LAST EDITED ON 09-19-06 AT 07:16 PM (EST) EPISODE 2:
”Dire Straits and Dead Weight” Welcome to Episode 2 of State of the Spoiling “SOTS” for Survivor 13: Cook Islands!. If you are new to these Boards, please take a minute to review our Spoiler Guidelines and our Community Guidelines. If you missed last week’s Premiere episode, you can quickly catch up by reading Steve Rogers’ wonderful Episode 1 Summary Here. Or, if you prefer, you can see how Episode One unfolded through the eyes of our wonderful DAWS here at Blows in Estee’s East Coast Spoilers Update Thread. Lastly, if you have to know how we spoiler’s predicted the episode to run, check out Brownroach’s Episode 1 SOTS Thread. Let’s see what we have in store for Episode Two this week. First off, Brownroach tells us that the title of the show is ”Dire Straights and Dead Weight” in this Episode 2 Title thread. Notice how the word “Straights” is spelled. In this thread, Brownroach, Kobrien_fan and others discuss which tribe is in “dire straits” and who is the “dead weight.” We know that it is indeed the Manihiki tribe who is in dire straits as we are told in a CBS Press Release “It's dire straights for one tribe when a lack of fire leads to serious dehydration, on SURVIVOR: COOK ISLANDS.” And, at this point in time, we already know that the Manihiki tribe is the only tribe without fire. The question is, will they get fire and be able to boil water to drink? I seriously think so as we saw Jiffy give them a flint at the end of last week's Tribal Council! We also already know from the Ep. 2 Previews that Billy from Aitutaki is referred to by his tribemate Ozzy as “dead weight” and that Cao Boi is grating on the nerves of his Puka tribemates and he could also be considered as “dead weight.” In Flowerpower’s Ep. 2 Preview Vidcaps Thread, we are again shown both Billy (slacking) and Cao Boi (annoying) their respective tribemates. Ozzy at Aitutaki even considers throwing the Immunity Challenge to get rid of Billy. It is the consensus in this thread that because of Cao Boi’s annoying personality, he will indeed be the first Puka tribe member to be voted off, when and big-if they go to Tribal Council as a Tribe. I don’t think it’s going to happen this week, however. The discussion regarding Romance in the Cook Islands continues in Flowerpower’s thread where it became apparent in Ep. 1 that Romance # 1 will be between Raratonga Tribemates and Sleep-Partners Adam and Candice. But who will be involved in Romance # 2? True Dork Times tells us that it is rumored that there will be a romance between JP and Cecilia of the Aitutaki tribe. Time will tell.
SeeBS Misdirection
First, we see Cao Boi at the Puka tribe telling Politically-incorrect jokes as his tribemates try to sleep.
 Next, we see Billy over at Aitutaki laying down while the others are working.
 And, Jiffy reinforces the idea with a voiceover:  And another item off of the CBS Press Release states "At the Aitutaki camp, Billy quickly becomes a deficit to his tribe and his tribe mates become conflicted over what to do. Do they push to win the challenge and keep their tribe intact or throw it so they can vote Billy out? Will they throw the challenge? Of course not!!! If Billy and Cao Boi are shown in the previews to be targets, you can bet that the opposite is true and that they will each be SAFE to spend another few nights on the Cook Islands. This is classic EPMB misdirection. And that’s not the last of the Misdirection this week! We see it again when we are shown the Raratonga women cheering along with the challenge shots. However, we know that they are NOT at the Obstacle Course Challenge (believed to be the Immunity Challenge) as Candice is dressed differently. Could it be at the Reward Challenge?
 Here they are at the Obstacle Course Challenge:
 Also, I would be remiss if I left this out. Why are we shown in the vidcaps below, that two chickens are successfully captured?
