Blindside Starts Sweet Week for Cochran

Oakton resident was instrumental in pulling off the in Week 5. Will his newfound alliance with tribemate Jim Rice pay off, or will Ozzy Lusth’s wrath come back to bite him?

[SPOILER ALERT]

It’s smooth sailing this week for Cochran at the Savaii camp, which has to be the most fun for him. Being a part of a big game move, being on the same side as most of your tribemates. Ozzy’s temper tantrums over not being told about the vote has the rest of the tribe pretty sure they did the right thing. And has them bonding together without Ozzy. I love this tribe — they speak their minds and they’re not afraid of Ozzy.

The next morning, it’s more of the same. While the rest of the tribe bonds and hangs out together, Ozzy storms off and tells us (the audience) about how he’s so important to the tribe for fishing, etc. Then huffs and puffs, as Jim says, off by himself.

At Redemption, it’s Christine vs. the newly voted out Elyse. Christine has a moment when she almost breaks down, but she pulls herself together and wins again, this time at a shuffleboard-type game. She also “flips the bird” to her former tribemates Sophie and Rick. Ozzy has to watch his former bunkmate leave for good.

The immunity challenge is mostly physical, and Savaii gets off to a rough start. They have trouble maneuvering their wheelbarrow through a maze. They have to pick up coconuts along the way and then dump them in a bin at the end. Upolu is a good minute ahead of them in getting to the end. Ozzy, Dawn and Cochran seem to be having some issues.

But they get to the end, where they have to turn the wheelbarrow into a slingshot and shoot the coconuts they collected at a set of six idol heads. Jim, Keith and Whitney stage a major comeback and knock down the last idol first, winning the challenge for Savaii.

It’s immunity and reward, so Savaii goes off to the “sliding rocks” for a picnic, complete with food, drink and an awesome waterfall over rocks you can slide down into a pond. Cochran tells Dawn he’s more of a “sparkling water kind of guy,” but goes for it and slides down the rocks. It’s the kind of reward that can rejuvenate the tribe. And allow them to forget there are issues going on back at the game.

Upolu goes to tribal and after a close vote, Mikayla is voted off over Edna. It’s all Coach and Lil' Hantz’s doing. Albert and Sophie want a strong tribe to play through to the merge, but Coach and Lil' Hantz say they want to play “honorably” and stick to their word which means keeping Edna, even though Lil' Hantz keeps saying he likes Mikayla now and wants her to stay. That man is all over the place.

Upolu is a divided tribe.

DETAILS

When Savaii gets back to camp after voting Elyse out last episode, there is a LOT of chatter – mostly Ozzy going off on everyone for keeping him out of the loop.

Whitney questions him for taking it so personally. Ozzy is obviously not happy that he’s been left out. He seems to think the tribe has to run everything by him.

“Gimme a break, Ozzy,” Dawn says. “There’s stuff that you’re withholding and you know it.” To which he TELLS THEM HE HAS THE HIDDEN IMMUNITY IDOL! In his frustration and need to lash out for what he perceives as a personal slight, he just told his entire tribe something he might wish he didn’t later!

He seems to be threatening them by telling them Redemption will come back to bite them, but it’s all empty threats. He’s on the short end of the alliance stick and is not happy about it.

“I’m a free agent now,” he tells them. He’s only digging his own grave.

They then discuss how Ozzy is making horrible game moves. But Cochran knows that as long as Ozzy is a cry baby, it’s good for him. He even calls him a name that I can’t say in polite company but is *just* OK enough to make it past CBS censors.

Over at Upolu, Coach, Albert and Lil' Hantz are looking for clues to the hidden idol at their camp. Lil' Hantz is the only one of the three who doesn’t know Coach already has it. But like his uncle before him, Lil' Hantz seems to have the nose to sniff out clues – and finds one in a tree.

Of course, it doesn’t matter, but he doesn’t know the idol’s been found. His ability to find it so quickly has Coach and Albert comparing him to his Uncle Russell, and not in a fond way. “He’s got the nose of a bloodhound,” Coach says.

Coach is wrestling with whether withholding information is lying, and therefore proof he’s not playing like the “Christian men” he and Lil' Hantz promised to be. Coach says he wants to play the game completely honorably … BUT … always a but.

Edna keeps close to Coach — they’re “vibing,” he says — while she continues her quest to endear herself to the tribe. Coach tells her she’s safe with him, that Mikayla would go before her. They agree to follow each other into battle. Sigh. So much drama.

Meanwhile at Savaii, Ozzy is realizing he played his post-Tribal Council time wrong. He apologizes to Keith and they make a pact to work together after the merge. But right now it’s all Ozzy working to reverse himself.

Jim says it perfectly: Ozzy knows he has nowhere to go right now. “Ozzy helps me win immunity challenges before the merge and is a bigger target after,” Jim says, and I’d be willing to bet Cochran is thinking the same thing!

He tells them he was going to tell them about the hidden immunity idol anyway, but I don’t think Cochran is buying it.

While Savaii is on their reward picnic, Upolu is buzzing with the tribe splintering over whether Edna or Mikayla should go. Coach is adamant that Mikayla go. Lil' Hantz even says he wants Mikayla to stay but that he gave his word and can’t go back on it now.

So Albert tries to rally enough votes to keep Mikalya, and at one point has the numbers with Sophie and Cowboy Rick, but Coach gets to Rick and apparently gets him to change his mind.

Tribal Council is crazy again – lots of talk about loyalty versus strength. It’s an obvious break between the pro-Edna and pro-Mikayla groups. Coach is upset that when he was trying to “coach” Mikayla, she didn’t listen to him. And really, Coach, you’re not her dad. And you didn’t really tell her to stop. You asked her and she said no.

Lil' Hantz, in another golden tribal moment, goes off on how you can’t play telling little lies, because they’re still lies and he’s determined to play by his word (whatever his word is this week) and yadda, yadda, yadda. He even says if loyalty is not what the tribe is playing for, then everyone should vote him off this week.

I’ll tell you, I’d have a plan with two other people that if we got to tribal and someone said something off the wall like “send me home if you want,” that we’d vote that person off. He doesn’t want the money. He doesn’t want the game play that’s inherent to Survivor. I’m really not sure why he’s there.

Swing-vote Rick ends up voting for Mikayla and she goes to Redemption.

The previews for next week are vague. We see Ozzy telling Cochran he doesn’t want to go to Redemption, but if it’s a do-or-die situation, he’ll go. Wonder what that is about! Why would Ozzy offer himself up to go, unless he’s got a plan that he thinks will get him right back in the game. We’ll see!

But worth noting, Jeff Probst gave a tease on Tout.com for next week, and said one of the biggest moves in all of Survivor’s 23 seasons is made, but that we’d never guess what it is. I’m intrigued, naturally, but I was also going to watch anyway, so this tease is really just annoying. Both myself and Oakton Patch editor Nicole Trifone want more info!

Go Team Cochran!