Category: reality tv

As the second person getting on Roger’s nerves, Dan also became the second person to be voted off the men’s tribe in Survivor: Amazon Episode 3.

On the morning of day 10, Jeanne and JoAnna wake up early and start working. The younger girls are offended by the fact that these two are doing this work and expect some work to be done by the others in the tribe as well. Heidi’s excuse: she has less fat to live on.

The men continue to have no luck fishing, so they finally decide to use worms as bait. Matthew feels as if he’s being excluded from the group on the basis of his friendship with Dan and Ryan (or lack of relationship with anyone else in the tribe).

Shawna, who’s really not doing very much, says she feels bad that the others are doing the work while her and her two buddies just lay around all day. Heidi and Jenna, however, feel no guilt at all and just say the other women are jealous of them.

Because Shawna is close to Deena, she decides to go to her and form an alliance of four. Deena readily agrees. While this gives her an alliance of four, it puts her at the bottom. Her logic is that she can influence them better than she could someone who’s been around the block.

Back to the boys. Having taken a week and a half to start using worms, they now catch a fish worth bragging about. Matthew says fishing is his forte.

The reward challenge will test their ability to make fire. Each tribe will be given flint and steel and must burn through four sections, transferring as much fire from each section as they can. Reward is a fully functioning refrigerator stocked with Coke. Jenna sits out for Jaburu. The women strike flame first. They get sections 1 and 2 first. The men complete their first section next. Then their second. After that, they take their first lead. Tambaqui wins reward. Ultimately, they functioned as a unit, while their opponents did not.

When the reward challenge is over, Shawna’s crying and pretty well giving up. She feels like she’s a blubbering idiot. Well, that’s accurate. If they go to tribal council next, she wants to be voted out.

Over at the other camp, they’ve got that big fish they caught, which they chow down with their Coca Cola. They’re doing quite well.

With Daniel and Ryan gone, Roger seems to have a new target. He calls Rob pathetic. Right on down the age line.

For the immunity challenge, the tribes will be fishing. They are given one hour to catch as much fish as they can. The most common (and most likely to bite them) is the piranha. Whoever gets the most fish by weight wins immunity and all the fish they catch. Shawna sits out for Jaburu. Both tribes load their fish on opposite sides of the scale. Doesn’t look close. Tambaqui wins immunity and a whole lot of fish.

Shawna feels relieved that she could be the one going home. She’s definitely the weakest link and feels like she has been bumped from the alliance anyway. The alliance, however, doesn’t want to get screwed by some quitter. They’ve decided to get rid of JoAnna regardless (she’s too strong), but they do want to pull in Christy just in case they need to get rid of Shawna next time.

Jeff points out that the long winning streak came to an end when the challenges were both based on survival.

Deena says that she assesses the tribe as the leader and knows what’s going on. Christy’s doing better than ever, while Shawna’s not doing well and cannot contribute as much as everybody else, making her a liability against the boys.

Votes
JoAnna
Shawna
JoAnna
Shawna
JoAnna
JoAnna

With 4 votes, JoAnna has been voted off the island. Get rid of the strong and trap the weak against their will. Certainly an unusual strategy employed there. As for Shawna, she opted to vote for Christy.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another recap of Survivor: Amazon Episode 5 Pick-Up Sticks.

After being accused of sneaking in food in Survivor: Amazon Episode 2, Janet was the first member of Jaburu to be sent home.

The men have decided to fortify their shelter to guard against future rain storms, while the women still lack a roof at all.

Following their first vote in which they decided to get rid of Ryan to eliminate tension in the camp, the men are still left with Roger, and it’s not seeming as if they made the right decision. With Roger still around, there’s still tension. Daniel’s not really speaking to him any more.

Daniel and Matthew are coming together because Daniel speaks Mandarin, and Matthew was born in Hong Kong.

The women are having trouble with their dirtiness and resulting bugs. Their food has not been very well protected either, and it smells of mold. They have no water, no food aside from the manioc flour, and are all running in different directions.

Jeanne calls a meeting because they need to get in some sort of order. Her suggestion is that they need a leader. She votes for Deena, a decision she made with JoAnna because they don’t want the target on their backs. Backed into a corner, Deena accepts the nomination.

The reward challenge will test their ability to keep track of a large number of items. There are 35 matching pairs of items. Each person has a box of 5 items, and one by one they will ask someone else if they have an item in their box. Every time they get a pair, they get a point for their tribe. Reward is some items to improve their hygiene, such as soap, shampoo, deodorant, and toothpaste. Importantly, this challenge will give the tribes a chance to interact with each other. Daniel gets the first point and makes the first effort to hit on Shawna. Roger scores the next point for the guys. Then Matthew scores a point. Christy scores the first point for the girls. Alex already knows Jenna’s name. He claims it’s because he’s really, really smart. He scores a point for the guys, and then Jenna scores for the girls. It’s 5-4 Tambaqui at this point. Rob asks Heidi for conditioner. She says no. So then Daniel asks her the same question. Uh, still no. Now Jeanne knows who has conditioner. It’s tied 10-10. Probst asks Rob if his wittiness normally works with the women. It doesn’t. Eventually, it gets to 17-14 Jaburu, meaning the guys need all of the remaining matches to prevail. The men won’t be getting lucky today. Jaburu wins reward.

