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by Jim Van Nest Published: November 16, 2001
MERGE? WHAT MERGE? We begin the show in the Boran camp right after Tribal Council. Apparently, Mr. Probst's snide little comment about the merge, or lack thereof, hit them exactly how he wanted it to. They're all discussing what the deal might be. With the switch in tribe members, I'm sure they know that all bets are off right now. Will the merge happen in 3 days as planned? Will it happen tomorrow? Will it happen at all? All of these questions are now flowing through each of the 5 Boran members’ heads. Frank mentions that no matter what the plan is, they just need to be ready for anything at this point. Ethan is pretty freaked out because the team had planned very well how to ration their food until the merge. The tribe has done a great job of sticking to that. But, if the merge doesn't happen, or happens in more than 3 days, they'll be out of food. The question now becomes what to do with their food situation? Lucky for them, they do have the chickens. So, if the merge is put off for a couple days, they can still kill and eat the chickens and be all right. But what if the merge is 10 days down the road? Well...then they're screwed. THE MORE THINGS CHANGE, THE MORE THEY STAY THE SAME Over at the Samburu tribe, they know nothing of Probst's merge comment and are having a problem of their own. Tom and Lex are getting stuck with 5-hour night shifts, while the Mickey Mouse Club is managing to get out of night duty after only an hour. If they weren't so darn tired, I'm sure Lex and Tom would be really, really pissed about it. Lex does mention that it seems that the original Samburus must think they're on some resort vacation. During the day, the talk comes around to wondering whom Boran voted off. Lindsey is sure it was Frank. He's such a jerk and Silas would have talked the Boran folks into voting for him. Lex is more concerned that Kim might have finally run out of luck. Tom then discusses how he knows that if they go to Tribal Council, there will be a 3-3 split and past votes could come into play. As soon as he's done telling us that, we get to hear Lindsey whining for about the 135th time about having votes against her and worrying that they’ll find out about her votes and kick her out. HUNGER STARTS TO SET IN Back in Boran camp, Clarence seems about ready to eat one of the chickens alive. They're not laying any eggs, the tribe is hungry, and he's ready to make one of them lunch. But, this time, Clarence decides to discuss it with the team before opening that can of beans. The tribe is really not sure what to do. If they start laying eggs, they'd be good to go. But what if they don't? The consensus finally becomes, wait for the reward challenge, and see what the reward is and the outcome. If they win some food, they won't need to kill chickens. If they don't win food, or don't win at all...one of those chickens might have to die. Right on schedule, they get some tree mail. It's announcing the reward challenge and it seems as though some food will be involved and that the challenge will not be physical, but mental. Right away, the tribe begins studying all of their survival guides and anything else they were given that they might be quizzed on. Whew, looks like the chickens are safe for at least a couple hours. REWARD CHALLENGE #6 Before the challenge even starts, Lindsey and Co. notice that Silas was the one voted off. You could almost hear their collective heart drop. On to the challenge. Just as the Boran tribe expected, the challenge is Africa-trivia related. The teams each will sit atop a 5-tier set of bleachers. Every time they answer a question right, they move down a tier. First team to the ground wins lunch for the team. Lunch consists of some pasta with veggies, a huge plate full of sandwiches, a bowl of cookies and all the Mountain Dew (plug) they can drink. First question: True or False, the closest ocean to Kenya is the Atlantic. Samburu: False. Boran: False. Answer: False. Second question: True or False, in an effort to save the elephants in Africa, rangers have been told to shot to kill and ivory poachers. Samburu: True. Boran: True. Answer: True. Third question: A group of dangerous animals in Africa is know as The Big 5. They are elephants, rhinos, lions, buffalo and what animal? a) leopards b) tigers c) giraffes d) hippos Samburu: A. Boran: D. Answer: A. Fourth question: Some animals in Africa are described as diurnal. What does that mean? a) They eat plants as well as meat to stay healthy b) They hunt in groups c) They are prevalent by day d) They do not eat humans but are dangerous due to the many diseases they carry Samburu: C. Boran: C. Answer: C. (Samburu now one answer away from victory. Fifth question: True or False, Kenya's Lake Victoria is the world's largest salt water lake. Samburu: F. Boran: F. Answer: F. Samburu wins. As Samburu starts guzzling the Dew and cramming food in their mouths, I couldn't help but remember Jeff and Alicia (at least I think that's who it was) from Survivor: Australian Outback doing the same thing after winning a challenge and discussing how much time they all spent on the toilet afterwards. There's sure to be some upset stomachs at the Samburu camp tonight. As it turns out, there