The Koror Tribe: Caryn, Coby, Gregg, Ian, Janu, Jennifer, Katie, Tom
The Ulong Tribe: Bobby Jon, Ibrehem, Stephenie
The Losers: Angie, Ashlee, James, Jeff, Jolanda, Jonathan, Kim, Wanda, Willard
The show opens with the same old footage. Ulong is returning from Tribal Council.
Ibrehem comments about how crazy TC was, Stephenie comments that if they go to T.C. again, she is voting for Ibrehem. James lectures Ibrehem on paying attention and the two trade mild barbs with each other, Stephenie says the bottom line is they need to win. Period. Bobby Jon comments to himself that he didn’t like what James pulled with regards to Ibrehem.
The next day we are treated to 3 or 4 minutes of Ibrehem’s Muslim faith spoon fed us as if to say: “Look, here is proof that not all Muslim’s are bad.”
Meanwhile, over at Koror, the tribe is working hard having been reenergized by the stew and root beer from the night before. Tom comments that “everyone is working hard today.” This comment is followed by the prancing fairy, Coby, sniping about everyone working hard “except Katie who is having a craft day.” Caryn then verifies Coby’s whining by commenting that “it appears that Katie is just there to entertain.” Yep, the two griping about Katie just “having a craft day” and “just there to entertain,” are the same two involved in the “puppet show.” Can you say “Pot, Kettle, Black?” I knew you could.
Janu and Katie retrieve Treemail, calling them to Reward Challenge. And the way those folks devour that lone single Pringle chip, you’d think they hadn’t had a bite to eat in weeks! Wasn’t the stew last night all that good?
The tribes file in and Jeff Probst explains the rules. Using a replica of a 50 caliber small class cannon each tribe will attempt to shoot their eight hanging logos. The first tribe to shoot all eight of their targets wins. The winning tribe gets to ride on a one of a kind Japanese boat, eat Pringles and drink Mai Tais. Afterwards, they’ll travel to a body of water called Jellyfish Lake, which is home to millions of jellyfish. While there, they’ll get to go snorkeling amidst all the Jellyfish since they have evolved to the point that they no longer have poisonous tentacles. Ian, Janu, Jenn, and Katie sit out for Koror.
Jeff says Ulong won the right to go first (the old rock, paper, scissors method of selection, don’t cha know!)
To cut it short, pretty much all the folks you’d expect to do good, don’t. And all the folks you’d expect to do poorly, don’t. Ulong wins and I went and spent some time in the corner for getting this wrong.
Ulong climbs aboard the Japanese boat and each get their own can of “Survivor Trivia Pringles.” They take turns answering the questions as they eat and pound back Mai Tais. I was half expecting one of them to ask the question. “Which tribe is know as the loosing-est tribe in Survivor History?” The answer is of course, Ulong!
They then waste another 5 minutes of screen time, swimming with the Jellyfish. BOORING!!!!
That night over at Koror, a very bad rainstorm makes their night miserable. See what happens when you loose a challenge to a bunch of losers like Ulong! The next morning we see a bunch of coconuts laying about and Janu is having a breakdown in the hammock. “Boo Hoo, I’m not having any fun anymore!”
Tom demonstrates his leadership skills by trying to make her feel good, instead of pulling a Patton and kicking her in the butt and telling her to quit lollygagging about. Which in my opinion, is what he should have done!
Katie calls Janu a bigger “drama queen” then herself. Lets see, Janu is a Vegas Showgirl, and Katie is an Advertising Executive. And Janu is the bigger drama queen? NAH! Whodathunkit?!?!
Over at Ulong, (where did they spend this horrific night? The Producers and Mark Burnett have decided to edit this out) Ibrehem and Stephenie enter camp with Treemail. The tribe opens the box to find a Koror flag and some rope. The instructions tell them to secure the flag inside this box using only the rope provided and to bring the secured box to the challenge. James says he was in the Navy and knows a knot that “they can tug and tug on but will only get tighter.”
(BTW, according to his online bio, James spent TWO years in the Navy as a Seaman Apprentice! An E2! Now if you consider that of the 24 months he spent on active duty, the first 12 months was probably spent in boot camp and “A” school. Since he was only able to attain the rank of E2, in two years, he probably spent most of the second year swabbing out toilets and peeling spuds. I doubt he knows as much about knot tying as he claims. But then again I’m getting ahead of myself.)
Bobby Jon comments about the tribe “spending” an hour tying this one knot. Talk about your bad omens.
The tribes arrive at Immunity Challenge, and both boxes look as if the Sunday Ladies’ Macramé Auxiliary has spent a couple of weeks on them. Jeff informs them that not only are the boxes tied up, but the tribes get twenty minutes to swim out into the water, grab three bundles of sticks floating there, and use those sticks to make a “fortress” around the box. The tribes will then switch boxes and the first tribe to liberate their flag from the box and raise it will win immunity. Since Ian, Janu, Katie, and Jenn sat out the reward challenge, they’ll be competing for Koror.
Jeff says goes and Ian/Jenn swim out while Katie and Janu tie more knots. Meanwhile Bobby Jon & Stephenie swim out while Ibrehem is afraid of getting his toes wet. James wastes time adjusting his toga.
Surprisingly though, Ulong returns first with their three bundles and starts working on their “fortress”. Koror finally gets their three bundles in and start on their “fortress, while Coby keeps up a very irritating running commentary. Guess he thinks he’s in the running for Jeff Probst’s job.
