Night 15 and Rupert tells Balboa he should have voted for Shawn instead of Michelle. You know, Balboa the snake. The next morning, Rupert goes for another chat but the snake is dead. Uh oh…is he going to pull a Jan?

Continuing with the wildlife theme, a pelican visits Morgan. Ryan plays with it and dubs him Pelican Pete. Osten, as stunning as this may be, is afraid of the bird. Completely freaked out. He threatens to kill it if it comes near him and he starts sharpening a machete. "O.T.'s just being an ass," Andrew says. "That's the dumbest thing I've ever seen, in fact I was embarrassed by that." You're just now embarrassed of Osten??

Rupert wants to raise the floor of the Drake shelter so the bed bugs don't bite. Shawn says it'll be a waste of time and Jon blows up at him for being lazy. Shawn shouts back for Jon to shut up. Sandra surprisingly sides with Jon and says Shawn is the next to go.

Ryan's feathered friend.

Day 17 and the Reward Challenge is shooting baseball-sized balls out of a canon. The first team to hit all four targets gets a grill, cooking utensils, spices, lobsters and steaks! This, uh, raises the steaks for sure.

Jon is first to fire for Drake and, is he wearing a stupid "Fair Play" scarf thing? The guy is a piece of idiotic work.

Andrew and Jon both miss in round one. Ryan hits and Sandra answers. The targets are really big compared to the balls but the canons don't shoot straight. Tijuana misses but Trish hits to give Drake a 2-1 lead. Osten and Ruppert both pierce a target. Darrah hits but Shawn has a chance for the win. Miss! 3-3 going into the final round.

"Savage" is up first and he misses for the second time. If Christa's ball finds its mark, Drake dines in style. Bingo. Drake wins!

The next day Jon is sent to loot Morgan. "I plan on taking that morale and jumping on it…so it's absolutely nothing come Immunity time." Why does he smile as if we're laughing along with him?

Jon takes their water pot. Andrew says he thought they'd take the shower and Jon says he would have but he's following orders. They offer him some shampoo to wash up quick. You have to give Morgan credit for keeping cool and being diplomatic.

But then things get ugly. Andrew talks about how hard it was for them to lose six challenges in a row when Jon interrupts and says, "Well, technically seven." D'oh. He goes on to tell Morgan how Drake had lost that first challenge on purpose. Andrew is livid. He lets Jon leave then calls him a "little bastard." Did Jon's plan to crush their spirit backfire?

Trish doesn't mish.

The tribes meet for the Immunity Challenge and Christa's face is all bit up by bugs. So much for Rupert's raised floor.

The game is a combination of endurance and strategy. Three people from each tribe will be standing with a large pole across their shoulders. The game ends when one tribe has dropped all three of their poles. The strategy comes in as the two players not holding poles will divvy up weight bags onto the poles of the competition. Sandra sits out and the pole-bearers are Rupert, Christa and Shawn vs. Osten, Andrew and Ryan.

Tijuana and Darrah start by piling weight onto Rupert. Jon and Trish split weight between Osten and Andrew to wear them both out. Rupert is now up to 140 pounds, Osten has 100 and Andrew has 40.

Rupert gets more and he's not looking good. "It's not lastin'," he says as he hunches over and drops his hands to his knees. Rupe bears 200 pounds while Osten is up to 160.

Jeff says, "It's going to come down to will," and like clockwork Osten immediately gives up. I honestly threw a rolled up napkin at the TV. He is WORTHLESS.

Rupert stands tall after having defeated Osten again, but he eventually gives way to 220 pounds.

Drake now targets Andrew while Morgan piles onto Shawn. Savage is up to 160 and Shawn holds 120. Another 20 pounds goes onto Shawn's back as Jon tells him, "This contest was made for you." Right on cue, he drops his pole.

Drake's chances for Immunity now rest, quite literally, on the shoulders of Christa. Jeff says, "Very impressive. Christa now at the same weight Osten dropped out, at 160." You'll also note that's twenty pounds heavier than Shawn could handle.

Alas, the burly girl can hold on no longer. Christa drops out and Morgan wins Immunity again!

Jeff notices that Andy "Not Quite Macho Man" Savage has tears in his eyes. That was quite the Rupert-esque performance. Way to go, Jon. For the first time since they jumped off the boat, we're going to be at even strength.

