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by Jim Van Nest Published: November 9, 2001
SAMBURU HEATS UP...AGAIN Before we get to the big surprise in this week's Survivor, we did have another fun evening at the Samburu camp after Linda's departure at that night's Tribal Council. Apparently, Silas and Lindsey just can't figure out why Linda, Frank and Teresa wouldn't go along with their plan of giving all the votes to Lindsey. To everyone watching it's pretty darn obvious why they didn't go along with the plan, but Silas is feeling the need to hear either Frank or Teresa say that they voted for him as revenge. Only Brandon has the sense to try to nip the whole conversation in the bud. His suggestion is to talk about it in the morning. You can tell he's beginning to get a little irritated with his friends. Finally, Silas drops it and everyone hits the sack...thank God! THE BIG SURPRISE Frank and Teresa are up early, as usual and they head off to check for mail. And what do you know they have some! The mail starts like this: "Pick three from your tribe to go on a quest. You get to decide who you feel would be best." With that they show both tribes figuring out hat 3 members to pick. Samburu settles on Frank and Teresa (big surprise there) and Silas as their 3 members. Boran picks Lex, Kelly and Big Tom as their 3 members. Apparently this quest is back to the beginning. The Survivors meet Jeff at the original drop off point from the very first day. He tells them that the game is about to change and then asks for their "buffs." Who knew that that's what they called the yellow or red scarves/do-rags/tube top thingies that the Survivors wear all the time? He then takes the 3 gold Boran buffs and hands them to the 3 Samburu members and vice versa. Apparently the tribes have swapped 3 members. It was among 3 things I heard rumored and it certainly sent shockwaves through every single cast member. Lex, Tom and Kelly were visibly pissed off about it. Hell, I would have been too. SAMBURU MEETS ITS NEW MEMBERS As the new Samburu members make their way to their new campsite, they discuss how they might be able to get some useful information for the rest of Boran once the merge hits. It's quite obvious that this tribe is planning on sticking together no matter what. As Lex, Tom and Kelly reach the Samburu camp; there is a look of complete and utter shock on the faces of the 3 remaining members of the Brat Pack. They realize that their "comfy majority til the merge" plan is in serious jeopardy. It doesn't take very long at all for the new members to figure out how incredibly lazy their new tribe members are. There is no wood for the fire; the fire hasn't been tended to in a long time. The water pots are busted and there is little to no water at the campsite at all. Needless to say they show a montage of clips showing Lex, Tom and Kelly collecting wood, signaling that the other three are once again on their lazy butts not doing anything. Lex and Tom also get the fun of going on a water run. The Samburu watering hole is disgusting compared to Boran's. You can already tell that the former Borans are absolutely pissed that this happened to them. The next day, SURPRISE...Lindsey, Brandon and Kim are sleeping in while Tom, Lex and Kelly are up and ready to go for the day. We listen in as Tom and Lex discuss how lazy these people are. Tom sums it up best by saying, "We've inherited a castrated bull." Back at camp, Lindsey is very worried. She knows she has the votes against her and is freaking out. In the middle of all that we learn that Lindsey has managed to get a tick on her posterior. Well, as we all learned in the tiebreaker, it takes warm water to remove a tick. So, Lex heats up some water and he and Tom get to work removing the tick. Not surprisingly, Tom seems to enjoy messing with Lindsey's behind a little too much. Eventually, the warm water works and Lex removes the tick. Whew! I was on the edge of my seat worried about that tick. NOT! BORAN MEETS ITS NEW MEMBERS It's pretty much the same story at the Boran tribe when they see the 3 new members coming towards them. Although, Ethan was a little paranoid. He thought perhaps they were there to steal the team flag or something, so he was on full alert. Of course, once they learned that their other members were gone, you could tell they were quite bummed about it. I mean, Ethan, Lex and Tom had gotten pretty tight, and I think it's safe to say, they could have ridden this thing to the final 3 without a doubt. Teresa is real quick to tell Kim all about how bad life at the Samburu camp was. She tells of the fractured camp and how she and Frank were in trouble over there. Needless to say, Boran now knows that Lindsey