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by Jim Van Nest Published: March 27, 2003
THE JABURU ALLIANCE We start off with the Jaburu tribe this week as they arrive back to camp from Tribal Council. They're all bummed out and Deena tells us how bad TC sucked and how the tribe is really missing Shawna's personality right now. Rob echoes this sentiment, but also mentions how depressed Alex seems to be about it. To Rob, it's a good thing. He's hoping it will get Alex to "pull his head out of his ass" and start thinking about the game again. So, Rob starts a discussion with the girls about the merge. He wants to know what they think about his idea to dupe the other guys after the merge. His plan is for he, Alex and Matt to let the other guys know that "Operation: Estrogen Liberation" is still intact. However, the fun part is, the Jaburu tribe will now recruit Heidi to give it the # advantage and pick off the Dave/Roger/Butch alliance one at a time, beginning with Dave. Everyone seems to agree that this is the way to go and we all go to sleep happy. THE MERGE The tribes awake the next day to find that they have some very exciting tree mail. Each tribe received a key. Didn't take long for everyone to realize it was a key to the mystery boxes each tribe was given at the beginning of the game. Not surprisingly, when the box was opened each tribe found a poem and a map. The map was to a place where the tribes would meet up and become one. That's right, looks like Survivor 6 is going back to the good ole days where Episode 7 is the merge episode. To illustrate the difference between the 2 tribes, we see Tambaqui saying goodbye to their camp and discussing how they'll remember the camp and how much they'll actually miss it. We see Jaburu, specifically Deena, telling us the order of the next few votes (Dave, Roger, Butch) and Rob suggesting that from this day forward, the Jaburu tribe should not be seen all together at one time discussing anything. So, the tribes meet up in a little tiny island in the middle of the river. It looked the size of a sandbar, but it actually had a lot of growth on it, so I'd wager that it was more permanent than your average sandbar. The tribes arrive and Jeff instructs them to remove their buffs, and he hands them their new red buffs and a map to their new camp. He explains they are now one tribe and they will be heading to a new camp site, will have to build new shelter, come up with a new name and paint a new flag. He further explains that from now on, all challenges (reward and immunity) will now be individual. With that, they get in a boat and take off to their new home. As they leave we hear Christy talk about how surprised she is to have made the merge. We also hear Dave saying that it's odd to have made it this far. All anyone had thought about so far was making the merge. Now that's here and it's time to take the next step. LONG LIVE JACARÉ The Survivors finally reach the new camp to find a huge feast waiting for them. Hotdogs, chicken, fruit, vegetables, chips and salsa, cookies, rolls and a cooler full of "Sponsor B" brand beer. (Again, I won't promote the product anymore than it already was promoted.) They all sit down, pop a can and dig into the food. As everyone raises their can for a toast, I'm wondering if I'm the only person that notices that apparently Alex doesn't drink, as he raises an empty hand as everyone else raises a can. Just one of those little things I tend to notice. Not sure why, just do. Writer's aside: I've added this after publishing the article, because it's something I should have remembered. In his bio, it's mentioned that Alex is in his 12th year of sobriety after a pretty heavy battle with drugs and alcohol. In that case, let me say how impressive it is to see him in the given situation, which I would consider pretty extreme, still refraining from drinking. I mean, all they were given was beer...so instead of breaking his sobriety, he'll end up drinking crappy water instead. Very impressive indeed. As the tribe gorges themselves, Deena makes a suggestion for a new tribe name. She suggests Jacaré¬ the Portuguese word for alligator. Everyone seems to like it and a new tribe is officially born. While everyone is still eating Roger decides to get up and start building the shelter. As everyone gets out of "stuff their face " mode, they begin to discuss how best to preserve what food they have left. Roger wants to keep the food cold with ice as much as possible. The other guys seem concerned with keeping the beer cold. Hell, even Butch