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by Jim Van Nest Published: May 10, 2002
HOME IS WHERE THE HEART IS As this episode opens, we learn that everyone is beginning to get very homesick. VERY homesick. A few episodes ago, everyone was obsessing over what kind of food they'd like to eat. Well this is about 20 times worse and it's about missing the people they care about. Kathy knows her son is doing all right and knows that he probably loves having the house to himself all this time. Doesn't make her miss him any less though. Paschal seems to be hit by this harder than anyone else. What is really getting him though is how much time the folks on this island have spent together. And when this is all over, it'll be likely that they will know each other better than anyone else in their lives, outside of immediate family. He figured it out to be about 900 hours spent with each other over the 39 days. That's a lot. He's also acknowledging that when this is all over and he gets back home, then he'll be missing the Survivor folks. With that much intense time together, it would have to be impossible not to feel a large hole when it all ends. Robert has decided the best way to fight this is to keep busy and not sit down and let himself get depressed like he sees everyone else doing. SURPRISE GUESTS ALL OVER THE PLACE So we get to the reward challenge and a large game board looking thing is set up. Jeff mentions that everyone is obviously missing their family and he wonders how everyone would like to call home. Instead, he says he can do one better and from behind the bushes walks Neleh's mom, Rebecca. Followed by Kathy's son, Patrick; Robert's sister, Diana; Sean's buddy, Darryl; Vee's husband, Leander and Paschal's wife, Beverly. Writer's aside: I hate to interrupt such a touching emotional moment, but reports were that Vee and Leander just got married on May 5, 2002. So, if they just now got married, why did Jeff introduce him as her husband on the show? No real big deal, just me wondering out loud. Anyway, as it turns out, the winner of the reward challenge is going to get to hang out with their loved one, have lunch, dinner and stay together overnight. Onto the challenge itself. This is a strategy challenge. Before them lies a huge game board, one that looks a lot like a Chinese checkers board. Each person will step on the board and take turns taking one step to an adjacent space. When they do that, they will then flip over the space they were just on. Once a space is flipped, no one may step on it again. Once a person gets surrounded by flipped tiles and can no longer take a step, they are out. There is one Wildcard tile on the board. If you turn that tile over, you get to vote someone off the board, knocking them out of the game. But there's a catch. The survivors will not be on the board. Their loved ones will be. And there is to be no verbal communication. So let's get right to it. Everyone takes their steps and it's pretty boring until Darryl sidesteps and takes the only space that Paschal's wife Beverly could have taken. Since she had no space to step to, she's the first to be out. Before she left, she was allowed to go over and give Paschal a long embrace. A couple steps later, Darryl uncovers the Wildcard. He has no idea who to vote for. Sean basically gives him the "I have no idea who you should vote for" look. So he does the fairest thing he can think of, takes off his hat and throws it in the air. It lands right at the feet of Vee's husband/fiancé/boy-toy, Leander, so he's the next to go. Unfortunately for Darryl, that step was to be his last. He was painted into a corner and is the next to head on out. A few steps later, Rebecca has to say her goodbyes. This leaves Diana (Rob's sister) and Patrick (Kathy's son.) They alternate steps until each of them is standing on the only space available to them. Since it's Diana's turn to step, she's out, leaving Patrick as the winner. By the way, everyone was able to spend a little time with their loved one before they took off. I just didn't feel the need to detail every goodbye. Anyway, so it seems that Kathy and Patrick will be whisked away somewhere beautiful where the food and drink are flowing and the bed is soft. But that would be incorrect. Instead, Jeff hands a pink buff to Patrick and welcomes him as a member of Soliantu. His membership is good for one day only, but he's a member now, nonetheless. Boy is he in for a surprise!! PUT THE BOY TO WORK So, they get back to camp and you can tell already that Kathy is completely re-energized and ready to go all the way now. In a way, everyone is a little re-energized. They're sad that they didn't win, but all seem to be genuinely grateful for the short time they had. Seems to be just the shot in the arm they all needed to see this thing through. So, right off the bat, Kathy turns back into Mom and puts Pat to work. She has him smashing the shellfish, busting open coconuts and helping her dig up some tarot root. He's talking about being pretty much a preppy boy from New England and feeling the most comfortable with the TV and the couch. So this is all new to him and it's pretty obvious that he thinks his mom is crazy for doing this. Paschal and Vee both discuss how they've realized through this experience how much they take for granted