In this episode, Hein decides not to feed the hand that will bite him.
It’s recap time for all those who have slept through the last eight episodes.
Poor Hein is lumbered with the twisted sisters, who say "We love each other - we're sorted". We move straight to the reward challenge. As they approach the site of battle, it strikes me that while they all look understandably grubby, their tribal flags look so clean - does someone sneak them off to the laundry over-night?
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Eat high-fibre Empu for breakfast
Hein limps a little. He says he's been swimming a lot and exercising it in the water, and that he feels much better. Before they can go any further, the merger is announced, and they swap for the red buffs of The new tribe Empu. I know it's supposed to be culturally appropriate, but I still think it sounds like a laxative. What's really important is that the game is now instantly transformed. No more tribal and group loyalties - now it's individual competition, and being strong no longer makes you a valued tribe member, but a dangerous threat, especially to the weak, and a rival to be disposed of as soon as possible.
The game involves throwing rope rings at stakes. The potential reward is a camper bed. Mandla is brilliant at this task, with Hein close behind. One wonders, strategically, whether it's a great idea to be too strong in this particular task, to remind the others of your strength before you have gained immunity. It’s a close race, but Mandla wins. The effect is diminished by a bad choice of background music, a sort of over-the-top imitation Star Wars triumphalism that just sounds silly. Odd, as generally in this series the music has been effective and unobtrusive.
Getting back to wok
Now they move to a new island, with some of their previous possessions, and some new materials. There's a wok, fishing gear, rice, and some sleeping nets. Lorette is delighted with this "splendid" island. There's a good supply of bananas, pineapples, roots, sugar-cane, coconuts, even, Angie says, tapioca. Now that I doubt. The roots they found look like cassava, from which tapioca can be made with processing. And I presume the producers checked out the roots, as some varieties of cassava can contain poison, even cyanide, in their roots.
Unwisely, led by the greedy girls, the tribe starts gorging themselves on all they can find, without any plan for conserving their supplies to last out the duration of the game. Hoity Toity Angie, who has shown herself as a really nasty character, airily announces that with such rich natural resources available to them, Dyke and Hein are no longer necessary: "We don't need them". Not that she's ever been necessary.
The new tribe is split neatly in two, with the loyalties of the original tribes intact. There's Dyke, Hein, Angie and Amanda on one side, and Angela, Dyke, Mandla and Lorette on the other. Amanda announces that "unlike Angie, I'm sticking to my word!" Which word? She scatters so very many of them in her endless chatter. Angie reveals that for the very first time she feels threatened and unsafe, but then she also speaks of "fighting for her life" in the last tribe, a fictitious struggle which was entirely invisible.
It gets confusing when Dyke refers to both Angela and Angie as "Angie". Never again must they select two contestants with the same name. Angela wants Lorette to help her push Angie off. So long as this reduces the Angie-quotient, I'm all for it! Lorette says she thinks she can swing Angela (see how confusing this gets!) and Angie sniggers horribly. Dyke says he feels really proud of being considered a physical threat.
Heaven on a platter
The tribe indulges in a feast, regardless of any need to protect supplies. Mandla has the camp bed, but no mosquito net. It doesn't look at all comfy, but they all pretend that it's a big deal. Its only advantage is that he sleeps raised from the floor and away from any potential creepy-crawlies. Other than Amanda and Angie, of course.
Dyke and Hein have a serious conversation, agreeing that they both badly need immunity at this stage. Hein recognises that "they've learned from me" and so don't need him anymore. He notices how wasteful they are, and predicts that the tribe will soon be hungry again. Neither of them is keen to waste effort on feeding the ungrateful lot. Dyke says, wittily, that he doesn't fancy "feeding the hand that's gonna bite you".
Hein reveals that he has a secret stash of food, enough to last the pair of them through the rest of the game however hungry the tribe gets. Now that's a sensible and clever tactic we haven't seen before. Dyke suspects that Angie might be prepared to join them (but why would anyone want her rather than almost anyone else?) If she agrees to do so, he suggests, they could agree to take her to the end, to the last 4. "The last 3," says Hein.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the greedy girls are busy trying to see how quickly they can devour all the riches of the island, and wolfing down one of the few pineapples.
Snooty Angie is kvetching again. Boy, can that girl whine! Now that Irshaad's gone, due to her alliance with Amanda against him, she's decided that she cannot stand the incessant chattering of Amanda and Angela. One can see how annoying it could be, as Amanda is a world-class blabber-mouth, but Angie could wander off down the beach, instead of sitting next to Amanda rolling her eyes and heaving sighs. "It drives me up the wall," she declares, a drive she has taken many times before.
Crucial immunity challenge
Now comes the immunity challenge, particularly crucial for several players. It’s really complex, starting with the contestants shackled to posts (a position in which some of them should probably have been left), then involving knives, sawing through ropes, grabbing a key, unearthing a chest, unlocking it and getting a machete, then staring another fire. At each stage some are knocked out.
Dyke and Mandla lead the field, but Hein, initially a bit behind but coping exceedingly well with his injured ankle, catches up. Angie and Amanda are the first to be knocked out. Finally it's Hein versus Dyke, but at the last minute Hein can't find his key, and Dyke gains immunity.
Mandla feels very much at risk, though nobody seemed to actually be gunning for him at this stage. Grant engineers this theory, and Mandla doesn't seem well plugged in to the tribal gossip and whispers. Grant enlists his group's support against Hein. Grant is most people's stereotype of a lawyer, most skilled at scheming and plotting. Angie refuses Dyke's offer to join him and Hein, feeling that after she's served their needs this time round, she'd be the next target.
Amanda and Angela, inseparable, are yapping away again. Hein reminds Amanda that she hasn't a hope of competing against the strengths of Lorette, and should join him and Dyke in getting rid of her. Separately, they take the same argument to Angela, who also finds it convincing and says, "It's strategically good!"
The hung council
As usual, the discussions are not especially interesting. But when the votes are read out, it's a dead heat. Four votes for Hein: Angie, Mandla, Grant and Lorette; and four votes for Lorette: Hein, Angela, Dyke and Amanda.
And so it all comes down to a tie-breaker. Hein and Lorette stand facing a skull. Mark has two stop-watches, and they are told to guess, after a signal, when 30 seconds have passed, and then to tap the skull. The one who does so closest to exactly 30 seconds, will win, and the other will go home.
And on that cliff-hanging note, the show ends, and we'll discover the result only in the next episode.
Indeed, MNet is being so careful, that this week none of us in the Media will get any advance copies of the programme. All will instead be revealed to us at a press conference next Wednesday. So. Watch this space.
Oh, and presumably this means I won't get to interview either of them tomorrow on the Cybershrink couch, but next week I should have two to interview.
(Professor M.A. Simpson, aka CyberShrink, October 2007)
Copyright M. A. Simpson, 2007
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