Episode 3: That Sinking Feeling - Again
By Car84
Tip: In the event of a water landing, or a Reward Challenge loss, your seat cushion can be used as a flotation device.
Previously on Survivor: Morgan suffers. Drake thrives. Ryan S struggles, Drake wins, Sandra loots. Osten falters. Morgan leads, Drake prevails. Osten quits. Morgan votes, Jeff tallies, Ryan S leaves. And through it all, we see more promotions for The Handler and Joan of Arcadia than a human being should be allowed to endure in an hour.
Day 7 dawns on Morgan Beach. According to Andrew, "Morale is low. We need a victory, any kind of victory." Lillian is praying for strength. Tribal Council was hard for her because she lost Ryan S, her best friend in the tribe. She can't reconcile Osten quitting to Ryan S being given a pink slip. She wants to show she's worthy of being there and points out that Darrah is just sitting underneath the shelter. She has a hearing with Andrew, who tries to convince her that Osten didn't really quit. "He said he was INTERESTED in quitting," Andrew quibbled. "From a physical standpoint, he's somewhat anchoring our tribe."
Osten emerges from prayer and announces he's not going to quit, though he'd "rather be eating three double cheeseburgers." Referring to Osten, Andrew says to Tijuana that he just has to "suck it up and do what you need to do." Andrew pledges to get Osten back to his original luster.
All of the Drake tribe, with the exception of Christa and Jon, set out looking for buried treasure. Trish, we all learn, has a voice after all, as she fantasizes about finding warm clothes, and junk food, like potato chips. The six poke around with no success. Rupert observes that the treasure wouldn't have been buried in the sand, where it could possibly wash away. Shawn says, "We're baffled right now," and concludes that another clue would be helpful.
Morgan gets "tree mail" announcing the Reward Challenge. Tijuana reads the mail while the others consider the clues. Ryno guesses that the reward was blankets and pillows.
Drake is shown discussing the question of who will sit out the upcoming challenges. Swimming skills were debated. Jon and Sandra get into a heated argument over who (of them) was the stronger swimmer. This turns into a demonstration of who had the loudest mouth. (The details, frankly, aren't worth recounting.) Sandra doesn't like John: "Screw Jon because he's an ass. Everything that comes out of his mouth is just ridiculous." Jon doesn't like Sandra: "I've got a million that says she won't be the final one." (Hmm. Will we see that again some time?)
At the Reward Challenge, Jeff explains the challenge to the combatants. In the water, a square battlefield is marked off. On one side of the square is a nifty floating platform for Jeff. In each corner of the battlefield is a boat. Each tribe will man two complete boats, three per boat. The object of the challenge is to sink both opposing boats before your final boat is sunk. The means of sinking the other boats are several: poles equipped with hooks can be used to pull out cork plugs and to push downward on another boat, buckets can be used to dump water into other boats (or bail out water from your own).
Jeff unveils the unknown portion of the reward - a mattress, four pillows, and four blankets. He reminds the tribes that the winner gets a portion of the treasure map - Drake's second piece, or Morgan's first - and will get to loot the losers. With a cry of "Survivors ready?" and a performance of his patented scissor-action "go" signal, the naval battle was underway, with Jon and Michelle watching.
In each boat, the duties were generally split - a pole person in the front, a bucketeer in the middle, and a paddler-steerer in the rear. In frenzied and splashy action, both sides pulled plugs, and the four bucketeers - Lillian, Darrah, Sandra, and Christa - were bailing water into their opponents' boats at a frantic pace. At one point, pole man Osten almost capsized his boat. Later, he, Lillian, and Tijuana were off to the side as their colleagues were under attack starboard and port. They rejoined the battle and were the first boat sunk. With Rupert doing much damage using the pole to push down the remaining boat, Darrah resorted to throwing water directly into his bearded puss. But, to no avail. Drake wins with not one, but two boats afloat.
Andrew is running out of words to describe how demoralized Drake is. "Rupert has killed us. We had as many plugs out as they did. We lost miserably. We're doubting ourselves," he observes. Osten offers a tugboat analogy. (Wah?) Lillian announces she wants to fish, doesn't know how to, but would like to try it.
At the crack of dawn, Lillian trudges away from a quiet camp, determined to teach herself to fish. Ryno chats playfully with Darrah and complains about how Lillian is just going off on her own. For her part, Lillian complains that the others are still in bed, and then starts to fish. With the theme music from "Jaws" over her, she first seemingly almost catches a fish, but loses the hook. Dejected, she goes back to camp. As she told her tribe about her fishing adventure, she says, after a long pause, "I lost the hook."
Andrew can't believe a scout leader would mess up a fisherman's knot. Ryno forms a caucus. He thinks something needs to be done about Lillian. He says that he would have gone with her if she had waited just a little bit (as though that would have helped). Lillian sees the writing on the wall. "It's either me or Darrah." She was hoping to shine.
