Survivorfest week 5!

Tom slides out!

Fresh from tribal council JT apologized for not letting his pals know his plan.  "If I'd have known what I was gonna do, I woulda told ya!"  I'm not sure what's worse.  A tribemate who crosses his/her alliance or one who can't decide what to do.

Rupert wasn't too happy about it.  I'm a little surprised as I think he should feel relieved.  He as much as admitted that he was voting alliance, not strength of tribe.  This gave him the best of both worlds.

JT promised to Amanda that he wouldn't turn on her.  No one seems to trust the old country boy quite so much as before.

At Camp Villain, Coach led the tribe (sans Russell) in some "Dragonslayer Chi".  I cannot fathom how he can say stuff like that with a straight face. I checked.  Coach does not have a book about Dragonslaying or Tai-Chi.

Russell invested some time searching for the hidden idol.  It appeared as though he had hollowed out the entire root system in the two days he'd been looking.  Eventually he found it.  I wonder if the cameraman took pity on him and just tossed it in the hole he had dug.  Those things are never that hard to find.  Maybe they figured they needed to bury it extra deep so that Russell wouldn't find it without a clue.

5 points for anyone who has Russell!

I wonder how long it will be before he tells someone he found it?  He simply can't keep news like that to himself.

The reward challenge was for two pairs of contestants to battle for what appeared to be rugby balls.  They would toss the balls up to another pair who would try to toss the balls into a basket.  First team to hit two baskets wins.

Reward was a trip to a waterfall with a feast of chocolate.  To whet their appetites Jeff passes around a plate of chocolate pieces.  The men of the hero tribes stoically passed.  I think Jeff was offended.  Colby and Probst were snapping at each other.  Over chocolate!

Colby:  "I just wanna get to the challenge!"
Probst:  "And I just want you to eat my chocolate, you ingrate!  You never like what I make and it hurts!"  Okay, I made that up.

Probst:  "Who's going to sit for the Heroes?"  Colby.  Go figure.

Within the first few minutes of the challenge James went down with a knee injury.  I'm no doctor but my money is on a torn ACL.  He was unable to put weight on it and was relegated to the bench.

JT threw like a sissy.  You'd figure a good ol' boy would be able to toss a pigskin, wouldn't you?

Amanda hit the first basket and the heroes went up 1-0.  Uh-oh...a lead.

Things got a little ugly then.  JT body slammed Coach and Rupert slammed Jeri's face against the fence post. Some heroes.

Unperturbed, Tyson picked up the next basket to tie things up.

Probst:  "Whoever gets this next basket wins the chocolate feast!"  Wasn't that a line out of the Wizard of Oz?

Jeri shook off the face plant she took and nailed the winning basket.  Villains win chocolate reward!

The choco feast was enough to give me a stomachache just looking at it.  After a couple of weeks of starvation diet I can't imagine what all that rich chocolate would do to their digestive systems.  Okay, I can.  And it ain't pretty.

The swimming hole was cool.  A clear, blue, salt-water affair tucked under the landscape.

Russell stayed up top with Parvarti, who evidently had developed a British accent.  Maybe chocolate does that to her.  Russ told her he had the idol and seemed a little miffed that she didn't tell him how awesome he was.  Maybe looking by yourself for an idol for two days with the clue isn't as glorious as it seemed.

Russell decided to tell Coach, promising to take him through the merge.  Coach was so honored that someone trusted him that he bowed down in homage to Russell.  Now THAT's more like it, right Russell?

"The King and the Dragonslayer!"  Yeah, that's what he wanted.

Back at the Hero camp, Amanda was crying like a baby.  With James potentially leaving, she was out one meal ticket.  But wait...who's that limping along the beach?  It's James!  Everyone with James as a winner can breathe a modest sigh of relief.

Immunity challenge was to have pairs of people blindfolded with a caller to direct them to large puzzle pieces laid out in the field.  Once all the pieces were retrieved, the teams would complete a puzzle.

James was the caller for the Hero team.  I can hear him now:  "Left, y'all!!!"

The first challenge seemed to be in keeping partners together.  It was like a Survivor swinger's party.  I figured they would have tied them together, but no.

Rob ran into a piece.  Must've hurt himself since he went forward for the rest of the challenge with one hand over his groin.

James:  "Stop, y'all!"  Yup.  Figured.  In addition to damaging his knee, James was also losing his voice.

The heroes managed to retrieve all of their pieces first to gain a substantial head start.  Uh-oh.

The villains finished getting their puzzle pieces and quickly completed the challenge.  Villains win immunity!  Again!

I'm starting to think that the Villains have one excellent puzzle solver, possibly Boston Rob, and that has been the biggest difference.  The reward challenge was bad luck with James going down and several potential winning shots bouncing off of the rim.  The big ball and maze was really close, too.  The sumo challenge was a cakewalk.  All the rest of the challenges had puzzles, right?

Back at camp, the Heroes were back to the unfortunate task of deciding who would leave next.

Candice is now playing the role of Cirie, working the line for anyone not named Candice.  Or Cirie.

James wants Tom off, feeling that he was the problem with the puzzles.  "He's got a good knee but he's still messed up...what's his excuse?"

Candice pointed out that James couldn't run with his bad knee.  Heck he was never much of a swimmer, strategizer, balancer or puzzle-solver either.

At council Probst taunted James (probably because he figured he could keep his distance):  "Right now my niece could beat you in a race, James!"

James  "No she couldn't...and neither could you."  I thought for a brief moment that Probst would take him up on that.  How cool would that be?

Probst:  "For an extra immunity idol, James versus Jeff!  If I win, I want you to bring me back the head of Mark Burnett!"

James called out Tom and Candice as being the reason for so many losses.  JT was clearly uncomfortable.  He's just too nice to get stuck in between like this.  It's killing him.

James summed it all up:  "If y'all think that you have a better chance of winning with Tom than me, then vote me off!"

The votes went in.  Tom had a nice line:  "James...all mass, no class."

All the witty sayings in the world couldn't buy the votes needed, however.  Tom was out.

Next week:  will James be able to manage with one leg?  Will the Heroes ever retain a lead?  Will Boston Rob ever ditch that silly hat?  These questions answered and more on....Survivorfest!