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DAY ONE: It's 103 degrees on the Rio Negro, as Jeff Probst takes the new
band of contestants to their playground, the Amazon rain forest. After a
few geography fun-facts, Jeff splits the group up into two tribes, calling out
names to board the two canoes. The ladies are first, and when he calls the
fifth, all realize that the tribes will start off as Men vs Women.
Dan, the tax accountant, is the first to put his foot in his mouth. "We're
never going to go to Tribal Council". Hehehehe. With the canoes loaded,
Jeff tosses each tribe their buffs, yellow/ladies & blue/men, and maps to
find their camps. Tambaqui Tribe (from here-on known as Tam-Bozo) gets
off to an early lead, since Shawna cannot untie the ladies canoe from the
riverboat. I guess the retail clothing business only requires experience
with buttons and zippers. Eventually she succeeds and the Jaburu Tribe
paddles away.
Ryan and Jenna are clearly disappointed with the gender-based tribes.
Both had counted on using their sex-appeal to their advantage. The boys
reach their camp first, and waste time with pep talks. They only have a few
hours of daylight left and there's much to do. But they are confident and
stoked. The ladies find their beach. Once landing, Christy tells all that she
is hearing impaired. She has partial hearing in one ear and is deaf in the
other. Some of her teammates are concerned about this, but all promise
not to let 'the boys' know.
Butch and Roger, the elders of Tam-Bozo, try to organize work details. Fire
and shelter are the priorities. They move inland and find a nice sloping
piece of ground with convenient trees to use as supports for a shelter. A
few work on clearing the land and getting building materials. The rest go
to work on making fire. This time, Mark Burnett provides each tribe with
lanterns and kerosene. Using flint meant to sharpen their machetes, they
get a fire going right away with the help of the kerosene. The shelter takes
shape quickly, and is adorned with a banner Butch, a High School princ-
ple, brought as his luxury item. It reads, "BELIEVE IN YOURSELF". I
surely hope so!
The ladies make some strategic errors immediately. Their camp is too
close to the riverbank. The ground is damp, as is the wood they use for
their fire. It takes them nearly six hours to get one going. Deena emerges
as bossy, splitting the gals into two work parties, again, one for shelter,
the other for fire. The shelter-builders are nearly as successful, managing
to cut down 4 logs before night sets in. No shelter is made, but the fire is
going well and the gals have a gab session. Most of the chatter is dissing
the men, and how the boys were pining for Heidi. Unfortunately, Christy
couldn't read their lips after dark and missed out on all the talk. She was
unhappy and went to bed early.
DAY TWO: The women are grumbly, having slept on the damp ground.
They get an unwelcome guest, a fist-sized tarantula. They suspect it pro-
bably crawled over all of them during the night. It gets squashed and then
tossed into the fire. Deena assigns new work details and plans out the day.
Unfortunately, Christy didn't hear any of it. The others walk off and she is
left behind, not know what to do.
The men begin working on a game room and patio. Roger, who is in the
construction business, supervises and issues commands. Dan and Ryan,
the resident Actor/Model, don't like being bossed around, even when it's
for their own good. Roger, and a few others, quickly notice how Dan and
Ryan are slacking off.
The women continue to struggle along. Being close to the water, they are
infested with lots of bugs, especially flies. Dehydration and tempers rise
as Jenna decides it's laundry day, and use precious water and the cooking
pot to boil her underwear. One must stay clean, mustn't one, even in the
middle of the jungle??? Deena complains to the camera about how disor-
ganized they are. As a deputy-DA, she's ready to lay down the law.
DAY THREE: Jenna, Janet and Heidi take a try at fishing. They get no-
where. Janet is very ill. She's extremely dehydrated, and can barely walk.
She complains that she can't go any further. Jeanne and JoAnna try their
hand at fishing. They manage to catch a small fish with their net, and are
excited. So excited they float off leaving their paddles behind. After these
are retrieved, the small fish is used as bait, and a slightly larger small fish
is caught. Proud, they return to camp with the prize. Using Jeanne's edible
body oil (possibly the most interesting luxury item ever) the tiny fish is
fried and divided eight ways. Despite JoAnna's praying, they still have only
the one fish to eat.
