Episode
9: "Dinner, Movie and a Betrayal" (Air date: December 13, 2001; filmed
August 4-6, 2001)
Our picks: RC - Brandon,
and his unlikely partner (Lex or Frank).
Close enough.
IC - Lex.
X Boot - Ethan or Brandon. Illogical
choice: Ethan; Logical choice: Brandon.
Since we never actually called him, we won't be gloating here.
Episode
9: "Dinner, Movie and a Betrayal"
This week, we'll compare and contrast the CBS site and Zap2It's
descriptions. |
What
CBS says |
What
Zap2It says |
What
we think it means |
What
actually happened |
(1)
The tribe reacts to Brandon's decision. |
- |
(1)
Now why would they do this? This takes up the first 20 minutes
of the show. |
(1)
Hmm, foreshadowing? |
(2)
Tom helps the women shower. |
- |
(2)
More skin, more Tom = bigger ratings for CBS! Eeew, Tom, what's
that on your neck? Stop spraying it on us! |
(2)
CBS saved this thrilling footage to prop up the sagging ratings
for the ritualistic ep10 Pagonging. |
(3)
An unlikely date is on the minds of many. |
(3)
Meanwhile, a reward challenge results in an unlikely date. |
(3)
Brandon and ?, sitting in a tree... ? |
(3)
Well, 50% right, and called either Lex or Frank. Got the message
from home part wrong, though. |
(4)
A tribe member breaks down in tears over a critical decision that
needs to be made. |
(4)
All is not well in Moto Maji when one tribe member is completely
devastated by the actions of another. One tribe member has
difficulty grappling with the deceptive actions of another. |
(4)
Could be just about anyone. KimP makes little shooting motions.
Does Teresa finally crack? Brandon? |
(4)
Partial credit on KimP, we guess. Was that really "breaking down
in tears"? We sure as hell didn't see any cascading down her
face. |
Reward Challenge
There's eight people left, so it's about time for MB to pull out the
trusted old gimmick of having the suckers compete to hear words from
their families. Sounds like videos from home is the reward, except
the preview shows an actual film projector. So it could be just
about anything. The previews show the challenge to be an obstacle
course, which looks quite similar to the "Paired Off" challenge from
Survivor 2. In that, pairs of people competed in two-team heats,
then the two winning teams faced off for the reward. This was
one of the best challenges that season, because Colby threw Jerri over
a wall, Jerri hallucinated that they were on a honeymoon, and Colby
almost got Survivor sued by Australia, by stealing protected
coral. Anyway, the only team we see here is KimP and Tom (Fig.
1). We can tell it's Tom, because of the whitish brim on his buff
(Tom's personal style). The only other competitor shown is MamaKim.
So who is that spreading relish on the hot dog (the "dinner" part of
the title, and part of the reward, Fig. 5). We think it's Brandon,
but it's possible that it could also be Tom. The TV preview shows
slapped-together-looking "frames" from the movie, which appear to have
the letters "R" and "D" on them (Fig. 6). Could this be a movie
from home, perhaps with the winner's name written in pen at the start
of the reel? Or are the letters on the film just part of the written
word, "reward"? Brandon win? *Cough*
ignore that other movie stuff *cough*
Immunity Challenge
No obvious previews, but at least Lex is painting something on his torch
(to match last week's bogus necklace shot, maybe?). That's about all
we have to go on. On the other hand, MamaKim and Ethan are high-fiving
about something, while KimP has her hand over her mouth. Both
Kims are dressed differently than at the RC (although KimP is wearing
the same top as when she's reading the RC treemail), and both appear
to be holding slips of paper. Could this be right after they pick RC
teams, and MamaKim scores Ethan, while KimP is horrified to be anchored
with Tom? Since this shot is most likely RC, we have no info whatsoever
about IC, so we'll pick Lex wins
Boot
Okay, we'll play spoiler roulette this week.
Lex is toast unless he wins immunity. But that doesn't fit "betrayal,"
even if his every Boran votes against him. That's more of a mutiny.
Plus, the necklace-on-Lex's-torch picture had to come from somewhere.
So Lex either wins immunity, or he walks on water, and the remaining
survivors bow down before him in worship. Lex is safe. Then
there's the good old CBS-registered "nickname" domain names, all of
which were registered after this
episode (August 7th) - littlebitpower, bigtombuchanan, t-birdcooper,
mamakimjohnson. So we'll wager that CBS would not have spent the cash
to register them if they were not still on the show. KimP, Teresa
and MamaKim are safe. Tom should be as well, even though he's the logical
target if Lex wins immunity, because he has three votes against him,
trumping any Samburu. But the domain registration is a bit odd, and
one of his neighbors claims he made the final four, and got to contact
home as a reward (she has since deleted her posts on EZ). We're
wary of both these "spoilers," but we'll give Tom a bye this week.
That leaves Brandon, Ethan and Frank. This
must be where the betrayal comes in. Frank was invisible in episode
8. So he's probably safe, although it's not out of the realm of
possibility that Brandon would unite with Boran again to oust him.
But we think Brandon is smarter than that. Brandon, however, was
very, very visible in ep8. But he's only just emerged as a focus,
although he did make the horrific misstep of saying he was going to
the final four to the voting booth camera. Not good Survivor karma.
On the other hand, Ethan is looking an awful lot like Colby, and he
said he would never forget his reward in Ep.8, no matter what else happens
to him in the game. Foreshadowing? If Lex wins immunity,
could the four Samburus and one Boran seize the opportunity to boot
Ethan? One way for this to happen: MamaKim, sensing she's number
four in the pecking order, aligns herself with Frank and Teresa in a
final three pact, and jumps ship (the "betrayal" in the title).
A Brandon boot requires the Borans to realize he's switched sides again,
and one of the Samburus not to trust he's actually back. Both
Ethan and Brandon are possible. But we'll
throw caution to the wind, and pick the guy who's being "bugged" in
the previews: Ethan. Our logical side
says it's Brandon, though. |