Episode 9: "Desperate Measures" begins on the night of Day 24.  As
Sook Jai is off at Tribal Council, Chuay Gahn mocks them behind
their backs at camp.  They finally get to celebrate their victory.  The
Chewies speculate on who gets voted off.  Helen impersonates sweet
Penny, doing her cheerleader routine, and then announcing she has
to vote off her best friend, Erin.  Brian then does his impression of
Ken, reminding everyone that he's one of New York's finest and then
wondering if his hair looks good.

The Sookies have a pit stop before returning to camp.  Another feeble
attempt at rallying the troops.  They finally make it back to the Bat
Cave and the Chewies fake some sympathy at the loss of Erin. 

Day 25 doesn't get much air-time.  Much of it deals with how all the
Sookies are trying to mingle with the Chewies.  Chuay Gahn does
agree on one thing, they are bored to tears with Jake and the stories
of his adventures.  Frankly, so am I.  It reminds me of the scene from
the movie, "Pork Chop Hill", where a Texan G.I. tells his fellow sol-
diers that, "In the Pan-handle, it would get so cold, our words would
freeze as they came out of our mouths.  We'd have to put them in a
frying pan and thaw them out, just so we could see what we were
talking about."  You get the drift.  At night, the castaways all bay and
stare at the Moon.  Clay talks about missing his family.  Helen then
serenades them with an old torch song, "Are You Lonely Tonight?"
She's actually a pretty good singer.

Day 26 arrives and it's time for this week's Reward Challenge.  It's the
old videos-from-home routine.  Jeff teases them with brief messages
for each contestant first.  He then explains the rules of the challenge,
and that it's individual.  Yep, they have now merged into one tribe.
The challenge is a two-parter.  In the first part, they work as pairs
through an obstacle course of sorts, with severals stations to stop
at.  Working together, they perform a task at each station, once they
have completed it, they may move on to the next.  Four pairs race
against each other in two rounds, leaving one winning pair.  Those
two players them compete against each other in the second part,
which is solving a pryamid puzzle, building it with wicker-balls.  I
won't bore you with other details, as the whole thing was lame, other
than Brian beat Helen in the finals and won.

Everyone gathers to watch the video Brian' wife made.  Jeff treats him
with a pitcher of cold drink, which Brian shares with everyone.  They
all needed it, because Brian's wife is one hot babe!  First she dances
around with their baby, then puts on a real show, swiveling her hips
every which way.  Brian is starting to look embarrassed.  Clay is get-
ting horny.  Helen gets a little green, observing that Brian lives in a
nice house with plenty of toys.  Two Cadillacs, a baby grand piano,
etc., and probably doesn't need the prize money.  But it's not in a
spiteful way, as the editing in the spoilers had alluded to.

The new tribe goes back to the cave and makes their new tribal flag.
I have to wonder who in TV Land stills finds this exercise remotely
interesting?  Anyway, they now call themselves Chuay Jai, as they
did before Jeff tricked them.  Helen decides it's time for another
edition of "Cooking With Helen", and starts yapping out recipes at
break-neck speed.  Ted, who looks very hungry, can't take it anymore.
He grabs the boat and takes a ride alone away from everyone.  It
seems that the videos effected him, making him very home-sick.  The
others get worried about Ted being out on the sea all alone.  They
also discuss his attitude problems.  Especially Clay and Jake.  Brian
shakes his head at all the back-stabbing.

Day 27 and it's time for the Immunity Challenge.  Jeff shows them the
new Immunity Necklace, since the competitions are individual now
and he retires the Tribal Immunity Idol.  Again, the challenge is in two
parts.  Part One consists of trying to remember what the Thai symbols are
for the numbers 1-10.  They all have cards with the Thai symbols, and
when Jeff tells them a number, they have to show the right symbol. 
Everyone except Penny, Clay, and Ken guesses wrong on the first
number.  Penny blows the second number, leaving Clay to face Ken
for Part Two.

This part was actually interesting.  Laid out was a grid of colored
sticks stuck in mounds of dirt.  Players had to dig the mound up to
find a clue.  It gave the number, in Thai, and the compass direction to
find a numbered disc (also in Thai).  The number related how many
sticks to move along the grid to find a disc.  The first several clues
had two sets of directions and distances.  The later clues had three
and four sets. 

Clay was outstanding in this competition.  He started right away with
finding clues and determining where to go to dig up a disc.  He then
did well remembering which disc went where to match it with the
number on a tote board at the finish line.  Clay had several discs be-
fore Ken found his first.  Ken was, indeed, totally clueless, in this
event.  Clay smoked him big time, finishing 10 while Ken only had three
to his credit.  It was a huge win for Clay Jordan!

Returning to camp, all the ex-Chewies are excited about Clay beating
Mr. NYC.  Ted tells the cameraman that he thinks Ken has to go.  He's
just too dangerous to have around now that they're in the individual
immunity phase.  Jake and Ken hatch a scheme to shake things up.
Jake chats up Clay about getting rid of Brian.  If Clay comes over and
joins the ex-Sookies, and brings along one of the women, Jan or
Helen, they can take their clique to the end.  Jake reasons that Brian,
not Ken, is the biggest threat to them all.  How true!

They all march off to Tribal Council.  After being seated, Jeff has Erin
trot out to sit in the Jury Box.  She looks good, having had a shower
and some decent meals.  Jeff probes for their impressions on the
new situation, being one tribe at last.  Clay says he's glad he won the immunity necklace.  Ted is sort of blue after seeing the videos.  Then,
Penny launches into some beauty-queen speech about how they're
all getting along and working together.  Hah!  Nice try, Sister!  Brian
says he plans on voting off those who don't do their share of work.
It's time to vote.

For a short while, it looks like Ted might get booted.  The first three
votes were all for him.  Then Jeff holds up Ken's name.  Then again.
Then a vote saying "NYC".  This time Jeff knows it's for Ken, but
does not admonish anyone, presumably Clay, who used nicknames
instead of writing the real name.  Ken gets five votes against him.  The
new tribe has spoken.  PAGONG!!!!!

SPOILERS:  Ted is bothered by getting three votes, a la Lex, and the
next Reward Challenge prize is an elephant ride to another Thai feast.