Survivor South Pacific Episode 6 recap, Wednesday, October 19, 2011.

Welcome to the sixth episode of Survivor: South Pacific!

It’s the night of the 14th day and the Savaii tribe has just had tribal council that resulted in the blindside ouster of Elyse, Ozzy’s closest ally. “Blindsides are a funny thing,” Ozzy begins while he and some of his tribe mates rekindle the campfire. “When you’re not on the right side of a blindside, you realize where the other people are.” Privately, he says, “I am now what’s called a ‘free agent'”. In camp, Ozzy says he’s playing for himself and… “I’ve got the idol, how about that?” Wow, he feels compelled to tell them this now? So, now they know that not only did they keep a secret from him, but that he also kept a secret from them!

Day 15 dawns with Ozzy going out and fishing and giving another confessional about how disappointed he is by the blindside in council. The rest of the tribe huddles up and agree that Ozzy has to “man up” and not be upset. After all, they could have blindsided him and he would have been caught without the idol in his possession.

Meanwhile over at the victorious Upolu tribe, they’re having a sumptuous breakfast from the spoils of their challenge victory. Coach tells us in confessional that he’s got the cards, with only Sophie and Albert knowing about his finding the idol. He’s worried about Brandon as the “loose cannon.” Speaking of Brandon, he finds the clue to the idol while searching for it. He lets Coach and Albert know that he found it while they’re out on a walk.

Little does Brandon know that Coach has already found it and in confessional Coach raises the question, “Is withholding information lying?” Brandon spends all of his time looking for the idol with Coach’s encouragement. Albert approaches Coach and says the he’s not comfortable letting Brandon know that Coach has already found the idol. Coach is having flashbacks to the Survivor: Heroes vs Villians season with Russell Hantz, Brandon’s uncle.

Now it’s time for the Redemption duel between Christine and Elyse. Christine was the first to arrive on Redemption Island and she has won three consecutive challenges up to now. Attending as witnesses are Ozzy & Keith and Rick & Sophie. In response to Jeff’s question about her ouster, Elyse says that it was surprising to think that the tribe mates who had rooted for her had suddenly voted her out. Jeff tells Christine, “Redemption Island has become your home” and she replies, “Yes, unfortunately.” “Unfortunately?” Jeff counters and Christine goes into tears. She’s says it’s hard, obviously feeling a bit lonely out there. Rick says, “Go, Christine” and she blatantly flips him off.

The duel is a Survivor version of shuffleboard. The goal is simple. They must knock off the other person’s pucks from the table. The one whose pucks are all knocked off first is out. Elyse won the ‘rock, paper, scissors’ choice to determine who goes first and she gives the first shot to Christine. Christine completely misses the opening shot. After a few shots with Elyse showing more skill and finesse, the pucks for each duelist are on separate sides of the board and not mixed up.

It should be straightforward power shooting from here. Christine has the first opportunity for a clean shot and she knocks off one of Elyse’s pucks. Elyse counters it and it’s 1-1. Christine knocks off another puck and then Elyse knocks off one of her own pucks! It’s 3-1 with Christina to shoot and it’s looking grim for Elyse. Christine misses twice and it’s a 3-3 tie. But then she hits the third shot to win 4-3 and the fourth consecutive duel! Wow. In confession, Rick (from the tribe Christine came from) notes that “she’s gonna come back smokin’, ready to kill us.”

It’s still Day 15 as we return to the Upolu tribe, where Rick and Sophie update their tribe members on the results of the duel. Rick mimics Christine’s flipping them off and they agree that Christine is unlikely to ever have anything to do with any of them in the future if she ever returns from Redemption Island.

Edna is out with Coach, finding coconuts. She hollers that she finds one and Coach responds, “Edna, I love you!” Don’t read between the lines on this one, as Edna is getting cozy with Coach with him fully aware of it. In private confession, Coach notes that to vote Edna off would be crazy, even if she is not in the original alliance of five, while Edna has Mikayla as a potential target in mind. Coach asks Edna, “Are you ready to follow me into battle?” and she replies, “Yes, even if it gets ugly.” At this point, he knows he can count on her well into the game and after the tribes are later merged.

Meanwhile, back at the Savaii tribe, Ozzy is still smarting while he talks with Keith. Keith says he “didn’t mean anything by it” and tells Ozzy he’s still willing continue to team up with Ozzy, saying they could kick butt. Ozzy confesses that he shouldn’t have told everybody that he had the idol as it now places a target on his back. Ozzy meets with Jim, Cochran and Dawn and tells them he’s sorry about “being a jerk” at tribal council and he’d like to be tight with them again. Jim privately says that Ozzy “has nowhere to go”, now that he’s a free agent with the idol.

Now it’s time for the immunity challenge! We get an overhead shot of the challenge ground and it looks like a pair of mazes side-by-side, one for each tribe. Teams will have to assemble a wheelbarrow and use it to collect coconuts along the maze route and dump them in a small enclosed area. Then the remaining tribe members will need to disassemble the wheelbarrow and rebuild it (Transformer style) into a giant sling shot to shoot the collected coconuts to at targets to be knocked down. The first tribe to knock down all of their targets wins immunity. They will also win an excursion to a natural rock water slide for an afternoon of fun, with a picnic lunch. Yummy!

