Love Is in the Air

Love Is in the Air is the fifth episode of .
==Story==
===Day 13===
With taskmaster Dave Cruser out of the game, the Zhan Hu tribe enjoyed a lazy morning. However, the tribe's losing streak was beginning to depress Frosti Zernow, who wanted things to change for the tribe. Peih-Gee Law tried to lift spirits with a small pep talk, but the mood was down. Sherea Lloyd, meanwhile, was eager for the status quo to be up-heaved, as she was feeling on the outs.
Later that day, Erik Huffman and Jaime Dugan went for a swim in the river, bonding over conversation about their middle names. They both said that they liked each other, and Erik told Jaime that he was a virgin because he didn't feel like he'd "found the right person." The revelation strengthened the trust between them, and Jaime then shared the secret of the Hidden Immunity Idol, telling him that the only way they could get clues was through kidnapping someone from the other tribe at a Reward Challenge.
Meanwhile, at Fei Long, an unexpected relationship was blooming. United by their strong work ethic, Denise Martin and James Clement were becoming close friends. Denise, in particular, was eager to make the most of the honest friendship to get her further in the game.
Soon after, a boat appeared at the Fei Long dock, where two fishermen delivered a message to the tribe. Uneasily, Todd Herzog read aloud the note and the tribe despaired: they were instructed to select the "two strongest warriors" from the opposing tribe to join Fei Long. Assuming that Zhan Hu would receive the same message, and likely take James (who sighed, "Oh, the humanity!") and Aaron Reisberger away from them, Fei Long selected Frosti and Sherea to join them.
Meanwhile, Zhan Hu received the same instructions. However, they assumed that the twist was one-way, with Zhan Hu merely taking two members of Fei Long, and not switching any back. Excited that this would give them a numbers advantage of seven to five, they unanimously chose James. Erik then suggested that they could take the other tribe's leader, Aaron, and vote him off ("It's kind've dirty, but..."). The tribe agreed, and sent the boat off to retrieve their new tribemates.
Later, a boat pulled up to the Zhan Hu dock with neither James nor Aaron in sight. Zhan Hu thought their new members might merely be hiding out of the way in anger. However, Sherea and Frosti were horrified to discover that they'd misinterpreted the note and that Fei Long had chosen them to join their tribe. Hugging goodbye, Frosti reminded the remaining Zhan Hu members that they now had "control of the two biggest players," with Sherea urging them to use it to their advantage.
Back at Fei Long, the tribe waited in dread for the arrival of the next boat. Their fears were confirmed, with Aaron and James selected to join Zhan Hu. Unhappy about the inevitable, the tribe lamented the loss with as much optimism as possible, with Courtney Yates and James even taking the time to mock Jean-Robert Bellande: "I thought you were our strongest player, Jean-Robert!" However, the departure was saddening for all.
The two had barely left camp before Jean-Robert took charge to plan what they were going to do with their new tribemates, wanting to hash out the plan before they arrived. He suggested taking out Sherea first, and then Frosti, and tried to dissuade people from planning to take him out instead.
						
