Category: survivor china

Survivor: China Episode 7 proved to be as predictable as expected. Despite some very questionable loyalties, the tribe that was up 6-4 pre-merge stuck together and booted one of the others, Jaime.

James catches some fish without trying and discusses how his team came together despite being complete opposites of each other.

Tribes will get in boats with holes in them and try to sink each other twice in the reward challenge. Peih-Gee and Jean-Robert are captains. Jean-Robert picks James, James picks Todd, and Todd picks Amanda. Peih-Gee picks Frosti, Frosti picks Erik, and Erik picks Courtney. Denise will not participate in the challenge. The lightest team members, Todd and Courtney, get in the boats. In the first round, Courtney gets completely crushed. They picked her because she was light, but they didn’t take into account that she sucked. Frosti and Amanda get in the boats next. Frosti, likewise, gets crushed. Amanda, James, Todd, and Jean-Robert win reward.

Reward is a visit to a Chinese village. They get the final clue to the hidden immunity idols, both of which have been found already. Jean-Robert is completely surprised, though the other people on the reward already know about the idols, and he’s the only person in his tribe who has not been informed of the state of idols. Then they get to eat some Chinese food, only there they just call it food.

Denise, who was the only person not picked for the reward challenge, starts to get worried that they’ll also choose her last when it comes to later on in the game. Perhaps sensing this, Peih-Gee tries to get something going, and Denise says she’s open to the idea but will do whatever is best for her.

In the middle of the night, Jean-Robert just stays up and searches for the idol. A smart move if the idols weren’t already taken.

Todd, who’s a bit bitter that James took his idols and ran, comes up with a new plan. Blindside James and take him out to avoid the danger of a physical threat with two hidden immunity idols. Absolutely brilliant plan, though it will piss off the large amount of James fans. This is a good idea because if they don’t take out James and his idols now, they may as well just write the check out to him rather than going through with the formality of the rest of the season. Frosti’s down with this move. Amanda’s a bit skeptical.

Immunity challenge is a balancing act. They sit on barrels filled with water, which is slowly emptying out a hole in the bottom. Jean-Robert is first out. Denise follows. James falls next. Obviously, this challenge wasn’t designed with bigger people in mind. Erik falls fourth. He is followed by Peih-Gee. Amanda is disqualified for touching the structure in front of her. Todd goes next. It’s between Courtney and Frosti. Courtney hasn’t budged at all during the whole challenge, and she keeps it up and wins immunity.

Jean-Robert thinks things have changed, and he also thinks he has the hidden immunity idol. Erik tells him he doesn’t and that James does. Jean-Robert also raises the concept of pulling the fast one on James, as he finally realizes his tribe’s been leaving him out of the loop. He offers James an alliance, but James has no interest because… he’s Jean-Robert.

Now Todd wants to get rid of Jean-Robert, since he also came up with the idea of going after James. The rest of the tribe is happy with a Jean-Robert boot, except for Amanda, who still wants to get rid of Peih-Gee.

Jeff points out the obvious at tribal council: James is a physical threat. James says there are bigger threats, those who talk too much and are willing to shake things up. Erik and Peih-Gee are the only ones who bothered to pack.

Votes:
Jean-Robert
Jean-Robert
Peih-Gee
James
James
James
Jean-Robert
Jean-Robert
Jean-Robert

Jean-Robert finally bites the dust. I’m not so sure it was good to throw the votes James’ way, but it will probably cause him to be skeptical of his current alliance. If it’s a physical challenge, he’ll likely win. If he doesn’t, he’ll use his idols. Either way, I’d say the window of opportunity to safely remove James from the game has now passed. Interestingly, Denise was kept out of the loop, which won’t help her get any closer to her tribe.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Survivor: China episode 9 Just Don’t Eat the Apple, which airs Thursday at 8/7c on CBS.

Watch Survivor: China Online

In Survivor: China Episode 6, we saw yet another strong strategic play, this time by Todd, but the net result of it was just that James got himself a hidden immunity idol and a way to find the second one. However, despite the use of their brains by some people on that island that day, Courtney went completely braindead (not a big change, I know) and told her allies she didn’t trust them, then she voted against one of them. But it wasn’t enough to prevent Sherea from getting voted off. Not that I know why anybody would want to prevent something like that.

Courtney starts off episode 7 by saying she hates everybody. While I’ve heard that before in prior seasons, it normally comes from someone with the personality to make it amusing.

