The next morning, the Aitu folk were awakened by the plaintive sounds of a nearby bird. Turns out Ozzy had somehow caught a booby with his hands (looks like it fell into his booby trap! Rimshot! I kill me). But seriously, what the hell? How did Ozzy catch a bird? Was he going to return with a giant slain gorilla the next day? What couldn't he do? Everyone agreed that it was best to eat the fowl, which meant they had to wake up poor Yul, who was apparently the tribe butcher. We didn't really see what transpired that morning between Yul and the booby, but we know it didn't end so well for the bird.

Anyway, this latest feat precipitated a general groundswell of praise for Ozzy and his amazing hunting capabilities. It therefore should have been no surprise when two seconds later the same people who were applauding his talents now wanted him off the tribe. However, Ozzy and Jessica did manage to corner Candice and float the idea of voting off Jonathan. She seemed to entertain the thought, but we could tell she wasn't going to veer away from her alliance. Ozzy then asked her and Flicka that if the strategy somehow changed and he wound up going home, what would the tribe eat? Translation: you guys are screwed with out me. Or were they? For basically the past four or five weeks, I feel like CBS has been taunting us with Ozzy misdirection. He's either going out really soon or he's going all the way to the end.

After the commercial break, we then headed out to the immunity challenge where Adam returned to his tribe, seeking hugs from everyone. Anyway, for this convoluted challenge, teams had to race to arrange a series of logs from shortest to longest, which would essentially make a staircase. Once the "stairs" were built, everyone would climb up them to a platform and then three people would jump off via a zipline, which would take them into the ocean where -- you guessed it -- puzzle pieces awaited! Once all three people had retrieved the pieces, the remaining three people would then have to put the pieces together. First to solve the puzzle would win immunity. So the answer is yes, this was basically just like the reward challenge.

Well, the challenge began and immediately, Aitu was working together, but Raro was all confusion, capped off by Adam snapping (no surprise) at Brad (no surprise either). At one point, Jeff said that the Raro women were building the staircase while "the guys debate which is the longest log!" I think we can all assume that Nate's was the longest log, right? High(biscus) five, Nate!

Anyway, Aitu once again took the early lead, and soon its members were zipping down the zip line and swimming back with puzzle pieces. Raro eventually finished their staircase, and they too were going after the puzzle pieces, but it seemed like they had way too much ground to cover. It didn't help that Parvati was struggling in the water, causing Jeff to yell, "LET'S GO, POVERTY!!!" I love when he turns into Coach Probst! I bet if Coach Probst switched places with Coach Propst from Two-A-Days, no one would realize for like three weeks.

Well, Aitu finally gathered up all their puzzle pieces while Raro continued to fly down the zip line (whattup, random closeup of Nate's crotch), and at one point, as Yul climbed up to the puzzle area, Jonathan yelled out, "Go Yulie!" Wait, did he say Yulie or Uli? Because if Uli from Project Runway was there, that would be awesome. She could blind the other team with an exciting print from Miami!

"Excuse me while I transform into THE HULK."

Nevertheless, Aitu had smoked the competition last time with the puzzles, but this time around, Beck and the gang had more difficulty. So much so that Raro actually managed to catch up (and no, Brad was not on puzzle duty this time around). Jenny went absolutely nuts with the pieces and made up for lost time... and then some. She full on pieced the entire puzzle together, stealing the victory away from Aitu. That's right, Raro won immunity! You're safe for now, Brad...

After the break, we returned to Aitu where Ozzy claimed he wasn't going home just yet (usually a bad sign). However, in this case, he might have been right. The big question was who to send home: Ozzy, Jessica, or Jonathan. Ozzy was a great player, but he might become a threat after a merge. Jonathan had friends, but no one could really trust him; and Jessica was just paranoid and annoying everyone. Sundra even called her a mosquito that wouldn't die (this was then followed by a lovely close up image of a crab with many flies all over it. Charming).

Anyway, Flicka campaigned to send Jonathan home, saying he was untrustworthy, but Jonathan, Candice, and Sundra on the other hand were thinking about voting her off the island instead. Honestly, why wouldn't they? They didn't want to get rid of Ozzy just yet because he was such an asset, and it didn't make sense to turn on their own alliance now. Jessica was really the perfect target. She probably could have gotten out of this jam if she tried to scheme a little more, but instead, her whole strategy was to guilt people into being upfront and honest. Oh, be quiet Flicka. No one's gonna fall for that. Just be silent and accept your fate.

Up at Tribal Council, Jeff's first question pertained to the tribe and how all four original ethnic groups were still represented. "Surprise you?" Jeff asked Jonathan, who replied, "No. I think it's the game of Survivor. We're all here to play." He then added, "But if we vote Ozzy out, we do take out those damn Latinos."

Posted by B-side on November 3, 2006 1:30 AM