LAST EDITED ON 04-02-08 AT 07:59 AM (EST)
Survivor: Micronesia – Fans vs. Favorites
Episode 8: A Lost Puppy Dog
After a week-long hiatus, Survivor: Micronesia is back, and so is this week’s State of the Spoiling thread, a.k.a. the S.O.T.S. , where we try and figure out what is going to happen before the show airs based on the website clues and previews CBS throws our way, and then put it all together in one nice, neat, informative, spoilery package!Here’s a synopsis of what happened in the previous episode:
Tracy tried hard to convince Ami and Erik that the Ozzy was too controlling and needed to go. Ozzy became Erik’s tree-climbing, coconut-getting mentor, which led to some close bonding between Malakal’s only two males. Malakal won a hot and sudsy shower reward, and Jason and Tracy were sent off to Exile Island. On the Airai tribe, Kathy got homesick and depressed over the “brutally torturous” conditions, and made the decision to quit the game, so off she went to Loser Lodge. Cirie and Amanda discussed Ozzy’s “arrogance” in the game, and considered getting rid of his buddy, Erik. Airai managed to pull off winning their third Immunity Challenge in a row. At Malakal, Ozzy tried to persuade the others to keep Erik and get rid of Tracy. Meanwhile, Ami contemplated a plan to blindside Ozzy and save Tracy. But in the end, Ami decided not to risk going against the Faves, and, as a result, it was Tracy’s torch that got snuffed. For a more in depth and hysterical summary, be sure to check out this Episode 7 summary by Frisky.
You can also peruse Estee’s East Coast update thread for discussion about the episode by our RTVW members as they watched it. Citywitch told us that the episode title this week is “A Lost Puppy Dog”. At this point, we are down to eleven players, consisting of four men and seven women.
Here is the makeup of the current tribes:
Airai: James, Parvati, Eliza, Jason, Alexis, Natalie (3 Fans, 3 Faves)
Malakal: Ozzy, Amanda, Cirie, Ami, Erik (4 Faves, 1 Fan) Smokedog posted the CBS website clues for this week: A battle of the sexes begins to emerge, as some women contemplate joining forces to turn the tables on the strong men. It sounds like this refers to the women of Malakal against Ozzy and Erik, as in this preview, where we see Parvati approaching Natalie with a proposition: 
Parvati: “You and Alexis, me and Amanda, final four.” Natalie looks like she likes that idea, as she smiles and nods in agreement, then discusses Parvati’s offer with Alexis: 
One Castaway, alone and isolated, takes desperate measures to stay alive in the game. This has got to be Erik, the only Fan on his new tribe. Bebo surmises that Erik is the desperate one, and that he spills the beans to Ozzy about Ami and Tracey’s plan to vote him out, as we saw in the last episode. So, Erik must be the ”lost puppy dog” referred to in the title. He’s brown-nosing Ozzy to save himself. In fact, a recent promo I saw tonight shows Erik begging for Ozzy’s help, followed by a quick flash of Ami. Looks like Erik is grasping at straws. One Favorite is brought to tears when her loyalty and integrity are questioned. It’s highly likely that it will be Ami who gets emotional, after Erik tells Ozzy about her plan to vote him out, and Ozzy confronts her about it, as mentioned by Pepe Le Pew and others. Flowerpower brought us the over some of the vidcaps of the previews from Survivor Fever. In all of the promo vidcaps, there are glimpses from only one challenge, so there may only be one this week. Survivor Fever has posted this diagram of this challenge, called “The Gauntlet”, from TV Guide: 
Sugarbooger62 brought over this vidcap from Survivor Phoenix, which shows an aerial view of the challenge: 
Scarlett O’Hara pointed out the immunity idol next to Jeff in this photo: 
So, it looks like the challenge at least involves tribal immunity, and maybe a reward as well.
