Ted says, "You're killin' me, Jeff," as Peachy blatantly prolongs the time before Ted gets to see his family. Ted reveals to the group that his daughter was born just a few days before Survivor started, and that she was still in the hospital when he left for Thailand. As Peachy says that he'll now see both his wife and daughter, Ted says, "You're crazy. You are killin' me!" I don't really understand many of Ted's responses. What's so crazy about it? It would have been much crazier had the tape come from Grindia. Ted's wife holds up an itty bitty fussy pink-clad Baby Ted, who wriggles around and cries and makes cute little baby fists. Ted's wife reminds him to "put God first."

Now that they've glimpsed each other's loved ones, Peachy reveals that the winner of the reward challenge will get to watch his/her entire tape "while enjoying a nice, cool beverage." He then trots out the whole assumptions shtick again, pointing out that the S8 may have assumed there'd be a merged because of the individual nature of the challenge. As he digs out some gold buffs from a nearby trunk he snits, "Finally, an assumption that's right." Peachy officiously announces that Sook Jai and Chuay Gahn are no more, and that paints and a new flag await them back at camp. He says that with fourteen days left in the game, they're off to a whole new start. Jan thanks God for the merger.

Peachy reveals that the challenge is in two parts, the first of which is an obstacle course. Randomly paired, the S8 will compete in twos to carry a gold, spray-painted wicker ball from one end of the course to the other, which involves climbing a ladder, unwrapping a burlap-covered machete, chopping through a log, releasing the wicker ball, moving said wicker ball through a fishnet tube and over a series of horizontal ladders, climbing over a cargo net, and placing the ball on top of a pyramid. They will compete in heats; the winners of the first heat will compete against the winners of the second heat. Then, the prevailing pair will compete against each other in the second challenge, which Peachy says is a "mental" one. Uh oh.