Survivorfest - week 14 - the finale

Parvarti flirts her way past Amanda into a cool million!


Congratulations to all of our winners, especially our top money winner Mike Bonham at $130!


My thoughts on the finale of the sixteenth season of Survivor:


Fresh from blindsiding the hapless Erik, the coven celebrated with a group cackle. They simply could not believe that Erik would be that stupid. Evidently they don't read my blog, either.


They remarked that the men kept falling for the same trick over and over again. I think that's been the case since the beginning of time. It's in our nature.


Natalie tried bonding with Parvarti. I wonder if Parv remembered the "flossing my teeth with his jugular" comment. That's one of those comments that should stick with a person...


At the immunity challenge Probst noted that the women appeared to "feel good about themselves." Yeah, I would say so.


The challenge was for each of the players to sit atop of pillar and drip water from a pail into a bamboo tube to float a key up to their platform. The key would then be used to unlock a set of shaped rungs that fit in a particular way on a ladder. The first one up the ladder would win immunity.


Natalie filled her tube first and hit the water. I would have enjoyed having man-eating sharks waiting for her. Ah, well. Maybe next season.


Soon, all three were at work on the ladder. For some reason Natalie had a blur on the right side of her chest. No idea what that is about. Maybe she has a nasty mole or something. Or maybe a Jeff Probst tattoo. Why can't they let us in on these things?


I wonder if Probst ever gets a cell phone call when he's giving color commentary...


"And Amanda's the first to reach the...er...um...yeah, I want the red one...oh, Natalie fell off the...no, not cherry red, the other one..."


Amanda won the challenge and immunity. You know the rest of the competition sucks when Amanda wins a challenge.


Afterward, Cirie was busting Amanda's chops: "the only reason you beat me is 'cause your legs are longer than mine!" Uh huh.


Back at camp the women decided to let the remaining chicken, Gloria, go. Natalie indicated that Gloria should find a male rooster and that if she's like any of the rest of the females on the island she'll mate with him and then rip out his throat. Again, the others should really be writing this stuff down so they remember later.


Walking to tribal council, Natalie grabbed Parvarti's ass! What is up with this season!?!


As the jury filed in, they were still laughing at Erik.


Oh, and Ozzie is still pissed.


Probst made a passing hint that this season would see the final be between two Survivors and not three.


After this, Cirie made a remark about being at the bottom of the alliance between Amanda and Parvarti. Amanda took exception to this and it started an argument between the two.

Strangely, Amanda didn't want to give up immunity. I guess there is only one Erik.


Speaking of Erik, he seemed to be paying a lot more attention to what was going on now that he was a member of the jury. Maybe he was just thinking about ice cream.


Natalie was voted out, the last fan standing.


Back at camp, Amanda and Cirie were at it again. I agree with Cirie...Amanda and Parvarti seemed really tight, and Cirie had a chance to stand up for Amanda earlier and didn't want the vote to go to a tie.


Parvarti looked on in a glazed sort of way and Amanda broke down crying. Evidently the back to back seasons were catching up on her.


Her primary worry became the though of another immunity challenge and another tribal council. Which led to this:


Parvarti: "There's no way there is a final two"

Cirie: "Don't say that 'cause you're always wrong."


As the night crept in, Cirie wondered "Did you find that machete? All that yelling made me thirsty." I halfway suspect Natalie has it.


The next day the ladies were sent to the typical hike to honor those that were voted off before them. And the promise of another immunity challenge to bring the remaining vote to just two players. At this point Amanda broke down.


A winner-take-all-immunity to get to the jury vote! Is it too much to hope that it's mud wrestling?

Some people really hate the walk-through where the remaining members honor the previously voted off Survivors, but I enjoy it. My favorite part is when they get to someone that everyone hated but they feel compelled to say something nice, like "ahhhh, Jean-Robert...! You were, umm...quite a competitor!"

I also enjoy the revisionist history sound bite that they use. I'll point one out in a moment.

Here are some of the clips that struck me as interesting or amusing:

First out was Fairplay: "I consider myself the cerebral assassin." To me that means he kills the intelligent thinking process. I would agree.

Mary was disappointed to have been voted out very early on and to have been blindsided, to boot. She still doesn't understand why.

