Misty Giles becomes the third castaway to exit 'Survivor: Panama'

The loser of a tribal showdown in which her La Mina tribe's two 20-something men decided to ally themselves with the tribe's two older men rather than herself and 27-year-old Sally Schumann, Misty Giles, a 24-year-old engineer from Dallas, TX, became the third Survivor: Panama -- Exile Island castaway to be eliminated from the game


Last night's CBS broadcast of Survivor: Panama -- Exile Island's third episode began with the Casaya tribe returning from the Night 6 Tribal Council session in which they had voted off Melinda Hyder, after which former Exile Island outcast Bruce Kanegai (the castaway not selected as part of the second episode "schoolyard pick" that reorganized Survivor: Panama's fifteen remaining castaways into two new seven person tribes) took Melinda's place in the tribe.

As the tribe returned to camp, Bruce, anxious to prove his worth to his new tribe, convinced his dehydrated tribemates that rather than having to go through the time consuming process of starting a fire and boiling water, he could set up a T-shirt-based filtration system that would result in "90% pure water."

Although Courtney Marit openly questioned whether the filtration system would remove all of the dangerous bacteria from the water -- a comment that caused Bruce to openly acknowledge that the system wouldn't remove "all" the unboiled water's bacteria -- the desperate tribe nonetheless decided to trust Bruce's advice on the matter.

"He was drinking it [during his three days on Exile Island] and he survived," Bobby Mason explained the next morning. While he had just joined the tribe, the group's willingness to immediately follow his advice pleased Bruce. "The tribe reacted to me with great joy, they thought I was a gift from heaven. They were just very ecstatic I was there," he gushed the next morning. "I know I was the last guy picked, [but] now I'm emerging at the top of the tribe."


Over at La Mina, Day 7 began with the tribe still struggling to overcome Sally's loss of the fishing spear that the tribe had won during Episode 2's Reward Challenge. Left with only some hooks and fishing line, the tribe struggled to catch anything other than poisonous puffer fish. "That damn spear that Sally lost -- god what we wouldn't give to have that thing back... how did you lose that spear," Austin Carty vented during confessional.

Later, the tribes assembled for the day's Reward Challenge, a beachfront slingshot challenge that required three tribe members to serve as "launchers" while the four other members of each tribe stood out on a balance beam erected over the water. Each member of the launcher teams would take turns shooting balls at the tribe members poised on the balance beam, with the first tribe to successfully catch five balls before they hit the water winning the challenge.

Before the challenge began, Survivor host Jeff Probst noted how much better Casaya looked, a comment that caused the tribe members to begin gushing about how Bruce had become the tribe's "savior." Although the challenge reminded pretty tight throughout, La Mina ultimately proved victorious, with Terry Dietz catching the final ball that broke a 4-4 tie and gave his tribe the Reward Challenge win.

Following their challenge win, Jeff revealed that in addition to receiving the challenge's camping supplies reward, La Mina would also receive another unexpected benefit: the right to determine which Casaya castaway would be sent off to Exile Island. After conferring, the tribe -- remembering Casaya's public lauding of Bruce before the challenge began -- decided that although they felt bad about the decision, they were sending Bruce back to Exile Island. "They made a very detrimental move by telling us who brought back the team morale over there -- Bruce, we're sending you back," Austin said as he announced La Mina's decision.

Later that night, La Mina thought about Bruce as they weathered a torrential rainstorm within the relative comforts of their new tarp-covered shelter. "The decision to send Bruce to Exile Island was a tough one, but he is an asset to that team and without Bruce we think they're not going to be up on their feet as they should be... so we made the tough call," Terry explained during confessional.


Over on Exile Island, a downtrodden Bruce endured the storm alone. "I wasn't even with the Casaya tribe twenty-four hours and then I was sent to Exile Island for the second time... [I've] spent more time on the island than I have with any tribe," Bruce lamented. "I thought 'Boy it couldn't be worse than the last time' but that storm hit and I didn't have time to look for the idol." Not only didn't he have time to look for the idol, but if the producers provided him with a new third clue about the hidden Immunity Idol's location, Survivor Panama's third episode did not broadcast it.

