Funny how things can change in six weeks … or 16 days in island time. Remember when Coach and Ozzy made their grand entrance and Savaii welcomed Ozzy with open arms while Coach was shunned by everyone on Upolu except for Edna? At the start of this week’s episode, those situations had changed drastically as Coach had a unified six-person alliance and Ozzy declared himself a free agent after the blindside of Elyse at the last Tribal Council.
And Ozzy … what a whiner! He came into the game saying he was going to play with his head and then failed to see that cozying up to Elyse was pretty much the worst move ever in the eyes of his tribe. No one like a couple in Survivor, and Elyse had to go. At least they didn’t blindside Ozzy, but that’s not the way he saw it, had a tantrum and told the tribe he had the immunity idol. Yep, that’s really playing the game with your head. At least he finally realized the stupidity of his moves and quickly set about rectifying the situation. Except, they all know he has the immunity idol now, so maybe at the next Tribal he should voluntarily give it up to show his trust in his alliance.
Coach has been basking in the love from his tribe, even with the loose cannon that is Brandon Hantz who has morphed into his uncle while in pursuit if the immunity idol … which he doesn’t know Coach already has. And seeing Brandon go into Hantz idol bloodhound mode really scared Coach, bringing back all the bad memories of Heroes vs Villains. Albert advised Coach not to tell Brandon about the idol, and Coach is struggling with his faith, trying to decide is witholding information is the same as lying. To me, it’s only a lie if he’s asked directly about the idol and he denies having it. For now, it’s just strategy.
Things really changed for both vets at the immunity/reward challenge. Ozzy’s tribe got off to a terrible start trying to assemble a wheelbarrow, navigate a course, and collect coconuts. Coach’s tribe was already at the last stage of taking the wheelbarrow apart and turning it into a slingshot before Ozzy’s team had even gotten their second of three batches of coconuts. Upolu had a commanding lead … then Mikayla totally screwed the tribe. Can someone please tell me how using one hand, ONE HAND, on that slingshot was ever going to knock down the large idols? She had no power behind the launch and no distance, and every time Coach asked her to sit out, she refused and Savaii had a stunning, come-from-behind victory.
Now that Savaii seems to be reunified, Upolu is starting to fracture. Half the tribe wanted Edna out and Coach, Brandon and Edna wanted Mikayla out. The simple fact of the matter is that Coach had a six person alliance that did not include Mikayla, and Mikalya lost the challenge for them. If Coach’s alliance was loyal, there should have been no question as to who got voted out, but the conversation at Tribal turned to loyalty vs strength and numbers. Albert, Sophie and Mikayla think Edna is weak in challenges (they sat her out this time), but very intelligent and cunning and it playing them all. Coach stands behind Edna’s loyalty to him, and says she would do anything he asked of her at the merge, including following Ozzy into the jungle to watch him …. umm … do his business and then clean him up afterwards. Yuck! Oddly enough, Brandon is suddenly on the Mikayla bandwagon and wants to vote out Edna, but he’s sticking to his loyal oath to this alliance and expects the others to do the same. Unfortunately, at the vote the tribe was split and the deciding vote came down to some guy named Rick. Did he just join the tribe? I vaguely remember him from the first episode, and now all of a sudden he’s the swing vote! Talk about laying low. But now he’s put a target on himself by voting with Coach and sending Mikayla to Redemption Island where she will have to face off against the formidable Christine, who won her fourth duel (and who flipped off her former tribe mates as they cheered her on).
So if you were in that situation at this point in the game, how would you vote: loyalty or strength? Cast your vote below and sound off in the comments section.
Clacked by Chuck Duncan 
on Oct 19, 2011 @ 23:56 EST5EDT
