Hello again, Survivor fans! First things first: I must update you on my mom’s Survivor office pool. This year we are all rooting for….Monica! Yes, I have Monica in the pool.

I could have done worse – I actually had her ranked at #6, and considering I was drawn from the hat at lucky #13 of 20, I did OK. My mom was selected second-to-last, and ended up with Gervase. We are aligned! My sister ended up with Tyson (my second choice) and my fiance, the weasel, nabbed my number one pick of Vytas.

If you’ve seen Wednesday night’s episode, click through so we can talk about it!

This week on Redemption Island…

Guys, I really hate Redemption Island. It’s not exciting – “truels” are dumb, and all the drama is sucked out of the end of the episode when a person isn’t truly voted out. I am not into it. I also hate that two of three people survive the “truel”. You don’t need to be the best to survive, you just need to not be the worst? Weak sauce.

The “truel”was a challenge that required a steady hand – players had to navigate discs through a bendy metal obstacle, and then stack them. Candice creamed her competition, and Rupert knocked his shoddily arranged stack over leaving room for Marissa to place second. Rupert is officially the first player out!!! I could have only been happier had it been Colton. As the winner, Candice got to reward someone with a clue to the Hidden Immunity Idol – naturally, she chose her husband.

Leopard, Spots, Etc., Etc.

The Veterans’ camp saw a lot of drama this week, because Colton got bored and was only able to fake his new personality for a couple of days before reverting back to a horrid, rumor-starting, pot-stirring brat. He missed Caleb, hated his tribe’s zen attitude and needed to stir up some drama to amuse his feeble mind.

Oh, Colton. Man, are you dumb. A good Survivor player knows that in the early stages of the game, zen is good. Win challenges, keep the tribe happy and united as long as possible, head into the merge with a strong majority alliance. That’s Survivor 101. It’s not the only way to play the game, but it’s a good way to play the game. Starting rumors and backstabbing people on Day 6 is only going to make you enemies. Colton’s problem is that he stirs up trouble just to create chaos, but he doesn’t have an actual strategy. He just likes to watch things blow up.

Tyson, Aras, Gervase, Tina and Monica formed an early alliance – given that me, my mom, and my sister have three of those players in the pool, I’d be OK with that alliance going to the end. I also like all of those players, with the possible exception of Gervase. I’m on the fence about him, given his swimming skills (or lack thereof) and his bragging after challenge wins.

It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World

Meanwhile, over on the Newbies’ tribe, Ciera suspected that John and Rachel were aligned. She was right, too, and when the other guys started throwing around the idea of voting Rachel out, John was not on board.

Vytas’s suggestion was that if the tribe votes out Rachel, Tyson will swap places with her on Redemption Island and the Veterans’ tribe will be instantly weakened. He was right on that – Tyson is one of only a few strong guys on that tribe, while the Newbies have many. But would Tyson really do that? It’s interesting, and I wondered if perhaps Vytas was basing his prediction on better knowledge than we have on what Tyson is like. The last time Tyson played, he voted himself out of the game. The guy has something to prove, and if Rachel ended up on the Veteran tribe there would be no guarantee that he’ll swap spots with her.

Personally, I would still want to vote out the weakest tribe member instead of bank on a Veteran swapping spots with a loved one. But, there was no clear weak link in this week’s challenge.

A Barrel of Laughs

For the Immunity/Reward Challenge this week, a few players had to roll one team member around in a wooden barrel while that person collected bags of balls. Then another player would play skeeball with those balls.

The challenge was neck-and-neck for a long time, but in the end Gervase won it for the Veterans with his skeeball skills. I guess he kind of earned his gloating this time around, since no one had to carry him like a baby. The Veterans not only won Immunity, but also some awesome fishing equipment.

Hey, you know what I could do with less of on this show? Disgusting shots of bugs. Yep, I don’t need those. Thanks, Survivor producers, but try and find a stock shot of a monkey or something for next week.

The guys on the Newbies’ tribe stuck with their plan to vote out Rachel, but John really wasn’t on board. This kid already had a clue for the Hidden Immunity Idol, and that puts a target on your back. I think he should have piped down and voted out his homie. Why ruffle feathers by trying to save Rachel? They could vote her out with or without him, and in this game it’s often important to just play along with the popular kids.

So in the end, Rachel was voted onto Redemption Island. Will Tyson really take her place? I hope not. The potential to switch has added an interesting layer to the game, but Tyson is a compelling character and a good competitor, and I don’t want him to end up on Redemption Island. Plus, he’ll really screw over his alliance and his tribe if he jumps ship.

And how about Colton next week? What a crybaby. I can’t stand that kid.

What did you guys think of this week’s episode?