Challenge Caught in the Web
Location: Lion's Rock
In a team relay, Survivors race to retrieve various food items placed in a basket on a giant 20-foot rope web. Side-by-side, the teams race up a ramp, onto a platform and launch themselves into a rope net. Once there, they must climb the web and retrieve a basket, then race back to the starting point. The first Tribe to carry all of its baskets across the finish line wins.
Winning Tribe Gets: Various food items
Winning Tribe: Samburu
Challenge Movin' on Up
Location: Horseshoe
The Survivors test their skills of nomadic relocation. Each tribe is required to disassemble and move identical camps to a new location. Each camp consists of a hut, a fence, a flagpole and various camping equipment. The first tribe to relocate and reconstruct the identical camp 200 yards away wins.
Winning Tribe Gets: Immunity
Winning Tribe: Boran
The Vote:
Linda- Brandon, Kim P, Lindsey, Silas
Silas- Frank, Linda, Teresa
My comments:
Coming Soon
What CBS had to say about the episode:
At another intense Tribal Council the younger members of Samburu displayed their unity as Linda Spencer, the 44-year-old mother of two from Cambridge, Massachusetts, was voted out of the tribe in a 4-3 vote, becoming the 4th person to leave SURVIVOR AFRICA. Linda sealed her fate earlier by sparring with Lindsey Richter, the temperamental 27-year-old from Portland, Oregon, as the two could not overcome their differences. After exiting, Linda looked back on her time spent in Africa, stating, "Integrity is very important to me. It's not if you win or lose, it's how you play the game."
Changing of the Guard
Upon returning to camp after an emotional Tribal Council in which Samburu's Carl had been voted out, the newly empowered younger Samburu members relished their new position of strength within the tribe. Said Silas, "We have the majority now, and basically took over the tribe." Disturbed after receiving four votes against her, Lindsey lashed out at her fellow tribe members, saying, "Don't mess with me. Don't underestimate my people; trust me." Frustrated by Carl's departure and the shift in power, Frank could do nothing but add, "We are outnumbered four to three, and they basically run the show. Damn you, Carl, for leaving me with a bunch of misfits; it's going to be pretty miserable for the next couple of days."
Breakfast of Champions
Awaking early to start the day, Boran's Kim Johnson cooked a breakfast of corn meal mush for her hungry tribe. Disliking its texture and taste, Tom Buchanan, the 46-year-old goat farmer from Saltville, Virginia, compared the mush to grits, adding, "but actually tastes like something that rhymes with grits." Concerned with Tom's lack of food intake, Clarence added, " I am worried about Tom. He's not eating; he has a tough time eating the corn meal; he has a tough time with it going down." Desperate for some other kind of food, Tom and Clarence discovered a doum palm tree with coconut-like fruit growing on it. After a comical, yet failed, attempt to climb the tree, Tom resorted to throwing rocks at the fruits, knocking them off the tree one by one, only to realize they were just as difficult to crack open as they were to knock down. "It takes 20 minutes to open one," said Tom, "and we had something the size of your thumbnail that you could eat. In my opinion, it ain't worth it."
A Divided Tribe
With the younger Samburu members sleeping late, and Frank, Linda and Teresa no longer wanting to carry the workload, the tribe's water supply was quickly diminishing. After receiving tree mail, Linda realized that they had only half an hour to get ready for the next challenge. She awakened the sleeping younger members, telling them they had a very short time before setting out for the challenge. Brushing the sleep from their eyes, the weary tribe members readied for the challenge. Kneeling down on one knee, Silas decided to gather the troops and deliver a pep talk. Observed Linda, "I have seen Silas on the knee before. Maybe it's genuine, but it seemed so cheesy to me." As the divided tribe tried to hash out their differences before the challenge, Linda attempted to hug Lindsey, who stood stoic and cold, not wanting to oblige Linda's efforts. Linda also jumped up and down, giddily yelling, "Let me on the team!" Said Brandon, "Linda became unglued; she has two very different sides. A sweet New England mom side and a crazy woman, too."