has a ton of votes against her. Frank is heard talking about how this is a new life for he and Teresa. They were for sure gone if Samburu lost any more challenges. But now, they had a new chance to get back in the game. Frank seems like a serious contender all of a sudden. As night falls on the new Boran tribe, Teresa and Frank are telling their new friends about the last Tribal Council and how the Brat Pack had the plan of everyone voting for Lindsey and the backlash it caused when they didn't. All the while, Silas was sitting off away from the group all by himself. Seems to me that Silas' days could be numbered. REWARD CHALLENGE 5 So, our two new tribes meet up for the first reward challenge since the switch. Will either tribe have any teamwork? This is a pretty good reward, so they'd better. This time around they're playing for 3 egg-laying chickens and one rooster. The big decision will come after a tribe wins. Do you keep the chickens around so you can have eggs everyday? You do that, and you have live prey for nighttime predators to go after. Or do you just kill them, feast real good for a day or two, then go back to nasty ole cornmeal? Either way, I'm sure it's a decision that either team would love to have to make at this point. The challenge itself is kind of dull. Apparently, goat herding is the way some of the native tribes make a living in Africa. This reward challenge is simple. There are 40 goats in a big pen. 20 for each tribe. Each tribe has to move their 20 goats out of the big pen and into a smaller pen across an open field. My first thought was, "For goodness sake, Tom's a frickin goat farmer. If his tribe doesn't win, I'll eat my hat." Well, good thing I didn't say that out loud. Tom's team didn't win. His former team won. The challenge itself was kind of lame, and there's not much detail to go into, really. Boran got their 20 goats in the pen first. Woo hoo! SOME FOLKS ARE REALLY NERVOUS RIGHT ABOUT NOW When we get back to Samburu, we come back in the middle of another one of Lindsey's "episodes" where she is sitting there crying for no reason. Apparently, seeing Silas helping the other tribe really drove home the fact that she and her friends are now without their leader. Lindsey is REALLY not ready to go yet, but fears that if they lose immunity tomorrow, she's toast. As we continue watching her cry around the campfire, we here Brandon's voiceover discussing how hard it is for him to carry Lindsey and Kim through this thing when neither of them wants to listen to him and do what needs to be done to survive out there. His plan is to try to get some of the attention on himself. If he can get just one vote, Lindsey will be able to make it through the next Tribal Council, and they will again have the upper hand. But everything she does and says only draws attention to her. Within a couple hours, Lex and Kelly are already talking about how annoying she is and how they're tired of her whining. It is clear that Brandon has had enough of having to tell these girls exactly what to do, who to vote for, how to act. I'm thinking he's had enough. Back at the new Boran camp, we see that Silas and Clarence are buddying up. Seems logical considering each of them is sitting with a lot of votes against them. They seem to think that together, they can make it to the final 2. Meanwhile, Kim and Teresa are off talking about Clarence. Kim is filling Teresa in on "bean-gate" and discussing whether or not Clarence is aligning with Silas or not. Kim fells pretty strongly that he will. The next thing we see is Ethan talking about his competitive nature and how he would never; ever not play to his fullest ability. But he is certainly considering throwing the Immunity Challenge today, so he can get rid of "...my biggest threat." IMMUNITY CHALLENGE #5 This challenge is another pretty simple challenge. It's also another challenge that doesn't require a lot of explanation or play by play from me. Basically, each tribe has a 20 piece puzzle to put together. The first tribe to complete their puzzle, using teamwork, wins. Quick note: just about every single puzzle piece is bigger than every player. Both tribes show some good teamwork, and it's a long drawn out process, but when all is said and done, it is Samburu that gets their puzzle together first. Did Boran lose on purpose? Did Ethan move just slow enough to throw the challenge on his own? We probably won't know that until the inevitable Reunion Special. If you ask me, I'd say that Ethan has certainly moved a little faster in the past, and I'll leave it at that. POSITIONING AT BORAN The rest of the episode is spent in the Boran camp as everyone is jockeying for positions in the tribe. I think it's pretty obvious