Post by BCandScott on Feb 25, 2006 12:34:46 GMT -5
I am forced to admit that Cirie is growing on me. I love her little diary entries where she is laughing at the idiotic alliance of the Shane 4. The recap and her exclamation of "how stupid is THAT?" reminded me that I didn't like her at first, but now, she seems to be the voice of reason on a completely stupid tribe.
This week begins at La Mina. and Terry starting a fire. Sally is well aware that she is isolated from the rest of the tribe and that Terry and Dan are more or less calling the shots. She is working hard to make herself an asset to the tribe. Meanwhile Dan has talked to Ruth Marie about being No. 5 in the alliance of Dan, Terry, Austin and Nick. Dan feels that when they come to a merge point, Sally would drop the La Mina tribe "like a stone" to align with the Casaya folk and that Ruth Marie is loyal and will stick with them no matter what. He seems to be talking to her alone as they walk up the beach. Of course, Ruth Marie is thrilled at being selected to go with the four men of the tribe to a final 5 position. I can see Dan's point to a degree...why would Sally be all that thrilled with being no. 5 in an alliance if they merge and she's able to hook up with two or three other people to be final four or even final three. Then, we see a snake crawling up a tree, which seems to be a symbol for something snaky.
Casaya is grabbing snails near the tide line. Aras, Bruce and Shane are working at getting food. They get a big bag of snails and go back to the camp where they notice Courtney doing yoga or stretching exercises. Aras says that some people don't seem to understand that they are on an island and haven't eaten anything. Bobby and Danielle is sleeping. The fire has gone out. Aras says that he wishes he were not in an alliance with Courtney who is argumentative when they call a meeting to discuss "work ethic." Cirie is working hard and staying out of the drama while the "alliance" seems to be disintegrating.
Reward challenge is a big floating puzzle. One tribe member at a time must swim out to a triangular puzzle piece, dive down and unhook that piece from its anchor, bring it back to a big puzzle frame and get the piece over the rail into the frame before the next tribe member can start after the next piece of the puzzle. Once all the puzzle pieces are collected and IN THE FRAME, they can try to solve the puzzle. Each side of the triangle has a symbol on it (a skull, a dagger, a zombie thing or a drum) and to solve the puzzle they have to have each symbol next to a matching side on the next triangle. The reward is a camp toilet (Casa de Charmin) with real toilet paper and a toilet seat (more or less an outhouse), a camp shower, loofah, five gallons of fresh water, Dove soap and towels. The losing tribe will have a member sent to exile island.
Sally and Bobby are in the water first. There are a total of six pieces. Sally is FAST and has her piece before Bobby and she is really good at muscling the piece over the ring into the frame. Dan is in quickly after Sally and Bruce follows Bobby. Ruth Marie is in the water against Danielle. Ruth Marie for being old is pretty amazing physically. Shane is in for Casaya, both tribes have three pieces. Nick is in for La Mina. It's really neck and neck. Austin is in for La Mina, and Courtney is in for Casaya. La Mina had the lead briefly but Austin gets tangled releasing the puzzle piece. Terry is in for La Mina and Aras is in for Casaya, and soon both tribes have their final pieces. Now it's a matter of solving the puzzle. Casaya wins by solving the puzzle quicker than La Mina. They get to send the La Mina tribe member to exile island and they pick Terry as he is obviously the leader on La Mina.
La Mina is back at camp without Terry. Dan says they have to use this as a challenge to make the place look really good for Terry when he comes back. He suggests stockpiling wood and doing things to make camp more livable. Ruth Marie says that she agrees but she thinks they should eat first. Austin agrees but thinks they should probably take a nap. Ruth Marie tells him to take a nap if he wants, but SHE is looking for food. Austin says he misses Terry because he always knows just what to do, and now everyone has a different idea.
Casaya is happy to get back to the camp and find their toilet and shower. They begin discussing how to use the facility. Shane thinks they should use the toilet (which has a roof) to store firewood, the towels, and things they want to keep dry. Bobby announces he is going to break in the dumpster by dropping a deuce. Danielle says "we're using the bathroom to keep the wood dry." Bobby tells the camera that the rocket scientist brain trust that the tribe was going to store wood in the toilet. He laughs. He says he decided to go in there and take a dump before they started storing wood in it. We get to see Bobby's feet with his pants around his ankles while he "drops the deuce". The rest of the tribe is fairly horrified. Danielle says that Bobby is just gross all day and is NOT a gentleman. Bobby exits the bathroom saying he feels about 10 pounds lighter, like "a whole new man."
