March 11, 2005

Build it and they will come

All the comforts of home come to the island this week; well, if you have to catch your own food and shower outside at your house. A whiny tribe mate gets voted off the island and we finally get to see what happens when James and Coby get a space all their own.

Although the younger, supposedly stronger, Ulong tribe has been doing great at the reward challenges (that fishing gear is keeping them alive at this point), they're just not faring as well when their lives are on the line. With Jeff voted out last week, Kim is beginning to see that giant target painted on her.

"I am very sad he's not here. He's great for the team. He's a great friend. It absolutely is horrible to lose the strongest player on your tribe, but that's what he had wanted and that's what we did."

James knows there's got to be a way for them to win an immunity challenge.

"Koror is using strategy when it comes to the immunity challenges," he says.

"Yeah, because they're a weak-ass team, I mean, look at them there's obviously something going wrong because they're not in shape and they're kicking our asses," comes Stephenie's voice from around the campfire. Someone should let Steph know that if the "weak-ass" team is kicking their butts, it's not the other team's fault.

But then James gets aggressive, saying he'll "stomp anybody's ass that lags." One of the girls, however, doesn't think that's a good way to approach things.

"That's not a very nice attitude. Maybe you could help motivate people instead of stomp on them," comes a voice.

With the night-vision shots, Ulong's beginning to sound and look very "Lord of the Flies," and here comes Bobby Jon with concern for morale and the bickering that takes place.

"I hope we did learn something, but right now I don't think we have," he says in a private interview.

On Koror, Katie and Jenn collect the tree mail. The tribe must choose one -- and only one -- member to make some decisions. There's some discussion on if it's for a good thing (making some decisions) or a bad thing (never coming back).

A lot of people volunteer -- Ian, Coby, Caryn. Tom speaks up and says he supports Ian. This does not set well with Coby.

"By picking a team leader, the separation of the group is just obvious," Coby says. "Jennifer, Gregg, Ian and Tom are one unit, so that makes five against four."

Ulong gets the same tree mail, and James says Stephenie should be it. Steph asks Kim how she feels about doing it. Everyone here seems to think being picked is a bad thing. So instead of actually making a decision, they go fishing. They hope to see what the challenge is and then make a decision. Yeah, 'cause I'm sure that's what host Jeff meant when the tree mail was sent.

Back on Koror host Jeff invites Ian onto a landing craft with a little "Home Depot" product placement. For the reward challenge, the tribe must build a bathroom with two sections, a toilet area and a shower and wash area. Tools will be provided by Home Depot and they get to start with a few items: a bush shower (one of those bags you can hang from a tree), shower curtain and some rings, a toilet seat, twine, wire, rope and nails, timber. Ian will also get to pick six tools from the complete tool shed -- not only will they be used to build the bathroom, the tribe's get to keep them for the rest of the season.

Ian, it turns out, is the perfect choice.

"It was a difficult decision, but my dad owns a construction company and I grew up on a farm, so it worked out OK."

We see Ian pick a saw and a pick.

Koror's also got to have three people sit out this challenge (they haven't lost an immunity challenge yet). These people cannot help in the planning or execution of the challenge and must participate in the upcoming immunity challenge (the same person cannot miss two challenges in a row).

Jenn, Coby and Janu will be the onlookers.

The judge for this challenge: 'Survivor's' lead production designer Jesse. He's responsible for building all the challenges.

The prize is well worth some hard work; the production team will visit the tribe and build an amazing shelter.

As Ulong paddles back from catching yet another of the world's smallest fish, Jeff meets them.

"You have not picked a representative yet?" he asks when they start to ask questions. "You guys don't have a leader, you can't even pick a representative."

Off the cuff, Bobby Jon points at James and everyone agrees.

"I wasn't trying to be the leader, they picked me," he says. "But luckily they did pick me 'cause if they didn't we wouldn't have got the tools we needed to build our lavatory."

Turns out James used be in house construction. Ulong lucks out again.

