'Survivor: South Pacific' votes off Elyse Umemoto, ousts Stacey Powell

Survivor: South Pacific's Savaii tribe voted Elyse Umemoto out of their tribe during Wednesday night's broadcast of the fifth episode of the CBS reality series' 23rd edition.


"So tonight at Tribal, I have to admit it was a total surprise. Everyone likes to think that they're friends with everybody, but at the end of the day, that's just not the case. So, the trust is forever broken, because how can you know who to trust after feeling so betrayed and feeling so betrayed by several people?" Elyse, a 27-year-old dance team manager and former Miss Washington from Las Vegas, NV, said upon arriving at Redemption Island.

In addition, previously voted off contestant Stacey Powell, a 44-year-old mortician from Dallas, TX, lost the season's third Redemption Island duel to Christine Shields Markoski, a 39-year-old teacher from Merrick, NY, and was permanently ousted from the game.

"I challenged myself. This is something I would have never done. I'm a funeral director, a mortician is what I am. I mean, I'm a diva. Who lives like this? But in spite of everything, I had fun and I'm proud of myself," Stacey told Survivor host Jeff Probst when asked what the adventure meant to her.

As the game's newest Tribal Council victim, Elyse will now take Stacey's place on Redemption Island, where she will battle Christine in the game's next duel and attempt to eventually earn a chance to rejoin the game's other remaining castaways and resume competing for Survivor: South Pacific's million dollar prize.


Survivor: South Pacific's fifth broadcast began on Night 11 with Stacey arriving at Redemption Island and talking to Christine in her shelter. Stacey told her she was angry at the whole Upolu tribe -- which consisted of Sophie Clarke, a 22-year-old medical student from Willsboro, NY; Albert Destrade, a 26-year-old "baseball/dating coach" from Plantation, FL; Brandon Hantz, a 19-year-old oil tanker crewman from Katy, TX; Edna Ma, a 35-year-old anesthesiologist from Los Angeles, CA; Rick Nelson, a 51-year-old rancher from Aurora, UT; Mikayla Wingle, a 22-year-old model and Lingerie Football League player from Tampa, FL; and former Survivor: Tocantins and Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains castaway Coach, a 39-year-old currently residing in Susanville, CA.

Stacey was especially mad at Coach for being the ring leader of his alliance, who she said will all go to hell with "gasoline drawers on."

"Tribal was so fake, so fake. They are not just one big happy family on that tribe. Coach comes on here and tries to act all holier than thou, but he is nothing but a joke. When they find out the truth about him -- At the duel, I'm going to start up a bees nest and let the Red tribe know that Coach is in control over there. I'm going to spill everything that I know about what's going on over there," Stacey explained.

On Day 12, Brandon told his Upolu tribe they had received Tree Mail inviting two tribe members to attend and watch the game's third duel, and he still had a lot on his mind. Brandon was upset over how the season's previous fourth Tribal Council session had played out in that Mikayla admitted the one thing that bothered her the most about him was that he is in the Hantz family, as he's the nephew of former Survivor: Samoa and Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains castaway Russell Hantz.

Brandon called her comment an act of prejudice and wanted everyone to realize he was a good guy. He said it would only be worth winning the game if he could do it as a good and honest person.


Albert and Mikayla opted to be the spectators at the upcoming duel, and Coach was just hoping Christine and Stacey were going to "keep their mouths shut" about the prior events that had taken place at their tribe's camp. 

Later that day, Jeff met with Stacey, Christine and the onlookers who came to watch the duel. While Albert and Mikayla attended the duel on behalf of the Upolu tribe, Dawn Meehan and Whitney Duncan were the witnesses for the Savaii tribe.

At the duel, Stacey told everyone exactly what she had planned to say about Coach and the Upolu tribe and how they had betrayed her, and then Jeff explained the rules to the duel.