Shane is talking about how Terry is going to be out on Exile Island and how he will come back for the immunity challenge hungry and weak. He says "we got 'em right where we want 'em." He adds "Terry is in hell."
Terry climbs to the top of the big skull tower on Exile Island and gets the clue sheet for the immunity idol. Not found here, but hidden beneath a rock. Up above the tide line. Buried underground. You have time to think about "why" you were left behind and "why" immunity is so important. Terry spots a big tree that looks like a big letter "Y". He finds a big rock under the tree and begins digging down under the rock. He finds a wooden box. An owl watches as he breaks open the box to find a bottle with a talisman inside. The instructions tell him to break the bottle and take the talisman, the immunity idol. It's a little shrunken head. He says "ALRIGHT". He thinks this makes the whole trip out here worthwhile, they did him a big favor. Apparently, "hell" agrees with Terry.
Casaya's fire is out again and Shane thinks they need to move the fire pit closer to the shelter. I'm not exactly why one leads to the other, but well, Shane thinks so. Cirie gets a shovel and begins digging the new pit. Aras makes the comment that Cirie works her butt off while some people on their tribe don't seem interested in doing their share of the work. Cirie digs, Danielle watches. Finally Shane says, "Danielle, why do you have such an aversion to working?"
"Huh?" says Danielle.
Danielle says that all Bobby does is sleep. Shane says he's not talking about Bobby. Aras says he agrees with Shane, Danielle doesn't do much. Danielle says "well, what do YOU do." Shane tells Danielle they aren't going to have this discussion and she says "oh yes we are." Cirie just watches these two "alliancemates" go at each other. Shane says that nobody will tell Danielle the truth but he will and she's not doing her share. Shane finally asks Cirie if Danielle works and Cirie admits that she doesn't work as hard as everyone else. Cirie says privately she should have just left the area until they were finished fighting but since she has been digging the new fire pit the whole time these two have been yammering, she had to give her opinion. Danielle takes the shovel from Cirie and starts digging. Cirie tells Shane that everybody works, but some people just do more. Privately Cirie says that the Shane/Aras/Courtney/Danielle alliance seems to be unraveling little by little and she is ALL smiles.
La Mina is very hungry. You can see fish jumping all over but they can't seem to manage to catch anything with their drop lines. I've done a little fishing in my time and I will admit to doing more fishing than catching, but if I had been starving, I wouldn't have thrown back the little fish I always tossed. These guys can't seem to put anything on a hook. Heck, I don't see why they can't take someone's t-shirt and make a net sort of gizmo out of it and grab something out of the water. The fish appear to be jumping close to shore and someone standing very very still in the water should be able to net something if nothing else. Nick is sitting on the raft out in the cove and Dan is standing on shore and the water between them is literally roiling with fish. They are estimating that in another three days without food, they won't be able to get out of bed.
Austin laments that without Terry, they can't seem to get the fire going without a "dogfight" meaning they have to huff and puff and blow on it. They finally get a fire going and we see a bolt of lightning and the rumble of thunder as the rain comes in to extinguish the fire they just created. Sally is frustrated knowing that these guys are so weak and that if they lose another immunity challenge, she is on the chopping block.
The immunity challenge is a balance beam type affair. One person is sitting on a chair attached to a pole by a pulley. Another person is at the top of the pole where there is a water drum that acts as the counterweight to the person in the chair. That drum starts out empty. The person at the top of the pole has a large bucket on a rope that they can use to haul water up to their position on the top of the pole and dump that water into the water drum. On the beach between the pole/pulley apparatus are intersecting balance beams. The remaining tribe members (not in the chair or at the top of the pole) are tied together in pairs. The pairs have two small buckets per person that they must fill with water in the ocean and then race along the balance beams avoiding collisions at the intersections and blocking off another of their own team's pairs until they can dump their small buckets into the large bucket that is in the possession of the person on top of the pole. The pole person hauls the water up to the top of the pole and puts it in the water drum. When enough water is in the drum to lift the person in the chair up, the person in the chair will be able to reach a pin in the pole. When they pull that pin, a flag drops and that tribe is the winner of immunity. On Survivor Live, I learned that they were required to put the lightest person on the chair and that the water drums had some water added to equalize the weight differential so that the same amount of water had to be brought ashore by each tribe. The final rule is that if you fall from the balance beam, you lose all the water for both people in the pair and you must return to the start.