Yau-Man out with class and dignity. So rare in reality TV these days.

Mikey B. - He's going to have to get another goofy, random tattoo to account for his time on the show.

Joel is still pissed about getting voted off before Chet. The last shot of him lying, senseless and covered with sand in a beached long boat was priceless. He looked like a three-day-old corpse.

Chet: "I went out in a beautiful way." This would be the revisionist history bit I referred to earlier. Chet, you quit. Your tribe begged you to stay on and you wouldn't do it. On the bright side, you were good with the chickens.

Kathleen still seemed like a mental wreck. Don't expect to see her on another Survivor favorites show.

Eliza's video clips reminded me of Gollum from Lord of the Rings..

Ozzy is still pissed.

Jason was proud to have been just as good a competitor and a provider as Ozzy. I wonder if he's as proud of going out the same way.

Erik: "[Survivor] opened my eyes to the way women work and operate." Just one word for you Erik...boobies!

Natalie: "Right now I'm my biggest fan." I think it's a fan club of one, Nat.

The final challenge was an endurance challenge where the players were to hold a stick horizontally and try to keep a ball in place on a groove in the top. The challenge would be in five minute increments, after which additional bars would be placed on the stick, making it harder to hold steady.

Probst warned that the challenge would require strict concentration. I figured that would have Amanda out early since she would likely be distracted by the first shiny object that caught her eye.

After two rounds, Parvarti lost her marble. Down to Cirie and Amanda.

Cirie, being a surgical nurse, would seem to have an advantage, but I came to a stunning conclusion...the ball was a shiny metal object! Amanda could stare vacantly at it for hours...

This seemed to be the determining factor as Cirie eventually lost her grip and the challenge, sending Amanda to an unprecedented back-to-back immunity win. Probst had to make whistling noises and flash some tin foil in her line of vision to get Amanda to let go of the bar.

Back to camp. Both Cirie and Parvarti did their best to convince Amanda to keep them in the game. At this point it seemed like kind of a toss-up...both have bad blood with the jury. Both were in pretty much the same blindsides...didn't appear to be much to choose from. Parvarti seemed pretty confident, though.

Amanda also seemed to think that Cirie would be more convincing to the jury than Parvarti.

I figured Cirie was out because of the following:

1. Parv stood by her when Amanda was to get voted out (blindside of Alexis due to the hidden immunity idol) and Cirie didn't want to take a chance on getting kicked out due to a tie vote.

2. Cirie was my last person and this season, while entertaining, hasn't been kind to me from a monetary standpoint.

At tribal council Amanda whined about winning immunity: "it's like a blessing and a curse!" A quick shot to Erik and you could almost hear him thinking "winning immunity didn't do much for me, either!"

More whining ensued, followed by much eye-rolling by Eliza and Erik.

Amanda cast the only vote, and Cirie was done.

In her post-exit synopsis she apologized to her family for falling short of the million dollars. Smelled like an effort at the $100k Survivor favorite vote, to me.

So we're down to Amanda and Parvarti. If someone had told me that this Season would have ended with these two being the only ones left I would have insisted on pre-Survivorfest drug screening.

At the jury council:

As the jury strolled in, it seemed to me that most of them were gazing adoringly at Amanda and that most of them were glaring at Parvarti. That's probably a bad sign for someone.

Probst asked each of the jury to address Amanda and Parv and ask any questions they had. Here are some of the notable ones (paraphrasing, slightly):

Eliza had no question to ask. To Parvarti she said: "You're a bitch and I hate you!"

To Amanda she said "you spent most of the season with a vacant look on your face...was that an act? You disgust me!"

And then she sat down. All she needed was to add a "we haaaaatessss them, don't we preeeeecioussss?"

Alexis stepped up on her soapbox, indicating that her work revolved around young girls and asked why each thought they were a role model to young women. Um. It's Outwit, Outlast and Outplay...I don't remember anything about being a good role-model. Role models don't make for good reality TV.

Natalie asked how Parvarti's flirting translated from her Survivor game into the bedroom. This just about brought down the house. Even Probst didn't quite know what to make of it. Natalie just kept going on about the flirting and the relationship they had. Kinda made me wonder if it was a coming out party for her.

Erik told Amanda that she was like a big sister...or a cousin. He then proceeded to rip her for being so mean to him at his last two tribal councils.

