Originally aired on Thursday, 06/07/2007

Episode Rating: ** (2 stars out of 5)

Episode Overview: It's the next installment of this adventure on the high seas, and the self-interested attitude of their Pirate Master Captain rubs many of the pirates the wrong way.

Episode Highlights:

• The pirates continue to adjust to life on the high seas.
• Joe Don Norton, the Captain, once again takes full advantage of his position, enjoying some creature comforts and a larger share of the treasure.
• Physical limitations make some pirates vulnerable to receiving the dreaded "black spot."

After skating through the Pirate Court without a single vote for mutiny despite the tension over his attitude as Captain, Joe Don makes arrangements to run a tight ship. He directs Sean Twomey to become a chef, and asks Jay Hatkow to become his Bosun, responsible for providing orders to the crew on behalf of the Captain.

Sean’s first meal as chef stirs up some of the simmering resentment the crew feels for the Captain. The crew are served a tiny portion of gruel, while the Captain gets eggs, bacon and fruit. Christian Okoye thinks it’s wrong for the Captain to not adequately feed his crew, while Louie Frase worries that Joe Don’s better nutrition will give him a leg up in the Pirate Master challenges.

If Joe Don has any advantage, they are all about to find out as it’s time for the next expedition. Host Cameron Daddo has the pirates retrieve the maps from the Chest of Zanzibar, then the crew is all divided into two teams. Joe Don and his officers, Ben Fagan and Cheryl Kosewicz, will lead the black team, and the rest of the players are divided up randomly. Nessa Nemir, Azmyth Kaminski, Louie, Christa Deangelo, and Jupiter Mendoza end up on the black team, and Sean, Joy McElveen, Alexis Shubin, Kendra Guffey, Chrisitian, Laurel Schmidt and Jay end up on the red.

The pirates leap off the boat and swim to shore. Kendra gets her team off to a slow start by being a weak swimmer. The black team is able to take an early lead and takes advantage of the opportunity to use the sabotage to block the path of the straggling red team.

The black team arrives at the first part of the challenge – a watery pit inhabited by a variety of snakes in which a piece of the challenge is hidden. After some hesitation and dithering, Nessa and Azmyth jump in and he is successful in finding the hidden compass plate.

Meanwhile, the red team struggles up the hill to the snake pit. Christian, despite his being a former NFL football player, is not quite so swift on his feet. Joy also has trouble when she falls and twists her knee. Determined to make up time, Sean picks her up and throws her over his shoulder so the team can continue up the hill.

The black team maintains their lead as Azmyth again leads the team to the next piece of the challenge, locating the altar onto which they must place the compass plate. The black team then uses the directions provided on the plate to begin searching for the buried treasure. The red team arrives, and makes the leap into the snake pit to search for their clue, but it’s to no avail: Azmyth finds the buried treasure.

Back on the ship, the booty is counted: $45,000. Once again, Joe Don gets half, and his officers share another quarter. Joe Don is given the option to switch his officers to two other pirates, but he sticks with Cheryl and Ben. The remainder is split between the rest of the crew, and they are none too pleased with their portions in comparison to what Joe Don is sitting on.

The crew’s bad feelings are not helped when Joe Don decides to share some of his booty – a whopping extra two hundred dollars per pirate. The pirates know that he now has about $40,000, and feel this offering is nearly an insult.

Joe Don is a little more generous when he thinks it can help with his strategy. He calls Jay in and offers him $2000 to be his eyes and ears. Jay takes the “bribe” as he calls it, but says he’s just going to play both sides. He decides to keep the exchange a secret from the other pirates.

It’s time for the Captain to make the picks for who will face the Pirate Court. He and his officers review the names, and then hand out the summons with the “black spots” for three pirates: Joy, Christian and Kendra. At the Court, Joe Don announces that each is there essentially for their physical limitations in the challenge. Kendra defends herself, saying she made up for her slowness in the water by being quick on land. Joy maintains that while she was injured in the challenge, she is fine now and has been a contributing member of the ship. Christian follows through on a conversation he had with his buddy, Louie, and calls for a mutiny based on Joe Don’s selfish treatment of the crew. Joe Don at first refuses to respond, but host Daddo asks him for his rebuttal. He tells the crew that they “know how [he] roll[s]” and that he thinks they are happy with him.

Amazingly enough, apparently they are. There are no votes for either mutiny or Joy. Kendra gets four votes, but it’s big Christian who is cut adrift, getting five votes from the others.

Which leaves one wondering why? Sure, Christian was slow, but was this the true rationale for the others to vote him off? Pirate Master is going to need to do a much better job of explaining motivation if we are to actually become interested in the outcome of each week. Also, one can only hope that the lame attempt the players frequently make to speak some form of stilted pirate speak was direction from the producers, and that it will eventually be abandoned. It’s about as easy to listen to as the universal accent Charla Baklayan Faddoul and Mirna Hindoyan adopted on The Amazing Race.

Normally reality shows start off slow, and it can be difficult to develop strong interest in the first few episodes when there are so many new players to get to know. But thus far, it’s difficult to see how Pirate Master came from the same creator as a relatively consistently interesting show like Survivor. One hopes that next week will be better.

- Leslie Seaton, BuddyTV Staff Columnist

(Images courtesy of CBS)