Sugar returns from Exile and joins the Fang tribe and her buddy Ace, who tells the camera he’s got Sugar in his pocket (which, I’ve been told, can lead to ants in your pants). She tells folks that she spent her time on Exile in the Sugar shack, explaining that she gave up on searching for the hidden immunity idol last time, so this time she chose comfort. Yeah, you’re not really a good liar, Sugar. Crystal correctly believes Sugar has the idol and says, “I’ve got to get rid of her.”
Both tribes get to know the native animals a little, with Kota catching an electric fish that sends a shock through them when touched, and Fang checking out an elephant that Matty spotted. Matty in particular is giddy with awe about the elephant — he runs to summon the others, then canoes with Ace to get a closer look. (Wikipedia says an elephant’s diet consists primarily of grasses and not American kayakers, so I guess they were safer than I’d feared. Wikipedia also says that 60 percent of what elephants eat leaves their body undigested. Hey, that elephant-dung-loving Gillian was right! … Or she edited Wikipedia.)
At the reward challenge, Corinne and Charlie are visibly unhappy that Fang got rid of Jacquie, and Marcus whispers, “Guys — focus on the challenge; we’ll talk about it later.” Emmy winner Jeff Probst announces that the prize for this challenge is an herb garden, and Bob reacts with an excited pelvic-thrusting motion. (This isn’t really central to the plot; it just cracked me up.) The challenge involves players tossing fruit to each other to get it into a basket, while defenders try to whack the fruit away. Kota wins the challenge and once again chooses Sugar to go to Exile because, Dan explains, they hope she finds the idol and has to use it before the merge, so it gets back in circulation.
Dan says he wants to keep all seven Kota members together after the merge, and he calls the group the “Evil Empire,” thinking that a group name will unite them and inspire them to win (although they’ve already been winning … and already have a tribe name). Marcus just noncommittally says they should focus on the next challenge, and he tells the camera that Dan seems too eager to pledge his undying devotion to the new Kota tribe.
Over on Fang, GC is losing the “sizzle” part of his G-Sizzle nickname, as he tells the camera that the game is starting to overwhelm him — it’s changing him, and not for the better. He paddles away for some private time just before the tribe has to leave for the immunity challenge, and his tribemates shout for him, hoping he hasn’t been, as Kelly puts it, “eaten, like, by a monkey, dude.” He does return in time to go to the challenge, but he says he wouldn’t have cared had the tribe left without him.
The immunity challenge is like a huge Plinko course, with Survivors heaving a ball down a hill, aiming for nets that have different point values. Each tribe has one blindfolded defender trying to block the ball with a shield. Sugar shouts directions to a blindfolded Ace, but he never seems near the ball he’s supposed to stop (“I can’t see anything — you have to talk,” Ace explains to her). Randy does a much better job at directing Dan — he’s louder, has a better read on the ball and gives more precise instructions — but Fang has the lead going into the last round. Randy succeeds in directing Dan to block his final ball, and then shouts unhelpful instructions to his opponent (“Freeze, Ace!”) while his ball goes by. Sugar helplessly shrugs to her sightless boyfriend, and Kota wins again.
Back at the Fang camp, GC tells Matty he hasn’t even had the energy to smile the last couple of days, and he’s ready to leave the game. Word spreads that GC wants to go, and everyone agrees to vote him out. But while Sugar is off telling Ace that no one thinks she has the hidden immunity idol, Crystal snoops in her bag and finds it. Crystal, Kelly, Ken and Matty realize that tonight’s the night to blindside Sugar. As Kelly puts it, “Dude, I don’t have time for quitters, but the idol? That’s, like, more intense.”
At Tribal Council, there’s talk of how the game takes its toll, and GC says he’s had a tough life and he’s done suffering. There’s also talk of the hidden immunity idol — Sugar says no one has asked her if she’s found it, probably because people can go through her bag, which she leaves out in the open. Probst asks if it’s crazy or crazy smart to leave your bag where anyone can go through it, and Crystal the bag-snooper says “crazy.”
But crazy Sugar stays, as the tribe grants GC his wish to leave.
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Photo: Monty Brinton/CBS © 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.