Casaya has one extra tribe member and must sit someone out. They chose to sit Bobby out. Pairs for the Casaya tribe are Shane/Courtney and Bruce/Aras. Danielle is in the chair and Cirie is at the top of the pole
La Mina pairs are Sally/Austin and Dan/Terry. Ruth Marie is in the chair and Nick is at the top of the pole. According to Ruth Marie, Nick had a really rough night the night before, thinking he was just not going to make it and he volunteered to do the pole thing because he said he was so unsteady on his feet, he would be useless on the balance beam.
Sally and Austin are fast on the course. Aras and Bruce are slower. They do have to strategize and wait to get back on the course to avoid running into each other or blocking their own tribemates. Dan appears to be having some balance problems. He's TALL for one thing, and that whole tribe is a little shaky from lack of food. Dan falls off, and he and Terry have to start again. Both tribes are being careful not to spill any water in order to maximize the water transfer amount. There is thunder and lightning. Sally and Austin are ahead but they take a longer time pouring the water. The two chairs begin to lift. The difference in winning and losing comes down to who got the water in the bucket more quickly and Casaya wins immunity as Danielle pulls the pin and the Casaya flag drops.
La Mina returns to camp and as they walk along the beach we see a pelican nailing fish as if to mock their inability to get food. They are welcoming Terry home and he thanks them. He does NOT mention his finding the immunity idol. They don't directly ask him and he doesn't volunteer. Terry immediately takes over as leader and the rest of the group is obviously delighted with this.
The plan is to vote out Sally. Sally tells them that she KNOWS they have an alliance but she wants them to know that she wants to stay and that she feels like she proved herself at the challenge today and that's all she has to say about that.
Austin talks to Terry and says that their tribe is dwindling and that if they don't go into the merge with numbers, then the other tribe will pick them off one by one, with Terry being the first to go because of his leadership role. He says they must do all they can to remain strong. He points out that Sally performed really well in the challenge. They also think that Shane has proven more of an athlete than they ever thought he would and has made the other tribe pretty strong. Austin also points out that he and Terry didn't have any formal promise with Ruth Marie, that only Dan talked to her and shook hands with her to make her the fifth spot of their alliance. Austin feels they must reconsider keeping Sally and letting Ruth Marie go home.
Terry ponders this. He says his goal was to go into a merge with numbers. He says, OK, Sally stays. Austin is amazed how easy it was to convince him.
Terry breaks the news to Dan and tells him that he and Austin are going to vote to keep Sally. Dan is shocked and says he can't believe how quickly that it all fell apart. He insists that Sally will drop them and go with the other tribe after a merge and that Ruth Marie will remain loyal. He says either way, if they keep Sally, they are STILL losing numbers because she won't remain loyal. At least they know Ruth Marie won't turn on them. Nick isn't happy about it either. He says now they are playing all technical about how only Dan made the promise and so they can vote out Ruth Marie without feeling guilty. He calls this an easy, hollow rationalization. He doesn't want to go back on what they promised Ruth Marie.
Sally knows there is talking going on but she doesn't know what they are deciding. Ruth Marie says you can never be confident about tribal council but she doesn't think it's her and she doesn't want to get paranoid.
Dan and Nick are still campaigning for Ruth Marie to stay. Terry and Austin are campaigning for Sally to stay. Austin says it is all up in the air and nobody knows for sure what will happen.
La Mina arrives at tribal council and Jeff welcomes them. He asks Terry about Exile Island. Terry says you are there with a barrel of untreated water, a flint and a machete. If you want food, you have to find it yourself. He says it's a completely unique experience, but he doesn't hope to return there.
