Survivor: Micronesia – Fans vs. Favorites – Episode 8, "I Just Think I Have A Lot Of Good Opinions"

Previously on Survivor: Micronesia – Fans vs. Favorites, Tracy scrambled to stay alive on Malakal after Chet’s departure left her without an alliance. Ami plotted to overthrow Ozzy but was unsuccessful. Meanwhile Krazy Kathy finally went bananas and left the game. Tracy was voted out at Tribal Council.

Night 20 At Malakal

Upon returning from Tribal Council, Ozzy is bothered by the fact that he was called out as the “leader” of the tribe. He doesn’t think he’s the leader. He just thinks he has a lot of good opinions. Ozzy’s worried because being called the leader puts a big target on you. Apparently, Ozzy has been oblivious to the huge target that’s been on his back all this time.

Erik just feels lucky to still be around…as he should.

The next morning Ozzy continues worrying about the whole “leader” thing with Ami. He’s actually starting to sound really whiny. Ami tells him he shouldn’t worry about stuff like that because nobody cares, but Ozzy says they’re getting ready to move into the part of the game where people do care about that (yeah, they care about that but not the fact that he’s more athletic than anyone in the game and is a strategic threat to pretty much everyone). Ozzy’s starting to sound deluded.

Ami tells Ozzy that Tracy tried to get Ozzy voted off but Ami was able to stop “anything crazy from happening.â€Â? Ami apparently plays it a little too strong because Ozzy starts to get suspicious of her. The more she says she’s on his side the more suspicious Ozzy gets.

I Think I Smell A Rat

Over at Airai, everyone is talking about the foods they miss. I guess they’re getting pretty hungry because they spot a rat and one of the girls says she wishes they could kill and eat it. Jason rushes to her aid and promptly slays the nefarious rat. He thinks it’s cool that no one has killed and eaten a rat since Season 1. They tie the thing up and hang it from a tree.

Parvati tells us she thinks Jason has been trying to impress the Favorites since the switch. She then says, “It’s not working, though. I think he’s a loser.� Ouch.

Parvati Forms An End Game Plan…For Herself

James and Parvati spend some time bonding while they complain about the beach at Airai. The water here is too choppy and the beach isn’t as nice as it was at Malakal. James doesn’t think Popeye would go into that water.

Talk quickly turns to strategy (probably because of Parvati). They discuss how they need to make it to the merge, but they’re worried about Natalie and Alexis making it because they think that Ami and Eliza will “scoop them up.â€Â? Parvati says she and James need to pull in two people in order to be in a strong and safe position until that point.

Parvati can’t really leave that up to James, of course, so she goes to Natalie and begins putting her own little plan into action. Parvati asks Natalie if she and Alexis will join her and James in an alliance and Natalie agrees. Apparently, Eliza and Jonathan didn’t get much of an alliance going before Jonathan left.

Paravati goes on to tell Natalie that once they hit the merge, the targets will be on the big guys and the little women will be able to slip under the radar. She thinks Ozzy and James will probably be the first two to go. Parvati adds that she sees nothing wrong with it being Natalie, Alexis, herself, and Amanda in the final four. Natalie seems to like the sound of that.

At first I assume she’s just telling Natalie what she thinks Natalie wants to hear, but then Parvati tells the camera that she can’t win against Ozzy or James. She likes them but that doesn’t mean she wants them around. She might actually try to go with the final four she talked about with Natalie. Might not be a bad idea for her.

Treemail

The next day, at Airai, the survivors get some treemail. The note tells them to circle the name of one of the members of Malakal who they want to sit out in the upcoming immunity challenge. That person will be sent to Exile Island and will not participate in the challenge. They will return in time for Tribal Council, however, that individual will have immunity for tonight only. Malakal gets the same message, of course.

They don’t tell us who each side will choose, but we do get a few clues to the challenge. It seems the challenge will have something to do with balance and trying to knock the other side down. It also appears as though the winners will get a feast of some kind.

Immunity Challenge

Upon arriving for the challenge, the tribes make known their selection from the instructions they received in treemail. Airai predictably selects Ozzy to sit out for Malakal. Malakal had written down James, but then changed it to Alexis. Ami says they changed it after realizing the challenge dealt with balance and they think Alexis would be more valuable than James. Ozzy and Alexis don’t even get to stay to watch. They make them leave immediately.