and Roger get into it a little over the beer. In a confessional Alex tells us what an ass Roger is and has been from day one. Roger is like hard core trying to take control and order everyone around. Alex decides to call everyone together to discuss the location of the new shelter. Apparently where they are located is up plenty from the water, so flooding is not an issue, however, they're not a real far distance from the water, which presents the possible problem of alligators getting into camp. They were trained before the show to leave like 150 feet between them and the river. Where they are, Deena says they're not that 150 feet. So, Roger jumps in that no alligators will be bothering them up there. Deena says she prefers to listen to the people that trained them. This would have forced a writer's aside from me, but Rob stole my thunder on this one. He says it's quite interesting watching Roger and Deena go at it. Since both were the "leaders" of the separate tribes, neither one of them really wants to give up the reigns to the other. Also, he mentions the amount of respect he has for Deena and how as a lawyer, she has incredible intelligence and arguing skills. With the little tiff behind them, the tribe decides that they can build where they are and should be fine. Well, with that out of the way, Roger gets back to the business of telling everyone what they can and can't do. Example, the men will build the shelter. The women (and Rob) will be in charge of getting the palm fronds. Christy and Deena are the most annoyed by this. They see no reason they can't be part of the team actually building the shelter. Rob points out that he doesn't care who builds the shelter. While Roger and Co. are building the shelter, he's building alliances to carry him through this game. Next we see Heidi, Jenna and Deena all discussing Roger and the vote. Heidi says she doesn't care what they want to do later, but Roger has to go now. Keep in mind, this goes against the Rob/Deena plan of booting Dave first. But, Heidi makes a compelling argument (something Deena definitely appreciates) saying that Roger HAS to go now. If not, he makes the jury. And if he makes the fury, he'll never vote for a woman over a man. Jenna and Deena agree and the pecking order seems to have shifted away from Dave and toward Roger. Meanwhile, we see Roger talking about how the guys have gotten back together and have the 6-4 advantage over the women. And it just seems too easy to be able to pick the girls off one by one like they're going to do. Dave then tells us that everything is working according to plan and that Christy is the one getting the vote at the next Tribal Council. The next thing we see is a dual confessional with Alex and Matt talking about how Roger thinks he's safe and that he has no idea that he's next to go. Alex and Matt like the idea of holding true to the new alliance and when it's down to 5 (Alex, Matt, Rob, Deena and Jenna) just seeing what happens. SEX TALK, CAN YOU BELIEVE IT? So night falls and everyone, save Roger, is sitting around the fire talking and drinking beer. Roger is fast asleep snoring like crazy. Rob tells us that he's very disappointed that the girls are not drinking a little more. Mainly because a guy that looks like him would only have a chance with girls that look like them, if the girls had too much to drink. And then in what may be the shock of the century, the discussion turns to, of all things, sex! We learn that Christy got some at the Washington Monument on the 4th of July while the fireworks were being shot off. We learn that Dave thinks he's really, really cool and suave with the ladies. He's babbling on with some story about 2 girls when they cut to Rob telling us how much he doesn't like Dave. He's actually concerned that the girls may fall for Dave's smooth guy routine which will hurt his alliance. Writer's aside: I'm constantly amazed at how Rob can be such a goober around these girls and drool over them the way he does most of the time, yet when it's time to play the game. He shuts it off. I mean, he can be gushing about how hot Heidi is one second, but the moment she becomes a threat to him in the game, he'll have no problem cutting her loose. I'm becoming more and more impressed with Rob as the game goes on. Amazingly enough, of all people, Rob is the one pulling the strings out there. And allow me to be the first to say that if things continue the way they are going, he'll end up winning this thing and putting his name up there with Richard and Brian as one of the best