Chat about Episode 1

“This is Where The Legends Are Made”

The season opens with close ups of several players speaking inspiring, self-revelatory monologues to the camera in private. (I notice that one gal, Liz, wears the exact same rainbow glasses I have. I have like a dozen pair of cheap prescription glasses, and those are the ones I wear when I am in a playful mood. Will they stay in my rotation if I end up not liking Liz? Time will tell.)

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BACK TO MAIN PAGE.

DAY ONE:

Camera angle moves from intimate diary speeches to the back of Jeff’s head, as he watches three boats speed across the water towards him.

Everyone is off the three boats now, standing with Jeff while a strong wind blows around them. They stand in tribal groups, all look super excited to be there. Here is a reminder of who the players are and which team they are playing on.  

 

First challenge.

2 members of each tribe are to race down the beach, crawl under a muddy net, retreive a heavy puzzle piece and carry or drag it back to the team. When they return, then the next pair goes. After the second pair, a third team goes. After 6 pieces have been retrieved, 3 players from each team will attempt to put the large puzzle together. When Jeff says the puzzle is correctly put together, then 1 player will climb the puzzle to release the key.

First tribe to complete the obstacle course wins flint, a pot and a machete.

Second tribe to complete the challenge can choose between a sweat or savvy challenge to be attempted at their own camp which, if they complete it they can win those three items to be delivered after the NEXT challenge.

Third tribe gets what is left.

• The first pair to run for the orange Nami tribe is Venus and Hunter. 
• The first pair to run for the green Siga team is Ben and Jem. 
• The first pair to run for the purple Yanu tribe is Jelinsky and Tiffany. 

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• The second pair to run for the orange Nami tribe is Tevin and Liz.
• The second pair to run for the green Siga team is Maria and Charlie.
• The second pair to run for the purple Yanu tribe is Jess and Bhanu.

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• The final pair to run for the orange Nami tribe is Soda and Brandon.
• The final pair to run for the green Siga team is Tim and Moriah.
• The final pair to run for the purple Yanu tribe is Kenzie and Q.

Maria is the first to carry one on her back, it saves a lot of time and soon others who are strong enough are doing the same. The first tribe back with all the puzzle pieces is Nami (orange) tribe, Yanu (purple) tribe is second to the puzzle, and Siga (green) tribe begins the puzzle last. But before Yanu and Siga can even begin working on the puzzle, Nami is already finished it and moving on to the next task.

• Nami (orange) puzzle trio is Soda, Hunter and Venus. They work well together.
• Yanu (purple) puzzle trio is Jelinsky, Bhanu and Jess.
• Siga (green) puzzle trio is Tim, Moriah and Ben.

Nami sends Tevin to climb the completed puzzle and release the key, which he quickly does.

Green team (Siga) agrees something is wrong with their puzzle, so they hold up, take a pause and attempt to see where the problem is. During this pause, Jelinsky suddenly abandons their puzzle and runs over to the Nami’s completed puzzle to take a hint from success. Jelinsky returns to his puzzling team, but before he can even begin to use what he saw, it’s over. Tim, Moriah and Ben have quickly assessed their own problem, and without checking out the finished puzzle, they solve their own problem and win second place. Charlie jumps up the puzzle blocks and quickly pops the Siga key free, every bit as smoothly as Tevin did for Nami tribe.

Final tally is:

• Winner: Nami – they get a pot, a machete and flint
• Second place: Siga – they choose the savvy challenge to attempt to win their supplies
• Last place: Yanu – they are given the sweat challenge to attempt to win their supplies “Good shot guys, we tried!”

While Siga was deciding which challenge to choose, they start quietly whisper-chanting, “Tire them out! Tire them out!” When Jeff asked Yanu how they feel about having to do the sweat challenge, Tiffany boldly claims that she’s not afraid of a little sweat. Does that mean that she will do the sweat challenge when the time comes? No, of course not! What she means is that she is not afraid of OTHER people in her team sweating.

