Survivor: Micronesia – Fans vs. Favorites – Episode 3, "I Thought We Had An Alliance, Man!"

On this week’s episode of Survivor: Micronesia – Fans vs. Favorites we were promised more strategy would come into play as Cirie would have to decide which of the two alliances she would want to align with. We were also promised some good old-fashioned butt kicking in one of the challenges. Did they deliver? And what would Mikey B do now that Joel has made his big move? Would The Fans come undone?

Strategy 101 with Mikey B

The show opens with Mikey B acknowledging his awareness that Joel must have stabbed him in the back at Tribal Council. Mikey shows that he’s aware of the general rules of the game by saying that before the merge, you get rid of the weak players, and after the merge, you get rid of the strong. Since Tracy, Kathy, and Chet are weak around camp and in challenges, they should have been the first to go.

This makes perfect sense…if you aren’t Joel. Since Joel is STRONG, he will be the kind of person who will be targeted after the merge. It’s necessary for Joel to have a different game strategy than Mikey B if he wants to succeed. Mikey, apparently, doesn’t understand that.

The Favorites Camp

The Faves, not having to go to Tribal Council, are just hanging out. The Four Lovers (Amanda, Ozzy, Parvati, and Ozzy) invite Eliza down to the beach with them. For some reason they decide they want to turn her. I guess they didn’t see her season. They interrogate her, of course. Ozzy tells her that if they have to go to Tribal Council that he wants to weed out the weak, starting with Yau-Man, then Jonathan, and Cirie. There’s all kinds of crazy with that statement…Yau-Man weak? Eliza trustworthy?

Eliza asks him if he dislikes Jonathan that much (to get rid of him ahead of Cirie, I guess). Ozzy says it’s just that Jonathan plays everyone and can’t be trusted. He can’t be trusted…unlike Eliza who immediately runs off to the other three members of The Four Flukes (Jonathan, Ami, and Yau-Man) to tell them everything. Jonathan and the other Flukes seem to be as confused as I am as to why the Four Lovers would even try to tear apart the Four Flukes alliance. They can only assume Cirie has given them some indication that she is willing to make some kind of deal.

Reward Challenge

The Reward Challenge seems to come up quick. The tribes were given “war paint” in their tree mail so they all show up to the challenge painted up and ready to kill. They were also given the option of what they wanted to play for. The Favorites are playing for shelter, a lighting kit, and a survival kit while the Fans opted for the shelter, a fishing kit, and a kitchen set.

Jeff explains the challenge. The playing field is set up like a small football field…only in a lagoon. Each tribe will start at opposite ends of that lagoon – in their opponents’ end zone. Each tribe will have three canvas bags. The goal is to get those three bags and two of their opponents’ bag into their own endzone. On go, the tribes will charge one another to try to accomplish this goal. Death, dismemberment, and much nakedness will ensue (or so the producers hope). They are, obviously, allowed to steal bags from their opponents, even after they’ve been placed in their endzone. First team to have five bags in their own endzone at the same time wins reward.

To make it more fun, God decides to make it rain really hard just as they get started. I would do a play by play but it’s virtual chaos from the get go. People are being tackled and slammed and stripped. It goes back and forth with the Fans seemingly on top. They are winning 4 bags to 2, but then everyone kind of stops or something and The Faves just start taking their bags left and right. Before you know it, the Faves have won.

Exile Island

The Faves choose to send Krazy Kathy back to exile island. Ami apparently volunteers to go so she can look for the immunity idol. Ami is gung-ho to do all the clue searching and everything, but Kathy already knows the first four clues and doesn’t want to do all the island hopping. She pretty much just plays dumb…which is actually hard for her because before she had such a tough time keeping her mouth shut. A storm approaches and Ami finally has to call off the idol search.

I Should be Carried on the Chariot-Type Thing!

After the challenge the Faves go back to camp to recount their exploits and relive their glorious victory. Cirie, however, isn’t really in the mood for celebrating so she goes off to talk to her best friend – the camera.

