Survivor Micronesia - Episode 7

Episode 7 opens with Tracy and Ozzy bad mouthing each other to the camera. He says she’s creating conflict within Malakala; she says he runs the tribe like a dictator and will win the game if they don’t get rid of him soon. It encapsulates the pre-merge dilemma of all Survivor contestants who go to tribal council: do we vote off the weakest to keep the tribe as strong as possible for the challenges and so increase our chances of avoiding having to return to tribal council, or do we vote off the strongest competitors within our own tribe to improve our long term chances of winning the game.

The only reason strongest Malakala competitor Ozzy didn’t get voted out the night before is because weakest team member Chet begged fellow Weakling Alliance members to send him home. So far Tracy’s strategy has been working for her – she’s already gotten rid of Mikey B and Joel. This episode is going to revolve around whether she can pull off this week what she almost succeeded in doing last – bushwhack Ozzy.

Next day; Airia emerge from their cave, where the tribe has huddled throughout the night against a driving rain. Kathy in particular looks shaky. We get shots of the cave during the night and it really drives home that this is a game of survival in the wild – and it is nasty; bats overhead, bugs big and small and rats crawl over them when they try to sleep.

Back at Malakala the women ridicule the growing bond between the tribe’s two men (the 6 Malakala members are split 2-4 men to women while Airia is 2-5. Funny we haven’t heard word one about the fact that men have outnumbered women in evictions by 5-1.). Cirie tells the camera, “When Erik says Ozzy’s name, stardust comes out of his mouth.” Later, Ozzy asks Cirie to help Erik and Amanda and him row the boat around to the back beach. Along the way they detour so everybody can swim around a reef to checkout the fish. Cirie is not a water person and resents the others for what she feels is taking advantage of her. It’s sad that people lose their sense of play as they grow older.

In the luxury challenge 4 blindfolded tribe members roll around a money stone – a four-foot high stone wheel with a hole in the middle for an axel. A fifth tribe member guides them through 4 small ramps spaced several yards apart. On each ramp is a box. The money stone crushes the box to free 2 smaller money stones which 3 tribe members will use to solve a puzzle.

Natalie sits out for Airia. Cirie directs Malakala, Eliza directs Airie. Cirie tells her tribe to go right when she means left at least twice. Nevertheless, Malakala gets all 8 pieces first. Erik, Cirie and Ozzy set to work on the puzzle. Airia gets their last pieces and James, Kathy and Eliza begin puzzling.

Malakala breaks its string of losses and wins a hot shower with spa products from (when they start paying me, I’ll start naming placed products). The send Jason back to Exile Island (his own tribe sent him last week). Malakala must also pick one of their own to send, meaning that person misses the hot shower the tribe has just won. Nobody volunteers. Ozzy smartly puts Tracy, who’s never been exiled, on the spot. “Think you could take one for the team?” What choice does she have?

The shower, set up at camp Malakala, is a tank-on-a-tower affair with only a waist-high privacy barrier. Ozzy and Amanda, showering in their bathing suits, are joined by Ami. For some reason this prompts Amanda to remove her top. Ami quickly follows suit. Cirie is somewhat amused, while Erik (and I) can only drool.

Cut to another rain storm moving in. At Airia Kathy cringes. She tells the camera, “When you watch the show you just see the rain for a couple of minutes. You don’t see us sitting in it for five hours, trying to sleep.” She says she tried to feel her daughter, but couldn’t. This is the final straw. The camel breaks. She sobs uncontrollably. She quits. They call in Jeff and she’s gone.

Counting Chet that means 20% of the Fans were quitters. And with Jonathan’s exit for medical reasons, it also means 2 fewer tribal councils. And finally, it means the tribes are even at 6, instead of the 8-6 it would be had Jonathan and Kathy stayed.

We get more of Cirie bad mouthing Erik and Ozzy (mainly Erik) to Amanda and Ami and it’s on to the immunity challenge. Tracy and Jason return from exile island, Jeff explains Kathy’s exit.

For the challenge a large wooden wheel mounted on an axel bent into handles has been constructed – looks like a dry-docked water wheel. The wheel is the spool for a length of thick rope. A member (any member, as many times as they want, even none) carries one end of the rope across a long floating bridge to a raft, where 5 large bundles await. You hook the rope to the bundle, climb aboard and have the rest of the tribe spin the wheel, pulling you and the bundle through the water to shore. The bundles contain large, heavy, unwieldy puzzle pieces.

Ozzy and Erik power Malakala to a big lead. Cirie and Amanda undo the bundles and go to work on the puzzle. But Airia's Eliza and Jason are far too quick. Airia comes from behind to win a 3rd straight immunity challenge.

Now it’s going to get interesting. Can Tracy and her alliance pull off yet another assassination of the king?

Ami tells Tracy, “The girls want to get rid of Erik. Ozzy want to get rid of you. It was his idea to send you to Exile Island. If we can get Ozzy to vote for you and us 3 girls to vote for Erik, then you, me and Erik can vote to get Ozzy out of here.”

Huh?

She clarifies for the camera. “The plan that Tracy and I talked about is; talk Amanda and Cirie into voting to get rid of Erik, which they want to do anyway. Tell them that I’ll vote with them. Go for that. We all 3 say we’re voting for Erik. Ozzy doesn’t know and doesn’t want to vote for Erik, so he’ll vote for Tracy, thinking we’re all going to vote for Tracy. After all that, Tracy, Erik and I are going to vote for Ozzy and take Ozzy out at the knees.”

Boy, Ami sure doesn’t understand men the way Cirie does. Like she said, when Erik says Ozzy’s name, stardust comes out of his mouth. There is no chance Erik will backstab Ozzy.

At tribal council Jeff asks Tracy who is leading the tribe. She says Ozzy. She says, “He tells us when to eat and what to eat.” Ozzy denies being the leader, which draws smirks all around. The two go at it until Jeff steps in and polls other members. Ozzy gulps every time he is identified as Leader (which Ozzy clearly equates with Target). Ami comes right out and says Ozzy is a threat to them all and will have to go at some point. “You have to hold your cards till the time is right to play them,” she say ambiguously.

Tracy gets blindsided by an unambiguous 5-1.

My bet is Erik, Amanda or both alerted Ozzy to what was up and between them they quickly pulled the others in line.