Jeff asks Sally if anyone asked Terry about the immunity idol and Sally says they talked about it a little but Terry hadn't indicated either way about finding it. When asked about what was the best thing about Terry coming back to the tribe, Austin says that Terry is a natural leader and that without him, the rest of the group had trouble making a decision about what to do next. He says it's nice to have someone take charge. Jeff mentions that Sally really dominated. She says that she will always give her all in the challenges.
Austin says that his biggest mistake since being there is today when he didn't realize that both tribes had enough water to finish lifting the chair but he took too long pouring it thinking they couldn't afford to lose even a drop which allowed the Casaya tribe to dump their water into the bucket more quickly and win the challenge by mere seconds. He feels he's to blame for losing.
Ruth Marie says her biggest drawback is that she is small in stature and she is twice as old as everyone but that she feels she has proven herself in 11 days.
Sally admits how surprised she was at the last tribal council that Misty was voted out. She adds that she wants to continue to be there and to wake up tomorrow in that bamboo bed, but so does everyone else. Ruth Marie says if she leaves tonight, they may not miss her right away but eventually they will miss her loyalty and the fact that she gets better at this every day.
Jeff reminds Terry that if he has the immunity idol and is voted out of the tribe (oh yeah, that's likely) that he will have an opportunity to use it after the votes are read.
Sally, Austin, Terry and Nick vote for Ruth Marie. Ruth Marie and Dan vote for Sally. Ruth Marie's torch is snuffed and she's sent home. More snake imagery. Heh.
Probably the worst thing about this is that Dan feels like he was somewhat betrayed. The real fracture of this vote may be that Dan and Terry won't be as solid as they once were and Nick is unhappy with the turn of events. Ruth Marie was actually in really good physical shape (she's a marathon runner) and she felt that if she hadn't been the lightest of the group and forced into sitting in the chair, she would have been just a formidable as Sally was on the balance beam. Whether or not Sally will remain loyal to her current tribe when and if a merge happens, remains to be seen.
Next time on Survivor, Austin has an upset tummy, Courtney irritates Bruce by invading his zen space and it looks like Casaya's tribe gets flooded. I just hope that this doesn't precipitate a visit from Bobby's dropped deuce. It does look like it might be rough making a fire around that camp for a while.
This week begins at La Mina. and Terry starting a fire. Sally is well aware that she is isolated from the rest of the tribe and that Terry and Dan are more or less calling the shots. She is working hard to make herself an asset to the tribe. Meanwhile Dan has talked to Ruth Marie about being No. 5 in the alliance of Dan, Terry, Austin and Nick. Dan feels that when they come to a merge point, Sally would drop the La Mina tribe "like a stone" to align with the Casaya folk and that Ruth Marie is loyal and will stick with them no matter what. He seems to be talking to her alone as they walk up the beach. Of course, Ruth Marie is thrilled at being selected to go with the four men of the tribe to a final 5 position. I can see Dan's point to a degree...why would Sally be all that thrilled with being no. 5 in an alliance if they merge and she's able to hook up with two or three other people to be final four or even final three. Then, we see a snake crawling up a tree, which seems to be a symbol for something snaky.
Casaya is grabbing snails near the tide line. Aras, Bruce and Shane are working at getting food. They get a big bag of snails and go back to the camp where they notice Courtney doing yoga or stretching exercises. Aras says that some people don't seem to understand that they are on an island and haven't eaten anything. Bobby and Danielle is sleeping. The fire has gone out. Aras says that he wishes he were not in an alliance with Courtney who is argumentative when they call a meeting to discuss "work ethic." Cirie is working hard and staying out of the drama while the "alliance" seems to be disintegrating.
Reward challenge is a big floating puzzle. One tribe member at a time must swim out to a triangular puzzle piece, dive down and unhook that piece from its anchor, bring it back to a big puzzle frame and get the piece over the rail into the frame before the next tribe member can start after the next piece of the puzzle. Once all the puzzle pieces are collected and IN THE FRAME, they can try to solve the puzzle. Each side of the triangle has a symbol on it (a skull, a dagger, a zombie thing or a drum) and to solve the puzzle they have to have each symbol next to a matching side on the next triangle. The reward is a camp toilet (Casa de Charmin) with real toilet paper and a toilet seat (more or less an outhouse), a camp shower, loofah, five gallons of fresh water, Dove soap and towels. The losing tribe will have a member sent to exile island.
