Author: Shane

In episode 1, Lisa was lazy (and darn proud of it), but Nomfundo ended up getting the boot because of her weak swimming ability.

Following a close vote at the last tribal council, is Lisa turning over a new leaf? She makes sure the entire tribe knows she carried a pile of twigs. But perhaps she did some actual work as well.

Dyke makes a fishing trap as part of his effort to become a leader along with Hein. Amanda believes Dyke’s bossy, which is always the risk when you try to take on a leadership role. The rest of the tribe slowly proceeds to bash the fishing trap one by one.

The reward challenge is to retrieve chests from the ocean. Viwe observes that Malaysia is just becoming a swimathon. There are pictures on the chests that indicate what’s inside, and the survivors must determine which ones they need most, in addition to doing it the fastest. Better off just grabbing whatever’s first. That’s the strategy Iban goes with. Bajau takes their time to pick the first chest and never recovers, also getting dragged down by a second chest that’s too heavy. Iban wins by a landslide. They receive a knife, a shovel, and fishing hooks (without holes in them) and lines. Grant thinks they’re screwed because the hooks don’t have holes, but Lorette figures out a way to make it work.

Elsie starts to get even more useless. Her stomach hurts, she’s hungry, she’s got a headache, she misses home, blah blah blah.

The other tribe found a raft last time. Now Bajau finds a fishing net. Apparently both coincidence. But after all the effort, getting fish turns out to be just a simple matter of getting up early enough to catch the low tide. Lorrette catches a (very small) fish at the other camp, which both impresses and scares Grant.

The girls and Rijesh begin plotting to get rid off Dyke. Way too early to get rid of someone that valuable because he’s bossy. This is a dumb plan if I ever heard of one.

At the immunity challenge, one person must climb a ladder, while the other 6 must grab poles and head into the water. The poles must be placed/moved so that the person on the platform can climb across them to another platform. They will then lower the ladder letting the rest climb up it. All members must be standing on the relatively small platform with control. Elsie begs to be allowed to sit out, but the tribe decision is to have Nicola sit out instead. Elsie says they’re making a mistake because she’s the weakest.

Iban is a complete mess. Angie falls in pretty quickly. Bajau is working together well, but eventually Angela falls in as well. Iban never really seems to get it together, but they make it anyway. Bajau’s problem is they’re being too conservative with little tiny steps that take forever. Mark reminds Bajau that they can still catch up. Yeah right. Iban wins this pretty easily.

When Iban gets back to camp, they begin talking about the other team’s strategy. Someone mentions Dyke as a possible boot choice, and the response is that getting rid of him would be stupid. Meanwhile, back at Bajau, the tribe begins a test to see just how stupid they are. Elsie starts yet another fight and goes on and on and on not just during the fight but continues after it’s done and the people she was fighting with have left. Hein realizes that he, Dyke, and Nicola are outnumbered and need to pull a fourth person onboard. Last time, it was Lisa who was useless. This time, it’s Elsie, and Rijesh realizes this but feels he’s stuck with her for now.

At tribal council, fire is brought up, and Angela complains that Hein hasn’t made fire and Dyke’s fish trap didn’t catch fish and is now being used as decoration. Mark points out: what about the other six people in the tribe? He follows this up by asking Elsie what frustrates her. He must have a lot of free time on his hands tonight if he’s brave enough to ask a question with such a potentially long-winded response. Dyke puts his foot in his mouth at a really bad time to do so, being as honest as he can and saying he has a problem with people starting confrontation for no reason. Amanda responds equally honestly and says he’s bossy and obnoxious. Elsie still feels he’s a racist. Dyke apologizes if he’s offended anybody. Angela rolls her eyes.

It’s time to vote:
Elsie
Elsie
Elsie
Nicola
Nicola
Nicola
Nicola
Nicola

Nicola gets the boot by a vote of 5-3. This is a much more logical move than getting rid of Dyke. The bad news for the 5 who were in the majority is pretty simple, though: it won’t make any more sense getting rid of him next time than it did this time, which means they’re gonna have to eat one of their own. Nicola’s not really a big loss in terms of challenges, though her work ethic is a lot better than most others in the tribe.

Yeah, yeah, I’m a couple weeks late to the party, but I’ll get caught up over the next couple days. The first season of Survivor South Africa had more than its share of critics, primarily due to the wooden host (Mark Bayly returns this season) and technical issues most likely related to production values. It was popular enough to be brought back for a second season, however, did produce one of my favorites Survivors ever (Mzi Tyhokolo), and was an enjoyable ride with some interesting twists. Hopefully they have learned from some of the mistakes of the last season, though.

