Episode 2: Some people who like Survivor don't really start watching it faithfully until after the merge. They feel that that is when the game is interesting. I think it's interesting from the very beginning, since you can watch the dynamics of the relationships develop. 
While Maraamu had it's first Tribal Council, back at Rotu, the tribe engaged in a victory party, which included a communial massage. Gabe describes how wonderful his tribe is.  What great friends they all are. They are getting along with each other oh so well. That is, with one exception. Kathy. She opts to sleep by the fire instead of in the tribal lean-two.

Morning brings about the chores, including a need for protein. Rotu has coconuts and taro, but no meat. Everybody is busy with schemes to get meat. Gabe builds spears and a spear gun to spear fish with. That Gabe is a sharp one, he surely get's the point!  John ponders that whoever can become the principle meat provider will rise high in the tribe's heirarchy. He comes up with two schemes for meat. One is a snare he builds to catch a pig. John once saw Wiley E. Coyote build such a device. Next, he makes himself a net and tries to scoop up some shrimp. He and Robert give it a try and sure enough they catch one. John proudly displays his meaty 4 inch-long shrimp to all. Gabe tells Tammy it's great, now all John needs to do is catch 30 more just like that one. John hears this and is crushed that nobody crowns him king, or should I say, queen?

Maraamu rises with their very own morning talk show. DJ Sean runs the show, with Hunter giving traffic and weather from high above Happiness Cove in his helicopter.  Rob is next as the food critic, expounding on the joys of pancakes with bacon and sausages. Sean then sings "Ain't Too Proud To Beg" and they all dance. All except
Patricia.

Since she dodged a bullet yesterday, she now feels secure enough to act naturally, meaning: as a responsible adult. As foreign as this concept must sound, it does have it's practical uses. Firewood needs to be gathered, the firepit needs maintenance, food and water are needed, etc. Mom starts getting the kids ready for another day at school.  Get dressed, have your breakfast, brush your teeth, and, oh yeah, put that machette back at the tool tree. Hunter and Gina take it in stride, but Maraamu's Youth Movement, doesn't care for it. They're on vacation, no school today. Sean then bonds with Vecepia, as only a man of color can. He clues her in on what the others must think of them. It's all a racial-culture-thing to Sean.  Shame on you, Mark  Burnett, for another season of poor casting.

Back at Rotu, more griping about Kathy not mingling. She's walked off by herself again.  Gabe doesn't like her doing things alone. But as the camera shows, Kathy is showing some initiative, hunting for food. While the others scare up one lousy shrimp, Kathy uncovers, literally, a bounty of seafood delights! She's find all sorts of clams and other mollusks underneath rocks in a nearby tidal pool. Kathy calls out to the others who come running. They quickly take up the baton and start getting loads. John is happy for the protein, but wishes he had found it instead of Kathy. For her part, she also complains that nobody complimented her on a job well done. "I'm not THAT hard to get along with!" Hmmmm?

Reward challenge time finally comes, and Jeff points to two sets of bouys and rafts, each anchored off the beach. Below the bouys are plastic row boats, each filled with about 250 good-sized rocks. Each tribe will swim out to the bouy, then dive to empty their boat. Once done, it'll float up and they will take it to their raft and bail out the water. Once a tribe thinks their boat is seaworthy, they must then paddle to shore and carry it across the finish line. The winning tribe receives a snorkel, mask, and a set of fins.  SUVIVORS READY...........BEGIN!

Maraamu looks like they might get a lead going. The Amazing Hunter dives first and removes about eight or nine rocks. The others barely manage to get one each out. Things don't look much better at Rotu, until Gabriel dives under. He out-does the Amazing Hunter, shovelling out over a dozen rocks himself. Hunter hears how many and then encourages his tribe to get more. He pulls out maybe six this time, and Rob almost got one out, but it fell back into the boat.

But now it's John's turn to shine, and he hatches a scheme (John just loves hatching schemes), for a bunch of Rotu to go down together and simply turn the boat over, spilling out the rocks. The plan works! Their boat starts to rise. Hunter and Rob go down again and do likewise. But by now, Rotu take their boat to the raft and keeps it upside-down as they drag it out of the water. No more bailing is needed. Rotu boards and begins rowing. Maraamu steps it up, but they are too late. Rotu wins it's second challenge in a row.

