< bows to James Barber >

Secret Scene: Sandy

When Sandy decides to sleep underneath the shelter while the rest of her tribe sleeps at the beach, everyone is in for a surprise the next morning

Sydney: I'm gonna take my pillow down to the sand.

Sandy: All of ya'll are going?

Sydney: Yeah, I'm going to try it.

Sydney (solo): Sandy didn't sleep with us, which I thought was kind of strange.

JT: This sand is so much nicer.

Sandy (wrapped under fronds): They all decided to sleep down at the beach. I said, I will freeze if I ain't undercover. I will get cold. I chose comfort instead of staying with the rest of the tribe.

Sydney: I'm not next to Sandy. She snores loud.

(cut to Sandy snoring, then early the next morning)

Spencer: Hey guys, we got sleeping beauty up here, proving why you may not want to sleep under our shelter. I'm not kidding. We saw this and we had to show you guys.

(Sandy runs out covered in dirt, looking like, as JT says, "She got out of a chimney", and everyone laughs)

Sydney (solo): When she got up this morning, she came down there with a smile, and just covered in dirt, and it was hilarious. She didn't care. It was hilarious. I'm starting to like her a lot more than I initially thought I was going to.

JT: You look like you got struck by lightning.

Tribal Council Voting

Find out what each member of the Jalapao Tribe had to say as they cast their votes

Joe (Sandy K): You're one of the toughest and funniest ladies that I know. Good luck. It's been a pleasure.

Sandy (Sydney): I'm giving you my vote because you asked me to. So... (closes parchment)

Stephen ("Mama K"): This may be an enormous strategic blunder, but I think it's the move I have to make right now.

Taj (Joe): I just didn't want to write Mama K's name down so much.

Spencer (Sandy): Overall, you've been great to have around. I appreciate you being a mother figure for the tribe, but lately you've been getting on my nerves quite a bit, and I think it's your time to go. Sorry.

Sydney (Sandy): It's just your time to go.

JT (Sandy with a sad face): Sorry, Mama K. It was just too early to make that move.

Sandy's Final Words

Watch as Sandy reacts to having just been voted out by her tribe

"I'm very proud of myself. I am really elated I got to stay this many days. I wanted to stay a lot longer. If we'd kept winning challenges I guess we'd still be here but I'm definitely proud of my accomplishment."

(cut)

"As far as my tribe was concerned, obviously, it was my time. I think it was too soon. I had a lot more to give and I sure wanted to be here for a long more time. I just hate that it had to be tonight that I go home."

(cut)

"I was like the mother hen over all these little ducks. Anyway, I stayed around a lot longer than I thought I was going to, and of course that was due to winning challenges and so forth. I'm so proud of myself and I know my family will be proud. There's no doubt in my mind that there's not many people that can do this. I'm glad I succeeded, I'm glad I carried through the endeavor at hand. I didn't quit."

(cut)

"From the first day to now, I feel really great, because I was slung out right off the bat, the first day, without anybody knowing me. Then I kind of got in with them, which was wonderful. I told a lot of jokes, I kept them laughing. There isn't too much I won't say or do. They found that out. I had them rolling a little bit. I fit in for the time I was there. For them it was just time for me to leave."

(cut)

"I have something in my bag. Let me get it out. We'll share it with the world. (pulls out idol clue) I wished it had been the real one. It could have looked like the hidden immunity idol, but brother, don't get tore up, it's not. It's just one of the clues. I don't want my brother to get all upset, it's not the hidden immunity idol, it's the clue to the next one. I didn't find it. Here it is. I'm packing it home. (laughs)"

(cut)

"I just want to say this is the most phenomenal experience I've ever had in my life and I'm rest assured I'll never have another experience like this one."