Rob’s quite excited. Heidi’s probably a 9.5 in real life, but she’s looking a little rugged and closing in on a 6 living out in the jungle. That levels the playing field. However, he’s not so crazy about JoAnna because he was unaware that Jesus had a vested interest in Survivor, contrary to JoAnna’s assertion that he does.

Daniel still likes Shawna, while Alex has decided he likes Jenna. Butch is a little too old to get with any of them.

Rob can’t wait to watch when the girls are taking baths. Well, considering they just won a reward of bathing products, this episode is the perfect opportunity for it. Heidi, Shawna, and Jenna go off in their own little group to bathe each other, so they can go topless and not be in front of the older women.

Now the guys are back to discussing how to reduce the tension. Daniel or Roger? Fact is they let Roger stick around the first time, and it still didn’t solve their problem, so their move is obvious. Dave would prefer to get rid of Dan. Matthew, Alex, and Rob are considering getting rid of Roger. They’ll leave Dave out of it for now. Dave, however, is not completely unaware of what’s going on because Matt fills him in that people have been talking. Like Rob last time, Alex is the swing vote. Does he vote out Roger, or does he vote out Daniel?

Dave and Matthew have caught some fish. Well, more like bait, but they resemble fish.

Deena’s taken on her new leadership role, and it seems to be going well. They’re actually cleaning their camp and adding a roof to their shelter. As an added bonus, some of the women have begun to catch fish, giving them a source of protein.

While the immunity idol was in their possession, the men took the opportunity to add their color to it. It’s back up for grabs. They will be trapped in a cage with an escape hatch in the top. They will have to make their way through a rope web of knots to release a machete, then they’ll have to untie 10 more knots. From there, they will use a pole to release keys and use the keys to unlock the locks. Jeff warns them that everybody must work together on this challenge in order to succeed. The women have the slight lead over the men getting the machete. They expand this lead on the next section. Tambaqui finally gets to the keys, but by this point, the women have all their locks open. Jaburu wins immunity.

The plan’s already been set, so no real need for discussion post-immunity loss, except to decide whether it should be Dan or Roger. That said, Rob takes the opportunity to poke Roger with a stick. He tells him that Dan is looking to get the votes to get rid of him. Roger’s told him that he’s close to bursting, and he’d like to see that happen.

Dan realizes that Rob will only do whatever the numbers will allow him to do. He has no intention of going with the minority.

Jeff suggests that maybe they could spend more time fishing. An hour or two out of 10 hours of daylight probably isn’t going to cut it. Roger says that he’s not a fisherman, so he’s not even trying at all.

Votes
Dan
Roger
Dan
Dan
Dan

By a unanimous vote, Dan has been voted off the island.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another recap of Survivor: Amazon Episode 4 Trapped.

After being dragged down by Daniel on the balance beam, Ryan was eliminated in Survivor: Amazon Episode 1.

The women have built a shelter. Kinda. It does not actually shelter them, though. They have a place to lay on so that they’re not on the ground, but they don’t actually have a roof over their heads.

Shawna has no doubt the guys are much better off. She’s right. They’ve got a good shelter and have figured out how to use the manioc flour to cook.

It’s a good thing. They’re about to find out why they call it a rain forest. Inside their shelter, they’re staying pretty much dry in this downpour. Not so lucky for the women. They have nowhere to run. To make matters worse, they’ve lost their flint, so they can’t rebuild their fire and are just hoping that the fire shelter will keep it from going out.

The reward challenge is a test of communication. The puzzle pieces are scattered in the jungle. One person will be the guide, while the others will be blindfolded in pairs. Reward is fish bait. There really are fish out there. Christy is sitting out for Jaburu, and it’s a good thing she had that option because this would have been a rough challenge for her. Butch and JoAnna are the guides. Jeff has to remind the guys this is about clear communication. The women are up 27-18. They start on the puzzle with a big lead. Communication is clearly not the strong suit for the guys any more than balancing was. Jaburu wins reward.

When they get back to camp, it’s back to the grind. While the men continue to complain about losing to women, the women are eating manioc flour that’s burnt and has maggots in it.

