Survivor: South Pacific "Reap What You Sow" (Episode 3)

Episode 3: "Reap What You Sow"
Original Airdate: September 28th, 2011
American Ratings: 10.71 million viewers



Although Survivor lost more than 250,000 viewers last week, I reckon it can be construed as some sort of small victory. Indeed, most insiders believed that it would be a bloodbath against the premiere of The X Factor on Fox. It will be interesting to see what the ratings will look like for this third episode.

Christine arrives at Redemption Island and meets up with Semhar. They discuss Coach around the fire.

Back at the Upolu camp, Mikayla is shocked by Brandon's scheme to get her eliminated. She wonders what she could have done to deserve that. Meanwhile, Brandon regrets lying to the others. He doesn't want to be like his uncle.

Day 6

Coach, Stacey, Ozzy, and Elyse attend the first Redemption Island duel between Semhar and Christine. It's obvious that spending a couple of days by herself has been a scary experience for Semhar, who is a little worse for wear as she steps into the arena.

Both women must hold a totem upright with a pole that gets a bit longer as the challenge progresses. Semhar recites some poetry to get psyched up, which annoys just about everyone in attendance. The face of Jeff Probst, who's habitually a good sport for that sort of thing, said it all. In the end, the weaker Semhar drops her totem, thus allowing Christine to remain in the game.

Day 7

Brandon realizes that the entire tribe is disappointed in him. To make it up to them, Brandon comes clean and reveals that he is Russell's nephew. He apologizes for lying to them. Not surprisingly, Mikayla doesn't trust him. Branson proclaims his love to God, to Jesus Christ, and reiterates the fact that he wants to do good. Yeah, right. . .

I have to say that I'm getting a bit tired about the production casting religious nuts on the show. It feels as though the more relious they are, or think they are, the dumber they are as well. It's a sad state of affairs. . .

Coach maintains that he still trusts Brandon, but not as much as before.

On the Savaii camp, Papa Bear feels that he, Dawn, and Cochran are at the bottom of the totem pole. Ozzy feels strong about his own alliance. Yet in a moment of weakness (it feels like Ozzy never really learns from his errors, poor fool), he tells Keith that he found the hidden immunity idol. Loyal henchman that he is, Keith wastes no time revealing that wonderful nugget of information to Whitney. He wants her to trust him. How long will they keep the lid on this one? One can only wonder. . .

Wanting to get to the bottom of this (and she has no idea how far down it goes), Mikayla confronts Brandon. She wants to know why he tried to get people to vote her out. As a good Christian, it appears that Brandon doesn't like headstrong women, especially when they're sexy as hell and make him have wet dreams at night, forcing him to conceal more than just his tattoos from his fellow tribesmates. Needless to say, he's not too keen on her attitude. He says he doesn't like. Brandon also claim that the others don't trust her. And in a moment of pure fucktardness, he gathers the rest of the tribe and tells Mikayla that she has not one loyal friend in the bunch.


At this stage, you can't help but feel sorry for Russell. I mean, the guy gave everything he had to try to win this game, not once but thrice. To see his nephew make such a dumbass of himself must be painful.

Coach is concerned that Brandon's idiotic behavior could undermine the alliance.

Day 8

Kudos to the production team for this multilayered immunity challenge. I'm willing to bet that it will be revisited during season 24 next year. One castaway must make his or her way over a floating bridge carrying a body board. At the end of the bridge, they must retrieve a puzzle back, and then get winched back to the beginning by the others while they hold onto the board. Each bag must be placed in a basket. When all the bags have been retrieved, two members must use grappling hooks to lift their bags to the top of their platform. When all five baskets have been collected, they must unfurl banners to create a flag puzzle.

The tribes are also playing for a reward which is comprised of coffee, tea, milk, sugar, chocolate, and cookies.

Savaii takes an early lead due to the speed of Ozzy and Dawn. But Upolu comes from behind and regains the lead. Coach and Edna face Whitney and Elyse for the last round of the challenge. Unfurling the banners, Coach leads his tribe to victory.

Losing the immunity challenge is bad for the morale around camp. Ozzy is impressed by Dawn's performance. So it appears that it's going to be between Papa Bear and Cochran. And they both know it.

Ozzy's alliance agrees to send the older man home, but they'll tell him that they're voting for Cochran. Though he's confident he's staying in the game, Cochran hates to see his name coming up. Feeling the heat, Papa Bear is aware that his number is up and he leaves the camp to search for the idol.

Papa Bear doesn't sprint. Ever.

Jim and Elyse spy on Papa Bear as he desperately looks for the hidden immunity idol or the clue leading to it. The older man wants to pretend that he found it, hoping the others won't take the chance and vote for Cochran instead. He tells Jim that he found the idol. But the ploy doesn't fool Ozzy, who has the immunity idol.

I can't let anyone else know that I have the idol.

At tribal council, Jeff Probst revisits the fact that Cochran is the weakest player on the Savaii tribe and he's already taken some heat for that. Trying to stir things up a bit, Papa Bear implies that Ozzy's Five have taken control of the game. The rest of them are on the outs. The hidden immunity idol is perceived as a powerful tool, but searching frantically for it breeds suspicion.

As the votes are tallied, both Jim and Cochran see their names come up once. But it's Papa Bear who racks up the six remaining votes and gets sent to Redemption Island.