survivor philippines: palau: airai reigns supreme, justine voted off

here is a recap of survivor philippines: Palau's first week. the show started off with the castaways being fetched fofrom their homes. they have a limited time to pack and they need to go with the staff to palau immediately. the emotions were high since some of them have not yet said goodbye to their loved ones. this part reminds me so much of the first episode of pinoy fear factor. i think they could have had a special primer where they showed this just like last season where the castaways were introduced during a special sunday show rather than during the first episode.

upon arrival at the island, they were greeted by paolo bediones. he then asked the two oldest castaways to step forward. it was cris and carol. cris was assigned in airai and carol was assigned to koror. they will pick tribes. males will pick female members and vice versa. so the final tribes were:

airai: cris, amanda,mika, jef, vlad, troy, shaun, maya
koror: carol, justine, echo, tara, marvin, louie, suzuki, charles

then they were off to the first challenge. they were asked to navigate the island using a map. they should follow the marked path and avaoid going to the areas marked with red exclamation points. they will carry with them 2 heavy crates containing their supplies. the first tribe to get to the other side of the island wins and will take home to their camp the supplies. the losing tribe will take only the bolo. the race was pretty much even at the start with airai working as a team a little better. but it was obvious in the end that airai had better communication skills than koror, giving them the edge and eventually winning the race. so airai takes the supplies and koror settles for the bolo.

at camp, both tribes made shelter upon their arrival at the area. airai had ann easy time makinbg their shelter since they divided the labor among themselves and they easily agreed on the area. on the other hand, koror had strong personalities that they had a hard time finishing their shelter. both tribes also found their water supply and their tree mail. that night, both teams attempted to make fire but bothe were unsuccessful. they settled for body heat to warm them up. charles went down with a fever and was helped by his koror tribemates to keep warm.

there was another reward challenge in day 2. here is the mechanics lifted from wikipedia:

The members of each tribe are divided into two: one group of six puzzle seekers and another group of two puzzle solvers. The puzzle seekers, harnessed to each other, enter a partially-submerged maze to retrieve twelve bundles of puzzle pieces and exit through the opposing tribe's entrance. The puzzle pieces are passed to the puzzle solvers, who would untie the pieces and solve the puzzle. First tribe to solve their puzzle wins the second reward.

the reward is a flint so they can make fire.it was a see saw battle in the beginning, with both tribes retrieving the puzzle pieces in the maze. they even tually collected all 12 but it was koror who got out of the maze first, with airai not far behind. it is now up to the puzzle solvers. and in the end, airai's puzzle solvers were better than koror's. so it was airai again winning reward.
at camp, both tribes are now strategizing on who to vote out, despite the fact that the immunity challenge has not taken place. at koror, the guys and the girls are planning for a gender based vote. since the tribe is split into 4 - 4, the guys are planning to get jef to their side while the girls are planning to get cris to their side. in airai, carol's attitude is getting into the castaways nerves and talks of voting her off in the tribal council is intensifying.

then came the immunity challenge. here is the mechanics again from wikipedia:

Each tribe would dig out a stone monolith weighing 250 kg (550 lb) and carry it between two balance beams and over a wall before placing it on its new portal. Once that is done, two tribe members would jump into a sand pit and search for the immunity idol. First person to find the idol wins immunity for their tribe.

if koror wins immunity, they will get their supplies. if airai wins, they will decide if the supplies will be given to koror. at the start of the race, it was koror leading since they got the monolith out of the sand first. airai followed soon and caught up in the balance beam. it was the good teamwork of airai that enabled them to take over the lead. the wall was really a challenge to both teams. but airai proved to be stronger. airai was first to the pit and never looked back. it was shaun who found the immunity idol, giving airai the first immunity. koror did not even passed the wall.

the airai tribe decided not to give the supplies to koror. and their is another twist. the eye of the idol when pulled out turns into a bracelet. this is an immunity bracelet. the winning tribe will decide to whom they will give the bracelet among the losing tribe and that castaway will be safe from the vote. without second thoughts, they decided to give it to carol, who they think is the weakest among the tribe. the second eye of the idol also is an immunity bracelet. paolo got it and said that will come into play in the later part of the game.

back at camp, koror was really disappointed on their loss and they were still talking about the challenge. realizing that they were up for the vote and they cannot vote out carol, two names comes up in the chopping block. first, it was charles for being too relaxed in the challenge and having no "mind power". another name was justine since they were worried if she can still cope up in the next challenges. it was clear that louie, suzuki and marvin has an alliance. the girls (justine, tara and echo) also formed theirs. there was also some drama when charles said to tara's face that he is considering voting her off. tara was so angry that he swore at charles. the macias sisters really speaks their minds out.

at tribal council, justine's identity was revealed. justine is a transgender, a man who underwent operation to become a woman. it was revealed to the koror tribe in day 2 when the suzuki told louie that he thinks justine is gay. louie then told tara and tara told echo. echo was the one who asked justine and she confirmed it. she said that it was a complement that they did not notice it at first.

then came the votes. here are the votes:

charles
justine
justine
justine
justine
justine

5 is enough so justine is the first castway to be voted off this season. the final score is 7 - 1, only justine voted for charles. it was a complete backstab at week 1. justine never saw it coming. she though that everyone was voting for charles.

in the primer for next week, it was shown that justine is not eliminated yet. she was brought to a new island and will live there. and she might be able to join the game again. this is the same concept used in survivor pearl islands where the outcasts (the third tribe) competed in week 7 against the 2 tribes. if they placed first, 2 of them will come back to the game. if they placed 2nd, only 1 can come back. it was burton and lil who rejoined the castaways after the challenge. so

let's see how the philippine version works.

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivor_Philippines_(season_2)