Peih-Gee tries to convince James she’ll be loyal to him. In her confessional, she backs this up, saying her gut instinct is to trust him. It’s one episode too late for that, but there will be some post-merge scrambling.

Since the second hidden idol is “hidden” in the same exact spot as the first one, James gets that one as well. Jaime notices something’s missing. What they grab, though, is the second one on the opposite side, the one that’s not actually an idol. Later, Jaime looks in his bag and finds the actual hidden idol. They find not one but two.

Courtney continues to whine. Todd asks whether they can patch things up, which doesn’t happen. He gets concerned, which he should be, that she’s going to vote against Jean-Robert every time, thereby creating problems after the merge. The way Jean-Robert’s been treated in general in itself has been blatantly problematic for quite some time.

James notices the piece of wood that looks like an idol is missing. He knows somebody took it, and he hopes it’s Jaime. This is the kind of thing we were hoping for when Yau Man made a fake immunity idol.

The tribes are now merged. They will go to Fei Long’s beach because they sucked less. As they head off to a feast and traditional Chinese entertainment, Jeff warns them: this game never stops.

Amanda comes right out with it, telling us it’s still two tribes.

Jean-Robert’s not smart enough to realize his tribe hates him, so he’s not even thinking about switching sides.

Jeff comes to the island and brings the immunity idol. As he warned, the game didn’t stop. The challenge is about events that happened during the feast and the celebration. James, Amanda, Courtney, and Peih-Gee are eliminated on the first question. Everybody gets the second question right. Todd (who had the correct answer but changed it), Jean-Robert, Denise, and Erik are eliminated on the next question. On the final question, Frosti wins immunity. I’m not so sure about this win. He probably wasn’t in any danger and may have painted something of a target on himself.

They want to get rid of Jaime, but they’re still concerned about Courtney. Jean-Robert, however, insists he wants to vote for Peih-Gee.

He then tells Todd if he gets screwed he’ll blame Todd, not Amanda, and says he’ll campaign harder than any juror ever has. Todd promises he’s watching his back, but he’s just playing him. Yeah, Jean-Robert’s definitely a big sore loser waiting to happen.

Peih-Gee thinks Jean-Robert is probably going to get votes, so that’s the way they’re going to go.

At tribal council, Jean-Robert says he doesn’t think Courtney will be considered a threat any time soon. James is concerned that Jean-Robert talks too much. Before Jeff reads the vote, Jaime pulls out the fake hidden immunity idol and asks if it is an idol, but Jeff tells her no. Darn. That was far less funny than I’d hoped.

Votes:
Jean-Robert
Jaime
Jaime
Jean-Robert
Jean-Robert
Jaime
Jaime
Jaime
Jaime

Jaime has been voted off. Not a surprising vote. It may take some time before we get some actual drama here. Though the previews for next week’s episode certainly do look interesting.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Survivor: China episode 8 High School Friend Contest, which airs Thursday at 8/7c on CBS.

Watch Survivor: China Online

In Survivor: China episode 5, Peih-Gee pulled off one the best strategic moves I’ve seen in years (albeit still a somewhat risky one), intentionally losing a post-shuffle immunity challenge to avoid being Pagonged. Granted, I haven’t seen much in the way of good strategic moves on Survivor in years, but even with that aside, I’d still say that regardless. Many people probably hated this move because it may seem like a chicken’s way out, but it was really her only logical choice. Following the loss, Aaron was voted out because he’s a better schemer than James. However, unlike Aaron, James can win a challenge single handedly if the opportunity presents itself. So tonight’s ultimate question becomes whether he can save himself given the situation.

Todd tells Amanda he has clues to the hidden immunity idol, which I would hope has been burned by now. He’d previously called people suckers for sharing this type of information.

Reward is to go to a tea house, get pampered, and have tea and a light snack. They must go from room to room and find and untie planks, which will then form a puzzle, a phrase made famous by Confucius. During the challenge, Peih-Gee uses the time to strategize, waiting for a moment alone with Sherea. Brilliant again. She tells Sherea to tell Frosti they’re still there for them. The challenge is pretty much even all along. Fei Long easily wins because Zhan Hu sucked at the puzzle, begging the question just how much difference it would have made if they actually tried at least week’s puzzle. James’ old tribemates are happy to kidnap him, especially Todd because he wants to get another clue for the HII from him.

Courtney still wants to see Jean-Robert go. She couldn’t care less what that means in terms of numbers.

Peih-Gee, Jaime, and Erik start to get concerned that Frosti and Sherea aren’t still with them. So they decide they have to win immunity. Not sure how that increases their odds.

