Before this vote, Bethany was a prime candidate for Survivor's grand prize. The 21-year old corporate wage slave brought a savvy mix of smarts, interpersonal skills and the `sweet sister’ card to the island. But Survivor is not a game best played by drawing attention to oneself. And Beth's odd personality quickly marked her for expulsion.
As the others were attempting to gather food or catch fish, she gathered the group together for a family meeting. "What you doing, guys?" she asked them. Then she paused and looked at her fellow tribe members. "You crack me up!" She laughed heartily at her own joke, never realizing that she wasn’t doing a very good job of `flying below the radar’, the strategy she came to the island with.
"The fascinating aspect of this week's program is Bethany’s struggle," notes Executive Producer Mark Burnett. "She's a successful woman back home in America, used to having her husband do her bidding without question. But on the island marital status has no meaning. How you come across as a person counts much more. Bethany struggles with that, then comes to accept it. And while she was actually eager to leave the island after just two days, by the time she gets voted off she's sad about having to go."
This troubled castaway was selected for the show due to his unpredictability, as well as his genetic relationship to the others. He’s quick to change his mind, but stubborn while he favors an idea. Nevertheless, he is intelligent too, and enigmatic. Born in New Jersey, he’s lived in more places than you have fingers. This easily uprooted young man could be the dark horse to bet on, if he doesn’t trip himself up in his own schemes first.
The siblings studied each other, trying to evaluate who might have the advantage in a contest like this. Eddie was well known for eating anything that moved. He also took a perverse pride in enjoying foods that the mere thought of ingesting would cause normal people to vomit. Eric’s strength lay in the fact that he spent well over two and a half years living in Asia, and claimed to like the food `as long as it’s not spicy’. Bethany was a cultured world traveler, willing to try anything once, or twice. Kevin had already eaten a worm or two in an apple. And Gregory, well, he vowed to give it the old elementary school try.
Every participant was given a squirming larvae. Eric took one look at it, blanched, and took off the immunity amulet he had won three days ago. “Forget it.” So the contest was to be between the four remaining kin. Gregory chewed the bug up and spit it out. “It bit me!” he howled. "Awww... did da widdle buggy hurt Greggy?" smirked Kevin. "Shut up, Kevin!" frowned Greg.
Kevin then chewed and swallowed, and immediately felt the Butok come back up. He began to dance around making… strange sounds, alarming a great many people present, but nobody really wanted to get close enough to check him out.
The contest now hinged on only two of the five who came to the table. It was down to a duel between Eddie and Bethany. Would either turn out to be as squeamish as the rest? Or could they both eat the worms completely?
Bethany was eating bugs for her very island existence. Eddie was eating them for fun. It was no contest. Although Bethany performed amazingly, munching down two robust Butok's in mere seconds, she was no match for the amazing Eddie. He lifted seven bugs into the air, tilted his head back so his throat was totally open, then dropped the squirming critters straight into his stomach. Done. And he went back for more. And more. And more, even eating a passing insect that wasn’t on the menu.
Eddie had easily won the challenge. He smiled, stuck a Butok up his nose, and celebrated the win.
His siblings tried to ignore him.
Perhaps the smartest strategy to date has been that of Kevin, the unemployed bum from Raritan, NJ. "I'm going to be too much fun to be voted off!" he announced before being marooned on Pulau Tiga. So far, it's worked just fine. His demented noises and dancing at the bug contest sure had people laughing at him.
For all the weight castaways are losing (Eric lost twenty pounds in six days, and now resembles a thin, balding Ally McBeal), most of it has been through sweating. The 85-90 percent humidity is stifling.
Perhaps that's why many of the tribe's members spend more time lying in the shade or sleeping than building a viable shelter or searching for food. “Or maybe they just like lying on their butts all day,” theorized Eric.
Their shelter’s crude palm frond A-frame is functional but cramped. At high tide, water comes near, but doesn’t reach its foundation. Somewhere, sore loser Brian is thinking, and thinking, `I never should have moved that shelter up the beach.’
The same held for Eddie and Eric on Pulau Tiga. Eddie was the older, stronger, though less-intelligent, male who sought from day one to control the tribe's actions. Eric had a similar agenda, but chose to work behind the scenes and pick off those he considered a threat. The two men had their disagreements, but nevertheless did share a moment together before hiking to tribal council. Listen to what Eddie had to say to Eric at this meeting.
The question is, in a game where charisma, strategy, and physical strength make a person a potential winner, will his fellow tribe members realize how dangerous Eric is and vote him off because he's obviously the biggest threat?
1 vote for Gregory
Bethany Eick voted for Gregory. “He’s vulnerable. Kevin will probably vote for him again, and Eric told me he was going to vote for Greg. You can always trust a Dancing Foot!”
1 vote for Eric
Eddie Eick voted for Eric. “Ha ha! Isn’t this great?!?” he chortled.
When the tally came up and Bethany realized she had been betrayed, she turned wide eyes towards Eric.
Eric merely shrugged, and had this to say to the other Dancing Foot.
I'll tell you what, there was a moment a few days ago, that if I would have had a cell phone, I would have called in a boat to take me off the island. But I actually came to like this place the last few days. I don't want to leave, but I have to. I’ll take it out on Andrezj when I get home.
I really enjoyed being with all of these people very much, all but one of them. I hope his toes fall off. I guess I'm mostly happy about being voted out, and I think they needed for me to be gone, because now they can just slug it out without me complaining that it might encourage violence towards women.
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Updated 26 Feb 01