South Pacific Episode 10: Stupid, stupid people

Jim and Whitney have both figured out Coach, and reckon he's gonna take Cochran or Edna to the end. Whitney speaks 100% truth - Coach is running the show, and will win the game unless removed. "I don't understand how smart people can be so stupid" she says.

Cochran, the karate kid

Cochran joins in with Coach's dragon-chi. He thinks sucking up to the leader will help his game. Coach confides in Cochran the fact that he's worried Albert might be thinking of making a move. For some reason Cochran is worried about this even though it can only benefit him.


So, onto the Redemption Island challenge. Their task is to keep their poles from falling. Jim can't stop laughing during the explanation. During the duel, Rick and Brandon openly cheer for Jim. Jim smiles at this. Funny, Brandon was cheering against him last episode. Probst asks who's cheering for Keith and Whitney (of course) says she is. Nobody is cheering for Ozzy. Haha.

The three boys bond after the duel

Jim drops out of the challenge first, and then Keith, becoming the first two members of the jury. Ozzy claims to be in the best place he can be. He's away from all the strategy (which he was never any good at anyway) and can just focus on kicking everyone's ass. Obviously it's an intimidation tactic, but nobody's going to vote for somebody who's being a dick. Jim throws his buff in the fire, after Probst confirms there is no secret double Redemption Island like he was hoping. Keith follows.

Ozzy thinks he's found paradise. His fishing has never been better. He has a long and very cocky confessional about how everyone who comes there is gonna have a tough challenge ahead. Then he climbs on top of a coconut tree and a helicopter shot zooms out. What the Hell? OK, clearly this guy is coming back into the game. Everyone else can just give up now. I like how they then cut back to camp at Rick and Coach checking the net and finding no fish.

Cochran says something smart for the first time in the game and claims that if he can help Dawn and Whitney get further they might vote for him. Probably not, but they might. He's considering flipping back if the possibility arrives. Maybe he just wants to betray everybody. Nevertheless, Dawn has a slim lifeline.

You're still my number one

The immunity challenge involves carrying a bowl of rice on your head and walking along a plank to empty it into another jar. Dawn takes an early lead. Brandon and Sophie are next. Everyone else quickly falls out of it. I think this challenge was designed to make people look as silly as possible. Sophie takes a gamble and fills her bowl up to the brim. It pays off, Sophie wins immunity!

Dawn isn't giving up. She's hoping the twist that Probst promised is something good. Cochran is guessing that it's a double elimination and worries that if a Savaii wins the second immunity, he's going to go next. Whitney then gives a great confessional calling out the useless players. "Rick isn't even playing Survivor" she says. Poor guy, he's getting one of the most embarrassing edits of all time.

Albert is a chess master

Albert is considering getting Edna out. He's figured out that he can only win if he gets every Savaii jury vote, and doesn't feel too bad about backstabbing Edna, as he wasn't going to get her vote anyway. Also it appears everyone dislikes her. "She brings nothing to the table" says Albert, "this isn't outorganize, outclean, outgather". Sophie is now in the swingvote position. As a side note Albert's chess set was pretty impressive. Showing him beating Cochran could turn out to be symbolic.

"Anyone who goes against the family is dead" says Coach sounding very Godfather-esque. (Picture Coach as Michael and Albert as Fredo). A few of the Coachlings have noticed Albert talking with Whitney and Dawn and Coach decides the best method of keeping his control is fear. Like Boston Rob once said, fear keeps people loyal.

At tribal council, Coach denies he is the leader. Whitney scoffs at this and states she always sees people running to Coach with information. Time to vote, and Whitney is hoping that 4 Edna votes come up. But unfortunately, only two do, and the rest are for Dawn who heads to Redemption Island. Probst then announces that they'll get right in to another challenge, and another double elimination will occur. "Dammit" says Whitney.

Whitney in defeat, still smiling

The challenge is a survival trivia quiz...it's a little lame, but I guess they're limited as to what can take place at tribal council. Albert, Edna and Rick fall out on question one. Whitney, Sophie and Coach are soon the only ones left in and then Whitney and Sophie. Interesting...it's always fun when the underdog stays in contention. Sophie gets the clam question right and wins immunity. Crisis averted for Cochran.

