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By Gordon Pepper
Reality Editor, StormSeeker.com

So here we are - watching the rise and fall of the Holy Samburan empire. Their only prayer is to win out and go into the merge up 7-3, because anything less than that and its splittsville - and do I mean that literally.

Last week's recap - The old people hate the young people, the young people hate the old people, and Carl doesn't know about ticks, so he's gone - and if the team doesn't win an immunity challenge, another old geezer is gone, since Team Beanie Baby now has control of the tribe.

When our trusty tribe get back to camp, there's tension within the 2 camps, Silas wants everyone to get along and come together, but Lindsey, obviously hurt because the old cronies were targeting her, lashes out at the old people. Frank is visibly upset that its come down to this. Come on Frank, we wouldn't have gotten into this divisiveness if you didn't open your big mouth and tell everyone how the old people were going to target the young'uns. Linda and Teresa are also upset - but it's your fault too, gang - you should have tried to make peace with the kids, instead of rallying behind Frank. By trying to make the killer alliance before even getting to the merge, the old folks are getting what they deserve. Of course, the adults are all pissed at Silas, since he was the person who switched the momentum and allegiances to the young ones. Trying to make up is going as well as trying to heal a wound by pouring battery acid all over it.

Early morning time - and Frank is pissing off the kids by waking them up early - but its not really early - its 30 minutes before the reward challenge - the spider web. There are 12 cooking articles in jars - each in a cargo net. The first team to get all 12 articles first keeps them all - the losing team gets squat.  Silas does his football stance prep talk, which does not impress Linda, who does her aerobic lets be friends speech, which impresses nobody. Linda decides to give Lindsey a hug, which is not the smartest thing to do, since Lindsey would probably prefer Linda to be hugging a lion right about now. Let's face it - these 2 teams are not going to get along, and after Linda's histrionics, its blatantly clear that if my
team loses the immunity challenge, that Linda gets to be sacrificed to please her own gods. Frank is putting on his benedict arnold jacket on, since he is more than willing to jump to the other tribe and take Teresa with him.

But its the divisive Samuburu group that wins the reward challenge - as speed is the key. By eliminating the slow, lumbering Carl, our team's speed easily outpaces Boran and we get all of the jars with the goodies inside - including jelly, rice, soup, cooking mix, olive oil, and more...now lets make sure Brandon doesn't overfeed the young group.

Too bad none of those containers hold much water. We still need fresh water - Frank decides to make life miserable for everyone by waiting for the last minute until all of the water is dry - and then waking up everyone at the break of dawn to get the water. Technically, its a sound move becuase its not really hot yet, but if you don't get enough sleep and your mind isn't working then you are going to make some dumb mistakes - such as shattering the water jugs once we get back to camp, which is what Lindsey does by trying to fix the jugs. Linda is moaning to Frank that they should not have voted off Carl - well if they didn't, then it's probably your butt that gets ejected, Linda.

But we sure could have used him for the Immunity Challenge, which required both teams to move a whole camp over from one side to the other. Keeping the stuff that they moved would have been a cool reward challenge, eh? Linda sits out and Lindsey and Brandon are the people who tell the rest of the group where to position everything, but bad strategy (you have to move the heavy stuff first, while you still have strength, then the light stuff later - or else you'll never get the heavy stuff across) and the lack of Carl's strength does our team in and Boran wins another challenge.

You could easily place Frank's strategy as the dumbass move of the episode. By making life uncomfortable, he is trying to place his importance into the tribe dynamic, but the plan backfires big-time as they lost all of their water containers and strength, due to lack of water, which probably one of the factors that cost them the immunity chalenge. By the way, day 12 was Frank's birthday. Happy birthday, Frank - dumbass.

There really is no suspense on who goes - everyone knows that Linda is toast. What makes this part interesting is the plan on voting - Silas wants everyone to vote for Lindsey so that she is the ony member of the team with votes. Linda ="What's in it for me?" - Well, nothing, because you're going to get burnt, but because Samburu isn't going to say who they're voting off (thought its pretty obvious, editing wise), we all know the adults aren't going to go with the plan - there are 2 strategies that they could use to be mean and vindictive - more on that later...

Silas is doing his best Richard Hatch imitation, as he is trying to manipulate both teams  - 'You can write the check out for me', sorry, Silas, but Richard didn't piss anyone off while he was being manipulative, and you're not making the jury (sorry Jason and the Stormseeker fans, but I think I have inside knowledge on this one) - and the reason why you're not
is because you backstabbed the adults. And as Linda says, 'I don't want to see him win'.

Tribal council time - no big surprise on the questions or answers- though sensitive Lindsey is wondering whether they made the right choice in keeping her, "I'm a walking mistake'. We have 2 bartenders on our tribe, but no shrinks - oh well.

So here come the votes:
SIlas
Silas
Silas
Linda
Linda
Linda
Linda

The voting is on company lines, and Linda does get the boot 4-3. But Silas gets 3 votes against him, which will probably signal him going Iloveyoubuhbye. Obviously the old folks are pissed at Silas for backstabbing them for going to the alliance, but the better play would have been to split the vote so that Kim and Brandon also have votes, and can also be targets for a voting tiebreaker block - not just Silas. Well, maybe the Gods will be appeased now. Linda, in a final shot, says 'play nice' - sure, that's rich, coming from the woman who was causing a ton of tribal unrest to begin with.

To Be Continued...