Jem (Siga, green) privately says she is ready to cut everyone out so that she can be sole survivor.

Scrolls containing maps to their new homes are handed out, and soon all players are squeezed into 3 little row boats, each painted the theme colour for each team, rowing for their new campsites. 

♡

At Yanu (purple) tribe, Jelinsky privately talks tough about how he is the monster in the game. This kid gives off a mature, arrogant vibe, but I keep reminding myself that he is the youngest one there, he acts old, maybe its his height or his face type or his voice that adds to an illusion of age and experience, but he really is just a people-pleaser kid and it shows. Their sweat challenge involves choosing two tribe members who must gather enough water to fill 2 large urns. It will take several hours of great effort, which involves dipping a pail full of holes into the ocean, walking over a shallow but tiring sand dune and past the big, discouraging hourglass to two GIANT decorative urns.  “If you fail you will not receive your tribe supplies until after the first immunity challenge. Turn your timer over and begin.”

• Tiffany is the person reading the challenge directions. Tiffany, who said she is not afraid of a little sweat. Will she do it?
• Kenzie asks, “The real question is, who here thinks they can do it?” 
• Q says, “Well, we all can do it.”
• Jelinsky declares, “I can do it.”
• Tiffany says nothing, and Q and Jelinsky wind up doing it. “Go on out guys, we believe in you!”

The holes in the buckets are big, by the time Q reaches an urn, only a few drops of water are left to be poured in. I wonder what would happen if they nested the pails, one in the other, lined up to plug each others holes and then take turns running back and forth? Like 1 guy runs 3 times, then the other guy runs and the first guys rests, then switch back. They didn’t hear me, so they didn’t try that, but they did wear themselves out running or walking back and forth, trying to plug the holes with their fingers. When they were about a third of the way through their sand, there was maybe 3-4 inches of water in the bottom of an urn that was maybe more than 3 feet high and a foot or two wide at its widest. 

The rest of Yanu (purple) tribe walks around the campsite, explores the area, chats and begins work on building their shelter.

Bhanu is from India, only recently has he become an American citizen and he is absolutely thrilled about it, partly because he immediately applied to get on Survivor! He grew up in a hut and ate ants. He nibbles on one as he teaches Tiffany, Jess and Kenzie how easy it is to eat ants. Kenzie says, “What, like as sprinkles?”

Bhanu sees a Papaya and his face lights up as he says, “Papaya!” He is so sweetly enthusiastic about things, and so thankful (in a helpful to others way) to be familiar with having lived a simple existence. 

♡

At Siga (green) tribe, Jem reads the directions for the Savvy challenge.  There are 3 tables with different puzzles on it. One is a word search with chalk for circling words, one is a lock, and one contains the challenge directions and some hint poems. “Decipher puzzle to retrieve supplies,” reads Jem. Someone asks for volunteers, eventually Ben and Charlie offer themselves. “When in doubt, rock out!” crows Ben the rockin’ musician. Ben gets to work circling words like TWELVE and other numbers. They seem to work well together, each admiring the other’s unique thought process. Charlie notices an issue: they need six digits, but the word search offers many more number words than the required six numbers.

Cameras take us to the other 4 members of the tribe who are sitting in the ocean washing off the mud from the challenge. They splash about and chat, getting to know one another a little bit. They talk about families. Maria and Tim bond over commonalities about their children’s ages. Maria boasts how all of her children were born at home without medication. In a private moment with the camera man, Maria confindently tells us that she has no intention of being anyone’s mother figure in the game.

Back to Ben and Charlie, Charlie moans, “What are we not seeing?” The magic of Survivor shows us what they are missing: if they had circled all the words they could find in the word search, the letters left would spell, “Dig Under Lock” but they don’t know that. What they do see, is one of the poem hints that includes the word “below”, so they bend over to look up at the bottom side of the table that holds the word search. The timer runs out, they’ve got nothing. Ben says, “I’m worried they will think we’re a couple of idiots.”

