Sherea Lloyd didn't really have a home at Zhan Hu or Fei Long and was one of the strongest women in the game, causing the 26-year-old elementary school teacher from Atlanta, GA to become the sixth castaway eliminated from Survivor: China during last night's broadcast of the long-running CBS reality competition series.
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Survivor: China's sixth episode began at the Zhan Hu camp, with the tribe's three original members -- Jaime Dugan, a 22-year-old student from Columbia, SC; Peih-Gee Law, a 29-year-old jeweler from Marina Del Rey, CA; and Erik Huffman, a 26-year-old musician from Nashville, TN -- all asleep. However, James Clement, a 30-year-old grave digger from Lafayette, LA who was traded from Fei Long to Zhan Hu during the previous episode, busily worked around the camp.
In hindsight, Peih-Gee said she was "confident" about the decision she and Jaime made to throw the previous Immunity Challenge, which led to the elimination of Aaron Reisberger, who like James was traded to Zhan Hu from Fei Long. Peih-Gee also knew that if Zhan Hu were to throw the next Immunity Challenge, they could easily eliminate James.
That decision would allow Peih-Gee, Jaime and Erik to "reconnect" with former Zhan Hu members Sherea and Michael "Frosti" Zernow, a 20-year-old parkour athlete/student from Chicago, IL.
"If we throw the next Immunity Challenge, James is going to be gone," said Peih-Gee. "Best possible scenario, we merge at that point. And if that happens, we'll be able to reconnect with Frosti and Sherea."
James strategy was to work as hard as possible around camp so the other Zhan Hu members were well-rested for the upcoming challenges. However he realized his fate was largely in there hands.
"Aaron's gone and I'm just at their mercy right now," said James. "If they throw another challenge, I'm gone."
Fei Long's tribe members tried to sleep, but it was difficult with Jean-Robert Bellande, a 36-year-old professional poker player from Las Vegas, NV, snoring his head off. As the tribe awoke, Todd Herzog, a 22-year-old flight attendant from Pleasant Grove, UT, decided to explain to his ally Amanda Kimmel, a 23-year-old hiking guide and Miss Montana USA 2005 from Los Angeles, CA, that he knew a Hidden Immunity Idol was hidden somewhere at Fei Long's camp.
After explaining how he received the clues to the whereabouts of the Idol, Todd said he was going to wait until after he found it to share the news but was having a hard time pinpointing its location at camp.
"I was kind of shocked because I didn't know about any Hidden Immunity Idol," said Amanda. "So we're going to do everything we can to find that Idol today. We have to."
Todd continued his clever game play and realized what finding the Hidden Immunity Idol would mean for the original Fei Long members.
"If we win [the Reward Challenge] today, we're bringing over either Aaron or James, whoever's left," said Todd. "Because they're going to give us a clue as to where that Hidden Immunity Idol is, and Amanda and I will have control in this game."
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Fei Long and Zhan Hu then met for the Reward Challenge, and Fei Long realized Zhan Hu had booted Aaron at the previous Tribal Council.
Survivor host Jeff Probst explained the rules. One person from each tribe would race through the ruins of an abandoned Chinese village; locate a puzzle board; untie it and bring it back to their tribe mat. The next person would then go, and once the tribes collected all eight boards, they would use the puzzle pieces to decode a phrase made famous by Confucius.
The winning tribe would be taken to a Tea House where they could take a shower, use a Western toilet, and enjoy some tea and a snack. In addition, the winning tribe would also be able to "kidnap" a member of the losing tribe, who will remain with the winning team until the next Immunity Challenge. Due to Fei Long's three-person advantage, Amanda; Denise Martin, a 40-year-old school lunch lady from Douglas, MA; and Courtney Yates, a 26-year-old waitress from New York, NY, sat out for the challenge.
James was the first to enter the village for Zhan Hu, and he was pitted against Jean-Robert. The poker player grabbed a small lead over James, and Peih-Gee was the next to run the course for Zhan Hu up against Sherea.
"Now we're all good," quickly whispered Peih-Gee to Sherea as they worked side-by-side in the village. "We're still with you guys. Tell Frosti, okay?" Sherea didn't seem to acknowledge Peih-Gee, and Fei Long kept their lead.
