The next morning, we head over to Yawa and Ben is bringing home the laundry. But when some burning bamboo starts popping, it reminds him of combat, and his PTSD kicks in. Hawkeye needs some serious R&R in Seoul to come down from the jolt he’s feeling right now, and thankfully, his tribe is recognizing what he’s dealing with. They give him the space to get himself right, and I’m thinking this may be something we’re revisiting later in the season. He lets us know what he’s bringing to the game, and from his emotional reaction, we can see he’s not playing any game right now…
Back to the game we go and it’s challenge time. Yawa and Soko are getting a look at the new Levu tribe, sans Alan. Many surprised and happy looks are shown, since everyone knows there’s one less strong player to deal with.
Jeff describes the Reward Challenge, which is the “snake in the sand” challenge we saw back in S33. With their hands and feet bound, 3 players must push a ball through a course on the sand, the 4th player shooting baskets with the balls. Tribes will be playing for some Iced coffee and pastries, or a simple jug of Iced coffee for the 2nd place finishers. Chrissy and Lauren sit out for their respective tribes, and we’re ready to rock n’ roll.
Jessica, Roark and Desi get things started, and the first thing that comes to mind is that Desi looks like a photostatic negative of Al Jolson in The Jazz Singer. And while Roark struggles, Jessica hands off to Dr. Dickenstein,
“It’s pronounced, ‘Dickensteen’!
…eventually, Roark hands off to Ali.
During the 2nd stage, Joe keeps the lead for Levu, Mike struggles for Yawa, and Ali produces plenty of pixilated tits for Soko. This challenge really doesn’t seem all that hard, but maybe fatigue, hunger, and stress play a larger part than I’m considering. And from the pixilated shots of Desi and Ali, I really like this challenge…
Devon begins shooting for Levu while the other tribes struggle to reach the final mat, but it’s clear Devon is not a basketball player. Meanwhile, Ryan loses control of his ball, and has to slither off course to retrieve his ball. While this is going down, Ben has taken over for Yawa, and is making up for Mike’s shortcomings.
Devon finally makes a shot, but struggles to sink #2. Ryan miscalculates his ball shoving again, and watches it roll into another tribe’s lane again. Methinks his tribe is starting to pay attention to how bad of a player he is, but let’s see how this plays out. No one is hitting it out of the park tonight…
Cole begins shooting for Yawa, and after Ryan loses another Soko ball, Devon sinks #2 and #3 to take a commanding Levu lead. Cole finally sinks #1, and then Devon hits #4, and it’s tit for tat as Cole hits #2. With a deep breath, Devon pauses and shoots…and hits #5! Levu is heading to the Starbucks challenge, and all the caffeine they’ll need for a couple days…
When Ryan finally figures out how to push a ball over a mound, Cole hits #3 for Yawa, while J.P. rushes in to start shooting for Soko. But before he can do that, he needs to get everyone onto the mat. And while attempting to throw Ryan’s lifeless corpse onto it, Cole sinks #4 and then his final shot, giving a pitcher of iced coffee to Yawa, and the goose egg to Soko… As we head to break, Ali confesses she’s “been with” Ryan for a while now, so she needs to do everything to “have his back.”
Back at camp, Levu enjoys the spoils of their victory, and takes a few moments to not think about who may be going home soon. But once Desi and Joe head to the beach to bathe, Devon and Ashley take this time to confirm their alliance, and question how they can bring Desi over to their side, away from Joe. Devon is very concerned about Joe’s knowledge, and the only thing that’ll keep Desi from staying with Joe is the threat they’ll split the next vote, and go to rocks.
At Soko (Day 13), Ryan does his best to apologize for being a total loser, but also knows his game relies on his social abilities. When Roark and Ali head off to the well to retrieve some water, they confirm they’d be willing to work with one another, and Ali confesses she’d love to work with the Healers once the tribes merge.
But once Ali gets back to camp and tells Ryan that she wants to target Chrissy next, that puts Ryan in a precarious place because Chrissy in one of the two people he’s working with (the other being Ali). So, things may get interesting tonight…
Over at Yawa, Cole is starting to show that he’s a pig. Lauren, and really all of us, are seeing how gross his eating habits are as we watch him lick things, use his finger to scrape things, and just do whatever he can to put a wall up between him and everyone else.
After Jessica and Mike head off to their well, Mike tells her he’d like to look for the idol since Cole found one at the old Soko well, and sure enough, once he digs around, he finds an idol and instantly improves his standing in the game. And even though Jessica is hellbent on sitting on “little Cole” before the season ends, she’s now hellbent on working with Dr. Dick since he’s a little more stable…
And how often have us nice guys heard that? Yeah…never. That’s what I thought…
Later that day, we have an Immunity Challenge and when Jeff asks for the idols back, it seems Chrissy’s teeth are something she’s very proud of and I wonder if anyone who’s gone through teeth whitening are as concerned about showing off their new pearly whites as much as she is. It just seems kinda weird to me…
Jeff describes the challenge: tribes will race out to retrieve 3 bags of rice and then push them through a wooden hole in a wooden structure. Then, they need to carry the bags over a balance beam in the water, and get the bags of rice on shore. Once the bags are on the mat, tribes need to extract 3 balls out of the bags of rice, and then maneuver them up a vertical maze, similar (or exactly like) the one used on World’s Apart and Kaoh Rong.
First two tribes to finish win immunity the loser goes to Tribal. With Soko’s extra player, Ryan chooses to sit out this challenge, Mike sits out for Yawa. Let’s get to it…
When tribes begin to push the bags of rice through those narrow holes, it’s Yawa and Soko to do this first. And speaking of slots, we get a nice shot of Ali’s cooch as she makes her way over the top of the structure. Thanks, Editorial department, I’m sure that was kept in the cut for obvious reasons.
When the tribes reach the balance beam, J.P. does a great job of getting over the beam while Lauren falls off on her first attempt. Somehow Levu takes the lead. When the tribes reach the “cut balls out” stage, Soko is now dead last…
As we reach the table maze, here’s an update:
-Ben sinks the first ball for Yawa
-Ashley matches for Levu
-Chrissy fails twice to stay on the beam and has to drop out for Soko, and can be heard – meekly – asking her tribe if someone else wants to go. I don’t think they heard her…
-Jessica (nice ass!) lands the second ball for Yawa
-Ali drops in #1 for Soko…
-Devon completes #2 for Levu
-Cole deftly drops #3 in for Yawa, and the first Immunity win…
-As Chrissy falls off the beam for the 3rd time, the question of whether she should step down comes up. And for some inexplicable reason, she chooses to stay on the beam.
“Chrissy, not gonna give up her spot,” Jeff says with an attitude.
Desi slowly maneuvers the ball up the maze and Chrissy, once again, falls off the balance beam. Um, seems like someone should boot her ass off the beam, but no one on Soko wants to be the bad guy, they’d prefer to go to Tribal than find a new approach now.
Desi does what she’s asked to do, and gets the final ball in its slot, sending Soko to Tribal Council. Once immunity idols are handed out, the question of who may be going home tonight is first and foremost on everyone’s mind. On Roark’s mind, it’s Chrissy, since she struggled the most at this challenge. But Tattoo does confess she’s a bit nervous.