Survivor China: week 9

This is the fifteenth season of Survivor, and this week not only did the creative forces behind the scenes manage to get through two challenges that didn’t involve ropes or puzzle pieces, they also did something new and actually original with the opening credits. Instead of still showing everyone in their original tribes, they showed the members of the merged Hae Da Fung tribe, then showed the members of the jury, and left the dearly departed to rot in obscurity until the reunion show.

The aftermath of last week’s Tribal Council was bitter for some, scary for others and elated for one in particular. Denise is furious that nobody thought to tell her that the original plan of voting for PG, with which she had faithfully complied, had changed to voting for Jean-Robert. James had a nasty scare receiving three votes on a night when he didn’t even bother taking either immunity idol with him to Tribal Council. And Courtney is just pleased that Jean-Robert is gone. Pleased is perhaps an understatement.

Jean-Robert might be gone, but PG stepped comfortably into his shoes as the camp nag and painfully annoying person just begging to be voted off. As one of only three remaining Crouching Tiger members there’s a huge target painted on her forehead and her behaviour this week just drew attention to it, while Erik and Frosti both took the somewhat more tactically advantageous approach of sucking up to those by whom they are outnumbered.

Part of PG’s complaint is that she’s a total loser. In her own unique grammatical style, she described herself as "the most losing-est Survivor left in this game right now" for having won the fewest challenges. However, this week’s reward challenge started well for her. She won the draw to be a team captain, and won the Rock Paper Scissors competition to get first choice of who was on her team, quickly snapping up James. From there it went completely pear-shaped.

Each team had to manoeuvre an obstacle course (featuring numerous Bunnings terracotta warriors) while bouncing a tennis ball on a Chinese drum. PG’s team just couldn’t get it together, and the other team completed the course three times and had won before her group got anywhere near dropping a single ball where it needed to be.

Back at camp she laid the blame squarely on James for dawdling instead of running back to the start mat each of the many times they had to do that because they'd stuffed up. She’s right that he wasn't putting in 100%, but he wasn’t going to take any criticism from someone who had deliberately thrown a challenge in the past, and he wasn’t giving up his moral high ground either.

Meanwhile, Eric, Frosti, Courtney and Amanda were enjoying a feast of fried chicken, mashed potato and gravy during an overnight boat cruise on the Lee River. The scenery was spectacular, meaning it’s probably due to be dammed for a hydro-power plant some time in the next few years. Courtney and Frosti’s flirtation continued unabated. He openly acknowledges that she’s out of his league, but if he keeps giving her back rubs like that he’ll make up the gap pretty quickly. Erik had some flirtations of his own, both with Amanda and some goats by the river’s edge. He really does an impressive goat impersonation. Scarily impressive.

Back at camp, James, Denise and Todd were all worried about how alliances might be shifting, particularly if Courtney gets too close to someone scheduled to be picked off. James did a rather Biblical lecture about the importance of resisting temptation and not eating the damned apple. I suppose there’s nothing in the Bible about not eating the cheeseburger and fries.

That’s the only way to explain his gluttonous reaction at the Immunity Challenge the next day when Jeff gave everyone the choice between participating in the memory challenge for immunity or eating. Courtney, Todd and Denise joined him at the banquet table, while all three members of the former Crouching Tiger went for immunity, along with Amanda (who it seems is not having a wardrobe malfunction but just chose a swimsuit that’s too high-cut in the booty for prime-time American audiences, which is why it’s being pixelated. Think Kylie’s gold hotpants and you get the idea).

To everyone’s unanimous horror, PG won immunity. Well, the ones who ate weren’t too upset initially. Courtney and Todd both tried to answer Jeff’s questions, but their mouths were so full that their answers were unintelligible even to the geniuses who normally do the subtitles when somebody mumbles. About the only thing that came out clearly was Courtney’s observation as she stood up from the table that she was covered in mayonnaise. Maybe that was her way of taking something back to camp for Frosti.

Her loyalty was soon tested. With PG safe the others had to pick whether to vote out Erik or Frosti to keep the numbers in favour of the original Hidden Dragon members. And Frosti and Erik both knew it too, each wishing the other good luck if he managed to survive the night. Frosti wrenched himself away from Courtney’s skeletal clutches long enough to lobby Todd and point out how nice Erik is and what a threat that makes him if he reaches the final three. Todd didn’t buy it, and pointedly asked Courtney whether she is committed enough to the game to vote against Frosti when the time comes. She was non-committal. Todd was frustrated. The editors were happy that they could build some tension going into the vote.

With Jean-Robert gone, Courtney had nobody left to insult so it was a pretty boring Tribal Council. Frosti voted for Erik and Erik voted for Frosti, each expressing dismay that they had little choice. Everyone else voted for Frosti, too, including Courtney, so that’s him gone. Jeff still had one surprise, announcing that "the ability to adapt, moment to moment, is what’s going to keep you in this game. And we’re gonna test that right now. Tonight you will not be heading directly back to camp. We have more business to attend to here." Roll credits. And thanks to Channel 9 for deciding to only run a single episode when it ends on a cliff-hanger like that.