Survivor retro rewatch: Gabon episode 4, “This Camp Is Cursed”

I wouldn’t want to be on the Fang tribe, either, except for exactly one moment that helps explain the understated beauty of Survivor Gabon.

Our tribes were emphatically shaken up in our last episode of Survivor Gabon, but one constant remains; Fang just falling apart at the seams. It’s like a metronome that persists throughout the early game, but rarely do tribes just implode on such a public level that someone was close to not competing in a challenge.

Before we get too far ahead of ourselves, Sugar finds herself stuck with Fang after coming back from Exile Island. The majority want to get her out because they’re fairly sure she has the Hidden Immunity Idol. It’s your classic Survivor heavy-strategy lead, one where you’re fairly certain that whatever someone says before the opening credits won’t happen.

Thankfully, though, this episode of Survivor Gabon has plenty of character-building moments. Randy has to tone down his crankiness as he tries to blend in with his new Kota tribe, while the rest are picking up electric eels and relaxing. Meanwhile, Matty from the Fang tribe stumbles upon a wild elephant in the distance, bringing everyone together for a pristine moment as they enjoyed the bounties of Earth’s last Eden.

While Fiji is a wonderful place, having it as the location for the past two seasons and the next two seasons does put a damper on emphasizing the locale. After a certain point, you have to hide the fact that tribes are camped up in repeat locations, especially when you can find situations where players from one season find fake Hidden Immunity Idols from another season. You don’t get as many moments of pure joy now as you did in Survivor Gabon.

Onto business; Fang had a challenge to lose. The Reward Challenge saw tribes pass fruit to each other, throwing it over a fence and away from a member of the opposing tribe swatting it away. It was just a two-pound difference between the tribes, with Randy doing his best to dive for huge fruit as the 6’2″ athlete, Crystal, could barely swat anything away.

The minute the challenge is over, it’s laughs, fun and food for Kota (plus Sugar), as everything seems to go their way. Meanwhile, in the Legion of Doom(ed tribes), Fang encounters one of their biggest difficulties yet; the deadpan comedian.

It’s rice-eating time (Randy’s not there to stop them), and G.C.’s talking about everyone can eat their two grains of rice. As flippant as he says that, as G.C. cools his portion down, Crystal responds with, “Eat your rice.” It’s clearly meant as an offhanded comment, but G.C. sees it as an affront to his personal character that someone tells him what to do.

So how does he unwind and play his social, strategic game that every Survivor player needs? He goes for a paddle and leaves his tribe behind. Seriously, they’re shouting at the top of their lungs, expending energy before a crucial Immunity Challenge to bring him back and he swoops in with the canoe so they can try to avoid voting out one of their own.

It’s easily one of the most bizarre player moves in Survivor history, as it bends the line of “wait, I can do that?” that goes into future players’ minds. It certainly earned him no favors, and Fang was a little downtrodden ahead of one of my favorite challenges of the season.

Players would throw gigantic balls of their own tribe’s color down a hill in an attempt to score a point in one of several multi-point nets. A caller per team would then send directions to players holding up shields near the bottom, trying to block opponents’ balls from scoring.

We obviously know how this ends, but it’s the rambunctious Randy that makes one of the more compelling challenge moves of Survivor history. This challenge was actually close, and Fang only lost it for two reasons. One; Sugar returned from the Exile Island Sugar Shack and despite all that energy obtained from mangos and pineapples, she made very few callouts to Ace in attempts to block shots.