There's more speculation as to a relationship developing between Rob and Sarah.  Wherever one is, the other is too. Hunter is very concerned about how little work is getting done by the Youth Movement. Sean just likes to chill-out, and Rob and Sarah are always off spooning. Hunter talks to Rob about it. Rob then talks to Sarah.  He tries to convince her to look busy. Hunter also asks Sean to get some water. Sean says he will, after he's done doing what he's doing. Nobody knows what is so important that Sean is doing. He seems to be messing with some twine. Eventually, Sean goes for water. He then tells the camera he's going to do his share, but he's not going to kiss anyone's butt.

Kathy returns from another forage with a basket full of goodies. She tells her tribe that she has a knack for finding food, which she does, and will be happy to be a provider, IF only they'd fix up the shelter so she has some room to stay warm and dry. She knows it's gonna rain soon. Tammy describes the session as a mother trying to bribe her
kids with a candy bar. Gabe unloads on Kathy, telling her that nobody should have a role, and that he doesn't care about the food. He'd rather get to know her instead. All this is too much for Kathy. She nearly starts to cry as she starts putting all the food back in her basket, presumably to return it where she found it.

Things don't look good for her at all. Mind you, Kathy has been the lead on every single survival essential so far. Fire, water, food, and now shelter. It would be interesting to adjust the format so that after the first immunity, tribe members could pick up and join the other tribe, or perhaps a third tribe for the unappreciated. I suspect that a
tribe with Kathy, Hunter, Patricia, Gina, and anybody but John or Gabe from Rotu would make a formidable team.

At Maraamu, Hunter tells Gina it's going to rain, and they quickly fetch Mom and start working to improve their shelter. Sarah see this as her big chance to get recognition. She tries to direct to reconstruction of the roof, but nobody listens to her. Rob now ponders to the camera that Sarah may be a liability to him. Afterall, he's just playing her, making sure she votes the way he tells her to. With her, he has two votes. Rob is already figuring that they will lose again. I wonder why, Rob?

Tree mail notifies the tribes it's time for that old-time favorite, the Survivor Food Gross-Out challenge. This time, the test is to eat raw fish that has been soaking in a stew of fish parts, several days old. The smell is that of an outhouse. And to make things even more interesting, contestants will have to bob for their meal. As Maraamu is shy one player, the first up will have to go a second time. Hunter, of course, takes the lead. You gotta love him! One by one, pairs go up and slurp down their fish. It looks gross, smells gross, tastes gross. Some get a fly or three along with the fish for added flavor. Everybody swallows their food, including Hunter the second time around, resulting in a tie.

So a tie-breaker is called for. Each tribe picks somebody from the other to wolf down a whole bowl full. Rotu picks Rob and Maraamu picks Neleh, both of whom seemed closest to pewking the first time around. Neleh has trouble at first, but wisely eats the largest parts to start. Rob goes for the smaller bits initially. Neleh pulls ahead and Rob turns green as he starts chewing the larger pieces. He then
becomes very pale and begins pewking his guts out. Neleh finishes her bowl and is the clear winner! Rotu makes it three in a row ( two immunity and one reward challenge). Jeff let's Maraamu know they have a date with him tonight at the dreaded Tribal Council.

Rob laments greatly over his loss and suspects that he may be the one to go. That is unless he can get something going with Sean and Vee. He already has something going with Sarah. Rob plays the Mom card, saying he doesn't care for her bossy nature. Sean doesn't like it either, but he ain't very big on Sarah, too. He tells Rob that he doesn't
like her laziness. Mom doesn't like it either, nor does Gina and Hunter. If they can ditch Sarah, maybe Rob will pull in with them. Hunter still hold out some hope for him. Mind you, Rob has had a hand in each challenge loss thus far. He knocked over the the floating fire wok in the first immunity challenge, didn't do much in the reward, and
single-handedly lost immunity #2.

At Tribal Council, Jeff probes their minds and hearts. He asks Hunter what's it like with Patricia around as a mom. Hunter smiles and says she can be a pain, but she's just being herself. Sarah takes it a step or five further. She's a grown woman who hasn't listened to her mother in six or eight years. She goes on to say that she work's 16 hour days at her old job and didn't plan on working much while here. She's saving her energy for the challenges. Gina disagrees, and reminds Sarah that if she slacks off, then others have to do extra work and be more fatigued. But it's too late. The Gang of Four (Rob, Sarah, Sean, and Vecepia) vote Patricia off. They are grown-ups and don't need a mother about. Patricia, Hunter, and Gina vote for Sarah. Jeff poses that the tribe is clearly divided. No kidding!
SPOILERS:  There's trouble at Maraamu between Hunter and Sarah.  While at Rotu, they learn a lesson in pain.