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Over at Nami (orange) tribe, everyone is THRILLED to not be having to win a savvy or a sweat challenge, and to have their supplies already. They are all together in the ocean, swimming, washing up, chatting happily together. Liz was asked what she does for work, and you can just see her trying to dumb down her complicated occupation for the untrained minds she is speaking to. “I teach people to write emails and make money” (sounds like click funnels marketing to me).  “I have 4 businesses and I sold one yesterday blah blah blah, I’m so rich.” In private, Tevin remarks to the camera operator, “Clearly Liz forgot that the game begins right now and not tomorrow.”

While the freshly washed players walk around their campsite discussing what to build and who should do what, Soda says she can start a fire, then she proves it. She sets up the campfire site and begins expertly using the flint. “I’ve been practicing like mad!” she privately tells the camera person. She nails it, she makes a strong fire for the tribe in a short amount of time. 

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Back to Yamu (purple). Q and Jelinsky are tired and discouraged. Q is still working away, but Jelinsky is sitting down. “I don’t think I’ve done that kind of phyical labour in all of my life!” he proclaims in private. He thinks he is making an ally in Q. They haven’t even used up half of the time available to them, when Jelinsky decides they are quitting, and it doesn’t matter what Q says, Jelinsky knows that he is right. He picks up the large yet delicate wood framed glass hourglass and throws it onto the sandy beach, shattering it. Which forces Q to quit too, no matter how he feels about it.

Q says in private that he “now sees Jelinsky for what he is: when the going gets tough, he will quit.”

♡

Charlie and Ben of Siga (green) tribe now have to break the news to Moriah, Tim, Maria and Jem. “It sucks, we lost” they sheepishly declare. The freshly washed four happily thank them for trying, and for stepping up. Soon everyone is bathing together, talking about this and that and who has what horoscope. Ben the musician is a cheerful flirt, he’s not after romance or anything like that, he just knows how to engage everyone and to be likeable and sweet. He keeps everyone in good spirits. Charlie puts on a black leather vest that I think might belong to Ben. You see him wearing it off and on throughout the rest of the episode. Moriah and Jem bond together, sharing about how they each met their boyfriends at a bar. Moriah privately tells us that she knows she is not everyone’s cup of tea, she has always struggled to make friends. The women all seem to like each other, they came together and agreed that they do not want a woman voted out first. 

♡

At Yamu (purple) everyone is trying to open coconuts without a machete. Bhanu couldn’t, but Q, who is now becoming known as Coach, can easily open one. Quick shot of a pair of women trying to pull one apart together. Tiffany is talking about how “oh, maybe I should have done the challenge, I would have liked to get the supplies”…but she didnt and its easy to say you would have done better when you didnt even offer. (Not that I have any appreciation for what Jelinsky did, I’m still trying to understand how a kid can have such a skewed view of himself and not realize how harmful he is to his team by lying to himself and everybody else about what he can and cannot do.)

Jelinsky and Kenzie promise to work together. Bhanu wants to work with her too. Jess wants to work with her too, and in a moment of trust, Jess tearfully declares that no one is talking to her, defends herself by saying that she is playing a slow game, but is perplexed that she can’t talk with anyone. Kenzie brings Jess’s words to others, and it seems like no one understands Jess. Kenzie tells us in private that she can’t get a read on her. Kenzie and Tiffany bond over discussing Jess. 

Q, Kenzie, Tiffany and Jelinsky tell each other that they like each other and want to work together. Q agrees even though he knows that Jelinsky is a quitter.

