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by Scott Wyatt Published: April 22, 2005
Before I get into this week�s show, I have to correct a mistake from last week. I compared Stephenie to Ursula Andrews and after several emails from concerned readers that thought I had finally lost all grip on reality, I must say the correct name is Ursula Andress. Is that good enough for everyone? If so, good. If not, I tried. On with the show� We rejoin our merry band of castaways on Day 25 and Janu is acting like a little spoiled brat. She is pissed that no one let her in on the vote the night before when she thought she was going home but instead saw Coby get his release from the insane asylum. She observes and hears Katie and Jennifer talking about her behavior from the previous night�s Tribal Council. Janu has heard enough and confronts Katie in front of the tribe. It�s another one of these you said this and stole my Barbie-doll style arguments. Even when Katie tries to apologize Janu cuts her off and tells her she is done with the conversation. Gregg takes a brief stab at making peace but Janu cuts him off too. Is she trying to fill Coby�s shoes as the Queen Bitch of the Island? Gregg tells in private that Janu is a total buzz kill but he plans on keeping her around because of her role in his plan to win. He says the game is not about being deserving but if you are part of his plan then you deserve to be there to help him win a million dollars. Writer�s Aside: Finally! We are shown someone who is thinking about what is best for the game. Gregg is right on all counts. We have reached a stage of the game where you want to keep the weak around because they are easier to defeat and manipulate. It never ceases to amaze me how people let their friendships stand between them and the money. If we have learned anything from the past, it is that friendships can cause you to make one mistake and lose the whole game. Just ask Lex and Kathy about their blunder back in the All-Stars, REWARD CHALLENGE It�s off to the reward challenge and it is a tough one. They will randomly divide into two tribes of four and construct a tower in the water. The base of the tower is already in place underwater. The remaining six pieces are on the beach and, using a buoy, will have to be carried out by all members of the team, one at a time, until you have the tower built. Then one person will climb to the top of the tower and unclip the flag. The first team to get back to the beach with everyone and the flag wins reward. The reward is a native Palauan feast complete with all the trimmings including a local beer. We divide up the players and Team One is Tom, Gregg, Caryn and Janu. Team Two is Ian, Stephenie, Katie and Jennifer. This is a grueling challenge with lots of swimming. Team One takes a quick lead by getting piece one attached first but Caryn and Janu aren�t doing much while everyone on Team Two is working together. The lead continues to grow with pieces 2, 3 and 4 as the wear of all the swimming is taking its toll. At one point, Jeff calls out Katie for slowing down her team as she is slow to get out of the water and to the next piece so the team can take off. By the start of the 5th piece, Team Two has made up some ground but they still trail. Team One gets the last piece on and Janu climbs up and gets the flag. Team One of Tom, Gregg, Caryn and Janu wins the reward challenge. Jeff sends the winners to the feast and the losers back to camp. Damn, they really put together some tough challenges this time out. I got tired just watching this one. Team One arrives at the home of the natives and is welcomed by the chief of the tribe. They watch a ritual dance and experience the local customs before heading inside the hut to dine on their feast. Everything from chicken to fish to BBQ ribs to vegetables was served during the meal. While everyone is gorging themselves., Janu excuses herself and heads outside to throw it all up. Tom, Gregg and Caryn take notice of this and don�t know what to make of it. I can both sides of the argument here. It�s been more than three weeks since her system has seen any real food and had trouble digesting it. On the other hand, they are guests and are probably being fed more food than most of the natives normally get in a week only to throw it up in front of their hosts. I will give her the benefit of the doubt but then again, Janu doesn�t look like someone who has ever seen a full plate of food in the first place. Back at camp, Team One has returned while the others are eating their stew. Tom and the others proceed to describe the feast for the rest of the tribe when Gregg tells them not to finish their stew because they have brought back a large doggie bag of leftovers. Everyone is grateful as they dig in. For some reason, Janu reaches in and takes some of the food to the astonishment of Tom and Gregg. Katie tells us in a confessional that it did not escape her attention either. Neither did Caryn eating some of the leftovers. What? You gotta be kidding me? They just came back from eating and if Janu couldn�t stomach it over there, why could she handle it back at camp? Talk about insensitive. My wife about came unglued at this site. I rank this up there with Neleh offering a mint from her mouth back at