BunkoSquad

Now that it's 6-2, Stacy can revert from helpful, agreeable Stacy to the Ice Queen of Northern Vermont. She says Alex and Mookie, being in the minority, will be lucky to be offered any food. And she will never get her comeuppance! You hear me? NO COMEUPPANCE!

Dreamz goes on an ill-advised goodwill mission to the tattered remnants of his old alliance. "We got outplayed" he tells Alex and Mookie. They nod politely, rather than turn him over to the Brute Squad, which might have been my instinct were I in their shoes.

The Reward Challenge splits them into two teams. Orange: Yau Man, Mookie, Cassandra and Boo. Green: Earl, Stacy, Alex and Dreamz. One of them will slingshot balls out into a sea of mud, where the rest try to catch said balls with lacrosse sticks. I think they're lacrosse sticks, anyway.

There's a lot of pushing and shoving. There's a lot of yelling by Mookie at Yau, as Mookie doesn't think Yau is understanding Mookie's secret signals of where to fling the balls. There's a visit from the medical team, as something in Boo's legs pops and snaps audibly, and he grunts and groans in the mud for a while.

What there isn't is a lot of blurring out of body parts. Without any minx like Parvati or Danielle around, there's no point having this challenge in the mud, as it's mostly an ugly all-male production. Rest assured, I shall be sending a letter to Mr. Probst.

The Green Team wins (Dreamz wins MVP of the challenge). They get a seaplane ride to a spa, with showers, beds, food and many many products from one of the program's fine sponsors. As SurvivorBlog is a non-profit (hint), I won't mention them. They also tab Boo to go to Exile Island, since he's lived at Luxury Beach for most of the game, and he's too hobbled to mount a serious run at the Immunity Idol.

Boo frumps around Exile Island. He reads the first clue to the rehidden Idol, which indicates it's near a tree. He moans and complains, but his heart doesn't really seem to be in it.

The spa trip is pretty boring. Again, the hot tub scene with Parvati and Ozzie last time set the bar pretty high, so we have to be content now with some scenes of them lounging around in robes. Stacy, as gracious as ever, sniffs that it kind of sucks to have Alex around, since he's the prey and she's...well, not the predator, but one of those little birds that flutters around the predator because there's a steady supply of food.

They come back to camp. Alex is fired up! He's ready to bring it! Whatever it is!

Mookie decides the time is right to play his hunch, that Yau Man found Moto's Immunity Idol. He rifles through Yau's bags and his suspicions are confirmed. He and Alex giddily romp into the forest to play Sneaky Petes and discuss how this ill-gotten information can make their Alliance of Two into a full-fledged powerhouse. What I didn't mention earlier is that at the spa, Alex tried to appeal to Earl by talking up his sense of integrity and honor.

The two of them decide that their wisest course of action is to blackmail and strongarm Yau. They'll tell him, either you tell everyone you have the Idol, or we will. Um, OK. Meanwhile, their whole conversation is being sort of overheard by Cassandra and Stacy. The ladies can't hear much of what the dudes are saying, but the dudes are spooked by their audience.

So Mookie and Alex have to get to Yau before the girls do. They find him, tell him they found his Idol while searching his bag, and what is he gonna do about it? Yau cowboys up and says, OK, tell everyone. Mookie and Alex are nonplussed.

Somehow, Yau gets back to camp first and tells everyone what went down. Earl is full of righteous indignation that Yau's pack was searched; Dreamz misses the point entirely and starts ruminating about how the alliance of two can now take charge by possessing information that most of them had already guessed.

Commercials: Is there really a new pirate-themed reality show coming up? Should I blog that? Yarrrr.

The Immunity Challenge is a modified eight-way game of Battleship. Dreamz and Cassandra mistakenly participate in the sinking of their own ships, and Stacy wins by being in the right place at the right time.

Alex and Mookie decide that one of them is certainly doomed, so they're going to raise a little hell at Tribal Council before they go home. It's always a little amazing to watch people conspiring to overplay their hand.

Team Earl is trying to decide which of the Two Remaining Horsemen will go first. Dreamz misses the point entirely and says that Alex is better at collecting firewood, so he should stay. There's support for kicking Alex off now, since he might win a challenge down the road. Boo (!) comes up with the idea of splitting the vote, in case one of them stumbled on the new Immunity Idol or (more likely) picked Yau's pockets.

At Tribal Council, Alex makes a dopey speech about the importance of fair play and trust. Mookie then admits that he and Alex were playing "Amateur TSA" with Yau's packs. Jeff, who didn't just fall off a turnip truck, sees through their Grade-A baloney and calls them on it.

This, I'll remind you, is when Mookie and Alex were planning to "raise a little hell" at the Council. "A little" hell would be a very, very generous assessment of what happened. Cry 'Havoc', and let slip the hamsters of war.

Alex, possessed of a highly-tuned skin-saving gene, must have figured out that Team Earl will be splitting the vote, so he votes for Mookie to tip the scales. Looks like Mookie will be rummaging through sacks at the Statesville Prison from now on.

Next week: Alex is a ninja! There's meat!