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Most of the Nami (orange) tribe is singing and humming together, led by Tevin and Soda. Soda is a camp counselor and just LOVES camp songs. Hunter privately tells us that he also has been a camp counselor, and the only thing he did not enjoy about camp was camp songs. Soon they are all singing encouragement to him while he tries to open a coconut. They think he likes it, but he is pretty uncomfortable with it and doesn’t quite know how to stay pleasantly social in this situation. Hunter tells us that he is small town, and very introverted. Video clips show us that a lot of the conversations going on around him either shock him, don’t interest him, or seem to go over his head.

Tevin is a cool, confident man who works quite well with Hunter.  Hunter asks Tevin to teach him how to sing, then jokes, “that way maybe you’ll keep me around long enough to learn (and I’ll never learn)!” Tevin likes Hunter too, and together they work at building the shelter. They chat on about how they both like the Andy Griffith show, and then BOOM! Suddenly they become the Andy Griffith Alliance. They hug. The screen turns from colour to black and white as “The Fishin’ Song” whistles away in the background. (The Andy Griffith Show theme song.) Tevin shares with Soda that he really likes Hunter, she agrees that Hunter is sweet. Tevin tells the camera that he is a professional actor and he will play whatever role this island needs him to play. Then we are shown him performing well in a variety of tribal situations. 

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Over at Siga (green), Ben the rocker asks the guys what was on their favourite mix tape before they got out here. Tim says, “I wonder” by Kanye West. Then he privately tells us something about how he can’t really get into popular music like Taylor Swift. Then Charlie chirps, “Taylor Swift!” and he adorably goes on and on about how much he loves her music. Then they talk about drinks. The guys are chatting and bonding, and the gals are mostly listening and not being asked their favourite songs or drinks, but they don’t seem to feel very left out. Everyone seems to get along fine right now. 

The gals talk together about pulling someone else in, because right now it’s 3 against 3 and they wouldn’t win. They consider pulling in Charlie. Maria excitedly whispers, “Charlies Angels!” Oh, the others LOVE that as an alliance name. Camera focuses on a spider in its web. Maria and Jem tell Charlie that the three girls like him. Charlie tells us privately that he has always had women bosses and he thinks that he can work with these women too. 

Ben and Tim watch the women walking around and talking, so they comment to each other that the women are in ‘cahoots and plotting something’. Tim says that he has seen enough women plotting things, blah blah blah, he knows what it looks like. Charlie tells them that “if people are playing, you have to play”. Then in private he tells the camera, “This is great! I have 2 groups of people who want an alliance with me!”

♡

Venus, of Nami (orange), loves braiding palm fronds and wants to be the person to braid them all. Tevin called her a princess. At first Venus takes issue with that, “I will not go out without a fight!” and begins hunting for an idol. She mumbles angrily at the camera, “When I am being underestimated, you are going to see a fighter!” While she is telling us how tough she will be, she bumbles into a spiders web and screams before running in the other direction. Randen caught her during her hunt, he wants to expose her as a threat, so he tells Soda. He compares her to Parvati. When Soda tells us her “So-Dar” was going off about Randen, so she decides she doesn’t trust him, she brings his words to Venus. Being compared to Parvati gives Venus a calm sense of confidence. “How dare you assume correctly that I would be sneaky?” she curls a smile at the camera and declares that if her name is in his mouth, then she will be voting him out. 

Same tribe, DAY TWO begins.

Hunter carves the days in a tree: “day two,” while others are frying coconut in their fancy pan on their fancy campfire. Liz explains that she is allergic to everything: all nuts, some spices, chicken, eggs, coconut of course because its a nut. Then she goes on and on about how they shouldn’t feel guilty or bad about eating, she completely understands that even though she can’t eat, everyone else needs to eat and keep their strength up.

I wonder though, she still needs to eat, where will she get her strength.

♡

A boat is spotted heading their way. All the tribes spot it.