The Drakes pore over the second piece of the map and game-plan for the upcoming pillage. Christa lobbies for the looter job, and is chosen to go. Some would prefer to deal a severe blow to Morgan's survival by taking the pot they use to boil water. Others consider that to be a bit harsh. Rupert seems comfortable with making Morgan uncomfortable. Jon reasons that "they'd do the same to us."
Ryno is working diligently on a drag net, which is essential because of Lillian's hook adventure. Andrew suggests that the net be bundled up and stuffed in their dinghy so its usefulness wouldn't be so apparent. They consider what else might be a target, and talk about their cherished shallow steel water-boiling pot, in which they were boiling a blanket for some reason. Sure, that (the pot) would be a prize, admitted Ryno. But he reasons that it might be too hot to be taken away without a Skupin moment.
Christa comes ashore, and is swarmed by the Morgan Six, each secretly wishing that he or she were taken to Drake as the pillaged loot. Morgan hammered the raiding party with several questions about the other tribe: Who is Drake's leader? Who would Drake vote off? To that, Christa was evasive and offered little, other than they had no leader (which might have struck a little fear in Andrew).
After taking a moment to look over Morgan's possessions, Christa narrows her choice down to either the shallow steel pot, or Andrew's "The Little Engine That Could" book. She chose the former. At the end of her visit, Christa says, "It's been a pleasure." She then realizes how stupid that was, and follows up with, "I'm sorry. Give me a hug."
Osten later describes Christa as having a Big Bird personality. Andrew comments that he can't wait to see Drake crumble.
Lillian finds tree mail. (For some reason, Drake is never seen getting tree mail. But I digress.) The teams are asked to select the smallest and the strongest for the Immunity Challenge. Now unable to pick Ryan S., they turned to Osten as their strongest tribe member. Darrah was chosen as their smallest. Andrew points out that they're aware of the fact that they have lost four challenges.
On Snapping Duck Bay, the two tribes meet for Immunity Challenge III. Coming in to the match-up, Drake is riding an impressive winning streak. They have chosen good ol' Rupert as their strong man, and studious Michelle as their lightweight. Jeff observes that members of each tribe have to pull their own weight at all times. They will have to do this, literally, in this challenge. The light members are suspended in separate tripods above open water, by a rope. On the other end of the rope are five members of the dangler's tribe, whose job it is to keep their tribe mate dry. Hitching post barriers separated each station on the rope. At five minute intervals, a member of each tribe is to let go until there was only one castaway holding up their tribe mate. Burton and Trish sit out for Drake.
The only aspect of the challenge that might not have been foreseen was the discomfort that both Darrah and Michelle endured as they hung in the balance. They both had to bend and flex their legs in order to keep circulation going while, in turn, Jon and Lillian, then Tijuana and Sandra, then Christa and Andrew, then Sean and Ryno peeled off. In the end, it was up to Osten and Rupert in a match of pure physical endurance and mental determination. At the ninety-minute mark, both had to abandon their sitting position and remain standing. After two hours, they had to cease using the hitching posts for leverage. Osten had trouble keeping the rope off the barrier and eventually had to let go.
Cinco sunk. Drake wins immunity.
In the aftermath of the challenge, the powerbrokers of Drake picked over the powerless among them. It's hard to hide from the viewers: it's between Darrah and Lillian. Andrew points out that Lillian contributes more in camp, but that Darrah did well in the challenges. Tijuana says Lillian doesn't quit, and Andrew says she has raw intelligence and can think outside the box. Ryno isn't a fan of Lillian. Andrew lets Lillian know she might be the one voted off, and that he will keep her apprised of the brutal honest truth. Lillian told him she appreciated his candor. Tijuana takes a walk with Darrah in order to feel her out. Her report to Andrew is that Darrah was nonchalant. She didn't say anything and seemed either unknowing or unconcerned that she was a target.
At a very windy Tribal Council, Jeff tells Drake that they may set a futility record for losing challenges. To explain their poor showing, Tijuana says they just hadn't come together in the challenges. Ryno predicts that a win is inevitable, and that Morgan is the better tribe. Osten pledges that "there is a lot of fight left in this team." Jeff is puzzled why Drake just doesn't seem worried. Andrew corrects him with, "Everyone's worried." Tijuana said they stick together as a team. Darrah says little in her defense, and in fact bolsters Lillian. Lillian says, "I'd like to think I'm valuable." Jeff declares that it's time to vote.
Darrah and Lillian are shown voting for each other, with Darrah complimenting Lillian as a great woman, hard worker, and a contributor, and Lillian commenting on how fragile "Mississippi belle" Darrah is. Andrew says, "This is totally based on a strategy. We'll see if it works." (His vote isn't shown.)
After five votes were revealed, it was settled that Lillian won't get the million. Lillian's torch, which withstood strong winds, refused to go out after the first snuff. Jeff: "Try that again. They don't want you to go." Lillian: "Yeah, right."
As Lillian walked into the shadows, Jeff bid them farewell, saying, "I don't think tonight's vote was easy. Don't give up on yourselves. Get your torches. Head back to camp. Good night."
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