Season 2, Episode 2 - "Suspicion"

“Debb was the first person voted out.  15 people left, who will be voted out tonight?” - Probst

DAY 4

Kucha

“When it comes to food it has to be a group decision.” - Alicia

On the morning of Day 4, Mike takes it upon himself to cook in the morning.  Nobody asked for it, nobody wanted it, and it came out like mush.  Mike’s master plan is to try and be the provider via fish. (lesson learned from Richard in season 1) I think what’s also happening is that 4 days in people are trying to establish their routine, and depending on their personality establish how life for the tribe will be conducted.  Mike is trying to control food which can present an obvious reward but also the risk like Alicia pointed out in the quote above.  Food is something that effects everyone and can’t be a Mike only decision, especially if he wants to remain in the game.

Ogakor

“There’s a time to be energized and there’s a time to just chill out.  So we’re going to the family whirlpool.” - Maralyn

Coming off an Immunity Challenge victory, things are looking up at Ogakor.  They haven’t been to Tribal Council and so they decide to parlay the victory into a “family vacation” to the whirlpool part of the river.  But, not everyone is in attendance.  Like Mike at Kucha, Kel has taken the lead on fishing at Ogakor.  Kel decided to skip the “tribe outing” and instead take the canoe out solo and try to catch another source of food.  Then, we learn about the problems with the lack of equipment, no fishing line, using twine instead etc, but Kel’s problem isn’t the equipment.  What Kel doesn’t realize is his biggest problem is the one he is creating, isolation.  Every time he goes out fishing and does it alone, he is isolating himself in the game and giving people a reason to get rid of him.  Every minute alone is a minute away from the tribe and when you come back empty handed you may as well not even come back or you’ll have your tribe saying things like “The guy couldn’t fish a rubber ducky out of a bath tub.” - Colby or “he should keep his day job” - Jerri.  Sound familiar?  Kel thought he could replicate what Richard did in season 1, but he didn’t account for the possibility of being this season’s Dirk.  Can you say 2nd person voted off?

REWARD CHALLENGE - “Butch Cassidy"

The tribes are competing for blankets.  The tribes have to jump off a cliff and swim to a crate.  Then, the next tribe member repeats.  Once the whole tribe is there, they unhook their crate, bring it down the river, and get it across the finish line.

I know Rodger wasn’t too excited to be jumping off cliffs but he was the only one.  In the end his hesitation costs Kucha time and enabled Ogakor to never look back on their way to winning the challenge.  People seem to like Rodger, but that cannot be helping him in the game.  

Ogakor wins blankets. Kucha continues to win nothing.

KEITH vs. JERRI PART 2

There are many tasks that need to be completed in the game of Survivor and food will always be at the top of the list.  For Ogakor, they thought they had a solution to the problem because Keith is a chef.  Since he is a chef, he knows everything about every food and how to cook no matter what, right?  Wrong.  It’s like when you are around a social studies teacher and they are asked a random historical question, could be anything, and they are expected to know it.  Guess what, they don’t know it all and neither do chefs cooking rice over open flames in the Australian Outback. LOL.

So, Keith’s “Rice a la Herbert River” was a bit mushy and pasty for Tina and some others, but no tastebuds were dissatisfied quite like Jerri’s.  Look, it’s easy to see that Jerri is a no nonsense, “get out of my way I can do it myself”, I don’t care if you’re a chef type of personality.  Combine that with “condescending” remarks from Keith and ladies and gentlemen, Chef Jerri is cooking, and on the menu is some homemade from scratch flour tortillas.  Amber, Mitch, Tina, and Keith all enjoyed them.  Jerri’s personality has and will help Ogakor feed itself and win some more challenges, but how will it help her game?  Will it help control others or will it get under their skin?  Too early to tell but kudos to Chef Jerri for winning part 2 of this duel with Keith.

MIKE CATCHES FISH

After catching fish, Mike leads the tribe in a prayer and sort of asks God to not let this make him the leader of the tribe.  Basically he was acknowledging that at Tribal Council he was called the leader and it’s a position he doesn’t want to be in.  I don’t know that he needed to use prayer as his way out of the stigma of “leader” being used against him, but he did it.  The whole thing was strange and the Mike situation is creating some different opinions within the tribe.  Jeff doesn’t like all the fanfare for Mike.  Alicia relays to the viewer that people want to vote him out because Mike called himself the leader. But, there is also people in the tribe like Rodger who like that he is providing the food.  I guess the “Mike” (or anyone in his position) question is 

“Is being seen as a “leader” a good thing in the game of Survivor?”