• At Nami (orange) tribe, Hunter goes to the boat to pick up the note.  
• At Yamu (purple) tribe, (guess who?) Jelinsky meets the boat to get the note.
• At Siga (green) tribe, Jem is reading the note to the tribe.
• At Yamu, Bhanu wants to go, but politely pauses to observe what others are thinking when (guess who?) Jelinsky raises his hand, “I really want to go!” He goes and we hear him bragging things like: “I didn’t have to work my tribe at ALL to go on the trip!” “This is the kind of trip where LEGENDS are made!” “I am the next legend!”
• Nami team mates throw dice on a pan lid to decide. Tevin gets to go and he is thrilled.
• Siga decides with rock, paper, scissors, and even though Moriah would love to go, Maria gets to go.

Three boats speed towards a sand bar. There is a table with three cards which sound like they are carved out of stone. Each card is blank on one side and has a picture on the other side. The cards are turned picture down, then shuffled around. Each person chooses a card.

• A Torch. Maria draws this card.
• A Vote. Tevin draws this card.
• A Skull. Jelinsky draws this card.

Tevin and Jelinsky must both convince Maria that they have the Vote card. If she guesses right, she and the holder of the vote card will get an extra vote, and the holder of the skull card will lose their next vote. If she guesses wrong, the holder of the skull card will get an extra vote and the other two will lose their next votes.

Tevin is an expert actor, but he only has to tell the truth, and even telling the truth, he is able to be convincing.

Jelinsky lies all the time, both to himself and to everyone else, but he isn’t good at it. He lies to Maria that he holds the vote card, and though she feels like he is lying, she isn’t one hundred percent sure.

So Maria uses her own powers of intimidation to threaten them both, telling them that she will soon find out who is lying to her, “and if you are the one lying to me,” she looks each man in the eye and says their name, I will remember that I cannot trust you, and I will tell my tribe that you cannot be trusted and you will never be trusted in this game and you will lose.

It completely freaks out our people-pleaser Jelinsky who wants every one to like him and wants everyone to know that he is a good person.

He folds! He gives up his vote so that these two more-savvy-than-he-is players will trust him! Maria totally got to him, and he believes what she said so hard, that he quotes it repeatedly over the rest of the episode; when he tells his team mates, and later at tribal council Jeff, when explaining why his decision was really the only thing a smart player like him could do in such an impossible situation.

Returning to the tribes, we see both Jelinsky and Maria as they report to their tribe mates about what happened.

When Jelinsky comes back,  he arrogantly and naively tells them the truth: how clever he was to choose not to lie. He quotes Maria at them as though these were his noble ideas, that he didn’t want to hurt the others. His tribemates are appalled that he didn’t even fight for his tribe, that he felt obligated to tell the truth to their opponents. Everyone is mad, but Bhanu is furious!

Over at Siga, Maria calmly bragged about how she got Jelinsky to tell the truth. “You Mommed him!” one of them gushed. Maria gets an extra vote, everyone claps, but Tim does not like that she has the extra vote, he wants to get one of the ladies out, but with that vote he figures they can dominate now.

♡

At Yamu (purple), Jess tells us and others that she has not been sleeping. There is a quick shot of three people laying in their shelter and the roof caving in on top of them. Jess continues telling us that she has ADHD, (I’ve read that with ADHD, sleep can be elusive to chase even under normal circumstances, but under stress it is near impossible) and she cannot sleep enough, nor is she able to eat enough food or drink enough water, obviously. (I know that these things are a simple inconvenience in most cases, but for people with chronic health conditions, simple self care is a vitally important part of the therapy to maintain acceptable health.) Her mind is clearly addled and she misplaces important things, for example, her water bottle. 

Someone asks her if she has kids, and she bursts out laughing, “No!” she exclaims, “If I had children, I would lose them in the mall!” Someone suggested using a tether, and she laughed and said, “people should use that tether on ME!” she continues, “You don’t have to worry about me finding an idol, if I found an idol, I would lose it anyway!”

