Close to 300 people have played Survivor to this point, so can there really be any conceivable excuse for someone in 2008 applying for the show and claiming not to know what they are getting into? I'll say it for the record: Survivor is physically and mentally demanding. You will eat much less than you are accustomed to, and almost certainly lose a lot of weight. You may be expected to cooperate with people that you wouldn't give the time of day to outside of the game, and engage in strenuous challenges when all you really want to do is lie down. You will have to scheme against people who consider you their friends. If any of this bothers you, apply for Opportunity Knocks instead.

Of course, I'm talking about GC, the man voted out by the Fang tribe after essentially quitting the game--although admittedly, the distinction between playing Survivor and quitting it was a good deal less obvious in his case than it has been for almost every other competitor in the show's history. Recall that this is a man who visibly took breaks in the middle of challenges while smaller and older teammates continued to struggle, vehemently argued against the thought that his tribe might not be able to afford to eat three meals a day, and half-heartedly agreed to assume tribe leadership only to resign within hours.

The hour began with Fang returning from tribal council and finally welcoming Sugar to their tribe as she returned from exile. Noting that Jacquie was gone, Sugar was able to figure out that her position and Ace's were precarious, despite her possession of the individual immunity idol. However, all at Fang unified in the face of the splendor of nature, which appeared in the form of an elephant uprooting a nearby tree for his meal. We often see wild animals on Survivor in B-roll, but this was a rare case of something large and tusked coming into the lives of the players.

Back in the game, it was time for another challenge, one that required players to throw fruit through a hole in a raised net to a teammate on the other side, while someone from the other team tried to bat the fruit down. Fang appeared to take a lead, but Kota figured out a useful strategy (throwing multiple pieces at the hole and counting on at least something to get through), Ace got hit in the face with a melon, and Kota pulled out a narrow victory. Their prize: an herb garden and all the fruit they managed to catch.

Life at Kota went mostly unexplored again this week, with the only shocking development coming when the tribe hauled in a fish that gave people electric jolts. We did get a minor glimpse at under-the-surface tribal tensions as Marcus complained about Dan's over-the-top declaration of loyalty to the Kota cause, and about Susie keeping her feelings close to the vest. These two former members of Fang are likely to be in some trouble if Kota is ever in the position of needing to shed bodies.

However, the third former Fang player over at Kota, Randy, seems to settling in for a nice run, and against all odds is emerging as the star of the season. He's managed to keep his natural tendency towards grumpy sarcasm limited to the cameras, while displaying a hardworking and affable face to his teammates. And he's proving to be a huge help in challenges, as he pulled off a hilarious coup in this week's immunity challenge. The challenge involved players rolling a ball down a hill towards numbered goals, while one blindfolded player on the opposing team tried to stop the ball with a shield, using directions called out by a teammate. Again, Fang took an early lead only to be overcome on the last roll of the ball. Randy, who was calling directions for Kota's blocker Dan, distracted Fang's Ace by yelling at him to freeze, allowing the Kota ball to roll free for the winning points.

So it was back to tribal council for Fang. The Crystal/Ken/Kelly/GC alliance from last week had the numbers, but perhaps not the will given GC's moping around camp, grumbling at Crystal when she urged him to shut up and eat his rice, and even rowing off by himself prior to the immunity challenge, something which prompted his teammates to consider just abandoning him. Crystal, a world class athlete unbeknowst to her teammates, had just about enough of GC's high maintenance act: "I'm fed up with the tantrums from a grown adult." Ace looked on with interest, hoping that both he and Sugar could somehow survive another week, possibly without Sugar even needing to play her hidden idol.

Sugar had been sent to exile for a third time after the reward challenge, with Kota frankly saying that they were trying to ensure that the idol be played and thus recirculated. Sugar chilled in the exile comfort area, apparently not considering the possibility that there might be a second idol planted. Once she returned to Fang, Crystal was able to secretly search Sugar's bag and discover the idol, leading the others to question the plan to give GC his wish and send him home. Ken, who seems to be the top strategic mind at Fang, suggested that flushing out the idol might be more important than cutting the dead GC weight loose.

GC continued to complain at tribal council: "I haven't had the easiest life...I'm kinda done sufferin'." Jeff Probst asked numerous suggestive questions to Sugar about the idol, and she seemed to imply that leaving her bag out in the open to be searched was part of a strategy, figuring that the others might not bother her if they knew she possessed it. If that's how she felt, one wonders why Sugar simply didn't announce she had the idol. And one really wonders why, even if the rest of the tribe wanted to vote out GC, there wasn't an attempt made to scare Sugar into using the idol unnecessarily in order to get it out of the way. But when it came time to vote, it was unanimous: GC was sent off to sequester, where he could eat everything he wanted and sleep to his heart's content--pretty much what he was doing in the game already.

We can't conclude without mentioning Probst's odd narration of the "previously on Survivor" intro, which at one time was a fairly dry summation of what happened last week. For some reason, Probst is now interjecting it with a good deal of editorial commentary, openly questioning Fang's decision making and work ethic. During the tribe switch, Fang was "foolishly picking weak players over strong ones," said Probst, later saying that in voting out Jacquie, Fang "acted as though they had a death wish, and weakened their tribe yet again." What's up with that? I'll handle the snark here, pal!

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