James seemed to think that Amanda had it "in the bag". He asked Parvarti if she felt like talking smack about her work this season. She replied with "you mean like, Hah hah, I got you sucka!" Guess the honeymoon is over for those two.

My favorite was Ozzy. "I may be the biggest idiot here." In fairness, I think we all agreed it was Erik.

He then went on to have what can only be described as a "Billy moment".

To Parvarti (paraphrasing) "You're a bitch and I hate you."

To Amanda "I loooooooove you!" Extra slobbering omitted.

I thought he was going to propose to her right there. At least someone would've asked a question!

My wife pointed out that, since Ozzy was in love with Amanda, then Erik (Ozzy Jr.) would almost certainly vote for her as well. This turned out to be the case, as Erik indicated he was filling to forgive and forget.

Eliza went to cast her vote and agonized over it for several minutes. I thought that Probst was going to have to call her down. She clearly couldn't decide whether to vote for someone she loathed (Parvarti) and someone she didn't respect (Amanda).

The votes were tallied and Parvarti won by two votes. I think this was a fitting conclusion to one of the wildest Survivor season ever.

I've had a great time blogging all of this. I hope you enjoyed the ranting and the game. I'll be in touch for the third installment of Survivorfest in the fall for anyone who wants to give it another shot.

Survivorfest week 13 - the home stretch

Erik is scooped out by the remaining "sexy, crazy females" of the tribe, taking our players Eric and Denise with him.

This is the last regular blog before the season finale on Sunday! That evening I should have the final money winnings for each person and I'll begin passing out the dough the next day.

This weeks thoughts:

Back from tribal council, Amanda continued to reiterate that she didn't have the idol when she returned from Exile Island (she knew it was hidden back at camp). A good strategy, though it kind of threw the whole I suckered you and you and you in some faces. Not only did she fool Erik, Cirie, Natalie and Alexis, but she did it without (technically) lying. Well-played.

Did anyone else notice that Cirie started the fire with almost no effort? Our girl has come a long way since her last season...heck, she's not even afraid of leaves anymore!

Erik moaned about being on the wrong end of a tribal vote (again) and seeming to be on the outs with the power players. I simply cannot figure out how he is still on the island...he's made soooo many mistakes and been on the wrong end of just about everything.

Erik: "Amanda made me feel like a fool...which pisses me off!" I suspect Erik must be angry a lot.

Amanda played the situation well and tried to get back into Erik's good graces. It seemed too little, too late to me, but I guess there's no TV on the island, so people need to occupy their time somehow.

Wait...newsflash. Erik doesn't know whether he can trust Amanda or not. Has he been asleep the past six weeks? You can't trust anyone, especially since it's now down to five players. He's one sharp stick and a twisted knee away from a million dollars!

Amanda continued to lead Erik along the path, telling him that he should work with her, should he win the reward challenge, to bring her along and send Parvarti and not Natalie to Exile Island.

Amanda complimented his (actually her) thinking process to which Erik replied "[I'm thinking this through]...it's not all hair on my head!" I'm pretty sure there are some bugs, too. Something needs to be doing the thinking.

The reward challenge was a memory game with trivia from previous Survivor seasons. It seemed awfully weighted toward the "fans" to me. Earl, who won a few seasons back, claimed to have never even seen a Survivor season before.

A couple of highlights:

The season where one contestant was stung by a jellyfish and asked another to pee on his hand to relieve the stinging. I wasn't watching that season, but it did bring to mind the question: couldn't this guy have peed on his own hand? Where do they get some of these people?

Erik nailed a question from a previous season, where, Probst noted, he was only 14 years old. I wonder if he was scooping ice cream yet.

Help me out, because I may have this wrong, but I think Cirie missed a question relating to when Survivor first broke apart into four teams...That was her season. Ouch!

Erik won hands down and chose Amanda to accompany him on a helicopter trip to a spa and dinner. He selected Parvarti to go to Exile Island. Natalie was none too pleased.

Back at camp, Cirie enjoyed herself by digging the proverbial knife into Natalie and twisting it a little bit. Gee, Natalie, I thought you two were solid. Why would he take Amanda and then try to vote her off? Why would he send Parvarti to Exile when you guys agreed that you should go?