James takes a hatchet/hammer (that's all we can see).

"Leadership is not a role I want to take on, but when a reward challenge is at stake somebody's gotta step up and say 'Hey, get up off your asses and let's get to work.'"

Koror plans out their paths, buildings and general construction, with the whole eligible crew kicking in. And we get some face time with Willard:

"If you watch Tom and Ian, they're very careful not to go through the day without saying, in front of the group, something good about everybody," he says.

And he's right -- Tom and Ian are natural leaders. They take the time to make sure everyone is included and don't demand things.

But Caryn isn't happy with that.

"Every leader, for every project, it's always Tom," she says. "But the women just don't even throw a stick in the fire (without asking Tom). ... It's a little crazy."

James is being the boss at Ulong -- showing people where to mark off boards and squatting to find the perfect height for the toilet (please tell me Ulong did not take a tape measure as one of their six tools).

Stephenie is just a tad annoyed with all the "fatherly" interference. Angie, also is getting torqued.

"It makes me mad that James is like 'Oh, do you need help with that nail' because I know what I'm doing," she says. "When I have something broken in my house I fix it. Landlord, don't fix it, I fix it."

And then drama queen Kim is ready to pass out. Really, is she trying to get voted off?

James says Kim can sew, and that will keep her busy.

Them he sends Bobby Jon off to chop logs. BJ loves it and shares his philosophy of wood cutting.

"You gotta want that log. You gotta want it," he says. "And, that's what winners do. Winners keep fighting. Champions keep persevering."

He does a great job and chopping the tree, but it doesn't fall down it just lands, straight up next to the stump. He sets off to chop down another one.

While Bobby Jon's busy chopping wood and James leads the rest of the team in construction, Kim lets us know how bad it is to be around hard-working people.

"It sucks to be on a team with completely gung-ho, 'I'll work until I die and bleed to death' type people," she says in a private interview. "You want the honest truth, I think that I'm the smart one, sitting in the center of a bunch of people running around with their heads chopped off."

Usually not a good idea to complain about the people who are keeping you alive, Kim. Bad form.

But Ulong is getting a bit panicky and James lets them know that that's why construction jobs run late -- "people freak out."

Everyone is looking a bit fed up with James, his style of leadership and his particular flavor of redneck.

Back from commercial one and Host Jeff and Judge Jesse are already on their way to Koror's camp for the judging. Tom does justice to the older team's work as he leads the tour. Koror's built their bathroom in two separate sections with a lined path to and between the toilet and shower. The toilet's pretty stable with a bit of a shake and it's not totally enclosed, but looks good. There's even leaves for toilet paper.

Katie's pleased with the tribe's work and with the way the tour is going.

"The tour was terrific," she says. "It was taking them through our thought process. How we worked and we came up with what we came up with. I'm very confident. I'd be surprised if we didn't win, and we need this. We have rat city USA and we need a shelter."

The shower is pretty amazing with an adjustable height. Ian jumps in a gives a demonstration for the judges. Jesse seems pleased with the team's efforts.

"If I'm judging facial expression, I think Jesse was very impressed," Gregg lets us know. "I don't think there's any way we can lose."

Sea snake! Well, a shot of one.

Ulong's working right up until host Jeff and judge Jesse land. James leads them along a tour.

The bathroom is all together and comes complete with graffiti, toothbrushes and a drain. It looks beautiful, but acts fairly shaky. This tour is pretty short.

Host Jeff lets both tribes know that they'll find out they won if he shows up again later that day.

Waiting around the fire, Koror talks about the wait. Ian and Tom show why they're good leaders again.

"If nothing else works out, we have a shower and a toilet," Ian tells the tribe.

Koror hears the Home Depot boat before they see it. And there is much jubilation for their reward challenge win.

"We're going to sleep good tonight," Caryn says.

Ulong waits it out, knowing that they must have won this challenge. Except for Ibrehem who lets us know in a private interview that he has doubts.

