Day 7 at Morgan and Andrew says they need a victory. Someone just won the Understatement of the Year award. Lill is sad that Ryan S., her "best friend in the tribe," is gone. She knows she's now in trouble but feels she deserves to stay longer than Darrah.

Lill confronts Andrew about keeping Osten from Boston after he quit, but Andrew defends Osten. "He's someone anchoring our tribe," Andrew says. That is true, anchors do sink pretty fast.

Drake spends the day looking for the buried treasure. Why? If the plan is to make you win three parts of a map to get the treasure, there's no way they're going to let you find it after only one win. Heck, it might not even be buried yet for all they know.

Whatever floats Drake's boat.

Tree Mail says the Reward Challenge will involve water so Sandra and Jon fight about who's the better swimmer. A shouting match ensues and Jon storms off. "He doesn't want to seem like he's the weakest one here," Sandra says, "which he is."

Jon counters with: "Her days are numbered. We have bigger threats to get rid of first but she's not one of the final four. [Dumb laugh] And I got a mil that says she won't be the final one!" So Dangling Fury thinks he's in a tight alliance of four. The only possible one would be with Shawn, Burton and Michelle, but Jon strikes me as the type to often see things a little differently than the way they truly are.

The Reward Challenge involves four little boats and the goal is to sink the other tribes' two boats. Awesome idea. Each boat has plugs in the side that can be removed with a hook at the end of a pole. The winning tribe gets a mattress, blankets, pillows and another plundering opportunity. Jon and Michelle sit out and we begin.

Osten has obviously never been on a boat before because he stands up and almost sinks his team from the start. So, to counter he moves his boat completely away from the battle. Such a wuss.

Andrew calls him back over but Osten decides to stand up again and he is quickly sunk. You know where this is going. The two Drake vessels double-team Andrew's boat. "Rupert, putting the hammer down on Morgan," Jeff says as Blackbeard uses his pole to push Andrew's boat down into the water. It's quickly over and Drake wins for the fourth time in a row.

The next morning at Camp Pathetic, Lill is up first and goes fishing. When the others see she's gone, Ryan says they should be working more as a team. Lill admits they told her two people should fish together. You know where this is going. Lill catches nothing, loses their last fishhook and sulks back home. Andrew tells us he doubts her knot-tying skills. Remind me not to trust my life to a rope tied by a Cincinnati Boy Scout.

Lill knows the next vote is between her and Darrah and she "just wanted to shine a little." Oops.

Christa is the chosen looter for Drake and this time they're less concerned about taking Morgan's only water pot. Christa isn't sure about it and is happy to see they actually have two pots. Andrew tries to pry her for information. He asks if they have a leader, and who would be voted out if they lose Immunity. Christa smartly plays dumb, which isn't hard with that voice of hers.

Andrew now says Morgan is the mentally stronger tribe because of their adversity. That's just like when athletes say, "The better team didn't win today," even though winning is how you determine the better team.

Mail comes with a tribe flag and each side is to pick their smallest and strongest person. Morgan chooses Osten for strong. Will their anchor continue to weigh them down?

Michelle and Darrah hang out.

The tribes assemble for the Immunity Challenge and Burton's 'fro is coming in nicely. The chosen small people, Darrah and Michelle, sit in harnesses and are dangling over the water. The tribe that keeps their person dry the longest wins.

Trish and Burton sit out. Not sure why you wouldn't want to use one of your biggest guys. Every five minutes one person from each tribe lets go of the rope until it's down to the chosen strongest: Osten vs. Rupert.

After a while the girls' legs are going numb in the harnesses and Jeff wonders if either of them will give up. "Someone will quit," he says. "One of you two or one of those two will quit."

Ninety minutes have passed and the rope holders now have to stand up and stay on their feet. Rupert gives Osten the stare of death. I would not bet against the crazy guy. As Matthew proved last season, if you're insane, you feel no pain.

At the two-hour mark Jeff says neither guy can lean against the wooden post. "Coming down to pure body strength and will." Osten has the body strength; Rupert has the will. You know where this is going.

Osten is leaning over the post and should be eliminated for cheating, but then he lets go to end all doubt. He's so good at quitting. Drake wins yet again!

Rupert has the eye of the insane tiger.

But was there ever a doubt? I mean, Rupert would've let the rope saw him in half before he let go of it.

Day 9 and Morgan needs another fall guy. Andrew says he has an alliance with Ryan, Osten and Tijuana so it'll be one of the other two. He says Lill contributes more around camp but Darrah is better in challenges. Because she brought them all those wins, right?

Andrew talks to Lill about the chance of her going and says he'll get back to her if it's not looking good for her.

Tribal Council time and Jeff says they're one of the losingest tribes ever and could set the record. So what is the record? Curious, I did some research and found that with five straight losses and three straight trips to Tribal Council, Drake is one more bad episode away from tying the records held by…drum roll please…Maraamu of S4. You remember that motley band of chumps: Boston Rob, big mouth Sean, booby Sarah…you know, the tribe that voted out their strongest person in the third episode. That's right, Maraamu rattled off six straight losses and voted off four consecutive players to start the show, and the only thing that saved them was the producers hiding that one tiki piece from Gabe.

Anyway, the point is, Morgan is really bad, yet Jeff wonders why they don't seem worried. Osten says it's just a slump, and Andrew predicts victory next time.

Darrah votes for Lill, and Lill returns the favor saying, "You are like the Mississippi belle. You're fragile and know very few skills. No hard feelings." I love when people do that: You are a worthless human with the intellectual capacity of a sea urchin. No hard feelings though.

Andrew casts a hidden vote and says, "This is totally based upon a strategy. We'll see if it works." Outside of voting himself off, I don't see how it can.

At least Lill can finally change her shirt.

The votes go Lill, Darrah, Lill, and you know she's gone. Two more votes seal Lill's fate. The Scout is out. In her final words Lill says Andrew lied and didn't warn her about being voted out. She says the game is full of deceit and she's not very good at lying. Honestly.

Next time on…Survivor: All is not well at Drake as Christa says they want to get rid of someone. Then we hear Burton asking Rupert, "At some point we should lose. Can you do that?" Cut to an unhappy Rupert calling someone a traitor. The final clip is Osten struggling in the water and calling for help. Looks like an action-packed episode.

As Morgan bungled through another three days I thought for sure some sort of tribe swap would have to happen next week. But if the previews show Drake looking to tank a challenge, Burnett may not have to intervene.

I've never understood the need to lose on purpose. The point is to win the game, and the more tribemates that make the merge, the better your chances of advancing. Even if someone is painfully annoying, you need to grin and bear it if he or she isn't hurting the tribe's performance in winning Immunity. You'll easily be able to remove the thorn in your side after the merge.

Drake's objective should be to go into the merge with an 8-2 advantage. We'll see if they're desire for temporary social relief comes back to haunt them.

The question now is: Can Morgan even beat a team trying to lose?

Your friend of losers,
Scott

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