At the first chance he gets, Todd tells James there’s something in the tube that can save him if he gives it to him. James agrees because he doesn’t have another choice. With this fourth clue, Todd figures it out. While Todd and Amanda are searching for the idol, Frosti comes up and starts trying to find it himself. Because of this, he sees the idol when they get it, and they tell him they have to trust him. Todd gives it to James and tells him that he has to throw the challenge and use the idol to get rid of Jaime.

Did I say Peih-Gee was brilliant? Todd’s giving her a run for her money. This plot is also strategically one of the better ones I’ve seen in a long time, not to mention great use of a hidden immunity idol (much better than a weak plot like using it to sway an idiot on the outskirts, then being praised for months as the Yulfather). Todd said he wanted to show us Survivor’s still Survivor, and this is hopefully a sign of things to come.

The immunity challenge is a gross food eating challenge. Frosti beats Peih-Gee on the chicken hearts. Jaime and Courtney eat eel (lame for a challenge like this), with Jaime coming out ahead. Erik beats Amanda eating baby turtles. Despite an early and lengthy effort by James to throw the challenge, Denise can’t get down whatever it was they were eating with that had feathers, so James won to take the lead 3-1. Erik takes the next point and wins the challenge for Zhan Hu. Oddly enough, this was the right thing to do. Unfortunately, it means the damn hidden immunity idol lives another day. Hopefully that will lead to more than just someone being carried to the final three, perhaps another strategy like tonight (minus the anticlimactic part).

Back at camp, todd and Amanda want to get rid of Sherea and hope to form an alliance of Todd, Amanda, Denise, Frosti, James, and Courtney. Courtney would rather eat one of her own and get rid of Jean-Robert, and she tells Sherea. Jean-Robert gets the sense something’s up. Todd, who fears a negative reaction from people if they don’t do what they want, suggests that maybe Jean-Robert’s not such a bad boot, but Amanda doesn’t think now’s the time to get rid of him.

At tribal council, people start attacking Jean-Robert, not caring that they’re just alienating him even further than they already had to begin with. Don’t give him an excuse to flip when the merge happens. For some unknown reason, though, Courtney opens her big mouth and lets Todd know she doesn’t trust him either.

Votes:
Jean-Robert
Jean-Robert
Sherea
Sherea
Sherea
Sherea

As much as I won’t miss Sherea, it’s almost too bad they didn’t have time to plot and discuss getting rid of Courtney. It wouldn’t have been smart, but it would have been well deserved. Granted, watching Sherea’s goodbye video makes me completely sure I won’t miss her. Delusion, party of one.

The vote gives Fei Long a very shaky 6-4 advantage going into what is presumably a merge next week. Jean-Robert, Courtney, Frosti, Erik, Jaime, and Peih-Gee all appear willing and able to stab at least one person on their old tribe in the back.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Survivor: China episode 7 I’m Not As Dumb As I Look, which airs Thursday at 8/7c on CBS.

Watch Survivor: China Online

In Survivor: China Episode 2, I said Zhan Hu should get rid of Dave, or they’ll regret it. Of course, they refused to do that and kept him around. So then in Survivor: China episode 4, they woke up and realized they should have done that, and decided to vote him out. Unfortunately, what made sense in episode 2 no longer made sense in episode 4. I really can’t figure out what Sherea, one of the laziest contestants on the show this year, contributes to the team, and her excuse that she’s saving up her energy for challenges doesn’t cut it because it’s not like she’s good at them or anything. With decisions like these, it’s no wonder they’ve been to tribal council three out of four times.

Erik and Jaime start flirting. He says he’s a virgin, which she says makes him more trustworthy than she thought before. In Survivor, a showmance should work pretty well.

James and Denise are getting along well because of their work ethic. He’s definitely a good person to coast under.

The tribes receive a message saying they must pick two warriors. Fei Long picks Frosti and… Sherea. Huh? As Simon Cowell would say, what the bloody hell was that? Zhan Hu picks James and Aaron. Maybe this tribe is less dumb than the other. Or maybe they’re both just dumb in their own ways. Anyway, this does even things up, as Fei Long was becoming way too strong (largely because Zhan Hu kept sucking worse and worse).

Both tribes are talking about voting off new members, but in terms of winning challenges, this doesn’t make sense. If this were a normal tribe shuffle, it definitely would, but when you get the strongest members, you don’t just vote them off. That’s just stupid unless you want to lose. With that said, Sherea’s completely expendable.