Marquesas. Both were utterly disgusting! Next, Jennifer retrieves tree mail with Tom and Stephenie and they quickly surmise that the Immunity Challenge has to do with escaping a jail and probably from underwater. Stephenie tells us that she needs to win immunity because she feels vulnerable as they head out for the challenge. IMMUNITY CHALLENGE Jeff welcomes them to the latest Immunity Challenge and takes back the immunity necklace. The challenge will test your ability to remain calm and not panic when the rest of your body tells you to give up. They will take a spot under an iron-grated barrier. As the tide begins to rise, your breathing room will slowly disappear. The person that can stay under the longest wins immunity and guarantees him or herself a 1 in 7 shot at a million dollars. Twist Time! The first person to bail on this challenge will face the ultimate fear by being taken to a new beach and will spend the night there alone. You will have flint, steel, machete and a canteen of water. If you�ve learned anything in the first 26 days then you�ll be fine otherwise it will be a very long night. Take your spots and let�s get started. I love it! The challenge begins and Jeff takes a seat. They each have about a head�s height worth of room at the start. Jeff reminds them what is at stake. Tom jokes about stepping out to get away from the crowd. Jennifer says it would be tough on her. Janu says she is getting cold in the water and when Jeff asks her if she is starting to panic, she bails out at the six-minute mark! Jeff asks her if it was his saying the word panic that made her quit and all she can do is shake her head no. What a waste! The rest of the tribe finds her quick departure to be rather humorous and begin cracking jokes. Jeff asks Katie if she is glad that it�s Janu and not her headed to the other island and Katie gives him a sarcastic, �Well, hell yes Jeff.� He points out to Janu that it doesn�t appear to be any love lost for her and when they all try to deny it he puts them all in their place by saying that when she says she�s not too good with fire that they start acting like it�s open mike night. How is he supposed to interpret that? Amen! The tribe was incredibly insensitive to Janu. I�ll admit, I don�t like her but there was no call for their actions during this challenge. At this point, Janu would probably welcome the exile so she could have time to herself. Jeff has shut up the crowd as the challenge continues. After 55 minutes, the water has crept up over their ears and up to their mouths. Caryn has had enough and drops out followed by Katie, Jennifer and Stephenie. Both Jenn and Steph hold their breath for a long time before giving up. It�s down to the three men. Tom has formed a breathing funnel with his hands as Gregg drops out leaving Ian as his lone competitor. It doesn�t last too much longer as Ian has had enough and Tom wins immunity again. The hand snorkel was a brilliant idea. Say what you want about the firefighter but he knows how to win. Jeff brings in a boat to get Janu and bids her a fond farewell. Tom swims over to retrieve the necklace as Jeff says that everyone, including Janu, is in danger of being voted out tomorrow night. Janu is dropped off on her own little island and she begins to try and build a fire. It takes her a long time to get it going because the sun is up when she starts and it is dark before she achieves her best Tom Hanks impression from Castaway. The whole time she is narrating to us that she is happy that she is alone and she is fed up with the game and does not get along with anyone back at Koror. This lady is losing all grip on reality. She says she is happy because it is all about her as she practices her Vegas routine on the beach. All she is missing is Wilson the Volleyball. The next morning dawns, Day 27, and Tom is perplexed about the upcoming vote. Tom is pushing for Janu but Gregg wants to boot Stephenie because of her physical threat. When Tom is alone with Ian and Gregg, he tries again to push for Janu to go but Ian says that Steph�s continuous run at Tribal Council needs to end before it develops any more. Gregg is worried that Steph has conquered Ulong and will now conquer Koror if she is allowed to stay in the game much longer. Tom is not happy about it but knows anything can happen. Janu returns from her exile all happy and says that it was a great night. This puzzles everyone that she was happier away from everyone. Janu is not helping her case in the least. Stephenie says she could never get anyone alone to discuss the vote and despite Janu�s constant whining she feels she is in danger of being voted out tonight. TRIBAL COUNCIL Coby is brought in for the jury box and Jeff gets right into with Janu asking about her night of exile. Coby is shocked to hear this question. She says it was a great night and after the fire got going she was ecstatic. Jeff wants to know if she believed the well-wishers when she departed from the challenge. She says that some of it may have been sincere but the rest of it was �the game�. She also says the same thing happened when she got back. She doesn�t feel like she belonged. Awww� Caryn is in shock at the way she chooses to take it and says its in her head. Jeff asks Tom at this point in the game if it comes down to