The boys decide to play with Rob's luxury item, a magic Eight-Ball. Rob
warns them that none may ask the 8-ball any questions concerning the
outcome of the challenges. So, instead, the questions revolve around who
is in love with Jenna, Shawna, and Heidi? Rob has a big crush on Heidi,
whom he believes can, "… put Viagra out of business". Roger and Butch
grow weary of the activities. Luckily, tree-mail arrives and it's time for the
first Immunity Challenge. The men are pumped, the ladies are worried.
Both tribes gather and Jeff first poses a few questions. The men claim all
is well and they're catching plenty of fish, as do the women. Neither tribe
believes each other, likewise Jeff. He then introduces the Immunity Idol,
a sort of monkey statue. As with last season, the Immunity Challenge will
be part athletic, part mental. Both tribes are 'chained' up, with nylon har-
ness and sets of locks. Several obstacles must be overcome, after each a
brain teaser. Solve the problem, get a key, open a lock, then move on to
the next obstacle. Survivors Ready!?!?!
A scrambling net is first. The men get over that first, and open a lock split-
ting them from 8 to two groups of 4. The women are slightly behind. The
men then get through a tunnel and start work on decoding a message. It's
still close, but the men solve theirs first, well before the women. The key
opens another lock making them 4 pairs. They then head for the next ob-
stacle, a long balance beam. While the women flounder at their coded mes-
sage, the men attempt to overcome the beam. But they have trouble. Dan
and Ryan are not doing well. Each time they fall off, or even one foot
touches the ground, they must go back to the beginning and start again.
The women catch up. Both tribes reach the last brain teaser, a jigsaw
puzzle. It's dead-even, but the ladies finish theirs first and move to the last
obstacle. Heidi flies down a line, grabs the last key and leads the women
across the finish line. THEY WIN!
As the ladies celebrate, Jeff taunts the boys. They had a huge lead at one
point and completely blew it. The bravado, the attitude, accomplished
nothing. Jaburu Tribe heads back to camp with the idol. The women are
happy and spend the rest of the day trashing the men. Well deserved
trashing I might add. The men crawl back to camp disgusted. Dave asks
for a moment of silence and then proceeds to scold others. He is ashamed.
They are too cocky. Over-confident, etc. The others hang their heads.
Then the politicking begins. Ryan tries to get the young pups to vote off
Roger. Roger is being too bossy, Ryan claims. They have to get rid of him
now. Roger starts lining up votes against Ryan. Dave wants Dan gone.
Rob makes pacts with both factions. He'll lie all day to win a million bucks.
Good for you, Rob.
They gather with Jeff at the first Tribal Council. After the fire ritual, Jeff
begins his usual questioning, chiding them for blowing a huge lead and
losing immunity. They all admit to being overconfident. Dan admits to
being the reason they lost. He's almost right, but others failed as well. The
conversation now turns to the women and how hot Shawna is. All the
young studs are excited by her, except for Rob. He is in love with Heidi.
Rob wants to marry her, raise a family, etc. He has yet to speak with her,
but that's beside the point. Jeff laughs. He thinks the men are all Bozos.
Jeff is right, they are. It's time to vote.
Dave votes for Dan. Ryan, Dan, and Matthew vote against Roger. Roger,
Butch, Alex, and Rob gang up on Ryan. The Actor/Model, pretty-boy is the
first to be booted. Jeff snuffs out Ryan's torch, the tribe of Bozos have
spoken. As Ryan wanders off into obscurity, Jeff warns the rest about be-
ing divided. They better work on that. They better work on their attitudes,
too, or they'll be coming back often.
SPOILERS: Rain hits hard and while the men are nice and dry in their ex-
cellent shelter, the women get drenched since they have none. All they've
managed to build is a sort of platform to sleep on. We are also treated to
a sort clip of the women getting divisive with each other. Could Jaburu
be falling apart after their upset-victory? Will the men continue to act like
clowns? Tune in next week and find out.
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