You could see the steam coming out of Natalie's ears.

At the spa, Erik and Amanda enjoyed a nice rub down. My wife commented that, lying on their backs, you couldn't really tell who was who. Time for a haircut, Erik.

Later they enjoyed a nice dinner where they talked strategy. Erik weighed in with this Survivor HOF quote "I want to be an ice cream man instead of an ice cream boy." Oy.

Out on Exile Island, Parvarti decided to eschew looking for the idol and spent the day soaking in the sun. She had the rationale that she was solid with the remaining girls and didn't need it anyway. Huh.

Is anyone else offended by the scrolling messages they send across television screens? Last night they had lotto numbers big enough for the people across the street to read through my window. Almost 80 years of commercial availability and new technology and I still have to put up with garbage on my screen! How much would the technology be worth to strip out all the network logos, weather warnings for counties two states away and voting updates be worth? Someone is missing a money-making opportunity here.

Erik and Amanda returned from spa island. Erik immediately received the woman-scorned treatment from Natalie.

Cirie couldn't wait to wipe off her still-bloody knife on Erik's 1970's jogging shorts and stick it between his ribs for a while. She's mean. I like that.

During their conversation, Natalie, unseen, walked up and listened in while Erik told Cirie that he thought Amanda or Natalie should be the next to go. This did not improve Nat's mood.

"I coulda bitch-slapped him! Slapped him like his mother!" I'd like to take a moment here to point out that if James or Ozzy had said that about Natalie, people would have been offended. But since it was skinny little Natalie talking about idiot Erik, it makes for good T.V. I'm just saying.

Natalie came to the realization that Erik is an idiot. In fact, she even said "He's an idiot." It's nice to see some of them coming around.

Let's take a trip on the "Wayback Machine" to my pre-season contestant analysis in which I wrote:

Erik – I think he looks like Leif Garrett. Add to that that he thinks he can easily be a good leader or a good follower and Erik is my pre-season pick for being “the idiot”.

I will now break my arm patting myself on the back.

At least he was not totally oblivious. When Erik saw all four females huddled around on the beach cackling, he knew they were not exchanging bat-cooking tips:

"I may have screwed up quite a bit."

"I think all of the women here think I'm full of crap."

"I made soooo many mistakes."

At the immunity challenge, Parvarti returned from Exile Island, looking tanned, rested and ready.

Actual exchange:

Amanda: "Hey, Parv!"
Parvarti: "heh huh huh!"

What the heck was that about? Maybe she found Ozzy's secret ganja stash on Exile Island.

The immunity challenge was three puzzle challenges, where each set of pieces had to be found by using coordinates to locate more pieces buried in a large area of sand.

At this point my wife and I had the following conversation:

Me: "Amanda won't win this."
Wife: "Why not?"
Me: "Because it involves digging."
Wife: "Well, she's had a lot of practice at it."

The challenge commenced and Erik took a quick lead.

Erik was well into finding his third set of pieces when Parvarti finally found her first. Probst took a moment to note that Parvarti was well out of it. She chided "oh, Jeff!" Silly boy! Who needs idols and immunity and stuff when someone else is going home tonight!

Amanda spent a great deal of time looking around when she should have been digging. I suspect she kept expecting to see Ozzy finishing the challenge so he could carry her the rest of the way into the final four. That gravy train has left the station, baby.

Natalie struggled mightily, not just to find the pieces, but just to move the sand around. My wife exclaimed "I wouldn't hire her as a personal trainer!"

Erik completed the challenge well ahead of any of the ladies and won immunity at a critical juncture of the game.

As Erik stood there, wearing the immunity necklace, absently scratching himself, there are two questions that need to be answered:

1. Did he notice that the women were not at all pleased that he won immunity again?
2. Where in the world did he get those shorts?

Back at camp Cirie weighed in with the Survivor HOF quote: "[Erik] worked us all like cheap suits!"

While Erik was away doing, whatever the heck Erik does, the women hatched a plan to try to get Erik to give Natalie the immunity necklace. This brought the following protestations:

"Who would fall for this?"
"I feel stupid just listening to you guys [talk about this]!"

