It was Day 25 at Hae Da Fung and James was feeling slightly burned by the previous night’s elimination.  It didn’t make him feel good to see his name written down three times.  From this point on, he was going to make sure he always had his immunity idols with him at Tribal Council.  But would he actually know when to use them?

Courtney started off the morning by celebrating.  With Jean-Robert gone, it was like Christmas in China to the skinny waitress.  Unfortunately, Denise’s evil daggers interrupted Courtney and Amanda’s joyous moods. Unaware that her former Fei Long ‘friends’ had changed their elimination target, she went with the original plan and voted for Peih-gee.  Now the school lunch lady was feeling just as blindsided as Jean-Robert.  Did she make a mistake not aligning with the former Zhan Hu members?  Hoping to secure her loyalty, James lied to Denise about the voting changes.  He claimed it was always their intention to tell her; someone just simply forgot to relay the message.  Although she was unsure whether James should be believed, she knew it would be smart to stick with the man who possessed all the idols.

Going into the next challenge, Peih-gee was feeling desperate.  She really wanted to win something; up until this point, she had never won a single reward.  Couldn’t that be said for Erik as well?  For this week’s Reward Challenge, the competitors were divided up into two teams of four.  Using four hand-held drums, the teams had to move a small bouncing ball down a large obstacle course.  Once at the end, the teams had to then bounce the ball into a bin.  If the team were to drop the ball at any point, they would have to start all over again from the nearest checkpoint.  The first team to get three balls into the bin would win.

The captains were randomly chosen and Peih-gee and Erik started off the school yard selections.  Peih-gee quickly picked James to start off her (red) team; Todd and Denise eventually followed.  Meanwhile, Erik’s (yellow) team was comprised of Frosti, Amanda and Courtney.  Although the Red Team seemed strong on paper, the Yellow Team was dominant from the get-go.  Instead of stupidly bouncing the ball back and forth between players like a hacky sack, they smartly kept the ball to one person as much as possible.  Peih-gee’s team was completely unfocused and unskilled; the team was constantly forced to start over and over again due to big droppers like James.  Thanks to Erik and Frosti’s calm and steady moves, the Yellow Team scored all three of their points before the Red Team could even score one.

For their reward, Erik, Amanda, Courtney and Frosti were taken on a spectacular river cruise where they bunked for the night.  Although they didn’t get the opportunity to shower this time around, they were given a ton of food including a dinner consisting of fried chicken and mashed potatoes.  Erik was of course excited to experience his first reward; he was also thrilled about having a chance to form some new friendships.  Although he didn’t hate Peih-gee like the rest of them did, he was glad that someone else from his former team was getting the brunt of the criticism.  By the end of the trip, it seemed that Erik (and his dazzling smile) had made a good impression on the ladies.  Was this something Frosti should worry about?  Although Frosti did have a reality show relationship with his girl, Courtney, Erik was a nice guy and a good catch.  If Erik were to win over the ladies, could that make Fei Long Frosti the next target?

Still steaming about her team’s loss, Peih-gee took out her frustration out on James.  He had once accused her of quitting at challenges (because that was true) and yet he was the one dropping the ball during the recent reward challenge (that is true as well.)  This unfortunately set off an ugly argument between the two which eventually ended with Peih-gee walking off.

On Day 27, Todd’s BFFs returned from their cruise and rescued him from the horrible camp.  Once reunited in the water, Todd recapped the drama to Courtney, Amanda and Frosti.  Erik, also included in this conversation, wondered what Peih-gee’s status meant for him.  Was he now in everyone’s good graces?  Should he try and separate himself from his former team member?  And what would happen if she actually managed to win the immunity idol?

At the next Immunity Challenge, the competitors were presented with a table full of Chinese Zodiac tiles. The object of the game was to best memorize a list of names Jeff Probst would call out.  With the knife provided, the survivors would then have to stab the according tiles in the correct order.  Interestingly, the challenge came with one big twist:  the challengers could choose to eat cheeseburgers and fries instead of competing for immunity. 

To keep the survivors on their toes, they were forced to reveal their choices at the same time.  Revealing a white coin in their hand meant they wanted to compete; the black coin meant they wanted to eat.  In the end, only Peih-gee, Frosti, Amanda and Erik opted to fight for their lives.  Did Amanda seriously think she was going to be eliminated?  The difficult challenge also proved to be a thrilling one as well.  The direction of the next Tribal Council hinged on this game.  When the dust finally settled, Peih-gee came out the huge winner.  This shocker, of course, had the rest of the competitors re-evaluating their strategies.

Believing they were the next two on the chopping block, Frosti and Erik wished each other well.  Although Frosti had been with the Fei Long campers for some time now, was it possible that Erik had made headway during the cruise?  What about Frosti’s ‘relationship’ with Courtney – was their bond as close as he hoped it was? 

Hoping to secure his place in the game, Frosti advised Todd to look out for Erik; the handsome guy was a possible silent threat.  Unfortunately, athletic Frosti was also a threat – which is why Todd proposed eliminating him to Denise and James.  While they both agreed Frosti had to go soon, they weren’t convinced Courtney would vote against her honey.  Although Todd was certain Courtney would do the smart thing, he was prepared to vote her off instead if she acted out of stupidity.

At the next Tribal Council, Courtney made it quite she didn’t have a problem at all separating friendship from strategy.  It wasn’t like she was going to continue dating the 20-year-old after the game was over anyway, right?  LOSER: Frosti.

(You can review last week’s episode here.)
(You can read next week’s episode here.)