Episode 8: "The Jury's Out" (Air date: April 18th, 2002; filmed December 3-5, 2001)

Our Picks:
Boot: Leaning towards John over Kathy or Paschal.
X RC: Robert.  Nope, Kathy.  Coulda gotten it if ET was a few hours earlier.
IC: Tammy.
Immunity: Probably Tammy.

Here's this week's misdirection from CBS:

Episode 8: "The Jury's Out"  View the web preview here.
What CBS says	What we think it means	What actually happened
(1) With "Boston Rob" now gone, Sean and Vecepia vow to fight till the end. But John has his own plans for them.	(1) "Stay on the shore and drink lots of water... I'm going hunting for sea urchins."  Probably, they will be used to vote off the new ex-Maraamu.	(1) They actually had their own plans. Cool.
(2) One Survivor wins an incredible voyage into "another world" deep under the sea.	(2) This would be the reward challenge.	(2) That was a toughie. Huh?  You wanted to know who it was?  Isn't that asking an awful lot of a spoiler site?
(3) Seeking the truth, Kathy confronts Zoe. Will they be friends?	(3) No.  At least, not according to the previews.  So probably yes, then.	(3) Since Zoe voted with Kathy, it would seem to be yes, despite what the editing suggested.

RC - Kite flying... whee!
The arrival scenes for this challenge do not obviously show Kathy wearing the immunity necklace, so the kites are probably RC.  Since the reward is a diving trip, the diving scene may give a clue to the winner.  Good luck figuring that one out.  Perhaps the only clue is Robert and John touching fists, with kites in the background, and a bag apparently over Robert's shoulder.  Either a departure or a return for Robert?

Let's go fly a kite!  Arrival at the RC.	High five!  No, that's not a purse... it's European!	Under the sea... That's probably a dive guide on the right, and Robert on the left.
A post-IC citrus feast.  Tammy is now wearing the necklace.	More post-IC feasting. Vee, like Tammy, is wearing different clothes than in the kite pictures.	Neleh and Paschal plotting.  Same clothes as the post-IC pictures.  Really targets, or the usual post-IC obfuscation?

IC - No previews, but Tammy wins
As shown above, Tammy is shown wearing the necklace.  Now the question is: will she keep it?  As long as the Rotu Four can line up the votes in their favor, probably.  But she could pass it off to the more vulnerable members: John and Zoe.  Giving it to Sean would go a long way towards reeling his vote in against Paschal, Neleh and Kathy.

Boot: John
John: All credit due here goes to Snewser of votedoff.tv (and Survivornews.net), who pointed out that the answer may have been staring us in the face for two weeks: The Jury's "Out."  Entertainment Weekly made issue of Rob"outing" John on national TV (um, he was out before the show started, actually).  But a John boot makes a lot of sense, once you consider it.  John vs. Rob was a story line for a long time, and now that it's over, John still finds his alliance in a 4-5 minority.  Tammy wins immunity, but her bulldog, winner-take-all philosophy seems to suggest she would never in a minute consider passing it off.  Or if she does, it might be in a harebrained scheme to "recruit" a wayward alliance member, such as Kathy, Vee or Sean, to ensure their vote.  But Jeff Probst said that religion would come into play in voting this season, and specifically mentioned it doing so for four people (Neleh and three others: probably Paschal, Sean and Vee).  We have yet to see this, and it's reasonable to consider that John may want to break up the Neleh-Paschal or alliance by targeting one of them, and that this will throw those four into a counter-alliance.  Religious ties trump loyalty to bad-guy, controlling John, who just wants their votes long enough to get himself to the final four.  If Kathy joins them, or (gasp!) Tammy does, John's gone.  A good idea, Snewser, and it just might work.

Like Teresa last year (what is it with these realtors?), we're going to keep beating the "Kathy goes" horse until it eventually happens. Kathy got a lot of face time in the last two episodes.  Her constant whining about being vulnerable and being lied to has become tiresome.  And it's difficult to imagine a scenario in which Tammy would willingly hand her the necklace.  And she voted against Zoe, which is a shot across the bow for the Rotu Four.  Sure, she was only doing this because she agreed to not vote against Rob, and she didn't join Rob/Sean in voting against John.  She's a bit of a wild card, and that may spare her for another week.

Paschal, however, is a more logical boot at this point, if John's plan is still to boot the new ex-Maraamu.  Since we know Sean is safe (thanks to Survivornews.net), that's probably the case.  Breaking up the Paschal-Neleh alliance makes for a much easier path to the final four, especially if Kathy's vote is untrustworthy, since that would leave four individuals (Sean, Vee, Kathy, Neleh) who have rarely voted together in the past.  Still, Paschal's no Kathy.  OTOH, the episode title, "The Jury's Out," seems to hint at Paschal's courtroom profession, but then "Two Peas in a Pod" sounds like Paschal and Neleh win the reward next episode.  So we'll go with John.