Even if it was just with powerless Harvard law nerd Cochran.
Rice has begun to notice some flirtation and connection between veteran player Ozzy and hottie Elyse. Foreseeing her as a future pawn for Ozzy to play the game with, Rice starts a plan with Cochran, and eventually Dawn, to put Elyse in the cross hairs in the next elimination -- whenever that may be.
Though while Rice seems to feel pretty confident in his playing, others are starting to see him as a possible snake. Cochran says Rice is sketchy and has a "used car salesman smile" to boot. Veteran Ozzy also calls Rice out for trying to strategize too much in front of the team.
The Redemption Island battle this week was a ten-station beanbag toss between former Upolu member Christine and Savaii cast-off Papa Bear. Standing in one spot, the two had to play what was more or less a complicated version of the classic tailgating game and land the bags on ten platforms at varying distances apart. Though he put up a good fight, Papa Bear was sent home and Christine was sent back to the castaway version of timeout.
Back on the Upolu side of the island, things are still caught in the same weirdo Brandon limbo they were last week. The dude was constantly apologizing to everyone and going on a truth kick about not only who he voted for, but who other people were voting for as well. I can't imagine that anyone feels that comfortable just hanging out around this guy, which probably accounts for why the team seems so distant from one another.
But we also caught the weirdness of another player this week with meek and meager Edna. After Brandon told Edna that the five-member alliance she thought she was a part of was really a four-person that didn't include her, she moused around for attention and essentially offered to do anything to other players to keep herself on the island a little longer. At one point -- in a vaguely racially offensive move -- big tall white dude, Coach, had the tiny Asian woman walking on his back on the beach.The challenge this week required two guys and one girl from each team to stand with a weight bar across their shoulders, with 20 pounds in weight added every few minutes or so. Rice and Keith were the two guys for the Savaii team, with only Rice making it to the 200 pound mark. Rice, a big guy, was holding strong through the bout, wincing with pain and yelling out once or twice when more weight was added. On the Upolu side, Brandon went pound for pound with Rice, holding strong despite looking about as solid as a bag of wet trim leaves.
In the end, Rice's body gave out and he crumbled to the ground in front of his stand, with Brandon falling shortly after. That left leaving only Dawn to to shoulder the team's hopes, literally. Dawn held on through 140 pounds, barely keeping the bar that had slipped to her hips up long enough to beat her Upolu opponent, Stacey.
Dawn's sacking up in front of the team definitely put her in a better place, and meant that the Savaii Tribe wouldn't have to throw anyone off quite yet -- though it also ended any more discussion of strategy for the Savaii tribe for the episode. We're left with a vague sense that a shift in power is coming, and Rice may be at the head of it -- or he may just be putting himself in the line of fire.
Back at Upolu camp, Stacey was hurting from her heavy burden and Coach went into his coach routine. Paranoid Edna took home this week's Needs-a-Bowl-STAT Award, scrambling around trying to find out who had her back. Stacey, who knew her head was on the chopping block despite holding out the longest for her team in the challenge, sat back and let the fact that she's been pulling her weight do the talking.The didn''t give us much of a hint as to how the team is going to vote going into the elimination ceremony, nor do we get much during the ceremony itself. At home I was yelling that they would be stupid to keep Brandon around any longer. Dude keeps blowing up everyone's spot and is pretty useless when it comes to playing any actual game. Almost to prove my point, Brandon goes off onto his Christian guilt trip and busts into tears (I hope you all were playing along with the game I created last week) during the ceremony.
But the team felt differently, it seems, by voting off hard-working badass Stacey to Redemption Island. No hint as to who is on the chopping block next week, but until then our Denver dispensary owner remains safe.
This week's Survivor Strain of the Week, Deadhead OG -- a deliciously earthy and ripe smelling nug that likely smells way better than any of the contestants are smelling like at this point in the game.
More from our Mile Highs and Lows : archive: "Survivor update, week 3: Dispensary owner Jim Rice staying ahead of competition"; "Medical marijuana: Papa John's delivery driver calls cops on legal patient over weed".
