There was something spectacular with Survivor: Samoa last week.  Did you notice how the episode's entire mood changed when the blindside got underway, when names got tossed around, and when the vote finally came in, the editors decided to use different music just to highlight the shift?  I still feel chills thinking about it, yes.  But Erik's gone and it's another few days for the newly-merged Aiga tribe, where frontrunners get pushed to the back, and the most unlikely people get to jump the line.  In other words, I don't know what's happening now.

The one thing that's obvious is that Russell has a way bigger target on his back, especially after playing his hidden immunity idol.  It's his "dumbest move," Laura insists, because he's going next.

Apparently life at the Aiga camp isn't going well, because they're all going hungry.  So hungry, in fact, that it forces Natalie to hunt--and hunt she did. She finds a rat nibbling on something and just hits it with a stick, albeit hesitantly because it's just so cute.  Everybody's surprised, but they take fresh hunt anyway, and yes, it tastes like chicken.

The reward challenge splits the tribe into two teams of five.  Four will grab poles with black and white coconuts, and then arrange it so the white ones form a number.  The fifth member, blindfolded, will have to unlock a lock using the numbers.  The first to raise their flag wins a trip to a rock slide with a picnic lunch, featuring actual chicken.  The teams are selected randomly, and Natalie ends up becoming the odd one out, so she has to support a team.  She chooses the yellows: Russell, Jaison, Laura, Brett and Mick.

The challenge was pretty tight, but the purple team (that's Shambo, Kelly, Dave, John and Monica) figure out the number first and wins that trip.  It's a cool-looking rock slide, actually--a bit scary, but hey, the water is clear and it looks fun.  But there's a note with their picnic, and in comes the surprise: there is another hidden immunity idol in play.  Dave quickly plans to tell everyone at Galu, and not to leak it to Foa Foa, since Russell will find it again without a clue.  They had to beg Shambo not to tell anything to anyone.

It all goes nowhere, though, since Russell's been on the lookout for that hidden immunity idol--and he finds it under the bridge.  "Am I that damn good or is it just unprecedented?" he goes.  I think he has a spy.  Anyway, he tells Shambo first, and she doesn't really budge about the presence of the clue--but she does say that Russell is on the chopping block.  She forms a plan: Russell will play the idol again, so Galu's votes against him will go nowhere, and Foa Foa kicks Laura out.

There's immunity for only one person this time around.  The challenge: castaways try to grab two bags with pegs inside it, and the first three to do moves to finals.  Those three will fit one peg into a hole, which reveals another peg to slot, and so on: the first to finish it wins.  Shambo, Dave and Laura take those three slots, and the race was pretty close--until Laura starts figuring things out quickly.  She wins immunity, and feels pretty confident that Russell will go, counting on votes from everyone at Galu and Natalie, too.  Shambo, obviously, is heartbroken.

Luckily for her, she has a back-up plan.  If Laura gets immunity, everything proceeds as usual, only Foa Foa will vote for Kelly, to form dissention.  Russell reveals his immunity idol to Jaison, who tells the rest of Foa Foa, and he convinces his tribe mates to vote for Kelly.  He gets cold feet after overhearing that Galu's voting Natalie off.  He gets colder feet after pondering his use of the idol: will he not play it and get voted off, or play it and realize there are no votes for him?

Tribal Council time, and Erik comes in as the first member of the jury, visibly pissed at his kids at Galu.  He gets more pissed when Dave claims voting Erik off strengthened the purples.  It seems Galu has the upper hand--even Natalie and Jaison admit they can't read what they're up to, and Russell can only hope that someone from the purple side comes to them.  I think he was referring to Shambo.

And then the editors play a trick on us by playing a much more sinister version of last week's voting music.  A sign of things to come, yes.

Russell decides to play his immunity idol yet again, a move which shocks everyone at Galu.  (And Erik is sooo happy.  He is rooting for the yellows, it seems.)  And the votes come in: Russell, Russell, Russell, Russell, Russell, Russell, Russell, all useless.  (That's everyone from Galu, Shambo included.)  The next vote is for Kelly, and Galu is shocked again.  Two more votes for Kelly, and she is eliminated.  Laura can only whisper to herself: Russell "just stirred up a whole lot of hell."

Before the remaining castaways left, Jeff reveals that the hidden immunity idol will be back into play again.  Cue transition to next week's episode: everybody starts looking for that hidden immunity idol.  Oh, and Russell versus Laura, too.  But we all saw that coming, didn't we?





- Henrik Batallones, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
(Image courtesy of CBS)