They never really relinquished it, as Fei Long was the first to collect all eight puzzle pieces and started putting it together. Frosti seemed to easily decipher the Confucius phrase, and Fei Long won Reward. Not surprisingly, they kidnapped James.
"Come on home for a night!" said a gregarious Jean-Robert.
James accompanied Fei Long on their trip to the Tea House, and they all thoroughly enjoyed their time there, although Courtney was trying to stay as far away from Jean-Robert as possible.
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At Zhan Hu's camp, Jaime complained.
"I'm sick of this place. Like, I really am," she told Peih-Gee and Erik. He answered that he's just sick of losing, and Peih-Gee commented about the remarks she made to Sherea during the Reward Challenge.
"We're still into keeping Sherea, Frosti, Erik, Peih-Gee and I together," said Jaime. "We would do anything to save them. We'd throw a challenge to save them. We did it. But Frosti won't make eye contact with us. We don't know if he's changed his mind and switched over with them... Now everything's just unknown and it's really hard to deal with."
Erik said he was also "unsure" about what Frosti and Sherea's strategy was, but added it "flops everything" if they were to align with Fei Long. Peih-Gee -- who concocted the plan to throw the previous Immunity Challenge -- was suddenly singing a different tune.
"We have to win Immunity," she said sternly. "We have to win Immunity."
Before Fei Long left the Tea House, Todd approached James and told him he knew about the Hidden Immunity Idol and could use it to "help save" the former Fei Long member.
"I promise. I've got a whole plan," assured Todd. James was a little hesitant at first, but what choice did he have but to trust Todd?
"I hope it's worth it. I need something to save me. I'm in a bad spot right now," said James. "Todd, he's corner-stoned all alliances on [Fei Long]. So I'm going to go over to Todd and roll the dice and maybe it'll come up right... If not, I'm pretty much gone any ways so I have to do it."
Back at Fei Long's camp, James gave the tribe's fourth Hidden Immunity Idol clue to Todd, who has the other three. Todd read the clue and immediately knew the Idol was attached to a wooden archway in the middle of camp. But instead of waiting for other Fei Long members to vacate the area, Amanda began to knock shingles off the archway as a diversion while Todd tried to pull the Idol off of it.
The idea backfired when Frosti unsuspectingly came over and climbed atop the archway to help knock off shingles, and Todd said he went "into panic mode." Amanda kept goading Frosti to get down, which he did, and Todd was eventually able to pull the Idol off. But written across the back of the clue was, "Congratulations. You have found the Hidden Immunity Idol," and while Amanda and Todd tried to conceal it, Frosti was easily able to read it.
"This has to be the worst way in history of getting an Immunity Idol," said Amanda. "Like honestly, in front of everybody?!"
The three then walked down to the beach where Todd threatened to kill Frosti if he told anybody about it. Todd explained to Amanda that they had no choice but to now trust Frosti, who was aware of how his standing in the competition just got a boost.
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Todd then set his master plan into motion. He gave the Hidden Immunity Idol to James so he could take it back to Zhan Hu with him.
"If James takes that Idol, loses Immunity, [Zhan Hu] vote[s] for him," explained Todd. "But he uses the Idol to get rid of Jaime. We sever the tie between her and Erik. Hopefully at 10 we'll merge and [Fei Long will] still have our numbers to go strong into the merge."
Todd also made sure to tell James to look for the Hidden Immunity Idol at Zhan Hu's camp, not entirely positive but still pretty sure that there's also one there. After arguing so vehemently about Zhan Hu throwing the previous Immunity Challenge because he hates to lose, James now found himself needing to throw the next Immunity Challenge.
"So now all I have to do is stay focused, keep my head in the game, lose the Immunity Challenge, get the other Idol, and I'll have both of them," he said. "I mean, it's going to be wonderful!"
Todd told Denise and Courtney about his plan so that everyone would try their hardest at the next Immunity Challenge and the plan would unfold perfectly.
The castaways then arrived for their sixth Immunity Challenge, and James rejoined Zhan Hu. Jeff explained the rules, with tribe members squaring off against each other in a food eating competition of Chinese dishes. The first person to get their food down and show an empty mouth scores a point and the first tribe to four points wins Immunity. Fei Long had to sit Todd, Jean-Robert and Sherea.
