Anyway, the competition soon spilled over into the lagoon, and amusingly, Jeff boarded some sort of vessel that allowed him to yell and berate mid-lagoon. It kind of reminded me of Heart of Darkness, except with more khaki. Well, once in the water, Aitu managed to blow its lead wide open, at one point causing Jeff to happily yell, "RARO! NO chance of getting back!" Later, Jeff probably called up his mom and said, "Yeah, it was a great day today. I got to belittle this one tribe so badly. Oh, it was fantastic!"

"Pardon me while I go off in search of Skull Island."

Well, as Aitu neared completion, Jeff observed, "Ozzy and Yul have been workhorses on this challenge!" And by "challenge," Jeff clearly meant "season." Sure enough, they may have been down, but they were far from out: Aitu won reward! In your face, ASSHOLES! Pure redemption! Even better was Ozzy who had no qualms about telling Candice and Jonathan that "Mutineers are the first people to die, man." Okay, a little harsh, but welcomed nonetheless.

As an added bonus for this victory, Aitu then could send someone to Exile, and no surprise here: they shipped off Candice, who let out a feeble goodbye wave to her former tribe. YOUR GESTURES ARE UNWELCOMED HERE, TRAITOR! Well, it all seemed like wonderful vindication, but even though Aitu had wound up on top, the pain of deception had taken its toll on Sundra, who couldn't help but cry with disillusionment. Welcome to reality TV, sweetheart.

After the commercial break, the winners headed off to their reward where they feasted on pastries and coffee. Everyone seemed incredibly happy, especially when they came upon some childhood photos from home. My favorite was Yul's high school picture, which revealed him to be every bit the dork we expected him to be. Speaking of Yul, he, of course, expressed this experience in a typically thoughtful way, saying, "It just really hits you that these are real people that you're interacting with. You know, people with hopes, dreams, fears, aspirations." Hey Yul. Stop being so articulate and awesome, okay? WE GET IT, YUUUUL!

Of course, the happiness soon turned to sadness as everyone read letters from home. Sundra was a complete mess, but it was Ozzy's tears that precipitated a group hug. Awww. "We're a team 'til the end now," Ozzy said. Yeah, team 'til the end! Unless, of course, you lose immunity.

Meanwhile, out on Exile Island, Candice complained about her unfortunate situation, saying "Now I'm here sitting on Exile Island by myself while Jonathan is bonding, having a good time, and I'm out of the game." Yeah, and whose fault is that? Just shut up and built a sandcastle or something.

Over at Raro, however, Jonathan wasn't exactly "bonding, having a good time" with his new/old tribemates. He was instead trying his best to ingratiate himself with the crew. Turns out the love for the old white alliance only encompassed Candice, on account of her being attractive and not annoying, and so while Jonathan may have thought he'd now supplant some lesser folk like Brad or Jenny, he instead found himself on the very bottom of the totem pole -- an easy cut if they headed to Tribal Council. Nate put it best when he noted, "You really think that we all have your back after we just saw you sell out your other tribe? Are you dumb?" We'll withhold judgment about Nate until after the show...

After the commercial break, we found Jonathan scampering around the camp, trying to be like a chubby, middle-aged version of Ozzy. Yes, he was working his ass off, trying to be useful for the gang. It was basically his way of saying, "Okay, okay. You don't like me. But I've increased your coconut harvesting productivity by .24%!" The good news for Jonathan was that he was able to earn the trust of Adam, who agreed to be loyal to the old white alliance. At least, for now.

We then went out to the immunity challenge, which looked to be another convoluted mess, but it actually was relatively simple and extremely exciting. Basically, teams would paddle out into an area in glass-bottom boats, find three underwater targets, and once the crosshairs on the glass were aligned with the crosshairs on the target, they'd drop a cannonball. If they connected with the target, several buoys would be released. Once teams had all three sets of buoys, they'd then use them to solve a puzzle on dry land. One buoy had a question, and the rest spelled out the answer.

Immediately, I was intrigued with this challenge, only because the use of a glass-bottom boat was fairly novel for Survivor (as opposed to the usual mix of pontoons, floats, and canoes). Well, both tribes paddled out, and off the get-go, Raro was already way off course. This caused general excitement in the TVgasm offices because quite honestly, we wanted nothing but bloodshed for Raro, specifically Candice and Jonathan (and maybe Adam too).

Aitu, on the other hand, adeptly positioned themselves over the target. They released their cannonball and... nada. Total miss. Raro, on the other hand, readjusted themselves and dropped their own cannonball -- to no avail. They missed too! But their luck soon changed, and they eventually hit two targets right in a row. Oh, this was bad. This was very bad. Luckily, Aitu managed to hit a target, but they were still behind, and Raro appeared to be on a hot streak. To say this was exciting was an understatement. I don't know if the challenge was necessarily crazier than the balancing one a few weeks ago, but the stakes were about ten times higher. No one from Aitu could go home. No one.

Posted by B-Side on November 10, 2006 5:00 PM