LOL, don’t ask me. Look at my hair, I don’t do that.
Foa Foa Tribe: Ashley, Elizabeth, Jaison, Mick, Natalie, Russell H.
Galu Tribe: Brett, Dave, Erik, John, Kelly, Laura, Monica, Russell S., Shannon, Yasmin
Losers: Marisa, Mike, Betsy, Ben
BEN VOTED OUT
At first light of day seven, Mick and Jaison of the Foa Foa tribe discuss Ben’s antics, and agree to oust him next. “Did you see how he laid into her? I mean it wasn’t just an argument. It got really personal and I think inappropriate,” says Mick, in reference to Ben’s heated spat with Yasmin the previous day. “Ben’s outta here if we lose another challenge, and that’s the way it’s going down,” fumes Jaison. On another end of the beach, Russell approaches Natalie about where she stands with whom to vote out next. When Natalie responds that she would like to wait and see how things go at the next challenge, Russell is stunned. “Nobody is playing the game but me on my tribe,” Russell comments. “This might be the worst group in history, and I might be the best. I’m gonna have them all under control like zombies walking around,” he jokes.
BEN THE PROVIDER
Later in the morning, Ben instructs his tribemates on how to properly use the flint in order to preserve it for the thirty-nine days. After realizing that his tribemates are incompetent when it comes to surviving out in the wilderness, Ben becomes frustrated and takes a cocky stance towards their inadequacies. “Without my help, these people will die,” says Ben. After successfully starting a fire using the flint, Ben warns Liz that he is the only person capable enough to use the flint. “Ben is trying to tell everybody they can’t survivor without Ben, which hey, I applaud him – he’s trying to save himself, but that’s not how you do it,” Russell comments.
GALU GETS CENTERED
After back-to-back immunity challenge wins, Galu is filled with bliss, as Laura leads Erik, Brett and Kelly in a stint of yoga. “We don’t have to always be in game mode, and that’s a huge, huge advantage that we have over Foa Foa,” says Laura. As the foursome close their eyes and slowly stretch, former Marine Shambo observes in disgust. “Are you freakin’ kidding me? We got four people doing yoga this morning?” Shambo complains. As the Yoga practitioners perform their morning routine, Shambo takes on her role as the provider, chopping wood and collecting water. “Screw yoga, man!” she says.
THE RUSSELL SEED
Back at Foa Foa, Russell warns Ben that Ashley was gunning to vote him out, and deems her a threat to their alliance. Russell instructs Ben to not tell Ashley who was his informant, but simply stir the pot to get everyone to blindside her. “You plant that little seed in their head, in their little brain, and then it grows, and it’s called a Russell seed. It takes over their whole mind, so that makes it easy for me to manipulate every single one of them,” boasts Russell. Just as Russell predicted, Ben immediately confronts Ashley for gunning for him, stating that every single tribe member were his informants. Ashley naturally becomes very frustrated and storms off. She meets up with Natalie near the shelter and ponders why every tribe member would do that to her. Natalie assures Ashley that Ben is lying to her, since she did not tell Ben anything. “Yesterday Ben’s name got thrown around by everyone and apparently someone said that I was the one that brought it up, so I do not feel safe,” worries Ashley.
TREEMAIL
Later that afternoon, Kelly and Erik return to the Galu camp with treemail. The tribe is elated to discover that the treemail package contains swimsuits for everyone. “It feels awesome and dry and soft and fabulous,” Monica cheers. The Galu girls strike a pose a la “Charlie’s Angels,” as they prepare to for the upcoming challenge.
REWARD/IMMUNITY CHALLENGE: SEA CRATES
Galu and Foa Foa arrive on their respective colored mats on a lush, tropical beach. Host Jeff Probst explains the rules of the challenge. Two members of each tribe will swim out to retrieve a crate. The section between four flags is a battle zone where a defender from the other tribe will be waiting to try and slow them down. Once both swimmers get through the zone, they will be free to retrieve their crate. When the crate has been returned to the mat, the next two tribe members will go. Once all four crates have been collected, they must be stacked so that there are no repeated colors on any side. The first tribe to get it right wins immunity and comfort in the form of blankets, pillows, and towels. Since the challenge runs six on six, Russell sits out for Foa Foa, and Shambo, Yasmin, Erik and Brett sit out for Galu.