On Day 8, Casaya's dominant alliance -- already shown as being unstable prior to their first Tribal Council session -- showed more cracks, with Courtney, Shane Powers, and Danielle DiLorenzo sniping at each other as they attempted to boil water. "I think the problems in our tribe are inherent in our personalities -- I'm in an alliance with three nutballs I feel like at this point," Aras Baskauskas, the alliance's fourth member, vented during a confessional.

Meanwhile tribal outcast Cirie Fields -- already told by Shane and Aras that she would be the next castaway the alliance would send home -- simply enjoyed the show. "With Courtney and Shane, it's always something. The funny thing is that these are the people that you guys decided to ally with and now you hate each other -- how stupid is that," the 35-year-old registered nurse said during confessional.

Back at La Mina, Sally and Misty continued to attempt to use their feminine charms to convince Austin and Nick Stanbury to ally with them instead of Terry and Dan Barry, the two older men who had also approached the swing vote duo with an alliance proposal.

"I would flirt to help get ahead," Misty, a 24-year-old former Miss Texas Teen USA, explained in a voiceover as the show showed her giving both of the tribe's younger men shoulder massages. "I think Misty is such a smart girl and I think she comes across in this like nice 'I want to massage everybody,' but you know there's a little extra something going into Austin and Nick's massages," Sally gushed to the cameras. "We work well together... I think between the two of us we're doing OK."


Although the dueling alliance offers left Austin and Nick in a potentially powerful position, it was a position that also had Austin concerned. "I am in a position I didn't necessarily want to be in." the 24-year-old confessed. "It could be very dangerous to ally yourself with strong guys, especially when I have two girls who seem to really trust me and think that I'm a really good guy."

Later on Day 8 (a departure from the show's normal every third day cycle, could another twist in the normal 39 day schedule be coming?) the tribes gathered for their next Immunity Challenge, where Bruce rejoined Casaya. A five-round head-to-head competition that quickly devolved into a bunch of awkward beachside wrestling sessions, the challenge required two or three person teams from each tribe to locate a single buried sandbag and return it to their mat. The first tribe to successfully retrieve three bags would win immunity.

After two rounds featuring pairs of women and pairs of men, the tribes were tied at 1-1. La Mina pulled ahead in the third round that featured three person teams comprised of two men and one woman, however Casaya once again tied the score at 2-2 by winning the fourth round that featured teams comprised of two women and one man. The fifth round featured one man and one woman, with Casaya winning immunity when Bobby pulled Ruth Marie Milliman, holding the bag and only a few steps from her own La Mina tribe's mat, onto Casaya's mat.

Once La Mina returned to camp, the castaways quickly began scrambling to determine who would be sent home. Although Dan suggested sending Ruth Marie home, Austin appeared to leave little doubt as to which alliance offer he had decided to accept, countering Dan's recommendation by suggesting the group send Misty home and noting her weak Immunity Challenge performance. "She's an engineer, she's smart as hell, and she could cause some trouble," Terry later explained during confessional.

Meanwhile, Misty and Sally continued to work on Nick, suggesting that the tribe should send Ruth Marie home (like Dan, Sally appeared willing to target Ruth, the only member of the tribe not in already in a two-person alliance, and allow Austin and Nick to postpone their alliance decision until the tribe's next Immunity Challenge loss.)


However based on Austin's willingness to suggest sending Misty home, Austin and Nick's alliance decision apparently wasn't nearly as gut-wrenching as the show's editing would have viewers believe, and when the tribe went to Tribal Council, Misty was sent home in a nearly unanimous 5-2 vote (with only Sally joining Misty in casting a vote for Ruth Marie.)