Last week’s Survivor was one of the best episodes ever, with Jaime proving (hilariously!) that you just can’t make any assumptions in this game. There wasn’t much fallout from the tribal council vote, except that Jean-Robert was certainly not humbled by his near-ousting and continued to behave obnoxiously at camp.

The reward challenge was a team challenge with picked teams. This always turns out interesting, because there are really two objectives; to pick team members who will do well, but also to make strategically advantageous picks, so that when one team goes off to the reward and the other is left at camp, there are chances to make and break alliances. Sadly, with nine players, someone had to be left out, and Erik ended up picking Courtney over Denise because she’s lighter. At least we don’t have to listen to Courtney bitch about not being picked for the rest of the episode. She seemed to really resent having water dumped on her, and told Jeff to shut up while he was doing his commentary. And she sucked at the challenge; her boat was sunk before Todd’s had much water in it at all. Ha!

Let me pause here a moment for some further Courtney hate. Jeff has said that she is one of the more entertaining players this season, but I really disagree. She’s disrespectful of the culture; she doesn’t like the challenges, doesn’t like camp, and doesn’t seem to understand the concept of playing a social game (where, you know, you might have to make an effort to get along with someone you don’t like that well). The only thing she has expressed any appreciation for, at all, was getting to drink at the feast last week. She occasionally has a good zinger about one of the other contestants. If she were a good sport that would be entertaining, but since she’s such a whiner herself, she just comes off as a total hypocrite.

Now that I’ve got that off my chest, back to the challenge! By sinking Frosti, the Yellow Team (Amanda, Todd, James, and Jean-Robert) got to go to an ancient village for a feast and also got the list of previously revealed clues about the hidden Immunity Idol. It’s a moot point, since James already has both of them, but Jean-Robert didn't know that. It’s really too bad that Denise didn’t get picked, because I think she would have appreciated getting to go to the village the most.

Not being picked for the reward challenge was a catalyst for Denise to start playing the game a little bit harder, which could be a very good thing. The five left at camp were the three former Zhan Hu members, plus two of the more disenfranchised former Fei Longers. Some of the conversations that took place could prove to be quite influential down the road as alliances start being questioned.

This continued to be one of the funniest Survivor seasons ever, as Jean-Robert got up in the middle of the night to look for the Immunity Idol, and settled on the same blank plaques that Jaime had last week! How did he not catch that last week? Too bad Erik had to be a party pooper and ruin it by telling him that James has the real idols.

In an immunity challenge that was hardest for the biggest Survivors, Courtney prevailed. Okay, but I bet this will be the first and last time she does well at something in this game.

At tribal council, Jean-Robert talked about his precarious situation as local jerk, should someone play the hidden immunity idol at a time when his jerkiness has earned him a couple of votes, Erik had a not-so-subtle message for the lesser members of the big alliance, and Peih-Gee fashioned her buff into a jaunty beret. No one played an immunity idol, real or fake. Some people voted for James in an effort to get the immunity idols out of play, but it wasn’t enough, and Jean-Robert went home. James is really gonna be on his guard now.

Continuing a longstanding tradition of delusional exit interviews, Jean-Robert thinks he was voted out because he was a great big scary, poker playing threat. Not because he was annoying and not actually all that good at strategy.

Next week: Everybody’s irritable, and there’s an extra activity at tribal council.

* * *

Amy Kane spends as much quality time with her television as possible, when she's not busy at her day job as a cube dweller.

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