Category: survivor south africa santa carolina

In episode 2, the useless/lazy part of the Bajau tribe turned on the three members who were doing the work. They were at least smart enough to keep Dyke around, instead opting to take out one of his allies, Nicola. The bad news is that this meant that Elsie stuck around, and I’m sure we’re not done hearing her big mouth.

Hein and Dyke are understandably upset by the tribe’s rather odd strategy. They plot to slow down their amount of work as revenge. Maybe somebody else on the tribe will actually do something to help. Hein wants to call a meeting because he thinks the girls are acting like schoolchildren. Dyke acknowledgs he comes across as rude, abrasive, or obnoxious. “At times I can be. At times anyone can be.” Angela returns to them making promises and not fulfilling them. It’s a damn good thing she hasn’t made any promises because she hasn’t done anything the whole time she’s been there.

The reward challenge is a dash through the sand to grab numbered coconuts. This has the potential for lots of shoving, but kicking, punching, biting, and scratching are not allowed. The winner will get flint, which should be helpful since neither tribe has fire (similar to the last season of Survivor in the US, fire must be earned and is not just given to a tribe for going to tribal council). The tribes must choose each time which person from their tribe will compete in that round. Irshaad beats Rijesh to go up 1-0. Lorette (the black belt… whose wise idea was this matchup?) beats Amanda to take the lead 2-0. Hein uses his weight and strength to get the coconut from Mandla. He drops the coconut, but Mandla’s just lying on the ground, so Hein scoops it back up and brings the score to 2-1. Next up, it’s Angie against Elsie, and by some miracle, Elsie wins, tying the score at 2-2. The last matchup is Nichal against Grant, who is outmatched by probably 100 pounds. Nichal receives a warning about holding Grant when the coconut is free, reminding him to play the coconut, not the player. Nichal disregards this warning and is disqualified, costing his team fire and giving the challenge to Iban.

Despite the loss, everybody seems to be getting along when they get back to camp. People are actually being nice to each other. Dyke’s not buying it. It’s not long before the other 5 are sleeping in the middle of the day, while Dyke and Hein continue working.

Iban’s got a positive vibe, with genuine relationships building (so they say), a winning streak, and now fire. Their problem is that they don’t have anything to cook. Mandla hurt his knee in the reward challenge when battling with Hein. In season 1, we saw something similar, where Sanele had to quit because he was injured during a challenge… a challenge that also involved running through the sand and diving at people, which was also in episode 3 and also a reward challenge for flint. The good news for the tribe is that Lorette does end up catching an actual fish, rather than the goldfish she caught previously.

Hein catches a bunch of fish. He then promises to build a fire. And here we go again with the whining about him not building a fire yet, this time from Rijesh. So I ask again: what’s Rijesh done? Nichal bets him 500 rand. Angela offers a 100 rand contribution toward that 500. She tries to get the others go along. With some arm pulling, Elsie is in for 20 rand ($2.75US). Hein says the time is not right strategically to make fire.

At the immunity challenge, the teams start on platforms in the water. The setup is similar to the reward challenge. Tribes pick two people to dive and grab a ball from underwater (only one ball that they must fight for). The first tribe to touch the post gets a point. Dyke and Rijesh square off against Irshaad and Viwe in round 1. Dyke and Rijesh take the lead 1-0. In round 2, Amanda and Angela face Lorette and Angie. The ladies learned from the last round and are now blocking the post at the shore to make it more difficult to score. The lame thing about this challenge is you don’t have to get control of the ball. All you have to do is have one hand on the ball and one hand on the post, even if all three other people are fighting for the ball at the same time. Amanda does just that, and Bajau finally wins something.

Following the immunity challenge, with the knowledge that he and Dyke aren’t in immediate danger of going home, Hein attempts to make fire. Once again, the lazy people on the tribe who haven’t done anything doubt him. In over 100 international versions and 14 US seasons, no contestant has ever made fire on their own. Samburu managed to make fire in season 3 using Kim P’s suggestion of a telescope lens, and Michelle did so last season with Yau Man’s glasses, but nobody has managed to do it with just what’s available in the wild. So here we have another Survivor first. Hein did manage to get a fire going, using just natural materials available on the island. Hopefully the whiners who aren’t doing anything to contribute to the camp will shut up now, and perhaps they’ll even reevaluate their strategy of getting rid of valuable members who actually want to work.

With Bajau losing so much, I almost forgot about how useless Lisa was in episode 1. Now, of course, she’s back on the chopping block again. She has apparently turned over a new leaf, but she was a complete idiot for admitting she was being lazy on purpose for the first couple days. Angie believes Viwe is a bit of an outcast, so he’s the other choice for elimination tonight. Lisa’s too lazy to even campaign for herself, sending Angie and Grant to do the work for her. Lorette, the swing vote, chimes in to say that Viwe is working when asked but Lisa still isn’t.

When questioned about it at tribal council, Lorette says there is a slight improvement, but there is much more room for improvement. Viwe says he believes alliances don’t exist, even though he is in an alliance with Lisa, Grant, and Angie. Grant (a lawyer) says while voting that he doesn’t trust Viwe because he’s a lawyer.

It’s time to vote:
Lisa
Viwe
Viwe
Lisa
Viwe
Viwe

Viwe is voted out by a vote of 5-2, and Lisa is saved yet again. Well, they went ahead and dumped a member of their alliance like I suggested. Too bad it was the wrong one, and they didn’t realize Lisa is dragging them down and will continue to do so.

In the previews for next week, Rijesh continues to believe he’s so smooth that nobody’s noticing what he’s doing, and tribes get scared by their treemail.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another recap of Survivor South Africa: Malaysia Episode 4, which airs Wednesday at 8PM South Africa time (GMT+2) on M-Net.

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.