Island Of The Idols Episode 1: Dude, Where's My Marooning?

Your first look at Lairo

Giant Rob and Sandra heads start the season off, like some sort of Planet Of The Apes-inspired fever dream, as the two legends set up camp and declare Survivor bootcamp "in session". The Lairo tribe arrive at their camp, skipping the traditional marooning, and Chelsea is not happy at the season title. They get to work and introduce themselves, and Elizabeth confesses to being an Olympian already, which I didn't expect. Missy tells her story of overcoming a brain tumor. Vokai find their buffs and wonder what the name of the season means. Janet knows she has to do something to avoid being an easy target, so makes fire.

Tom is impressed with Vince and Elaine, seeing them as the workers of the tribe, and talks about how in his experience, having a team isn't always about the strongest athletes.The rest of the tribe notice them off alone and make a majority of 7. Oh great, this is Manu all over again.

Clam attack

Jamal likes how Vokai is coming along, as Jason decides to look for an idol. Dan notices this and takes the opportunity to paint a target on him. Jack and Tommy have teamed up, and seem to be part of a larger majority of 6 also containing Molly, Dan, Kellee and Lauren. Noura tips Jason off that he might be in trouble and now he's freaked out.

Personal space invader

On Lairo, the girls have an agreement to stick together, encouraged by Missy. Maybe this will actually hold this time. The one problem is Elaine has already been named as somebody on the outs, and Missy lets her know so she can try to fix that. A new target emerges on Vokai, as Dan is being touchy-feely with some of the women, namely Molly and germaphobe Kellee. Kellee has a nice talk with him about it, where he vows to work on it. Elaine is making her whole tribe laugh...but that just makes Ronnie see her as a threat.

Jack with the hero move

The tribes finally get to meet Jeff at their first challenge, as Elaine jokes that they thought Jeff had quit. The challenge is to run through some obstacles, pull up some logs to drop a bridge, climb a huge ramp and then solve a puzzle. After tumbling down the first ramp, it's Dean vs Janet to grapple the logs...and Janet gets it first try, As Lairo start falling behind, Ronnie has to step in and get it. The tribes have to make a human pyramid to get up to the top, and Jack is the first one up. Dean is first up for Vokai and both throw ropes down to help others. Lairo get them up faster, with Jack going back down to help Noura at one point. It's now Chelsea, Vince and Dean against Molly, Noura and Jamal to solve the puzzle, which is to assemble several huts. Vokai get 2 at the same time Lairo get 1, and it just gets worse from there as somehow Lairo end up stuck with one piece left. Vokai blow them out of the water to win immunity. Before they leave, Lairo have to draw a name to send somebody to the Island of the Idols...and Elizabeth is the one chosen.

Learning from the best

Elizabeth arrives on the island not knowing what's in store for her, and she definitely did not expect to see Rob and Sandra. They ask how camp is going and Elizabeth says they don't have fire...so the two mentors agree to teach her. Sandra walks Elizabeth through it until she gets it. So now Rob makes her an offer: take him on, and if she wins, she gets an idol. If she loses, she loses her vote. She takes some time to think it over.

Misfit crew campaign for votes

Back at camp, Vince and Tom are talking about sending Ronnie home. Aaron and Ronnie try to rally votes for Elaine, which Vince doesn't want. Elaine knows her name is out there, but Tom assures her she is safe. We cut back to Elizabeth, and even though she knows better, the competitor in her takes over and she decides to go for it. Although Elizabeth gets a fire first, Rob's is much bigger and he easily gets through the rope to leave her in the dust. Now Elizabeth is feeling very sheepish, as Rob straight-up tells her she shouldn't have taken him on. Now she has to go back to camp with no vote, but not before picking a name out of a bag to determine the next person to go to Island of the Idols.

Elaine asks Aaron for a explanation of why she's being targeted, and agrees to a Vince vote to save herself. When Elizabeth arrives back, she decides not to tell them what the Island of the Idols is (which I suspect was producer-encouraged) and doesn't even tell them about losing her vote. Ironically both sides are campaigning to pull her over, not knowing she's of no use to them.

The watchers: Still as blunt as ever

We get down to tribal council, as Sandra and Rob watch too from a secret booth - Whaaat? Elaine's target is brought up and Karishma says "likability is a liability" (which gets Sandra's approval). Elaine thinks it's crazy to target jury threats this early, and thinks they should give her a chance and get rid of her later. Ronnie says they need to keep the tribe strong and lists a bunch of jobs he's done for some reason. Elaine and Vince both cry as the whole tribe talks about how hard it is. Sandra basically shits all over the pity party. That's why she's the Queen.

The vote ends up between Vince and Ronnie, and Ronnie is sent home with all but 2 votes in a total blindside. Wow, I wasn't exactly expecting much from Ronnie, but first boot? He somehow managed to do worse than Garrett Adelstein, who I imagine is a pretty happy man right now. Well, we've got some real characters left in this cast and the show did a great job of spotlighting basically all of them.

STAR OF THE WEEK: MISSY BYRD

Elaine's great and all, but Missy gets my vote for how she appeared to be driving strategy in a low-key way from behind the scenes. Her soft touch has been very effective and I wouldn't mind seeing the women dominate this season.