The challenge does involve balance. Probst describes how it works: One tribe member at a time will cross an obstacle course while members of the other tribe try to knock them off the course by swinging heavy canvas bags at them. At the end of the course, the tribe member will grab a flag and then try to make their way back. If they fall off at any point they have to go back to the start and the next person goes. The first tribe to get five flags wins. The prize is immunity plus pizza and beer delivered to the winning camp.

Airai has an extra member so they sit out Parvati. For Airai, James and Natalie will swing the bags while Eliza and Jason run the course. Malakal will have Erik and Amanda run while Ami and Cirie swing the bags.

Erik and Jason run against one another first. They both leap across the first obstacle with Erik getting a slight lead. He ends up getting his flag first. The race remains tight with the women having trouble staying on the course. The canvas bags are all but useless as most of them miss their targets and the ones that do hit seem to bounce harmlessly off the runners.

Around the fourth flag or so, Erik attempts to make the leap over the first obstacle and misses, slamming his chest into the platform hard. He gets up right away so we can’t tell how badly he’s hurt, but it had to hurt. I’m thinking cracked ribs, bruised heart…something.

Anyway, Erik gets another chance and actually makes the leap again (this time successfully), but it ends up not making a difference as Jason brings back the fifth flag for Airai. Airai wins immunity! Fourth time in a row.

James The Bottle Opener

Back at Airai, they celebrate their victory. Everyone is happy, of course. Jason tells us he kicked butt but he’s still a little worried about his future since he has no alliances. Luckily for him he has the immunity idol…lol…that is, he thinks he has the immunity idol. In case you missed it, Ozzy carved a piece of wood and replaced the real idol with the homemade one which Jason found and believes is the real one.

Parvati tells us Jason and Eliza tore it up on the challenge because they both know they’re on the outs. They saved themselves.

The pizza boat arrives with four pizzas, garlic bread, and a bucket of beer and ice. James open the beer bottle with his teeth!

Jason tries but can’t do it. James makes him look impotent by snatching away his beer bottle and quickly using his teeth to open that bottle as well.

Exile Island

At Exile, Ozzy is doing a bit of acting. He doesn’t want Alexis to know he has the idol, of course, and he also wants to know if anyone found his fake one so he pretends that he read the fourth clue but never figured it out. They go looking. Ozzy slyly looks under the rock and finds that his idol is missing which brings him enormous joy. He wonders “who is going to be tricked by Ozzy.â€Â?

Erik Sings Like A Canary

Amanda and Cirie are talking at Malakal about how they feel bad for Erik because he’s such a competitor and he’s going to get voted off. Erik isn’t feeling too great about it either. After climbing a tree and chopping down some more coconuts he goes to Amanda and Cirie and starts spilling the beans on all the things Ami has been up to since the tribal mix-up. Since Ami’s been trying pretty much anything and everything, there’s plenty for Erik to tell.

Cirie tells us she doesn’t know who to trust. Erik is obviously fighting for his life and will say anything to save himself, but then there’s Ami who has proven “time and time againâ€Â? that Cirie can’t trust her. I’m not really sure why Cirie is making this about trust. She can’t really trust either one of them. They’re both going to do whatever is in their best interest. Cirie should be trying to figure out whose best interests are most closely aligned with hers at this point.

Anyway, Ami sees them talking and comes over and asks Erik if he’s telling them everything about her since day one. He says he’s “trying to� (funny). Cirie and Amanda sit quietly and uncomfortably and just smile.

Erik leaves for a bit so Ami gets a chance to come over to Amanda and Cirie and plead her case. She tells them that she knew what was coming (from Erik) so she’s not mad or anything. She knows he’ll do whatever he can to stay in the game just as she would. Ami wants to stick with them, of course. They shouldn’t believe Erik, etc., etc. The girls all make nice with Amanda and Cirie saying all the right things to make her feel like she’s one of the group again. I’m not sure I buy it. They have a group hug (minus Erik).

Things go into some sort of weird place a little later when Ami goes up to Erik and says she owes him a “thank you” because she had a really good talk with the other women. He says that’s what he wanted (sarcastically?). She points the machete at him and (jokingly?) tells him that’s not what he wanted (I’m thinking Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct crazy here). He agrees it wasn’t what he wanted. Duh. She goes on to tell him how she feels a lot closer to them now and that she’s a part of the group now (rubbing salt in the wound?). She says, “Thank you.” Erik replies with, “No problem.” The whole exchange is very odd.

