My Fellow Beef-Squashers,

I liked this episode! Some good fightin', some interesting new challenges, and the removal of a goon. Not a bad hour's work!

Ken can't believe the size of Robb's balls.

We start on Day 16 with Robb causing trouble. He thinks Ken has been lying to him and confronts the cop. The CBS censors get a major workout. Here's one of the tamer exchanges:

Robb: "Hey, give me a straight answer on this: The first vote was between me and Jed, right?"
Ken: "You're @#%* straight it was. You're @#%* $!&@ right it was."
Robb: "Really. According to who?"
Ken: "According to everybody. They couldn't stand--You were annoying the #%!@ out of everybody, because you wouldn't shut up. You kept on running your mouth. I think I already told you this, but you know what? I'm probably lying, right?"

Ding ding ding! Ken wins that round for sure. Robb staggers back to his corner with a verbal black eye.

Our friends at Chuay Ghan decide to go look for the boat. The men think it may have floated out to a nearby island. After a struggle (especially for Ted) they get there but the boat is nowhere to be found.

Tension continues back at Sook Jai. Robb helps himself to some bananas and Ken goes after him again. Shii Ann gets jealous that no one's fighting with her and jumps in against Robb. The double team knocks him off balance. He's down! He's down! Will Robb's trainer throw in the towel?

Penny lets one fly.

The Reward Challenge is an excellent new game. One player from each tribe launches balls into the air with a large slingshot. The other players carry poles with baskets on the end. The first team to catch five balls in their baskets wins a huge food reward plus a trip off their beach. There's a lot at stake.

Robb completely dominates at the start. He's matched up against Brian and catches four balls over him. Only Ted catches one for CG so they trail 4-1. Chuay Ghan calls their one timeout and makes a great decision to put Ted against Robb. He's able to bump the faster Robb away from the balls, and CG catches three straight to tie the score. SJ takes their T.O. to regroup and it works with Ken catching the game-winner. Sook Jai will eat up!

The feast is complete with Thai xylophone players and dancers. Shii Ann says it brought the tribe together…almost. "It was just so wonderful to be able to see some of Thai culture, to see the dancing, to hear the music. I mean, I felt like just for a second that we were just maybe even friends just there enjoying each other and enjoying the meal." Just maybe.

The next day, the CG men are talking about the merge. They realize how important it is to win the next Immunity and even the tribes at five people apiece.

Speaking of peace (heh), Robb and Ken go for a walk to smooth things out. They find the bat cave but Bruce Wayne is nowhere to be found. Robb gets a little sentimental and says, "Ken and I really squashed the beef and really had, I mean, an amazing enough conversation that he made me make sense to myself, and not may people have done that." Squash that beef, boys.

Jan goes batty.

Tragedy has struck at Chuay Ghan camp. Jan found a dead baby bat. She names it Oscar and wants to have a funeral for it. The rest of the group isn't interested and Brian says his first question was whether or not they could eat it. "I don't know if that's just Jan being emotional," he says, "or if she's actually losing it a little bit out here." It's got to be the former because I don't think she had much to lose in the first place.

Mark Burnett wants Chuay Ghan to win so the Immunity Challenge is another puzzle. There are 21 flags and the tribes take turns removing one, two or three flags at a time. The team that takes the last flag wins.

CG does in fact win which immediately makes me wonder if the game is mathematically rigged. So I played with it and here are my findings: If the goal is to take the last flag, you want no more than 3 flags left when it's your final turn. This means you want your opponent to have exactly 4 flags left for his final turn (that way no matter how many he takes, you can take the rest and win). So if you take flag #5 (and leave #4) you win. To make sure you can get 5, you want to leave your opponent with flags 6, 7, and 8. That means if you take flag #9 (and leave #8), you win. If you keep going back, you realize the pattern is to always leave your opponent with a multiple of 4 (8, 12, 16, etc.). So the game WAS rigged…for Sook Jai. By picking first, all they had to do was take only one flag, and Chuay Ghan was stuck with 20 flags--a multiple of 4. From that point on you just counter what they pick so they're always left with a multiple of 4.

Of course, all this came from about 15 minutes of alone time with a pen and paper, and the game's only "rigged" if you know the secret. It was a fair challenge that could have gone either way. Sook Jai screwed up when there were 9 flags left by taking 3 instead of only one. CG did the math from there and took away 2 leaving the magic 4. Good job, old folks!

Back at camp, SJ drowns their sorrows in wine. Robb gets emotional again and talks about how this experience has changed him. "Life is so important right now to me and family, you guys, the most important thing in life--the people you love, the people who love you just as much. That's what this is about."

Love tribe? There's no love tribe here.

Shii Ann uses the moment to bury the hatchet. "You and I have had our differences, Robb, but I think you're a really, really good guy."

But then the very next morning we hear her say, "Is it a lovefest? Is it a love tribe? I don't think so." [Nice interlude of Jake breaking a chicken's neck.] "I think it was a little alcohol, a little bit of remorse for losing the game. I don't think it changes the politics here. I don't think that Penny and Erin trust me one bit more than I trust them. This is a game and strategically we're still divided." The Penny-Erin/Shii Ann thing is news to us and we'll have to keep our eyes on it as we go into the merge.

At Tribal Counsel Jeff says he is "delighted" that Sook Jai is having emotional experiences out here. Everyone says that it's going to be really tough to vote someone off.

We see Shii Ann vote for Robb. "There's an old proverb," she says. "'A wise man knows much but says little. A fool knows little but says far too much.' Robb, I was just beginning to like you but unfortunately you have to go. Sorry, buddy, no hard feelings."

Robb echos the same sentiment as he votes for Shii Ann. "No hard feelings, baby, I had to vote for somebody. We had our ups and downs but I'm definitely glad I got to know you." This is a much nicer quote than he's had for her in the past and it's nice to see they're acting more civil to each other.

"Duuuuuuude…"

I have to admit, they had me fooled into thinking Robb had finally convinced the tribe to vote for Shii Ann instead of him. So I was surprised when not one other person voted for her. Robb is the last person out before the probable merge. In his final words he says, "I never expected to come here and leave this inspired and excited. I leave here happy cuz I've already won. I love you guys." Good for you, Robb. You may be a winner, but you're still a weirdo.

Next on Survivor: Brian gets drunk and pukes, and Ken questions Shii Ann's loyalty.

This guarantees the merge. Brian's wine comes from Sook Jai and Shii Ann must be acting friendly with the Chuay Ghan people. NOW the game begins. Remember, this is the fist time the tribes have gone into the merge at even strength since Survivor 2. It's anybody's game.

Will both tribes stick together? Which group will get the majority after the first Tribal Counsel? Will me miss not hearing "dude" and "bro" every 10 seconds?

Dude, I'm stoked!

Your bro,
Scott

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