Cut back to a scene of many, many power tools and a huge shelter being built. It's not quite Swiss Family Robinson, but it's a nice, large wood enclosure with flat wood floors, picnic table.

"A tarp would have been a great reward," Ian says. "Instead we get a construction crew."

"I can't even begin to explain how great our shelter is," Katie says. "It's beautiful. It's not even a shelter, it's a home. We've got a hammock in there, a lantern, and a picnic table and a little platform for us to hang out on."

The crew even leave behind a house warming gift -- two chilled bottles of champagne. Even Caryn acts a little happy with a bit of brew.

Sitting back in the moonlight, Ulong is pretty sure they've lost the challenge.

"It's a shame, but that's all right because that just make us more angry that we lost," James says "We're ticked off so we're going after them and we're going to run right through them like a danged bulldozer."

After another trip through commercialism (but, oddly, no Home Depot commercials), we're back with Ulong and the latest tree mail. This time the message speaks of balance and strength and comes with a two-handled bag.

Ulong immediately thinks one-on-one gladiator battles using the bag and Stephenie starts to take some practice swings.

"This next immunity can make or break us. If we don't get it, we're down to five and they have nine," Stephenie says. "We can't lose another member."

Bobby Jon isn't letting the past three weeks of immunity challenge humiliation bother him.

"All I know to do to win this next immunity challenge is just to fight, fight, fight, fight, fight," he says. "That's all I know to do."

On the beach for the immunity challenge, Katie hands host Jeff the immunity idol. Seems like Koror should just about get to keep it now. Ulong was right -- it's a one-on-one challenge. Tribe members will engage in a sumo style battle on a platform in the water. They must keep two hands on the bag at all times and may not use their feet as a weapon. The first tribe to six wins is safe for another week.

Because each battle with be either men or women, Koror must sit out two men and one woman. Ian, Katie and Willard will wait by the sidelines (um, anyone else notice Katie's not getting picked for the more physical challenges? Not a good sign).

First up is Bobby Jon and Tom. It's a pretty fierce battle, with Tom getting knocked down. He gets back up, though, and wins the point for Koror. Not without a bit of a scratch on his forehead.

Next is Stephenie vs. Jenn. Steph barely has time to breathe before she's swimming.

Gregg takes on Ibrehem and outsmarts Ibrehem's reach.

When Angie faces Caryn, the battle starts off slower -- the two women eye each other a bit before making a move. Angie dumps Caryn without a thought.

James and Coby are up next. James is in the water before host Jeff even finishes his first sentence. Everyone seems pretty amazed.

Kim makes the first move against Janu in their match, but it doesn't work. Koror now leads 4 to 2.

The rematches start with Tom and Bobby Jon and the testosterone is freely flowing. Another aggressive, physical match has Bobby Jon slipping and in the brink. Angie and Stephenie look less than pleased with the performance of the Ulong men.

When Stephenie takes Jenn on again, Jenn gets knocked down -- twice. But she tries to come back. In the end, though, she ends up falling backwards off the platform. It's not Koror 5 to Ulong 3.

Ibrehem comes out like lightning against Greg. One big push and the trash talking starts. Ulong stays alive.

Caryn again proves no match for Angie. But Angie can't quite figure out how to trash talk.

Coby and James come to battle again with the tribes tied at 5 points a piece. Whoever loses will send their group to tribal council. James doesn't fall for the same trick twice and the battle goes on for a while. Coby's got height and reach on James and sends him to the mat. James makes a recovery, but it just isn't enough. Coby eventually pushes James off the platform with this shoulder. Ulong looks crushed as Koror wins the fourth straight immunity challenge.

A quick check of the CBS 'Survivor' chat room during the commercials leads to an interesting point -- James may just be in danger this week. He led the construction crew to a loss and he lost twice in the immunity challenge.

And James seems to have come to the same conclusion himself. He's feeling the sting of losing to Coby.

"It feels terrible to have my butt whooped by a homosexual," he says. "But a lot of gay folks are strong; they all working out at the gym and all. Damn."

