guess is as good as mine. Switching gears to Aitu, we get a new scene of shelter-building. More importantly, we see what we’ve been told by voted-out original Aitu members in interviews. Specifically, Billy first makes a “to the end” alliance with J.P., and then goes to tell the women he wants to align with them. This is what made Billy untrustworthy. At the first immunity challenge, Hiki comes in last. And then we get a new scene of Hiki discussing their loss. Rebecca says they learned about working together. In particular, they don’t like losing because they feel they are representing their race. In deciding on who their weakest link is, the women pick Sekou. We get a brief post-vote interview where he says Nate warned him “the sistas” would target him. He admits he didn’t know a lot, but that’s what made it an adventure. At Puka on day 3, Yul and Becky form an alliance. A new scene shows us Cao Boi finding a nut. No, no – one you can eat, not him looking in the mirror! He tries to create a bond with Yul and suggests when there is a merge, they should keep an eye out to help each other. Yeah, we all know how well that works out! At Aitu, Billy gets lazy and Ozzy suggests they throw the challenge. They do so and send Yul to Exile Island. Just before the tribes go back to their camps, we get to relive Billy’s supposed love connection with Candice, where she says, “We love you” in an “aw, I’m sorry you’re leaving” way, and he replies, “I love you,” in an “I want you to have my babies” way. At Aitu’s Tribal Council on night 6, Billy and J.P. have their verbal battle. Then Billy drops the bomb: “I fell in love in this game. … Her name is Candice.” This gives us one of the best “What the hell?!” shots of Probst ever, and Billy’s tribemates absolutely crack up. Billy, of course, gets voted out. In a post-vote interview, he says he learned a lot about himself, such as that he’s not motivated by money. The game favors those who are willing to stoop low and he’s definitely not the conniving type. Meanwhile, Yul finds the idol on Exile Island. In a new scene, we see how he tries to hide this fact. He rips up the note about the idol and throws it into the water. Then he attaches coconut husks to the box that held the idol and floats it out to sea. We get a few amusing new scenes of Jonathan on Exile Island searching in vain, followed by Candice doing the same. Then Adam does the same, wandering around the island and trying to figure out the clues. On day 7, the tribes were merged into two integrated groups. At new Raro, Brad says it’s all smiles but the game still hangs over them. At new Aitu, Yul and Becky team up with Jonathan and Candice. Back at Raro, Parvati uses her flirting to her advantage. And her itsy bitsy, teeny weeny black bikini helps too! In a new scene, we hear more about how the guys on the tribe love to watch her. Can’t say I blame ‘em! Nate describes her as “Dayum!” Adam says she’s great scenery. Parvati wants to get in tight with all of them and manipulate them. Dating game or game of survival is all the same. The first immunity challenge with the two tribes has Aitu losing and Candice going to Exile Island. Is Becky on the chopping block? Hell no! Yul convinces Cao Boi to get rid of Cecilia. And so she goes. After being voted out, she says she tried to play the game with integrity and the other people missed out. That night at Raro, we get a new scene of Stephannie singing “Amazing Grace” by request as the rest of the tribe just sits and listens. Even Simon Cowell couldn’t complain about that performance. On day 11, we relive Cao Boi knocking down the bird’s nest – and then replacing it. And the Raro men lie around doing nothing. This makes it all the more amusing when J.P. reassures the other men that even if the women are upset about them being lazy, they can’t do anything about it. Famous last words. So after they lose the challenge, even though Stephannie has a bad moment and says she’s the weakest link, the others plot J.P.’s downfall. A new scene shows Rebecca trying to bring Nate onto their side. He freaks out and repeats “no” over and over again, then says it’s stupid. J.P., however, never sees it coming. We see another new scene of Stephannie vying for a “best actress” award in playing along with J.P. talking about how she will be going. At Tribal Council, of course, everybody but Nate votes out J.P. and he is totally shocked. In his post-vote interview, he says his biggest attribute is loyalty, and that was his downfall – trusting people too much. Funny, I’m thinking his downfall was at least in part his ego in assuming the women couldn’t do anything about his laziness. Next up, we relive part of the reward challenge from day 12, when duos had to hold onto weight for as long as possible. Damn, Jessica has hairy pits. Didn’t notice that before, and I could have lived my whole life without noticing it this time. Raro takes home wine, which leads to a celebration we see in the new scene. They send the wine