Peachy moves to the topic of friendships. Daniel is asked whether he has bonds with anyone, and he explains the whole Matthew thing, and how they bonded because they speak a secret language. Way to go on the "secret" part, there, James Bond. At the mention that he speaks Chinese, Matthew's face visibly falls from a smile to a petrified glare. He's like, "Ix-nay on the Inese-chay!" But it's too late; he's been branded a schemer. Actually, I suspect he's overreacting -- the other guys may well just think of it in terms of the two of them bonding over being able to speak the same language. I don't know if they'll draw big alliance conclusions from that. Daniel then moves into a routine about how he's "one Asian guy against seven other white guys." Roger looks amused and disgusted. Everyone else looks skeptical. "I stand out from the rest, and sometimes that makes me an outcast." Rob speaks up: "That is completely false. I don't think that for one second anyone said that we're going to treat Daniel any differently because his relatives are from a different country than our relatives...Everybody's different, and that's what makes us unique," Rob observes, surprisingly cogently. He loses a point for redundancy, but not a bad showing, for a putz. Roger is questioned by Peachy about his problems with Daniel, and says that for him, the recent frustration is over the whole refusing-to-get-water issue. Daniel counters that Roger has been "barking orders like a drill sergeant." You know, I find Roger's personality very distasteful in several ways, but he certainly hasn't been barking out orders any time recently, and when he asked Daniel to get the water, he didn't bark an order. My attitude is generally that if you won't take any initiative to do anything, and you're offended by having anyone ask you to do anything unless they approach you like they're asking for a favor -- which asking you to do your share is not -- you're not going to live very long in the jungle. At any rate, Daniel continues to complain about Roger's failure to "ask nicely." Peachy cleverly notes that Daniel and Roger will probably never be friends. Very perceptive, Peachy. Did you go to school for that?













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