TVSquad

As we start, rain brings misery and lack of fire to the tribes. Shane begins his festival of whining yet again, questioning why he decided to be on Survivor. Without his cigarettes and constant distractions, he starts to wig out. Meanwhile, over at the hot girl tribe, the ladies wax rhapsodic over the joys of fresh fruit. As expected, the four tribes merge into two tribes, La Mina and Casaya, which makes me wonder why they did this division in the first place. To chose tribes the girls chose guys and guys chose girls. The last choice comes down to Dan or Bruce. Since Bruce isn't chosen he gets to be safe at the next tribal council but he has to spend three days on Exile Island and then replace the voted out person from the tribe that has to go to tribal council. This doesn't seem to bother him at all. And as we see later, he happens to function pretty well on his own.The reward challenge for fishing gear and a raft involves an obstacle course. After a close race, the newly-formed La Mina tribe wins. Melinda and Cirie feel a bit out of place in their new tribe but Shane is in much better spirits. A group of four, Shane, Courtney, Aras and Danielle create an alliance over on Casaya. At La Mina, the alliance-focused Terry begins anew forming an alliance with Dan, Nick and Austin. Austin and Nick are hot property as the girls want to form an alliance with them too. When Sally goes fishing with Nick she loses the spear which could cost her later. But overall the tribe seems to be quite functional.

At the immunity challenge, Jeff asks how the tribes are doing. Misty says they are doing well but Shane lets loose with a rant about how wrecked they all are. It's like when someone asks "How are you today?" and you tell them the truth, the long, involved, painful truth. Definitely an awkward moment which Jeff seems to gloss over. The challenge involves swimming, diving, bailing out a boat. Casaya seems to be sort of defeated, bailing out their boat in a lackluster manner and generally seeming sluggish. La Mina maintains a strong lead the whole time. Will this be another season of uneven tribes? It seems no matter how the dice are rolled each season, things don't stay balanced for long.

With Casaya heading to tribal, Shane is ready to quit. Courtney and Danielle want him to stay but Cirie and Melinda hope he quits since they are afraid they will be booted. Of course then he decides to try again, dashing their hopes. Aras decides to be honest and announces that he would like to send Cirie or Melinda home (in front of them). This offends the delicate sensibilities of our New-Age flower, Hollywood Courtney. Shane chimes in and says that there is an alliance and they are both headed home sooner rather than later. He can't seem to decide if he is ready to play this game or not.

At tribal, Shane confesses he is detoxing and going crazy. Cirie says that she doesn't want to go home and tears up a bit. The tribe sends Melinda home and Bruce joins Casaya. I wonder if Casaya threw the challenge to swap out Melinda for Bruce (a much stronger player)?