"I'd like to talk about anything other than Survivor."

While episode two of Survivor 27 didn’t have the same punch as the first episode, it was still a pretty good one. We had a Colton meltdown (he came here to play Survivor, not Red Rover, in case anyone was wondering), serious strategy on Tadhana, a power alliance forming on Galang, and an epic first boot.

So let’s not bury the lead. Rupert Boneham, four-time Survivor contestant, did not follow in the footsteps of Boston Rob during his fourth outing. Instead of winning it all, he was walking out of the game with the honor of “first boot.” Who saw that coming? Certainly not Rupert, who promised us last week that “time after time after time” he would win, until he could reenter the game.

The Redemption Island duel was emotional, as expected. John Cody cried, and Candice winked at him to let him know everything was going to be OK. Tina, Laura M., Kat, and Monica all cried when they saw their loved ones hadn’t been voted out. And Gervase kind of shrugged and told Marissa “handle your biz” when given the chance to switch with her, but not before promising Brad Culpepper and crew that he was going to keep winning immunity challenges, and keep rubbing salt in their wounds.

The duel (if you can call a three person competition a “duel”) really seemed to favor the female competitors. It required patience, balance, and accuracy—three things Rupert was really lacking. Before Rupert’s stack fell, he was rushing through the challenge. His thoughts were never on just staying in the game, but instead on beating Candice so he could get Laura that idol clue. His cockiness and certainty that he could not lose is really what cost him this challenge, where he had a huge lead on Marissa and could have easily finished in second place.

Candice actually couldn’t lose this challenge. She was a woman on a mission, and was completely unfazed by anything going on around her. I am in no way a Candice fan, but man—she was impressive during that duel. Her time on Redemption Island has turned her into a stone-cold assassin, and I am not gonna lie—I was almost rooting for her.

So, Candice kicked some ass, and we were left to watch Rupert compete against Marissa, while Laura B. and Gervase just so happened to be seated next to each other watching along with us. Gervase cheered on his niece, while Laura teared up watching the downfall of her husband.

So, Marissa will continue on another week (much to my surprise), Candice got to give her hubby a clue to the immunity idol, and Rupert said goodbye to his wife, leaving the Boneham Survivor legacy in her hands. I am sure he was not thrilled about this.

At least one person still in the game was thrilled with the outcome of Redemption Island, and that was Dr. John Cody. With the clue to the immunity idol and his decision to “be private about it,” John guaranteed himself a lot of airtime this week, along with the strong possibility that he is about to have a serious downfall. But a little more on John later.

While John was busy worrying about his idol clue and his wife’s fate in the game, Vytas was busy becoming the strategic mastermind of the Brolliance. Culpepper may be the face of it, but it is now clear that Vytas is calling the shots. He suggests voting out Rachel, in the hopes that Tyson would swap out with her at Redemption Island, seriously weakening the Galang tribe. Now, I don’t honestly think there is the slimmest chance that Tyson does this. He is in a good position to go far into the game, and even being a challenge beast—Redemption Island is very risky. But Vytas still gets points for considering all the options, and coming up with an idea that is very outside of the box. If it works—he is brilliant. And if it doesn’t, losing Rachel isn’t the worst thing ever for the Tadhana tribe.

Vytas Baskauskas: Strategic Mastermind

In the meantime, Rachel is trying her best to bond with the guys, under the correct assumption that the woman of Tadhana are on a sinking ship. She doesn’t want to go down with it, so strategizing with Ciera and Katie is pointless. Ciera may disagree, but in all truth, Rachel has the right idea. And if it wasn’t for Tyson, her attempt to bond with the Brolliance probably would have bought her at least six more days on the island.

While Tadhana was busy strategizing and trying to figure out what needed to be done in order to weaken the Galang tribe, Galang was busy doing anything other than worrying about the game. In fact, they were busy giving each other massages, and cuddling by the fire. 

This Rotu-like love tribe was working out well for everyone on it—well, almost everyone. Because Colton Cumbie has no interest in love, or kumbiyah, or Red Rover. He wants to play the game of Survivor, and somehow in Colton’s mind, playing the game of Survivor translates to acting like a complete psychopath. So much for Colton’s redemption story. So much for being a back stabber that changed his ways. After three days of being almost likeable, Colton is back to his old tricks.