Reward Challenge: Caught in the Web
The two tribes met host Jeff Probst at the Reward challenge, where he explained the rules of the game: on a web of rope, hang twelve baskets, each containing a food item. One at a time, the Survivors must race up their team's ramp, cross the rope bridge, climb the net to retrieve one basket, and then race back to the finish line. The first team to collect all the baskets and cross the finish line wins. The reward is the contents found in all their baskets, things like an ostrich egg, olive oil, and seasoning. The race was tied going into the final round, when the eldest member of Boran, Kim Johnson, raced against young, athletic Samburu Kim Powers. Kim Johnson fell behind as Kim Powers plowed through the course and ultimately brought her team the victory.
Back at the Boran camp, Kim Johnson apologized for faltering during the challenge. Ethan sympathetically added, "We lost the challenge, and unfortunately it came down to Kim going really slow. I feel terrible for her. She can't feel good; I know she doesn't feel good. I am glad I am not in that situation."
All Cracked Up
The morale-boosting victory temporarily lifted the Samburu tribe's spirits as they enjoyed various tastes from the creature comforts they had won. However, noticing they were low on water soon brought the tribe back to reality. Lack of water was not their only problem, as they realized that the pots they used to boil the water in were all cracked. Kim Powers explained the predicament: "Now we have completely shattered all of our pots. It's a horrible situation that we got ourselves into. This tribe, can't we get our act together? What is wrong with us.
The Cape Buffalo
On the hike to gather water, the Boran tribe encountered the harsh reality of living off the land in Africa. Hiding in the bushes, they noticed one of the most dangerous of all animals in Africa: a cape buffalo. Stopping the tribe, Big Tom whistled at the beast with the hopes of scaring it off. However, the buffalo remained in place, prompting Lex to explain, "We have all done our homework and all know that that is the one animal that we need to be most careful of. It's considered the most dangerous animal in Africa. It was scary, we needed to leave."
Putting the situation in perspective, Lex continued, "We are finding on a daily basis these sobering experiences that remind us that we need to respect the land, and this entire thing is very real; danger is here." As the buffalo stood its ground snarling, the frightened tribe headed off in the other direction, once again realizing the dangers in wild Africa.
Immunity Challenge: Movin' on Up
After host Jeff Probst took back the Immunity Idol, he explained the rules of the Immunity Challenge to the two tribes. He told them how the tribes of East Africa are constantly relocating their camps. In this challenge, both tribes were given a camp with a hut and various camp supplies. The first tribe to relocate their camp 200 yards up a hill and recreate it exactly as it was wins. Each tribe must designate two members to be the "architects" who must remember exactly how the new camp is to look. The others are assigned to be the movers. As the challenge began, Boran lifted the heavy base of the hut and ran it up the hill, while Samburu chose to carry the lighter items first. Boran's strategy paid off as they successfully recreated their camp and won Immunity.
Happy Birthday
Early in the morning, Linda found Frank sitting on the camp's cart and gave him a big 43rd birthday hug as he carved both his children's and wife's name on his torch. Remembering his life back home, Frank explained, "I wanted my wife and two daughters' names to be on the torch, not only for strength now, but for when I leave. I want them to be carried with me."
Mountain View
With the pressure off and escaping Tribal Council, an overwhelmed and teary-eyed Kim Johnson attempted to expand on her feelings, saying, "Words can't express how happy I am. I can just stand here and cry, and the thing that makes me really happy is that I think they are all happy, even personally for me." With the day to themselves, the Boran tribe climbed to the top of a majestic mountaintop overlooking the land that has been their home for the last 13 days. At peace with themselves, gazing out across the landscape, Ethan put the day's events into his own words: "The tribe's happy, I'm happy, and we are all having fun. It was just so pleasant; it was like, we are here. We are in Africa!"
Voting Strategy
Over at Samburu things weren't as serene, as the fractured tribe prepared for Tribal Council. The younger members tried to sway all the elders to vote for Lindsey. Silas explained, "If there is ever a tie vote, the tiebreaker is whoever has more votes against them." Since Lindsey was the only one of the four younger members to have at least one vote already cast for her, they believed it made sense for the older people to continue voting for Lindsey (assuming they wouldn't vote against their own), so that no one else would become vulnerable in the case of a tie. Shocked at the audacity of the young, Linda replied, "If I'm the person who is going this evening, I am not going to do that. There is totally nothing in it for me."
In the end, Linda was voted out, but not before the elders went against the younger tribe members' wishes and cast three votes against Silas. Linda became the fourth person to be voted out of SURVIVOR AFRICA.
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