deserving to be there or is it more worth than threat? Tom says its all based on the game. No one is voting on whom they like. Gregg says that everyone who wants to win is a threat but Survivor is not about fairness and who deserves it. Stephenie is about to come unglued. Katie says she should be kept because she is not a threat. Janu says there is no reason to keep her. They should dump her. She says she would vote her out if she was them. Steph looks like a bobblehead that is about to bite her tongue off. Jeff says she seems like she wants to go home. She says whatever happens will happen. Jeff asks Ian why keep her but Ian does not answer him but rather says that no one is keeping her here. If she wants to lay down her torch then she can. Jeff finally gets to Steph and says if looks could kill then Jan would be on the ground. Get your hankies ready. Steph says that it is nothing against Janu but she cannot understand why she would want to quit when she is doing everything she can to stay in the game. Oh, she also starts to cry. Janu says she�s gotten what she wanted from the game and is ready to go. Steph says while that is fine for you she still cares about being in the game. Jeff asks if she feels she is in the hot seat and she replies that she knows she is and begins to breakdown and cry. Steph says it is killing her that someone who wants to go home that badly will be kept by the rest of the tribe instead of her because she has shown so much heart and willpower to stay in the game. That�s part of the game sweetheart! It�s not supposed to be fair. Jeff goes back to Tom and tries to compare the firefighting lifestyle to this situation and asks if there is a dilemma. Tom says there is a dilemma. Steph would fit on a fire truck easily and every man would be proud to work with her. Jeff asks Janu what she wants to happen. She says she wants them to vote her out. He asks what is the difference of her laying her torch down or her asking to be voted out. She pauses and says there is none. She is willing to lay down her torch so Steph can stay in the game. Steph says don�t do it for me. Jeff makes it clear that Janu is laying her torch down on her own and as it starts to rain he tells her to grab her torch. She brings it to him and he tells her, �Per your wishes, this game is done for you but you will not be going home. You will return to be part of our jury.� She thanks him and departs as he tosses her torch down on the ground where it belongs. Coby gives Steph a sly look who returns it with an evil grin. Jeff tells them this was another strange turn of events and that Steph has survived again but she has her work cut out for her. Head back to camp. Warning, this is not going to be a very nicely worded paragraph so if you are sensitive then you may want to skip down to the Quote of the Week. I have had it with these pansy wimps who get the opportunity of a lifetime and then quit because they can�t hack it. Do you know how many people, including me, would give just about anything to get a chance to play this game? This is the problem when the casting folks at CBS decide to use professional models for the �look� instead of real people who want to be there to win the game. Are you listening Mark Burnett? I know you don�t give a damn since you are rolling in money from all of your shows but this is the one that was your claim to fame. Please take your head out of a certain body cavity and give this game back to those that really want to play it. On top of all this, Janu still get to sit on the jury. They should feed her to the sharks instead of pampering her worthless hide in the Jury Lodge. Jeff was obviously ticked at the turn of events and should have given her one last parting shot for wasting space this season. While some folks may give Janu credit for throwing a wrench into everyone�s plans and standing up for herself, I won�t. Anyone who quits gets no credit from me whatsoever. All they get is contempt and grief that they bring on themselves by leaving a game when so many others, including all of the ones already voted out this season, like Bobby Jon, would kill for the opportunity to still be in camp. QUOTE OF THE WEEK During her tear-jerking plea, Stephenie said, �Someone asks me to vote them out then �See Ya� because you don�t deserve to be here.� This had better be a low point before a run of great episodes for the rest of the season. Otherwise, this season is going to tank in a hurry. I will keep my fingers crossed but, for the rest of the season, Janu will be known as Quitter. I would have done the same for any of the others that quit the game regardless of their circumstances. Before I run away for the week, here is a reminder for all you die-hard Survivor fanatics � Survivor: The Australian Outback DVD Box Set is due to be released next Tuesday, April 26th. It was easily the best cast and what many call the best season ever for the show. Be sure to check back for a review since yours truly has gotten a sneak peek at the entire set. Yes, you can hate me now. Until then, take care and God Bless.
For all your Survivor News, Links, Interesting Tidbits check out these sites: Sirlinksalot's Survivor: Palau Page | SurvivorNews.net | SurvivorUpdates.com |
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