In the first round, Liz and Natalie are up for Foa Foa, and Monica and Laura are up for Galu. The defenders are Kelly for Galu and Ashley for Foa Foa. The defenders get extremely physical with their opponents, making it very difficult for them to get outside of the battle zone. Monica and Laura break free, retrieve their crate, and John and Dave are off with Ben of Foa Foa defending. Liz and Natalie are right behind and make their way back with Foa Foa’s first crate. Jaison and Mick are up next with Russell of Galu defending. Russell engages in a fierce battle with Mick and Jaison, giving Galu a huge lead. The next two rounds repeat the original match-ups, and Foa Foa catches up with Galu. With the two tribes even, they begin untying their crates and assembling them. Foa Foa is the first to assemble their crates, but they unfortunately have a set of repeating colors. Despite Foa Foa’s efforts to correct their mistake, Galu is able to catch up and defeats Foa Foa once again. With their third immunity challenge victory in a row, their leader, Russell, must now make a decision. Russell accompanies Jeff and is given the choice between the original comfort reward, and something else: a “function” reward, consisting of a tarp, pots, and fishing gear. With a mere five seconds to decide, Russell chooses comfort over function. He defends his choice by stating that if he makes the women happy by choosing comfort, the tribe will be happy. Russell also chooses Shambo to join the Foa Foa tribe, where she will also observe their upcoming Tribal Council and return to Galu the following day.
SHAMBO FINDS HER PLACE
After a brutal loss, Foa Foa finds unexpected comfort in Shambo, the outcast of Galu, when she joins their tribe. “We call you McDreamy,” Shambo informs Mick. Shambo continues to butter-up the Foa Foa members one-by-one, showering them with compliments and hugs. “We’d like to adopt her. I mean she’s just such great energy,” says Mick. “I feel like I have more in common with this tribe than people on my tribe,” Shambo reveals. Shambo refers to her tribemates as the “90210 Click,” complaining to Foa Foa that all Galu does is yoga instead of working to help the tribe.
After bonding with Foa Foa, Shambo ventures off on her own to read the second clue to the hidden immunity idol. “There’s a hidden immunity idol at the Foa Foa camp. My tribe is probably gonna try and vote me out sooner or later anyway, so this totally rocks,” Shambo elates. Meanwhile, Russell spies on Shambo from afar and laughs to himself that she has no idea that Russell has already found the idol without any clues whatsoever. “I’m running this whole show right now. I’m the boss,” Russell proclaims.
CLUB MED
Back at Galu, the women make use of their newly won comfort items by laying down the mats and testing out the pillows on their bed. Russell defends his decision of choosing comfort over function at the behest of the males on the tribe, who clearly would have chosen function over comfort any day. Russell states that his reasons were to take care of the women’s needs first. Erik is furious at Russell’s decision. “I would have sacrificed everything on that comfort list for the tarp,” Erik fumes. “The day it does rain over here, every single one of those comfort luxury items are gonna be soaked and all of a sudden not so comfortable,” he continues.
NEXT ON THE CHOPPING BLOCK
As Tribal Council draws nearer, Jaison affirms defends his plan to oust Ben, threatening to quit the game if his tribemates do not vote in his favor. “I have no intention of quitting whatsoever, but I’m willing to do just about anything to get rid of that guy right now,” Jaison reveals. Jaison complains that Ben’s racist comments will not be tolerated and that he is leading a crusade to get rid of him. Despite Jaison’s assurances, Ashley still feels vulnerable due to Ben’s earlier comments towards her. As it turns out, Ashley’s instincts are correct, as Russell and Liz are secretly campaigning with Mick to vote her out. This notion worries Mick, who claims that Ben is bringing the tribe down and Jaison’s heart is dead-set on voting Ben out anyways. Russell is once again up to his wily schemes and, in order to gain Mick’s trust, he reveals his immunity idol to Mick. Mick is stoked at the sight, which enables Russell to gain another vote to get Ashley voted out. “It’s simple. I was born for this. This is what God made me for,” Russell chuckles.
THE THIRD VOTE
In the final moments before Tribal Council, Shambo digs inside of a hollow tree to help the Foa Foa women gather firewood, masking her true intentions of finding the hidden immunity idol. Russell watches from a distance and becomes worried. “I noticed the girls are talking a little more and I will regret not sending Ashley home because there’s no way she ain’t gonna try and get that all-girl thing, or something,” says Russell. Russell begins campaigning with his tribemates to get rid of Ashley, but that fire is instantly put out when Jaison steps in and guns for ousting Ben. Mick and Russell defend their decision by stating that, if Ben goes, Foa Foa will be left with three men and three women, making them susceptible to an all-girl alliance. Jaison laughs at the idea, saying that the girls are too weak to do any harm. Despite Mick and Russell’s many attempts at swaying Jaison to vote out Ashley before Ben, Jaison sticks to his decision, calling Ben the cause of their tribe’s dysfunction. Russell is finally at a Catch-22. “I don’t want them not to trust me,” says Russell before walking out to Tribal Council.
TRIBAL COUNCIL
At Tribal Council, Jaison and Ben engage in a heated argument that becomes far too personal and takes up pretty much the entire council (the part of TC that we see, of course). Finally, the Foa Foa tribe members cast their votes. In the end, Ben was voted out of the game with six out of the seven votes cast against him. Ben Browning, the 28 year-old Bar Manager from Los Angeles, California, became the third person voted out of SURVIVOR: SAMOA.