"PRINGLE!" Katie yelled, happily solving the tricky riddle she had put forth. There were polite smiles all around as everyone sighed, "Pringle. Oh..." I half expected Caryn to muttering "I'll Pringle you, you dumb, lazy, no good..." Turns out the random presence of this most delectable chip was a precursor to the reward challenge which promised the winning team a snack of Pringles followed by a snorkeling adventure in a lake of benign jellyfish. Yes, that's just the way I'd want to spend the afternoon: chips and jellyfish (that incidentally was the title of the episode).

Probst called both teams into the challenge area and revealed that Angie had been voted off. Clever Mark Burnett then cut to Coby shrugging off the news about his former ally. The first inklings of an anti-Coby portrayal? We shall see. Nevertheless, in the challenge, members from each tribe had to shoot an old gun at various hanging tiles. The first tribe to take out all the other team's tiles would win. It was a fairly standard mission, but for some reason it was so damn exciting. Maybe that's because in the end, it came down to a sudden death situation. Yeah, actually, that's entirely what it was. Amazingly, Ulong managed to win the whole shebang, thanks to Stephenie. "Pretty good with that gun!" said Probst, adding "Now wanna try this one?" Jeff then dropped his pants and pointed to his groin. "Julie doesn't have to know," he purred seductively. Actually, that didn't happen, but Stephenie did rock the challenge. It should be noted that James managed to not hit a single tile, making that about seven challenges where he's failed completely.

After the challenge was over, Ulong boarded some outriggers and paddled out to a Japanese boat where they each received their own can of Pringles. But these weren't just any Pringles. These were those nifty Survivor Trivia Pringles! The foursome sat around and quizzed themselves with the various questions. Things became awkward though when Stephenie pulled out a chip and asked "Which tribe has lost the most immunities in a row, therefore cementing its reputation as the most pathetic team in franchise history?" Wow, who would have thought Pringles would be so on top of this season's trivia?

Next Ulong journeyed up to a lake whose reigning population was thousands of jellyfish who have lost their necessity and ability to sting. As we watched the Survivors swim amongst the invertebrate flotsam, I couldn't help taking a moment to reflect. Not on life. But on Survivor. Ulong is pretty pathetic, but I have to admit, I totally back the lack of merge. I mean, think about it. With all these Ulong losses, the only thing that's happened at Koror is that they've become tighter. Without Tribal Councils, there's been no need to plant the seed of discontent. Truthfully, there's little to no chance that any of these Ulong people can break up those bonds, or at least enough of them to make it to the end. Therefore, if there were a merge, we'd have to sit through three or four boring episodes while we watch the remaining Ulong-ites get voted off. Without the merge though, we spend the episode wondering if maybe, just maybe, Ulong will be able to pull it out. Of course, they haven't been able to so far, but at least when it comes to voting, it's all finger pointing and chaos. So with that being said, I say bravo, Burnett. Way to keep this predictable season interesting. Are they done with the jellyfish yet?

Back at Koror, a nasty windstorm made sleeping a nightmare. No pun intended. Seriously. The next morning, Janu's mental health seemed to have been blown out to see overnight as she sunk into the hammock and cried. Tom tried to reassure her that she could make it through the Survivor experience, but our favorite showgirl/tree climber had little faith. "I don't have the strength," she cried, adding "Literally, I have no muscle left. I can barely use my tongue. And I'm losing that too. Wait. Waii. Yuh. I cahn't mohe wuh. Aw ow wuh uh uuuh." Tom then slapped her and dumped her out of the hammock.

Meanwhile, at Ulong, the tribe received their next piece of tree mail which happened to be a large trunk and some rope. Turns out this space saver chest, as its known on The Apprentice, held Koror's flag. Teams basically had to use the provided rope to fortify their footlockers with a series of knots. James immediately alerted his tribe that Koror would absolutely not be getting into the trunk. He was going to use a Navy knot that gets tighter and tighter the more you pull on it. News flash for James: the more you pull on any knot, the tighter it gets. Anyway, Ulong took James' lead and made the special knot. I'm sure they'll test it though to make sure this magical knot actually works. No? Okay, well, I'm sure they won't have any problems, especially after Steph tells us "I think we're gonna win!"

Posted by B-side on March 28, 2005 4:41 PM