Scene cuts to Bhanu, who is often searching for an idol, his face is expressive and and the tension of needing to find an idol is clear on his face. Next scene we see Bhanu and Q/Coach walking down a path, each carrying a big rock, chatting. Tiffany found a note which she shared with Kenzie. They rush over to the well and Kenzie is covers her and keeps watch while Tiffany reads it.  OOOph! they must go back to where she found the note and dig underneath. There is shale, flora and dust to dig through, Kenzie finds a box and Tiffany grabs it away from her, desperate to get her vote back because she cannot vote unless she finds a key and the idol. Quickly they hide everything again until she has time to work on the next step. Tiffany decides to tell Q/Coach that she doesn’t have a vote right now. Coach assures her that he isn’t going to be telling Jelinsky ANYthing.

♡

DAY THREE

First Immunity Challenge of season 46! 

Jeff asks Siga (green) about choosing savvy. Ben says, “In life, you either rock or you get rocked.” Everyone laughs. Jeff: “and…?” Ben and the Siga tribe: “We got rocked!” lots of laughter. Jeff tells them that they will find their tribe’s supplies waiting for them when they get back to camp.

The Jeff turns to the Yamu (purple) tribe, “You had sweat. How did that go?” Tiffany pipes up, “Ahhh, we just had a lot of fun!” Jelinsky groans and complains about how “several” hours should be SEVEN hours, not four, “that being said, we didn’t give up until an hour and a half into it…” Jeff: “Wait a second, “several” means seven?” Debate ensues about how many “several” is, most people agreeing it means “more than 3”, but Jelinsky insisting that since most of the word seven is in the word several, it means seven in his book. Jeff concludes the debate by saying, “In any case, you did not complete your challenge, so you did not win your tribe’s supplies and they will be waiting for you to come home to.”

♡

I see SEVERAL (more than 3) obstacles: 3 large wooden platforms on each perches a tied-down, huge stuffed gecko that weighs 500 pounds. Each gecko is tribally coloured. There is a 15 foot high steep wall to climb up, over, and down with the gecko. There’s a long, low structure lined with rope to make it a tight pass that the tribe must drag their gecko through. There is a steep wooden ramp tribes must carry their gecko up, and clip it securely in place. Finally, on that same final platform, there is a puzzle to be solved by 2 tribe members. Tribes will have to work together and they will have to work fast.

The first 2 tribes to finish will win immunity.

First, each entire tribe must climb a wall up to a wooden platform. Once the whole team is up there, they can begin to untie their giant gecko.

• Nami (orange) gets up first.
• Siga (green) is the second tribe up.
• Yamu (purple) gets up last. 

Getting the tribe and the gecko down off the platform, Nami (orange ) is down first, and Siga (green) is close behind. Yamu (purple) is last to free their gecko and get down. 

Getting up and over the 15 foot high wall, same order, but Nami (orange) completes it way ahead of the other 2 tribes. Nami (orange) tribe managed to orchestrate a mass team fall off the wall, pulling their gecko down with them. Jeff instructs them that they have to turn it around and flip it over and then drag it through a tight tunnel, so that means that the snug wooden structure lined with string is a tunnel.

Siga (green) is slightly ahead of Yamu (purple), both tribes are trying to pull their geckos over a wooded wall by the head, but it isn’t working for either of them. Nami (orange) has already reached last obstacle, and is pulling the gecko up a steep, wooden ramp with wooden footholds attached to it.  As Siga (green) oversomes the first obstacle, Nami (orange) tribe is all up on top of the last platform, together with the gecko which they are clipping in to place. 

Yami (purple) still struggles with the wall, while Siga (green) pushes through the tunnel and Nami (orange) begins work on the puzzle. Eventually all teams reach the puzzle, Yami (purple) reaching it quite a while after the others. Each tribe chooses a pair to complete the puzzle:

• Nami (orange) has Soda and Venus working on the puzzle.
• Siga (green) chose Moriah and Maria to work at the puzzle.
• Yamu (purple) gives the puzzle over to ‘ever-eager-to-pretend-to-help’ Jelinsky and ‘hard-working’ Jess.