Rob says that he’s trying to figure out who he could get to vote against Roger. Well, if he’d voted against him already, that wouldn’t be a problem. Since that’s done, though, he does have to pull in one more vote. A light bulb goes off when Roger and Alex begin discussing what can be a touchy subject: homosexuality. Roger says he’s okay with it (he really isn’t), but he thinks it’s disgusting and not natural. Alex takes the stand that he doesn’t care what people do if it makes them happy and is not hurting anybody.

JoAnna has decided that the idol is sacrilegious. As an idol, it’s forbidden by the ten commandments. Therefore, she wants no part of it and wants it out of the camp.

Christy asks Jeanne to fill her in about what they talk about at night, seeing as she’s completely in the dark when the sun goes down. So she tells her about JoAnna’s freaky hatred of the immunity idol, which Christy considers stupid (because it is). JoAnna overhears this, so she starts yelling at the deaf girl. Yeah, kinda no need for the extra volume here. Christy suggests that this vessel of Christ needs to be a little kinder.

Unlike the beef jerky incident, which to this day has still not been proved even though Kel got his butt kicked out of the game for it, the women have a scenario in which there is proof. There’s a granola bar sitting in their chest. The decision they make is to burn it, but that doesn’t prevent the witch hunt from starting. Jeanne says that she saw it inside Janet’s bag.

The tribes will be given two minutes to observe and explore an Amazonian Indian village, and the challenge will be based on those observations. Shawna sits out for Jaburu. The tribe that gets the most right out of 10 wins. One person from each tribe will go at a time.

What are the colors of the features of the rattle that came with your treemail?
Red, yellow, and green. Dave and Jeanne are both wrong.

How many rungs are on the outside ladder leading upstairs?
6. Deena is incorrect, while Rob scores a point for Tambaqui.

How many pigs are in the pen?
9. Christy is incorrect, and Butch takes the lead 2-0.

One of the small bowls had something in it. What was it?
Nuts. Both Jenna and Alex are correct to make it 3-1 Tambaqui.

What are the two items in the finished canoe?
Spear and coil of rope. Both Janet and Daniel are incorrect.

How many hammocks are there?
2. Both Matthew and Heidi score a point to make it 4-2 Tambaqui.

How many manioc cakes are in the frying pan (which by the way should be a hint to the women of the proper way to prepare manioc)?
9. JoAnna and Roger are both right to make it 5-3.

What are the types of fruit in the kitchen?
Pineapple and bananas. Dave and Jeanne are both right to make it 6-4.

How many peeled manioc roots are in the trough?
4. Both Deena and Rob are incorrect. Since there is only 1 question left, Tambaqui wins immunity.

Christy’s trying to build a shelter. She asks for a volunteer to help her put it up now that she’s cut everything down. Jenna, Shawna, Heidi, and Deena just sit there and stare at her. So Christy has decided to give up on working with the tribe. Jenna hasn’t even said a word to her in 5 days.

She is just making herself a target, although it doesn’t appear she cares if she’s a target or not. The other potential target is Janet, who’s been sick for a while and now has that whole granola bar thing hanging over her head. For some reason, JoAnna’s name is not brought up. She’ll apparently have to rub a few more people the wrong way first.

At tribal council, the shelter comes up again. Christy thinks it should have been built days ago. She feels excluded and thinks it has to do with her disability. She’s right. Not necessarily all of them, but there are certainly some people such as Jenna who are not making any effort, who vocalized right away that they weren’t sure that a deaf person could fit in.

Votes
Jenna
Janet
Christy
Jeanne
Janet
Janet
Janet

4 different people ended up receiving votes, but the majority went with getting rid of Janet. Janet voted for Jeanne for spreading the granola bar thing, JoAnna voted against Christy out of spite, and Christy voted for Jenna because she hasn’t said a word to her.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another recap of Survivor: Amazon Episode 3 Girl Power.

Following the dustbowl that was Africa, Survivor returned to islands in seasons 4 and 5. This time, though, it’s off to the world’s largest rain forest. At least there’s water around. Certainly not a landlocked environment since they’re right on a river, but it’s not quite the beach either.

The Survivor: Amazon cast consists of 16 contestants:

Alex Bell
Butch Lockley
Christy Smith
Daniel Lue
Dave Johnson
Deena Bennett
Heidi Strobel
Janet Koth
Jeanne Hebert
Jenna Morasca
JoAnna Ward
Matthew von Ertfelda
Rob Cesternino
Roger Sexton
Ryan Aiken
Shawna Mitchell

They start off making their way up the Rio Negro on a boat. The contestants are split into two tribes as they get off the boat, and they soon find out it’s girls vs. guys.

