In response to reader request, I'm creating a series of recap features to include the high points of each episode. To these, I'll add geographical and historical info, wildlife, climate and other info to round out your appreciation of both the islands and the hardships the survivor contestants, or castaways to follow along with the pirate theme, endure.
The Pearl Islands were once the haunt of pirates who anchored there to await the Spanish galleons carrying the treasures of South America back to Spain. Isla Contadora is called the "Counting Island" because, according to legend, that's where the pirates counted their loot. Prominent among the pirates, first Francis Drake and later Henry Morgan pillaged and looted their way along the western shores of South America and the Caribbean, known as the Spanish Main.
What happens next episode? I can hardly wait to find out! Pirates captured ships and often had their victims walk the plank or tossed them overboard.
As promised in the pre-season promos, the contestants were invited aboard a the schooner Rembrandt von Rijn for a photo op and the journey to their destination. Unknown to them, the game had already begun. Wearing the clothes they had traveled in, including one man in an Armani suit and a woman in a strapless dress, in true pirate fashion, they were stripped of their belongings and tossed overboard with only the clothes on their backs.
With 100 balboas ($100 USD) the teams were sent ashore with only their athletic shoes from their luggage and sent to a nearby fishing village to buy, trade and barter the supplies they'll need. The Drake team got themselves organized, and with Sandra Diaz-Twine's language skills, managed to get an astonishing number of useful articles, including an entire chicken barbecue. Rupert Boneham, in line with pirate's method of stealing everything in sight, took the shoes and belongings left unattended by the Morgan team, who were less organized and hindered by the language and their squabbles with the locals. Osten Taylor made offensive remarks to three of his female team members by suggesting they flash their breasts at the local men, and Tijuana Bradley showed herself to be easily angered. Nevertheless, the Morgan team managed to rent a boat and get off first to their island. Both teams are on separate islands.
When they arrived, there were no celebrations or congratulations, as Ryan Shoulders lamented. Instead, led by Osten, they immediately set to finding a suitable place to camp. They used bamboo poles and a tarp to create a shelter on the sand which they later regretted when visited by hermit crabs in the middle of the night. The next day, they elected Andrew Savage as their leader.
The Drake team also scouted out a camp and built a shelter on bamboo poles. Without electing a leader, they worked together to find water and fish for food with a spear gun they'd bought. Rupert, wearing a skirt cut from Michelle Tesauro's dress, after his jeans chafed and held him back, caught all but one of the fish in a deliberate move to make himself the "caretaker," and thus indispensable to the team. They celebrated their first evening on the island with wine they'd bought at the fishing village. Several of the women were not impressed with Jon Dalton, who called himself Jon Fairplay because he doesn't play fair, when he drank too much and acted "goofy."
Both teams have access to a well, and food doesn't appear to be a problem, but clothing does. Sunburned, mosquito-bitten and hampered by their clothing, or lack of it, they prepared for the first challenge on another island.
Having rowed across, the teams had to work together to each pull a cannon, in pirate style, over an obstacle course, including a mud pit, a stony path, a bamboo structure and across the sand to the finish line, together, as a team, by taking the cannon apart when necessary and then re-assembling it. With Osten's shorts taking dramatic dips at awkward moments, two of his male team members' offered to also doff their shorts if needed. Drake took the lead and kept it until Morgan, with three men running nude, making Survivor history, momentarily passed them on the sand, but regained the lead to win the Immunity Idol - a skull mounted on an axe.
Morgan faced the first Tribal Council, also on another island. After a day of accusations, tempers flaring and harsh looks, with Lillian Morris, Ryan Shoulders and Nicole Delma discussed, the team voted Nicole off.