But having no other chance to stay in the game, Natalie agreed to try, leading to the exchange:

Natalie: "I have the most hare-brained notion"
Erik: "I'm in!" Just kidding. He actually said "I can relate."

Natalie explained that since Erik didn't have good mojo with the jury, that a show of stupidity, er, idiocy, um, I mean, faith and trust would go a long way. To that end, if he gave Natalie immunity, then he would be showing the jury something that would translate to jury votes if he made the finals...There was also some abstract nonsense about everyone else maybe voting Amanda off.

Yeah, it sounded that bad.

Erik immediately replied "I'm not even going to consider [giving away immunity]."

Two quotes that stand out from this week:

Erik: "Everybody thinks I'm an idiot." Erik, everyone plays the village idiot at one time or another. Some people are elected, some born into it...some volunteer for the job.

Cirie: "Erik is a pretty smart guy." What? What?!? Edison was smart. Da Vinci was smart. Little Tommy Smith in the third grade who (eventually) quit eating paste was smart. "Erik" and "smart" shouldn't be allowed in the same paragraph.

Nevertheless, Natalie, in coordination with Cirie, continued to work Erik (like a cheap suit) for immunity. They pointed out that Erik was in a bad state with the jury members because he had "crossed them all at some point".

I don't understand this at all. At what point has Erik crossed anyone? Outside of ratting on Ami's two-sided dealings to stick around with Ozzy's power play he's done nothing underhanded. In fact, you could argue that he was merely pointing out the truth of what Ami was doing (he certainly wasn't making it up).

Why in the world would he think that the jury would be angry with him? Let's look at the remaining competition:

Amanda: Participated in the blind-side of Jason and Alexis.

Parvarti: Led the blind-side of Ozzy, had a major falling out with James before he left for medical reasons, participated in the blindside of Jason and Alexis. Mutual feeling of hatred with Eliza.

Natalie: Led the blindside of Jason, participated in the blind-side of Ozzy. Out of the power plays for most of the game, so has no strong alliance ties to the jury.

Cirie: Participated in virtually every blind-side that occurred this season with the exception of Alexis. Her catch-phrase was "You wanna vote off (fill in the blank)? I'm down with that!"

Compared to these four, Erik looks like Gandhi. Who, by the way, would kick ass in Survivor. Hmm...a famous historical person season of Survivor...Throw in Hitler and the Donner party and we would have a very interesting show. Hopefully CBS monitors my blog.

Anyway, here we are, the final five, with Erik doubting his position with the jury and Natalie (holding a saw) saying "Just go out on a limb!"

The women re-gathered to discuss progress with the anointment of Erik as Idiot of the Century. Cirie summed it all up with "If this works it would be the ultimate Jedi mind trick."

These are not the idiots you're looking for....you can go about your business...

At tribal council, Ozzy had traded in his normal attire for a poncho. Perhaps in honor of Cinco de Mayo.

Probst started up the pre-vote discussion by asking about trust and place within the tribe. Erik went out of his way to kill himself in front of the jury by allowing that the jury had no reason to favor him and that he was all over the place with respect to discussions and alliances in the last couple of days and that the remaining tribe couldn't trust him anymore. Hello, Erik! Does the phrase "flossing with his jugular" ring any bells?

Probst asked Erik if he was willing to part with immunity. At this point I figured the gig was up and he was going to keep it. Even Erik couldn't be this stupid.

Alas, even I underestimated his lack of wit. He announced that he hoped that the jury would see this gesture as a sign of...well, something, and would respect this action should he make it to the final vote. He handed the immunity necklace to Natalie...the lady he didn't take to spa island or send to Exile where she could have gotten her own immunity idol.

The jury completely lost it. They hadn't seen any of the interplay leading up to that moment but they still knew what was coming.

Erik went up to vote with his fingers crossed. Good Lord. All the crossed fingers in the world won't save you now, kid.

CBS didn't even try to string us along. For the first time that I am aware of, they showed each and every person cast their vote as it happened.

All hail Erik! King of Fools!

The votes were tallied and Jeff, taking pity on Erik, fired a shot into the back of Erik's head while he sat on the shore, going on about the rabbits he was a'goin' ta raise. Sorry, that was another famous story about an idiot.

After the votes were read, and Erik was cast out, he uttered possibly his last HOF quote "Oh! You guys drive me crazy!"