Sandy the Day After

Sandy shares her life-changing experience playing the game of Survivor as well as her philosophies of life

"I don't believe I could have played this game any harder than I did. I played it the way...I was my own self. I played it...I wouldn't change anything. One thing I will take out of my vocabulary, I've said it for years and years and years, and it's an untrue statement. and that is you never get a second chance to make a first impression. That is false. Once we arrived here and Jeff said right off the bat we're gonna vote a member off of each tribe, oh my God, my throat swelled up, I was like, oh man, I'm the old lady, I know they're gonna vote me off. That came true. They wrote, 'Granny,' 'the older lady,' 'the older woman in the pink shirt.' I even jumped their ass and said, 'Why didn't you just put the lady in the pink tank top?'"

(cut)

"I don't feel old. I might be 53 but I felt as though I've got the heart of the 20 and 30 year olds. That was a little offensive, personally, but I played it as good as I could play, and stuck middle of the road pretty much. I was there during the challenges. I was there when I was needed. During the day, in the heat, during the grueling 110, 120, 115 degrees, I kind of laid around at camp and let them do various things, because it was silly for all 8 people to go. Normally I was the one to lay back at camp, but I don't think it hurt me in any way, because I think they understood the age factor."

(cut)

"Being in the game of Survivor, I did learn the mind can take the body wherever it needs to go. If you have that mindset, if you believe, you can acheieve. That is definitely the truest statement I've ever read in my life. I believed and I did achieve, and I played all the days I could play. When I came out, even though I wasn't ready, the game took me out at a time I was at peace. Although I didn't win, and I wanted to win terribly bad. That's why I came in the game. And I believed I could win."

(cut)

"The elements in the game was nothing compared to trying to get into these 20, not very many 30 - I think Taj is 37 - I had it really rough trying to get in with these kids. Everything they said and did and sang and recalled and movies, anything they did, every conversation, I could not relate to any of them. It was pretty brutal. I was outside that circle a majority of the time. Definitely the game of Survivor was hard for me socially. The elements were a breeze, a walk in the park compared to the social game, for me."

(cut)

"I don't think it was smart at all for my tribe to get rid of me. I didn't look at me as a threat, although I wanted to play middle of the road to where I could veer left or right, and when need be, I kind of wanted to caress them like the Mama, like, 'OK, I miss my Mom, she fills that need.' Physically, I wasn't a big threat to them, but in my heart, this game is more mental than anything, and maybe that's where they saw the threat, the mental aspect. I had the mental capacity to play this game to the end. There's no doubt. I was tougher than new nails when it came to that. I was mentally in the game 100%."

(cut)

"I think my family is gonna be so proud of me. There will be zero disappointment. I hope they don't say, 'Oh man, you should've...' That would be a hard statement for a person that's gone through this type of deal to hear from someone who hasn't experienced it. You have no clue what you should have and shouldn't have done. I do. I can say, 'God, I wish I should've...' but there's no way the outside world looking in can say, 'You should have...whatever,' because let me tell you what, there's a lot of shoulda, woulda, coulda."

(cut)

"As a life lesson to my grandchildren, I will tell them they can do anything they can set their mind to, because they can. You really can. You have to focus and keep your eyes on the prize. If you believe, you can acheive. All it takes is all you've got."

Coach Apologizes to Sierra

After admiring Sierra's performance in the immunity challenge, Coach has a change of heart

Coach: I want to spend some one-on-one time with you today. Is that cool?

Sierra: Yeah, no problem.

Coach: Just kind of reconnect. Get back to basics. I wanted to tell you why I kind of got on you there for a couple of days, when I was frustrating you. I just want to kind of talk through that a little bit, cause there was a reason for it, although I could have gone about it a different way.

Sierra: I know. I know how coaches work. I had the same kind of coach. They're hardest on the ones they have the most hope in. (he rubs his hands together) I know that. I did that for seven years. Finally I looked at my coach one day and I was like, "Buh-bye."

Coach: Let's hope you don't do that to me.

Sierra: Obviously not, but I'm just saying I started taking it personally. In the beginning they're like, OK, I know who he is, I know what he's like, but then it gets like why are you sitting me on the bench, putting a 102 pound woman when I'm clearly almost 120 pounds. It was ego hurt. I was like, they think I'm really skinny and weak, alright, how can I change this? OK. Kick ass. (laughs)

Coach: I'll tell you what, you changed it today.

