As Survivor South Pacific Episode 8 began, Cochran was pretty happy. He was originally supposed to be voted out, but Ozzy chose to go to Redemption Island in order to try to get Christine out of the game. As part of the arrangement, Cochran was supposed to play the villain, with the story that Cochran was supposed to be voted out, but he had played the immunity idol. Cochran and his tribemates talked about strategy.
After Ozzy arrived on Redemption Island, he told Christine the story about Cochran playing the immunity idol. She bought it.
Redemption Island
Everybody witnessed the Redemption Island duel, as it was time for the merge. The winner of the duel would get to return to the game. Jeff, doing a good acting job (because he knew the whole story of how Ozzy was voted out) asked Ozzy if he was surprised about being on Redemption Island. Ozzy put on a performance, acting like he was upset about being voted out, and that he was out for revenge against his tribe for voting for him.
For the challenge, the duelists were locked in a bamboo cage. They had to tie sticks together in order to make a long pole. They then had to use the sticks in order to grab three keys, then use the keys to unlock their cage. Christine finished assembling her pole first, but it was a little too short the first time around; on her next try, it was too weak to stay together. Ozzy retrieved all three keys before Christine even retrieved her first key. He was able to unlock the cage for the win. Ozzy was back in the game, and Christine was out.
The Survivor Merge
The tribe was merged, and it was time for a feast. The tribemates got to know each other as they ate fruit, pretzels, crackers, cheese and other foods, and drank beer.
When Cochran started playing his role as the double agent, Coach didn’t believe his story. Coach told Cochran that he believed that Ozzy purposely was voted out in order to eliminate Christine, that Ozzy’s rage was just an act, and that Cochran had the idol on him. Everything was true. After that, Coach noted that if there was a tie, they would be drawing black rocks; he added that sometimes people didn’t treat intelligent people well, that he had been made fun of his whole life, and that Cochran had the chance to change the game for himself. It was just the kind of talk that Cochran couldn’t resist.
Individual Immunity
For the first individual immunity challenge of the game, the players had to balance on a platform and hold a coconut up with two ropes, holding the rope tightly enough that the tension would be able to hold up the coconut. Two immunity necklaces would be given away: one to the last man standing, and one to the last woman standing. At various intervals they would lengthen the rope, making it harder to hold onto the rope. Edna was out first, followed by Cochran. Whitney and Sophie dropped out next, giving the women’s immunity necklace to Dawn. Coach dropped his coconut next, followed by Rick, Jim, and Keith. They let more rope out, and then Brandon dropped his coconut, followed by Albert, giving the men’s immunity necklace to Ozzy.
To Flip or Not?
Although Cochran was supposed to play the double agent for his former tribe, he was tempted to side with the former Upolu members. He had never been well-liked at Savaii, and here was his chance to align with people that were actually being nice to him. Dawn knew that he was interested in flipping, and felt bad that the people on their tribe hadn’t been kind to him. She thought about flipping for a while, then decided that the right thing to do would be to stick with her tribe. She tried to encourage him to stay loyal to his tribe; he told her that he wasn’t sure what he would do.
Tribal Council
During tribal council, Jeff pointed out that there could be a tied vote, and asked if there would be any situation where one person might want to flip their loyalty from their former tribe to the other former tribe members. Edna said that if there was someone that didn’t feel like a part of their tribe, they might be enticed to switch sides. Jeff asked Cochran what he thought the chances were for the two teams to be cohesive enough to risk drawing rocks; Cochran answered that it wasn’t likely for two teams to be that cohesive.
When asked about whether he thought that both sides might have found an idol, Albert pointed out that at Redemption Island, Ozzy claimed that Cochran had played an idol. Sophie added that she wasn’t buying Ozzy’s act. Ozzy fessed up to the fact that it had been all an act, and yes, he indeed had an idol.
When asked whether or not they wanted to play the hidden immunity idol or not, Ozzy stepped forward and said that he wanted to play the immunity idol, giving it to Whitney. It turns out that she didn’t need it. In the first round of voting, the vote was evenly split among former tribal lines, with the vote tied between Keith and Rick. In the second round of voting, Cochran switched his vote from Rick to Keith, breaking the tie. The former Savaii players were surprised and upset. After Cochran told his team what he had done, Jim called him a coward. Brandon stood up for him, saying “that’s what you get for talking to people like that in the first place.” Cochran will not be popular with his former tribe (with perhaps the exception of Dawn), but the other team seems to appreciate him, for now.