Jeff remarks on how Nami (orange) has been ahead in this challenge “from the get-go.” Soda mimicks back to him, “From the gecko!” All laugh. Instead of placing pieces himself, Jelinsky seems to be simply handing them over to Jess. He also can’t seem to follow direction from his team mates. In the end, the winning order occurs as the whole challenge played out, Nami in first place, Siga a ways behind but still winning second place, with Yamu taking the third place loser spot. As punishment for losing, their flint will not be among the supplies left for them at their camp.

• Bhanu cry-talks, “No one wants to go home, we all worked so hard to get here!”
• Jeff says, “See you tonight at tribal council.”

♡

Back at Yamu (purple) camp, Jelinsky is tired and wants to take a rest. He believes that his alliance is pretty strong. At the shelter he tells Jess, “I’m just gonna chill here for a while.” Jess replies, “Really? You think that’s better for your game than going to where everyone is?” Until Jelinsky mentioned that she would probably have her name on the block, Jess hadn’t really thought she’d be an option. Jelinsky keeps talking to the diary about this situation or that situation that he has experienced leading to Survivor legend status. Though Jelinsky does not have a vote tonight, and Shot In The Dark is not available to him either, he rests confidently in the mistaken belief that he has a solid alliance of 4.

Bhanu, Tiffany and Kenzie say that they intend to vote out Jess, but will tell Jess it is Jelinsky.  Tiffany doesn’t care that they lost the immunity challenge, and has continued her search for the key that will open the box that contains the idol, and the return of her vote.

Q and Bhanu, quietly chatting, seem to walk towards her but it’s probably just tricky editing to build suspense.

Tiffany solves the puzzle and runs to the shore, flipping over rock after rock looking for the key which will be tied to a rock at the point. She finds the rock with the key attached, unties the key and runs back to where she hid the box. Opening the box, she removes the idol, happy to have her vote back for tonight. She buries the box back in the same hole where she found it.

Q points out how Jelinsky always raises his hand, saying he will do all this stuff, but he never follows through, he gives up instead. “When you don’t deliver, time and time again, in my world you get dismissed. Jelinsky talks a good game, but he doesn’t show up for battle.” He in private he shares, “A lot of people think Jess is going home tonight, but I’m writing Jelinsky. BIG letters, I don’t know how to write it yet, but I am writing his name down.”

Jess privately shares that she feels like she is a ‘common denominator’ in the puzzle challenge, but to my eyes she put in a lot more successful effort than Jelinsky did. At the end of the challenge, she was sweaty and panting, Jelinsky didn’t appear that he had put in much effort at all. Yet Kenzie believes that Jess is physically the weakest tribe member.  Bhanu, Kenzie, Q/Coach and Tiffany debate amongst themselves between keeping the physically weakest or the one who just gives up.

 ♡

First Tribal Council, night 3

Council chambers seem to be located along the shore and have an oriental feel, with the ‘flying eaves’ roof tops swooping above an artistically arranged scattering of reddish brown huts. Kenzie looks around, admiring the feel. “Behind each of you is a torch, grab your torch…dip your torches and get fire…Fire represents your life, when your fire is gone, so are you,” Jeff says, and Bhanu mouths the words right along with Jeff, he is clearly quite a fan of the game.

Jess shares that the sleep deprivation is really messing with her ability to process information. Tribe mates eye each other, uncomfortable with the fragile state of her mind.

Jeff asks: “Sweat task. What happened?” Q summarizes: “Basically we had to climb up Mt. Everest, climb down Mt. Everest, go into an ocean with holes in a bucket and then we gave up with about 2 hours and 45 minutes left over.” Jelinsky chimes in, “WE aren’t the kind of men who give up easily…” Jeff says, “I’m hearing a reluctance to own that you quit.” “Ok,” says Jelinsky, “WE quit.” (I keep remembering how Jelinsky forced Q to quit when he smashed the hourglass on the beach.)

