For season 32, we return to Cambodia for a second Brains vs. Brawn vs. Beauty.
The tribes start off with a mad dash on the boats where they can grab whatever supplies they can carry and get to first. They seem to be randomly tossing things and chickens off the boat in complete chaos. Aside from Tai, who wants to protect the chicken because it’s a living thing. Wait until his tribe eats it.
The 18 castaways are divided into three tribes of six.
Chan Loh (Brains/Blue): Aubry Bracco, Debbie Wanner, Joe del Campo, Liz Markham, Neal Gottlieb, Peter Baggenstos
Gondol (Beauty/Orange): Anna Khait, Caleb Reynolds, Julia Sokolowski, Michele Fitzgerald, Nick Maiorano, Tai Trang
To Tang (Brawn/Red): Alecia Holden, Cydney Gillon, Darnell Hamilton, Jennifer Lanzetti, Kyle Jason, Scot Pollard
Cydney says she’s a professional bodybuilder during her introduction, which I’m not sure is helping her or hurting. Scot immediately admits he was a pro basketball player rather than trying to hide it.
Debbie starts off by saying “Blah blah blah blah blah.” Yeah, she didn’t even need to say those words because that’s what I’m hearing anyway.
Caleb is the creepy stalker from Big Brother. Tai thinks people will ask why they put him on the Beauty tribe. I did. Anna is already trying to form an all girl alliance.
Kyle just randomly makes alliances with everybody.
Beauty starts off by letting their chickens escape. After running around for a while they manage to recover two out of three.
Caleb talks himself up, and although his stint on Big Brother hasn’t left too many people with positive impressions, he does start a fire as he claims he can, unlike Debbie.
Tai doesn’t waste any time looking for the idol, and everybody busts him.
Aubry is overwhelmed by the heat and dehydration pretty quickly. If she doesn’t snap out of this soon, she’s useless. Of course, the reality is not so much what she says she’s freaking out about but her explanation. She thinks too much and gets into her own head.
Jennifer actually has something wrong with her and in her head. A bug has crawled in her ear, resulting in pain and bleeding. It’s a little tiny bug that eventually crawls out. I’m surprised something like that doesn’t happen more often out there.
The first challenge requires them to swim out to a boat, retrieve paddles, convert their boats to carts once back on shore, and then choose either a puzzle or ball stacking challenge (both of which average about the same amount of time to complete) to finish. Reward is a fire making kit for the first tribe to finish. The second place tribe will get flint.
Darnell says he wants to be one of the divers. Scot questions him whether he’s sure. Yes, he’s sure. He quickly loses Brawn’s mask. Meanwhile, Beauty has a big lead. They are followed by Brains. Brawn brings up the rear because the mask is kind of important. Beauty falls apart when putting together their cart, allowing the others to leapfrog them. Interestingly, they gave them two choices, not trying to favor intelligence with just a puzzle, but it doesn’t matter because every tribe chooses to do the puzzle. Unlike the last time when the Brains tribe was a group of idiots, this one solves the puzzle first to win immunity and reward. Beauty makes a comeback to win a close race against Brawn.
There’s no hiding the fact that Darnell blew the challenge. The other option would be Alecia, who at first glance seems oddly placed as a member of the Brawn tribe. They assure her that she’s safe. Not content with that assurance, she keeps scheming.
For Kyle, Alecia doesn’t even get a name. She’s just Blondie.
Votes
Alecia
Darnell
Alecia
Darnell
Alecia
Darnell
We have a tie already. Those who did not receive votes can revote for one of them.
Votes
Darnell
Darnell
Darnell
With 3 votes, Darnell has been voted off the island. A fitting end since he is the reason they are sitting there voting.
Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Survivor: Kaoh Rong Episode 2, which airs Wednesday at 8/7c on CBS.