Christine and Stacey were each required to drop a ball down a shoot that would spiral downward and eventually fall out the bottom of the contraption, where they must then catch the ball and put it back into the top of the shoot. Every few minutes, another ball would be added, alternating left and right down the shoot and making it more difficult for the castaways to track them. If at any point a ball would hit the ground, that person would be out of the duel.

The last person standing would remain on Redemption Island and stay alive in the game, while the person to lose the challenge would be immediately sent home. Stacey and Christine then squared off in the duel. Stacey dropped one of her balls first and was eliminated, giving Christine her third duel victory.


Albert was frustrated that Stacey had revealed the inner-workings of the Upolu tribe.

"I thought we were going be able to keep under the radar pretty well. It just pisses me off because it makes us look bad in front of the other tribe and I know Coach is going to be pissed," Albert said after the duel.

Once the tribes returned back to their camps after the duel, Albert told Coach that Stacey had outed them about how they, along with Sophie, were in control and were all liars.

"Stacey just went on a rant. Stacey said, 'Coach is running the show,' so now at the merge, I'm probably going to be hit number one. It just ruins my day. It sucks. Could this day get any worse?" Coach said.

Meanwhile, the Savaii tribe -- which consisted of John Cochran, a 24-year-old Harvard Law School student from Washington, DC; Whitney, a 27-year-old country singer and former Nashville Star finalist from Nashville, TN; Dawn, a 41-year-old English professor from South Jordan, UT; Jim Rice, a 35-year-old medical marijuana dispenser from Denver, CO; Keith Tollefson, a 26-year-old water treatment tech from Edina, MN; Elyse; and former Survivor: Cook Islands and Survivor: Micronesia -- Fans vs. Favorites castaway Ozzy Lusth, a 30-year-old currently residing in Venice, CA -- was featuring some conflicting personalities.


Elyse thought her alliance with Jim, Whitney, Keith, and Ozzy was very strong, except she had no idea Jim was scheming with Cochran on the side to eventually take down Ozzy or at least diminish his power in tribe. Elyse felt secure in her position in the tribe had grown very close to Ozzy, which their fellow tribe members noticed. 

"I'm kind of just following [Ozzy's] lead. I believe he will take me far into the game and I think we see the game the same way. We feel the same way about the alliance, about the merge, about making it far -- we're pals," Elyse said.

Cochran continued to work hard around camp and it was beginning to annoy him that Elyse and Ozzy slept in everyday and relaxed. He felt Ozzy and Elyse were "wrapped up in their love blanket" and found everything irritating about them.

Dawn and Whitney returned from the duel and told their tribe Coach was running the Upolu show and Albert and Sophie were his puppets.

Ozzy then said that if Coach was smart, he should get rid of Albert soon and his words struck a chord with Jim. Jim assumed Ozzy's advice for Coach represented how he himself would play the game, which meant Ozzy would get rid of one of the strongest men on his own tribe and alliance. Jim felt he and Keith would be those men in Ozzy's eyes, and he knew he had to initiate a little fear in Keith to get him to stray from Ozzy's grasp on him.


At the Upolu tribe, Albert felt he was a target because his tribe members saw him as a threat. As a result, he started looking for the clue and the hidden Immunity Idol. He ended up finding the clue and looked everywhere for the Idol but failed to find it. He then told Sophie and Coach he found the clue in the hopes they would help him find it and remain loyal to him because he shared that valuable information with them.

Coach then went off looking for the hidden Immunity Idol on his own and found it. He told Albert and Sophie he had it, and he was thrilled about his success.

"I mean, are the stars aligning for Coach or what?! This morning, I thought to myself, 'Could this day get any worse?' But now, Coach is a happy man and things couldn't be going better. I gotta get a hold of myself and just say, 'Dragon, just get back in there. You can't go too crazy.' I'm not running the show, but at the moment, pretty close," Coach said.

On Day 14, Cochran and Ozzy went out in the boat to catch fish for the Savaii tribe although Cochran felt he lacked the skills to be an efficient fisherman.

