Survivor South Pacific Recap: Temporary Player?

Wow Survivor Fans! This season of Survivor South Pacific certainly isn’t short on drama.

Epi 2 starts with a quick recap of epi 1 where Coach discusses solidifying his alliance with Sophie, Brandon, Rick and Albert on the Upolu tribe. He has a subsequent private discussion with Edna. She pledges her loyalty to Coach and he vows to protect her. That’s another alliance of 2 for Coach so far.

Semhar arrives at Redemption Island feeling betrayed and abandoned. She’s the first evictee of the season awaiting her duel at Redemption Island. To soothe herself she begins reciting poetry or… what she considers poetry.

Back at Savaii after tribal council Cochrane (the Harvard law student) thanks his tribe mates for keeping him in the game and vows to make good on all of his promises. Even though his mother told him that she did not want him using a machete, unsupervised, Cochrane decides to throw caution to the wind and crack open some coconuts for his tribe mates. (Cochrane does your mommy allow you to cut your own meat?)

On day 4 Ozzy tells his tribe mates he’s going to go fishing and takes a little tour through the jungle. In true Ozzy “Tarzan” style he starts climbing trees as adept as a monkey, looking for signs of the idol or idol clues. As he’s walking towards the beach he sees what his trained “survivor eye” appears to be the perfect tree to hide an idol. Then he sees it, the rock! What is a rock doing in a tree? Ozzy knows that means the idol is under the rock. Day 4 and Ozzy has already found the actual immunity idol. He climbs high up into another tree and re-hides it. Keith and Ozzy had already decided to stick together and form an alliance. While fishing with Keith and Ozzy, Jimmy decides to approach the two men about having a strong alliance of 3+2. This would consist of the 3 men and the two women, Whitney and Elise. This would take them to the merge hopefully. Keith and Ozzy agree. Jimmy thinks he is the architect of this alliance not realizing Keith and Ozzy already have an alliance.

Back at Upolu on Day 4 Brandon and Coach take a walk and Brandon starts feeling deceitful about not being honest with Coach. He decides to tell Coach his identity and pulls up the sleeve of his t-shirt to reveal the word “Hantz”. Coach says, “but that’s not your name?” and Brandon says yes he’s Russell’s nephew! Coach is pretty blown away by this and realizes he’s in an alliance with the nephew of his nemesis! Brandon asks Coach to keep this info on the down low and Coach agrees. Brandon tells Coach he is a Christian and that he can trust him. Coach says that he was already duped by a Hantz. He’s either going to get duped again or this could be redemption for the Hantz family. They pray together at the watering hole. (Wow Brandon, you kept that secret for 4 whole days!!)

CHALLENGE:

The immunity challenge consists of 4 tribe members unbraiding a maypole to release the key at the top of the pole. Once the key is released one member of the tribe must unlock the other four tribe members and they must push crates out of the way in order to release the biggest crate that can only be pushed out one way. Ed note: If you have the game app “Unblock Me”, it’s just like that!

Upolu immediately takes the lead as the women unbraid the maypole with ease, as Savaii has considerably more trouble getting tangled up in the ribbons. When the maypole is unbraided and Upolu unlocks their other tribe members the men have a difficult time moving the crates in the appropriate order. In the meantime Savaii catches up and with the men on the tribe quickly and easily solving the puzzle, Savaii wins immunity, reward and a clue to the hidden immunity idol. Reward consists of the best survivor reward: Pillows, blankets, a mat and a hammock!! It’s rough sleeping on bamboo poles. I don’t know about you but that and toilet paper would just about do it for me.

Upolu returns to camp to ponder tribal council possibilities and this is where it gets interesting. Last week viewers saw a glimpse of Brandon and the demons that he battles. Mikayla is a very strong, attractive, sort of tomboyish member of Savaii. She works hard, does great in challenges and was one of the primary members to earn the challenge win for Upolu last week. Brandon continually says that he feels threatened by her. He says he’s a married man and he doesn’t want to battle temptation. He thinks she is using her feminine whiles to manipulate the men on the tribe. (Have any of you seen her doing this??? I sure haven’t.) Clearly Brandon doesn’t trust himself around women in swimsuits, bikinis or underwear, and he vows that he wants her gone! (Kind of creepy, yeah). Coach is discussing with his alliance that he thinks they should vote off Christine. Christine had already made a great impression on Coach by saying he was a “temporary player.” Christine and Stacey are tied at the hip and they are kind of on the outs with the rest of the tribe. Christine has been looking for the idol since day 1 and actually on day 4 she found the first clue to the idol but not the idol itself. She kept the clue a secret from her tribe. Coach having learned about flushing the idol decided that they should split their votes 3 for Christine and 3 for Stacey then if Christine has the idol one would go. They agree on this strategy and then all of a sudden Brandon chimes in that he wants Mikayla gone. He tells everyone that she’s a threat because she’s strong but confides in Coach that he’s married and he isn’t comfortable around her. Coach believes now that Brandon is battling demons. (Yeah I’d say so!). Brandon goes behind Coach’s back and decides to rally the troops to vote off Mikayla. Brandon tells Stacey and Christine that they are voting off Mikayla. Christine is totally confused and says it doesn’t make sense since Mikayla’s does so well at challenges and is strong. She knows something fishy is going on. Then Brandon tells Coach that Christine and Stacey told him they were voting for Mikayla! Brandon is adamant to press his agenda.

Tribal Council:

I forgot how great it is to have Coach at tribal council where he just spills the beans. Jeff tells him “It’s great to have you back Coach.”

Coach immediately says that someone told him Christine and Stacey were voting to evict Mikayla. Mikayla is shocked; this is the first she’s heard of it. Stacey and Christine are shocked as well because they never said that. Brandon told them to vote for Mikayla. Coach keeps his source (Brandon) secret and Christine and Coach argue for a bit. Christine reiterates that Coach is a temporary player and that he feels threatened by her.

During the vote Coach/ Brandon/ Sophie/ Albert (eye candy alert!), Mikayla, Rick and Edna split the vote and Christine is the second person to be voted off this season. She’s actually a bit shocked (apparently she wasn’t paying attention at tribal) and is sent to Redemption Island, with the first idol clue in her pocket.

Will Coach trust Brandon again? Will Brandon give into temptation or continue to battle his demons? Until next week… The tribe has spoken!