Sally and Bobby are in the water first. There are a total of six pieces. Sally is FAST and has her piece before Bobby and she is really good at muscling the piece over the ring into the frame. Dan is in quickly after Sally and Bruce follows Bobby. Ruth Marie is in the water against Danielle. Ruth Marie for being old is pretty amazing physically. Shane is in for Casaya, both tribes have three pieces. Nick is in for La Mina. It's really neck and neck. Austin is in for La Mina, and Courtney is in for Casaya. La Mina had the lead briefly but Austin gets tangled releasing the puzzle piece. Terry is in for La Mina and Aras is in for Casaya, and soon both tribes have their final pieces. Now it's a matter of solving the puzzle. Casaya wins by solving the puzzle quicker than La Mina. They get to send the La Mina tribe member to exile island and they pick Terry as he is obviously the leader on La Mina.
La Mina is back at camp without Terry. Dan says they have to use this as a challenge to make the place look really good for Terry when he comes back. He suggests stockpiling wood and doing things to make camp more livable. Ruth Marie says that she agrees but she thinks they should eat first. Austin agrees but thinks they should probably take a nap. Ruth Marie tells him to take a nap if he wants, but SHE is looking for food. Austin says he misses Terry because he always knows just what to do, and now everyone has a different idea.
Casaya is happy to get back to the camp and find their toilet and shower. They begin discussing how to use the facility. Shane thinks they should use the toilet (which has a roof) to store firewood, the towels, and things they want to keep dry. Bobby announces he is going to break in the dumpster by dropping a deuce. Danielle says "we're using the bathroom to keep the wood dry." Bobby tells the camera that the rocket scientist brain trust that the tribe was going to store wood in the toilet. He laughs. He says he decided to go in there and take a dump before they started storing wood in it. We get to see Bobby's feet with his pants around his ankles while he "drops the deuce". The rest of the tribe is fairly horrified. Danielle says that Bobby is just gross all day and is NOT a gentleman. Bobby exits the bathroom saying he feels about 10 pounds lighter, like "a whole new man."
Shane is talking about how Terry is going to be out on Exile Island and how he will come back for the immunity challenge hungry and weak. He says "we got 'em right where we want 'em." He adds "Terry is in hell."
Terry climbs to the top of the big skull tower on Exile Island and gets the clue sheet for the immunity idol. Not found here, but hidden beneath a rock. Up above the tide line. Buried underground. You have time to think about "why" you were left behind and "why" immunity is so important. Terry spots a big tree that looks like a big letter "Y". He finds a big rock under the tree and begins digging down under the rock. He finds a wooden box. An owl watches as he breaks open the box to find a bottle with a talisman inside. The instructions tell him to break the bottle and take the talisman, the immunity idol. It's a little shrunken head. He says "ALRIGHT". He thinks this makes the whole trip out here worthwhile, they did him a big favor. Apparently, "hell" agrees with Terry.
Casaya's fire is out again and Shane thinks they need to move the fire pit closer to the shelter. I'm not exactly why one leads to the other, but well, Shane thinks so. Cirie gets a shovel and begins digging the new pit. Aras makes the comment that Cirie works her butt off while some people on their tribe don't seem interested in doing their share of the work. Cirie digs, Danielle watches. Finally Shane says, "Danielle, why do you have such an aversion to working?"
"Huh?" says Danielle.
Danielle says that all Bobby does is sleep. Shane says he's not talking about Bobby. Aras says he agrees with Shane, Danielle doesn't do much. Danielle says "well, what do YOU do." Shane tells Danielle they aren't going to have this discussion and she says "oh yes we are." Cirie just watches these two "alliancemates" go at each other. Shane says that nobody will tell Danielle the truth but he will and she's not doing her share. Shane finally asks Cirie if Danielle works and Cirie admits that she doesn't work as hard as everyone else. Cirie says privately she should have just left the area until they were finished fighting but since she has been digging the new fire pit the whole time these two have been yammering, she had to give her opinion. Danielle takes the shovel from Cirie and starts digging. Cirie tells Shane that everybody works, but some people just do more. Privately Cirie says that the Shane/Aras/Courtney/Danielle alliance seems to be unraveling little by little and she is ALL smiles.