Jeff says “times up! Switch and start breaking through to your boxes. Go!”
Both tribes seem to be doing well, breaking through the “fortress” but Koror reaches their footlocker first. Soon Ulong has their footlocker free and starts working on the knots. Koror however will not be denied another Immunity win and frees their flag, raises it on their flagpole as Ulong resigns itself to another trip to Tribal Council.
We next see the obligatory shots of Ulong trying to decide who is going to stab whom in the back. And who is going to be sent packing tonight. YAWN!
Jeff says “Welcome to Tribal Council, blah, blah, blah, It’s time to vote, blah, blah, I’ll go tally the votes. We have a tie between James and Ibrehem with two votes each. Bobby Jon and Steph will vote again. Blah, Blah, Blah, I’ll go tally the votes again. Blah, Blah, Blah, And the seventh person voted out of Survivor: Palau is James.” I actually think James’ jaw hit the dirt when Probst announced that he was voted out.
Anyway, Jeff snuffs his torch and James takes that long walk of shame.
Here are the comments Ulong made while voting:
The first vote:
Bobby Jon (Votes James): James oh James oh James man, oh shoot dude. I don’t want to do this. I wish we weren’t in these kinds of conditions and circumstances right now, you know? But we are. You know how the game is played and I do too. Have a good one.
James (Votes Ibraheim): Sorry bro. But you and I, we just don’t get along. We clash. It’s time for you to go. Bye.
Ibrehem (Votes James): Sorry brother.
Stephenie (Votes Ibreheim): I’m just trying to stick to my word, Ibe. Good luck, whatever happens.
The tiebreaking vote:
Bobby Jon (Votes James): (Doesn’t say anything)
Stephenie (Votes James): James, I’m so sorry to betray your confidence, but I have to do what’s right for me in the future now. It’s time for you to go. See you on the outside.
James Final Words (notice, he get rather sappy towards the end)
I came into this game thinking I was going to stomp some asses. I had a pretty good strategy, I thought, getting rid of the people that want to be leaders, who were pretty much authoritative and aggressive. That was my goal. For me to just take over, myself as a leader and try to control the tribe best way I could and get some allies on my side.
Well, I was doing real good there for a while. Got down to 4 folks left. Me and Ibrehem been clashing all - forever. So I thought I played a good game. Made me a chicken trap. Didn’t get to use it. I caught more fish than Jeff – come on, hell, he only caught one fish. I caught two! Little ones.
I wish them well. I hope Bobby Jon, Ibrehem and Stephenie win some immunity. I kind of liked to hoped that I’d stick around to go ahead and win it, at least won immunity before I got kicked out of here. But it didn’t work that way. I hope one of them three wins a million dollars because they deserve it. Them some good folks.
Yeah, I’m a really, really - it set in as soon as I said, “We’ll have supper in Alabama with everybody and don’t forget our restaurant.” Because it wasn’t my time to go. I didn’t feel like it. My gut told me it was Ibrehem’s. My gut told me nobody was going to vote me off. My gut failed me. And I’m sad and just depressed.
I thought I’d go at least to the Final 4. Make it to the jury. At least long enough to catch my damn rooster! That’s how long I thought I’d go.
I have learned – I’ll tell you. I don’t like spiders. At all. And this experience, I’ll go through the bush like a madman, just run right through it hunting a damn rooster. Don’t even care about the damn spiderwebs and spiders all over me. I don’t freak out no more. Bugs – I don’t care if bugs crawled all over me. I’ve accomplished that particular phobia. And I’ll tell you, I think I’ve pretty much got over my homophobia too, with old Ibrehem rubbing his ass up over against me!
I’ve learned that I can go 15 days with hardly anything to eat. Survive. Make a fire with flint and rock – I tried with the damned wood, it wasn’t working. I’ve accomplished things that not many people can say they have and that makes me proud.
This is what I’ll take away from this experience: I got to see millions of jellyfish. That’s just one extra place to tack onto my bill that I’ve been. And I’ll probably never come here again. Deserted island with, what, my tribe. Nine people. okay? I’ll never do that again. Hunt crab – never hunted crab before. I got it. Went and hunted crab. A Hawaiian sling. I’ve done it once. Got me a pufferfish in a canal. Never in the bright blue ocean. And I can say I caught 2 fish. Coconuts – you’d be amazed what you can do with some coconuts. You can fry ‘em, bake ‘em, drink ‘em. I’ve learned a lot that I can do and I’m taking this all home.
Not only have I learned what I can do (sighs heavily and pauses for a long time) I’ve learned (struggles not to cry) I’ve got a lot of good friends out there (gets very choked up) and all the times I’ve taken my family for granted. I’ve learned to appreciate that. Take my kids out to the backyard and just roast some hotdogs in a fire. You don’t necessarily have to go camping. Just go roast some hotdogs and some marshmallows, spend some quality time with your family (sounds like he’s on the verge of tears) you only get one shot in this world.
And I just tell you all the times I just decided to work or go to sleep on the couch or watch TV or eat supper watching TV instead of eating supper at the kitchen table with my family. I took all of that for granted, and I wish I had never hadn’t, and I swear when I go home (sniffles) that things are going to change.
Take care, "Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body,
but rather to skid in broadside,
thoroughly used up,
totally worn out,
and loudly proclaiming....
Wow, what a ride!"
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