S29E1 “Suck It Up And Survive”
The pairs are dropped off on the beach in Nicaragua, and the game has begun! They will spend their first night alone before joining up with everyone the following morning. They get a fire starter kit so those that can, get a fire started but the kit stays on the beach and doesn’t go with the pairs into the game. The next morning they join all the others and Jeff lets them know that they will be divided into teams: Coyopa and Hunahpu. Each pair has one member in each tribe – they are playing against their loved one. The first challenge is one member from each team competing against each other to navigate a rope maze, release hoops and rope that they then use to lasso some little platforms and drag them back to their mat. The first player to get both platforms to their mat wins flint and a bag of beans. After a game of paper, rock, scissors, Hanahpu wins. Jeremy volunteers to compete (he hasn’t been told it’s against his loved one, but he should have figured this out!). Here comes the twist – he is competing against his other half, in this case his wife Val. Jeff also lets them know the loser is going to Exile Island.
Nadiya Anderson Natalie Anderson
Josh Canfield Reed Kelly
Alex Christy Drew Christy
Val Collins Jeremy Collins
John Rocker Julie McGee
Wes Nale Keith Nale
Baylor Wentworth Missy Payne
Jacyn schultz Jon Misch
Dale Wentworth Kelley Wentworth
Jeremy wins, and Val is going to Exile Island. And then the other shoe drops. Jeremy has to pick one person from his tribe to send to Exile Island along with Val. He doesn’t hesitate, he picks Keith Nale. Jeremy says he picked Keith because he can make fire, and he thinks Keith will take care of Val out there. Off they go to Exile, and the remaining tribe members get a map to their camps. Exile Island is just desolate looking. There are hardly any trees, not very much to make a shelter, no food to speak of, and even getting into the water is difficult because of rocks and coral off the beach. Yuck. They do find a podium with two vessels. Each pick one vessel and extract a rolled up paper. Val gets a clue to an immunity idol back at camp, and Keith gets nothing (story of his life, ha).
So, let the Outwitting begin –
Back at the tribe camps, everyone is industriously trying to make shelter, gather firewood, scout for water and food. Everyone is pitching in and getting to know each other. At Hunahpu Jeremy gets over sending Val to Exile, and starts making alliances. He makes an alliance with Kelley and he becomes Natalie’s twinnie (her words). Jeremy also approaches Missy and she feels he is trustworthy. Time will tell! At Coyopa, since they don’t have flint, they try alternate methods of starting fire. Dale breaks his glasses into two parts, stacks the lenses, and uses this to concentrate sunlight on fluff and he gets a fire started. I love MacGyver moments – Dale sacrificed his vision for fire. And there is a scene… Dale is at the water well getting water, and he finds an emblem attached to the wooden lid on the well and takes it saying “this might be useful”. Hmmm… And Wes recognizes John Rocker and Rocker comes clean to him. Val and Keith are missing out on the tribal bonding and are worried about how this will affect them. There haven’t been any major disagreements about what gets built and who is doing nothing, so the first few days of the game are drama free.
For the Immunity Challenge the tribes meet and Val and Keith are brought back from Exile Island. The teams have to crawl under a low structure made of wood, untie and retrieve three bags, scale three huge walls and then 4 of the team solve a puzzle. Winner takes the immunity idol. The puzzle is even huge – big puzzle pieces of wood, all symetrical, and it takes the teams some time before finally Hunahpu wins.
Coyopa heads back to camp and has to decide who is going home. It is Dale who brings up that he wants to vote off Nadiya. He watched her play TAR and he thinks her gameplay strategy is backstab everyone you can anytime you can! I like Dale. There are 5 males and 4 females on this team. Dale has the male votes. The females go with let’s vote off the old guy, and decide to vote off Dale. But, Baylor goes to Josh and tells him the plan. She and Josh are acting friendly and she is going with Josh on this vote.
At Tribal… nothing happened. Maybe it’s too early in the game, maybe there is no drama in camp, maybe Nadiya and Dale had no idea they were targeted… but there wasn’t a big AHA moment at tribal. Well, Josh switched his vote and voted off Baylor..wth? but I don’t know if she knew he was her one vote. So Nadiya is voted off 5-3-1. Bye bye twinnie.