was only one upset stomach at the camp and it belonged to Kim. She's been so quiet throughout the show, I was surprised for it to be her that was cramping up and feeling nauseous. I would have guessed Lindsey, but I'd have been wrong. Once Kim was feeling better, the topic turned to the fact that Silas is gone. Lindsey is just positive that Frank told the other tribe that Silas had votes against him and that it stems from Silas refusing to align with Frank and the older folks way back at the beginning. Yeah whatever. No matter what the circumstance of Silas' ouster was, Brandon is hit dead in the face with how much trouble he and his crew are in. Without their leader and 4th member, they don't stand much of a chance if and when the tribes merge. HERE CHICKEN, CHICKEN, CHICKEN Over at Boran, time is running out for the chickens. There are still no eggs and Clarence is getting mighty hungry. He's keeping his sense of humor, but he leaves no doubt that he wants to eat one of these chickens, like, now. Frank thinks that if they set up a better place, with more room for them to move around that it might enhance their egg laying. As evening hits, with no eggs, we hear Clarence letting all the chickens know that they've got 24 hours to lay an egg, or one of them ends up as dinner. The tribe agrees that if there are no eggs in the morning, one of the chickens will go. But, if there are any eggs, the chickens live. As we catch up with Samburu, we see Lindsey trying to buddy up to Kelly. They seem to genuinely get along, but knowing Lindsey, we already know what she's up to. She's trying to sway Kelly to her side of the tribal divide. As this is going on, we see Brandon and Kim talking (again) about how Lindsey cannot get any votes. If she gets votes and gets tossed, the two of them are a maximum 6 days away from being tossed themselves, in Brandon's estimation. Cock-a-doodle-doo!! Morning hits the Boran camp and Kim is the first one up, so she heads over to the chicken coop to see if there's any little white presents left for them. And what do you know? One little egg sits nestled right in the middle of the nest. Looks like the chickens live. Course, one by one people awaken to see the lone egg, and they decide to put it on a pan in the middle of the camp and just wait for Clarence to get up and see it. A few minutes later, Clarence comes over to the group and glances down. "Oh, hell no!" One of the truly funny moments on the show thus far this season. And the funny part is, apparently the rest of the tribe had already decided to have chicken for dinner. They just thought they'd have a little fun with Clarence before they told him. So, as the sun goes down, so is the first chicken. Apparently it was pretty tasty, as they felt the need to get a nice close up of Ethan losing about a pint of drool off his bottom lip. Ewwwww! Was that necessary? Meanwhile, Frank is saying how much happier he and Teresa are at this camp and how he wishes they'd have been here from the start. Awwww. SOME BONDS ARE TOUGH TO BREAK We head on over to Samburu where we find Tom, Lex and Kelly chatting around the fire. Course, it's early in the morning so we all know the others are still sleeping. Kelly has just realized that the sign Boran Kim had been making to her was the shape of an 'L', indicating that Lindsey must have some votes against her. Looks like that Boran bond is pretty strong. If that's the case, any former Samburu is a heap of trouble. The next thing we see is Samburu Kim telling her folks that she saw the hand gesture and that Lindsey could be in trouble. To throw off the audience, though, we next see Kelly, Tom and Lex discussing that they're pretty sure Brandon has a vote on him from Frank. And seeing as they have no votes at all, one vote is all they need to win a tie. And in a nice editing move, the next thing we here is Brandon telling Kim and Lindsey that he's pretty sure they think he has a vote on him from Frank. Very nice. Anyway, the three of them decide that if there were to be a tie between Brandon and one of the former Borans, they'd be best off in a trivia contest with Tom as the opponent. Over at Boran, there doesn't seem to be near as much strategizing going on. On the way to the mailbox, Ethan and Teresa discuss whether or not Kelly picked up on the sign to vote for Lindsey. As they pick up their mail, it's quite apparent that this challenge is going to involve some archery as a bow and arrow have been delivered with the mail. Good for them, Frank is a hunter and is pretty proficient with a bow. So, they head back to camp, set up a target and Frank's School of Archery is born. Clarence is remarking on how he's figured Frank out now. He's a teacher. He likes to give instructions. Of course, he's obviously been influenced by his time in the military, but at heart, he's a teacher. It's amazing the way this tribe views Frank compared to the other tribe. IMMUNITY CHALLENGE #6 The challenge is like this...each team has 5 targets to hit. The targets are anywhere from 30 to 70 feet away. They'll start with the closest target and work their way to the farthest away. They will take turns shooting flaming arrows at each target until all of them are ablaze. As Samburu has one extra tribe member, Kelly will sit this one out. Rather than give a shot