Frosti quickly ate his 10 chicken hearts ahead of Peih-Gee, and Fei Long took a 1-0 lead. Courtney and Jaime were close as they both tried to choke down three pieces of eel -- which included the heads -- however Jaime was just a hair quicker opening her mouth and allowing Zhan Hu to tie the score.
Erik also won a close round against Amanda -- chomping and swallowing three baby turtles and narrowly being the first to reveal an empty mouth -- giving Zhan Hu a 2-1 lead. James faced Denise next and both had to eat two chicken fetuses with feathers. James tried his damndest to throw the challenge, but Denise couldn't choke back the chicken. James put on a good show, but once he realized Denise wasn't going to finish her dish, he solemnly ate all that was on his plate and gave Zhan Hu a 3-1 lead.
Needing only one point to win Immunity, Erik ate a 1,000-year-old egg faster than Frosti and clinched it for Zhan Hu.
Back at Fei Long's camp Denise apologized about letting her tribe down, aware that James was doing his best to let her win.
"Perfect plan. Genius idea. Smashed," said Todd, who still tried to "look on the positive side" that Fei Long could vote out either Frosti or Sherea, the two original Zhan Hu members. Todd, Amanda and Denise all agreed to vote for Sherea at the upcoming Tribal Council, and Todd thought Frosti would be on board too since it would help further their trust. With Sherea all but booted, Courtney wasn't so sure.
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Courtney told Sherea she was on the chopping block, and the two decided they would vote for Jean-Robert.
"As far as Jean-Robert, he'll vote any of them out," said Sherea. "So the same time they're looking at me, they need to be scared of each other."
Courtney then approached Todd, Amanda and Frosti about the possibility of ousting Jean-Robert instead of Sherea because he's a larger threat and she doesn't trust him. Amanda tried to tell Courtney that they need to look at the "bigger picture" before they start eating their own.
Todd quickly realized that his alliance with Amanda was making them "power players" in the competition, something that made the targets on their backs grow larger with every passing day.
"They'll get rid of us if we don't start doing what people want!" said Todd to Amanda. "Because Jean-Robert is not stupid. He will turn on us!"
Amanda assured Todd this was "not the time" to eliminate Jean-Robert and added her gut feeling was to boot Sherea.
"And my gut's saying Jean-Robert!" Todd fired back. "This sucks!"
Jean-Robert was aware there was something going on.
"I like to trust my gut and my vibe," said Jean-Robert. "So far, I've really felt comfortable about my position in the game. Then all of a sudden something doesn't feel a 100% to me. The plan was either Sherea or Frosti, most likely Sherea, but I gotta tell you, I'm uneasy right now."
Survivor: China's sixth Tribal Council then commenced, and Sherea told Jeff she noticed "a lot of shadiness" happening around the Fei Long camp after losing the Immunity Challenge. Jeff then asked Jean-Robert if his strategy was changing the longer he's in the game.
"I'm a changed person now. I find myself doing a little cooking, a little fire and it's routine now. It's not even chores," said Jean-Robert. Sherea didn't like Jean-Robert's answer and attacked him for "always running his mouth, story after story."
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"I'm certain that some of the people don't like me," confirmed Jean-Robert. "I'm a bad boy. Sometimes that happens. But you know even as a bad boy -- being aggressive -- I like the way I'm playing this game."
Courtney laughed at Jean-Robert for describing himself as a "bad boy."
"We don't get along. We don't like each other," said Courtney about Jean-Robert. "Lot of self-rightousness... He's just a crappy person."
Courtney then explained how she felt like Fei Long's "outsider" before Sherea and Frosti arrived -- a comment that didn't sit too well with Todd -- because he's "loved her since Day 3." Courtney said Fei Long's a "cliquey" tribe.
"For you to say that your still on the outskirts and that you're not close to me is a little bit like rubbing salt in the wounds," said Todd.
"Even with this infighting going on, and this is the place to air out dirty laundry, when it comes to the challenges and coming together I think we really do work well together as a team," said Jean-Robert. "We're in a good spot. I like where we're at."
Jean-Robert was in a good spot -- but Sherea? -- not so much, as she was booted from Survivor:China by a 5-2 vote. She and Courtney were only two tribe members to vote for Jean-Robert.
Survivor: China's next episode will air Thursday, November 1 at 8PM ET/PT on CBS, with the Fei Long and Zhan Hu tribes merging together.
About The Author: Christopher Rocchio