Cirie tells us that she doesn’t know how everyone can be so relaxed because she’s not relaxed at all. She thinks they must all feel secure in their alliances but she’s not secure because she knows she has to choose between the two alliances and still have a backup plan. She half jokingly says that she doesn’t understand why the two groups aren’t doing more to try to win her vote when they know she’s in the middle. She thinks they should be kissing up to her a little more and maybe even be carried around on one of those “chariot-type things.”

So, at some point, she goes out on the boat with Amanda and Parvati. Cirie is honest with them and tells them that she doesn’t know if she wants to side with them because she’s worried about the romances they have with James and Ozzy. Parvati says that she knows she couldn’t beat James or Ozzy in the finals so they want to make a pact that it would be the three of them all the way to the final Tribal Council. All three of them give each other their word – the CAP alliance is born. They all agree to target Yau-Man if they go to Tribal Council because they think they could never win against him and they don’t want him getting an immunity idol.

Meanwhile, back on shore, Eliza is freaking out, worried that Amanda and Parvati are filling Cirie’s head with lies. That phrase comes up a lot with these people. I still don’t know what that means on Survivor. I mean, they get all worked up because the other side is “filling their heads with lies,” but isn’t that exactly what they would/are doing? At any rate, Jonathan doesn’t seem nearly as worried although he probably should be. He tells Eliza that she should be reassuring Cirie that everything is fine with them.

The Giant Storm

A giant storm blows in. The Faves are warm and toasty under their nice shelter and newly won shelter. The Fans are miserable and get no sleep. In the morning they are shivering and look battle weary.

Immunity Challenge

There’s not much time for the Fans to feel down because the Immunity Challenge is upon them before you know it. Ami and Kathy return. Jeff explains the challenge.

Two men and two women from each tribe will hold on to ropes that support a “very heavy rope net” while members of the other tribe try to shoot coconuts into the net (basketball style). They each shoot one at a time from a specified distance. The more coconuts that go into the net, the heavier the net gets. The tribe that holds on to their net the longest wins.

The Fans choose Erik, Natalie, Tracy, and Joel to hold their net while the Faves choose Parvati, Jonathan, Cirie, and James. The contest gets off to a slow start with the first two missing. The Fans, however, start to figure it out and start hitting them fairly frequently.

The Faves start doing better and the Fave net holders remain confident with Jonathan talking a lot of smack. Unfortunately for him, the Fans are making a lot of coconuts into the net and they aren’t able to hold on. The Faves let go of the net; the Fans win immunity!

Strategic Merry-Go-Round

Needless to say, with all the focus on Cirie this episode, it was inevitable that the Faves would lose (guess they didn’t have the editing advantages we do). The battle to win Cirie’s vote and control the Faves begins immediately…then gets really confusing.

Normally, when there are discussions to decide who’s going to get voted off, you have maybe two or three people talking at any given moment and there’s maybe two or three groups involved in the process. I guess that was too easy for these guys because they decided to mix it up. Since going through the details would be frustrating for all of us, I’ve decided to outline the events that took place leading up to Tribal Council.

• The Four Flukes are targeting Parvati because she’s “sleeping with James.”
• The Four Lovers can’t decide who to target. Finally decide on Yau-Man because that’s who Cirie wants gone. James doesn’t like it, but Parvati flirts with him until he agrees.
• Ozzy and Amanda change their mind and go to Cirie and tell her they want to vote off Eliza.
• Cirie doesn’t agree because she doesn’t want Yau-Man to get an idol (hey, maybe he just got really lucky on his show – Cirie really seems to have a problem with Yau-Man’s idol finding abilities.
• Eliza walks up but they keep talking.
• Cirie offers up that she could go for voting for Jonathan.
• Ami walks up. The party breaks up.
• Jonathan asks Ami who is being targeted but she says she doesn’t know, either him or Yau-Man.
• Jonathan gets worried and thinks maybe Cirie is going to the dark side.
• Jonathan and Ami gang up on lobby Cirie to go after Parvati because she has two guys wrapped around her finger. Jonathan says he doesn’t know what the girls told Cirie but he KNOWS it was a lie (he’s smart like that).
• Yau-Man joins the argument but doesn’t help the cause when he admits to Cirie that he and Jonathan have a “special thing.”
• Cirie gets incredibly irritated with Jonathan.
• Ozzy and Amanda walk up but the others keep talking.
• Cirie wants to be alone with herself to think happy thoughts and go to her quiet place (my words).
• Cut to: Jonathan and Ozzy. Jonathan is telling Ozzy that if they have to then he’ll vote Yau-Man (what?). Ozzy says he wants to vote Eliza. Tries to convince Jonathan not to vote for Parvati. (Dude, Ozzy, Jonathan was offering to vote for Yau-Man…what’s the problem?)
• Ozzy goes back to his alliance. Parvati says Cirie will only vote Yau-Man so that’s who they should vote for. Ozzy says he has to vote for Eliza (for reasons that remain unclear). He says they don’t need Cirie (guess Ozzy is good at everything except math).
• We suddenly realize that Ami is somehow involved in this conversation (guys, you realize she’s on the other side, right?)
• Guess not. Ami goes back to her alliance to deliver the spy information. The Four Flukes are just completely confused because of the utter lack of strategic reasoning on the part of Cirie and the Four Lovers. They finally decide to just vote Parvati because their four votes might end up being enough.

