Somewhere at camp, Ozzy hides the immunity idol he’d found at Exile Island. I suppose that’s an OK idea — this way, folks can’t find it in his bag. But hang on — this is the episode where the tribes get switched up, right? What if he switches tribes and ends up going to the other camp, and then he won’t have access to the idol? Or what if he forgets where he put it? I mean, I sometimes can’t recall putting bread in the toaster and then I’m pleasantly surprised when toast pops up. And that’s just a minute later, in the comfort of my kitchen. If I found the immunity idol, I’d tie it to my biceps, write “IDOL” on my hand and draw an arrow pointing up my arm.
Ozzy doesn’t plan to show the idol to anyone, but he tells James, Amanda and Parvati about it. Amanda seems turned on by Ozzy’s immunity idol find. (And later in the episode, Ozzy thinks it’s really attractive when Amanda retrieves a shark caught in a net. I wonder how these two are going to keep the romance going when they return home.) Amanda thinks their “little four-clique” is the powerhouse now.
And then the powerhouse is rocked. Before the reward challenge, the players draw stones to establish captains for the switched-up tribes — Ozzy starts picking for the Malakal tribe (so he will indeed go back to the camp where his idol is), and Natalie starts picking for Airai. James and Joel are the first chosen. Well, technically, James and Troy are the first ones, as Ozzy calls Joel “Troy.” See — Ozzy forgot Joel’s name; who’s to say he won’t forget where he hid the idol?
So now we have to use the proper tribe names, instead of just “Fans” and “Favorites.” In order of players chosen, the Malakal tribe consists of Ozzy, Joel, Amanda, Erik, Ami, Tracy, Cirie and Chet, and the Airai tribe has Natalie, James, Alexis, Jonathan, Jason, Parvati, Kathy and Eliza. Neither lovebird pairing (Ozzy/Amanda and James/Parvati) is split up, but each pair is on a separate tribe.
Joel says “Oh my God” when he sees Chet is still his tribemate. Joel later acknowledges the poetic justice of being stuck on a tribe with Chet after choosing to vote out Mikey instead of Chet last week. Jason, who pleaded with his tribe to get rid of Chet and who is no longer Chet’s tribemate, is giddy.
At the reward challenge, players are harnessed together in pairs and then chase each other around an obstacle course that was apparently designed to inflict injury. Ami bangs up her knee; Parvati gets a fat lip; Jonathan punctures his leg and later needs the wound graphically stitched up by medical personnel; Jason runs into a tree.
And Chet, being brutally dragged by Joel, apparently hit his head, as is revealed in the following exchange after they lose the challenge:
Chet: “I hit my head back there.”
Joel: “I don’t care.”
Chet: “I know.”
Airai wins the challenge and gets food that they later cook on a fire that goes out when the tide comes in. The old Malakal members see how bad the Airai camp is, and they all work together to build a decent shelter. Alexis is overjoyed that James came to save them. James’ assessment of the Airai conditions before the tribe switch-up: “I’m amazed they’re still alive, poor things. They should be dead. They’re a bunch of dingbats.”
Before the immunity challenge, Ozzy and Joel stand in the ocean and talk about who they’d vote out. They identify Chet and Cirie as the first to go, yet neither wants to be the first to lose a member of his original tribe. Erik watches this conversation, which he likens to two superpowers discussing terms. While waist-deep in water, shirtless. As all superpowers should meet.
The immunity challenge involves tossing rocks to break ceramic tiles, which releases bundles of puzzle pieces. Airai has some bad luck with getting the tiles to break enough to release the puzzle pieces (causing Jonathan to proclaim, “Bull, we say. Bull! Bull! Bull!” and mention a part of his body), but Malakal is slowed down by Chet’s puzzle-solving directions (and by Joel redirecting Chet’s directions), so Airai wins the challenge.
Throughout the show, we hear Joel and Ozzy say many things about Chet’s lack of ability in physical challenges:
* “Chet, in challenges, is a waste of space.” — Ozzy
* “Chet — man, he’s like a sack of potatoes.” — Ozzy
* “It’s almost like he’s a wet rag, or a ball of goo.” — Joel
* “If you went back to medieval times, I think we’d kill him ourselves.” — Joel
* “Joel’s a mover and a shaker. Chet’s a nothing and a nothing.” — Ozzy
* “I don’t know what’s going on with that dude, but he needs to go.” — Ozzy*
* “There is absolutely zero honor whatsoever in keeping somebody like that on our team.” — Joel (who, according to his own statement, demonstrated zero honor in keeping Chet on his team last week)
Cirie and Tracy know that they’re also considered weaker players, so they hope to save Chet and get Joel voted out. Cirie tries to persuade Ozzy and Amanda that Joel isn’t that big of a help in challenges — he didn’t help his old tribe win, and he didn’t hit any tiles in today’s immunity challenge. She argues that Joel is playing the game hard, while Chet isn’t really in the game and can be a helpful pawn to them.
Earlier in the episode, Joel justified his decision to get rid of Mikey instead of Chet by saying, “It can be good to have people around who ultimately will be expendable.” It was such a good theory that the majority of Malakal follows it, and they vote out Joel instead of Chet.
What was particularly interesting this week was the little blur – you know, the one that covers cleavage and plumber’s smiles – blurring the lip movements of one of fans. I guess there are just some times when a simple “bleep” won’t do.