Ohmyheck mentioned that this challenge is quite similar to a reward challenge used in Survivor: Palau. It involves the players getting across a challenging obstacle-type course. First, they must cross a rope bridge with steps over a sand pit, then they must go over a large body of water by walking across rolling barrels, balance beams, and floating pads. Players move left to right across the course, while their opponents swing heavy sandbags on ropes at them to try and knock them off. They may also have to dig to retrieve some sort of flag/key/puzzle piece, and then go back across the course again. We can see from the photo above that Cirie and James are trying to knock off the others. We also see Ami as a sandbag hurler in this photo: 
The promos really seem to be playing up the injuries in this episode. Right off the bat, we see Erik running and falling off the rope bridge, taking a hard blow to the torso: 
Probst: “Erik takes a hard hit, he's out!” Eliza looks concerned: 
Oh no! Poor Erik! It looks pretty bad…or is it? Redbeard thinks it’s all just hype, and that CBS is trying to falsely misguide us into thinking that Erik will be the booted one this week. I think so, too. Here are some other vidcaps, from our friends at Survivor Fever: It looks like Parvati is sitting out of the challenge. Erik and Jason go tearing across the wooden bridge: 
It is speculated that Alexis and Ozzy are sent off to Exile Island prior to the immunity challenge, and therefore do not participate in it. Based on the lack of vidcaps with those two performing in this challenge, I do believe this is the case. It is unclear at this point how those two get chosen to get exiled in the first place, though. In some previews, Ami and Cirie are seen at night chasing after something and trying to stab at it with a stick. It looks like they are hunting something down. Did a chicken get loose? 
Another CBS promo for this week discloses that there will be two immunities given this week. 
Eliza: “This is huge!” Michel found this picture from Survivor Phoenix (posted by Trixiego at Survivor Sucks) in which it looks like Ozzy and Alexis are stepping off the mat, likely going to Exile Island. He suggests that perhaps the exiled individuals also receive immunity. It’s still up in the air about whether they will be back for tribal council. I think they will be. 
The promo also shows Jason holding a rat, while the voiceover says that “an island delicacy makes a comeback”: 
Jason: “Out here, it’s survival of the fittest. Nobody’s eaten a rat since the first season of Survivor, so I’ll be able to bring that tradition back.” In another promo by Jeff Probst (thanks for the link, Wez!) are some more new snippets of info: 
Jeff Probst: “James continues to be annoyed with the women on his tribe. Not so annoyed that he can't continue to flirt with Parvati or fall for her flirting, whichever way that one is going to go. I'm never quite sure.” 
James: “I’m at my wit’s end.” And we also see some bonding between Amanda and Ozzy: 
Jeff: “The Ozzy/Amanda love affair is reconnected a little bit. Things get back on track as they get a chance to spend some quality time together.” Finally, Jeff tells us that “at Tribal Council, the tears flow and if you're a fan of Survivor you might even be able to guess who is involved in a Tribal Council in which there is crying”. Ha! Well, Jeff, we are Survivor fans, and we can guess! My bet is on Ami as the crier. Outfrontgirl theorizes that whichever tribe the teasers/website clues are mostly about will be the tribe going to tribal council. She thinks that most of the teasers are about Malakal, thereby setting up Erik’s betrayal to Ami to save himself, and directly causing her boot. Sounds to me like a likely scenario. Flowerpower believes that Malakal has been purposely losing immunity challenges since the tribal switch-up, in order to boot the Fans off NuMalakal and have a Fave majority after the merge. That wouldn’t be too surprising, as we have all seen Ozzy use this challenge-throwing strategy before in Cook Islands. So here’s how it all unfolds: Rats: Eaten
James: Annoyed but flirtacious
Ozmanda: back on track
Immunity (and possible reward): Airai Exiled (and Immune): Alexis and Ozzy Bootee: Ami
Don’t forget to vote for your pick on the bootee in Dabo’s vote thread.
Here are some other interesting threads here in Spoilers to delve into even further: Bebo posted a synopsis of the clues we have gotten so far based on Survivor Fever’s boot list. ScarlettO’Hara started a thread on the “Million Dollar Quote”. Veruca Salt ’s The Players, The Game, The Editing thread is always full of good insights. A huge thanks to Survivor Fever and Survivor Phoenix for the excellent pictures and info. Also special kudos to all the individuals who take the time to analyze and discuss the snippets of info and try to piece together the puzzle for all of us each week. You all are great! 
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