He said that Laura wanted to vote out Gervase, Tyson was against Monica, and Aras definitely wanted Gervase gone. He told Kat “you’ve gotta calm down or you’re gonna be in that duel,” when she tried to help him by letting him know his over-strategizing was scaring people off. Tina just had to sit by and watch while Colton attempted to throw Kat under the bus, and basically berated her when all she was trying to do was keep Colton from self-destructing. He is convinced that chaos is what he needs to somehow take charge of the tribe, without ever stopping to realize the fact that he is playing with returnees. He tells us, “These people need to experience tribal council and realize this is a game!” Newsflash, Colton. They all have. And most have experienced a lot more tribal council then you have. I think they know what they’re doing.

After all his insanity, Colton also has the audacity to say “everyone is being super sketchy and I don’t know why.”

Let me tell you why: everyone thinks Colton is the “gay Russell Hantz,” and they are now forming an alliance against him. One that includes Monica Culpepper, who Colton thought was his ally. Galang now has a majority alliance that consists of former winners Tina and Aras, along with Monica, Gervase and Tyson. This clearly leaves Colton on the outside, and a likely first boot for the Galang tribe when they lose immunity. Suddenly Laura Boneham doesn’t seem to be at the bottom on the totem pole anymore—it’s Colton Cumbie.

The immunity challenge was another close one that came down to Gervase versus Hayden in a skeet ball competition, after both tribes finished the more physical part of the challenge neck and neck, and Katie redeemed herself for a poor performance last week by really leading the team and helping them to take a slight lead during the first part. 

In the end, Gervase managed to just beat out Hayden and bring immunity to Galang once more (along with taunting Brad by yelling out “Marissa!!” after he sealed the deal). Kat stared at her boyfriend teary-eyed, not realizing there is a Tadhana Brolliance, and Hayden just gave her a wink. Hayden could’ve just stood there not even attempting to win the challenge and he still wasn’t going to go home.

Vytas had already come up with the plan to vote out Rachel, and although the producers tried to give us a red herring (voting out John in case he had the idol), it was pretty clear what was going to happen at Tribal Council. But the time leading up to Tribal gave us some good information.

John trying to go against the Brolliance’s plan showed that his loyalty is not to the five guys—but it isn’t to Rachel either, as Vytas speculated. John is loyal to his wife. He wants to have “as many weak people around Candice as possible.” Clearly, this would not include Tyson. And worrying about what is going on at Redemption Island instead of on his own tribe will cause problems for John in the future. His hesitancy to completely open up to his tribe has not gone unnoticed. To put it simply: “Right now, John is with the five guys. We’ll see how long it stays that way.”

We also got to see strategy from someone I was convinced would be a nonentity in this game—Ciera. Upon being told that Rachel was going home, but Rachel would think it was Ciera, she decided it was just a little too risky for her game. She made it clear to not only her main ally, Katie, but to the boys as well that John was aligned with Rachel, and couldn’t be trusted. Especially since he had the idol clue. So rather than take the chance that John would save Rachel with an idol and Ciera would be sent packing with only one vote against her, she and Katie voted against John (much to his complete and total shock). Yes, she was showing her cards a little early. But I liked the fact that she was thinking about all possible scenarios, and I think her insistence that Dr. John could not be trusted on top of the fact that the guys were already suspicious of him might really help her to get a little further in the game. Even if it’s only an extra three days.

And with that, Rachel joined Marissa and Candice at Redemption Island (making sure to tell Candice that people also voted against John). It’s not looking good for Rachel in this game, and my bet would be that Tyson sticks with his tribe (I don’t care what the editors are trying to make us think in the scenes for next week, he is not going to switch), and Rachel loses the duel. Then Tadhana has a pissed off Tyson going against them, and they have weakened their team (even if it was only slightly) but voting off the strongest of the three girls.

So whose stock has risen this week, and whose has gone down?

