Episode 3 begins with the Beauty tribe returning from their first tribal council, after voting Butterfly Brice off of the island. Morgan does a masterful job to raise her stock among the tribe, by swiftly throwing Jeremiah under the bus. It apparently works, as Alexis speaks to the camera explaining that perhaps Jeremiah resides at the bottom of the totem pole.
Cue Survivor Theme
ayiyaiyaiahaha..
Meanwhile at camp Brains, J’Tia is relishing in her tribe’s new found glory and boasts about their winning streak. The food is scarce at this tribe, but they make up for it in large open spaces that allow for them to practice challenges. Surely, they will never ever lose another challenge again.
The reward challenge is introduced. Each of the players are blindfolded, except for a chosen caller for each tribe. The caller is situated on top of a tower, and is given the task to bark out orders to guide their blinded team mates around an obstacle course. The course contains a number of items that a pair of blind folded and tied-together players must collect and deposit back to the beginning of the course. The course is also loaded with tons of crotch-level poles and posts. Watch out for your boys, boys!
With the welts and bruises becoming well-formed, the players start applying defensive strategies. There has got to be a better way!
LJ’s old man shuffle appears to be effective! His other strategies included the ol’ “cupping the balls” technique and the classic “bag of hay cushion” trick. Unfortunately for Spencer, he couldn’t learn from LJ because he couldn’t see a damn thing. He took one more to the crotch, looking something very much like this:
Shot to the balls = always funny.
The challenge progressed nicely, and the Beauty tribe maintained their lead through to it’s conclusion. In a complete shocker (yes, but almost to be expected by now), the Brain tribe once again fell apart and lost a hard fought 2nd place due to J’Tia’s complete inability to function as a human being. She takes what appears to be 2 hours to adjust a lying down flag across a platform, allowing enough time for the Brawn tribe to swoop in and win a dozen eggs as reward. Damn J’Tia, winning streak broken!
Beauty tribe enjoys their reward back at their camp. They have been awarded a pair of egg-laying hens and a rooster. Alexis is confused. “What is the rooster for?” she says, if not to help the hens lay eggs.
“Are chickens asexual?” – Alexis
At the Brawn tribe, Sarah is scheming. I am so disappointed in her game right now. She’s convinced and she convinces others that Cliff should be voted off next, should their tribe be forced to vote a member off at tribal council. Their tribe still haven’t seen a single tribal council, but sure, it’s good to secure your alliances. Of course what’s wrong with this, is that Sarah is aligned with a tactful liar in Tony. Sarah goes even further and convinces herself, against her better judgement, that her tribe should throw the immunity challenge just to get the opportunity to vote Cliff off the island. Her decision makes no sense. Instead of making a calculated decision, Sarah is 100% making this decision based on emotion.
Of course Sarah is making these choices because Tony has placed “poison” into Sarah’s ears. Tony will swear on “everything that he loves” to remain a trusting player in Sarah’s eyes. It’s hard to know at this point whether we will ever see Sarah figure out Tony’s game during the season, or if the truth will be revealed to her too late, at the Survivor reunion. Tony’s words are ugly this episode, spoken as a true villain. He says “I’m here to lie, cheat and steal. I’m here to drag people’s dreams through the mud”.
Hook, line and sink her.
The next day, via tree mail, the tribes learn a little bit about the upcoming immunity challenge. It sounds like it’s going to include a basketball theme! Cliff looks excited!
We learn that the challenge is primarily a swimming and diving challenge. The players are to dive for a series of buoys that are tied to a line under the water. Each buoy is lower than the next. When all 5 buoys are released, they are to be returned to the floating dock and thrown into a basket.
The challenge begins.
J’Tia makes a heroic jump into the water. As the other 2 tribes get their first buoy 3 feet below the water, J’Tia takes in water and is forced to return to the beginning empty handed. Luckily for the Brains team, Spencer does very well in this challenge as the rest of his team does a very average job. J’Tia loses the ball. Spencer wants to rage quit.
The Brawn tribe is trying to throw the challenge? We can’t lose! …Leave it to J’Tia.
On the Brawn tribe, Sarah and Trish are trying to throw the challenge without making it appear completely obvious. They each take their time returning rebounds, and occasionally returning empty-handed when diving for a shallow buoy. But with the effort of Woo and Cliff, the Brawn tribe still pulls in out against the Brain tribe. Sarah summarizes her thoughts after the challenge. “Dude, we tried so hard to blow that challenge. …but that team sucks. They deserve to lose…”
The Beauty tribe wins first place, but the position is solely bragging rights in this challenge. Their tribe have already won the sole reward in this week’s episode.
So with the Brain tribe looking at another tribal council, J’Tia and Spencer’s future hangs in the balance. Can J’Tia hang on? Find out with Kim’s Tribal Council recap!
Worth Playing For 