Joe on Sandy's Erratic Behavior

Joe has reached his limit with Sandy's irritating eccentricities at camp

"The other night, Mama K was, the one time she absolutely drove me out of my mind, we were getting the palm fronds on the bed that we'd just elevated off the ground. She was insisting, saying over and over again, repeating it, we should put them left to right, and I wanted them long ways like everyone else did. Finally, after arguing about it for five minutes, she said, 'It's no big deal, just do what you want.' I was like are you kidding me, that was a huge waste of time. I had to walk away and take a little breather for a second. When she repeats stuff, like this morning, it's either late at night when we're tired or early in the morning when we're tired, when she really starts to grind on you. Cause she's going (snaps fingers). Before she goes to bed, she's 100 miles an hour and then she just drops. When she gets up out of bed, she's 100 miles an hour until she drops again. There's no warmup time for her. I'm kind of a warmup guy. I need time in the morning to get going and time to wind down at night."

Coach the Native American

Coach asks Erinn to put a raven's feather in his hair to embrace his Indian heritage

Coach: Take that black feather and put it in my hair.

Erinn: What black feather?

Coach: That black feather right there. Put it in my slipknot.

Debra: Today, or for the next challenge?

Sierra: You tell us when you want it and we'll get it in there.

Debra: You want a feather in your head.

Coach: If you want me to look like an Indian.

Debra: You do look like an Indian.

Erinn: That was the first thing I thought when I saw you, that you look like an Indian.

Debra: Indian or Greek.

Erinn: All about the profile.

Coach: I like that. (they ask what) I like to look Indian. I'm very proud of that part of my family. When I used to have the surfer cut, it was blonde cause I was in the sun surfing every day, it didn't look Indian so much.

(Erinn puts the feather in his hair, Coach thanks her and leaves, and Brendan makes a WTF face)

Coach's Indian Heritage

After putting a feather in his hair, Coach reveals his ancestry as being one of the last Delaware Indians

"My great uncle was the last fullblooded Delaware Indian. There's no more Delaware Indians that were full-blooded. That was redundant. I take a lot of pride in that, because of the way they made their living, up and down the shore. They were in kayaks and canoes all the time. I think that's part of why I have such a love of kayaking and a love of the water. My ancestors spent so much time on it. Also my grandmother's Choctaw, so I've got it coming from both sides."

(cut)

"I certainly feel like the spotlight was on me today at Timbira. I felt a little bit like the chief. It was a great day today. The tribe got to see a little more of my personality. It was so hot today, we really didn't have anything to do other than fix the roof. There's no palm fronds around here. I figured if you can't beat 'em, join 'em, and got to show some of my personality in extracurricular activities, talking about soccer, kayaking down the class-1 rapid."

Heavy Lifting

J.T. discusses his experience lifting 220 pounds during the reward challenge

"During the challenge yesterday, my biggest thing was to stay focused and not to pay attention to anyone else. Brendan was doing a lot of talking, and he's a real strong guy. Tyson did some talking and some shoulder shrugs, resituating the weight. My biggest thing was don't move, don't put any extra tension on yourself. Be calm. It got really heavy, but when I saw them moving, I knew they were gonna drop out, and I knew if we could get it down to Taj and Debbie, we had the game won. It was definitely a challenge to hang on as long as I did, but there was no way I was gonna be the first to drop out regardless of how much weight I had on be."

(cut)

"I lift a lot of weight in my day to day life. I carry feed sacks, calves, I carry little baby calves around. I'm always lifting heavy things. Equipment. Tools. I tote heavy stuff all the time. Mostly yesterday I didn't use my legs much, I kept my legs locked and just carried the weight on my shoulders like it was dead weight. There wasn't any weightlifting strategy in there."

(cut)

"I'm very sore today. My shoulders are very sore. (laughs) But we got some beans, so it was well worth it."

