Survivorfest - week 7

Kathleen bows out and Tracy goes down fighting!



My thoughts from week 7:



Tracy nicely clarified my question from last week by pointing out that she vowed to never vote for Chet (despite his fervent wish to be put out of his, and our, misery). I'm still not sure why she picked Erik or why Probst didn't pull his name out just to cause trouble. Normally he tries to make 'em sweat.



Back at camp Tracy pushed her tribe to kill one of the remaining chickens. Ozzy dusted off his PETA card and reminded her that chickens have been known to lay eggs, which can then be eaten.



Erik continued his man crush on Ozzy, alternating between starry-eyed admiration and wanting to show him up. I formally declare his condition to be an "Ozzipus Complex". That is soooo getting added to the Survivor glossary: http://iamincredulous.blogspot.com/2008/02/survivor-glossary.html



Ozzy taught Erik to climb a tree to forage for coconuts. Looking up at Erik in the tree, Ozzy declared "We've got some good nuts, now!" Creepy. No wonder Erik is confused.



Meanwhile, at camp Airai, Kathleen is having a full-blown freak-out. I strongly suspect that after nineteen days of being off her meds, she's finally lost it.



At the reward challenge Probst announced that Chet had been voted off the night before. No one seemed remotely surprised. Or upset.



The reward challenge involves a blindfolded team rolling a large chunk of Micronesian money over some ceramic plates to expose smaller "change" that would be used as puzzle pieces.



After learning that Micronesia used large stone disks as money and the larger the piece, the more value, I ceased to wonder why they never conquered the rest of the world.



"Dang, honey...we need some money for that new addition to the hut...go out and chip me out eighteen grand, will ya?"



Natalie sat out the reward challenge for Airai. Seems likes she's sitting out whenever possible.



Cirie led her tribe's blindfolded members as they rolled the large stone. It was a credit to the team of rollers that they finished their portion first as Cirie provided the following directions:



"Left, turn left! The other left!" (She had a very hard time understanding that her left was their right and even resorted to turning around and twisting her head backwards so that she wouldn't keep confusing them).

"Come this way!" As loud as she was, they were still blindfolded.

"Over here!" Ditto.



Fortunately for Malakal, James and Kathleen were part of the puzzle-solving team for Airai. It was like giving an abacus to a dog.



Malakal won the challenge, which was a nice snack and a shower complete with the latest and greatest Garnier Fructis products. Probst had them "imagine a waterfall, where you can sit under the water and wash your hair". Kinda sounded like camp.



Erik, on seeing the bounty, weighs in with a Survivor Hall of Fame quote: "Cookies!!!" I swear he's mentally about eight years old.



Cirie is appalled when Amanda took the opportunity to remove her top for the communal shower. I replayed the segment on the DVR several times to make sure. Ahem.



Jason was selected to go to Exile Island and Tracy was "volunteered" to accompany him. Personally, I think she should have asked for a break from the vote if they lost the next challenge, but she "took one for the team", later blaming Ozzy for making her do it.



They didn't show any footage of Jason and Tracy on Exile. Partly, I assume, because of the monsoon that came later that day.



The monsoon did a nice job on what was left of Kathleen's psyche. You know it's bad when James has to play the mother: Pat, pat, "It's okay, girl...everybody has their day..."



As Kathleen was wailing about how terribly difficult it was to live in primitive surroundings and eat crappy food (she has seen the show, right?):



1. Eliza looked her up and down almost like she was wondering if she might get to eat her.

2. Alexis, a motivational speaker, seemed to have no words of encouragement.



Kathleen added a Hall of Fame worthy quote: "I don't want anyone to think I'm quitting" she said, as she was quitting.



Probst was called in on the boat and took Kathleen away. Possibly to be bound to a large concrete block and dropped to the ocean floor. He didn't say.



It's appalling that Penner was willing to risk life and limb to stay in the game, and Kathleen left because she was tired of getting rained on and eating raw clams.



The immunity challenge was a long bridge where one person pulled a rope attached to a winch across the bridge, connected the rope to a large puzzle piece and the rest of the team would turn the winch to draw the puzzle piece in. Repeat five times.



Ozzy started off for Malakal and took a large lead on Eliza, who did a nice job of acting as a dead weight while her team labored to pull the puzzle piece off of the bridge.



Ozzy took four of the five trips across the bridge for his team. I was amused to see that he didn't even get his hair wet until his last trip when he slipped off the bridge. In Parvarti's lone trip she ended up looking like a drowned rat.



Cirie and Amanda struggled mightily with the puzzle portion, however, and Airai came from behind to win again.



Back at camp Tracy and Ami worked hard to swing things away from Tracy getting voted off. Amanda, who was accused of being a major manipulator in the last season seemed reluctant to flip on Ozzy's choice of voting off Tracy. Or make any real decision at all. I'm starting to suspect she had a quickie lobotomy in the break between seasons.



It led to this exchange:



Ami: "So, who are we gonna vote for, ladies?"

Amanda: "Don't look at me! Hee hee hee hee hee hee hee...hee".



During tribal council, Probst did his usual work, trying to fragment the tribe and start a fight. He made quite an impression on Erik, who kept frowning, looking skyward and nodding in what he no doubt considered to be a contemplative fashion. I'm willing to bet serious cash he was thinking of rocky road ice cream.



Despite Tracy's lobbying and Ami's apparent willingness to flip on anyone to change things up, Tracy was voted off in what amounted to a unanimous decision. I'm a little surprised. Anyone who could keep Chet on the island for six weeks must have that "special something".



Next week, Erik is smashed like a bug on a windshield. I can't wait!



See you next week on...Survivorfest!