survivor philippines: week 2 immunity challenge

the immunity challenge for the second week of survivor philippines involves each team competing in different match ups. they would race onto one of the 5 circles in the sand and dug up a thai pillow. they would then run to their respective tribe mats. the person or person that would first step on their tribe mat with a hand on the pillow would gain a point for their tribe. first team to gain 5 points wins immunity.

this is the exact immunity challenge that was played in the third episode of survivor panama, more popularly known as survivor exile island. see pictures from that season below (lifted from http://resources.survivorphoenix.com/ )

first match up: jace (jarakay) vs kiko (naak) - kiko was the first one to find the pillow. jace asked kiko for them to battle it out for the pillow. jace was applying his knowledge on fighting was really giving kiko a hard time. kiko was pulling on jace's shorts. jace asked kiko for time to adjust his shorts which was falling down. this repeated several times. on the last time, jace stood up, adjusted his shorts, apologized to kiko and ran with the pillow. kiko was caught off guard because he thought he had a gentleman's agreement with jace. jarakay takes the lead, 1-0.

many can question jace's action, but this is survivor.. never trust anyone. jace simply outwitted kiko. i did not see it as cheating, it was plainly playing the game to your advantage. its a challenge, don't allow your opponents to gain an upperhand.

second match up: veronica and marlon (jarakay) vs cris and zita (naak) - it was naak again who found the pillow. when the pillow was out of the sand, the struggle for the pillow commences. i was really amazed by the fighting spirit of veronica. she was fearless out there. zita also held ground when she tackled veronica when she ran off with the pillow, just before she gets to the tribe mat. cris had a presence of mind to hold the pillow and extend his feet to touch the naak tribe mat. naak ties it up, 1-1.

in this round, the girls were more impressive than the boys. zita and veronica were really giving their all in the challenge. but it was cris' presence of mind that gave naak their point. i am confused on why cris was so emotional on that point. was he crying?

third match up: gigit, john and charisse (jarakay) vs jc, rob and kaye (naak) - same strategy as the previous round, the teams were looking and observing each other while digging. this is the most boring match up, i think. but the boys gave their all in this round. eventually, john gained the point for jarakay after running off and escaping jc and rob's hold. jarakay leads, 2-1

fourth match up: jarakay vs naak - its tribe versus tribe. as expected, it turned out to be a war out there. who was impressive? patani - she is fearless, toppling and fighting all the girls, even trying to release kiko';s hold of the pillow. veronica - she is a fighter, fearless even with blood on her face. rob - a tactitian even on challenges, he tries to talk the other tribe out and even strategizes for his team. honorable mentions go out for zita, charisse, john, kiko, cris and gigit.

the challenge turned into a brawl as the cast aways started to hurt each other, choking and throwng them flat onto the ground. the cast aways were pulled out of the game one by one due to several violations, the ones thrown out were jace, gigit, charisse, kaye and cris. rob eventually was able to escape the jarakay tribe and ran to their tribe mat. but marlon was waiting there and blocked him, hold the pillow and stepped on the mat. with jarakay celebrating, naak complained. the tapes were reviewed and jarakay was eventually named the winner!

the challenge was definitely more exciting as compared to the one done in panama. it was very physical and exciting. it only shows that all of the pinoy castaways are really competitive. vhev was also shown very upset with emer because he has been playing the game dirty and even called him traitor. cris was the one who comforted her but it was evident that she was really upset. will this cause emerson's elimination tonight or will it work the other way around?