Beverly Burroughs | Staff Writer/Cartoonist

4/05/02

This past week’s episode of Survivor had a lot of mistrust and turmoil involved. It all started when Rob was talking to John and the rest of the remaining Rotu members about the new Maraamu members, Sean, Ve, and himself. He wanted to know if they considered the new members part of Rotu or see them still as outsiders and to be picked off one by one. The Rotu members claimed they accepted the new members, but could old Maraamu trust them? The only way to know for sure was to go to tribal council. Another conversation started with all the old Rotu members attacking Gabriel and asking him how he tends to play the game. Well, Gabriel claims that he isn’t even playing the game; that his main purpose is just to see if eight people from all over can come together and live civilized. This was obviously not what the tribe wanted to hear. Gabriel let the cat out of the bag way too early in the game.

On Maraamu, things are finally starting to look up. Since the departure of Sarah, they feel as if they are a new tribe with a new beginning. The first task they decide to venture into is looking for food. They heard noises in the trees that appeared to be crabs so two members said they would go, but the others said, we are a new tribe so we will all go as a tribe. Once into the trees, crabs were everywhere. Maraamu were chasing them all over the place and getting clawed in the process. They managed to obtain thirteen crabs. which were boiled for a great dinner. At dinner Paschal told the tribe that he knows that they will win the reward challenge, so they all made the promise to win.

At the reward challenge, Jeff explained the event – not physical or mental. This event was about direction and obedience. Only four members of each tribe could compete. One member had to be the leader – the one who told the others what to do. On Rotu this member was Gabriel; on Maraamu it was Kathy. The other three members had to be blindfolded and the only way of direction was by the voices of the tribe member chosen to give them. The object of the game was to find fourteen broken blocks of wood. Once all parts are found, they have to assemble them to form four totem polls. Maraamu actually pulled into the lead but Rotu was right on their tails. Gabriel thought his tribe was done but when Jeff counted the blocks, only thirteen were spoken for. Gabriel was flipping out because by this time Maraamu had found their last block while he couldn’t even see his last. Once he finally found it, it was too late, Maraamu was too far ahead and for the first time in thirteen days, Maraamu finally won a reward challenge. Their reward by far was the best. All members got to raid the camp of the other tribe. Jeff brought Maraamu over to Rotu and gave them two minutes to round up all the items they wanted. He gave them a list of about four things they couldn’t take besides any personal items. Once all was said and done, Maraamu had managed to take all lanterns, flippers, blankets, pillows, knifes, hot pot, water jug, and hot peppers.

Back at Rotu’s camp, odd things are happening. Gabriel is starting to bond with old Maraamu members. John is starting to get worried so he forms an alliance with the remaining three old Rotu members against Gabriel. Tammy wasn’t sure if she should form this alliance but was taken in once John swore on his mother’s grave. I hope he keeps true to Tammy.

The immunity challenge was based on creativity and what you have. The idea behind this immunity challenge was to build a distress signal that could be seen from a boat. The object was to make the distress signal the most noticeable. Rotu was in trouble on this one – Maraamu took the items they were going to use, not to mention that the four who competed in the reward challenge couldn’t compete in this one. Not so much as a word about the challenge could be spoken from them. The four who competed were Zoey, Rob, Sean, and Ve (basically the old Maraamu members). They used their old black raft from the very beginning of the game and put red life jackets on it. That is basically it. Maraamu used the blankets taken from Rotu and attached red life jackets to the middle of it. Paschal took the American flag and placed it on the end of a stick and ran up and down the beach waving it. The way the tribes will know if they win is by the boat signaling them with a blow of the horn. Soon after Paschal was out of breath from running back and forth, the beautiful sound of the horn reached their ears. They all were jumping with enthusiasm - knowing that the other tribe for the first time will make that journey to tribal council.

Rotu heard the blow of the horn from their camp. All members' facees dropped as they came to the realization that they are going to tribal council - so they had to start thinking about whom they were going to vote off. Of course, once there Jeff drilled each member with questions and when it was all said and done, the voting commenced. The eight votes were tallied and Jeff read them one by one. He only read five votes and all votes except Gabriel’s (of course) was for Gabriel. He was asked to get his things and leave Marqueses. All I can say about this final vote is STUPID members of Rotu. I thought that the members of Maraamu were bad for voting off Hunter, but now I’m not too sure which tribe is more stupid. Gabriel was Rotu’s heart and soul, the best player on the team. Zoey even said so with Jeff’s question about who keeps the tribe together. I guess that Rob, Sean, and Ve are there for three more days. All Rotu members need to smarten up. Where did the casting crew find these stupid people????