players ever to play Survivor. Anyway, back to the sex talk. Now it's Rob's turn. he admits to us and to the group that he really doesn't have much to talk about, but whatever he's telling the group involves 2 women. The talk of 2 women, gets Heidi and Jenna talking about threesomes (to the delight of ALL the guys). They discuss how the guys would be surprised how many women would be for that kind of thing, yadda, yadda, yadda. It does lead Rob to tell us, he's rethinking his strategy and is thinking a Rob-Heidi-Jenna final 3 doesn't sound to bad. The next morning, Roger is up at the crack of dawn making all kids of noise in what seems to me to be a deliberate attempt to wake the entire tribe. Writer's aside: Ok, I have to say it. This guy's been a class A tool from day one. ya know, when he was sound asleep snoring so loud the others could hardly hear each other talking the night before, did they wake him up? No, they let him sleep. What the hell could have possibly been so frickin important that he needed to be banging on a machete 10 feet from where everyone was sleeping first thing in the morning. And furthermore, why do idiots like this keep getting slots on Survivor? The guy obviously has no idea how to play the game and no intention to play the game. Cause anyone playing the game would've known that you don't piss off the other 9 people when immunity is individual. I mean, in the span of some 12 hours, he's managed to piss off Dave, Matt, Alex, Deena, Heidi, Jenna, Christy and to some extent Butch. For crying out loud, how can you expect to win being that frickin stupid? I say, if they're not about playing the game...then dammit they shouldn't be there. Let someone who wants to seriously try to Outwit, Outplay and Outlast on the show and see how it goes. So later that day we check in with Deena and Rob as they plot who will be after Roger and they both agree on Dave. Rob tells Deena that he's concerned that Dave may sweet talk Heidi or Jenna to his side. Deena assures him that the girls are pissed off at Dave/Roger/Butch for having the nerve to think that the girls were just going to lie down and be picked off one by one without formulating some sort of strategy. Deena confirms to Rob that the plan is still for Rob, Jenna and Deena to be the final 3. Next we see Dave and Matt catching some fish while Jenna and Deena talk to them from the shore. Then Deena mentions to Jenna that she's a little concerned about the alliance between Rob and Alex. She trusts Rob, but would feel a lot better with Alex gone. That would force Rob to stick with them to the end. Deena also tells us that she's so tired of how cocky the Dave/Butch/Roger group is. They're just so sure they've got it in the bag. She thinks it'll be funny watching them sweat after Roger gets the boot. IMMUNITY CHALLENGE # 7 And here it is kids. The point of the show where Jim loses his faith in Mark Burnett, Jeff Probst and CBS. The tribe gets to the immunity challenge and learns that this will be the "stand in one place for as long as you can and the last person standing wins" challenge. This time around, it's a perch with a standing area made of a 12 by 4 inch piece of wood. Ok, so the challenge starts and already Roger is wobbly. Since it looks like he might drop soon, Jeff takes this time to remind people of what's in the water and they might want to make a fast swim to the boat after they fall in. About a half hour in, Jeff lets them all know that there will be some temptations along the way in this game, designed to get them out of the game. He's referring to food items used to bribe people into quitting. Writer's aside: Before I get into what really bothered me about this show, let me first mention that just the day before the entire tribe had a feast and drank a lot of beer. With the memory of hot dogs, chicken and everything else still lasting in their full bellies. What the hell kind of food could Probst offer that would make the jump down? I mean, really. They're not starving. In fact, they're as full today as they have been since they landed. Bad timing on the food bribes, in my opinion. Ok, here's where the challenge gets weird. Right after Jeff says there will be temptations, out of the blue, Jenna says, "I'd take my clothes off for some chocolate and peanut butter." Heidi adds that if he has soda, she's in. And amazingly enough, within minutes, Jeff produces a plate of chocolate cookies, a heaping helping of peanut butter and 2 ice cold sodas. So, the girls strip and drop out at the 30 minute mark. Writer's aside: Ok, this