In season 2, we head away from the oft-used Survivor location of Panama and go to Malaysia. We start off with the contestants walking in the jungle, unaware they will be greeted by an armed escort who will intercept them and strip them of all their personal belongings. Pretty harsh for a season 2. The escort then chains them together and takes them to the island.

The other early twist, a Survivor first, is that 15 contestants were picked by the producers, but one was picked by the viewers, a total increase by two contestants over last year. The viewers’ choice is 35-year old Lorette Mostert, a family woman whose first comments are that she’s much too trusting.

Elsie lets it be known out of the gates she will be this season’s bitch. Either that or a really good villain. Dyke hopes he can be the provider. Nichal, a strongman competitor, doesn’t like sissy stuff. Grant is the obligatory attorney. Lisa tells people whether she likes them or she doesn’t… because that’s a good idea on Survivor. Hein’s been an African bushman for the last 20 years, which means he’s likely to be a true survivor. Angie is okay being considered a dumb blonde. Rijesh is there to play and screw people over.

Once they get to shore, the contestants must compete in an endurance competition, standing on wooden posts. The first person out will not join the tribes. Everybody agrees to swim to shore at the same time, which means the weakest swimmers are at a disadvantage. It also makes it obvious just how strong a swimmer everyone is. The people who arrive first get the stumps that are easiest to stand on. Nomfundo is last to arrive and gets the worst podium. However, Nichal is the first one to fall, so he doesn’t join the tribe, but he does get sent to exile island (oh no, not this stupid twist here, too). Tribes are then chosen by flipping over the podiums and going with the color tribe yours is.

Bajau (Yellow Tribe):
Amanda
Angela
Dyke
Elsie
Hein
Nicola
Rijesh

Iban (Blue Tribe):
Angie
Grant
Irshaad
Lisa
Lorette
Mandla
Nomfundo
Viwe

Despite having one less member, Bajau really lucked out by getting Hein, who’s probably better than Ozzy and Richard Hatch combined when it comes to survival skills. As usual, food and shelter are the top priorities in the first days. Nichal tries to look for shelter but can’t find anything useful, so he just sleeps on the exile island beach. Rijesh reveals right away that he’s gay.

Hein seems to be a bit too aggressive in trying to be the hero. He promises fire and shelter, but people start to get impatient as we get into day 2. Viwe forms an alliance with Lisa pretty quickly.

The first challenge is a water obstacle course. Tribes must swim out to the platform and hoist one tribe member onto it. That tribe member will lower a rope ladder for the others to climb. Everybody must then get past rolling logs, a fence with a hole underneath the water, and lastly free their flag and take it back to shore. This is a combination immunity/reward challenge. The reward: Nichal. This could either give Iban a huge advantage or put Bajau ahead by one.

Nomfundo sits out for Iban. Iban starts off with an early lead but starts pulling the pulley before anybody is even able to get on it, allowing Bajau to take a lead. It’s neck and neck after the rope ladder. Iban manages to get a good lead after the rolling logs, which only gets bigger when Elsie gets scared of going underwater. Hein steps up and helps her through, quickly enough that Bajau manages to take the lead on getting the flag and inches out a victory by mere seconds.

Nicola is largely displeased with the addition of Nichal to the tribe. Hein’s still promising fire and shelter but unable to deliver, though I do wonder why the rest of the tribe doesn’t seem to be doing anything. Dyke makes a comment that Elsie interprets as racist, and she goes off on him.

Angie and Grant join Viwe and Lisa in their alliance. With four people, this holds a lot more hope than the two person alliance did. The four decide to target Nomfundo because she’s not an asset in challenges. Despite the fact that she didn’t compete in the immunity challenge, she was so blatanly far behind the others in the swim to the beach that this comes as no surprise. Nomfundo’s choice based on work ethic: Lisa. Mandla agrees. Lisa admits she tries not to exert herself to stay strong for challenges, saying she walks around and does jack squat. Word to the wise: find yourself another fourth person for your alliance. Grant attempts to talk some sense into her. Attempts being the key word. To make matters worse, Lisa then admits openly at tribal council that she’s lazy, and she seems to be proud of this fact.

As much as they seriously need to get rid of Lisa, the bottom line that makes this such an obvious boot is that Nomfundo’s such a weak swimmer that even those who are sick of Lisa should be concerned about it.

It’s time to count the votes:
Lisa
Nomfundo
Grant
Nomfundo
Lisa
Nomfundo
Lisa
Nomfundo

By a vote of 4-3, Nomfundo is the first person booted off the island. Perhaps the fear of nearly being voted out got to Lisa. The previews for episode 2 suggest it did.