When Jeff brings up Jelinsky’s trip to the sand bar, Q won’t let Jelinsky get away with lying about his performance, “Let me step in, Jelinsky GAVE his vote away. He traded it for them to have 2 extra votes.” Jelinsky responds, “I was in a touch spot. The cards were literally stacked against me, I couldn’t lie to them! They’d never trust me! Besides, them having extra votes might work to our advantage some day.” (Direct quotes from Maria’s threats.)

• Jess: How will they having extra votes work to our advantage?”
• Tiffany: “That will benefit you, not us.”
• Q: “It’s a game for a million dollars, we are not handing out favours.”

There is more talk about Jess’s state of mind. Q frowns, he doesn’t seem to like hearing about how poorly she is feeling in her brain. Kenzie says, “We lost everything together, it is hard to cut someone loose.” Bhanu says he doesn’t want to work with someone with a foggy brain. Jess frowns, sad to hear him say it. 

Tiffany says she only cares about not coming back to tribal, she is thinking about which 4 wont bring her back to tribal and will vote for who she thinks will make her lose. Jelinsky, thinks he is pretty funny and bullet proof when he laughs and quips, “I will never ever give up in a challenge …except for this one task.” Everyone laughs. “and the journey,”adss Kenzie

Jess says she feels like she shouldn’t have volunteered for the puzzle, and before she can finish her thought, Jelinsky, who seems to want to be united with Jess in everything she says, joins in with her statement as though she is speaking for both of them.  Jeff sees what he is doing and says to Jess, “It looks like he is determined to get you in that boat with him.” “I know!” exclaims Jess, “And I don’t want to be there! I am not in his boat with him!”

Jelinsky nods, laughs, leans towards Jess and says to her, “I’m a nice guy, I don’t like fighting!” Bhanu cries to Jelinsky, “We love you!” his face always looks so concerned. “I love this kid, but I dont know how the tribe is feeling, is it too little too late?” Jeff says, “So you’re feeling in your heart that it’s Jelinsky tonight.” Bhanu rolls his eyes, rolls his whole face, says nothing…then he asks, “is it time to vote?”

There are a few beats of silence before Jelinsky says, “I just want to give 100% effort in every challenge we do, and I just want us to be the strongest tribe possible going forward.” Everyone kind of frowned when they heard him say that. It seems that minds were firmly changed during tribal. 

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Everyone goes up the stairs, one at a time, to the voting room, and everyone except Jelinsky votes. They sit and nervously wait for Jeff to read the votes. Jeff asks if anyone as any advantages they want to play, Jess and Jelinsky eye each other, hoping not. When no one plays an advantage, Jelinsky nods with relief, things are playing out perfectly, he seems to be thinking. Jelinsky was surprised and disappointed to see his name in each of the 3 votes that were read. As Jelinsky walks up to have his torch snuffed, Q quietly nods his approval.

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The preview for next week ended with all three tribes each building an arch out of blocks with letters on them. The purple arch was falling onto Bhanu who was angrily scream-yelling, “JESS!” 

During the final words of Jelinsky, we see that this was a unanimous vote, everyone voted him out. We also see that Q indeed had not learned how to spell Jelinsky’s name.

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Final words from Jelinsky:

“This was a huge blindside. I thought with every ounce in my body that Jess would be the one going home tonight. I was the first one voted out, but sometimes that’s just how the cards fall and I didnt even get to cast a vote this season! Thats horrible! You know when you’re comfortable in this game that’s when you go home and thats exactly what happened to me.”

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Welcome to the new world: Long-winded, 2-days-late write ups about the previous episode. I am clearly not as good at briefly summarizing the show as Jackie was, eh? However, if you missed the show and you don’t mind reading a short story about it, it will feel like you didn’t miss a thing!

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