James jumped in, adding "I lost my reign as dumbest Survivor ever!" Indeed. Erik is definitely going on my list: http://iamincredulous.blogspot.com/2008/02/ignominious-moments-in-survivor-history.html

Probst summed it all up with the following HOF quote: "I think that is what is called a life lesson." True dat.

One last question: With the remaining four players, who in the world is going to win the next immunity challenge? I don't think any of them have won an individual immunity this season and I'm quite sure they didn't win too many in any of their previous seasons.

The Survivor finale is this Sunday! Good luck to the remaining contestants!

Survivorfest week 12

James and Alexis limp out, stage right, taking players Kathys Woltermann and Borchers with them.


After last week's tribal council, James was sent to the medical facilities to have his finger checked out. The doctor told him that the antibiotics needed to take effect almost immediately or he's going to be sent home!


On the other hand, Alexis fell down that night and had a boo-boo on her knee.


With the women's very clear plan to vote off the men, and James's bad finger, it's not a good time to be a guy on Survivor. Erik's only chance is to win out or hope that the rest of them don't realize he's a man.


Cirie remarked on the various medical ills of her tribe. She indicated that she was a nurse and that maybe she should be more concerned. But she was a little thrilled that the rest of them might drop off, paving her way to the jury vote. So much for the Hippocratic oath! She's probably telling them that rubbing dead rat on their wounds is cleansing.


The rewards challenge is for "family time". The challenge is very similar to the game "True Colors".


Parvarti's mom is back! She's tells Parv "you smell fabulous!" I hope she was kidding. Maybe she was just hungry.


Erik had his brother. "Look, it's Jeff Probst! Just standing there!"


Jeff weighed in with the Survivor HOF quote "Erik, you're a freak!" At least he wasn't offering to lick anyone's fingers this week.


Natalie's mom's name is Rocky. I think there's a Bullwinkle joke here somewhere...Maybe her real name is Natasha.


Alexis' brother Nathan looks quite a bit like her.


Amanda's sister Katrina is back. She told Amanda "you smell better!" Must be the new extra-long-lasting Secret! Death Sentence on an Island Scent.


James's dad tells him he's been on a diet so that he looks like James. You might need to start popping some 'roids to pull that look off, Papa James...


Cirie's husband H.B. is back!


For the challenge, when a person got a question right they got to chop one of another player's three ropes. When the last rope was broken and lever was deployed to smash a clay likeness of that particular Survivor.


The questions for the game:


Who does the most around camp? The answer was James. Ironically, only James got the answer wrong.


Who never shuts up at camp? The answer was Parvarti, who was one of the few to get it wrong.


Who mistakenly thinks they're in control of the game? Parvarti again!


Who is the most honest? Alexis, though the answers were largely mixed.


Who would you be least likely to invite to dinner? James, much to his astonishment.



At this point, Alexis chopped the last of James's ropes, eliminating him from the challenge. James's dad said "Wait 'til we get home...we're gonna talk about her." Indeed, Papa James.



Alexis won the challenge, selecting Cirie and Natalie to go to "Jellyfish Bay" with her.


Amanda volunteered to be sent to Exile Island.


James was pulled aside by the medical staff to check his finger. The news was not good. The infection was not going away and he was going home.

Isn't having a televised doctor visit against HIPAA regulations? Yeah, here it is: "[HIPAA] also requires covered entities to take reasonable steps to ensure the confidentiality of communications with individuals."

James should sue CBS for $1 million. Or maybe he could be the next Bachelor. Oh, that's ABC. Well all the major networks are actually owned by the still-living head of Merv Griffin anyway. It's true, look it up!


James took it well, though clearly he wasn't happy. Parvarti cried her eyes out. I'm not sure if it's because she felt bad for him or if she was disappointed not to get to vote him off.


Erik groaned "I'm the only man left!" There goes his chance at remaining sexless.


At Exile, Amanda began to search for the hidden idol. Is it my imagination or are the idols getting easier to find? The next one will probably be sitting in the little hut with a bow around it.


One of the clues indicated that she would have to dig to find it. Based on the last immunity challenge, I figured Amanda would be digging through the sand for approximately 400 years. Alas, no, she found it, leading to the conclusion that the idol was hidden under the tribe flag back at camp.


