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Episode 4

"Pick A Castaway... Any Castaway"

Filmed July 2-4, 2003
Airs October 9, 2003

Click below for:

RC speculation

IC speculation

Boot speculation

Video resources

Ep4 promo vidcaps

CBS Ep4 web promo

CBS video: Lillian's final words, 2, 3, 4.

Markopolo's Insider transcripts

Episode descriptions

CBS: - Andrew and Ryan go in search of a good fishing spot, but instead they find themselves in a dangerous situation: lost in the jungle without water.
- One tribe recovers a buried treasure. But will it have been worth the search?
- The Immunity Challenge shocks the tribes with an unexpected reward.
- Lubricated by whiskey, one Survivor creates a spectacle at a Tribal Council that is not to be missed.

REWARD CHALLENGE/ Some sort of swimming/diving event - Drake wins

It's possible Drake might find their treasure with only two pieces of the map. But given their ham-fisted attempts in Ep3, a third piece seems likely to be needed. Since the Morgans probably couldn't figure out that their map piece contains directions to the location, we'll guess they're not the ones to find it. This suggests Drake might win yet another challenge here. gmrose at EZ suggests that the chest's contents might be the other tribe's personal items, which for Drake would include Osten's whiskey. Not a bad guess, especially since ETonline says that "One man's treasure is another man's trash."

As for the challenge, since Probst kindly changes his outfit this week, Osten's swimming adventure appears to occur during the RC. The challenge seems to be another version of retrieving stuff from the ocean and bringing back to shore, although at some point, Tijuana and Trish are shown digging in the sand for color-coded items. But presumably, if Osten requires rescuing, the chances of Morgan winning this event are close to zero. Seems like a slam-dunk Drake win. (We're well aware that TV Gal on Zap2It says otherwise. But that's almost inconceivable, if Osten requires rescuing. Maybe she's unclear on which tribe is which).

REWARD CHALLENGE pictures/ Click on thumbnails above for larger version

Who me? Are you sure you don't want me to sit this one out? I could, you know...

Just hang on, Osten! We need to get our cameras in place so that we can film you sinking to the bottom!

Remind me why we booted Nicole and Ryan S. again?

IMMUNITY CHALLENGE/ King of the floating grid - Morgan wins, steals Rupert

This appears to be a redux of the "pirate challenge" from Thailand (in which Robb tried to strangle Clay). With five people on each tribe, the single-elimination-by-falling aspect should make it move fairly quickly. Players appear to be trying to cross the grid, presumably to steal things, and are challenged by the other tribe physically. If they fall in, they return to their tribal boat (Christa and Michelle can be seen in the bobbing boat with Rupert, for example). Drake's relatively huge tribal numbers will start to work against them here, because they have to sit out six members of their tribe over the two challenges. On the other hand, that still means that two Drakes can compete in both challenges. Strangely, they elect not to let immovable object Rupert participate in this one. As such, the"whiskey-fueled TC" web bullet suggests a Drake loss here, which means Burton's plan may have come to fruition - Morgan wins? As for the "reward," see Boot discussion, below.

IMMUNITY CHALLENGE pictures/ Click on thumbnails above for larger version

The white zone is for loading and unloading only. There is no stopping in the white zone.

What was that you said about my new skirt, Darrah?

The Drake boat seems to be gaining passengers. But it will likely lose one.

BOOT/ Burton

First issue: The "twist". This is the spot that was used for the twist in S4, and several lines of evidence seem to suggest some variation might occur here:

The title: "Pick A Castaway... Any Castaway" - sounds a lot like previous tribal-switching schemes, and doesn't obviously refer to anything else in the episode.

The web bullet: "The Immunity Challenge shocks the tribes with an unexpected reward," coupled with the web promo's wording: "Plus, in a new twist, one tribe will steal the other's most valuable possession... but you won't believe what it is." This can't be simple pillaging.

The emphasis on Rupert and his tribe in the promos, coupled with Rupert accusing Burton of treason for contemplating throwing an IC.

Together, we think this sounds like the twist will be the winning tribe in the IC getting to steal Drake's most valuable possession: Rupert. Oh, the irony that Rupert's objections to Burton's "treason" ends up with Rupert fighting for the other side. This could be where the black-and-white images from the web promo come in (unless they're reaction shots to Osten's rescue in the RC).

Since one castaway has already made a spectacle of himself while drunk, and only one tribe has liquor (barring a stupid pillaging attempt by Morgan), Jon seems to be a good candidate for the "not to be missed" performance. Is it enough to get him booted? Well, since strength and usefulness are both generally valued, you might posit that he'd already qualified. There is, however, the sticky problem of his alliance with three other people (most likely Shawn, Burton and Michelle), not to mention that we have reason to believe he makes it through this episode. On the other hand, Jon's drunken ravings could spill the beans to the uninformed that it was Burton's dumb idea to throw the IC, losing them Rupert in the process.

That would shift the focus to Burton. Since we think Jon is safe, somebody else on Drake has to be the scapegoat this episode, and Burton seems to be in the lead for this distinction. It seems a bit odd that a strong person would be a target, but we note that Nicole was the first boot from Morgan because of loyalty, despite her swimming skills. And while Burton did have a seeming four-person alliance, the other three members of that alliance (including Jon) all competed in the IC, so they might take (legitimate) offense at the notion that they lost it on purpose. Besides, we're pretty sure it's him, regardless of the reasoning.

If not Burton or Jon, three other Drakes are possible targets: Sandra, Trish (the oldest member of the tribe), and Michelle (the youngest and smallest, although perhaps stronger than Jon). Sandra gets consideration, due to her fight with Jon in Ep3, but as with Jon, we have reason to believe she lasts through this episode as well. Trish is a possibility, if only because of her sudden rise in screen time (going from "invisible" to "Who is that, again?"). Michelle is gaining in screen time as well, but perhaps that was so we could remember which tribe she and Darrah were on for the Ep3 IC (luckily, most of their bodies were covered by color-coded buffs, which helped). Neither seems to have done anything wrong, however, unlike Burton and Jon.

As slimmyworm suggests on EZ, another possibility is Ryan O., a move that would probably require a switch (unless the IC losers get whiskey to drown their sorrows). A couple of weeks ago, Los Gatos resident and EZ poster vic vega 00 posted that "I have UNcorroborated info that ryan o. is a victim of a switching of tribes..pure heresay/speculation." He later followed it up with "'Buddy' says the rumor is Ryan O. gets axed ala Silas and is not to fond of the Drake women." While vic vega didn't seem too sold on the info at the time, he has since gone back and edited them out (although Butterfly at Realiiity.com has the foresight to archive them). This also fits with a tip to SurvivorBlows that Ryan O. goes early.

But, at least for this episode, that would probably require a two-way switch (or trade) of Rupert for somebody on Morgan. This is theoretically possible, but it doesn't seem like much of a "reward," and goes against the whole piracy/stealing concept. Alternatively, Ryan O. could get drafted by a winning Drake tribe in a future episode, then booted even later, or there could still be an actual switch/shuffling in future episodes. For now, though, we'll put this on the back burner.