Hard to have a definitive answer at this point of the journey, but it worked out for a leader in season 1 (Richard) and we will have to let that question simmer for a while and check in later about it.

JERRI ACCUSES KEL

Withholding food?  Uh oh.  The isolation game that Kel was playing just kicked up a couple notches.  Jerri claims she saw him eating beef jerky and then Tina, Amber and Jerri went through his bag but found nothing.  Kel overhears them talking about him, addresses the tribe saying he had a blade of grass in his mouth, and then offers up his razors for everyone to use.  Jerri isn’t buying it and thinks it’s his guilt coming out.  

After Kel’s apology for any awkwardness, Maralyn speaks up and lets her feelings about the whole situation be heard “What you all did was totally inappropriate.  It was wrong.  Nobody had any right to go into Kel’s bag.” Maralyn even suggests the group apologize to Kel, but that was met with an emphatic no.  Looks like Maralyn won’t be around long either.  Her morals aren’t wanted on this tribe but they do bring up another good question that warrants some discussion.  

Should castaways be able to rummage through the belongings of others?  

Maralyn’s suggestion of apologizing to Kel is thrown back at her. All screenshots via primewire.li

Obviously, Maralyn, the elder of the tribe, is against it, but the rest of the tribe didn’t seem to mind it, or at least went along with it/didn’t stop it.  I get that this is Survivor and there isn’t much privacy at all.  I get that suspicion of sneaking food is a big deal, a “voteoffable” offense if caught.  And, I get that in this game the rules of normal life don’t always apply.  Given all that, I think it’s fair game but only because the people doing it could potentially open themselves up to backlash should the rest of the tribe had felt the way Maralyn did or should there have been another alliance within the tribe, this could be used against the rummagers at TC.  

To add to it, I think perhaps a bigger takeaway is how someone like Maralyn decides to speak up and try to make things “right” with the tribe and she gets rejected, or even worse, she may have just put a target on her back come Tribal Council.  Maralyn “went against” the tribe’s majority opinion of the situation.  Imagine that, being voted off because the tribe made false accusations against another tribe member and you stood up for what’s right.  Damn.  Tough way to go, but a lesson for all future players to learn from.

IMMUNITY CHALLENGE - Aboriginal Wheel o’ Food

Another predicament early in the game.  The Immunity Challenge is an eating challenge.  The predicament?  Kimmi is a vegetarian.  

“I can’t do it and I’m disappointing 6 people that are rooting for me.  Now, I have no excuse for being voted off the island.” - Kimmi   

Kimmi isn’t going to break her morals.  She is a vegetarian and hard headed on top of it.  She knows that it will effect the entire tribe in the challenge and that she will likely be going home.  

Today’s specials includes mangrove worm, cow brain, mud well, grub larvae, grasshopper, tripe, apple, and candy bar.

Maralyn pops out her teeth, Kimmi loses a point for the team, Elisabeth and Kel get lucky with the apple, Rodger and Colby strike chocolate gold with the candy bar, and Tina throws up giving Kucha a second chance in the tie break.  

TIE BREAK - Whoever can eat a mangrove worm faster, wins.  Each tribe picks a person from the other tribe to compete.  Competitors - Kimmi (Kucha) and Tina (Ogakor).  

Much to my surprise, Kimmi devours the worm, beats Tina, and wins Immunity for Kucha.  In doing so, Kimmi completely vindicates herself from nearly costing the tribe Immunity and flips her place in the game.  However, we mustn’t forget what history has taught us.  In season 1, Stacey won an eating challenge for her tribe, in overtime, at the same point in the game, and still got voted off quickly after.  Will the same happen for Kimmi?  Time will tell.  History does love to repeat itself.

PRE TRIBAL COUNCIL

Leading into Tribal Council, Keith, Jerri, and Kel are on the chopping block.  Keith is “condescending and bossy” (Mitch), Jerri is set in her ways and unforgiving (Colby), and Kel is a “liar and a cheat” (Jerri).  What makes no sense to me is there is no talk about Tina.  None!  She lost the Immunity Challenge single handedly for Ogakor, yet nobody has a bad word to say about her heading into Tribal Council.  Similarly, back in season 1 when Gervase lost the eating challenge for Pagong he didn’t get a single vote to go home.  We haven’t really heard a whole lot about Tina until her disappointing performance in the Immunity Challenge.  Perhaps she is just totally under the radar and even costing the tribe immunity can’t overshadow the stand out mistakes/behaviors of Keith, Jerri or Kel.