Back at the camp, the women were huddled together discussing strategy. They were very concerned that Erik, who had outed himself as the remaining male, might be tough to vote off if he won immunity. "We have to make sure Erik doesn't win the challenge!" I'm not a math wiz, but five to one means to me that Erik would have to win all the remaining immunity challenges in order to avoid being on the wrong end of a female vs. male vote. I think the still-living head of Merv Griffin would agree with me.


Alexis continued to limp heavily. The light scrape she displayed couldn't be causing that much distress, so the suspicion is that she twisted her knee. CBS has no doubt fired the camera man who failed to get this footage on film. Seriously, they have every other piece of relevant footage from this season, how did they miss this?


The girls helpfully suggest that she quit the game to get medical attention. Just because "they love her". Uh huh. Cirie, this would be a good time to suggest that vigorous deep knee bends would be beneficial to a gimpy joint!


Alexis led the discussion to vote off Amanda, since she wasn't at camp to defend herself. Cirie, realizing that her name was not Amanda, was immediately down with that plan.

Mark's earlier prediction of the women's alliance cracking may yet come to pass.


Parvarti showed a small shred of dignity by declaring that she would never vote off her "little sis" Amanda. I think it's too late for you to win favor with the jury, Parv.


At the immunity challenge, Amanda is welcomed back with an all girl group hug. Erik, felt left out and drifted in at the end for a kind of no-arms cuddle with the women's backs. Poor Erik.


The challenge was to shoot a high pressure air rifle to break a vase with the contestant's name on it. The first to break three of their own vases would receive immunity.


How is this even remotely Micronesian? These people use large round stones for currency and eat bats!


The challenge started out mixed, with Natalie, Parvarti and Erik hitting their vase on the first attempt. Cirie missed by so much I suspect she was actually trying to hit Probst.


In the second round only Erik hit the mark.


In the third round Natalie hit hers to keep things interesting, Amanda hit her first target and strutted around like the Red Baron. Cirie missed again. Erik finished the challenge by going three for three and taking immunity.


There was a distinct lack of joy in female town that day. Hopefully Erik was taking notice. There's seems to be no question as to who will be going home next if he fails to win immunity.


Back at camp Amanda declared that she couldn't find the idol and emptied her pack in front of everyone. Nice move! Most people either hint that they have it (they never do) or won't speak of it (which means they've got it).


The tribe decides to finish off the last remaining chicken for dinner. Natalie declared that she wanted to be the one to kill it. CBS staved off a PETA-induced riot by not televising the next several minutes. I suspect it involved a blood-covered Natalie running through camp with a machete, screaming "it just won't die!!!!!"


Amanda took Parvarti aside and told her she knew where the idol was hidden. Questionable move considering all the blindsiding that's been going on, but it paid off huge when Parvarti gave her an alibi at dinner, while the others were polishing off the remains of the hapless chicken.


Amanda was digging.


In the meantime, the rest of the tribe, minus Parvarti, decided to vote off Amanda. Amanda confronted Erik and tried to guilt him out of it, but he wouldn't budge. She also worked on Cirie, who pretended to feel badly about it, but said that she would rather vote off Amanda than go to a draw, where they would all take a chance on being voted off.


Amanda made a nice strategy move by effectively getting Cirie to promise to stick with her and Parvarti if things managed to "work out".


At tribal council, Natalie and Erik made it clear that they thought Amanda was the biggest threat in the game. They gave her some serious points with the jury by indicating that she was the only one who had nothing to do with screwing over any of the people who had been voted off. If Ozzy had any questions about who was involved in his ouster, they are gone now.


James showed up carting an IV bag, looking none the worse for wear. Probst remarked that three contestants leaving due to injury or quitting is a new record. I'm sure a few of you out there are grumbling about it, too.


The votes were made.


Probst asked for the hidden immunity idol and, after a dramatic pause, Amanda pulled it out, much to the chagrin of Alexis and Natalie.


The majority of votes (for Amanda) were discarded and the two for Alexis stood up, sending her home.


To my knowledge this was the first successful use of a hidden immunity idol. At least for the past several seasons, and especially this one, where the previous two owners were voted off without ever putting it in play.


Next week: More surprises in the wildest Survivor yet!