by shot account of the 36 shots taken, I think it best to just give round by round wrap ups. Lindsey and Lex hit their first shot and Clarence his as Samburu takes a 2-1 lead after one round. Lex hits for the second time and Ethan strikes for the first time as Samburu is leading 3-2 after 2 rounds. Big Tom connects for the first time while Ethan hits #2 and Samburu is now one away from victory leading 4-3 after the 3rd round. Starting the 4th round are Kim and Teresa. Both are very close, but miss. Next up are Lindsey and Kim. Lindsey is off, but Kim connects. We're tied at 4. Brandon misses for the 4th time (in fact, he was never even close) while Ethan connects for the 3rd time in 4 tries and Boran begins the Immunity dance! Given all the positioning in the Samburu tribe over the past couple days, this Tribal Council promises to be one of the best yet. SAMBURU PREPARES FOR TRIBAL COUNCIL BAck at Samburu camp, Lex pulls Brandon aside for a chat. Brandon assumes it's to find out who has votes against them. Lex cuts him off and tells him that they really like their new tribemates and that this vote is going to be very tough for all of them and he wanted Brandon to know it was nothing personal. Needless to say, Brandon is now expecting the votes and frankly, that's what he wants. He figures he'll beat Tom in a trivia tie-breaker, so he's all ready for it. As he's talking to Lindsey, apparently he's overheard by Kelly and the assumption is that Kelly now knows for sure that Lindsey is the most vulnerable. Lindsey is now thinking of turning the tables on Brandon and voting with the former Boran members for him. She tries to talk Kim into it, but Kim refuses to stab a friend in the back like that. TRIBAL COUNCIL Since this is this group's first trip to TC after the big switch, Jeff pretty much runs down the same questions as last week. What did you think of the switch? Do you all get along? Are you becoming a new tribe or do old tribal lines still stand? They give the typical expected answers of "yeah, we get along real well", "sure, we still have a bond with our old tribe, but this tribe is great too" and so on and so forth. He then asks Kim if the game is more ethically challenging than she expected. She was quick to say yes, and that you really have to decide if you want to be ruthless and win-at-all-costs or if you want to play with principles and integrity that may cause you to bow out before you'd like to. And, now it's time to vote. Pretty much expected, the vote is a tie right down tribal lines. The Samburus chose Tom as their fall guy, and the Borans wisely chose Lindsey as theirs. As Jeff read the first vote for Lindsey, you could see how crushed Kim and Brandon were. Tears were quick to follow as they realized that their plan and hopes had just come crashing down around them. Of course, they had to have a second vote (which Lindsey completely forgot about), but before they voted, they had a chance to speak to the tribe. Tom had very little to say knowing he was safe, but Lindsey gave quite a passionate speech that has completely changed my opinion of her. She told everyone that on the way to TC, she had planned on voting for Brandon; basically jumping on what she thought was the bandwagon of the Borans. Basically a way of saving her own behind and possible aligning with them. But on the walk to TC, she began to think of her principles and her dignity. And they would not allow her to stab a friend in the back like that. She knows she will lose this tiebreaker and she doesn't care because she made the right decision to not vote for a friend tonight. She will leave the game without a million dollars, but she'll leave the game with her pride. I thought that to be a great speech and I was so proud of her for going out the way she chose to go out. Rather than leaving her new friends and America with an image of a self-centered, whiny, do anything to win, lazy Generation X'er, she left the show with poise, with dignity and with class that was heretofore not shown in any of the previous episodes of the show. My hat is off to her! Good show, Lindsey! Oh yeah, and as a matter of formality, they did have the second vote. Tom scored 2 votes, Lindsey 2. So, it's official, Lindsey has left the building. And you can tell by the tears and looks of shock that Brandon and Kim cannot believe what they just witnessed. In their minds, the countdown to their exit was just started. Tick tock. And here we are, time for the Survivor quote of the week. While I'd like to use Lindsey's entire speech at TC, I don't have the time or energy to copy the whole thing down and I gave it plenty of attention above anyway. For the second week in a row, the quote of the week goes to host, Jeff Probst. As he read the 3rd vote for Lindsey in the first go around, she picked up all her stuff and began to get up. Sounding more like a parent than a game-show host, Jeff quickly asks, "Lindsey, where are you going? Sit it!" Yes Sir! And on that note, it's time to bring this wrap-up to a close. Until next week, my friends, God bless. To make things a little easier, I decided to put, in parentheses after their names, the number of votes each Survivor has against them.
Votes from the first 4 episodes prior to the switch.
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