'Survivor' 26×01 "She Annoys Me Greatly" Fan vs. Favorites in Caramoan

Survivor is back with their twenty sixth season for another fans versus favorites season. Standing on a very tall rock column, Jeff delivers his opening as helicopters fly past him and we see his one shirt. Ah, the classic one shirt, I’m still upset that Ozzie ruined the new shirt Jeff got a few seasons ago…

39 Days 20 People 1 Survivor.

Reward Challenge:

An early head start for flint and beans is up for grabs on this challenge that immediately begins after people get off their boats and helicopters. It’s like a scary game of Capture the Flag. 2 male/female pairings go up against each other to grab the hoop and bring it back to their pole. With one hand on your pole and the other on the hoop gets a point and the first team to four points wins. Seem pretty easy but it turns out to be a rather intense game.

The Vet (Shamar) is a big guy and ex-Marine. He’s the big guy of his Fans team, but he’s also a bit scary. When watching the first pairings he shouted for someone on his team to break a girls wrist. Everyone is cheering and being normal and then he yells that out and Jeff immediately turns around and looks at him. Ah, Jeff’s raised eyebrow… He ain’t taking any of Shamar’s shit. He tried to play it off by mixed meanings, but it’s obvious he wasn’t telling anyone to break the girls hold, he was telling them to break her wrist. Violent guy! The Favourites win all four points in a row, showing they’ll be dominant in the strength challenges. Cochran proved himself in this strength challenge which I’m rather happy about. I’m definitely supporting my favorites this year, and Cochran is taking the lead alongside Malcolm for who I want to win. With Brandon, probably. When Malcolm was competing he and the Gota guy both ended up losing their shorts during the wrestling style battle. I don’t know what the girls were doing, because they didn’t seem to be of much importance. It was definitely fun seeing the reactions of everyone on the sidelines. Do we watch and cheer or look away?

Drama:

Gota (Orange):

Allie, Eddie, Hope, Julia, Laura, Matt, Michael, Reynold, Shamar, and Sherri are the fans that have come to compete against the favorites. After losing the reward challenge for flint, Shamar wants to build a fire rather than shelter and argues with everyone who disagrees. I take it he’ll try to implement his leadership pretty quick. I don’t see why he needs to get everybody doing the same thing, does it really take ten people to make a fire? They end up getting fire going without too many difficulties, so now both teams have fire. Not everyone seemed happy by being told to build fire so it’ll be interesting to see the drama that goes on there. From this team I’m liking Eddie, but I haven’t had much of a chance to see any of them and decide who has good strategy. During the night, Eddie got pretty cozy with one of the girls which is never a good way to start things off.

Bikal (Purple):

Cochran, Dawn, Corinne, Andrea, Eric, Malcolm, Brenda, Brandon, Francesca, and Phillip are on the Favorite team. The producers chose a bunch of people off the more recent seasons that all seem to have connections to each other. Cochran and Dawn were on the same season and he betrayed her near the end which had him a little uneasy but she seems fine and ready to trust him again. Malcolm and Andrea got cozy on their season, but the most interesting is Francesca and Phillip. Oh those two are fun together… Francesca still seems angry at Phillip about everything when he brushed her off like he had no concerns about her. This is a new game and they shouldn’t concern themselves over what happened in other games. Meanwhile, Phillip is still crazy and wearing his pink underwear. I can’t keep a straight face looking at that.

Immunity Challenge:

In pairs of two, teams race up ladders and drop boxes on a mat below before racing back down. Each pair must climb a little higher to get to the boxes and once all have been dropped the last pairing must collect all the bags that were in the boxes and throw them until they land in each of the eight slots. Bikal has a good lead going through most of the ladder climbing, and then Malcolm starts throwing the bags. He’s doing pretty well but Reynold (?) comes up and wins it for his team in the last few seconds. I knew they were going to put Malcolm in the throwing position but he never seems to win the challenges that require him to do that…

Strategy:

Immediately when Bikal gets back to camp, Francesca starts up on wanting Phillip out of the game. I thought they had got past their issues? OH well, she starts getting the numbers together but so is Phillip, and then Brandon starts inching towards wanting Andrea out. All of a sudden Phillip seems completely forgotten and it’s Andrea vs Francesca. Will Francesca be voted out first again?

Tribal Council:

During Tribal, Phillip proves he can say Francesca’s name, and then there’s a bit of discussion showing Francesca and Andrea are the subjects of tonights vote. It ends up as 5-4, sending Francesca home over Andrea.

Next Episode Brandon starts channeling his inner Russell. Now that he can’t hide his cousin it doesn’t seem to be an issue. I really hope he doesn’t get chucked soon though, because I like him.