bottles around. Stephannie doesn’t drink much, but she is sloshed! She’s practically falling over as she sits around the fire. When Nate tries to get some food into her, she just looks at him like she’s in outer space. They eventually need to walk her to the shelter for the night. In the morning, we relive Cristina getting on everybody’s nerves. At Aitu, meanwhile, several of the women (Candice, Sundra, and Becky) compare underarm hair. Jessica isn’t in the group, but she wins easily. Ozzy has a difficult time getting the three of them motivated to go fishing, as we see in a new scene. They each make excuses and Ozzy is getting annoyed that he puts in all this work and feeds the lazies. Cao Boi says similar things – the princesses sit around, consume the most calories, and expend the least. They appreciate that the food tastes great when they eat it, but they don’t appreciate the work that goes into getting it. Then we see Ozzy, Cao Boi, and Jessica arriving at the Raro camp and annoying that tribe. Aitu then wins immunity on day 14 and they agree to vote out Cristina. Well, at least until Nate plays up Stephannie’s talk of mashed potatoes and gravy, which turns things around on her. Before Stephannie is sent packing, Cristina is told how annoying she is. Stephannie tells us in a post-vote interview that she missed her family. That night, Cristina confronts those who called her annoying – especially Adam. We see a new scene of the next morning with Cristina continuing to talk to her tribemates about it. Adam tries to explain when she’s been annoying, but she doesn’t really want to hear it. So I’m not sure why she brought it up again. The next challenge turns out to be for reward, because both tribes are voting somebody out. Aitu wins and Cao Boi reveals Plan Voodoo. Unfortunately, the plan doesn’t work and Cao Boi is sent packing, with only Jessica out of the loop. In his post-vote interview, Cao Boi says he was perfectly comfortable in terms of survival, it was the human element that got him. He adds that his original Puka tribemates caught him by surprise. He thought their parents taught them honor, but they didn’t know right from wrong when it came to stabbing somebody in the back. Then Aitu feasts while listening in to Raro’s Tribal Council. They save Nate and pull him to their tribe for a little while, and Cristina is sent packing. She tells us in her interview that she tried to play using her experience but she has emotions like anybody else. What can we expect in the rest of the season? Probst tells us there will be further adventures, and we see what looks like a plane trip to a native gathering that involves cliff diving. There will be a future twist that affects the game. And the tribe that loses a challenge will head back to camp with… a bottle. We have no idea what that’s all about, but the contestants seem upset about it. We get some glimpses of future competitions, and then Probst is telling people that they have 10 seconds to decide if they change their fate in the game. Hmmm. Guess we’ll just have to keep watching to find out what this is all about. As for this episode, I have to say it may be the best recap episode ever. OK, so that might not be saying much, but the new scenes filled in a few gaps and showed us some things we hadn’t seen before. Next week (for real, this time): Nate causes stress for Aitu as there are strategy discussions held in front of him. Ozzy’s stock skyrockets as he gets food from the trees as well as the water. And one player on Exile Island takes a beating in a nasty storm.
Surviving the Cook Islands – A Closer Look and Some New Scenes by David Bloomberg -- 10/27/2006 It’s that magical time of the season when we don’t get a new episode of Survivor, but instead get the recap of what we’ve already seen. But we are promised lots of new scenes this time. Are there enough? Is there any new insight? You may be surprised. Survivor pulled a fast one on me last week. Silly me, I thought the “next time, on Survivor” promo at the end of the episode meant this week. Nope. This week is a recap episode that promises new scenes – 14 of them, in fact. We’ll see how well they do with that. So let’s sit back, relax, and relive the past few weeks. We begin with an old scene that relives an older scene as the contestants are told to grab provisions and jump off their boat. And surprise, surprise – the tribes have been divided by race! We hear from a few contestants that I don’t remember hearing from before. Jessica says she’s never been separated out because of the color of her skin before. Yul says kids used to pick on him because he’s Asian, including coming around and smashing his family’s Christmas lights. Billy says being a Dominican-American means “squat” to him. We relive Aitu’s arrival on the island and Billy trying to take the lead but being fairly clueless. At Puka, Cao Boi says he’s never fit the Asian stereotype. Sekou emerges as a natural leader at Hiki – and quickly burns out. This