Episode Recap: Cook Islands, Week 4

Episode: Ruling the Roost Original Air Date: October 5, 2006 Poor little Ozzy. As the episode begins, the Aitu tribal members are coming back from Tribal Council, having just voted off Cecilia, Ozzy's teammate from the former Latino tribe. Ozzy's not too happy about it either. "I feel like I'm on the outside," he confesses to the camera, "To lose to the only former member of my tribe, the person who helped me lay the foundations of everything these people are going to enjoy, makes me feel like crap. If they want to vote me out, they should do it soon so I don't have to keep catching food for them. I just don't feel like playing along anymore." Aww. It's kind of hard to feel sorry for this guy after he convinced his old team to throw a challenge just so they could vote off Billy. (Yes, I know it was a couple of episodes ago, but I'm still bitter.) Ozzy's words here reveal a misunderstanding about the nature of the game. Specifically he whines about the fact that he and Cecilia "laid the foundations of everything these's people are going to enjoy". Look, demonstrating your superior outdoorsman skills gets you absolutely nowhere in Survivor. When it comes to Tribal Council, no one cares if you killed a herd of wild boar with your bare hands, then field dressed them, cooked them, and served pork chops for dinner to your entire tribe that day. No one cares that you alone erected the two-story, eight bedroom shelter out of twigs and dolphin snot. All that stuff only makes you seem like a threat and earns you no brownie points with anybody. The fact is, you don't "earn" your way out of getting voted off. You either scheme and manipulate your way out of it, or you stay way under the radar. This show has run for 13 seasons now, you'd think some of these people would get a clue. Day 9 - Candice returns from Exile Island. We are not treated to any footage of searching in vain for the Immunity Idol. This is disappointing. I would've liked to see her on all fours digging in the sand for something that isn't there. The other members of Aitu ask her why Raro chose her for Exile. Some speculate that Adam and Parvati were behind it and wanted to protect Candice from Tribal Council. Unless there's something going on that wasn't shown on camera, I think these people are getting paranoid. Cannabilism should erupt any time now. At Raro, resentment is brewing amongst the girls against the guys. While the ladies are hard at work improving the shelter, the guys are just sitting around drinking coconut milk, reveling in their manliness, and probably comparing six packs. These he-men figure the simple womenfolk will need their masculine strength to get through the game. Later, one of the manly men ask the others if they thought the girls were annoyed about them laying around. JP isn't worried, "Even if they are, what [are they] going to do to us?" He then goes on to brag to the camera about how strong he and the other three guys are. "We're way, way stronger than the men on the other team," he says, then most likely leaves to stare at his own muscles some more. The Convoluted Challenge comes early this episode. For this challenge, two tribal members will be hooked to a rope which in turn is tangled around a complicated obstacle course. The other tribe members will push and pull the two in, under, and around the course until it is completed. Once the obstacle course is completed, one tribe member is to swim out and then dive under water to retrieve a wooden wheel that has numbers painted on it. The wheel will help the tribe to decode a word puzzle back on the beach. The first team to decode the puzzle wins a set of pillows, blankets, and hammocks, and gets to choose a member of the losing team to be exiled. Aitu wins this challenge pretty easily, in spite of all the rugged manliness that exists on the Raro tribe. Ahh, sweet, sweet irony. As a result, Aitu must choose a member of Raro to be exiled until the next Immunity Challenge. They choose Adam. Since he will be brought back before the next challenge, Adam will not be immune from the Tribal Council. Back at camp, Ozzy spears several fish to feed his tribe. He's pretty proud of himself. He tells the camera that the fact that he's able to provide food for his tribe gives him "power". How much do you want to bet he's voted off in a couple of weeks? Cut to Raro. One can imagine that JP has been taken down a peg by his tribe's recent loss. Instead, he's not only back to laying around and doing nothing, but he's also bossing everyone else around, even demanding that people bring him food. Even the Tribal Hoochie Parvati is frustrated with