Jaburu (Yellow): Jeanne, Heidi, JoAnna, Jenna, Christy, Deena, Janet, Shawna
Tambaqui (Blue): Roger, Alex, Rob, Butch, Daniel, Dave, Ryan, Matthew

The guys are thrilled because they know any physical challenge will be a lost cause for the women, which should lead them to further believe that there’s unlikely to be a lot of challenges that require just brute strength. One thing the guys are failing to realize is that the weakest link on an all male tribe may be one of the stronger links on a mixed tribe, which thereby puts them into danger they might otherwise not have faced.

Jeff’s got a story to tell. This place was discovered by someone who came across a tribe of fierce female warriors, a notion that women could survive on their own. They’re going to put that to a test.

Things aren’t off to a good start. Shawna can barely untie their rowboat.

Ryan, a model who had no other strategy in mind than to try to charm the women, is not too happy about things. He does not expect this sausagefest to play to his advantage. Jenna, the model over on the other tribe, likewise doesn’t know what she’s going to do.

Janet’s a nurse, which typically comes in handy.

They get a chest full of meager supplies, including fishing gear, lanterns, machetes, flint, manioc flour, and a locked mystery box that says “Do not open.”

On the boat ride over, nobody notices something about Christy. She is the first deaf contestant on Survivor. When they hit land, she tells the rest of the tribe.

Considering the fact that they have kerosene in their lamps, lighting fire should be quite simple. Well, it’s simple for the men anyway. The women try and keep trying. After 5 or 6 hours, they finally get something going in the middle of the night. They don’t have very much wood either because their wood cutting efforts proved to be somewhat comical.

Nobody on Tambaqui wants to take control, knowing that there’s a danger of coming out as a strong leader. Deena, however, is starting to get a little bossy on Jaburu, to which some of the girls are taking offense.

Because she relies on lip reading, night time is going to be rough for Christy. She’s in with a group girls who like to talk and talk and talk, so she feels like she’s missing out on a lot of information.

The women are sleeping on the ground. Not a good idea in the jungle. They have stuff crawling over them all night. This leads them to want to get a shelter up. As the rest of the tribe wanders off, Christy’s wondering what about her. Since nobody seems to have noticed they left her behind, she’ll just tend to the fire.

Back on the men’s tribe, Roger is emerging as the leader, and since he’s amongst mostly younger guys, they’re viewing him as bossy, the same issue that’s plaguing Deena. He views Ryan and Daniel as useless.

Jenna sets her priority: washing clothes. Yeah, the shelter might be a bit better of a goal to focus on.

Janet’s already sick and saying she can’t do this any more. It’s been a day.

Rob brings his Magic 8 Ball as his luxury item. It really works. The only rule is not to ask it any questions about challenges. So they decide to ask questions about Jenna, Heidi, and Shawna.

Jeanne and JoAnna go out with the net, which allows them to catch some inedible pointy fish that they plan to use for bait. They return to camp with a little fish about the size of their fingers, which they cook in edible massage oil, yielding about one bite.

The immunity challenge starts off with everybody chained together. They will go along the course gathering keys to unlock them along the way, crossing through a couple of obstacles, a puzzle, a balance beam, and another puzzle. The men get a slight lead on the first obstacle. They retain that lead over the cargo net. This lead turns pretty huge on the puzzle. Then it comes time for the balance beam. The men are trying to throw this challenge away. Alex and Roger have no trouble getting across, but the others are struggling. Two more pairs make their way across. That leaves Daniel and Ryan, who are not only unable to walk across, but they can’t even get across while sitting down. The women, who are clearly favored in a balancing act, get across with no difficulty at all. Finally, the men cross, but they’re now behind. It’s close enough that the final puzzle will determine the winner. Unlike the word puzzle, this time the women finish first, while the rocket scientist and computer guy are getting nowhere fast. Jaburu wins immunity.

The men realize that they may have been brought down by their arrogance. Dave especially is not happy that they lied about catching fish, so he gives a lecture. Probably not the kind of thing you want to do right before tribal council.

Ryan and Daniel were already on Roger’s chopping block to begin with, and the challenge only gives him more of an excuse to cut one of them. In turn, Ryan’s getting tired of being bossed around.

Rob’s not real sure which way to go. Roger’s too bossy, while Ryan’s too self-centered. Neither is good for the team, but one of them has to go to eliminate the tension. Rob tells both Roger and Ryan that he’ll do what they want, and he may well be the swing vote.

At tribal council, Daniel accepts the blame for the challenge loss, although his partner Ryan didn’t seem to be doing much better.

Somehow, tribal council evolves into who the hottest girl is.

Votes
Ryan
Roger
Daniel
Ryan
Roger
Ryan
Roger
Ryan

With 4 votes, Ryan has been voted off the island. Matthew, Daniel, and Ryan came up short, while the oddball Daniel vote came from Dave, who didn’t want to vote for Ryan but wanted to send a message to Daniel to tell the truth.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another recap of Survivor: Amazon Episode 2 Storms.