Brendan and the Idol

Sierra reveals whether or not she believes that Brendan has found the hidden immunity idol

"I feel that if Brendan did have the immunity idol, he would tell me. I feel like he doesn't, also because we've worked on one together, and the digging part was where we got stuck. He seems to be telling us that's where he's getting stuck, the digging part, so it does make sense to me. If he does go again, I will ask him, absolutely, straight up in the face. I will be like, 'Do you have it?' He even said we could go through his things. The only thing is if he got here we have to make sure he didn't have time to bury it."

(cut)

"I think at this point he doesn't have it and I don't think anyone has it. I don't even think Taj has it. It seems pretty hard up there. It seems like a lot of digging, and the digging part...I could look and look in trees all day long and climb whatever you want, but digging, the digging part is the worst. It's brutal."

Stephen's Wilderness Skills

Stephen admits that his survival skills are severely lacking

"On the scale of 1 to 100, my wilderness skills are at about a 1. A little bit above 0, and that's good. I'm making some progress. I'm hoping at this end of this experience to be at a 5 or a 10. I cannot yet make fire, and that is embarrassing. Granted I did try on the wettest day, when almost nobody else could make fire except Sydney, and Sydney seems to have some preternatural forest gift. She makes fire in the rain, the fishes swim up to her legs so we can catch them. She's a woodland !%%*+%* and I'm a city gnome. I have yet to make fire and I need to definitely soon." <BR's note: that word was censored on the Sucks post -- "nymph", maybe?>

(cut)

"JT was coaching me on how to make fire in the correct way. I was striking the flint wrong. I was not shaving enough magnesium. I was putting it in the wrong place. I was a complete novice at it . It was embarrassing to be trying to make fire while everybody was looking and not to have done it yet, but I was a little gratified that no one else could make fire on that day."

Sydney's Feminine Wiles

Sydney shares how her flirtatious nature correlates to her strategy in the game

"You've gotta use your woman skills. Guys have the physical out here. There's something a woman can do for a man, put him at ease at least. That's what I'm trying to do, at least around the whole tribe. If they need a backrub, I'm gonna give them a backrub. I'm a people person. Definitely using the woman in me to come out around this man that's around our camp. There's so many guys, they're so like, brute. Yeah, it's definitely good. It's hard though, because Spencer doesn't seem to want it, (laughs) I don't know what his deal is, but he's a 19-year old kid, so...yeah, it's always good to use, I think, in a sea of men."

Taj Shares Sierra's View of Coach

After spending time with Sierra on Exile Island, Taj shares Sierra's opinion of Coach with her tribe

Taj: We sat down, and I kind of like not said anything to her, she didn't say anything to me. Eventually we just started talking. I was like, tell me about back home, trying to break the ice. Then she opens up the floodgates about how Coach is very dictating over there, what they can do, when they can eat, how they sleep.

Joe: How they sleep?

Taj: How they sleep! He has to be on the end, and he wants the little lady on the end next to him, she said her, Brendan, and...(someone suggests Tyson) not Tyson, Erinn, they snuggle in the middle.

Spencer: Brendan, who, and Tyson?

Taj: Brendan, Sierra, and Erinn. They snuggle in the middle, and the other guys on the end.

Sandy: Coach and Debbie are on the end.

Taj: They can't change. They can't change! I'm like, does he not realize everyone here is an adult? I would slap his butt four ways from Sunday if he told me what to do. He tells them when to eat. He tells them who cooks. Every day they're working to change their shelter. If he doesn't like it, they have to change it. Isn't that bananas? Isn't that bananas? She said he hasn't liked her since day 1, and he's always trying to tell them what to do and telling them they're doing things wrong in Tribal Council, but he doesn't do it, he never leads by example. He's just telling them what to do. So she doesn't like him too much.

Tyson's Disdain for Bosses

Tyson expresses his dissociation from Timbira wanting a tribe leader

"I hate bosses. I just want to sit around, lazy around, not do hardly anything. I don't like manual labor. If somebody's gonna start telling me what to do, it's gonna start bothering me. I'll probably just figure out a way to make it look like I'm doing something, but not really. Right now I do enough in the challenges I think that they're not gonna have a hard time with making sure I'm super-disciplined at camp."