Sherea’s talking about stepping up her work now that she’s on the other tribe. I’m not betting on it. Frosti’s happy to find out nobody likes Jean-Robert because it improves his position. Jean-Robert’s asking people to help him out politely as far as I can tell, yet everybody takes offense to it. They’re just looking for an excuse to hate on the guy who’s now their strongest member. If they lose him, they’ll suck as bad as the other tribe used to.

Aaron already starts talking about James being a threat longer term. Dude, it’s episode 5. Granted, better James than himself.

Peih-Gee is the only person I’ve seen smart enough to discuss taking advantage of having a post-shuffle majority. Most people try their hardest to make sure they win immunity, thereby ensuring that their teammates on the other side who are in the minority go home. She realizes this problem and contemplates whether it’s a good idea. This is potentially problematic for her in this case (again going back to the picks based on strength) because if they get rid of the strongest players, that runs the risk of losing more immunities, which may be a problem if the couple decide to take her out.

Tribes must head out to a raft and dive under the water to retrieve sticks. They must get as many sticks in one breath as possible. When they get all the sticks out, puzzle pieces will be released. Amanda and Courtney sit out for Fei Long. Zhan Hu gets back to shore first. Fei Long’s a bit behind but not too far. Jaime and Peih Gee are completely unconcerned about the challenge, and since they’re two of the three puzzle solvers, this is enough to make sure they lost big.

James hopes the guys unite, which would make for a very strong tribe. Erik’s not going to turn on Jaime yet, but he would turn on Peih-Gee. Would have made more sense to clue Erik in on the decision beforehand and gotten his feedback. They do, however, tell him after the fact, and he’s willing to work with them just because he doesn’t see a viable alternative. James tells them to just send him home if they’re not getting rid of one of the girls. He would have been safe at least one more time, but probably not much more at this rate.

Jaime admits at tribal council that she threw the challenge. James is going nuts listening to this conversation and wants to leave because he just can’t sit around and watch what they’re doing.

Votes:
Peih-Gee
James
Aaron
Aaron
Aaron

Aaron has been voted off the island. James is quite upset, but they got rid of the person who’s a smoother talker.

I’ve got to give credit to Peih-Gee for one of the better strategic plays I’ve seen in quite some time. This is how you deal with a shuffle.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Survivor: China episode 6 That’s Love Baby! It Makes You Strong!, which airs Thursday at 8/7c on CBS.

Watch Survivor: China Online

In Survivor: China episode 3, Jean-Robert made some enemies, but Leslie talked herself right out of the game.

Jean-Robert is discussing his “strategy” of doing nothing then trying to pretend he’s doing something so all of a sudden people are impressed with him. Courtney’s not buying it.

Yet another person gets upset with Dave, this time it’s Sherea. Even though I’m not a fan of Dave, she’s being unnecessarily aggressive (downright bitchy) for no reason here.

Reward is for a fisherman and his family to go to camp, cook a meal, and teach the tribe how to fish. Courtney sits out for Fei Long. Tribes must move a flaming ball in pairs of two using sticks like chopsticks. Fei Long wins 3-2. They decide to kidnap Dave. Hopefully he learned a lesson from Leslie.

Dave says he feels like he’s on vacation. He sees it as an opportunity to get on their good side because some people in his own tribe are causing him trouble. Todd thinks Dave’s a nutcase but is pretending to be nice. Dave foolishly thinks he can trust Todd, as does everybody else. He gives the hidden immunity idol clue to Todd.

Now Dave’s tribe is finding out what it’s like to actually work. Well, some members of his tribe are finding that out. Sherea, who hasn’t done anything all along, just stays in bed watching everybody else work. She’s trying to conserve energy for the challenges. Apparently it takes a lot of energy to suck at challenges or something.

The fisherman’s family comes with regurgitating fishing birds. Jean-Robert spent some time in Thailand a long time ago and is able to speak some Mandarin with the family, proving to be a valuable asset in translating. After they catch some fish, they teach the tribe how to use the nets.

At the immunity challenge, tribes are dressed in traditional Chinese armor. They will throw meteor hammers at their opponent’s vases and defend their vases with bamboo poles. Jean-Robert sits out for Fei Long. First round is Denise/Peih Gee against Courtney/Sherea. Peih Gee blocks one of Courtney’s shots, but Sherea still scores one. Todd and James dominate the next round to take a 3-1 lead. Amanda/Aaron go against Jaime/Eric in the third round. Jaime hits two at once to tie the game at 3, but Amanda retakes the lead 4-3. Fei Long wins immunity.