So predictably, Whitney joins Ozzy and Dawn on Redemption Island for a fish supper and the rest of the tribe go back to camp. I thought Albert's move made sense, so what went wrong? Talk is cheap, actions speak louder.

STAR OF THE WEEK: WHITNEY DUNCAN

Could've given it to Ozzy or Albert (maybe next week), but I'll give it to Whitney, for being the speaker of truth or giving it a good go in the challenge and for smiling all the time. Notice how many of the recent awards are the people leaving the game? That's never a good sign.

South Pacific Episode 9: The Pagonging Begins

Ozzy brings Cochran aside to speak with him and calmly tells him he screwed him over (doesn't stop Brandon sticking his nose in though). Jim and Whitney are much harsher, Jim telling Cochran to never talk to him again and Whitney expressing her disgust, also pointing out that she saved him so many times before. Cochran seems pretty calm throughout, believing their reaction to be understandable. "He just lost me 6 weeks of my life" says Whitney. That's a pretty grim assessment isn't it? Obviously she wanted to win, but a life-changing experience on a tropical Island is a pretty good consolation prize.

Coach relishes being the king of Te Tuna

Then they cut straight to the challenge as there's a lot to get through this episode. The castaways have to throw coconuts into a hole and then get juice from the coconuts to fill a tube on the other side of an obstacle course. Dawn lands a coconut first. Whitney and Jim are next followed by Sophie. Ozzy is frustrated because he knows he's going out.

Jim emerges victorious

Sophie and Jim contest the second part of the challenge. Jim fills his almost to the brim, giving Sophie a chance, but she throws up halfway through, allowing Jim to win it. It's a funny moment, first when Jim starts celebrating before he's even done it, and then when after getting the necklace he takes a drink of the juice. Hasn't he had enough?

Ozzy has a talk with Coach and tells him he's not ready to go. Jim starts thinking his only move left is to give his necklace up to Ozzy and make a rousing speech to try and get them to vote out Cochran. What? That's a terrible plan.

At tribal council, Jim tells the others that by voting out Cochran they can send a message about loyalty and integrity, words that ring true to Coach's ears. Coach proposes a different theory. "The message that would send is that if you stand up for yourself, you get screwed". Ozzy says he's gonna beat everyone on Redemption Island. Jim keeps his necklace, wisely. And the tribe vote Ozzy out, who is still cocky. Whatever Ozzy wrote on his vote for Cochran was unairable.

Ozzy checks out the reef on Redemption Island, and catches his biggest fish ever. Him and Keith will be eating well tonight. Ozzy seems to like it on Redemption Island.

I won't lie, I found this part kinda sexy

The next challenge is a balance one. Jeff gives them the option to sit out of the challenge and eat, which all of Upolu plus Cochran take. Jim, Dawn and Whitney are left to balance their ball, whilst standing on a board. Brandon celebrates Jim dropping out of the challenge. Dawn declares she is staying in the challenge to let them eat. Brandon buys her attempts to suck up. Whitney wins immunity and Albert comments on how he doesn't like that Dawn is now integrating herself into the dominant alliance.

Cochran walks around camp with Rick's hat and Coach's jacket, much to everyone's amusement. What's with these people wearing eachother's clothes so much? Brandon is wearing Cochran's shirt and Whitney is wearing Elyse's bikini. "Cochran is playing the greatest 3rd place game in Survivor history" says Jim. He might be right!

The dream team: Oh, what could have been

Jim starts scrambling. His proposal to Sophie and Albert is to vote out Edna as he feels they're the ones on the outs of the alliance. Albert has a different plan: get rid of Dawn. She's more likeable and quite a challenge threat herself. Coach compares Jim to a rhino and Dawn to a snake. Harsh comparison although I feel Dawn did come off fake this episode for the first time ever. I don't blame her though, butt-kissing is smart right now and I think she does have a decent shot of integrating herself in the group.

Lay off them, Brandon!

At tribal council, Brandon snaps at Dawn for saying she didn't like the Upolu tribe eating claiming she seemed alright with it at the time. Whitney cries because she feels villainised. Anyway, the predictable boot occurs, and everyone seems more than happy to send Jim on his way.


"I hate to say I told you so..." says Ozzy, likely referring to how he wanted Cochran out from the start. "I thought we were going to be the final three?" Jim says. Oh, how times change.