is a long one and will be broken into 3 parts. Part 1: Butch refused to look at the girls. And he was very vocal about it. He was very sure to let his students know that he was not looking. Why do I mention this? Well, because Butch is a class act all the way. Butch is the type of guy that deserves to win this money. Butch exemplifies all that is good in a person. Heidi, on the other hand...did she even think twice about her students before she took her clothes off on national TV? I think it was quite obvious that she didn't. Part 2: Why take your clothes off at all? The bribe was to get you to drop out of the game. Once he produced the food, they could have/should have dropped out and enjoyed their meal. Why the need to strip down? To gain favor from the guys? Do they really think that flashing their boobs at the guys will change their votes down the road? Think again, ladies. They'll check you out...and dump your asses the second they get the chance. Part 3: And this is my big one. This kind of stunt is something I would expect from Fox or MTV. I would have thought that Survivor was above this. As far as reality shows go, Survivor has always been the show with the most integrity. (If such a thing exists in reality TV.) What bothers me is NOT that the girls got naked and CBS capitalized on it. They'd done that in a previous episode and while I thought it was gratuitous, I wasn't pissed off by it. What bothers me this time is the host of the show encouraged it. He encouraged it by showing up with the food Jenna asked for. He encouraged it by not stopping them from doing it. Not that it's necessarily his job, but for the integrity of the show, allowing them to get naked like that was damn near as bad as suggesting it to them. Now, I expect to get a lot of flack from these statements and I don't care. I think Jeff Probst, Mark Burnett and CBS really dropped the ball on this one. I think they tarnished the relatively good (for a reality show) reputation Survivor has. I think it was a disgrace and an embarrassment. That being said, I just can't wait for next week!!!! The rest of the challenge was pretty ho hum. 5 minutes after the girls, Roger bowed out. At the hour mark, a massive downpour ensued and Jeff showed up with a nice hot pizza. Butch, Alex and Rob took that and quit. At the 90 minute mark, he brought out Buffalo wings and that was enough for Matt and Dave. So, approaching the 2 hour mark, only Deena and Christy remained. Jeff then showed up with a plate full of spaghetti. Christy was bummed that there was no garlic bread, but nevertheless, she and Deena agreed to split the spaghetti. The only thing left to do was decide who would drop off. Time for rock, paper, scissors. Christy chose scissors. And Deena's rock smashed those scissors. Deena wins the first individual immunity. One last thing before I move on, at one point, after Roger dropped out, Jeff asked Deena how long she could last out there. She replied saying it didn't really matter as long as she outlasted Roger. Add that with the thumbs up sign from Deena, Jenna and Alex when Roger dropped out, they certainly are not hiding the fact that Roger's their man. LAST MINUTE PLANS So we get back to camp, and Alex is smiling from ear to ear. In a confessional, he tells us that the day could not have been better, "Naked chicks, yeah. Pizza, Yeah. Roger was stupid enough to drop out without getting anything, YEAH." Alex thinks it's quite funny that Roger has no idea he's getting the vote tonight. Which is the perfect time to jump to Roger telling us again about how the male alliance is strong and will be picking off the women one by one. Our next confessional is with the self-proclaimed "Original Survivor Girls Gone Wild" Jenna and Heidi. They also find it funny that the guys seem to think they'll be picking of the girls one by one. They even talk about how mice some of the guys are trying to be by "sparing" them for a little while longer. They too feel that Roger thinks he's got this game in the bag. Then we click to Dave who says that all the ladies know that they're going, they just don't know the order. Meanwhile, Rob is glowing because he just knows that whatever happens, he'll be the last guy standing. Well, sounds like Tribal Council time to me. TRIBAL COUNCIL # 7 Rather than do the entire break down of TC this week, I'll just sum up as the column is getting long and running late. Much discussion about the building of the shelter. Rob suggests some people may have been bossy, but then backs down. Roger suggests too many people