Survivor Branford: Season 2: Episode 3

With Danielle and now Steve gone, Mattabesset was reduced to the core alliance that had dictated how both votes had gone so far. They knew that if they lost the next immunity challenge, it would lead to the hardest vote yet. Dennis was very open about his fears of this happening and let his uneasiness show. Wanting to nip this fear in the bud, Rachel being ever the realist, put the situation into context by reminding Dennis that this was a “first world problem.” This comment considerably lightened the mood and helped inject some confidence into the tribe before attempting to get their first victory against Saltonstall.

Rachel tries to lift Dennis' spirits

When the two tribes gathered down at the beach for their next challenge, there was a general sense of surprise among Saltonstall to see Steve voted out at the last tribal council. Some were probably taken aback that Mattabesset chose to part with one of their stronger guys. Others must have thought that it was not easy to outwit someone with a proven track record in this game. Nonetheless, this iteration of the Mattabesset tribe was ready to compete and Saltonstall would need to focus on the upcoming challenge and not what had happened in the past.

Here comes Mattabesset

The immunity challenge was another throwback to older Survivor seasons: Shoulder the Load. The challenge would work so that two players from each tribe (one guy, one girl) are the designated strong people. They will each hold a large bucket in front of them. Two other players from each tribe will be the designated water people. At the same time the water people from each tribe will go to the water, fill up their containers and dump them into the buckets of the opposing strong people (whomever they want, strategically). Once a strong person drops their bucket or spills what is deemed to be a significant amount of water, they are out. The tribe with the last person standing wins.

Saltonstall listens attentively...then there's Rob

Saltonstall took inventory of their tribe and knew that this was a definite advantage over Mattabesset since they had the luxury of choosing between more candidates to be the strong people. Angela offered to arm wrestle Amanda to determine which of them was strongest. Ultimately, Amanda volunteered to be the female representative from her tribe which probably relieved both Angela and Autumn. The guys were largely indifferent. Mark thought to himself that he was stronger than either Rob or Josh and also wanted to taste challenge glory again. He didn’t say this of course, rather he let his actions speak for him as he simply stepped forward and grabbed a large bucket.

Mark asks Angela to flex

Mattabesset was much quicker in their strategizing. Rachel more or less asked Meredith to step up and be the female strong person. Meredith wasn’t gung ho about the idea but probably thought she was the right choice. Jim however, was very gung ho about the idea of being the male strong person knowing that his desire to win the challenge was stronger than both the muscles of Mark and Amanda. He confidently strode forward and readied himself for the weight.

Mattabesset figures things out

The challenge began with Dennis and Rachel from Mattabesset and Josh and Angela from Saltonstall walking to the water with their gallon sized containers. They each filled their containers and returned, emptying the water into the large buckets held by each of the strong people. Differences in strategy were evident from the get go. Rachel and Dennis decided to load Amanda up while only giving Mark the occasional gallon of water. They thought that if they could quickly knock Amanda out of the challenge, they would win the 2 on 1 situation against Mark. Josh and Angela decided to split the water evenly among Jim and Meredith. This plan counted on the fact that both of Mattabesset’s strong people would grow tired from having to hold all of that water for a prolonged period of time. Josh decided to employ a next level strategy of holding the gallon container way above Jim’s large bucket and pouring the water out hoping to get Jim’s hands wet! Even if that didn’t work, the fact that this approach could irritate Jim left little downside. The strong people also demonstrated differences in strategy. Both Meredith and Jim held their large buckets on the sides using the handles. Amanda and Mark however, decided to cradle the large containers and hold them in their arms from underneath.

Which tribe is looking stronger?

As more and more gallons of water were added to the large containers, the strong people began to show signs of the strain. The water in Amanda’s bucket sloshed around dangerously as she came close to losing it several times. She needed to rely on using her knee to steady her bucket a few times. Meredith was silent but looked to be in pain. Jim was holding up ok but was complaining of the pain in his fingers as they were being pinched by the handles under the growing weight. Mark seemed to be doing just fine because of the strategy that Mattabesset was employing by only giving him every 4th gallon of water or so. He was bearing a significantly less amount of weight than the others.

Water is gathered...

...and delivered

Adding to the pain of the strong people was Jeff who reminded them that each gallon of water is approximately 8 pounds. At this point in the challenge Meredith was probably holding around 60-70 pounds. Out of nowhere, she could not hold it any longer and dropped her bucket to the ground! Saltonstall now only had to outlast Jim to win their third immunity challenge in a row. This pivotal moment of the challenge prompted Dennis to encourage Jim to keep going while Angela could not hide her feelings as she said that she felt really bad repeatedly adding water for the others to hold. A huge advantage that Saltonstall now held was that Jim would receive two gallons of water each and every round while Mattabesset still had two buckets to fill.

Meredith drops!

After a few more rounds, Jim was still fighting while holding maybe a little more than 100-110 pounds of water. Amanda and Mark may have had about 80 pounds each as Dennis and Rachel shifted their focus more towards Mark given that they underestimated Amanda’s strength. Despite the fact that Jim felt he could last another few minutes in the challenge, it was not to be. His choice in strategy regarding how to hold the bucket backfired as the weight of the water caused the handles of the bucket to pop off! He looked around holding just the handles waiting for a ruling. Unfortunately for Mattabesset there would be no do overs. Saltonstall won their third straight immunity challenge and didn’t lose either of their strong people from the challenge! It would be the same song and dance for the Mattabesset tribe once again.