STAR OF THE WEEK: JIM RICE

There's always some great players that just simply lose the numbers game. This season that was Jim. Jim is a great player that got a bad hand and could've run the game if Savaii had made it through that first vote. I like how he stood by his tribemates as he went down fighting, no matter how big a target it made him.

South Pacific Episode 8: Rock Steady

Cochran loves that he's got a reprieve, but Keith belittles him for not stepping up, and letting Ozzy fight his battle for him. Cochran is ready to play the villain and test his acting abilities as the double agent. "I've already been pretending to like these people for 18 days" he says. Which was pretty funny. His Scarface impression was less so.

Ozzy living dangerously

Ozzy lays it on really thick when he gets to Redemption Island. Straight away, Albert doesn't buy it. Ozzy's acting and his "my tribe is a mess" claims are just too good to be true. Regardless, the duel is a quick one. The task is to retrieve keys using a long pole, like they did last year. Christine never really gets a strong enough stick to get off the ground. Ozzy, after dropping the first one, makes quick time and wins his way back into the game, sending Christine packing. All those duels were for nothing then, huh?

Coach correctly susses out a lie

Coach confronts Cochran about his story, telling him he knows he's full of shit, but still extends a tentative olive branch for him to join their tribe, by telling him he can relate to him. It's masterful manipulation from Coach. It results in Cochran spilling the beans. It's hard to tell if he's still acting when he's claiming about wanting to jump ship.

Cochran and Dawn have a frank conversation about their position within their own tribe, which they both know is not great, and discuss the possibility of taking control of their own destinies and flipping... particularly as they know that if they don't flip, it's time to draw rocks. It's all a bit too much for Dawn to handle, and she breaks down again.

Another Dawn breakdown

At the immunity challenge, Dawn's face lights up when she sees there are going to be two necklaces given out, one for a man and one for a woman - and that's because she knows she can beat any of the women out here. The challenge involves holding a coconut on a string. Edna and Cochran are the first out, obviously. Whitney and Sophie drop out next, meaning Dawn wins immunity. Joining her will be either Brandon, Albert or Ozzy. Ozzy edges out Brandon to win immunity. Guess he's still got it!

We can't lose - unless weasel boy screws it up!

Savaii now have a huge advantage in the rock drawing. Jim predicts that Whitney will be the one receiving the votes, because they'll want Keith and Jim to be available for the rock draw. The sour look on Whitney's face when Jim says "no-one would expect Whitney to have the idol...no offence" is hilarious. Ozzy tries to get assurance from Cochran he won't flip, who gives an ambiguous answer and makes Jim nervous.

Cochran, being the snake that he is, blabs the plan to Sophie. Sophie doesn't give up anything in return, as she can't trust Cochran yet. She feels confident he's with them though. One thing's for sure and that's Dawn is staying put. She tries to talk Cochran out of it, who is considering the idea more and more, as he really doesn't like the idea of leaving his game up to chance.

Oh Cochran, what have ye done?

At tribal council, Jim is totally confident no-one from his tribe will flip, as it makes no sense. Sophie reveals that she was "offended" that Savaii thought they would fall for the story they made up. So Ozzy tells the truth and admits he wasn't blindsided and he has the idol. The tribes vote. Ozzy plays his idol on Whitney. He got it wrong, Upolu voted for Keith. Savaii vote for Rick (who is amusingly confused by it), and the vote ties 6-6. When they come back from the re-vote, will it still be a tie? Nope! Cochran stabs Keith in the back, and he goes to Redemption Island. "I swapped" Cochran whispers quietly. No shit. "I can explain" he says. Great, can't wait to hear it. Jim calls him a coward, and Brandon responds by telling him not to talk to him that way, and takes Cochran under his wing on the way back.

Keith goes to Redemption Island with no doubt in his mind about who it was that betrayed him. It seems Cochran has now doomed himself and his entire tribe. Guess Cochran did get to play the villain after all. Just what is it about Survivor fans that makes them so bad at the game?

STAR OF THE WEEK: BRANDON HANTZ

Brandon didn't do much this episode, but I did like what we did see of him. He sounded like the Godfather when he offered to protect Cochran. Dare I say, he was actually likeable in this episode. He certainly called out Jim correctly, and his new friendship with Cochran could prove very valuable.