This episode begins with a warning for parental discretion for possibly objectionable scenes. What?
Day 11 is a cloudy one, with Chapera tribe singing as they go to retrieve their invitation to the Reward Challenge. They find bamboo logs, rope and one paddle, with instructions to build a four person raft for a race. Only four can build the raft and they immediately decide that Big Tom will sit out.
Rupert Boneham is happy to build a raft, seeing it as a chance to redeem himself after the shelter fiasco, but Jerri Manthey is dubious. Rupert a catamaran and they build it.
Mogo Mogo team looks at the logs and takes the lazy way out, bundling them together just large enough for four.
At Chapera camp, Susan Hawk and Tom Buchanan exchange insults. She calls him a stupid drunk and he insults her femininity. He volunteers to christen the raft with a little bit of the whiskey left from the rice box, but as Sue climbs on the raft, she urinates on it, thereby christening it. Her tribe is not amused.
The challenge requires the tribes to use their rafts to rescue two tribemates, then paddle out to a buoy to grab a flag, race to shore, run up the beach and cross the finish line. The winning tribe wins fishing hooks and a fishing spear as well as a clue to their lock box.
There are additional consequences:
- The first two tribes will get a clue to their lockboxes. Chapera has already retrieved theirs, but both Saboga and Mogo Mogo want the rice.
- The surprise twist is that the losing tribe will be disbanded and absorbed by the two winning tribes, making it a two tribe game from now on. The first place team gets first choice and the pick and choose selection will continue until the losing tribe is no more. They will not return to their camp. Everything there, with the exception of their personal items which will be transported to their new camps, is gone.
And the race is on!
It’s immediately apparent that Saboga has the best looking raft, but it is slow and unwieldy. Mogo Mogo, after taking the lazy way out, takes the lead in their ugly raft and holds it. Saboga is slow, but they paddle hard and are in a tie for second, which Chapera wins.
Saboga has a moment for a group hug, then the castaway bidding begins. Mogo Mogo chooses Ethan Zohn. Chapera chooses Rupert. Mogo Mogo chooses Jerri and Jenna Lewis goes to Chapera. The ex-Saboga tribe gets new buffs and lays down their colors. There are now two seven-person teams.
The two tribes head back to their camps. Colby says their biggest reward is getting Rupert. Ethan is happy, glad to be starting over. Jerry is happy too, in better spirits and says she doesn’t miss Saboga at all. All four ex-Saboga castaways are impressed with their new shelters. Rupert calls it a “Taj Mahal.” Interrupting the welcomes, Alicia Calaway says they have to take the green team out.
Day 14 gets Mogo Mogo their lock box, but they are disappointed and upset to find some of their rice is wet and rotten. The consequences for them are not good. Ethan uses the spear to go fishing, after saying he doesn’t want to step on Richard Hatch’s toes. Richard smirks and says the competition is on. He’ll have to bring back 12 fish, he says, and when Ethan returns with one smallest fish, he goes next and brings back several good sized ones. This isn’t quite the male competition for supremacy we were expecting, but it lays the ground for future conflict. See the Episode 4 - 5 Poll results for what readers thought would be the manly duel.
Day 15 is Immunity Challenge. Richard doesn’t seem too concerned, saying he thinks Mogo Mogo will win. If not, they’ll “get rid of a few.” Colby Donaldson says Chapera’s strategy of slow and steady won’t cut it any more. The teams meet for the challenge, which is a race over connecting balance beams to retrieve their tribe-colored flags. Only two castaways per tribe can be on the balance beams at a time, and they must follow in order. When two castaways from opposing tribes meet in the middle, they battle it out, with the first to fall into the pool of water below losing. The first tribe to get twenty of their flags back to the starting area wins Immunity.
Big Tom goes first, showing good balance. It becomes a race. Rob M has a definite advantage from his construction days, and Rupert can’t stay on the beams at all. Richard is the first to retrieve a flag, but he falls off the beam and has to start over.
Please read the next page for the winners and losers. Who gets voted off?