Jim is left holding just handles

Once Saltonstall returned to camp, the general sentiment was if they would ever need to go to tribal council. Most in the tribe felt that nothing had really changed in the game and that prior strategizing continued to hold up now. Overstrategizing could be a way for someone to unnecessarily put a target on their back. Mark and Amanda wanted to sit and relax after enduring such a grueling challenge. Autmun and Rob also decided to take it easy knowing that they were safe once again. This opened a door for Angela and Josh continue their search for the hidden immunity idol.

Rob now with a 1 in 9 shot at being sole survivor

Having not yet been successful, they knew that it was crucial to find the idol before the merge happened. Without any reason to suspect that the idol was in a different place than originally thought, the two returned to the area where they had been previously searching. Luckily for Angela, the clue that she put back was found by what was probably her closest ally in the game. Neither truly trusted the other though and were paired more out of necessity than by choice.

Best frenemies?

After a little while of searching, the two were still empty handed. It was hard to recall where they had looked and what hadn’t yet been explored. Angela turned around to search off in the corner of the area and saw a brown piece of paper jutting out from a crack near the entrance. In disbelief she walked over and unearthed Saltonstall’s immunity idol! This time after making a discovery, she decided not to put it back where she found it. She informed Josh of her find and was full of excitement about her chances for going deep in the game once again. In a twist, Mattabesset’s idol was hidden right next to Saltonstall’s. Josh pushed Mattabesset’s idol further into the crack making it harder for the other tribe to find. Despite his claims for playing an honest game, Josh was being subtly sneaky!

Angela's beautiful idol

Mattabesset returned to camp and had work to do. Meredith spoke up first and said that she was taking responsibility for the challenge loss due to her being first to drop and leaving Jim with carrying the weight of two. Everyone said that an apology was not necessary and that it would not be held against her. Jim and Dennis were left alone as Meredith went off to treat her sore arms while Rachel went to get water. The two Mattabesset guys thought that they were probably the tightest twosome on the tribe. They promised each other to stay together on this vote, target one of the girls, and let the other in on the plan at the last minute. The biggest reason they thought to get rid of Rachel would be because of the challenges. A win had to happen for their sake. But they both felt that her loyalty was true and that she wouldn’t be making any big moves in the game. Meredith worried them because they thought she could easily jump ship at the merge. Also, Meredith was last year’s runner up so the threat she was was not to be questioned. But she could be a useful shield at the merge if the Saltonstall tribe viewed her as the biggest threat. It could help to buy both Jim and Dennis another round post merge. The two made up their minds and they agreed that Jim would tell Meredith to vote for Rachel while Dennis would tell Rachel to vote for Meredith.

Jim plans his next move

As the two finished their conversation, Dennis saw it! The clue to the Mattabesset idol was behind one of the oars to the tribe canoe pinned to the wall! With renewed energy due to something finally going right, Dennis took the clue and he and Jim read it. It pointed to the location that the Saltonstall idol was formerly hidden. There would be time to look for the idol after tribal council.

Each of the two girls thought that the other would be voted out. As a result, the strategizing they did with each other was not very truthful. As intended, Jim did get a chance to talk to Meredith alone while Dennis found Rachel by herself. Dennis briefly considered that if Jim were to be voted out, he would be the only one left on the tribe to know where the idol was. Those thoughts were quickly pushed out of his head once he realized the amount of things that could go wrong in trying to pull of the blindside. Minutes before tribal council, Meredith and Rachel wished each other good luck at the vote. Good luck on the jury that is…

Jim has words with Meredith...

...while Dennis and Rachel chat

At tribal council, even Jeff had sympathy for the Mattabesset tribe. He as much as anyone was sick of having to see them. Rachel said that maybe their strategy in the challenge wasn’t so well thought out but she believed that everyone involved gave it their all. Meredith reiterated that she felt that the blame for the loss was on her but once again the rest of the tribe quickly dismissed that. Dennis said that he had a pretty good idea of what was going to happen but that in Survivor you are always a bit paranoid. Rachel gave him the “first world problems” look to remind him that this was just a game. Jim concluded by saying that he still has full confidence that the tribe just needs one break and that whichever part of this four makes the merge has a good shot to make some moves and keep going in the game.

Yet another tribal

Mattabesset voted and Jeff tallied the votes. When asked, no one presented a hidden immunity idol. Rachel had grown accustomed to seeing her name written down so as the first vote was shown she did not get too nervous. Vote #2 was for Meredith tying things up. The pivotal third vote was also cast for Meredith! Despite her hopes for a tie vote, Meredith could do nothing but watch her game end as Jeff announced that she had been voted out 3 to 1. In her exit, Meredith was gracious in saying good game to all. Because she had easily outperformed her expectations the previous year, she was ok with her result this time. As Meredith walked off, Mattabesset took one look at each other and knew that there was no way they wouldn’t be facing an uphill climb from this point.