Survivor China: Love is in the Air

(S15E05) Well, they definitely have some schemers and plotters playing the game this season on Survivor China. Oh, and it's neat to see pandas resting in the trees, too. Oh, no! What if the castaways get really hungry? Run, panda, run! No, I don't think they're allowed to eat pandas, but it's not likely that they'd be able to catch one either. I apologize for the false alarm. That was cruel of me.

Not as cruel as Jaime and Peih Gee came across on tonight's episode, mind you. I was obviously joshing while they deliberately laughed as they ruined someone's chances at a million dollars. I know the game can be cut throat, but ... sheesh.

In the trivial matters before I get to the meat -- Zhan Hu, especially Sherea, like the peacefulness of not having Dave around the camp. Of course, they're not getting any work done, but they might all be resting up for the next challenge, right? Erik and Jaime flirted and made a pact to go to the final two together. He told her that he's still a virgin. Now, that's great, but I'm not sure how smart of him it is to go around telling people that. It's obvious that Jaime is a player in the game. I think she'd play him in a minute.

Quasi-love is going on over at the Fei Long camp between two very unlikely partners. It's more of an unrequited love in the making, though. I think James has a big crush on, of all people, Denise. If she were younger and not married with a family, he'd be totally agog. So, James is turned on by a work ethic. With most guys, it's the body or even the personality. Very odd indeed. She likes him, but only in a purely platonic let's work together on the show kind of way.

There was no rewards challenge tonight, probably due to the timing of the new twist they introduced. I'm of two minds about the twist. Yes, it shakes up the game. Shaking up the game, blindsiding people ... that's truly making them scramble to survive. After all, this isn't really a show about surviving out in the woods or anything. It's all about surviving your fellow survivors, right?

But what I don't like about the twist is that it put some folks at an automatic disadvantage that would be nigh impossible to overcome. And, those at risk would be the stronger and (possibly) better players in the game. Each tribe received a hand-carried letter from a man in a boat. The letter instructed them to select two members of the opposing tribe who would compliment their own. You know they'd go for the two best players for challenges, you know it!

Fei Long, only familiar with Sherea's showing at challenges and not knowing her laziness at the camp, chose her and Frosti. They assumed they would lose two members and thought Zhan Hu would definitely take James, hoped they'd take Jean-Robert. Zhan Hu was thinking silly or perhaps not at all. They chose wisely enough -- James and Aaron. But it didn't dawn on them that they'd lose two of their own to Fei Long. Duh. Their plan was to take in the two, then vote them out because they'd have five of their own members versus the two from Fei Long. I have to say it again, louder now. DUH.

About the only one who stands to come out ahead in the deal would be Sherea. Once she was with Zhan Hu, she realized she should step up her game and make herself valuable to her new tribe. Todd, sly guy that he is, decided he'd work his way into a positive relationship with Frosti and, especially, Sherea.

Todd is the one to watch. He's in with almost all on the tribe even some he doesn't like -- Jean Robert, for example. Courtney (whose spine is creeping me out) and Amanda are his main allies, the ones he actually trusts. Well, trusts to a point, anyway.

Jean-Robert, constantly talking about himself in the third person which tends to irk Jackie, got into an early morning show of working. That would have been good except that he started telling the others what they should do, not asking them. Both Frosti and Sherea picked up right away on that and Jean-Robert became their glimmer of hope at not being immediate targets. Jean-Robert would be the bigger fish to fry, literally and figuratively.

But over on Zhan Hu, after the shock of losing their two members, Peih Gee had a plan. She told Jaime that they should think of the game after the merge. In their tribe now, they have the numbers (3-2) to vote out either James or Aaron. But if Fei Long votes out their two new members, the end numbers for Zhan Hu would allow them to be picked off one by one after the merge. Peih Gee wants to throw the next two challenges and vote both new guys out in a row. Yeah, it is good thinking in the long run. The merge won't be much after the next two challenges and it might preserve the original Zhan Hu numbers to some extent.

I don't like how they went about it, though. Supposedly Jaime is in to the final two with Erik. Did they tell him about the plan? Nope. He would be as blindsided about it as James and Aaron. Meanwhile, James was busting his butt working to make himself a valuable member of the tribe while Aaron was mixing a bit more with them in addition to working hard. The new Zhan Hu members knew if they didn't win immunity, one of them would be toast.

As it was meant to be, I guess.

The Immunity Challenge was a bit similar to some we've seen before, but with a Chinese zodiac twist to it. Got be cultural, indeed. Two of the tribe members had to dive from a dock to outside a cage which held puzzle pieces -- the Chinese zodiac in 12 pieces. The hitch was that bamboo poles were keeping the puzzle pieces in the cages. So, they pulled the poles out to release the pieces and had to dive deeper each time.

Once they gathered all the pieces, they had to swim a small boat with them to the shore. Aaron used his teeth to pull his boat with a rope. Oh, macho wild man! Once ashore was when Peih Gee and Jaime's plan kicked in. Not only did they throw putting the puzzle together, but they all but announced it. James got all heated about it, but he couldn't do the puzzle all by himself. Even though Peih Gee had claimed to be good at puzzles, she told him she meant Soduko. Jaime even threw one piece over the far end of the table so that even if they got close, they'd be missing a piece.

They lost, of course. James was steaming while Aaron just kind of looked dumbfounded. Fei Long was so happy in their victory that it didn't seem to even notice it was handed to them on a silver platter.

Okay, so they blatantly threw the challenge not caring if James or Aaron noticed. They hadn't told Erik and he's supposed to be an ally. However, the salt in the wound came in the form of uncontrollable laughter about it.

James told them he didn't want to be on the tribe with them and even though he wants to stay, he doesn't want to stay with them. They can send him home for all he cares. Erik, bruised a bit that he wasn't told about the plan, decided he had to stick with the girls for his own good. He thinks James should go home, but Peih Gee really pushed for an Aaron ouster. I believe that's because they think Aaron was the leader of Fei Long and they can trust him more.

At the Tribal Council, Jeff told them they either played the dumbest game or threw the challenge. Jaime admitted they threw it and spilled the beans on the "after the merge, we'll be stronger bit." James told them to vote him out; he didn't want to play the game like that.

It would be nice if the producers didn't think we were so dumb. They always make it look like one is going home, then the other goes. Aaron voted for James believing James would be the target. James voted for Peih Gee because he said he couldn't vote for one of his original tribe to go. The rest voted Aaron out.

Well, if nothing else, this should set the stage for some fireworks next week. I'm not talking the bombs bursting in air type. I'm talking James' temper. I like controversy. Heh. But, then again, maybe there will be a love connection reunion between James and Denise. Who knows? I'm enjoying this season so far. And I'm really enjoying that Sherea wasn't in her underwear for the whole episode.