in their regular life. Both vow to stop that immediately. Apparently being away from everything that's important to you for an extended period of time, really emphasizes what IS important to you. The petty stuff falls by the wayside. Meanwhile, on the hunt for tarot, Kathy decides to ask Pat for advice. She is at a crossroads and doesn't know which way to go. She knows that if they vote off Rob and then she sticks with her loyalty to Paschal and Neleh that when they get to the final 3, she's the one to go. She knows that if she hangs with Sean and Vee, she's the one to go. So, her dilemma is whether or not to go against what she believes in and join up with Rob, Sean and Vee and split up the Pappy-Neleh combo and look like a real bitch. Or stick with her gut and likely lose the game. Patrick confirms that he doesn't like the side of her that would consider breaking her word and going against what she believes in, however, he agrees it may be her only shot to win the game, aside from winning every immunity challenge from here on out. Once everyone is back together again, night begins to fall, so they're all around the campfire. As if they haven't been tortured enough, the topic once again turns to food. This time, asking Patrick what his favorite foods are. Big juicy cheeseburgers are the favorite dinner and "tumbleweeds" are the favorite dessert. When asked what a tumbleweed is Pat explains that you take strawberries, and add a scoop of ice cream, rolled up in coconut...that's as far as he got. No one was even remotely interested in hearing about any recipe with coconut in it. I'll go on a limb and guess that they've collectively had enough coconut to last them the rest of their lives and then some. The next morning they awake and Pat had an awful night's sleep on the raft with his mom. You can tell, he's had enough. He's ready for some room service and HBO. Hugs all around and Kathy bawls, but when her emotions subside, you can tell she is more determined to win now than she has been all along. BACK TO THE GAME, BACK TO THE STRATEGERY With Patrick on his way back to a bacon double cheeseburger, Kathy and the rest of Soliantu get right back to playing the game. Our first conversation is between Kathy and Rob. Rob is discussing how sick Sean and Vee are of Neleh and how he thinks they’re ready to toss her. Kathy mentions to Rob that it seems like it's set up well for Paschal and Neleh to be the final two. Then she asks him if he thinks anything could change that. Rob is feeling very vulnerable, being the last of his alliance left in the tribe. You can tell that this conversation is very interesting to him. Meanwhile, Sean and Vee are discussing Neleh as well. Only they're no where near as nice as Kathy and General. Sean is doing a pretty spot on impression of Neleh, making fun of how she has ridden Pappy's coattails to get where she is. Comparing this to Disney Land in his best Neleh voice. On the other side of the island, Rob and Kathy are discussing breaking up the Paschal-Neleh duo at the next Tribal Council. Rob says he'd never vote for Paschal over Neleh. Also says he wouldn't vote for Paschal over Sean or Vee. Seems like young Neleh might be getting set up as the next victim. Back to Sean and Vee and they're having a very similar discussion. Neleh has to go if they want to have any chance to win this thing. It seems they are ready to go ahead and do this, but Kathy seems to be having trouble with it. Her brain and her strategy are telling her to break up Pappy and Neleh ASAP. Then concentrate on breaking up Sean and Vee, all the while making a two-some of her and Rob. However, her conscience is telling her to stick to her guns and her alliance. Not to mention, she still has the memory of Rob and the rest of the John alliance targeting her for removal. IMMUNITY CHALLENGE #11 This challenge looks to be another version of target practice. This time, with slingshots. Each person has an hourglass shaped structure filled with sand. Below each structure is a little Tiki God. When the plates on the structure are shot and broken, sand will be released onto the Tiki. When your Tiki is completely covered, you are out of the game. Last one with an unburied Tiki wins immunity. Everyone will line up and take a shot. Then they will move down a space, that way the same people aren't always shooting at the same person's tower. On the first shot, nothing major happens. There are a couple hits, but nothing to speak of. On the second shot however, Rob connects with one of the lower plates on Paschal's tower and that one shot pours enough sand out to completely cover his Tiki. Wow, that was quick. A few shots later, Kathy lands the first shot to Sean's tower and it turns out to be the last as his Tiki is also consumed by the sand. After a few hits, Vee finally lands the fatal blow to Rob and it seems all we have left is ladies. A couple more shots go by and Vee and Neleh gang up on Kathy and land enough sand on her to bury two Tikis. After missing from point blank range a couple times, Vee finally lands the winning blow by knocking Neleh out of the game. "Thank you Jesus!!" Rob is preparing to go. He realizes that his alliance with John, Tammy and Zoe will be his undoing and he's prepared to deal with that. He will not plead or beg to stay. If it's his