My Fellow Assumers,

Well, well, WELL. Just when you think Mark Burnett is out of tricks, he pulls out one of his best yet. Face-paint me impressed!

"Is that a game-altering moment I see?"

We start on Night 18 and Sook Jai is bursting at the seams. Erin and Penny don't trust Shii Ann and Ken. Ken and Shii Ann are watching Penny's every move. Will they stay together?

The next day, mail arrives and each player gets his or her own color body paint. Chuay Ghan really gets into the paint. Just in time for Halloween we have Brian with a bright orange beard and Ted looking like a cross between a genie and Homer Simpson. D'oh!

The tribes get together and are paired up by color: Clay-Shii Ann, Penny-Brian, Erin-Ted, Helen-Ken, and Jake-Jan. A couple couples go inspect the camps. Shii Ann really likes the caves of Chuay Ghan beach. Helen is impressed with the Sook Jai shelter and water. Sure smells like a merge.

Helen and Ken are wary of each other, but Shii Ann on the other hand "spilled my guts" to Clay. She tells him Ken is the leader of their tribe and Penny can't be trusted. She then talks alliance with Clay.

Why? Why?! WHY?!? You can feel from the start that this move has disaster written all over it. It has no strategic value at all. But much more on this later.

Jeff says, and I quote, "Today something very different is happening. The two tribes will now live together on one beach." Heh heh.

"Here are all the Sook Jai secrets, and here is my ticket off the island!"

The ambassadors choose Chuay Ghan beach and Sook Jai moves in. There is a bunch of food waiting for them including wine. We hear the Survivor Theme Remix as the castaways chow down. They have chosen the name "Chuay Jai" and everything is grand.

Shii Ann is very happy with her new campmates. "I would say the entire tribe of Sook Jai except for Jake and Ken, have done their best to socially ostracize me and, uh, and basically torture me." Obviously, we don't see everything that goes on, but I think torture is a pretty strong word. She admits that Jake and Ken are her allies. Isn't that enough? Do you honestly expect to get along with everyone?

The party continues into the night and Jan gets stumbling drunk. Shii Ann and Ted have a sing/mumble duet. Brian gets really wasted and tries to play guitar, giving Ted a big laugh. "He was talking about the moons, and girls, and this and that. I was like, oh no no, he's gone. He's a goner."

Goner Brian tells Ted that Ken is after Ted. Brian then loses his lunch, dinner and everything in between. "I was, uh, talking to my good friend Hurling Freddy," Brian says. I understand they were introduced through his other friend, Porning Bartholomew.

Brian also says he's the leader and shares his plans for world domination. "I know that maybe Shii Han is not too happy with her tribe. We'll see if I can use her as part of my kingdom." Is that like Shii Han Solo? Maybe he's talking about rebelling against the Republic and taking over Tatooine.

Sith Lord Brian goes to work on Shii Ann. The Dark Sides appeals to her. "I have two people who really trust me," she says, "and I'm about to break their trust." She then tells us, "I told Chuay Ghan that I'm on board…. I'm working a deal. I'm voting Penny out."

"Blue Face, Orange Beard and Gold Noggin party it up."

We see a gigantic spider eating a caterpillar. Ewww!

Shii Ann stays in the hot seat as Ken confronts her about changing sides. "Everybody said you were going to do this and I defended you saying you weren't and then you're doing it." Ken then gives the best advice you're ever going to get on how to play the game of Survivor:

Ken, to Shii Ann: "Penny's already gonna go. I've talked about it with Brian too. She's going. It's just, not yet. Let us get an advantage first, then we'll take out Penny."

Ken, to us: "We're even numbered here, five and five. Now you're going to give them an advantage thinking, you know, because you're like a little snake now they're gonna, like, invite you in? That shows disloyalty from the beginning. She's making herself an outcast on both sides at this point."

Ken, to Shii Ann: "I know you're pissed off at Penny and you want to get rid of her and you don't want her to make the jury, but don't sink everyone and yourself because you're pissed off at one person."

There it is folks. It doesn't get clearer than that. Remember Brandon in Survivor Africa? He turned against his tribe mainly because he couldn't stand Frank. He thought he had a commitment from Boran but what happened? He was the very next person to go. You can't prove your loyalty by being disloyal.

Does Shii Ann listen? No. "At this point I'm ready to gamble and vote out Penny and Erin, and just seeing what happens with the Chuay Ghan tribe." Ladies and gentlemen, Shii Ann has just committed Survivicide.

Day 21 and we see CG's monkey friend coming down and stealing their food. How great is that? The Survivors can't even trust Magilla in this game.

Sook Jai comes up a Penny short.

It's time for the Immunity Challenge and Jeff asks how things are going.

Erin: "I never would've expected our merge to have gone as smoothly as it has."
Jeff: "You said 'merge.'"
Erin: "Yes."
Jeff: "I certainly didn't say anything to give you that impression, did I?"

Wow! The tribes are NOT merged. They are still separate even though they now share the same beach. What a great twist! And what a priceless look on Shii Ann's face. Oops.

We have another excellent new game. The tribes are chained up and put in bamboo jail cells. They have to tie sticks together to retrieve fifteen keys from the outside. Once everyone is unlocked, they have to dig out from under their cell to escape. First tribe free wins Immunity.

It starts to rain for extra effect. Chuay Ghan gets the first two keys, but Sook Jai comes back and ties it at four. We fast forward to both tribes needing just one more key.

Shii Ann has a nice lasso-type devise going but it's not enough. Chuay Ghan gets the last key and they all escape before Sook Jai even begins to dig. Chuay Ghan wins again!

The Sook losers go off to Tribal Counsel where the wind and rain really pick up. Jeff asks her how things are going and the verbal attacks begin. "I have already found out," Erin says, "that some people weren't being true to our tribe and were kind of trying to win over some of the Chuay Ghan members."

Penny joins the fun. "One of my tribe members has said that I'm the next to go. So, you talk about trust, and I've had to trust these people for eighteen days, well that last 24 hours I'm thinking, 'Who can I not trust?'"

Jeff gives Shii Ann the chance to defend herself and she proceeds to seal her fate. "As much as everyone here would like to think it was a tribe unified, this has not been the case, and I've been the brunt. I've been the person who felt that the most the entire time."

Shii Ann then starts doing some major backpedaling. She says she never promised anything to anyone. "Honestly, today, I didn't make any decisions. I told you that I would come up and tell you. I've not lied to you yet." Nice use of "yet" there.

No more ShiinAnnigans.

Shii Ann votes for Penny and Penny returns the favor. Jeff reads the votes and to no one's surprise at this point, Shii Ann is voted out.

Next time on Survivor: The two tribes struggle with their awkward living arrangements as Ken gets peeved at the pee. "I don't go around pissing where I sleep like Chuay Ghan. Just for that simple fact I can't feel at home here." Plus more monkey business.

I'm so SO disappointed in Shii Ann. I thought she was playing a great game. She got in with the leaders of her tribe, and she played along with the group in voting off Jed and Steph even though it was Robb she least liked. Why couldn't she do the same with Penny? As she said in her final words, "Well, I committed the classic error of plotting and scheming too much." It just shows that in this game, you can't let your guard down one bit. She did, and Shii is gone.

So, when will they merge? Does CG have an advantage the rest of the way? Will Burnett give SJ a chance to even the score? Will Jan ever be able to completely wash that blue paint off her face? Stay tuned and see you again next week!

Your Chuay Jai Guy,
Scott

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