Rupert understandably blames Shawn for the loss. "I want him off my island and out of my adventure," he snarls.

Now it gets good. Trish talks to Jon and Sandra about Rupert having too much power. Trish says she'd give up Rupert's fish for a better chance at the million and the three of them agree to vote him off.

But…Sandra tells Christa, and the two of them tell Rupert, who explains the situation to Shawn.

Rupert: "Say yes to voting me, and write Trish down, and Trish is out, four to two."
Shawn: "And then you and I are going to take this home?"
Rupert: "Hell yeah."

Jon then approaches Shawn about ousting Rupert and he appears on board. How on earth did Shawn go from dead-man-walking to having all the power?!

Rupert weights.

The Tribe Councils and Jeff says Rupert looks really bad. "I'm ready to cry," he replies. He goes on to say, "I know at least half my tribe wants me gone."

Jeff asks Trish to comment and she plays dumb. "I was surprised to hear him say that." Jeff then turns to Sandra. "How sure are you that it's not you tonight?" "Oh, I know it ain't me!" she immediately responds, cracking everyone up. "The person going home today is the one that least expects it," she concludes. Who is she playing?

The voting goes like this:

Christa > Trish. "You have no idea how to play this game."
Jon > Rupert. "Everybody's got a price. Everybody's gotta pay. Cuz the Million Dollar Man always gets his way." I would pay a million dollars to strangle him.
Sandra > Trish! The first lie is revealed.
Trish > Rupert.
Rupert > Trish.

Only Shawn's vote is unseen, and he says, "You know what? The game's over for you. It's my game now." That has to be Rupert, right? Trish never owned the game.

Skip ahead to reading of the final vote, and it's for….TRISH! In a drastic turn of events Rupert is saved because of Shawn. The look on Jon's face is priceless.

Jeff says, "Twenty one days left. It is anybody's game." How very true.

Next time on…Survivor: Rupert goes after the guy who voted for him. "Jonny Fairplay is Jonny Painintheass now to me." Andrew says Osten has "thrown in the towel again." Will he finally give up on the World's Strongest Weakling? And we get a brand new twist as Jeff says, "Your past has come back to haunt you."

What could that be? Well, if you haven't looked at the CBS site, and have missed all the preview commercials, you can highlight between the asterisks for the answer

*The voted-off castaways return with a purple flag and, it appears, purple buffs. Are they a 3rd tribe for the day? There's also some crap about a 2-part episode. If they pull a Bachelor and don't vote someone off, my anger will make Rupert look like Elisabeth the day she met that quarterback.*

Now to the blunders. Autumn writes in about "Jonny Moron-play" and says, "He is the least likable Survivor I can remember. I was actually yelling at the TV when he started telling Morgan how Drake threw the challenge. How dumb can you be?? Short of someone actually killing another survivor in cold blood, I can't imagine that anyone else will achieve the level of contempt and disrespect that he has so quickly and deftly acquired."

How could you vote off a face like this?

You said a mouthful, but you're right on. Andrew has been growing as a player but nothing stokes the competitive fire like some honest-to-goodness hate. He is a hardened Survivor now and it's all because of Jon.

The next big boneheaded move was orchestrated by Trish. Isn't it amazing how history repeats itself? Just last season we had Deena do the exact same thing. She's in a majority; she tries to overthrow a strong member of the alliance; she gets voted out instead. Premature Evacuation is bad.

Stephen in Albuquerque writes in with what could be a big blunder next episode. "[Rupert] is now revered as the bearded god he is. But I'm afraid he's going to go a little Lex. The preview for next week showed him going ballistic, 'Who voted for ME?!!' Trish was inept in how she handled it, but her concern was not misplaced. He plays the game well, and he's a physical threat--a deadly combo post-merge."

It's an excellent point. Lex's mistake was taking the votes personally (well, that and accusing the wrong person of voting for him). Rupert is going to need every vote he can get after the merge so he doesn't want to alienate Jon while he's still useful.

If we do merge, the strongest alliances seem to be Rupert-Christa-Sandra and Andrew-Ryan-Tijuana. Will they do battle, or could the possibly join forces due to Rupert and Andrew's mutual respect? We shall see.

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