Previously on James, The Giant Peach: The two tribes became one, and they named themselves after a combative fart, which was a suitable beginning for the usual post-merge era of good feelings. The members of the former Zhan Hu were in line for a dull Pagonging, but then Todd figured out that maybe having a dude walking around with giant muscles and two immunity idols wasn't the best idea, and he planned to bounce James by hoodwinking him into not using his idol(s) and then surprising him with the boot. This plan was derailed when Jean-Robert also thought of it, so Todd had to think up something else to do, because when other people think up the same ideas he already thought up, it makes him so angry, he almost wants to tear his blanky clean in two and have a big cwybaby cwyfest about it. Having discarded Plan A for reasons of pure pettiness (a position that, in normal circumstances, I wholeheartedly embrace), Todd went with the clearly inferior Plan B of bouncing Jean-Robert instead of James. Nobody filled in Denise at all, so she voted alone for Peih-Gee, like the one guy who's like, "Kucinich could still win!" The other votes were split between James and Jean-Robert, and Denise was already feeling kind of grumpy about having been left out of the reward challenge, so it appeared that she might become a problem for Tiny Todd, the Wee Lord Of Scowlytown. Notably, in reminding the audience of the concerns over Courtney's shifting loyalties, the show carefully clips out James's gross reference to "swinging dicks," making it sound like he said something to the effect of, "She's lovely, and I very much respect her mother." Ultimately, the big poker player was finally sent packing, and Courtney could stretch out in the shelter again without packing her can of mace. Now, there are eight people left. Will the dull old Pagonging resume as expected?

Hae Da Fung, Day 25. A monkey is sleeping. You are boring the monkey overlords! They must be entertained, or they will bite off your fingers! That would be a great thing to tell the contestants, actually. I bet they'd hustle up some theater then, wouldn't they? The rest of the tribe is sleeping, but not James, who's awake and apparently cutting up something for breakfast as he tells us that he "had a narrow escape last night." He vows that, from this point on, he'll have the idols with him at tribal council. No more surprises for James, no sir. ["Slow clap for Todd." -- Wing Chun] James strolls over to the shelter, where the entire rest of the tribe is asleep, and bellows to wake everyone up. Apparently omitted from the "previously"s was the ceremonies in which James was appointed The Boss Of You. Seriously, in the past, there have been people who would wake up one person who was sleeping longer than anyone else, but I don't think anyone has ever decided that he could unilaterally declare when wake-up call was and simply scream at everyone to wake them up. It's sort of jaw-droppingly self-centered, or, as the CBS promotional people would put it, "James is the strongest Survivor ever la la la la I can't hear you." Everyone else wakes up and is surprisingly forgiving, lest they be pounded into cornmeal by James's giant arms, and Courtney is just really, really happy to be waking up without Jean-Robert in camp. She tells us that his complaining nature and need to have things "fetched" for him was wearing rather thin. Unfortunately, also wearing thin: what's left of Courtney's blood.

As Courtney and Amanda sit together, Denise sits across camp, with Frosti staring coldly at them. Courtney interviews that Denise was "mad" about the fact that nobody told her what was going on with the vote last night. It seems like Denise's obvious targets would be Todd -- who loves to make himself out to be the ringleader -- and James, who's supposed to be her buddy. So I'm not sure what Denise's beef is with Courtney, who has about as much power as she does. Courtney tells us that they had to surprise Denise in order to surprise Jean-Robert (why that's true is not clear), but that she knows it could "come back to get" the group. For Denise's part, she says she did what the plan was and voted for the next Zhan Hu as scheduled, and that she wound up out there all by herself. She says that it makes her feel a little "on the outside" (true), and that she's frustrated by the fact that she turned down a chance to flip and join Peih-Gee and her friends and now finds herself on the outs of her own tribe. She lies down in the shelter, and James (quite understandably) starts with the damage control, double-talking that somebody was supposed to tell Denise what was going on -- which is a total fabrication, of course, because James is the one whose answer to whether to tell her was not so much "Why, certainly, someone should make sure she is not misled" so much as it was "hay-ll no." Despite the fact that Denise really shouldn't believe anything these people tell her anymore, when James assures Denise that she's totally safe, she chooses to believe him without even (apparently) asking for how long. It seems to me that anybody in that group who can't see that James, Todd, and Amanda are setting themselves up for F3 is drinking too much monkey juice, so Courtney and Denise are damn fools for not trying to get themselves a better deal. Because Denise isn't terrifically perceptive or ambitious about her position in the game, however, this discussion seems to smooth things over with her in spite of not even making any sense. It's like pacifying a love-starved dog -- you go, "There, th--" and before you can even get the second "there" out, he's in your lap again.

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