"Bamboozled" by a vote result he admitted he never saw coming, J.P. Calderon, a 30-year-old professional volleyball player from Marina Del Rey, CA, was voted off the island in Survivor Cook Islands' fourth episode.

ADVERTISEMENT

Last night's Survivor: Cook Islands broadcast began with the new Aitutaki tribe having returned from the Night 8 Tribal Council in which the tribe's former Rarotonga and Puka Puka tribemates aligned together and voted off Cecilia Mansilla, who had been one of the new tribe's two original Aitutaki tribe members. After surviving the 5-3 vote, Becky Lee was starting to feel more comfortable about her nascent alliance with Yul Kwon, Jonathan Penner, and Candice Woodcock, the four core members of the alliance responsible for Cecilia's ouster.

Meanwhile Oscar "Ozzy" Lusth, now the only remaining member of the original Aitutaki tribe, was upset that Cecilia had been sent home. "I feel like I'm on the outside, to lose the only member of my former tribe -- the person that helped me lay the foundations of everything these people are going to enjoy -- makes me feel like crap," Ozzy vented during confessional. "If they want to vote me out, they should do it soon so I don't have to keep catching food for them. I just don't feel like playing along anymore."

The next day, a production boat brought Candice back from her Exile Island banishment. Upon her return, several of her new Aitutaki tribemates immediately began asking Candice why she thought the members of the new Rarotonga tribe had selected her for exile. "I can't figure out why they would do it unless they were doing it to try to think it was protecting you -- like we were gonna kick you off or something," Jessica "Flica" Smith -- apparently suspicious that Parvati Shallow and Adam Gentry (two of Jessica and Candice's former Rarotonga tribemates who had remained in the new Rarotonga tribe) had exiled Candice to protect her from the tribe's Tribal Council vote -- publicly told Candice.

Although she suspected that Jessica's theory might be correct, Candice attempted to deflect attention away from the idea. "I don't want the rest of the team to think I have some special 'Get out of jail free' card from the other team... I said 'I dunno, I hadn't thought about that' -- I just played dumb," Candice explained later during a confessional.

Meanwhile, over at the new Rarotonga tribe, the tribe's five women were beginning to grow frustrated by the sense of entitlement that the tribe's four men had begun to exhibit. "They're starting to rule the roost a little bit, I think they're getting very comfortable with their position in this tribe because they know we need them; they're strong," Parvati vented to the cameras.

Although the men were aware of the women's growing frustration, they weren't worried about it. "Even if they all do think [that], what's that going to do to us... nothing," J.P. boasted to Adam, Brad Virata, and Nathan Gonzalez. "As a group of guys we're way, way stronger than the other tribe's group of guys and I think the testosterone is flying a little bit and the guys want to stick together," J.P. explained during a confessional. "These girls are going to need man power for sure, so the four guy alliance is definitely relaxed."

On Day 10, the tribes assembled for the Reward Challenge. A test of both physical and mental skill, the challenge required the tribes to clip two members to a rope that wound its way through a series of obstacles and then have the rest of the tribe push and pull the two tribe members through the obstacles. After reaching the end of the rope, one tribe member would have to swim out into the lagoon and retrieve a sunken decoding wheel. Once the tribes had their decoding wheels, they would have to use the wheel to decipher a five word phrase. The first tribe to correctly decipher the phrase would win three blankets, two pillows, one hammock, and the right decide which member of the losing tribe would be sent to Exile Island.

Once the challenge began, the tribes remained neck and neck until Rarotonga, after having previously ignored Cristina Coria's suggestion that they make sure to keep their rope taunt, began to get its rope tangled and fell behind. Once Aitutaki completed the obstacle portion of the challenge, Ozzy widened their lead by quickly retrieving their decode wheel. In the end, although Brad helped Rarotonga catch up by also retrieving his tribe's wheel quickly, Aitutaki was the first tribe to decode their phrase. After winning the challenge, Aitutaki decided to send Adam to Exile Island.

After they got back to camp, Aitutaki celebrated the fact that they had managed to beat the physically stronger Rarotonga tribe. Later that day, Ozzy had a change of heart and decided that, despite his Night 8 comments, he was happy in his role as the tribe's master fisherman. "I'm happy being the sole provider of this tribe, I feel like I have the most power," Ozzy, apparently re-energized by the accolades that the rest of his tribemates heaped upon him, told the cameras. "If they lose me then they're going to be losing a lot of strength."

Meanwhile, over on Rarotonga, Parvati's frustration with J.P. continued to grow. "J.P.'s very demanding and I think he does it in a very sly way where if you weren't very observant you wouldn't even realize that he's so controlling," Parvati vented to the cameras. "Just the way he's sitting in camp today -- he's all sprawled out... on the throne... everyone's just waiting on him, he's very demanding he's like, 'Hand me that machete, hand me this bowl, serve me.' I'm like no. That just doesn't fly with me at all."

Later that night, Parvati shared her frustration with Nate, with whom she had struck up a flirtatious alliance. After revealing that the tribe's four men had already formed an alliance and he would make sure they didn't vote her off, Nate urged Parvati to let J.P. dig his own grave. "That's how you let the game play, let the king think he's all good and sitting pretty... let the king sit pretty... right now the ball is in his pocket but it can easily leave," Nate explained to Parvati.