"During his first two Survivor seasons] you see Ozzy as this superhuman guy that could do no wrong, but Ozzy has kind of faded into this middle-aged Ozzy who has a few moments of glory each day when he runs out and catches some fish, but otherwise, he's kind of a lazy ass. He's becoming the arrogant fisher boy jungle boy who feels that he can do no wrong and is entitled to our deference. The more he acts like this, it's going to come back and bite him in the ass," Cochran said.

The castaways then met Jeff again and he explained the rules to what would be their fifth Immunity Challenge and fifth Reward Challenge.


The tribe members learned that each tribe would be given a roasted pig on a spit. With their hands tied behind their backs, they must race to chew off as much meat as they possibly could and although they would be tempted to eat it, they had to spit it out into a large basket. The tribe to spit the most meat into its basket at the end of 10 minutes would win the challenge and immunity. The losing team would have to vote someone out -- who would then be sent to Redemption Island.

In addition to receiving immunity, the winning tribe would also be given veggies, spices, a loaf of bread, and a clue to the location of the hidden Immunity Idol.

The challenge proved to be disgusting and after the 10-minute race was up, the end result was extremely close. Savaii was able to spit 22 pounds and 12 ounces of meat into their basket, while Upolu achieved 22 pounds and 14 ounces -- winning by only two ounces.

After the challenge, while Upolu cooked up the meat they had also won from the challenge, the Savaii tribe had to decide who they were going to vote out next. Cochran continued to work hard around camp, opening coconuts and such, but Ozzy said it was a little too late.

"I think everyone on the tribe still thinks [Cochran] is the weakest link and I think everybody feels good about letting him go tonight," Ozzy said.

Ozzy made it clear Cochran should be the next tribe member to go, but Dawn felt it was time to make some big moves and break up the strong Ozzy alliance. Cochran, Dawn and Jim were on the same team and wanted to vote Elyse off instead.


Jim knew they needed a fourth vote to get Elyse out, so he decided to tell Keith that he felt Ozzy might eventually turn on one of them in order to snag his vote. Jim told Keith about Ozzy's earlier remarks regarding Coach and Albert, and Keith agreed it would be smart to weaken Ozzy by removing Elyse from the tribe.

Keith, who was teamed up with Whitney, discussed their options and realized they needed to vote out Elyse while still hoping to show a little loyalty to Ozzy. They knew they were the swing votes because Ozzy and Elyse were going to vote for Cochran.

"The first alliance I made was me and Ozzy, so tonight's vote is going to be really scary because Elyse gets blindsided and then Ozzy gets blindsided. So, how's Ozzy going to trust me when he thinks we're all voting for Cochran. That's the question I'm going to have to try to figure out," Keith said.

"I don't think Ozzy's going to like it if we all vote [Elyse] off and there goes our alliance," Whitney said. "Keith and I are still trying to find out how to weezle our way around this and still come out in our alliance with Ozzy. It's hard. I wish we could let those three vote for Elyse and us two vote, not for Cochran, but for someone else."

Cochran said he finally didn't feel that bad about his chances going into Tribal Council.

"I don't care if Ozzy thinks we're all against him. We are all against him. We're going to vote him out next time. He's going to hate me more after I vote out his hammock sweetheart, which I hope is what happens tonight," Cochran said.


That night, Survivor: South Pacific's Savaii tribe castaways arrived for their third Tribal Council.

After discussing the brutal Immunity Challenge and Cochran's hilarity versus annoying habits, the voting commenced and Jeff revealed the votes. Two castaways voted for Cochran, three tribe members voted for Elyse, and two people voted for Dawn.

The episode's closing credits later showed that Ozzy and Elyse voted for Cochran, while Jim, Cochran and Dawn voted for Elyse. Whitney and Keith voted for Dawn in an attempt to show they still had a little loyalty towards Ozzy, but they clearly joined forces with the Savaii tribe's other alliance.






About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski