Survivor: Samoa 10.22.09

Foa Foa is waterlogged.  It's been 5 days of miserable rain.  Dr. Mick is worried about morale.  Jaison was shaking he was so cold and wet.  Evil Russell and Jaison went into the water to "warm off."  Evil Russell admitted that he likes it when it's raining and miserable, because it makes it more challenging.

There were some gorgeous undersea shots, and then Not Evil Russell decided that he would go fishing.  In a thunderstorm. Standing in the water.  I think he just didn't want to be around the rest of Galu, who were wishing they had the tarp.  The rest of the team wondered why Not Evil Russell was working in the rain when it wasn't really necessary.  He said that he wanted to take the leader thing seriously.  Then, when he decided to go into the shelter, his foot went through the floor. 

More rain and misery.  Dr. Mick decided that the best spot was nearly inside a tree trunk.  It looked like a pretty good idea to me.  Evil Russell thought that everyone else was a complete wuss for being afraid of a little rain.  He said in confessional that they are all a bunch of whiny babies, and that's why they keep losing.  He may have a point.

Erik spent a whole day in a hole inside a tree, and he did some yoga and prayed to nature and thinks that it brought on the sun and the rainbow.  Twelve hours later.  Because that's immediate.  Like a sign.  The sun did bring up spirits, though.  Russell thinks that weathering the weather brought them together as a tribe.

Reward Challenge

What's this?  Atlasphere? Labyrinth?

One person will be strapped into a sphere, and they will lead blindfolded tribe members to push them through a path, and then they will then guide more blindfolded members to complete a table maze.

Winner gets pizza.  And they get to watch the loser's Tribal Council, while eating the pizza.  The only problem is, both teams will be going to Tribal and both teams will be voting someone out.  No Immunity this week, then.

Monica, Kelly, Shambo, and Dave sit out.

For Foa Foa, Liz is navigating, with Evil Russell and Jaison pushing.  For Galu, it's Laura in the ball, with Not Evil Russell and Erik pushing.  It was pretty close for the pushing.  Foa Foa got to the table first, but Galu was not far behind.

Then, something happened to Not Evil Russell.  He passed out at the Table Maze.  Probst called in the medics and called a stop to the challenge.  He seemed to passout again when they lay him down.  The blindfolded people must have been so scared, because at first they were going to continue the challenge.  Probst had them take off the blindfolds, and Russell's blood pressure was dangerously low.  Lower than Mike's, who was evacuated..  Probst called the challenge over with no winner.  No pizza.  If Russell can return, he will be at Tribal.

You'd think they could give both tribes pizza...

At camp, Galu is scared to lose Russell.  I would agree.  They went back to Russell, and they tried to sit him up again, and he passed out again.  His heartrate was 90 and dropped to 60 when they sat him up.  Not ok.  Medical wants to pull him.  He's not recovering quickly enough.  Probst was obviously scared.  He wanted to stay.  Begged to stay.  No go.

Over at Foa Foa, Liz and Natalie knew that one of them was probably going. 

At Galu, the girls were gunning for Shambo.  Laura worried (with reason) that Shambo was too close to the other tribe.  Shambo pleaded her case to them, saying that she's a strong worker.  Monica didn't like that Shambo wrote her name down.  The men thought that Monica was weak, and argued that Shambo holds no power.  Shambo went to chat with the men, and asked them not to vote her out.  They decided she was on a need to know basis, and told her to stay consistent with her voting.  They tried to tell her she was the leader and told her in the end that they were voting for Monica.

Tribal

Obviously, Russell is not there to greet them at Tribal.  Neither is pizza.  I think that's cruel.  Probst told the group that Russell is out and told them it was the scariest moment he's ever had on the show.  He is now being monitored and doing fine, but there was no way he could come back in the game.  Both tribes admitted that the conditions were rough.  Erik told Probst about his prayer to God and Samoa from inside his tree.  The rain began again, as if on cue.  Dave decided to gloat about how well they've done, and how high their spirits are.  Evil Russell (I guess I can start calling him just plain Russell) said that they shouldn't get too cocky, and they can come back.  Dr. Mick told the other tribe that they were going to win the challenge that day.  Erik was cocky and said that they were going to lose it and they shouldn't fool themselves.

Probst gave them the incredible news that there will be no Tribal Council Vote because there was no finished challenge.

Erik promised to bring Russell's drive to everything from this point on.  Because they lost their leader, Galu took the leader necklace back to camp and will decide on a new leader.

I'm guessing Erik will grab the necklace.

Next week, the Galu men take Shambo into their fold, and for some reason Russell and Laura are chatting, and seem to make an alliance.  Because his alliances are so exclusive.

Can't wait to see it.