leads to our first new scene – helpfully labeled “NEW SCENE” on the screen. Host Jeff Probst voices over that Sekou was not the only one lacking outdoor skills. They find a boat and he gets in – and tips! The rest of them can’t seem to help him as it happens several times over. Sundra says it’s not the color of their skin, but the fact that they’re city kids that’s a problem. And Sekou gets dunked again. One of the women says they have an excuse – their people had a really bad experience with boats some 500 years ago. At Raro, we have another new scene involving a boat. Adam and Candice decide to go out fishing. The problem is that a storm rolls in and catches them in the water. It’s not really raining, but it’s windy enough to keep them from being able to paddle back to the island. Adam notices that the water where they are is shallow and they hop out to drag the boat to a sandbar. There they ride out the wind and cold for hours, holding on to one another for warmth. Candice is really shivering! They decide to sacrifice the boat and swim back to the island. Parvati tells us she was initially concerned about Adam and Candice. But when she saw they were okay, she became worried about the boat – they need it to fish, for example! Whoops. It’s not made clear exactly whatever becomes of the boat. Did somebody go back to the sandbar to get it? Did they not care and the merge from four tribes to two made it moot? Your guess is as good as mine. Switching gears to Aitu, we get a new scene of shelter-building. More importantly, we see what we’ve been told by voted-out original Aitu members in interviews. Specifically, Billy first makes a “to the end” alliance with J.P., and then goes to tell the women he wants to align with them. This is what made Billy untrustworthy. At the first immunity challenge, Hiki comes in last. And then we get a new scene of Hiki discussing their loss. Rebecca says they learned about working together. In particular, they don’t like losing because they feel they are representing their race. In deciding on who their weakest link is, the women pick Sekou. We get a brief post-vote interview where he says Nate warned him “the sistas” would target him. He admits he didn’t know a lot, but that’s what made it an adventure. At Puka on day 3, Yul and Becky form an alliance. A new scene shows us Cao Boi finding a nut. No, no – one you can eat, not him looking in the mirror! He tries to create a bond with Yul and suggests when there is a merge, they should keep an eye out to help each other. Yeah, we all know how well that works out! At Aitu, Billy gets lazy and Ozzy suggests they throw the challenge. They do so and send Yul to Exile Island. Just before the tribes go back to their camps, we get to relive Billy’s supposed love connection with Candice, where she says, “We love you” in an “aw, I’m sorry you’re leaving” way, and he replies, “I love you,” in an “I want you to have my babies” way. At Aitu’s Tribal Council on night 6, Billy and J.P. have their verbal battle. Then Billy drops the bomb: “I fell in love in this game. … Her name is Candice.” This gives us one of the best “What the hell?!” shots of Probst ever, and Billy’s tribemates absolutely crack up. Billy, of course, gets voted out. In a post-vote interview, he says he learned a lot about himself, such as that he’s not motivated by money. The game favors those who are willing to stoop low and he’s definitely not the conniving type. Meanwhile, Yul finds the idol on Exile Island. In a new scene, we see how he tries to hide this fact. He rips up the note about the idol and throws it into the water. Then he attaches coconut husks to the box that held the idol and floats it out to sea. We get a few amusing new scenes of Jonathan on Exile Island searching in vain, followed by Candice doing the same. Then Adam does the same, wandering around the island and trying to figure out the clues. On day 7, the tribes were merged into two integrated groups. At new Raro, Brad says it’s all smiles but the game still hangs over them. At new Aitu, Yul and Becky team up with Jonathan and Candice. Back at Raro, Parvati uses her flirting to her advantage. And her itsy bitsy, teeny weeny black bikini helps too! In a new scene, we hear more about how the guys on the tribe love to watch her. Can’t say I blame ‘em! Nate describes her as “Dayum!” Adam says she’s great scenery. Parvati wants to get in tight with all of them and manipulate them. Dating game or game of survival is all the same. The first immunity challenge with the two tribes has Aitu losing and Candice going to Exile Island. Is Becky on the chopping block? Hell no! Yul convinces Cao Boi to get rid of Cecilia. And so she goes. After being voted out, she says she tried to play the game with integrity and the other people missed out. That night at Raro, we get a new scene of Stephannie singing “Amazing Grace” by request as the rest of the tribe just sits and listens. Even Simon Cowell couldn’t complain about that performance. On