"The Ax Man and the Grenadier" -  Survivor Episode 5 Summary 10/14/05

By Marcus

Before we start, please remember that thousands of Guatemalans have been seriously debilitated by the recent storms. Entire villages are simply gone. Please, make a cash donation to a charity and help our fellow brothers and sisters. Thanks.

Judd bothers me. He really bothers me. He sets himself up as a King Kong type of braggart. Strutting about, degrading others, badmouthing his teammates in a total disregard of not just their feelings, but disrespecting team unity. I don't understand his "game plan." He appears to be successfully alienating himself from the others. Perhaps he is just incapable of seeing his own behaviors, but more likely, he just doesn't care. Judd, when you where a kid, just how did your father treat you?

The first challenge was for margaritas, dip, and a swimming pool. In the sweltering Central American jungle heat, what a treasured reward! While Nakum Jamie was trying to saw through the ropes, wheat farmer Yaxha Brandon attacked those ropes like a hungry tiger taking down a deer. Smashing through the ropes within seconds has earned Brandon the title "The Ax Man of Tikal." While Yaxha went on to chop through the log in the second part of the challenge, there was Nakum Jamie still working on the ropes. While Yaxha was hoisting their wagon up the ramp, Jamie was still gnawing, ah, I mean cutting the ropes. All seven members of the jubilant Yaxha tribe sped roller coasting down the pathway to victory and Jamie, well Jamie was still doing something to that rope. I think he was trying to cut it, or shred it, or pluck it, but he took so much time that I fell asleep.

It was beach blanket party time for Yaxha. Sipping margaritas, dipping into the pool, and partying 'til dusk. Meantime, the despondent Nakum group mopped about licking their wounds and complaining about the unfairness of it all. Stephanie, always the one to blame the gods for misfortune, is reliving her nightmares of a previous survivor. Does she reject the concept that fate is not fate until we make it so? Or, does she accept the concept that life has taken hold of her and like a bobber in a fast river current, and there is nothing she can do? But whine. Come on Stephanie, we expect better than that from you.

Speaking of the gods, did you notice the swirling constellations? As the ancient Mayan looked into the dark void of the night sky and witnessed the parade of the stars, they must have mystified by what they witnessed so far above their own horizons. I think that such nights were the birthplace of the gods.

I love Lydia. This fishmonger is developing into a true character. Maybe she is a reincarnated Vaudeville star? She and she alone stirred the smoldering embers of the Nakum tribe. She entertained them. She challenged them. And in the immunity challenge, she and her trusty catapulting brought home a very needed victory. Yes, she is honored as the "Tikal Grenadier." Blake, aptly nicknamed "the Golden Boy," must have thoroughly dense not to realize that his bragging success of bedding young women, constant taking of "I", his chugging beer contests, and finally dotting on his girlfriend's busty bosom was just too much for his Yaxha teammates to accept. He was given the heave-ho and his torch was extinguished.

There is a lesson in his departure, conceit is best kept to oneself.

Tikal tidbit. The word "Tikal" has been understood to mean several different things. Including, "place of spirits", or "place of the spirit voices", or "where voices cry in the night."

See Also:

10/21/05 "Burgers, beer, and a bully" - Survivor Guatemala Episode 6 Summary

10/7/05 Smelly bodies. Shrunken bellies. Switching bodies - Survivor Episode 4 Summary

9/30/05 "Paint, feathers, and elbows" - Survivor Summary for September 29

9/23/05 Not a food fight, but a mud fight...... Survivor Summary for September 22