Survivor retro rewatch: Cook Islands episode 4, “Ruling the Roost”

When a tribe so easily puts together a story like that, Survivor: Cook Islands barely had to exert itself for episode 4, “Ruling the Roost.”

Survivor: Cook Islands had quite the cohesive, relatively self-contained storyline for episode 4 after its premiere and second episode seemed a bit fractured thanks to having four tribes. But after episode 3 brought it back down to two tribes, things got a little easier to read, and episode 4 is perhaps the easiest episode yet of Cook Islands.

Episode 3’s preview talked a lot about Raro, which was probably why the episode 4 recap of episode 3 talked an awful lot about Aitu and the episode actually opened with Aitu, and specifically Ozzy talking about how bad he felt now that Cecilia was out of the game. Then Candice returned and tried to figure out why she’d gone to Exile.

Over on Raro, Survivor was quick to set up the idea of “ruling the roost,” this episode’s name. Parvati brought the term up first, and the show took it and ran with it. That was followed up with the men saying they didn’t see it as terrible that they hadn’t done much work. As J.P. put it, it was because they had more physical strength than Aitu.

At the reward challenge, the tribes had to move two people through a rope course, then do a decoder puzzle. Stephannie sat out for Raro.

Remember how J.P. said Raro was stronger? Yeah, strength is not the only thing in Survivor. Aitu won the challenge on its teamwork (and Ozzy’s swim out to get the decoder). The tribe won the right to send Adam to Exile Island, blankets, pillows, and a hammock.

Just to reinforce Ozzy’s dominance in the water, there was a scene showing him catching 9 fish in a day, implicitly contrasting him with Raro’s men and J.P. in particular in the very next scene. But Nate had a connection with Parvati, and she used that to start talking about J.P.

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To further the contrast, Cao Boi and Jonathan explored a bird’s nest, with Cao Boi knocking a hatchling out of the tree. But they put it back and apologized to the mother bird.

Notably, Survivor didn’t show Adam’s stint on Exile, because it didn’t really matter. There was no idol to be found anyway.

In the immunity challenge, the tribes had to do a rescue challenge, carrying a puzzle stretcher to the beach, swimming out to get one of their players, then carrying that person back and building a fire. Cristina sat out. Probst had to run along with Aitu and Raro, which was pretty funny. Aitu put Ozzy in the water and had Cao Boi build a fire with Becky and Sundra helping as Probst provided snarky commentary. Jenny nicked her thumb for Raro, but Aitu won.

Stephannie offered to fall on her sword, which had people ssurprised, but everyone seemed to agree on sending her home until J.P. went off to relax, leaving an opening for the women to plot. It started with Jenny and Rebecca, but they had willing ears in Stephannie and Cristina to take J.P. out. Their options for a fifth vote? Parvati and Brad.

At Tribal Council, Probst pulled J.P.’s name out from Jenny as being in a top position. He asked Steph about her, Rebecca, and Jenny being in danger about failing to make fire. Brad got a question about trust. So did Parvati. That just about tells the whole story of the episode in miniature, doesn’t it?

J.P. went home in a 7-2 vote, with everyone except Nate and J.P. voting for J.P.

Next: Where does Cook Islands rank among Survivor seasons?

Episode 5 of Cook Islands has one of the strangest moments in Survivor pretty much ever.