Tribal Council

As usual, Jeff gets right to the heart of the matter; why did the Faves lose? Everyone pretty much agrees that it’s because they were comfy and didn’t have the fire to win like the Fans did.

It doesn’t take long for Jonathan and Cirie to get into a pissing contest… er …argument. Jonathan’s point seems to be that Cirie agreed to be in his club and now she isn’t going to play with the people in his club. Cirie’s counter is that Jonathan is a lying scumbag who can’t be trusted and his club is sucky…something to that effect. This goes on for a while. There’s some more stuff with Parvati, but the one person whose game life seems to be in the most danger, Yau-Man, remains silent.

Everyone votes. Jeff tallies the votes and reads them. Parvati, Yau-Man, Yau-Man, Parvati, Cirie, Yau-Man, Yau-Man, Yau-Man. And with that, Yau-Man is voted out of the game.

Jeff says that the problem with this tribe is obvious – it’s divided. The question is, what are they going to do about it?

A Few Thoughts On Cirie

It seemed as though Cirie was completely in the driver’s seat in her tribe. Indeed, she sided with the Four Lovers and got her way with the vote so it still seems that way to a lot of people. I don’t think that’s the case, however.

I think Cirie overplayed her position and seriously damaged her chances of winning the game. Had she quietly made her decision and not allowed the drama to build (maybe even lying to the Four Flukes and stabbing them in the back), she would have at least kept some options open with the three remaining players in the other alliance. Playing it the way she did, she created some rifts that won’t be easy to fill with both the other alliance and possibly with the Four Lovers.

The Four Lovers must now view Cirie as someone who is unyielding and wants to control the game. Cirie’s refusal to back down from voting Yau-Man, even though all four of the others wanted to vote someone else, really put them on the spot. It was the equivalent of her telling them they had to play the game by her rules or she’d take the ball and go home. All she did was open the door for one of the remaining Flukes to lobby to take Cirie’s place as the fifth wheel in the Four Lovers alliance. The Four Lovers would certainly have good reason to consider this option now. Taking along an Eliza or Ami or Jonathan to the final three would certainly seem more appealing than taking along a popular (with the Fans for sure) Cirie. Plus, ditching Cirie would free Amanda and Parvati from their CAP alliance. It would be hard for Cirie to argue that she’s more trustworthy than the others since she obviously went against her word and turned on an alliance she had with the Four Flukes.

Cirie made the right decision in siding with the Four Lovers, but she now has some serious bridges to build if she wants to maintain the control she covets.

Favorites – Malakal

Jon “Jonny Fairplay” Dalton (Ep1), Yau-Man Chan (Ep3), James Clement, Ami Cusack, , Cirie Fields, Amanda Kimmel, Ozzy Lusth, Eliza Orlins, Jonathan Penner, Parvati Shallow

Fans – Airai

Mary Sartain (Ep2), Joel Anderson, Natalie Bolton, Michael “Mikey B” Bortone, Tracy Hughes-Wolf, Alexis Jones, Erik Reichenbach, Jason Siska, Kathleen “Kathy” Sleckman, Chet Welch