						
Out on the river, the two boats passed each other, and the four switched castaways waved to each other as they officially swapped to their new tribes. Zhan Hu welcomed Aaron and James eagerly, and were excited when the fishermen handed them a feast basket to celebrate the occasion. As they ate, James asked who the brains of the tribe was, and Peih-Gee answered that it was a collective effort, in different ways, with Jaime pointing out that she and Peih-Gee did puzzles for fun back at home. James then told them that he was happy to continue as a hard worker, getting water and doing the chores, in order to allow the tribe to prepare for the upcoming challenge.
Frosti and Sherea were also greeted warmly at Fei Long, and the new tribe were jubilant when they received their feast basket. In their confessionals, Todd and Sherea both expressed excitement that the switch would give them new opportunities for alliances, Frosti was more cautious, knowing that he was on very thin ice due to the numbers disadvantage.
===Day 14===
At Fei Long, Jean-Robert rose early to tend to breakfast. However, back in the shelter, Denise began bad-mouthing him, wondering if he was "strutting his feathers" and joking that Sherea was going to have to do the arguing with Jean-Robert now. Soon thereafter, Jean-Robert announced that he was going fishing and began handing out tasks to his tribe. Denise quipped, "Okay, tribe leader," and when Jean-Robert claimed he didn't want that title, she told him to stop handing out orders and just ask people nicely to get things done. However, he continued by instructing Sherea to cook and Todd to start work on a "sardine fried rice." As Jean-Robert left, the women continued to mock his bossy – and chauvinistic – attitude. The dissent amongst the original Fei Long delighted both Frosti and Sherea, who saw it as a possible in-road into the tribe. 
Across the river at Zhan Hu, while James worked around camp, Aaron tried to bolster his social game with the original Zhan Hu, asserting that they had a strong tribe that could do well in the upcoming challenges. He added that James was the "catalyst" for Fei Long's prior challenge success, but pointed out that while he was an asset now, he would be a problem down the line. However, Peih-Gee was suspicious of him, and pulled Jaime aside later to propose that they throw the next two Immunity Challenges in order to both save their alliance members at Fei Long and eliminate Aaron and James, evening the tribes come the merge. Despite the plan's risk, both women appeared open to the strategy.
At the Immunity Challenge, Jeff Probst first asked Todd how he felt about the tribe's new additions, and he responded that although they had lost two awesome people, they'd gained two tough fighters in return. Aaron then stated that the swap put him on the chopping block, but that winning the challenge was the best way to stay in the game. Jeff then took the Immunity Idol back from Fei Long and announced the challenge: Plunge, Pull, Pop. Two members of each tribe would swim out to a platform and alternate turns removing bamboo poles threaded through an underwater cage, gradually releasing twelve puzzle pieces representing the signs of the Chinese Zodiac. Once all puzzle discs were retrieved, they would place them in a boat and row back to shore where the remaining three tribe members would solve the puzzle by matching the discs to the right position on the table. The first tribe to solve the puzzle would win the challenge. To even the numbers, Amanda and Courtney sat out the challenge for Fei Long.
The swimmers, Aaron and Erik (for Zhan Hu) and Frosti and Jean-Robert (for Fei Long), swam out to the platform, with Zhan Hu edging an early lead. The four men quickly became exhausted with the effort, and Jaime called out, urging her team to take a moment to catch their breath, frustrating James who felt she was unfocused on the challenge at hand. Jaime and Peih-Gee attempted to delegate tasks for the solving of the puzzle that would prevent James from having getting too close to it. Zhan Hu maintained their slight lead, retrieving all twelve puzzle pieces first. However, Fei Long was close behind, but almost lost their pieces when Jean-Robert nearly capsized the boat.
Zhan Hu reached the shore first, but as James unloaded the pieces from the boat, Jaime took one piece and threw it out of sight. Fei Long quickly caught up as Jaime and Peih-Gee nonchalantly placed the puzzle pieces on the board without actually locking them into the right place. James grew steadily more frustrated once he realized how badly Jaime and Peih-Gee were doing, and swore at Peih-Gee when she paused to answer Jeff's question about whether she was good at puzzles (to which she cheerily replied, "I'm good at Sudoku!"). With Fei Long easily taking the lead, the red tribe won the challenge by a landslide. Jeff handed the discarded puzzle piece back to Zhan Hu, and then awarded Immunity to Fei Long.
===Day 15===
Back at the Zhan Hu camp, Aaron and James were angry about the tribe's embarrassing performance at the challenge. James pointed out Jaime and Peih-Gee's dismal effort, but the two girls could barely keep a straight face in light of their successful plan to throw the challenge. However, their apparent inability to take the challenge seriously infuriated James further and he strongly suggested getting rid of one of the girls to maintain a strong team. However, Jaime and Peih-Gee, once alone, broke down in laughter upon realizing that the three men had no idea they'd thrown the challenge. 
The former Fei Long members pressed Erik about whether the girls' behaviour was normal, and he was as puzzled as them. He eventually approached Jaime and Peih-Gee, and was shocked to learn that the girls had conspired to throw the challenge. Erik and Jaime later met again in the river to discuss strategy, with the two reaffirming their alliance. Erik suggested voting out James, but Jaime was eager to take out Aaron.
Peih-Gee approached a still-angered James to ask him who he was voting for, and tried to assure him that she would work to keep him around over Aaron if he wanted. However, James insisted that Aaron deserved to remain in the game. When Peih-Gee then asked if they should send James home instead, James answered, "Yeah! Send my ass home!" Conversely, Aaron asked Erik who he was voting for, and when the latter admitted that he was going with the girls and voting for James, Aaron latched onto the idea to save his own skin and avoid making enemies should he remain in the game. With Aaron and James commiserating over their miserable situation, Zhan Hu departed for Tribal Council.
At Tribal Council, Jeff first asked Jaime about the switch and the rationale behind picking Aaron and James. She answered that they were the two strongest players, and it would hurt Fei Long to lose them. Aaron was then asked for his view, and he replied that it was a "big deal" to go from a successful tribe to being the new people on another tribe, and outnumbered to boot.
Aaron's answer provoked a smug smile from Jaime, which Jeff pointed out as being peculiar at Tribal (somewhere people shouldn't want to be). Jaime said she was merely trying to be optimistic, but James interrupted by pointing out that she was simply "chilling" because she had the numbers. Jeff then asked her what had happened at the challenge, and Jaime answered that if the merge came, the original Zhan Hu could be down in numbers and she didn't want to see people switching back to their old tribe. When Jeff point-blank asked her if she threw the challenge, she admitted, "Yes, sir." Aaron and James both reacted with dismay.
Peih-Gee reiterated the strategy by pointing out that if the new Zhan Hu had won immunity, Frosti and Sherea would be picked off, setting herself, Erik and Jaime up to be pagonged at the merge. James' dramatic displays of frustration drew Jeff to turn to him, and James commented that he was shocked that Zhan Hu would willingly lose, because he "couldn't do that." Yet Peih-Gee pointed out, "It's not about winning the battle. It's about winning the war."
The response riled James, who segued the conversation to reveal that Peih-Gee had asked him whether he wanted to stay, and he couldn't deal with being with these kinds of people anymore. Jeff asked if it should be James going home, and James answered, "It should be." Although he loved being out in the game, he couldn't take being under the somebody else's mercy. Aaron was then asked how he felt, and he answered that he wanted to stick it out in the game as long as he could, and although he felt comfortable about the vote, he'd brought his bag anyway.
Erik was then called upon to cast his vote, followed by Aaron who cast his vote for James. Peih-Gee voted. James then voted against Peih-Gee. Jaime was the last to vote before Jeff tallied the votes.
Jeff returned and read the votes. The first was for Peih-Gee, and the second for James. However, the last three votes all came up for Aaron. He became the fifth person voted out of . Reluctantly, he bid his tribe farewell and his torch was snuffed. As Zhan Hu departed, Jeff assured Erik, Jaime, and Peih-Gee that while they had made a strategic move, it was all dependent on whether their assumptions of the future of the game were true.
==Challenges==
Immunity Challenge: Plunge, Pull, PopTwo players swim to a pontoon and climb up, alternate diving down to pull bamboo poles out of a cage, eventually making twelve puzzle discs (each bearing a sign of the Chinese zodiac) float, then transport them to shore in a small boat. The other three use them to solve a puzzle, matching each disc to the corresponding place on a large board.Winner: 
==Tribal Council==
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VotedAgainst	Voter
 	
 	
 	
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===Voting Confessionals===
Aaron and James' confessionals were shown in the episode.
===Final Words===
===Still in the Running===
							
							
==Trivia==
* On the note that explained the tribe switch, Jean-Robert Bellande's name was misspelled as John Robert.
* This marks the only time in James Clement's career that he attended Tribal Council without Amanda Kimmel.
* Jeff Probst recorded a behind the scenes video of Day 15, which included the Immunity Challenge and Tribal Council featured in this episode. The video was posted on the CBS YouTube channel.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XRhXUR8tIU
===Episode Title===
* The title of the episode refers to Jaime Dugan and Erik Huffman's budding relationship. After the show, Erik and Jaime ended up dating and eventually getting married.
==References==
Category:Episodes
Category:China Episodes
Category:Survivor (U.S.)
Category:Survivor (U.S.) Episodes
Category:Survivor: China