 This would lead us to believe that it is Raratonga who catches the chickens as they were the ones who brought them and lost them to begin with. However, this may just be SeeBS Misdirection. More misdirection from a CBS Press Release states: Dehydration Threatens the Health of One Tribe. Again, we know that this is Manihiki, because they have yet to boil water to drink without fire. And we know they will get fire because they got the flint from Jiffy! After just a short time in the Cook Islands, one castaway is already claiming their affections toward another. Love is in the air…or is it? Is this Adam and Candice, or another pair of survivors? Whatever the case, I think this takes place at Tribal Council and it is referring to either Candice from Raratonga or Cecilia from Aitutaki. Tension mounts between Jonathan and Adam when Adam refuses to waste his energy on what he sees as a "stupid" task. This leaves us to believe that there may be a rift brewing over at Raratonga between the two Alpha males. All of this can be debated over in Flowerpower's thread entitled "Ep. 2 Celebrity Spider Misdirection" Here.
The Challenges:
In the vidcaps, we are shown an aerial of the site of what we are speculating to be the “Immunity Challenge.” You can clearly see a large water pit to the right and a “jungle gym”-type structure to the left.
In Braveheart’s Ep. Two Preview Thread, Flowerpower, Kobrien_fan and others scour over the Vidcap previews for this week’s show. First, they all agree that there will indeed be a challenge that will revolve around the “tie-the-survivors-together” and send them through the Obstacle Course theme. We are shown glimpses of the Challenge at different intervals, including:
 This is the starting segment of the challenge. In it, we see the Raratongas in blue on the left (by the blue flag) and the Manihikis in the yellow buffs by the Yellow flag on the right just starting out. There are four members of both tribes competing and they are tied together with a rope. Also, one member from each tribe must carry a large bag. Sundra can be seen carrying this bag for her tribe. What is the reason to carry the bag? They must have to collect something, perhaps puzzle pieces or letters, and bring it back for the last segment of the challenge. We also see the two tribes running past a color-coordinated table on the right. Perhaps this is the starting point AND the finishing point of the Challenge! The teams must collect puzzle pieces or letters along the route and come back to the tables shown and assemble them. First tribe to complete the course and assemble the puzzle wins the Challenge.
  This is the first leg of the Obstacle Course Challenge, as Brownroach points out that we can see the legs of the starting point tribe tables in the background. Here, we see the Puka tribe navigating their way underneath a large log. They must be running to the right side of the Manihiki tribe and the Aitutaki tribe must be running to their right. This is very important because it gives us the ORDER of the racers that is: Raratonga ----- Manihiki ----- PukaPuka ----- Aitutaki.
 This appears to be a segment of the Obstacle Course Challenge where the teams must climb through and over physical structures (“the Jungle Gym”). We are only shown the Manihikis and don’t know where they are on the course compared to the other tribes.
  
In this part of the challenge, we see the Puka tribe and the Raratonga tribe battling it out on ropes suspended over a water pit, the “Dire Straights” part of the Challenge. We see Jiffy standing in the background on the left and two survivors sitting on two benches to Jiffy’s left. The two survivors who are sitting out the challenge appear to me to be Billy aka “Dead Weight” on the left side and Jenny on the right. We are also shown that it is indeed, Jonathan leading the Raratonga tribe as we can clearly see his pants leg on the sidelines in the first shot. He is followed by Jessica, Parvati and Candice. As Raratonga arrives after all of the Pukas are already on the ropes, clearly the Pukas appear to be ahead in this segment. What we do NOT know from these shots is where the Manihiki’s and the Aitutaki’s are. Are they ahead of the two tribes on the ropes, or are they behind them? I'm guessing that the Aitutaki's are behind and here is why ... in the last frame, think about the order of the tribes -- we see Raratonga's farthest from the camera. Then we see empty ropes where the Manihiki's should be. Then we see the Pukas closer to the camera on their rope station. Now look at the closest top rope to the camera -- that should be the Aitutaki's rope and it looks to be very taut, like it has not supported the weight of the people crossing it yet. This leads me to believe that the Aitutaki's have not yet arrived at this station. Now look at the top two frames at the bottom rope where the Manihiki's would have been - that rope is curved as if it has already been crossed. This makes me wonder if the Manihiki's have already passed this segment of the challenge. Finally, we have to wonder why Adam is not participating in this challenge. As a physically-stronger male would probably do better in this physically-demanding challenge, he must have a good excuse for not participating. Some are speculating that he has either injured himself or is ill.