The boot choice is between Dave and Sherea, again the person who’s arguing with Dave. As far as I’m concerned, she needs to go. Her contribution in challenges isn’t worth a great deal, and that’s really all she’s willing to offer.

Votes:
Dave
Sherea
Dave
Dave
Dave

Dave has been voted off the island. Stupid tribe. No wonder they can’t win anything. If Sherea offered some value to the game, I’d be all for the vote, but she’s completely useless, making this pitiful.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live blog of Survivor: China Episode 5 Love Is in the Air, which airs Thursday at 8/7c on CBS.

In episode 2, Jean-Robert got in trouble with his tribe for sleeping all the time, which he said was strategy (huh?), but he lucked out that the other tribe couldn’t compete in the challenge. Zhan Hu decided to break up the tension in their tribe by booting either Ashley or Dave, and they chose Ashley, a move I can’t imagine they won’t regret. Maybe Dave will have a new attitude this week, though. Or not.

Jean-Robert says to call him creepy if they want to, and the women take him up on that offer. Taking up the whole bed and insisting on cuddling with women who aren’t attracted to him is making him even more enemies.

Peih-Gee is concerned that Dave’s wasting his energy at camp, which will again make him wiped out for the challenge, which he performed horribly at last week. His theory is that camp needs to be sorted, and if it’s not, that is what will cause problems at challenges. Frosti thinks Dave should just be happy he didn’t get voted out last time. Yep, definitely no new attitude here.

At the reward challenge, teams start on opposite ends and must battle each other three-on-three to throw the other tribe into the water. Reward is kerosene, a lantern, pillows, blankets, and a tarp. Courtney and Todd sit out for Fei Long. Jaime, Peih-Gee, and Sherea beat Amanda, Denise, and Leslie. Dave pulls a Richard Hatch and takes his pants off. James is the last man standing against Zhan Hu’s men to tie it 1-1. Jaime and Peih-Gee again take the win for Zhan Hu. James then again is the last man standing to tie it 2-2. In the final matchup, Jaime and Peih-Gee win it for Zhan Hu, which marks the first challenge they’ve won. They decide to kidnap Leslie.

Leslie believes the other tribe has an advantage in terms of morale. She spills a lot of information to the girls and Eric. I’m not sure she went too far, but she definitely volunteered way more information than she needed to.

Todd and Courtney are eavesdropping on James and Jean-Robert and overhear Jean-Robert say Courtney is the first to go. Neither James nor Jean-Robert are even attempting to be quiet. This convinces them that Jean-Robert and James need to go, the sooner the better. The big problem with this theory is that, without those two, they’d get killed in challenges, while it’s pretty obvious that neither Todd nor Courtney are considered assets in that respect, as both sit out every other time. Of course, Jean-Robert is digging his own grave in other respects, so getting rid of him would be much easier than getting rid of James would be.

Leslie returns the favor and gives Jaime the clue to the hidden immunity idol. This second clue at a second camp means there are at least two hidden immunity idols. Hopefully this sucks less worse than it sucked last year.

Tribes must choose 4 choppers and 2 puzzle builders at the immunity challenge. Denise and Leslie sit out for Fei Long. The choppers must cut through ropes and release discs. The discs must then be used to solve a puzzle. Zhan Hu gets off to an early lead. Courtney’s a disaster in every sense of the word, though it does lead me to wonder who’s responsible for picking her to do the physical part of this task. She can’t even get one done before the other tribe has all four. If she wasn’t the first boot choice before, she is now. Todd might want to reconsider his theory about which way to vote. With a strong performance by the other people, however, Fei Long does make some effort at catching up, even if it’s never as close as Probst makes it seem. Zhan Hu wins their first immunity.

To her credit, Courtney gives her all at the challenge, even if her all wasn’t very much.

To make matters worse, not only did Leslie volunteer a lot of information to the other tribe, but she foolishly also tells her own tribe way too much information about what she told the other tribe, giving them a rock solid excuse to eliminate her. The other option is Jean-Robert, but it’s not a particularly valid option.

Jean-Robert’s not shy about saying what he thinks about who’s weak on the tribe. Courtney gets upset because she thinks they want to stick her where she will do the least damage, which it’s hard to blame them for. Leslie again volunteers information without thinking, saying the other tribe has more heart. Wow, could this be any more obvious?