him. That night, Parvati and Nate sit around the fire talking strategy. Parvati's shameless flirting has paid off. Nate tells her, "You know I got your back... You have no idea how tight you and I are." He goes on to tell her that there's no way that he'll let her be voted off by the guys. "But JP's the one calling the shots. He's making those decisions," she points out. "Right now the ball's in his pocket," Nate concedes, while mixing metaphors, "but it can easily leave." For now, they agree to "just let the king sit pretty", in Nate's words. The next day at the Aitu camp, the tribe is walking through the woods when Ozzy says, "See, those are the boobies." Unfortunately, he's talking about the birds called "Boobies". They contemplate having a booby dinner that night, but think better of it. My goodness, people, can't you leave at least some of the wildlife alive on the island? How much do you have to eat anyway? Cao Boi, however, decides he wants some eggs. He climbs the tree and knocks the nest out from under the mamma bird sitting there. Below, Jonathan discovers the nest didn't contain eggs, but a hatched baby bird instead. Everyone feels bad, and Jonathan, who is holding the baby, looks like he's about to cry. Thankfully, the baby bird is still alive and they return the nest and hatchling back into the tree. Both tribes converge for the Convoluted Immunity Challenge. For this challenge, four tribe members must assemble a stretcher and run through the jungle with the stretcher until they reach the beach. Once at the beach, one tribe member will swim out to release another tribe member who is tied to a ship's mast. Both the "rescuer" and the "rescued" tribe member will then swim back to shore while they hold on to a single lifesaver. The rescued tribe member will then lay on the stretcher while the other four carry her back to the starting line. That's plenty for any challenge, right? But no, there has to be more. Once back at the starting point, the remaining three tribe members will try to make a fire from a hatchet, flint, and some straw. The first tribe, not only to build a fire, but build a fire that blazes big enough to burn through a rope and drop a flag, will win immunity. I think I've developed Carpal Tunnel Syndrome typing the details of that challenge. Raro gets off to an early lead, being the first to assemble their stretcher and reach the beach. But the incredibly fit Ozzy comes from behind, almost running on top of the water half-way to the ship's mast. He easily swims past JP to rescue Candice. Aitu reaches the starting point first and gets started on their fire. However, Raro arrives shortly thereafter. Cao Boi from Aitu gets a little fire started but looks like he's about to lose it and have to start over. Suddenly, he starts waving the smoking hay around like some kind of madman. Jeff keenly observes, "Cao Boi is either going to be a hero or look really silly." In the meantime, Raro can't start a fire to save their lives. Jenny eventually cuts her hand with the hatchet. Cao Boi's crazy hay waving works, and Aitu's fire is saved. It eventually grows big enough to burn the rope. Aitu wins and Raro hasn't even started a fire. So much for Team Testosterone. Back at the Raro camp. Stephannie, maybe in a moment of weakness or maybe because she's had too much sun, tells everyone that she's the "weakest link" and pretty much states that she would understand if the tribe voted her off. At first, the rest of the tribe agree to take her up on that. Then a couple of the girls realize that voting one of their own off would make it harder to protect themselves from a male alliance. A plan is hatched among the women to vote off JP. The only woman not fully on board is Parvati, who isn't sure it's wise to vote JP off at this point. Tribal Council. Jeff asks Jenny if Raro has a leader. Jenny hesitates, then says, "Um, no, not really." When Jeff asks her what she means by that, she responds, "You're trying to put me on the spot, aren't you?" Duh, Jenny. It's Tribal Council. Haven't you ever watched the show before? The votes are cast. JP is voted off. "Holy crap, you guys outwitted me big time," he says. Then, as he's walking away, he turns around, smiles, and says, "That was pretty good." Personally, I think JP could be "outwitted" by a developmentally challenged chimpanzee, but I have to give him credit for being a gracious loser. As the closing credits roll, we see that the only two people who didn't vote to eliminate JP were Nate and JP. Even Brad and Adam voted for him to leave. Next week - Cao Boi isn't happy with the girls' work ethic, while Becky, Candice, and Sundra compare armpit hair.