Survivor Samoa: Dropping Like Flies

The name of the show should be changed to "Survivor: Foa Foa." Viewers probably won't see much of opposing team Galu what with villain Russell still loose.

Tonight's episode saw many firsts. At the start, Russell got it into his head that there was an immunity idol hidden at camp, as has been the case in previous seasons. He shared this suspicion with Jaison in the hopes doing so would make him trust Russell. As the rest of his tribe dined on lizard (yes, lizard), Russell walked around the area, searching everywhere for some clue to the idol. He finally found it inside a tree and hid it without anyone noticing. He told Jaison, but confessed he probably wouldn't use it to save Jaison, although he wanted the guy to think he would.

Next was the reward/immunity challenge. The players were thrown into a pit and left to fight one another for a ball that had to be tossed into a basket (think caveman basketball). Bodies collided, heads butted – it was a bloodbath to say the least. So much so that host Jeff Probst warned the next person to take a cheap shot would be thrown out of the challenge, something Ben didn't think applied to him. Probst though stuck to his word and took him out, the first time this has ever happened in the game's history. As a result, Galu won.

After the challenge, medical took a look at the oldest member of Foa Foa, Mike. The doctors made the decision to pull him out of the game before his condition worsened. That still didn't get Foa Foa off the hook for tribal council. They were joined back at camp by Yasmin, a Galu member chosen to observe life at Foa Foa who certainly made her presence known. First she called out the entire team on their horrible performance in the game thus far. Then she took Ben aside to rip him for tackling her during the challenge (which she was right to do). This just angered Ben who then made life miserable for everyone else on the team, most notably creating a racket one night with a machete. Betsy, though annoyed, was thrilled that he was putting a target on himself since that meant she might not be voted out as the oldest.

Enter Russell again. He convinced the tribe to vote for Betsy instead since she didn't trust him. The vote at tribal council was unanimous, and Betsy was sent packing.

Before you think Russell will be coasting through the rest of this game though, next week's previews show Jaison mounting an offense against him. Hopefully this will happen and it's not just an edited teaser.