Upolu has one extra member, so they opt to let Edna sit out of the competition. Assembling and handling the wheelbarrows are Brandon, Rick & Sophie from Upolu and Ozzy, Cochran and Dawn for Savaii. Both tribes assemble their wheelbarrows and reach the maze course at the same time, but Ozzy takes the wheelbarrow into a pole at the beginning of the course and they fall behind. Ozzy, Cochran and Dawn have trouble with the wheelbarrow on the course.

Meanwhile, Rick and Brandon easily manhandle their wheelbarrow and reach the end of the course and dump their load first. Albert, Coach and Mikayla reassemble the wheelbarrow into a slingshot and start shooting at the targets. Finally, the Savaii tribe dump their load, build the slingshot and start shooting after Albert from Upolu has already taken one target out. Albert is a good shot as he takes out a second target, while Mikayla is having trouble getting any range on her shots. A lot of shots go off, with more misses than hits as the score reaches 3-3. Jim is a crack shot and takes out the last target for Savaii tribe, who wins the competition!

Immediately afterward in private confessional, Coach doesn’t hesitate to place the blame on Mikayla for her many misses with the slingshot while they had a lead. He plans on “coaching” the tribe to vote her out. Would Brandon be pleased with this plan? But before we get back to the aftermath resulting from Upolu’s loss…

The six members of the Savaii tribe celebrate their victory! They enjoy a huge spread for a picnic lunch as they set aside any hurt feelings from the past tribal council. Ozzy goes out and has fun diving into the waterfall pool from the cliff face. After the others have gone into the water, Cochran finally gets brave and slides down the slippery rock slope into the pool to join them. Ozzy and Keith are doing stunts on the rock slide, flying into the air over a rock hump into the pool.

We return to the Upolu tribe, where we’re given a shot of flies covering one of the fish left back at the camp. Yuck! No picnic here, folks. Mikayla is the target now, as “she’s not coachable and doesn’t follow orders.” Albert, however, is not pleased with the plan. He approaches Mikayla and tells her that Coach and Brandon want to see her out, but he’s “not going to let that happen.” Albert then approaches Rick and Sophie and suggests that they target Edna instead, as “she has zero values.” “That’s why we had Edna sit out today.”

Albert then approaches Brandon and tells him that the way they formed the alliance in the beginning was authentic but the way Edna was brought in as the sixth person wasn’t as authentic. Brandon already has misgivings about having gone after Mikayla earlier and now he doesn’t want her out. He also doesn’t trust Edna and sees her as a dangerous player. But… he says, “I’d rather vote Edna off today, but I’m not going to because I am my word.” Brandon is open with Albert and Sophie about this and tells them that he hopes they respect him for it.

Albert and Sophie go and see coach. Albert tells Coach that he and Sophie think they should vote Edna off. Coach disagrees and they get into a bit of an argument. Coach says he told Mikayla to stop shooting, but she didn’t, while Edna would have followed his orders without question (even if he asked her to wipe Ozzy’s *blank*). Coach tells them he’d rather take Edna into battle than Mikayla.

The intrigue continues as Coach then goes to see Rick, who has the key swing vote. Rick’s got his hat back on as Coach tells him, “Man to man, I feel like things are trying to be a little bit railroaded right now.” Now that’s language Rick can understand. “Cowboy, I’m telling you the vote’s in your hands.” Rick’s not happy because that puts a target on him, with the rest of the tribe split 3-3. “You’re damned if you do, you’re damned if you don’t.” How will Rick vote? Will he pick someone else entirely and let the tie work itself out? We’ll see as…

Jeff convenes the Upolu tribal council. Jeff asks Coach what happened at the challenge and Coach replies that they didn’t work as a team. He says he told Mikayla that they should have stopped shooting and let Albert take the shots, but she didn’t want to stop. Brandon says that anyone playing the game will want to get to the tribal merge with people they can trust. It’s clear from the responses to Jeff’s questions that “it’s a divided tribe”, as Jeff puts it. Coach says it’s all about “honor, loyalty, integrity”, counting them out on his hand. Albert jumps in saying that “loyalty can be faked.”

“Loyal, loyal, loyal…” says Brandon, “I want to keep everybody to their word.” He makes it clear that those who are loyal will keep Edna instead of Mikayla, “That’s not loyalty, that’s a house divided.” Whoa. All the cards are on the table. Brandon is really hopping on Albert about the meaning of loyalty. Jeff’s eyes are wide open! Coach says there’s such a thing as “being too honest” when some cards should be shown and some cards concealed. He’s obviously not pleased with Brandon laying it all out. Brandon says telling half truths and half lies is “lasciviousness.” (Word of the day!)

Jeff brings and end to the talk, saying, “The only thing I can say with certainty is somebody is going to Redemption Island.” Curiously, nobody asked cowboy Rick what his thoughts were as the swing vote.

And the voting begins… Brandon votes Mikayla, Mikayla votes Edna, Coach’s vote is not shown, Albert votes Edna, Sophie’s vote is not shown, Edna obviously votes Mikayla, and Rick’s vote is not shown. The results: Mikayla, Edna, Mikayla, Edna, Mikayla, Edna and tied at 3-3. And on the last vote… Mikayla is out!

Jeff notes, “Loyalty, as honorable as it may be, is not always the answer.”

Next week, it’s “do or die” and a time for prayers.

Stay tuned!