La Mina is very hungry. You can see fish jumping all over but they can't seem to manage to catch anything with their drop lines. I've done a little fishing in my time and I will admit to doing more fishing than catching, but if I had been starving, I wouldn't have thrown back the little fish I always tossed. These guys can't seem to put anything on a hook. Heck, I don't see why they can't take someone's t-shirt and make a net sort of gizmo out of it and grab something out of the water. The fish appear to be jumping close to shore and someone standing very very still in the water should be able to net something if nothing else. Nick is sitting on the raft out in the cove and Dan is standing on shore and the water between them is literally roiling with fish. They are estimating that in another three days without food, they won't be able to get out of bed.
Austin laments that without Terry, they can't seem to get the fire going without a "dogfight" meaning they have to huff and puff and blow on it. They finally get a fire going and we see a bolt of lightning and the rumble of thunder as the rain comes in to extinguish the fire they just created. Sally is frustrated knowing that these guys are so weak and that if they lose another immunity challenge, she is on the chopping block.
The immunity challenge is a balance beam type affair. One person is sitting on a chair attached to a pole by a pulley. Another person is at the top of the pole where there is a water drum that acts as the counterweight to the person in the chair. That drum starts out empty. The person at the top of the pole has a large bucket on a rope that they can use to haul water up to their position on the top of the pole and dump that water into the water drum. On the beach between the pole/pulley apparatus are intersecting balance beams. The remaining tribe members (not in the chair or at the top of the pole) are tied together in pairs. The pairs have two small buckets per person that they must fill with water in the ocean and then race along the balance beams avoiding collisions at the intersections and blocking off another of their own team's pairs until they can dump their small buckets into the large bucket that is in the possession of the person on top of the pole. The pole person hauls the water up to the top of the pole and puts it in the water drum. When enough water is in the drum to lift the person in the chair up, the person in the chair will be able to reach a pin in the pole. When they pull that pin, a flag drops and that tribe is the winner of immunity. On Survivor Live, I learned that they were required to put the lightest person on the chair and that the water drums had some water added to equalize the weight differential so that the same amount of water had to be brought ashore by each tribe. The final rule is that if you fall from the balance beam, you lose all the water for both people in the pair and you must return to the start.
Casaya has one extra tribe member and must sit someone out. They chose to sit Bobby out. Pairs for the Casaya tribe are Shane/Courtney and Bruce/Aras. Danielle is in the chair and Cirie is at the top of the pole
La Mina pairs are Sally/Austin and Dan/Terry. Ruth Marie is in the chair and Nick is at the top of the pole. According to Ruth Marie, Nick had a really rough night the night before, thinking he was just not going to make it and he volunteered to do the pole thing because he said he was so unsteady on his feet, he would be useless on the balance beam.
Sally and Austin are fast on the course. Aras and Bruce are slower. They do have to strategize and wait to get back on the course to avoid running into each other or blocking their own tribemates. Dan appears to be having some balance problems. He's TALL for one thing, and that whole tribe is a little shaky from lack of food. Dan falls off, and he and Terry have to start again. Both tribes are being careful not to spill any water in order to maximize the water transfer amount. There is thunder and lightning. Sally and Austin are ahead but they take a longer time pouring the water. The two chairs begin to lift. The difference in winning and losing comes down to who got the water in the bucket more quickly and Casaya wins immunity as Danielle pulls the pin and the Casaya flag drops.
La Mina returns to camp and as they walk along the beach we see a pelican nailing fish as if to mock their inability to get food. They are welcoming Terry home and he thanks them. He does NOT mention his finding the immunity idol. They don't directly ask him and he doesn't volunteer. Terry immediately takes over as leader and the rest of the group is obviously delighted with this.
The plan is to vote out Sally. Sally tells them that she KNOWS they have an alliance but she wants them to know that she wants to stay and that she feels like she proved herself at the challenge today and that's all she has to say about that.