After talking with Nate, Parvati decided to follow Nate's advice. "I do not wanna upset J.P. right now, that would be the last person I would want on my bad side so I'm just gonna 'Let the king sit pretty' until something happens," Parvati told the cameras.

On Day 11, Anh-Tuan "Cao Boi" Bui found a mother "booby" bird guarding her nest and, suspecting that the nest might hold some eggs that the tribe could eat, ended up knocking a newly born baby chick onto the ground below. After discovering what he'd done and returning the chick back to its mother, Cao Boi expressed regret for his actions. "The kid in me wanted to get some eggs for everybody -- I don't need it, but the kid in me wants to climb the tree. The kid in me wanna see if I can do it," Cao Boi explained later. "That kid in me just keeps wanting to do this and that, without thinking and getting in trouble. I should know better -- what am I doing these stupid things for? I feel really bad. I'm really humbled."

Later that day, the tribes met for the Immunity Challenge and Adam rejoined his Rarotonga tribemates. The challenge began with four tribe members racing to assemble a "stretcher puzzle." Then, after carrying the assembled stretcher through the jungle and onto the beach, one of the tribe members had to swim out into the lagoon and free a fifth tribe member that had been shackled atop a mast. After swimming back to the beach while holding onto a life ring, the "rescued" tribemate would have to lie on the stretcher as the four other tribe members carried them back through the jungle to the starting line. Once the five tribe members returned to the starting line, the tribe's three other tribe members would have to start a rescue fire big enough to burn through a rope strung over their fire pit. The first tribe to burn through their rope and release their tribal flag would win immunity and not have to attend the evening's Tribal Council session.

Although Rarotonga was the first tribe to assemble their stretcher and reach the beach, Aitutaki managed to pull ahead when Ozzy smoked J.P. during the swimming portion of the challenge. While Aitutaki was the first tribe to return to their starting mat, Rarotonga returned shortly thereafter, turning the challenge into a firebuilding competition between Aitutaki's team of Cao Boi, Sundra Oakley, and Becky Lee and Rarotonga's team of Jenny Guzon-Bae, Rebecca Borman, and Stephannie Favor (since they had one extra member, Rarotonga's Cristina Coria sat out the challenge.)

While Cao Boi quickly started a flame for Aitutaki, it quickly fizzled into a smoldering fire that produced lots of smoke but little flame. Meanwhile, a few feet away at Rarotonga's station, Stephannie was having little success generating any sparks. Finally, after swinging his smoldering kindling materials through the air and then returning it to the fire pit and blowing on it some more, Cao Boi's fire erupted into a huge flame. Undeterred, Stephannie and her tribemates continued to try and start their own fire, but once Cao Boi's fire began flaming, it didn't take long for Sundra and Becky to help him grow the flame into a fire large enough to burn through their rope and win Aitutaki immunity.

Once Rarotonga returned to camp, Stephannie -- in a moment that she later attributed to a moment of frustration and expressed regret for -- told the rest of her tribe that she should probably be the tribe member to be sent home. "Look guys, I'm the one that caused us to lose this challenge and I'm probably the weakest leak," Stephannie told the tribe as the tribe discussed how they had lost to "a Zen Firemaster."

After hearing Stephannie's comment, Nate decided that although he had felt close to Stephannie, he and the rest of the tribe should honor her request. "All these people are out here trying to play a game and if someone is doubting themselves this early and doesn't want to be here, I'm not going to keep you here," Nate explained. Once Nate discussed the idea with the rest of the men and some of the women it was decided -- Stephannie would "leave on a red carpet."

However unbeknownst to Nate and the rest of the men, the idea of sending Stephannie home didn't sit well with Rebecca. "I know it's important right now as a tribe to keep the strong ones in so that we can win, but then again it's five women, four men so if we're going to do any type of alliance it needs to be done right now, tonight, if any of the women want to stay in the game," Rebecca explained during confessional.

Once Rebecca talked with Jenny and found out that she agreed with Rebecca's suggestion that the women should align together and vote off J.P., their biggest threat, Jenny approached Stephannie and Cristina -- who had also independently come to the conclusion that J.P. should be their target -- with the plan.

However although four of Rarotonga's women quickly agreed to align and go after J.P., the fifth woman -- Parvati -- wasn't initially as receptive to the plan. "I don't know if that's a good idea... I just don't know if that's in our best interest... let me think about it," Parvati told Jenny after Jenny shared the plan with her.

Having received a lukewarm response from Parvati -- exactly the type of response that Cristina had predicted -- the women decided to ask Brad to join in their plan. While Brad's answer wasn't immediately shown, he -- and Parvati, and, for reasons unexplained in last night's broadcast, Adam too -- did ultimately decide to go along with the plan to target J.P., resulting in J.P. being voted out of Survivor: Cook Islands in a 7-2 Tribal Council vote that completely blindsided him.

"Wow... holy crap, you guys outwitted me big time," J.P. whispered to his tribemates after Survivor host Jeff Probst revealed that he'd been eliminated from the game. "This is something I never saw coming... there's no hard feelings, that's the way the game is played and man, they really pulled one over on me, you definitely can't trust anyone in this game, there's no way" J.P. added during his "Final Words" comments.

FOLLOW REALITY TV WORLD ON GOOGLE NEWS