The Reward Challenge We do not have many clues to go on this week regarding the Reward Challenge. We do see the Raratonga women cheering and we see the Manihiki tribe celebrating.
  I cannot really conclude anything from the above vidcaps. There could be many different reasons why the women would cheer and the Manihiki’s would celebrate. On the other hand, we do have evidence that may support an Aitutaki Reward Challenge win because we see them eating chicken. If they did not catch the chickens themselves, than how did they get the chicken?
 They must have won it in the Reward Challenge.
The Exile:
We do not have much to go on this week regarding who the Exilee will be either. If they do as they did last week, than the losing tribe at the Immunity Challenge will have the opportunity to pick this week’s Exile from any of the other tribes. The only other vidcaps I want to call your attention to are these that show a female Survivor who appears to be topless. I’m wondering if this takes place at Exile Island? If so, who is it?
 
Or maybe this is nothing other than one of the women fishing. Time.will.tell...The Boot: Jeff Probst tells us in a voiceover this week that the “first three tribes win immunity.” Therefore, we know there will only be one survivor voted out. Flowerpower tells us that traditionally, the second boot is a hidden boot – someone who we may least suspect. The consensus here is that the “Obstacle Course” challenge is the Immunity Challenge. We see Puka doing better than the Raratongas on the ropes part, so we can assume that they will most likely beat the Raratongas. We see lots of other vidcaps this week of the Aitutaki tribe and the PukaPuka tribe in the Previews which lead us to believe that Cao Boi is at risk of being voted out of his tribe for his annoying politically-incorrect joke telling and Billy is at risk at his tribe for being a lazy slacker aka “Dead Weight.” However, this is all SeeBS misdirection. Most likely, as we have learned from Survivors past, the Boot will come from one of the other two tribes that are more hidden in the Ep. 2 Previews. This leaves the Blue Raratonga tribe and the Yellow Manihiki tribe as the two most likely tribes to go to Tribal Council. From the Immunity Challenge vidcaps, we know that Raratonga is behind Puka, but we do not know where the Manihiki’s and the Aitutaki’s are. They are either ahead of these tribes or behind them. I believe that the Aitutaki's are clearly behind the other teams at the water pit segment. Therefore, I think the boot should come from either the Raratongas or the Aitutakis. Lastly, in other vidcaps we are told that:
Where does this happen? At Tribal Council. As Candice and Adam have already been revealed (last week) as showing an interest in one another, than I am speculating that the boot will indeed come from the Raratonga tribe. In an effort to split up the budding alliance, the Raratongas will indeed vote off the weaker of the two, and that will be:.
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Candice Woodcock
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However, IF indeed, the boot comes from the Aitutaki tribe, than I am speculating the boot to be:
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Cecilia Mansilla
* Perhaps there really is a romance brewing over on the Red tribe and we will find out about it at Tribal Council along with Jiffy! And another thing… For the sleuths among us, there’s a real puzzle to figure out in Estee’s “Hidden Idol Location Speculation” Thread. Will the Blows peeps be the first to solve the secret location of the idol? Also, back by popular demand this season, for all of you who are more in tuned with and prefer to follow the course of the show through the editing, musical score and such, you’ll be thrilled to once again keep updated with Veruca Salt’s”The Players, The Game, The Editing” Thread. This is must-read material for everyone! Tribephyl also brings us a Thread entitled ”Billy’s Friends”. Here he shows us lists of who Billy’s and Jenny’s closest Survivor friends are. The premise for this thread is that Billy and Jenny got close to these people when they all stayed at LoserLodge together. This could be a clue as to who was voted out early enough to make so many friends at LoserLodge. Or not. Finally, find out our Board’s opinion on who the Bootees will be this week by reading our “It’s time to Vote” Thread when and if, someone gets around to posting it! If you want to know who the other Internet sites are picking, then you must read our weekly thread entitled "Across the Board Picks," that is posted each Thursday. Lastly, thanks to all the beautiful peeps here over at Blows. You are truly the greatest folks on the Internet! 
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