Erik thinks things are looking pretty bad for him now. He wants to see what Ozzy has to say when he gets back.

A Lost Puppy Dog

The boat arrives returning Ozzy from Exile Island. Erik is waiting for him on the beach like “a lost puppy dog.” Erik is the only one there to greet Ozzy and gives him the bad news of the challenge loss as soon as Ozzy gets off the boat. Erik also tells Ozzy he wants to talk to him before Ozzy talks to everyone else.

Erik asks Ozzy how much he trusts Ami then tells Ozzy all the stories he told the girls earlier about Ami’s previous attempts to overthrow Ozzy and the alliance. Ozzy isn’t too happy that he was specifically being targeted. Ozzy tells us that the way he plays the game is that as soon as somebody makes a move against him, “that’s it.â€Â? He wants them gone ASAP. He seems to trust Erik.

A little later Ozzy and Amanda get together and talk about the situation. Ozzy says that Ami is a “lying little snot.â€Â? He wants to get rid of her. Amanda wants to get rid of Erik, of course. Amanda argues that they know what Ami is capable of and how she plays the game whereas they don’t know that much about Erik. Ozzy thinks they can trust him.

Tribal Council

Tribal Council arrives before we find out what the tribe has decided, of course. Jeff welcomes Malakal to Tribal Council by saying “Four times in a row.” For good measure he then adds, “You’re clearly the inferior tribe at this point.â€Â? You gotta love Jeff!

There’s the usual talk about how losing is bad for moral and how it’s really been Fans versus Favorites the whole time and how Erik might be in the chopping block now because he’s the last Fan left, etc., etc.

Ami makes a good show of it by tearing up and then all out crying pretty much. She goes on about how they can trust her and how she feels like one of the group now and she’s looked them in the eyes… I’m starting to think maybe Ami went off her rocker a bit somewhere along the way. Either that or she’s really a pretty good actress and she’s trying to sell the whole honesty thing with every ounce of her being. Like I said, she puts on a good show. Erik doesn’t say much at all.

Ozzy wants to know from Ami whether or not she was gunning for him with Tracy and Erik. Ami says, “There is no way I would have ever voted for you with Tracy and Erik, ever.â€Â? Ami tells him that she was just giving them hope so there would be peace at camp. She again tells him that she would never have voted for him. “The only way I would vote for you is to win the million dollars,” she says. It’s actually pretty believable. That is, until we remember seeing her making all the moves she made to get rid of him then we have to admit that she’s one really good bald faced liar. Hey, she’s giving it a shot.

This goes on for a while longer. I swear Ami should win an Oscar for this performance. She even takes the time to look each of them in the eye and tell them how they should trust her. She says that she’s totally committed to keeping the Faves together.

Anyway, the time to vote eventually arrives. Ozzy has immunity, of course. They all go off and vote then Jeff tallies and comes back to read off the votes: Ami, Erik, Ami (oops), Ami. That’s all it takes. With that, Ami is voted out of Survivor. Before Jeff snuffs her torch (that kind of sounds dirty), she turns to the tribe and says, “You guys better start winning.â€Â? Afterwards, she practically runs down the ramp and away from the tribe.

What Went Wrong For Ami

Ami’s downfall started weeks ago and was pretty obvious to those of us watching. She tried early on to form alliances with members of the Fans even though their alliance was unstable and she had little to gain from such an alliance.

Ami would have been much better served by cementing her place in the group of Faves she was stuck with. If she had bided her time she would have survived until the merge (which we now know is coming next week) which would have given her a lot more options. She still would have found it difficult to win the game, but she would have made it considerably further and probably all the way to the jury.

Favorites – Malakal

Jon “Jonny Fairplay” Dalton (Ep1), Yau-Man Chan (Ep3), Joel Anderson (Ep5), Ami Cusack (Ep8), Cirie Fields, Tracy Hughes-Wolf (Ep7), Amanda Kimmel, Ozzy Lusth, Erik Reichenbach, Chet Welch (Ep6)

Fans – Airai

Mary Sartain (Ep2), Michael “Mikey B” Bortone (Ep4), Natalie Bolton, James Clement, Alexis Jones, Eliza Orlins, Jonathan Penner (Ep6), Parvati Shallow, Jason Siska, Kathleen “Krazy Kathy” Sleckman (Ep7)