By: Mary Cavaliere

Well the Fans won the challenge on the first episode of Survivor 16, but it didn’t look like they were doing so well in other areas of survival on the island.  Four days in and they still had not built a shelter nor were they able to get a fire going easily, even with flint.  I guess it doesn’t matter that they’ve watched a dozen seasons of Survivor. Like all newcomers to the game, they still need to learn that all of this looks easier on television than it is in real life.

The Fans (Airai Tribe) are definitely not a united group.  It appears there’s a seven to three split with Kathy, Chett, and Tracy being the three outsiders on the tribe.  At the beginning of the episode, it appeared these three were walking around with a red bulls eye on their back. 

It’s only week number two and we have yet another romance blossoming.  This time it’s on the Airai Tribe rather than the Malakal Tribe.  Mikey and Mary were getting pretty cozy much in the same way as Amanda and Ozzy and James and Parvati.  I don’t think I’ve seen this much romance all at once on Survivor before. It’s enough to make you vomit.  If I wanted to watch a strategic romance reality show then I’d tune into The Bachelor!  This is not why I tune into Survivor.  Cirie made a good point about the couple liaisons.  Having two people form a romance, and thus a strong alliance, is not as dangerous as four people forming a romance and then having both “couples” band together gaining significant power over the rest of the group.  She’s determined to break these couples up to avoid that danger.  Smart cookie Cirie!

There was only one challenge tonight and the winners not only got immunity, they also got a reward which consisted of fishing gear and a fishing boat.  It was a rough challenge, and one of the outcasts on the Airai Tribe, Chett, caused his team to lose the challenge.  The strange part was he didn’t seem to be too upset or rattled that he was the main cause of the loss.  “It is what it is” he said.  I thought for sure he’d be the one to get voted out at Tribal Council.

But Joel had other plans.  Like Cirie, he was uneasy with the romance-alliance made between Mikey and Mary and essentially influenced all the others on his team to vote off Mary instead of Chett.  During tribal council both Mikey and Mary were completely blindsided when the majority sent Mary packing.

As if getting immunity and fishing gear wasn’t enough, the winning tribe of the challenge got to choose someone from the losing tribe to go to Exile Island.  I figured they would choose Chett, but instead they sent another one of the outcasts, Kathy.  The strange part was they also had to choose someone from their own tribe to go along with Kathy.  Now what was the point of winning if they were still going to have to send one of their own?  Maybe because there is an immunity idol hidden on Exile Island it was somewhat of a perk to be able to go there?  But if that was the intent, then it wasn’t really punishment for Kathy now was it?  

As if that wasn’t odd enough, the Exile Island experience sent Kathy and Cirie on a wild goose chase looking for the immunity idol.  They find a clue on Exile Island which leads them to head back across the ocean to the main island where they find another clue that leads them back to Exile Island.  When they return to Exile Island they find clue number three which leads them back to the main island again and then they find clue number four that leads them back to Exile Island.  What was THAT all about????  Kathy and Cirie were completely exhausted and it was all to no avail because they did not find the immunity idol anyway.

One of the things I found humorous was listening to players on both sides talk about who they could “trust” or “not trust”.  What is up with these people?  This is SURVIVOR and both the Favorites and the Fans should know by now to TRUST NO ONE!!!!!

With Mary’s sudden departure, there is bound to be some animosity on Mikey’s part, so next week should get off to a very interesting start with the Airai tribe.  Be there or be square!

You can read more of Mary’s television blogs  at  www.myspace.com/italiangirl57


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