Team For Two

Analysis of "Survivor: Palau" Episode Seven, by CBSNews.com's Ellen Crean.

Well, of course, you can always say that sometimes bad things happen to good people. But at this stage of the game, that probably would not comfort the Ulong duo.

Also, if regular viewers of "Survivor" have learned one thing, it is that while it is true that bad things happen to good people, the corollary is: Good things happen to bad people (fill in your own example among "Survivor" winners).

As it stands, Ulong is a tribe of two, while Koror remains intact, except for Willard, who would be there still if an arbitrary twist in the game had not forced his tribe to vote him off.

But at the beginning of Episode Seven, there were still three people in the Ulong tribe (Stephenie, Bobby Jon and Ibrehem), who had just voted James out of the game. Their reaction? It's weird! Want direct proof? Here you go:

Stephenie: "It just feels weird."

Ibrehem: "It's just kind of a weird situation."

Bobby Jon: "Definitely weird."

Over at Koror, Fireman Tom was doing abdominal exercises on the beach and Ian the Dolphin Boy was hauling in a giant clam that would eventually yield seven or eight pounds of protein for the tribe. Then the bloody clam shells served as bait to lure sharks close to shore.

While Gregg and Bobby Jon had no success in snagging a shark, Fireman Tom did. He waded out, whacked the shark with a machete and then dragged it to shore by its tail.

"I guess the next step for me," Ian observed good-naturedly, "is to get a humpback whale."

With a little more acid in his voice, Coby said of Tom, "Now he's the great white shark hunter."

As for Tom himself, he was understandably euphoric: "You can only taunt me for so long before I strike back at you."

Don't worry, fellow Korors. He was talking about the shark. For now.

Do we really need to revisit the Ulong defeats in both the reward and the immunity challenges? The reward itself was not that terrific (three bottles of wine and an assortment of military rations) but it should have been winnable.

The task was to build a distress signal visible from the air. The Ulongs lost mainly because of location, location, location. Their distress signal (simply spelling out "ULONG"), which they built by tearing down their shelter and their bathroom, was too close to the woods to be readily visible from the air.

On the other hand, the Koror competitors (Katie, Gregg and Caryn) knew from the beginning that they needed to pick the right spot for their signal: a nice section of open beach where they used bamboo and coconut to spell "GOT FOOD?"

The immunity challenge called for the tribes to solve a puzzle by shuffling tiles around as they floated in the water. They each received a smaller version of the puzzle beforehand so they could practice.

Under Coby's direction, Janu and Jenn moved the tiles successfully to a solution. The Ulongs started with Bobby Jon directing Stephenie and Ibrehem; ultimately, in an act of desperation, Bobby Jon and Stephenie switched places. But, as host Jeff Probst pointed out, it was too little too late.

And so Koror won its sixth straight immunity challenge.

Koror is riding high right now. But the fact is, the time is coming when its members are going to have to start voting their own out of the game. And if Gregg and Jenn are not careful, they will be among the first to go. Their relationship is making their teammates uneasy, "bringing in a whole volatile emotion that is separate from this game," as Fireman Tom put it.

(To be fair, what was all that "volatile emotion" surrounding the catching of the shark?)

Gregg seems to have some idea that his relationship with Jenn could work against him, saying, "They're going to be suspicious. They're not going to trust us." Not only that but, he adds, "It's tough for me to play a game and be a good date."

For her part, Jenn expresses frustration that Gregg is so "focused" on the game: "I like Gregg a lot, and I think he likes me a lot... We'll just see if he can loosen up a bit."

Right there, a seasoned "Survivor" viewer can see that Jenn is not high on the list of likely winners. If nothing else, if a person is going to win this game, that person has to have the focus that Jenn bemoans in Gregg.

The primary drama in Episode Seven came when Bobby Jon was struggling with his vote. He had a sense of loyalty to Ibrehem, partly because they both hail from Alabama. But he also had promised an alliance to Stephenie, who was on tenterhooks, drily observing, "I should never have gotten myself into a situation with two guys from Alabama."

Well, it could have been worse. Back in Episode Six, she was in a situation with three guys from Alabama, but that changed once they booted James.

Stephenie tried talking to Bobby Jon and to Ibrehem separately, making it clear that she was open for negotiation. She even suggested to Ibrehem that they should both vote for Bobby Jon, taking the deciding vote out of his hands.

Ibrehem did not take her up on that offer, probably feeling fairly confident that Bobby Jon would be as loyal to him as Ibrehem intended to be to Bobby Jon. But it doesn't take much for ethics to be sacrificed to the playing of the game, and in the end, Bobby Jon decided to keep Stephenie.

Next week: Rats (real ones) overrun Kamp Koror, Coby is disgusted by three of his female teammates, and Bobby Jon belches, prompting Stephenie to proclaim that he "is turning into a caveman."
By Ellen Crean