Day 17, and Todd tells Amanda about the Hidden Immunity Idol clues so she can help him look for it. Seems a little early in the game to be giving away such a big secret.

The Reward Challenge is running through abandoned buildings to retrieve eight puzzle boards then working together to make a Confucius saying. I hope it’s the one about sitting in your own pew. The winner gets a trip to a teahouse for a bath and – I kid you not – Charmin. What does it say about your show when you allow an episode to be sponsored by toilet paper?

PG runs her leg along with Sherea and tries to tell her that the original tribe is still here for her, but Sherea doesn’t say anything. Fei Long gets the final piece first and they hold their lead for the victory. They then kidnap James to join them on the Reward. Well played, Mr. Burnett.

The bathing takes place in outdoor tubs. Jean-Robert talks about the girls sharing a tub and grosses out Courtney. James showers in the nude and Amanda is not grossed out.

The three remaining Zhan Hus are concerned about how well Sherea and Frosti seem to be fitting in with their new tribe so now they do want to win Immunity. A big strong guy like Aaron sure would come in handy right about now, huh?

Todd approaches James about sharing the clue tube and claims he can save James. James says Todd is the “cornerstone” of all the alliances and he does share the info with Todd, who solves the riddle. Todd and Amanda try and pry off the decorative square right in front of everybody so Frosti comes over to help them and he sees the writing on the back.

So the three of them go off together and Todd explains to Frosti that this is an Immunity Idol. Todd gives it to James and tells him to lose the Immunity Challenge on purpose so James can use the Idol to vote off Jaime. He also tells James there’s another Idol at the other camp.

James is understandably giddy and he gives Todd a playful slap on the arm. Todd says, “You almost killed me right there, James,” and the gravedigger replies, “That’s love, baby. Make you strong.”

Todd then tells both Denise and Courtney about the Immunity Idol that James now has so they know they have to win the next Challenge. Wouldn’t they have assumed that already?

And it’s the Gross Food Challenge. Round 1 is Frosti versus PG and they have to eat ten chicken hearts. Frosti wins easily and licks his plate to show off. There’s no need for that. Have a heart.

Courtney and Jaime square off to eat eel. Jaime almost gags but wins to even the score. That’s just not fair. Courtney couldn’t eat that much food even if it was chocolate.

Amanda and Eric have to eat baby turtles. Baby turtles?? That ain’t right. It’s a close one but Eric pulls it out to give Zhan Hu a 2-1 lead.

Denise and James get two balut, aka, almost-hatched chicks. Why the baby animals, why? James gives an Oscar-worthy performance and pretends he’s going to quit. But Denise actually does! James gives in and eats the bird to begrudgingly give ZH a 3-1 advantage.

Frosti and Eric take another round and get a thousand-year-old egg. Did you know it only takes several weeks to make a thousand-year-old egg? This Internet thing is pretty cool.

It’s back and forth, neck and neck, beak and beak…and Eric wins again to give his tribe Immunity! John Who?

Todd, Denise and Amanda want to keep their original tribe together and vote off Sherea but Courtney wants to get rid of Jean-Robert. She tells Sherea of the plan to vote her off and tries to change the rest of the group’s mind.

After thinking about it Todd tells Amanda that now he does want Jean-Robert out but Amanda doesn’t agree.

At Tribal Council Sherea interrupts Jean-Robert to go off on him and say that people don’t like him. Jean-Robert says he’s a “bad boy,” which makes Courtney laugh and call him a “crappy person.” Courtney says she feels like an outsider in this tribe and Todd says that hurts his feelings.

Jean-Robert and Sherea shock the world by voting for each other. The tally goes: JR, JR, Sherea, Sherea, Sherea…and Sherea!

That was a tough call. I do think it’s wise to keep your group together if you think they’re all loyal, but now you’ve got an openly bitter Courtney who was unstable to begin with. And she knows all about James’ Immunity Idol.

Todd is impatient, he panics, and he can’t keep secrets. Other than that he’s a great player.

So the tribe that lost on purpose wanted to win but the guy who most wanted to win tried to lose however the tribe that really wanted to win couldn’t win so the guy who tried to lose had to win.

I love this game.

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