trying to build would have ruined the shelter. Everyone kind let him say his piece knowing what his fate was. The best part of TC was Jeff talking to Jenna about the challenge. He said they provided a highlight and was curious where the confidence to "get naked for peanut butter" and drop out of the game came from. They both said that it was fun and if they get voted out because of it, it was worth it. He then asked Roger about the confidence to drop out. Roger said that he knew he couldn't win and felt safe enough to not force himself to last any longer. And the last question is for Deena, do you want to give your immunity to someone else. Surprisingly, she says no. All righty then, let's vote. The first vote we see is Roger voting for Christy. He says it's a shame she didn't last longer in the challenge and that she contributed greatly to the team. We then see Deena's vote for Roger. "Reality check and mate. Never underestimate the power of a woman." Writer's aside: Ok, real quick here. Deena must have said this 3 times during the course of this one show. And while I agree with her and I'm loving watching them dupe Roger, it's getting old now. We know youÂ’re strong. We know you're smart. Please stop harping on it. I like you right now...and I want to keep on liking you. Please drop the oppressed woman shtick for next show, mmkay? And the last vote was Rob doing a dead on Casey Kasem impression. Casey was playing Rob's request and dedication, Na Na Na Na, Hey Hey, kiss Him Goodbye. This could well be the funniest kiss off vote scene of all 6 Survivors. Nice work, Rob. And when Jeff tallied up the votes, seems that Butch, Dave and Roger voted for Christy, while everyone else voted for Roger. So, with a score of 7-3, Roger...you are the weakest link. Good bye. JIM'S PREDICTIONS And finally, we see one of my early picks get the boot. I've been saying since day one that Roger should be gone and how he's managed to last this long is amazing to me. For a guy to be that much of a jerk on every level to have lasted 20 days in a game where your people skills are every bit as important as your survival skills is simply amazing. As for my other long shots, Deena is set up nicely to make the Final 4. Jenna is sitting pretty right now as well, but things aren't looking so good for Matthew. With the jury now set, I can at least compare my prediction to the reality. I correctly predicted Alex, Butch, Christy, Heidi and Rob in the jury. I missed the boat on Dave, Deena, Jenna and Matthew...instead choosing Daniel, Jeanne, Ryan and Shawna. Ewwwww.....those picks stunk for the most part. if nothing else, I do still have 3 of my final 4 left. Woo hoo....at last there's something I can cheer about. QUOTE OF THE WEEK There were plenty of options for QotW this week, and I narrowed it down to 2. The first comes as Rob and Deena are discussing strategy. Rob makes the comment about at least one boy being brought along with the girl alliance. To which Deena replies, "Top 3 baby, right here. (taps Rob's fist) Boom. You, me and Jenna. And then, of course, it's every girl for herself." This one made me laugh out loud while I watched. My second QotW goes to Rob during the challenge. When Jenna makes the bold statement that she will get naked for some chocolate and peanut butter, you hear Rob holler, "Get the girl some chocolate and peanut butter, Probst." Another one that had me rolling. Actually, I could fill this portion with about 6 Rob quotes, but for me...this one was the funniest. And that should do it for this week. You'll notice I have my spiffy new merged tribe vote chart. One thing I'm wondering about is after tonight's episode, Roger had totaled 11 votes over the course of the show. I'm wondering if anyone in Survivor history has ever had more votes against them. I'm fairly certain that that's the largest vote total I've had in one of my columns and I've been doing this since Africa. Just something I was wondering as I put this together. Anyway, there's the new chart. And with that, I'm outta here for the week. Until next week, take care and God Bless.
Survivor: The Amazon Recaps at The Trades: Preview | Ep 1 | Ep 2 | Ep 3 | Ep 4 | Ep 5 | Ep 6 | Ep 7 | The S-Ratings at The Trades: Ep 2 | Ep 3 | Ep 4 | Ep 5 | Ep 6 | Ep 7 | For all your Survivor News and Interesting Tidbits and to see what our guest contributor from last season, Jakey, is up to please check out these sites: Sirlinksalot's Survivor 6 Page | SurvivorNews.net | SurvivorFan.com | Jakey's Corner |
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