Week 2 Winners

 Laura Boneham is not going to win Survivor 27. But between Colton’s meltdown, and Rupert’s elimination, she probably isn’t going to be Galang’s first boot either. Upon returning to camp after watching her hubby lose the duel, Laura stayed positive. “I’m surprisingly OK. It’s a little bit of a sense of relief. I don’t have to worry about him,” she explained to her tribe. “It’s gonna empower me.” And in addition to being empowered, Laura also realized that not having a partner in the game makes her a valuable ally for someone. She is not going to be able to run to someone on the other tribe at the merge. All she has is the relationships she establishes on Galang. And if she can prove to be an asset and a swing vote, why get rid of her? She is alright at challenges, she hasn’t had an epic meltdown like Colton, and in addition to him there has also been talk about voting out Kat early. No one has mentioned voting out Laura. She may be in a minority, but at least she has bought herself some time before she joins Rupert at Ponderosa.

Gervase also goes from being a Week 1 Loser to a Week 2 Winner. In the three days after he almost drowned, almost lost his team immunity, and then celebrated Galang’s victory making his niece a target, Gervase has made some big strides. First, Marissa didn’t lose her duel. She still might hate her uncle’s guts, but she’s still in the game, and Gervase is the only ally she really has. In addition to Marissa, now Gervase also has a real alliance of his own—a majority alliance at that. So even a poor performance at a challenge won’t threaten his game anytime soon. Besides, Gervase made up for his lousy swimming (as best as he could anyway) by kicking ass at skeet ball, and beating out Hayden for an immunity win. All in all, a good episode for Gervase Peterson.

But the castaway with the best episode is yet again Vytas Baskauskas. Last week he was sharing personal stories and making a connection with everyone on his tribe. This week he was taking control of the Brolliance (while still letting Brad seemingly be the leader) and coming up with some big strategy plays not only for this vote out (Rachel in the hopes Galang will lose Tyson), but for future ones (John, who is no longer trustworthy and may or may not have an immunity idol next time they have to go to tribal). Vytas is clearly running the show at Tadhana, but he is doing it in a way that he seems to be well-liked by everyone, and he is covering all his bases. Vytas is playing a strong game, and should be able to continue calling the shots up until the merge.

Week 2 Losers

We have to pay homage to our tie-dyed friend, Rupert Boneham. Love him or hate him, he is a huge part of Survivor history. He is also now the only person to win a million dollars without winning the game (America’s Tribal Council) and one of only three people who did not quit or leave due to medical reasons that left the game without ever having gone to Tribal or having a vote cast against them (along with Wanda and Jonathan from Survivor: Palau). None of this can really help Rupert’s Survivor legacy. I would also assume (and hope!) that it’s the last time we ever see Rupert play this game—what a way to go out.

After this week, John Cody may not be far behind Rupert. His decision to keep the idol clue private, and then speak against his alliance when they came up with the plan to vote out Rachel really hurts his chances in the game. The second Candice gave John the clue to the idol, his downfall had begun. It may play out over a couple of episodes, or it may end next week, but John’s game is in serious jeopardy. The guys can easily vote him out the next time they go to Tribal and keep the majority, so why wouldn’t they? No one trusts him anymore, and they can’t take the chance of him finding that idol and using it to blindside them. Better off to blindside him first and let him go be with the only alliance he cares about—his wife over at Redemption Island. I know this game changes week to week, but as of now I would put my money on Dr. John Cody being the next person voted out from the Tadhana tribe.

But Colton Cumbie obviously takes the title for Biggest Loser of episode two. I am not sure if Colton is bad at this game, emotionally unstable, insane, delusional, or all of the above. He is on a tribe that keeps winning, and he actually even had two people (Monica and Kat) looking out for him. Instead of taking his luck and keeping his mouth shut, he was actually trying to cause chaos on the tribe. I don’t know why Colton wanted to come back on Survivor to play like this. He was hated before the season began, and none of this is making him look any better. I am actually ashamed that I was excited to see Colton play this season, because I thought we were going to get an upgraded version that learned from his poor game play the last time. Clearly, I was very, very wrong. When I am watching Colton run around and try to turn people against each other while the tribe actually had immunity, I am embarrassed for him. Clearly, Colton is not long for this game. I was actually praying Galang would lose immunity so they could vote him out this week but alas—no luck.

And with that, I am done rambling about episode two.

Does Colton become the most hated Survivor of all time by quitting next week? And if so, what the hell happens with poor, normal Caleb? Will Tyson switch places with Rachel? Is Candice about to go on an Ozzy-like run of domination at Redemption Island?

We shall see!