Episode Recap: Survivor Fiji, Week 2

Episode: Snakes Are Misunderstood ...We Have An Understanding Now Original Air Date: February 15, 2007 Not to be mean, but has anyone else noticed the serious lack of eye candy in this season's Survivor, especially compared to last season? Cook Islands was swimming in both beef- and cheesecake, what with all those fit young people running around. It was like Survivor 90210. This time around, it looks like they filled the island with dumpy people just to balance it off with last season. Day 4 The Ravu Tribe is doing its best to survive in Survivor Ghetto. Not only do they lack the "luxuries" of the Moto tribe living uptown, but they don't even have water (actually, they don't have fire to boil the bad water that's available to them). On Day 4 they've taken to licking leaves. Earl says they're getting so dehydrated that they're "delirious". I'm telling you, it's only a matter of time before they start eating each other. Imagine that converstation at Tribal Council: Jeff: "Uh, I can't help but notice you're missing a member of your tribe." Castaway #1: "Yeah, we've already held our own 'Tribal Council' and uh, 'voted off' Earl." Castaway #2: "Yeah, and he was delicious!" Jeff: "Tell me about that... how does that change the dynamic of your tribe?" Over on Easy Street, Moto is living the high life. They've got plenty of food, silverware, hammocks, a big couch, and pillows. Everyone has big smiles on their faces. Maybe they're getting a little too comfortable. Lisi gloats, "This game is so vicious, it's delicious." Summing up everyone's feelings on the matter, Boo lets out a very contented fart. Back at Ravu, everyone is desperately trying to rub sticks together to make fire. But they all quickly become exhausted due to dehydration. Yau Man later starts chopping open coconuts to gather coconut milk. Unfortunately, this job is taking a lot more time and energy than it should because Ravu's machete is dull. What? The producers have only provided these people a machete and a pot, and they can't even give them a sharp machete? Everyone eventually pitches in and several coconuts are opened, but at a very slow pace. The castaways are so weak that no one can chop more than a few cocounuts before they have to take a nap. Over at Moto, Boo doesn't need deprivation or hardship to cause himself harm. First he jabs his eye pretty badly on the tribal sign, causing it to swell most of the way shut. His tribemates provide some first aid in the form of rinsing the eye with water, but it remains swollen. Then just a few minutes later he's chopping wood with an ax, much to the concern of his frightened tribemates, when suddenly he gashes his finger and his knee at the same time. More medical attention is provided. Now he has a swollen eye, a wrapped up hand, and a bloody knee. He decides to lay down in the hammock, but the hammock breaks loose and he falls head first to the floor. Since it was his head that took the brunt of the impact, nothing vital was affected. The scary thing is that this guy is a construction worker. One has to wonder how many times he's had to file for Worker's Comp. Day 5 Sylvia returns from Exile Island and begins her first day with Ravu. She is shocked to find out the tribe has no fire and no water. She actually had fire on Exile, since they provided her with flint there. After seeing how bad things are at Camp Ravu, she probably starts missing the snakes. Yau Man runs to hug Sylvia as she lands on the beach. But it's not because he missed her. The old man wants to know if she found the Immunity Idol. So as he's hugging her, he slyly looks over her shoulder into her bag. He tells us he was ready to "feel her up" to find the idol. Sylvia soon begins to feel like she's an outsider with Ravu. She thinks it's because she missed the first day Ravu was together in their new camp. Of course, it doesn't help that the first thing she does when she arrives from Exile is to start bossing everyone around. After watching thirteen seasons of this show, you'd think that a highly intelligent person like Sylvia would realize that the one thing that will always get a castaway voted off is if he or she starts bossing people around. The boys in the tribe have a pow wow and agree that if they have to vote someone off, it will have to be Sylvia. Dreamz of the Moto Tribe tells us about his experiences being homeless. He was first homeless at seven or eight, because his mother was on drugs. He and his family had to eat out of dumpsters. Dreamz thinks that being on Survivor is actually easier than being homeless. He wants to win Survivor so he can help his family. Moto is still searching the island for food. They hack their way through the forest, they climb the highest hills on the island, they go where no man has gone before. They find nothing. Then Erica happens to be messing around a few feet away from camp and stumbles upon hundreds of pineapples. Earl is so happy, that he proclaims that he and Erica are getting married. Day 6 Convoluted Immunity Challenge Today the tribes are playing for both immunity and rewards in the form of fishing gear. Ravu will also be playing for flint, since they have no fire. The challenge involves each tribe rowing its catamaran out into the ocean to retrieve crates containing puzzle pieces which they must put together to build a flag pole. The first tribe to assemble their flag pole and raise it wins. The emaciated members of Ravu get off to a great start gaining an early lead on Moto by rowing past them and keeping that lead when they pull their crates to the beach well ahead of the other tribe. Ironically, it's the mental portion of the challenge, assembling the puzzle, that slows them down. Erica panics and starts screaming at her teammates. Moto is the first to build their flag pole and wins the challenge. Not only will Ravu be going back to camp without fire, they'll also be voting someone off tonight. On top of all that, one of them will be exiled. Moto chooses to exile Earl. "Watch out for the snakes," Jeff tells him. "I'll eat them," he replies. He's not so cocky when he actually meets a snake on Exile Island, however. He quickly jumps up and runs for his machete. He starts swinging at it, and it takes him a couple of whacks to kill the critter. Earl doesn't like what he had to do though. "I couldn't take that chance," he says, then turns apologetically to the dead snake, "Sorry, buddy. I don't like killing animals." This is only slightly different from what my reaction would have been. I would have said, "AAAAAAAAAAAAH! Die! Die! Die!" Pretty much the same thing. At Camp Ravu everyone starts discussing who to vote off at Tribal Council. Sylvia is no longer the clear choice. Rocky wants Erica to go, due to her little outburst during the challenge. Anthony still thinks they should vote off Sylvia. Rita agrees. She and Anthony have seemed to form a little alliance. Tribal Council Jeff asks his asinine questions. Everyone says that Sylvia is bossy, which Jeff interprets as calling her "the leader". Sylvia says there's no way she could be the leader since she just came back from Exile. But she says she wants everyone to choose a leader tomorrow morning. Yeah, that's going to work. The votes are gathered, tabulated, checked for hanging chads. Of the votes that are counted, it's five to two against Erica. Erica is the second person voted off Survivor: Fiji. Next week - Sylvia digs around camp for the Immunity Idol. One of the male members of Moto experiences some sort of life-threatening emergency (or at least that's how it looks in the teaser).