Austin talks to Terry and says that their tribe is dwindling and that if they don't go into the merge with numbers, then the other tribe will pick them off one by one, with Terry being the first to go because of his leadership role. He says they must do all they can to remain strong. He points out that Sally performed really well in the challenge. They also think that Shane has proven more of an athlete than they ever thought he would and has made the other tribe pretty strong. Austin also points out that he and Terry didn't have any formal promise with Ruth Marie, that only Dan talked to her and shook hands with her to make her the fifth spot of their alliance. Austin feels they must reconsider keeping Sally and letting Ruth Marie go home.
Terry ponders this. He says his goal was to go into a merge with numbers. He says, OK, Sally stays. Austin is amazed how easy it was to convince him.
Terry breaks the news to Dan and tells him that he and Austin are going to vote to keep Sally. Dan is shocked and says he can't believe how quickly that it all fell apart. He insists that Sally will drop them and go with the other tribe after a merge and that Ruth Marie will remain loyal. He says either way, if they keep Sally, they are STILL losing numbers because she won't remain loyal. At least they know Ruth Marie won't turn on them. Nick isn't happy about it either. He says now they are playing all technical about how only Dan made the promise and so they can vote out Ruth Marie without feeling guilty. He calls this an easy, hollow rationalization. He doesn't want to go back on what they promised Ruth Marie.
Sally knows there is talking going on but she doesn't know what they are deciding. Ruth Marie says you can never be confident about tribal council but she doesn't think it's her and she doesn't want to get paranoid.
Dan and Nick are still campaigning for Ruth Marie to stay. Terry and Austin are campaigning for Sally to stay. Austin says it is all up in the air and nobody knows for sure what will happen.
La Mina arrives at tribal council and Jeff welcomes them. He asks Terry about Exile Island. Terry says you are there with a barrel of untreated water, a flint and a machete. If you want food, you have to find it yourself. He says it's a completely unique experience, but he doesn't hope to return there.
Jeff asks Sally if anyone asked Terry about the immunity idol and Sally says they talked about it a little but Terry hadn't indicated either way about finding it. When asked about what was the best thing about Terry coming back to the tribe, Austin says that Terry is a natural leader and that without him, the rest of the group had trouble making a decision about what to do next. He says it's nice to have someone take charge. Jeff mentions that Sally really dominated. She says that she will always give her all in the challenges.
Austin says that his biggest mistake since being there is today when he didn't realize that both tribes had enough water to finish lifting the chair but he took too long pouring it thinking they couldn't afford to lose even a drop which allowed the Casaya tribe to dump their water into the bucket more quickly and win the challenge by mere seconds. He feels he's to blame for losing.
Ruth Marie says her biggest drawback is that she is small in stature and she is twice as old as everyone but that she feels she has proven herself in 11 days.
Sally admits how surprised she was at the last tribal council that Misty was voted out. She adds that she wants to continue to be there and to wake up tomorrow in that bamboo bed, but so does everyone else. Ruth Marie says if she leaves tonight, they may not miss her right away but eventually they will miss her loyalty and the fact that she gets better at this every day.
Jeff reminds Terry that if he has the immunity idol and is voted out of the tribe (oh yeah, that's likely) that he will have an opportunity to use it after the votes are read.
Sally, Austin, Terry and Nick vote for Ruth Marie. Ruth Marie and Dan vote for Sally. Ruth Marie's torch is snuffed and she's sent home. More snake imagery. Heh.
Probably the worst thing about this is that Dan feels like he was somewhat betrayed. The real fracture of this vote may be that Dan and Terry won't be as solid as they once were and Nick is unhappy with the turn of events. Ruth Marie was actually in really good physical shape (she's a marathon runner) and she felt that if she hadn't been the lightest of the group and forced into sitting in the chair, she would have been just a formidable as Sally was on the balance beam. Whether or not Sally will remain loyal to her current tribe when and if a merge happens, remains to be seen.
Next time on Survivor, Austin has an upset tummy, Courtney irritates Bruce by invading his zen space and it looks like Casaya's tribe gets flooded. I just hope that this doesn't precipitate a visit from Bobby's dropped deuce. It does look like it might be rough making a fire around that camp for a while.