Angie and Stephenie talk about the loses on a walk.

"When we got back from challenge, I was so mad, upset and embarrassed and just pissed because James lost it for all of us," Stephenie says in a private interview. "We could have won immunity and there it was out of our hands again. Four in a row. We lost."

Angie points out that the women are holding their own.

James talks to Kim saying they should just write a name down, not talk about it at council. He's sounding pretty sure that Kim's going to get voted out. A bit too sure.

Kim's playing the guys vs. girls card. She knows she's in danger and she wants to vote off a guy -- letting the girls stick together.

Ibrehem knows who he's voting for, Kim.

Stephenie and Angie talk about voting out a guy, but the problems that could present.

"We'd have the upper hand, but then again we might just lose another immunity challenge because (Kim)'s not pulling her weight. So what's the lesser of two evils, trying to keep someone around and hope you may not get voted but if she helps us lose it, then somebody's going anyways."

Kim nails the decision-making process for Ulong, though.

"This is a group that actually won't make final decisions until it's time to pick up that pen and write down a name," she says.

Host Jeff greets Ulong with a crack about saving their seats for them. Then he gets down to the facts; Ulong's lost five of the seven challenges.

Stephenie lets him know she's frustrated.

"I feel like I've never lost this much in my life," she says. "I don't know whether to scream, flip out, cry. I feel like we are giving it our best and it's not enough."

Angie says she's upset about losing the shelter challenge, and losing immunity on top of that was devastating.

Bobby Jon considers his head to be on the chopping block (really, BJ? You think you're in trouble?) because everyone has screwed up to get the tribe in this state.

Accountability is the theme for the evening as host Jeff opens up on Kim a bit about life in camp. He wants her to talk about fishing and who nets the most food for the tribe. She says the tribe all goes out together, but Jeff isn't letting her get away with that. He plugs away until she admits that all she does is sit on the boat. She treats it like a joke.

So Jeff turns to Stephenie.

"I think we rely on them (the men), but I think we could be self-sufficient if we had to be," she says.

Angie points out that the men don't really let the women handle the tools.

Being smart, Bobby Jon comes up with the perfect answer to Jeff's questions about the men's faith in the women.

"You know, I've only been out here 11 days, but I've learned that these women right here are just as strong or more stronger than men. If Kim can use that sling and go and kill us a bear, I want her to."

Changing the subject to the immunity challenge, Jeff goes right to James' sore point: was it tough to lose to Coby?

"No doubt," James says. "I'm thinking, 'Man, he's a hairdresser, he don't look like he's got any muscle tone. I ought to be able to whoop him.' I tell you what, that boy right there has got some ass behind him."

Jeff points out that the women won five of the points in the immunity challenge. He turns right to Kim with the first question.

"We're stronger," Kim says. "If we had had stronger guys with a burning passion and control with that passion we would not be here right now."

Yikes. I'm sure if anyone had any doubts who they were going to vote for, Kim just made it a very simple decision.

The votes:
Ibrehem
James votes for Kim: "Kim, you're a good girl, you're just not putting much effort into the tribe lately. Sorry."
Stephenie
Kim votes for James: "James, just be wary of dictating a little too much."
Bobby Jon
Angie

The count
Kim
James
Kim
Kim
Kim

Everyone seems just shocked that Kim's the fourth person voted out. Not.

Host Jeff puts out Kim's torch, sends her on her way and speaks to the rest of the tribe.

"After a demoralizing first 11 days, the question is, what are you going to do to change the outcome?" he asks.

Next week:
Special night
Snuggling friends
Searching for home
Surprise turn

Kim's (snarky) credit comments:
"I had a lot of fun playing 'Survivor,' I wish it had lasted quite a bit longer, but unfortunately, I guess, tonight was my night to go. I hope the girls really stick up for themselves because, Lord knows, the guys have proven that they're nothing special on our tribe. and I really hope that in the end somebody from Ulong wins and not somebody from Koror."

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