BunkoSquad

His protege Austin is feeling a little survivor's guilt and a little moron's remorse after Tribal Council. Once he admitted that he failed the last Immunity Challenge on purpose, getting Nick axed, he's pretty much branded himself as the next victim. Yeah, we're at the point where we have to wait three weeks until it's slightly unpredictable again. And even then, it's obvious everyone wants to be matched against Shane in the Final Two.

Let's skip right to the reward challenge, where three teams of three have to load up their opponents' boats with coconuts, then paddle their (hopefully light) boats out to get a flag, come back to shore, and haul all their coconuts to a bin. The teams are

(1) Bruce, Aras and Sally
(2) Cirie, Danielle and Courtney
(3) Shane, Austin and Terry.

Aras, showing a little flair, gets the bright idea to encourage Team 2, which has Kansas City Royals-like chances of winning, to load up Team 3's boat with extra weight, giving Team 1 an edge. 1 does edge out 2 - I don't think 3 even got their boat launched. So Aras, Sally and Bruce get a breakfast in bed as a reward, and get to ping two losers off to Exile Island. It's Austin and Danielle.

Oh, incidentally, one suprise from the challenge: of all the people on the show, you'd think Danielle would have a little more experience hauling coconuts around.

So now we have three groups to keep an eye on. Austin and Danielle are on Exile Island, huddled in the cold relentless rain, as miserable as two people can be. We don't even get any teasing shots of the two of them (who are the show's only remaining eye candy) making out. Though they claimed the experience bonded them, we have to use our imaginations.

The reward winners are a little nonplussed that their bed is basically just a bed. With a canopy offering flimsy protection from the downpour. But they snuggle in, and are soon presented with croissants, muffins, bacon, OJ, and coffee (Shane's Starbuck sense probably started tingling from miles away). They're happy.

And back at the mainland, Terry's desperate to make something happen. He tries to get Shane to list his predictions for the Final Four (it's Shane, Aras, Courtney and Cirie - but notice Shane doesn't swear this on his son) with all the grace and savoir faire of someone looking over your shoulder trying to guess your ATM PIN.

The missing-presumed-fed trio returns and starts regaling the others with tales of bacon. Cirie's having hungry person's remorse, but life sucks sometimes; her only hope of winning any kind of reward is if the challenge is "Stand on the sidelines cracking on all your tribemates".

The Immunity Challenge, sadly for Cirie, is a grueling obstacle course. Give her credit for not just swearing and taking off down the beach when she saw it. It's pretty cool, but the upshot is that the three finalists are the three ex-La Minas, and Terry wins again. Which means he gets to go back to work on his hamhanded strategy. He senses a bond with Bruce (they're both over 40) and a bond with Danielle (the rainy night with Austin), and tries to convince both of them that Shane and Aras are about to throw them under the proverbial bus. Terry even tells Danielle that he'll give her the Immunity Idol if she leaves her alliance. He even manages to tell her this in the same breath as a speech about honor and trustworthiness.

Thanks to the marvel of television editing, both Bruce and Danielle look intrigued by the offer.

Meanwhile, the Casayas are exhibiting their typical class and decorum. Courtney and Aras scream at each other. Shane stalks around like the Not-Quite-Grim-But-Really-Annoying Reaper. Danielle realized that she has a source of power and influence, apart from the two obvious ones. And Cirie chuckles to herself. I haven't seen camaraderie like this since the cast of Clue.

And off to tribal council. They really make it look like Bruce and Danielle might switch - we even see Bruce writing an "A" - but no soap. Austin's gone, Terry didn't give him the Immunity Idol, Austin doesn't seem to realize that he's been totally submarined by Terry's "leadership". Get a good last look at Sally next week, is all's I'm gonna say.