Survivalism

Survivalism is the fourth episode of .
==Story==
===Day 9===
At the Savaii camp, as Ozzy Lusth and Elyse Umemoto lay in a hammock discussing the notion of "survivalism", Jim Rice looked on with worries that Ozzy's relationship with Elyse was stronger than his friendships with Jim or Keith Tollefson, with whom he was allegedly in a Final Three deal.
Jim then approached John Cochran about strategy, stating that if Ozzy were to vote Jim out, then Ozzy becomes invaluable as a challenge asset. Cochran countered that Ozzy was already seen as essential, but Jim noted the "rounding factor" of Elyse. Jim continued that by getting rid of a variable like Elyse, it opens up a spot in an alliance for Cochran and it would be a big "Survivor move." They lamented that Elyse was so attractive, and Cochran joked that he could "put on a seaweed wig." As the two men solidified the pact, Cochran gave a confessional:
On Upolu, Brandon Hantz felt remorseful about his behavior towards Mikayla Wingle. He sat down with her on the beach and apologised. Mikayla accepted, but showed concern about him in her own confessional.
Later, Brandon came clean with Edna Ma in the shelter about her position in the game. He stated that it was hard for him to tell her, but he cared about her, and informed her that the people she trusted (including himself) had been lying to her. Citing his actions as "the worst game strategy," he continued by saying that there was a core five within the tribe (not a core six as Edna had believed). Brandon apologized for his lies, and Edna meekly accepted, adding that she was disappointed but that "that's reality."
Both tribes were excited to receive their swimwear with Tree Mail, which Dawn Meehan noted as a big relief. However, when it came time to respond to the note and select two people to witness the Duel, nobody wanted to go alone with Cochran. Jim, seemingly reluctantly, accepted, but worried it might hurt his strategy to be alone with Cochran.
As the Savaii girls flocked to the water in their new bathing suits (Elyse noting she was "happy as a clam") and the tribe waded in the shallows as Keith and Whitney Duncan flirted, Dawn expressed concern over her position in the game as a result of her age:
Before departing for the Duel, Jim approached Ozzy and Elyse in the shelter about strategically misinforming Upolu by presenting an image of the Savaii tribe as dysfunctional and divided. However, Ozzy voiced reluctance to show weakness, fearing it would give the other tribe "fuel" and in a confessional, expressed that Jim was over-playing too early. As Cochran and Jim departed, Ozzy mocked Jim's eagerness for strategy, claiming they had weeks to go. Although Keith and Whitney agreed and laughed along, Dawn thought Ozzy was being hypocritical.
At , Cochran and Jim for Savaii and Brandon and Edna for Upolu met to witness the Duel between Christine Shields Markoski and Mark "Papa Bear" Caruso, who was voted out by Savaii at the last Tribal Council. Host Jeff Probst asked Papa Bear what he thought about his former tribemates witnessing the Duel, but Papa Bear was undisturbed, stating that as soon as he got back in the game, he would flip to Upolu and "give them anything they need." Brandon then said that he was happy to hear that, but acknowledged that Christine was probably feeling the same way towards her own tribe, as would he in their shoes. He then turned to address Christine and apologized for his "ruthless" first week and for the way he had handled himself at her last Tribal Council. When asked if she accepted the apology, Christine answered, "I accept it. Whether I buy it or not is a different story."
The two competitors then competed in the Duel: Sandbagging. The first player to land a sandbag on each of the ten crates positioned in the Arena would win the Duel and stay in the game. Christine gained an early lead with a string of successive hits, surprising Jim on the sidelines with her intensity. However, Papa Bear began to catch up, narrowing the gap between them until they were tied at eight sandbags each. Christine landed her ninth bag on the edge of a crate but it slipped off. However, she recovered soon after landing her ninth bag, but Papa Bear immediately evened the score again. Now at 9-9, the race to land the final sandbag was intense - Papa Bear's tenth bag rolled off the crate, opening the door for Christine to land her tenth bag and win the Duel.
As Christine and Papa Bear embraced in farewell, Papa Bear discussed the Survivor journey, stating he had always wanted to be on the show, and although his police colleagues had joked about his dream, he'd made it out to the island in the end, and felt "blessed" by the experience. As his buff burnt, Jeff congratulated Christine on living to fight another day. 
===Day 10===
As the dawn rose at Upolu, the tribe gathered for morning coffee and Edna offered to do the day's laundry, noting in a confessional that she needed to up her social game. Coach Wade then asked her if she might massage his back by walking on it, a service she accepted and offered to anyone else who wanted it. However, Stacey Powell was not impressed by Edna's chirpy and talkative manner. Later, as the women washed clothes in the ocean, Edna's persistent inquiries about Mikayla's modelling background further annoyed her tribemates.
Meanwhile, at Savaii, Cochran asked Dawn if anything had happened back at camp whilst he and Jim had been at the Duel, and Dawn confided her concerns about Ozzy's derision of strategy and her suspicions that he had a gameplan that he wasn't putting out. Cochran asked her who she wanted to take out next, and Dawn answered Ozzy, he revealed the plan between himself and Jim to target Elyse, to which Dawn was seemingly receptive.
===Day 11===
The next day, the tribes met for the combined Reward & Immunity Challenge: the Survivor classic, Shoulder the Load. Three members of each tribe (two men, one woman) would bear the weight of sandbags that could be strategically distributed by the other tribe, with the last person still standing winning immunity for their tribe, as well as a reward of several live chickens. Dawn, Jim, and Keith represented Savaii, whilst Albert Destrade, Brandon, and Stacey bore the weight for Upolu. Both tribes adopted simiilar strategies early on, distributing the weight across all three weight-bearers. After 26 minutes, Keith was the first person to drop out of the challenge, at which point he had been holding 180 pounds. As the next round of sandbags were added, Albert lost his balance and fell from the platform, at 180 pounds. Leaving two load-bearers for each tribe, Jim and Brandon now equaled the challenge record of 220 pounds (as set by Rupert Boneham (), Brendan Synnott (), and J.T. Thomas (also of Tocantins). However, both men claimed a new record in the next round to bear 240 pounds. Jim dropped out, followed soon after by Brandon. With only the women remaining, it was a fight between Stacey and Dawn. Both women saw their poles slip down their back, but at 140 pounds, it was Stacey who dropped out first. Dawn was embraced by her tribemates in celebration of Savaii's win.
As the defeated Upolu tribe returned to camp, Stacey worried that she could still be on the chopping block despite her strong performance in the challenge, for which Coach congratulated her during a group debrief. Meanwhile, Edna, too, feared she might be targeted as a weak player. She approached Stacey, seeking her advice on what to do, but Stacey brushed her off.
Soon thereafter, Coach approached Stacey in an attempt to keep her spirits up by saying everybody was "bummed." Stacey agreed, but made it clear she didn't want to go home. She asked him where she stood in the tribe, and Coach admitted that the vote was between her and Edna. Stacey pointed out that Edna brought very little to the table, and although she might not have massaged Coach's back, she had pulled her own weight. Although Coach departed with a friendly, "I really like you," Stacey didn't buy his shitck, gagging to the camera as he left.
Turning her game on, Stacey came to Brandon, and warned him to "watch them." When he asked for names, Stacey asked who he had "gone off on," and he listed Albert, Sophie Clarke, and Mikayla. Brandon then ran to Coach, warning him of a "problem on [their] hands" in that Albert, Sophie, and Mikayla were aligned and that it was the end of the existing final five deal. However, Coach exasperatedly told Brandon to "stop it!" He warned Brandon that the game was going to get much tougher, and if he wasn't able to trust the word of an ally over someone who was on "death row," then he might as well leave the game then and there. Brandon was hesitant to take Coach's word, and pointed out how many people Coach had trusted in his prior games, to which Coach rebutted that he'd had his "head in the sand" and wasn't playing clearly. However, as the tribe departed for Tribal Council, both Sophie and Coach expressed concern in confessionals that Brandon might be a detriment to their alliance.
At Tribal Council, Jeff first addressed the challenge, and Stacey's tough competition against Dawn. Stacey pointed out that she had performed strongly and that she had done a good job, and Coach further added that if they were voting tonight on a person's "warrior spirit", then Stacey would not be on the chopping block. Jeff then pointed out that the tribe had previously stated that they wanted to remain strong, and he asked Sophie how they planned to do that. She answered that it was a balance between physical strength and "strength in numbers," ensuring that you had people you could trust once the merge arrived.
Jeff next attempted some "group therapy," first asking Rick Nelson what the most annoying thing about Albert was. Rick was hesitant, but eventually admitted Albert snored. Brandon was then asked what the worst thing about Edna was, and he answered that "she had a lot to say about a lot." When Jeff asked her if she agreed with that assessment, Edna disagreed that she was opinionated. Jeff continued by asking Edna what the worst thing about Stacey was, and she answered that she found it difficult to engage her in conversation. Stacey rebutted that she had no problem opening up to people and that she gave people what they asked for.
Mikayla was then asked what was the most annoying thing about Brandon, and she answered that the Hantz connection was always in the back of her mind. Although Mikayla argued that Brandon was a good kid, the familial tie still concerned her as "blood's blood." Brandon continued by saying that although he was proud to be a Hantz and that he loved his uncle, he was going to play his own game. He began to grow emotional, and tearfully said that all he wanted to be was "someone God's proud of," he didn't want to hurt his family through the repercussions of the game and he wanted to reclaim the family name. Albert concluded the Tribal Council discussion by affirming that regardless of whether Brandon's emotions were real or manipulative, the vote tonight would be about trust.
The tribe then voted, and when nobody played a Hidden Immunity Idol, Jeff read the votes. One vote came up for Edna, but Stacey was unanimously voted out. As she gathered her belongings and got up to collect her torch, Coach encouraged the tribe to hug her goodbye and the tribe all rose to hug her. However, she coldly brushed off the attempt and strode towards Jeff, explaining her repudiation of the hug offer by saying "It's not real. That wasn't true, everything was a lie that we seen today." Determined to make it back into the game, Stacey took her snuffed torch and headed to Redemption Island. Jeff dismissed the Upolu tribe with words of wisdom about trust and unity - although they were qualities that the tribe wanted to build up, they were some of the most difficult qualities to maintain in the game.
Upon reaching Redemption Island, Christine was shocked to see her closest ally voted out. While catching up on each other, Stacey reveals that Coach was running the voting dynamics of the Upolu tribe, much to Christine's annoyance.
==Challenges==
<tabber>Redemption Island Duel=Challenge: SandbaggingCompetitors will toss sandbags attempting to land the bags on top of crates. The first person to get one bag on each of the ten crates wins.Winner: |-|Reward/Immunity=Challenge: Shoulder the LoadTwo men and one woman from each tribe will have a pole across their shoulders. Each round, weights of 20 lb increments will be added to that pole. The decision about which tribe member gets the weight will be made by the other tribe. When the weight becomes too much to bear, the tribe member will drop the pole and be out of the challenge. The last person left standing wins for their tribe.Reward: Three live chickens (two hens and one rooster)Winner: </tabber>
==Redemption Island==
colspan="2"	
Competitors	Result
 	Won
 	Lost
colspan="2"	
===Final Words===
Mark did not have any final words.
==Tribal Council==
colspan="2" 	
VotedAgainst	Voter
 	
 	
colspan="2" 	
===Voting Confessionals===
No voting confessionals were aired.
===Still in the Running===
								
								
==Trivia==
* This marks the first time a male lost to a female in a two-way Duel.
* In an exit interview, Mark revealed that he found a clue to the Hidden Immunity Idol, but it was not revealed onscreen.
* Both Brandon and Jim held 240 lbs. and broke the previous record of 220 lbs. previously set by Rupert Boneham in , and J.T. Thomas and Brendan Synnott, both in in Shoulder the Load. 
==References==
Category:Episodes
Category:Survivor (U.S.)
2304
Category:Survivor: South Pacific
04