TRIBAL COUNCIL

Ogakor goes to Tribal Council for the first time.

To Tina - “Do you feel like you need to say, I know I screwed up, here’s why you should keep me?” - Probst

Tina gets called out by Probst as she should.  She lost the challenge for the tribe and she owns it.  Shockingly, she says that she won’t plea to the tribe for why they should keep her.  She flat out says she should be the one to go.  

Tina thinks she should be the one to go.

“I’m the one who screwed up, I should be the one to go.” - Tina

Wow, Tina!  I don’t know that I would have the guts to lay down my sword and stick my own head in the guillotine like that.  Maybe, she knew that she wasn’t going to get the votes anyway, but still to make yourself completely vulnerable at the first Tribal Council is pretty bold.  More to Tina than we have gotten to see so far.

Voting

Kel - JERRI - “Nothing against ya Jerri but I already promised Tina and Maralyn that I would not vote against them and that I would vote for you.  I made this on day 1 and I don’t break my promises.” 

There’s more strategy going on at Ogakor than we know about.

Maralyn - CAL - “Cal if you were lying in the Simpson Desert dying of thirst, every single one of us would give you a drink of water.  Good luck to you.”

So much for that alliance and spelling Kel correctly.  LOL.

VOTES - Kel (7), Jerri (1)

PROBST CLOSING THOUGHT

“Welp, you survived Tribal Council one.” - Probst

Tina escapes, Jerri and Keith get by and Kel bites the dust.  Feels like this Tribal could have gone a few different directions but it didn’t.  Tribe isn’t losing much in Kel.

KEL EXIT INTERVIEW

“I knew right from day one it was going to be hard for me to fit in.  I’m a military guy and the people I was working with are very unique, special type of people…I don’t think in a couple days I could have overcome our differences.”

How much can you really get to know people in 6 days?  Especially if you are the one going off on your own to fish.  In the end Kel’s attitude and strategy for how to play was what led to his downfall.  Jerri’s “suspicion” ostracized Kel and made him the easy target for the first vote at Tribal Council.  People like Maralyn were smart to go along with the group and not make any unnecessary waves.

CATEGORIES AND AWARDS

1 - Biggest Move

Jerri accusing Kel of sneaking beef jerky.  This is Jerri’s alpha personality coming out full force.  The suspicion leads to looking into his bag, Maralyn standing up for what is right, and Kel getting everyone’s vote except his own.  Jerri’s words and actions (taking over the food) were some very bold moves to make on day 4, 5, and 6.  So far they have worked out, but will that continue?

2 - Biggest Mistake

Kel’s biggest mistake was isolating himself.

Kel going fishing by himself.  In season 1, Richard was spear fishing in a coral reef in the clear blue water of the South China Sea.  He was able to dive right into the reef and pluck out the rays pretty easily.  Kel’s fishing was more like Dirk and Sean in season 1.  Inefficient and a failure.  Plus it isolated him from the tribe which in the end sealed his fate at Tribal Council.

3 - Challenge Corner

Butch Cassidy Cliff Diving vs. Wheel of Aboriginal Food.  Got to go with the cliff diving race up the river.  Cliff diving is fun as hell and doing it in the Australian Outback would likely put a better memory in your head than eating cow brain.

4 - Trending Up

Jerri.  She took control of Ogakor’s food situation and it paid off.  Plus, she was the leader behind Kel’s ejection from the game at Ogakor’s first trip to Tribal Council.

5 - Trending Down

Toss up between Maralyn and Tina.  Maralyn is older, she stood up to the tribe and thought they should apologize to Kel for going through his bag.  The tribe didn’t go for that.  I just feel like she may be liked or respected but an easy target to pick off.

6 - Hatch Award (Best Strategy)

Whatever Kimmi did at the Immunity Challenge to swallow that worm, win immunity for the tribe, and redeem herself from nearly costing the tribe was a great strategy that she pulled off.  She stepped up when it counted and should be rewarded for it.

7 - Best Screenshot

When you take out your teeth to compete in an eating challenge. All screenshots via primewire.li

8 - Best Quote

“I’m ready” - Maralyn “Mad dog” after taking out her teeth

Jerri wins episode 2.

9 - Who won the episode?

Jerri.  She got others to go along with the suspicion of Kel having the beef jerky.  She searched through Kel’s bag with little repercussions.  She took over cooking duty from Keith, the chef.  Last, she has done more good than harm at this point and in this episode she flexed her muscle of influence within the Ogakor tribe.  She is a leader in the tribe, a strong player, and one to look out for going forward in the game.