It’s Day 13 in Ye Olde Chinae and over at Zhan Hu, Erik splashes around with Jaime and says it’s like being in the Garden of Eden with her. Funny, I never pictured the waters of the Garden as a dull shade of beige.

So Erik tells her he’s a virgin and Jaime tells him about the Hidden Immunity Idol. A V-card for the HII seems fair.

Speaking of sparks in the air, at Fei Long, James says he’s attracted to Denise’s work ethic. Aw, just like Erik and Jaime…but not.

A China guy shows up and gives the Longs a note that says they get to pick two people from the other tribe to join them. They select Frosti and Sherea but mostly worry about losing two of their own people.

Sure enough, Zhan gets the same note. But they don’t even consider that it’s a trade! Like Burnett’s going to say, “You know what? Forget that you’ve stunk for four straight episodes. Here are the two strongest guys from the other team. Enjoy!”

James and Aaron swap places with Frosti and Sherea. While they wait, Jean-Robert tells his tribemates they should vote off Sherea then Frosti.

I’m really enjoying the random Chinese hip-hop beats they throw in the middle of the episode.

James doesn’t like how laid back Zhan Hu is. “My people is miserable over there,” he says. “I like misery.”

The next morning, at Fei Long, Frosti and Sherea hear everyone complaining about Jean-Robert and know that could help them. At the other camp Aaron bonds with Erik, PG and Jaime. He talks about dumping James before he becomes an “Immunity Hog.”

But PG pulls Jaime aside and talks about losing the next two Immunity Challenges on purpose so they can vote off Aaron and James and even out the numbers of the original tribes. Very interesting.

It’s the Immunity Challenge and everyone suddenly has a swimsuit. Amanda models a striking camouflage number. The Challenge is two people from your tribe swimming and diving to retrieve submerged disks and then the other three people solving a puzzle.

After Erik and Aaron bust their behinds to build a sizable lead, Jaime does in fact throw the Challenge. Literally. When James isn’t looking she takes one of their pieces and pitches it behind the board. She goes on to giggle the entire time even with James yelling at her. Fei Long comes back and wins, and Jeff scolds Zhan Hu for their poor effort.

James doesn’t realize what PG and Jaime did. Back at camp he yells at them some more about not concentrating and Jaime can’t stop laughing.

Here’s a surprise, they didn’t let Erik in on it either! He tells Aaron and James he’s going to talk to the girls to try and find out what’s up. They do tell him, which can’t make him feel good. Jaime thinks Aaron has more allies in his old tribe so she wants him out, but when PG asks James if he wants to stay James says Aaron deserves to stay longer. Aaron tells us he’s voting for James.

At Tribal Council Jeff pushes for answers. He eventually asks Jaime straight out if they threw the Challenge and she says, “Yes sir.” The light goes on for poor James. Jeff asks him if it’s going to be him tonight and he says, “It should be,” because he hates losing and not trying your hardest.

Aaron votes for James, and James votes for PG. The tally goes PG, James, Aaron, Aaron, Aaron. That leaves one surprised Aaron and one angry James.

Jeff tells the conspirators that their strategy may pay off if their assumptions about the game are correct, but if they are wrong it could hurt them in a big way.

That was an interesting little twist. It instantly put all four the strongest players in danger and it got somebody to make a big move. Now we wait and see if it works.

One thing’s for sure, Jaime is not going to win this game. There have been a lot of bad liars and bad actors on Survivor, but she took it to a whole ‘nother level. I don’t mind PG’s move. There was solid strategy behind it, but you have to be able to pull it off. You have to barely lose and act upset about it. You have to deny, deny, deny when confronted.

Now it’s like they’re daring Mark Burnett to stick it to them. He could merge the tribes right now and Old Zhan Hu would still be at a disadvantage, plus James is still in the game. He could hold off on the merge until Jaime, PG and Erik have to vote off one of their own. Or, my personal favorite, he could do the note swap again only this time each team picks one person from the other tribe. Now suddenly Fei Long is intact again, and Zhan Hu is even further in a hole.

Now that would be funny.

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