time, he's willing to go. He came to the island with his pride, integrity and a knapsack and only the knapsack has any damage done to it. However, in a brilliant bit of editing, we are left with Kathy saying that she remembers Rob and Co. planning to vote her off, but if she's to have any chance, Paschal and Neleh have to be split up. For the first time we hear Neleh acknowledge that this could be her night. She's afraid of a possible Kathy-Rob-Sean-Vee alliance. From the sound of things, she should be. TRIBAL COUNCIL #11 For this Tribal Council, Jeff seems to be very interested in how everyone thinks everyone else is playing the game. His first question is for Kathy and he asks her how the game alters how she views everyone. She admits that at first, she thought it would be real easy to figure out people's motivations. But as it turned out, over 80% of them were wearing masks. And in fact, some of the masks have yet to come off. So, Vee, has everyone played their cards now? She thinks not. Some people just started playing the game and she feels there are plenty of cards to be played yet. Rob, first impression of Vee. He felt she was a nice person, very quiet and easy going. How bout now? Stronger than he thought she'd be. Yet pretty much as nice as he expected. Sean, did you underestimate anyone that's still in the game? No surprise, his answer is Neleh. He says he's surprised at how much and how well she's playing the game. And by playing the game, he is actually giving her a compliment. Paschal, since you and Neleh have formed this father-daughter like bond, how would you assess her play thus far? He says she has as much intelligence and cunning as anyone else out there. And how does Neleh assess herself? She feels like she just fell through the cracks to get where she is now. She was so quiet and never seen as a real threat, so she managed to make it here undetected. And finally, Vee, you have the immunity necklace. Care to give it up? Um....no. Time to vote. They show no votes this time around and play no comments from any of the voters. So, without further ado, I'll go tally the votes. First vote is for Rob, no surprise there. Second vote surprisingly is for Sean. But, the remaining 4 votes all go Rob's way and The General becomes the 11th person voted out of Survivor: Marquesas. Writer's aside: Words cannot explain how proud I am of Kathy. What her vote said tonight was, "My integrity is worth more than $1,000,000. I will not go back on my word for money. If I'm going to win, I'm going to do it right." My pride stems from the fact that she likely sealed her own demise tonight. No matter what happens now, whether she joins Sean and Vee or Paschal and Neleh, she will always be the odd person out. Immunity is the only way for her to win now. And dammit, I wouldn't be surprised to see her do it, either. QUOTE OF THE WEEK This week's QOTW could easily have gone to Sean during his Neleh rant, however, without the sound so you could hear his Neleh voice, it's just not as good. So this week's QTOW has to go to Jeff. As I mentioned before the reward challenge, Jeff mentioned something about calling home. What I didn't mention was the nasty trick he played on everyone in doing so. That trick is this week's Quote of the Week. "I'm just wondering, how would you react if I offered you a phone call home? (Oohs and ahhs and some "Hell Yeahs" are heard in the crowd) It's not gonna happen today, I was just curious how you'd react." D'OH!!!! That wasn't right. Of course, knowing he had their family members only 30 feet away, I'm sure he felt like making them squirm a little bit wouldn't hurt anything. Anyway, I thought it was great and worthy of being called the Quote of the Week. JIM'S PREDICTIONS Well, as it is now, there are two 100-1 long shots left, one 50-1 long shot, one 40-1 and apparently, according to my preseason predictions, Neleh would now be the favorite to win it all, at 20-1. Once again, my pick for this week turned out to be wrong. I don't think I've ever picked the same person to be voted off more than Kathy, in any of the Survivors. If only the final 2 could come down to Kathy and Vee, so my two nominees for "Most likely to be voted off first" could go at it for the $1,000,000. That would be hilarious. Well, kiddies. It's that time again. Time for me to wrap this up and head to bed. As always the vote history chart below has been updated. And I'll mention again that next Thursday is the second to last episode of the season. From everything I'm hearing, the final episode of the season will be the following Sunday, May 19th at 7pm. There will be the 2-hour finale as well as the one-hour reunion show hosted by Rosie O'Donnell. I do believe that's it. Until next week, take care and God bless.
Survivor: Marquesas Recaps at The Trades: Preview | Ep 1 | Ep 2 | Ep 3 | Ep 4 | Ep 5 | Ep 6 | Ep 7 | Ep 8 | Ep 9 | Ep 10 | Ep 11 The S-Ratings at The Trades: Ep 1 | Ep 2 | Ep 3 | Ep 4 | Ep 5 | Ep 6 | Ep 7 | Ep 8 | Ep 9 | Ep 10 | Ep 11 | Ep 12 The Amazing Race 2 Recaps at The Trades: Preview | Ep 1 | Ep 2 | Ep 3 | Ep 4 | Ep 5 | Ep 6 | Ep 7 | Ep 8 Pt 1 | Ep 8 Pt 2 | Ep 9 | Ep 10 24 Recaps at The Trades: 12 - 6 AM | 6 - 11 AM | 11 AM - 3 PM | 3 - 7 PM | 7 - 8 PM | 8 - 9 PM | 9 - 10 PM | 10 - 11 PM |
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