Yes, they received at the RC from EP5 a pot to boil water in, a shower, 2 portable water jugs, raincoats, scrub brushes and soaps/shampoos. The raincoat Osten is wearing IS the same that they won last night.

Kathy Obrien fan for life

Interesting that both challenges show Christa and Andrew. No one else is shown in the RC but these two. And we only see the Morgan boys with no weight on thier poles. Does Christa out last the Morgan boys or is this misdirection. Shawn is the only one that they do not show, maybe he is the one that wins this for them.

Betrayl shots...is this after they lose IC or is this a mutual agreement after the last TC with Shawn telling Rupert he wants to stick with him til the end.

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Maybe the betrayal is on Shawn's part. It's been discussed a lot that Rupert does not make it to the merge. (If there is going to be one) I couldn't imagine how Rupert's booting would come about, but maybe Shawn engineers it. Rupert is out for Shawn; he would have gladly got rid of him last night instead of Michelle if the rest of the tribe would have gone along with it. Maybe Rupert doesn't do as well as expected in the IC with the sandbags, he possiblly thinks, like Sandra did in Ep 5, that because it was his fault they lost IC he would be likely to go. Rupert comes up to Shawn to talk about the voting. Shawn agrees with Rupert that it will be the two of them all the way and Rupert has nothing to worry about. Then Shawn talks to the others about booting Rupert while they still can before they merge. Rupert gets booted. It could go along with the title, "Me and My Snake" we all think that the title refers to Balboa, but maybe it refers to Shawn as well.

To tear my own theory apart, I would like to say I don't know how Shawn could talk Trish, Christa and Sandra into voting off Rupert. Unless he said something like Rupert's physically in danger and he should be booted for his own good or something. I don't know, just a thought

Another thought: Maybe Rupert feels "betrayed" by the tribe he's taken care of when they vote him off. The "big regret" could come about when the tribes find out there is no merge and without Rupert they continually lose challenges.

I don't believe this could be the Big Regret. JP says they will probably regret it more when it's shown on tv. Obviously, one would think they would regret booting Rupert more during the game (if they find out no merge) vs. months afterwards.

I'm just not buying a Rupert boot just yet. He seems to be in a solid alliance with Shawn or Jon as the next clear boot. It also doesn't makes sense that Michelle would have hard feeling about Rupert if he joined her at LL in 3 days.

Six days to convince me otherwise.

It would seem to me it would be blatantly unfair to just pile on weight for all the contestants at the same rate, so my guess would be something associated with body weight -- the more you weigh, the more bags you have to balance. This being the case, Rupert would be at a disadvantage, even though he's the strongest. Christa may be the strongest per lb of the women, so she'd be the choice for the third, since Jon MIGHT outweigh her, and because his little chicken legs couldn't hold up anything.

I agree with Veruca, that this would be a contest Osten should win, as technique very much comes into play.

As for the betrayal, it looks to me as if Jon and Shawn come up with a plan to oust Rupert. Maybe the fight between the two is staged, making Shawn tell Rupert 'The Big Lie' about the alliance being broken, when in fact it's intact. Remember Jon is a pro wrestler, so he's trained to stage fights.

How exactly this works I'm still figuring out... but here's a possibility: Jon/Shawn realize the alliance between Rupert/Trish/Christa is a threat, and obviously they can't beat Rupert at anything, so they try to take out the leader, figuring the minions would follow. They know they're in danger of being picked off, so they stage the fight, each then trying to appeal to opposite ends of the tribe. Jon goes to Christa and Trish. Shawn to Sandra and Rupert.

Shawn swears allegiance to Rupert (thus the handshake), when in fact he's setting him up. Jon tells Christa and Trish Rupert did something or said something and convince them that he's a threat going into the merge. Shawn tells Sandra and Rupert that Christa and Trish are planning on voting out Sandra, so they need to join forces and vote out Jon.

So Rupert and Sandra vote for Jon. Shawn and Jon vote for Rupert. Christa and Trish are confused, so vote for Rupert? Or one votes for Rupert, the other Shawn... either way, Rupert goes!

Kind of a leap there at the end, but it would explain a bunch of things -- the big lie, the big regret (uh oh, we can't win anything without Rupert), the betrayal, and the resurrected pelican. huh?

How exactly this works I'm still figuring out... <snip theory>... either way, Rupert goes!

Acawap, I'm liking this theory. Something like this will probably happen. It also jives with the title Me and my snake. Being referenced in a Survivor episode title is rarely good. Especially with the Rupert as "Everyone's hero" story arc winding down. The episode title could apply to Rupert and his actual pet snake, Rupert and his buddy Shawn, or Shawn and Jon. Anyway you look at it, it doesn't look good for Rupert. Especially with Trish saying "Rupert has lots of power." This could also be the start of "the big lie."

I hesitate to jump to conclusions regarding that picture. Here we are being shown two men shaking hands, two men who are not in an alliance obviously coming to some agreement about something with the big words BETRAYAL. Leading us down the path of Shawn doing something to betray Rupert somehow

Do we dare buy into this as truth?

We also have another picture - Scrawn vs. Brawn with Jon and Shawn leading us down the road of Jon vs. Shawn in terms of who may be next to go?

Do we broach this one as gospel?

We are being put down the path of Jon vs. Shawn as the logical boot scenario but SOMEHOW Shawn and maybe others manage to betray Rupert and perhaps even engineer Rupert's boot. However, the possibility is also Rupert is agreeing to Shawn's suggestion and Rupert will betray Shawn (Remember, Rupert did in effect do the same thing to Burton)

I am suggesting that we look at what we know first THEN move on to covert stuff as stuff comes in during the week.

Why would Rupert be agreeing to something Shawn says as if SHAWN is holding more cards than Rupert? Rupert should have no fears in being the next off. Normally "pleas" or "how abouts" or "scenarios" broached to others by someone is made by people who feel they need to do this. I'm more interested in exploring the possibility that Shawn is going to Rupert much like Michelle did to suggest Rupert's aid in keeping Shawn over Jon. How do we know the betrayel is not, in fact, Rupert's betrayal and like his deal with Burton has no intention of honoring it?

Let's look at this bad boy carefully folks

(I"m also basing this on Michelle's less than happy impression with the likes of Rupert and Christa and her positive feelings towards Jon and Shawn as well. Her palpable negativity towards Rupert may be a result of Rupert being someone who assisted directly in misleading and booting Burton as well as perhaps someone else)

LAST EDITED ON 10-17-03 AT 04:27 PM (EST)

Nevermind- I thought his shirt in one of the vidcaps was an injury!!!

It's not.

I saw the red mark on Rupe's shoulder on the vidcap, and it looked like it might just be his tie-dye tank top. Then I went back and watched the tape of EP5, it was on his shoulder then. He may have chafed his shoulder while helping Morgan rebuild their shelter, in any case it is a pre-existing mark.

Agree, VS, we need to be careful with this. It doesn't have to be either one of these two betraying the other.

The Betrayal? caption overlaid on this cap, with the question mark, makes me think that whatever this handshake is about could involve Rupert "betraying" someone in his alliance -- or pretending that he is going to.

Or it could be Shawn, too, but as you say Rupert is holding more cards than Shawn right now.