day 11, we relive Cao Boi knocking down the bird’s nest – and then replacing it. And the Raro men lie around doing nothing. This makes it all the more amusing when J.P. reassures the other men that even if the women are upset about them being lazy, they can’t do anything about it. Famous last words. So after they lose the challenge, even though Stephannie has a bad moment and says she’s the weakest link, the others plot J.P.’s downfall. A new scene shows Rebecca trying to bring Nate onto their side. He freaks out and repeats “no” over and over again, then says it’s stupid. J.P., however, never sees it coming. We see another new scene of Stephannie vying for a “best actress” award in playing along with J.P. talking about how she will be going. At Tribal Council, of course, everybody but Nate votes out J.P. and he is totally shocked. In his post-vote interview, he says his biggest attribute is loyalty, and that was his downfall – trusting people too much. Funny, I’m thinking his downfall was at least in part his ego in assuming the women couldn’t do anything about his laziness. Next up, we relive part of the reward challenge from day 12, when duos had to hold onto weight for as long as possible. Damn, Jessica has hairy pits. Didn’t notice that before, and I could have lived my whole life without noticing it this time. Raro takes home wine, which leads to a celebration we see in the new scene. They send the wine bottles around. Stephannie doesn’t drink much, but she is sloshed! She’s practically falling over as she sits around the fire. When Nate tries to get some food into her, she just looks at him like she’s in outer space. They eventually need to walk her to the shelter for the night. In the morning, we relive Cristina getting on everybody’s nerves. At Aitu, meanwhile, several of the women (Candice, Sundra, and Becky) compare underarm hair. Jessica isn’t in the group, but she wins easily. Ozzy has a difficult time getting the three of them motivated to go fishing, as we see in a new scene. They each make excuses and Ozzy is getting annoyed that he puts in all this work and feeds the lazies. Cao Boi says similar things – the princesses sit around, consume the most calories, and expend the least. They appreciate that the food tastes great when they eat it, but they don’t appreciate the work that goes into getting it. Then we see Ozzy, Cao Boi, and Jessica arriving at the Raro camp and annoying that tribe. Aitu then wins immunity on day 14 and they agree to vote out Cristina. Well, at least until Nate plays up Stephannie’s talk of mashed potatoes and gravy, which turns things around on her. Before Stephannie is sent packing, Cristina is told how annoying she is. Stephannie tells us in a post-vote interview that she missed her family. That night, Cristina confronts those who called her annoying – especially Adam. We see a new scene of the next morning with Cristina continuing to talk to her tribemates about it. Adam tries to explain when she’s been annoying, but she doesn’t really want to hear it. So I’m not sure why she brought it up again. The next challenge turns out to be for reward, because both tribes are voting somebody out. Aitu wins and Cao Boi reveals Plan Voodoo. Unfortunately, the plan doesn’t work and Cao Boi is sent packing, with only Jessica out of the loop. In his post-vote interview, Cao Boi says he was perfectly comfortable in terms of survival, it was the human element that got him. He adds that his original Puka tribemates caught him by surprise. He thought their parents taught them honor, but they didn’t know right from wrong when it came to stabbing somebody in the back. Then Aitu feasts while listening in to Raro’s Tribal Council. They save Nate and pull him to their tribe for a little while, and Cristina is sent packing. She tells us in her interview that she tried to play using her experience but she has emotions like anybody else. What can we expect in the rest of the season? Probst tells us there will be further adventures, and we see what looks like a plane trip to a native gathering that involves cliff diving. There will be a future twist that affects the game. And the tribe that loses a challenge will head back to camp with… a bottle. We have no idea what that’s all about, but the contestants seem upset about it. We get some glimpses of future competitions, and then Probst is telling people that they have 10 seconds to decide if they change their fate in the game. Hmmm. Guess we’ll just have to keep watching to find out what this is all about. As for this episode, I have to say it may be the best recap episode ever. OK, so that might not be saying much, but the new scenes filled in a few gaps and showed us some things we hadn’t seen before. Next week (for real, this time): Nate causes stress for Aitu as there are strategy discussions held in front of him. Ozzy’s stock skyrockets as he gets food from the trees as well as the water. And one player on Exile Island takes a beating in a nasty storm.