that at least 2 alliances will hold true. Kim and Ethan will vote the same and Frank and Teresa will vote the same. Clarence and Silas are the wild cards in all of this. After the immunity challenge, Silas is quick to corner Ethan and discuss what he thinks needs to be done. He wants Frank gone. He tells Ethan how manipulative Frank is and how he needs to go. Ethan mentions right off the bat that he likes Frank and in his opinion, it's time for Clarence to go. Silas says he's pretty sure he can get Frank and Teresa on board to vote for Clarence. By now everyone is aware of Clarence's story and that he is not totally trusted by the remaining Boran. Silas manages to get Kim alone as well. He makes one mistake though. He tells Kim that he was aligned with Brandon, Lindsey and Kim back at Samburu. (Of course, she already knew this.) Right then, you can see that Kim has made up her mind who needs to go. Sure, Clarence has lied and can't be trusted, but he won't all of a sudden pick up a 3-person alliance as soon as the tribes merge. Bottom line, Kim isn't buying what Silas is trying to sell. Frankly, I don't see how anyone could be buying what Silas is selling. The guy is a first class idiot. He has managed to piss off so many people out there; I wouldn't be surprised to see Ethan and Frank feed him to a lion before the Tribal Council even gets here. One more time, Silas corners Ethan and tries to convince him to vote for Frank. Ethan mentions that he thought it was all set to vote for Clarence. Silas mentions that he is pretty sure Teresa and Frank will vote for him rather than Clarence. Ethan sticks by his guns that it's Clarence's time right now. TRIBAL COUNCIL #5 When the new Boran tribe gets to Tribal Council, Jeff is just waiting to ask them what they thought of the big switch. Ethan mentions the whole "steal the flag" thing again and says it was basically just a state of shock when they learned that the tribes were now changed. Kim mentions how much thought they put into what 3 members to send, and she's now wondering if they picked the right 3 people or not. Knowing full well what the answer is going to be, Jeff asks Frank if he feels like his position has improved with this switch. Frank acknowledges that it has, but mentions how the camp is nicer and the people in the camp are hardworking and took better care of their camp and you can tell, he couldn't be happier at this point. Jeff then asks Clarence if Silas' arrival in this tribe has made him a little more expendable. He says he doesn't think so. He's of the opinion that the two of them help make this the stronger tribe. He even refers to Silas as his "new tag-team partner." Let's vote. They only show one of the votes this time around and it's Clarence's. His vote is for Silas. His words are very simple, "I love ya, man, but I can't trust you." When Jeff tallies the votes, we find that there are 5 votes fro Silas and one vote (Silas', of course) for Frank. Say goodnight, Silas! Writer's aside: - This marks 2 weeks in a row that the voting tribe has done me the great favor of removing an incredibly annoying cast member. There is only one real annoying person left. And I'd like to ask each of you reading this to send some really strong vibes their way to insure that Lindsey is the next to go. If I have to see her cry one more time...or if I have to see her pull that tough girl act one more time...well, I might just have to strangle myself. Thank you for your cooperation. Ok ladies and gentlemen, last week they hinted that a big change was coming. For all the faithful Survivor fans out there, what they did was give us something to talk about for a week. Well, looks like this week they're trying to out do themselves. Just as the show is about to end, Jeff dropped a huge clue on the Boran tribe before they left Tribal Council. His comment is this week's Survivor Quote of the Week. "Well, there's been a lot of assumptions made by you guys so far in this game. One of those is that in 3 days there will be a merge." Pause for effect. "You can head back to camp." Well, you can just rock me to sleep for the next week now. Did he do that just to mess with them? Or will they really change the rules of the merge? There's still that 3 tribes rumor out there, but how could they pull that off? I guess we'll all have to tune in next week to see, eh? One last note...you'll notice I changed the Vote History charts around. Frankly, I think they suck right now. So, I'll be working on something new for next week, but until then, at least we have the voting results out there. Until next week, take care and God bless.
Votes from the first 4 episodes prior to the switch.
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