Survivor retro rewatch: Cook Islands episode 2, “Dire Strengths and Dead Weight”

Survivor: Cook Islands went to a familiar well to dominate its second episode, “Dire Strengths and Dead Weight,” but it made quite a bit of sense.

Why does Survivor tell this social story in pretty much every season? Well, that’s because it usually happens. The show puts the cast together. The cast doesn’t put itself together. People don’t always get along. Besides, production wants to put somewhat … interesting people in. Would you want to watch a show populated by people who get along perfectly? The answer to that is no. Watching people clash makes for good TV. Cook Islands is no different.

In the recap of the premiere, Survivor emphasized the negative impressions Flicka, Sekou, Billy, and Cao Boi made on their tribes. As Sekou left, that left three people on four tribes who hadn’t quite made it work in the first three days.

Time for the camp life assessments! Day 4 on Hiki saw them still trying to make fire with the flint Probst had given them after Tribal Council. Sundra did not actually make the fire (this will pay off in … 13 episodes). Rebecca did, though, and as the happy music played, Hiki set some water to boil.

More from Surviving Tribal

Over on Aitu, everyone banded together for food-gathering. We remember that Ozzy’s good at it (bolstered by his latest appearance on Game Changers), but J.P., Cristina, Cecilia, and Billy all went out with him. And then came chicken-catching. He and Cristina didn’t agree on how to catch the chickens, but they caught a chicken all the same.

Later, the rest of Aitu singled out Billy, since he mostly tried to “conserve energy.” If you have seen any of Ozzy’s seasons, you know this is the possibly the fastest way to get on his bad side. He pitched losing immunity to everyone else to get rid of Billy. Cristina balked.

Puka also captured chickens, thanks to Yul patiently trapping them. Now, Survivor likely would have shown this anyway, but it also established some of Yul’s character. He also started building an alliance with Becky. But enough foreshadowing! In the second look in, the rest of Puka didn’t approve of Cao Boi telling jokes about ethnic groups, pointing out the idea of representation again.

Finally, we got a couple looks at Raro. Jonathan made his return and put the rest of his tribe to work… well, at least Flicka (Jessica) tried. Adam did not take kindly to it, and his new buddy Candice warned him. Put a pin in that all, too.

The show spotlighted each tribe reading part of the clue for the challenge. This challenge combined a Jeff Probst story (although there was also a book version to refer to), an obstacle course, and being belted together. J.P. sat out for Aitu, which was basically a sign that the plan was a go. Raro and Puka sat out Adam and Jenny, respectively.

Would modern Ozzy throw a challenge to take someone out for lack of work ethic? Probably not, but here, it’s pretty obvious. Probst literally said, “Aitu is having a holiday,” at one point. Production showed plenty of shots of Ozzy just smiling as he casually untied knots.

Puka and Raro both took the reward of two tarps because the challenge ended in a tie, but Hiki also won immunity. Aitu sent Yul off to Exile, and Billy and Candice … shared a moment? She said “we love you,” he said “I love you,” and we all thought it would end there. It did not end there, but that’s more foreshadowing.

But first, a brief Exile interlude. Yul had exactly two clues to use here. With nothing better to do, he searched, and he found this final four, playable after the votes. The scene ended with Yul sitting on the prow of the shipwreck, looking quite pleased with himself. What a shot, eh?

Billy talked to Cristina over on Aitu, and Cristina went to Cecilia, trying to pull her over as well. Ozzy, though, saw what was happening, and he actually read the situation well. He didn’t quite have a handle on what everyone thought of him, but he did read that.

At Tribal Council, Probst didn’t really have to work too hard to get Aitu’s members to admit they’d deliberately lost the challenge. Or to get Billy to talk about Candice.

Probst had many faces in response to that. This is a good one, though:

Still from Survivor: Cook Islands episode 2 (2006). Image via CBS.

And so, Probst asked questions about this development, as a good reality host does. Some offered neutral answers (Cristina). Some did not (J.P.).

Billy took four of a possible four votes, Ozzy took Billy’s vote, and Billy left the game.

Next: Who are the best athletes to play Survivor?

Episode 3 will turn its attention back to Raro and Puka after Aitu got most of the attention this time around.