Getting Rid of the Biggest and Littlest, Who's Still Bigger Than a Bushman

Wow, a lot  happened on yesterday's episode!  We lost two more Fans... their poor little tribe is just falling apart!

Meanwhile, it's one big happy family over at the Favourites' camp.  Well, that's because A) they're winning and B) they're all putting up with Philip.  It's easy to be nice to everyone when you don't have to go to Tribal Council and vote them off.  And honestly, for a bunch of weirdos, they seem like a pretty easy-going bunch. They don't have a 'Shamar' in their group who's getting on everyone's nerves, and even Philip - remember last time he was on and made everyone on his tribe crazy?  Well, I don't know if maybe these guys are just more easygoing... or easily entertained by Philip?  Or, is it that they knew what they were getting into with him so it wasn't as much of a shock?  Maybe all of those things... Plus, can we talk about how Philip is actually a HUGE part of the Faves winning all of these challenges?  For all his "I'm Larry Bird" talk, he is actually in pretty good shape and is quite good at things.  He doesn't ever make excuses, like that he's older than most of his tribe or complain really.  Yeah, he sits around with a basket on his head for air conditioning, and yeah he wears pink undies around the camp.... Oh, and then there's the Stealth R Us thing.  Now everyone has been welcomed into the fold and has been given a name.  Baby Hantz is "The Conqueror" and Erik is "The Silent One" and Brenda is "Serenity".... something like that.  Which is funny, but is pissing off his actual alliance a bit... which is also funny.  Andrea will for sure feel stupid when she watches the show and hears herself complain, "Why is Brenda getting a name?  Now Erik has a name?  What's going on?" 

Compare and contrast with Shamar. Shamar is in the role Philip was in in his previous season - he's just getting under everyone's skin.  In Shamar's case, it's not because he's wearing baskets on his head, but because he's unusually whiny for an ex-marine.  He (like most bigger guys in Survivor) gets hit pretty hard with hunger issues and sleeps most of the day while everyone else works.  And as we discussed last time, he's got some maybe depression issues around his service that are causing him to have a tough time fitting in with the group.  Now, Shamar goes and gets sand in his eye.  So natch'... everyone thinks he's just being a big baby about having a sore eye.  But it turns out that yeah, it is pretty swollen and he's got some scratches on his cornea and the medics would like him to be seen by a specialist.  (Philip?  No, an ACTUAL specialist.)  It seemed a bit fishy to me, but whatever.  He got to leave without quitting... which he probably would have done anyway.  At any rate he did truly feel bad about leaving his alliance-mates.  But, you can imagine it's probably a nicer place to be now.  Sigh. 

The Fans lost two challenges yesterday too.  The first was a reward challenge, where a local "Bushman" named Tata came in to show the winning tribe how to live off the land and do clever things like cook rice in bamboo and whatnot.  Tata was seriously about 4 ft. tall... Brenda looked like a giant.  And he spoke English, sort of, but mostly broken.  Mostly he entertained the group.  Something about "No bitching"... which he may or may not have said... I don't know.  And he got lots of kisses from the girls, which is probably ok because his wife probably doesn't watch Survivor.  Ummm...is it OK to call people "Bushmen" still?  Wouldn't it have been ok to call him a local islander?  Or even a tribesman?  "Bushman" seems rather colonial and unsavoury to me.  Discuss.

Anyway, the Fans went on to lose the immunity challenge again.  Of course Reynold and Eddie made the argument that the tribe needs them to stay strong and have the chance to win challenges.... which would be a better argument if they had actually WON any challenges. But, it is a point.  I guess they have a better CHANCE of winning with Eddie and Reynold than they do with say, Laura, who must weigh about 48 pounds and can't swim.  Almost all the challenges have involved some sort of swimming.  (And again this year, good challenges, no?  Whoever has been designing the Survivor challenges in the last few seasons has really done a great job of keeping them fresh and interesting.)  Laura's argument is that you should keep the alliance strong and get rid of Eddie and Reynold early, while you still can.   On her side, you can see that sure, keeping Eddie & Reynold might help you in challenges, but it hasn't so far and you just don't know where the show is going to go.  If there's a merge, E & R will jump ship pretty easily and vote against them to save their own butts.  If it becomes an individual game, you've got 2 strong guys to beat.  Right?  Laura is thinking long term.  Guys like Matt just want to stick around long enough to be in that position and think that they can only do that with E & R.  I tend to think like Laura. 

Sherri also had a good point - if Laura goes, it leaves her & Julia as the only women left.  Will they be picked off next?  In the end, I was surprised to see that Sherri and Julia went along with everyone and voted against Laura.  In the end I think that Sherri was maybe the lone voice of reason. I feel like we don't really ever get to hear much from Julia, but that she was thinking along the same lines as Matt.  Keep the team strong.  The good news is that they did force Reynold to play his idol.  I truly can't stand Reynold or Eddie, but maybe if I was on the tribe and we lost every challenge, I'd want them around a while too.  Reynold just seems like one of those guys who drives his BMW in the bus lane, you know?  They have convinced themselves that Hope was voted out "because she was pretty" not because she was part of a couples' foursome.  Does a bit of disservice to Hope, non?  And I feel like Eddie's just pissed off because now he can't hook up.  Like maybe going on Survivor was just a way to meet a hot chick in a bikini. 

So next week Baby Hantz finally loses his marbles.  Hard to say what sets him off, but I'm going to guess that he's not invited into the decision-making process by the CEO/Specialist and that perhaps his name gets brought up as a vote... or maybe he just thinks that... you never know what'll set Baby off.  It's that instability that should indeed get him voted the heck off.... But yeah, as with all Babies, he throws a huge hissy fit temper tantrum and dumps out the rice (not sure if there's pee involved) and wrecks a bunch of stuff... which I'm certain will be followed by a heartfelt apology and remorse.  Or a vote. Either way, things are getting gooooood!