Coconut Causes 'Survivor' Castoff
The castaways in "Survivor: Palau's" Ulong tribe thought life was good. They had a tent to keep dry, fish for food and just won a vital challenge.
Until a lone coconut sabotaged their game.
The 22-year-old personal trainer from Ventura, Calif., hobbled back to camp on the team's seventh night on the Palau Islands after twisting his ankle in the dark by stepping on a coconut.
Despite the injury, Jeff Wilson said, "I want to carry this tribe all the way to the end of this game and I'm going to do anything I can to do that."
But after more than 24 hours of still feeling the pain of the sprain, Jeff diagnosed his own injury and instructed his team to vote him off.
"There's no reason to vote off anybody else," Jeff said, in what some team members interpreted as a protective move toward the scrawny blonde survivor he's been snuggling with, Kim Mullen.
When the votes came in, Kim had two, but four people voted as Jeff wished.
"It was my choice and I know that by making that choice, my team is going to be able to advance further in the game," Jeff said after leaving tribal council.
Who disobeyed Jeff?
"She's a woman, and all she has to her advantage is her sexuality," James Miller, the rough-talking steelworker from Alabama, said of Kim. Ouch.
Over on Koror, the women weren't letting the men bash them; they took that task into their own hands.
A feud had been brewing over the week of rainy days the Koror tribe spent without eliminating any members. The oldest woman, Caryn Groedel, a feisty 46-year-old civil rights attorney, confronted Katie Gallagher, a young advertising executive from California.
"Don't tell me what to do Katie, don't tell me what to do anymore," Caryn fumed once the pair was out of earshot from the rest of the tribe.
"I started laughing because she was so irate," Katie said. "She's crazy. She's completely lost it."
A different sort of catfight came about during the reward challenge. It was be an all-out water war, challenging a member from each team to face off in the struggle to get a single buoy back to their raft. Host Jeff Probst condoned splashing and dunking, but invoked the age-old Survivor "no-hitting rule."
Pre-injury Jeff played shark against NYC firefighter Tom Westman, and won. (As of the challenge, Tom was voted most popular Survivor on CBS.com's Survivor Interactive.)
Then two ladies dove in after a buoy, spurring what Jeff Probst called a "good old-fashioned catfight." Stephenie LaGrossa tugged, dunked and might even have pulled the hair of Ulong's Jenn Lyon, a nanny from California. But Jenn stayed strong, winning another buoy for Ulong.
Koror had to hang their heads when Ulong took the last buoy.
Like a tribe of Encino men with an iPod, Ulong looked generally baffled with their prize: a complete sewing kit. Bobby Jon made himself trunks that resembled a giant diaper, while each of the women showed up to tribal council in colorful togas.
Meanwhile, on Koror, the only food the tribe could find was silver-striped venomous snakes. Viewers could almost see the testosterone the men emitted as they sized up the dangers of clubbing and frying the snakes.
Another bright idea emerged as shark fins were spotted near the shore. Tom and Ian decided to use their food (the snakes) as bait for a more dangerous predator: sharks.
Running after sharks with venomous stakes in their hands is "probably the stupidest thing I've done in a while," Ian Rosenberger said.
"The thought of having shark snakes on the grill is motivation to do something stupider than you usually wouldn't," Tom said, as the sun set over Palau and, without spearing any sharks, the men came back to camp empty-handed.
For the immunity challenge, members of each tribe were clipped together on a circuit rope in the water as the tide rolled in. Each member had 20 lbs. of sand on his or her back, and as any member dropped out, their weight stayed with the tribe. At one point, Bobby Jon carried 80 lbs. Tom also carried heavy weight, as the other men even passed their backpacks filled with sand to the NYC firefighter.
Stephenie proved her physical capacities; she was the only woman who stuck through to the end of the challenge. She didn't help in the end, though. Her tribe fell behind, and was sent to a third tribal council.
Even after Jeff demanded his tribe to vote him off, debate ensued over whether he truly was the weakest link.
"Even when he's down, he's 10 times stronger than Kim," James said, noting that even with a bad ankle, Jeff was chopping coconuts with one swipe.
With Jeff laid up, the three Palau boys from Alabama, Bobby Jon Drinkard, Ibrahem Rahman and James said they missed their California boy. Tribal council was full of southern drawls singing the praises of Jeff.
Although enough votes came in to cast Jeff off, (and Jeff smiled slightly as the votes of his names were read), two still stung Kim, both from Alabama boys. "I'm not going to play your silly-ass game," Bobby Jon said. And steelworker James never seemed too fond of blondie.
To hear more praises for Jeff's strength in the face of injury — and surely more complaints about his love interest Kim, tune in to Friday's The Early Show.