Survivor Week 5: The Play-By-Play (SPOILER!!)

February 27, 2001

by j

The last episode began with the demoralized Ogakor tribe dealing with the fallout of losing Mitchell and the eye-watering smoke created by the oncoming forest fire. Like I said before, the "Survivor" producers are going all-out this year. Jerri confronted Colby about his vote swapping (Recall that earlier on, he said it was to be Jerri, Amber and him to the end.) Colby replied that he's more concerned with winning the next two immunity challenges. (Sorry, Jerri! 'Guess your conniving charms aren't enough anymore to win over Colby the Cutie! -Ed.)

Over at Kucha, the obvious continued to happen. The first shot we saw is of Kimmi talking to the hens as if they were her very own cocks…er…pets. And during the night, Jeff woke up to find a burning ember on his "wooly," courtesy of the fire that's a mere five feet from the tent. The tribe then decided to move their fire a few more feet away from the camp. The next day, breakfast consisted of another chicken feast; to once again demonstrate on national television her disgust for people who eat creatures with faces, Kimmi made her exit. Pissed off, Michael told the camera how tired he was of Kimmi's over-the-top dramatics concerning the chickens. (Maybe she really hates cocks? -Ed.)

Meanwhile, Ogakor continued to be incredibly tense as they had not caught fish in two days. In a scene involving Jerri wanting Keith to bury some dead fish heads, you could just tell they were spoiling for a fight.

Which is exactly what happened back at Kucha where Kimmi and Alicia got into a shouting match over the chickens. (They fought over cocks? Cool! -Ed.) It's a blowup that was bound to happen sooner or later, and Alicia was the one who finally told Kimmi to stuff the Vegetarian crap already. Kimmi's strong convictions didn't stop there; during a voiceover featuring some shots of the water, Kimmi declared that she found the water disgusting. Translation: The chick hasn't bathed at all! Enter Michael who said that whereas most women in Kucha had a tanline, Kimmi had a "dirt line." Eeeeuwwwww!

But the tribes had better things to worry about than personal hygiene: The reward challenge was at hand. It was similar to last year's rescue challenge. First, both tribes had to build a trivoy - a triangular stretcher. During the challenge, three members of the team had to be rescued and brought back. The winners would get their choice of two items from the "Survivor" catalogue, plus shampoo and toothpaste courtesy of Target. Kucha, freezing after a night away from their fire, opted for blankets and spices for cooking. They had no problem building their trivoy, while Ogakor had a different story: Jerri butt heads with Colby while building the trivoy by pretty much dictating how it should be built. (I really don't like that Jerri girl! -Ed.)

At the challenge, Jeff Probst announced that the winning tribe would also get the losing tribe's choices (Ogakor chose spices and soup mix, trying to make up for their lack of food). In the first leg, Ogakor led as Keith and Colby picked up Tina. But in the last two legs, it became obvious that all the meat has helped Ogakor tremendously as they dominated and won easily. Amber was reduced to tears as she declared, "I'm tired of losing." (Awwww…I'm sure the guys fought over who would comfort your cute li'l self first. -Ed.) Meanwhile, Kucha celebrated their victory with a group bath, with the emphasis being on cleaning filthy Kimmi.

Day fifteen marked the immunity challenge. Amber decided that Ogakor needed a pep talk (In my opinion they need counselling). She tod them they had to win this one with their hearts. If they weren't all in it to win it, then they would lose yet again.

The teams arrived at a massive maze challenge. Each team had exactly the same maze built out of wood and burlap. Inside the maze were five totem poles with numbered medallions that they had to find in order. The first team to claim all five medallions and get out of the maze would win immunity.

The two tribes were neck-in-neck during the pursuit of the first two medals but then Ogakor just kicked it into high gear and actually got all five medals while Kucha found only the first two. The interesting thing here was that Jeff Probst had Kucha use all seven members because it presented no advantage to the tribe. But it was obvious that Ogakor's smaller number of people made it easier and faster to navigate the maze. Hmmm… Anyway, for the first time since Day 3, Ogakor had to go to tribal council. Some neat editing and soundbites of Rodger contemplating voting against Alicia hinted that whoever got kicked off could be a surprise. But just as Richard Hatch had predicted earlier on in "Entertainment Tonight, Kimmi went down unanimously. Surprise, surprise! Not.

The big shock came to us courtesy of next week's scenes…a crocodile attack! This totally freaked me out! You ever see those nature shows where the croc comes out of nowhere and grabs a gazelle by the river? Well, we got a shot of the river with a lot of bubbles and splashes. Something bad happened out there. Elisabeth was crying, a helicopter comes in, and someone goes out on a stretcher. Now this could all be clever editing by "Survivor" to make it seem worse than it is, and honestly, I hope so.

Cheers,
j