Survivor Micronesia: Fans vs. Favorites - Week 5

In the pre-credit sequence, Erik seems really flustered by the vote out of Joel. Welcome to the game, Erik. It's a tricky, scheming world in Survivor. I feel kind of badly for Erik, since he was the only one there really truly left out of the loop when it came to voting Joel out.

Malakal is trying to figure out dominance in the tribe. Tracy is really vying for it. She's tricky. I could like her, if she didn't align herself with people like Chet. Ami seems like the one likely to switch. I could see her and Tracy pulling her over. I'm not sure what her whole "poop pants" comment was about. I'm not sure I want to know.

Over at Airai, Jonathan is still recovering from his knee injury, and Eliza is scheming with him to plan to take out Parvarti and James.
Reward Challenge

I was surprised and pleased that Jonathan didn't just automatically sit the challenge out. Hope that he can be helpful in the puzzle portion. He looked like he was really suffering. I love these multi-part challenges which really work on a lot of facets of the players abilities.

Malakal seemed to be doing great at getting though the tunnel, and then Airai managed to make a huge come back and win it, Jonathan's bad knee and all. That was impressive. A well earned win.

I was glad that Jeff decided to have the Super Survivor Medics take a look at Jonathan's knee again. It looked terrible. Just terrible. I commend him for not wanting to quit, but this is his health. I always hate when people have to leave before they are due to go through the normal play of the game.

Kathy of course lost it more than anyone else when Jonathan was saying his goodbyes. Eliza watched her hopes of a strong alliance leave on that boat. Poor Jonathan. But, given the chance of winning a million dollars vs. the possibility of amputation and systematic infection and possible death? I'd say that's a no brainer.

I may not be the biggest fan of Jonathan, but he knows how to play the game, and he is good television. Hope that he makes (made) a quick and complete recovery.

Now, after the loss of Jonathan, Airai looks forward to their reward, as James worries about the lack of any other testosterone on the tribe. He may have a point.

I particularly love seeing the rewards where the Survivors are taught the ways that the natives live off the land. It's really humbling to see the way people really live there, when the Survivors spend so much time bellyaching about it. It's real authentic knowledge, and that's powerful.

Malakal contemplates the worthlessness of certain members of the fan group. The Favorites (except Ami) are grouping all of Fans together, but I think really Chet is causing a lot of baggage in that area, weighing them all down. I am glad that Ami is getting some good screen time, and I actually would be happy to see Cirie gone.

On Exile, Chet complains about a piece of coral in his foot (wonder if he realizes how much less life threatening that is than poor Jonathan's knee injury), and he has given up on the idea of the Hidden Immunity Idol being there. Jason, meanwhile, searches and searches and finds the Fake Hidden Immunity Idol. It's really funny because Ozzie didn't do much to the piece of wood, and it totally fooled Jason.

Airai is getting Night Crab Hunting lessons by the natives, and that was pretty neat. James looked uncomfortable amongst all the women. He'll be happy to get Jason back from Exile.

Immunity Challenge

I think that Airai had a great plan to carry one pole over at a time. Very clever. Poor Parvarti falling off right at the end. Malakal was slow and steady, were they steady enough? Ami looked to be practicing over on the platform.

Meanwhile, Airai is all up on the tiny platform before Malakal can even get Ami a little bit over the water. That was impressive. Malakal should have tossed Chet up onto that platform, he's so slight, and being a cheer coach, he must know a thing or two about balancing.

Back at the beach, Chet asked to be voted out to get surgery to get rid of the coral in his foot. Yes, it looks painful, but couldn't he call the medics in? Erik and Tracy (and Ami) trying to blindside Ozzie by voting him off instead of Chet. . . it could be a clever move, though I would be more than sad to lose Ozzie. Erik was getting way too melodramatic about the whole thing. Telling Chet he should use his "last dying breath" to get Ozzie out of the game? That was a bit over the top, don't you think?

Tribal Council

Whoa, Cirie's hair looked really pretty down. Ozzie lost a little of my respect when he said that he was sure Chet is out, and if they do manage to flip it around, he almost deserves it. Amanda had a point, when you start feeling invisible, that's when you are most vulnerable. Cockiness is never appreciated.

The fact that Ozzie didn't play the idol could just have been his downfall. I'm really really glad it wasn't, because Chet really needed to go home, but Ozzie needs to tone down the self-assuredness. Please. I want to love Ozzie, but I can't stand the attitude he had at Tribal.

Here's how the votes went down:

Erik - Chet
Ozzy - Chet
Tracy - Erik (there's a surprise, is this a chink in the armor of the Fans?!!)
Ami - Chet
Chet - Erik
Amanda - Chet
Cirie - Chet

Next week looks good, like some good Kathy Madness. I've missed that. The last couple weeks have been so full of other stuff, there hasn't been time to focus on Miss Crazy.