Episode 1, Three Sent Packing

Game on! All twenty are in a big row boat when Jeff tells them that Survivor has started. They are about one mile from their beach and two immunity necklaces. One necklace is for the first woman to reach it and the other is for the first man. The Survivors smartly decide to row instead of trying to swim a mile.

While they're rowing, Wanda decides to regale them with one of the songs that she made up for the show. That's right I said one of the songs. She composed and practiced several songs to sing during the show. The ones she sang tonight sounded a little like show-tunes, "Survivors, we're going to be Survivors!" Jonathan and Stephenie jump in to swim and soon learn they made a mistake - they fall behind the boat!

Everyone else jumped in to swim when the boat got closer to shore. The winners of the necklaces were: Jolanda and Ian.

Jeff Probst tells them they are going to live on the beach as a group for a time. No tribes, no buffs, no nothing. Let the plotting begin! Just about everyone begins talking about who they would vote off. The two self-described misfits, Angie (tatoos) and Coby (gay), strike up a friendship or so it seems.

They start to build a shelter and Janu climbs up a tree to aid in this endeavor (giving them all a shot of her butt-crack along the way). James quickly establishes himself as the down-home Southern boy character in the private interviews. He's not as likable as Big Tom but not as annoying as Bubba. They try making fire and of course fail miserably at it.

Jeff Probst reappears and tells them that it's time to form tribes. Here's the method used: Boy Girl. Ian and Jolanda are two separate teams. They will pick someone of the opposite gender to be on their tribe who will in turn pick someone of the opposite gender. Here's the picking order.

Koror: Ian, Katie, Tom, Janu, Gregg, Jenn, Coby, Caryn, Willard

Ulong: Jolanda, Bobby Jon, Stephenie, Jeff, Kim, James, Ashlee, Ibrehem, Angie.

Jonathan and Wanda were left unpicked and they were immediately put on a boat and removed from contention.

Jeff Probst now tells them that they will continue to live together on the same beach.

Immunity & Reward Challenge
Competition: The dreaded jungle obstacle course with row boat ending.
Reward: Whatever supplies the castaways can carry through with them and Immunity.
(supplies in heavy crates: fire, water, food, various equipment)

The trick here is to balance supplies with speed. Carrying a lot of crates will slow you down in the obstacle course. Koror makes the decision to just carry the fire crate. Ulong is greedy and tries to carry them all and in the excitement forgets the fire crate!

Koror wins Immunity fairly easily. Ulong can't coordinate their rowing. Also as winners, Koror gets to choose whether they want to return to the beach they already know or move to an entirely new beach. The adventurous tribe picks the new camp site. It's a decision they soon may regret. The canoe they are paddling to the new beach overturns and the crate with the flint in it sinks to the bottom. In that instant, fire is lost!

Meanwhile at Ulong Jolanda is trying to get support to vote off Angie, the tattooed freak (I mean that in a nice way). Stephenie is rallying support to vote off Jolanda. She claims it was Jolanda's bad idea to try and carry all of the crates in the challenge. Angie knows she's a target so she's willing to vote for Jolanda.

Ulong at Tribal Council
(paraphrased)
Probst: Stephenie are you surprised by any of this?
Steph: yes, I'm very hungry and thirsty already.
Probst: James are you happy with how things have gone?
James: Yes, we lost this one but we're young, tough and strong. We'll win!
Probst: You had a choice in the challenge, did you make a mistake?
James: Heck yeah! Dumbasses we forgot the fire!
Probst: Has a leader emerged yet?
Ashlee: No not yet.
Jolanda: I'd like to lead this tribe.
Probst: Angie how has it been for you?
Angie: Hard, I was picked last and now we finish last.

Jolanda is voted off with 5 votes shown.

Alliances
It's really too early to identify alliances. Coby had the opportunity to pick Angie to be in the same tribe with him, but for some reason he chose Caryn instead. What's up with that? Now the two misfits are in separate tribes. Koror is generally older than Ulong. Look for Tom and Willard, the two oldest men, to form an alliance. Bobby Jon, Ibrehem and James are from Alabama so look for an alliance here.

Heroes & Villains
I didn't think that I would like Janu (pictured). I thought as a Las Vegas showgirl that she would be prissy, but she's not. Jolanda would have made a nice villain, but she's gone already. I also like Angie so I'm not liking Coby right now.

Official Episode Title: This Has Never Happened Before!

Won Reward: Koror
(fire, but promptly lose it)

Won Immunity: Koror
(reward & immunity were done in single challenge)

Voted Off: Jolanda
Aired: 5 votes for Jolanda, 3 votes for Angie

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