(cut)

"Coach really wants to be leader. Brendan he could go either way. I think Brendan probably likes to be leader too. Coach actually said he'd like to be leader, he'd love to be leader. He's said it a bunch of times. So he can be leader if he wants, as long as he doesn't boss me around. Otherwise there's hell to pay. "

(cut)

"Some probably need a boss. I hate having a boss. I do better without a boss. I'm happier and feel better. Maybe other people want a boss, maybe that's what they thrive on. I know girls like to be told what to do all the time, but us men, we're hunter-gatherers. It's in our blood. We just go out and hunt and gather and do whatever we got to do to get done and survive."

Reward Challenge Meeting

Coach gives another pep talk to his tribe after losing the reward challenge

Coach: Let's stop talking about Sierra being strong. Literally, when I go like this on her shoulder (touches Debra's shoulder), she's like (he makes pain noises). There was no way in hell I was letting her do that, because she would have put the bar up there and she would have collapsed. I'm not saying she's not a competitor, I'm saying she...

Brendan: I know. When we all said who's the strongest girl here...

Coach (to Erinn): You said you don't like physical challenges.

Erinn: No, I've never said that.

Coach: At the very beginning you said you'd rather do puzzles than physical challenges.

Erinn: No, I said I'm good at puzzles.

Coach: You also said you didn't...

Erinn: He said (points at Tyson) he didn't want like physical stuff. I'm fine doing physical stuff. I've never...

Brendan: It doesn't matter what we like or dislike.

Debra: Honestly, and maybe so, but I'll tell you, standing there that length of time, while they were knocking ya'll out. I do a lot of lifting, it probably doesn't look like it, but what happened to me is I lost it because it started rolling down my hands. I should have used a different strategy. I should have kept my hands out longer before I pulled them in. It was not. I thought it was gonna be legs. Legs I could have killed them. But it was lower back and shoulders.

Coach: I don't think it all went to...I know you're feeling like it all went to hell when we went out there, but the way I looked at it in the very beginning when they said what it was going to be, this is going to be a game of brute strength. They didn't have the right strategy. There's not that much strategy. Who has the most weight when it's all said and done? We knew they were a stronger tribe than us physically. We knew that from the basketball challenge. I don't think we have to beat ourselves up too bad. I think you do bring up a point where you said what do you want me to do, what everybody's doing different things.

Debra: I'm not gonna jump, I'm gonna let you guys put me where you think I need to be. That's kind of my nature, that kind of thing. I don't play those kinds of things every day. Wherever you guys think I need to be.

Coach: You did a great job. We asked you to roll blocks, you did that today, I thought you did an awesome job.

Brendan: One immunity challenge, and it's back. (claps)

Debra: I know. It's back. It's back.

Brendan: One immunity challenge.

The Leader of Timbira

After it was suggested that he should lead the Timbira Tribe, Brendan shares his thoughts on competing with Coach for the role

"We as a group kind of sat down and said who should be leader of the tribe. It was put onto me to do it, which I'm happy to do. I think Coach wants to be the leader and will always try to be the leader. At this point, even in the challenge we had today, it kind of came up a little bit. I'm happy to have him do it. There's no deciscion here that's rocket science, it's just who wants to make them. He can deal with it. We decided it was me, but I'll have a conversation with him today. The only thing I want to have input on is the strategy in the challenges. Coach likes bossing people around and feeling like he's in charge, which is cool, let him kind of do that. It's fine."

(cut)

"I think the way Coach asks people to work with him sometimes rubs folks the wrong way. For me, I try to say please and thank you, can we try to do this together. For Coach, it's more kind of barking orders. I think that's starting to wear on people a little bit. The other thing with Coach is he looks like this great athlete, and he talks this big game; he hasn't stepped up in one challenge and hasn't worked hard in anything. He's like, 'Yeah, I love pumping weights, I love doing weights, but I probably shouldn't do this, because I have a herniated disc.' Which is fine, but you can't be barking orders and then not stepping up and doing the hard work yourself too."

A tribe glows in Brooklyn.