Votes:
Jean-Robert
Leslie
Jean-Robert
Leslie
Leslie
Leslie
Leslie

Leslie is the first person voted out of Fei Long. Despite being weak in challenges, she could have bought herself at least another week if she just kept her mouth shut. In addition to Leslie obviously voting for Jean-Robert, Courtney does as well. Not real clear what she hoped to gain by voting against the tribe.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live blog of Survivor: China Episode 4, which airs Thursday at 8/7c on CBS.

In Survivor: China episode 1, Todd started scheming already, James didn’t say much but pushed over some trees, and Chicken overplayed the ignorant card (or was he just being himself?) and earned a quick boot because of it. Will this week’s elimination be that easy to choose? Stick around for another live blog to find out.

Dave jumps right into his leadership role when they get back to camp. His problem is he takes it a bit too aggressively, which is when it becomes problematic. Peih-Gee wanting to be the leader doesn’t help matters any.

Todd and Amanda make an alliance… at least until the merge she says. They decide to pull Aaron in because he’s strong and a leader so they have a target to deflect off if anyone starts blaming someone.

While everybody else is working, Jean-Robert is sleeping, and sleeping some more. He believes he can act lazy and get away with it so that people are impressed when he starts working later. Alienating the whole tribe this early is a bad idea no matter how you justify it.

Jaime tries to get Dave to let her build a small fire to cook some rice. He says no. The rest of the girls quickly rally behind her. Jaime was polite and just walked away, but Ashley gives him a piece of her mind.

Heading into the reward challenge, Jeff tells them to prepare to get dirty. Giant balls will be released into a mud pit and must be pushed across a goal. The reward will be fishing gear, a fishing boat, and one other twist to be revealed later. Fei Long must sit out one guy, and Todd is the pick. Aaron has a free run to the goal, until Probst mentions it. Aaron’s got no problem wrestling with the women. Eventually, the strategy evolves to pulling people’s clothes off. A dirty and topless Amanda ends up scoring the first point for Fei Long. James and Jean-Robert do a great job of being a team in the second matchup and take the win 2-0.

Then the twist is revealed. No more Exile Island (finally). Instead, the winner gets to kidnap a member of the other tribe until the next immunity challenge. Fei Long wants Jaime. She gets something that she must open and read in private when she gets to their beach.

When Zhan Hu gets back to camp, they find it under water. Dave takes this as a sign that his idea to build a pit instead of a fire was good.

Fei Long picked Jaime in an effort to demoralize the other tribe because she seems like a happy person. When she opens the note, it forces her to give the clue to a hidden immunity idol (which she can’t read) to a member of the Fei Long tribe. Interesting. Could either be dangerous or really good. But I’ve gotta say this. The damn hidden immunity idol twist isn’t dead? Oh c’mon. This is another stupid twist that’s gotta go. Let’s not ruin another season by giving someone a free pass to the final three, at the expense of better players.

She decides to give it to who she thinks is the weakest link, Leslie. I think this is a smart move because Leslie’s the type of person who will remember it, should she happen to get to the merge. She wants to use it to gain someone’s trust, someone who’s smart. She picks Todd. He’s a little too smart, though. He hopes she gets booted so he’s the only one who knows about it. I think he’d be better off forming a group of 5 rather than plucking off people who obviously trust him.

Ashley and Dave continue their catfight. She’s tired of him being patronizing.

At the immunity challenge, they must use a puzzle log to bash through walls. The puzzle of that log must then be solved. To get down to 6-on-6, Zhan Hu sits out Jaime, and Fei Long sits out Courtney and Leslie. Fei Long gets off to an early lead with the strength of James and Jean-Robert, plus overall good teamwork. Dave falls apart on the other tribe. Fei Long pretty easily wins, as they continue to work together well at the puzzle.

Dave takes full responsibility for the challenge loss. Never a good idea. He thinks he’s safe, but it’s between him and Ashley. Ashley decides to wait until tribal council before strategizing, also never a good idea.

At tribal council, people take issue with Dave’s over the top leadership style. Dave pretends he’s not doing anything wrong, though he keeps snapping at people, and 6 days in Sherea doesn’t even know half the tribe’s last names. The main concern is just that one of them needs to go to break the tension. When asked what the criteria is for her vote, Ashley just says she’s voting for Dave.

Votes:
Ashley
Dave
Ashley
Ashley
Ashley

Ashley has been voted off. Can’t say I agree with the choice, as she’s a lot better than some others on the tribe, but hopefully at least Dave’s been given a wakeup call. Unfortunately, the previews suggest he gets even worse next week.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live blog of Survivor: China episode 3, which airs Thursday at 8/7c on CBS.