Jeff explains the reward challenge. There are thirty items on little tables with covers over them, and they make up fifteen pairs. It is, as the clue suggested, essentially a big game of Concentration. The teams will alternate sending someone to uncover two items at a time. The first team to match five pairs will win the challenge. Now, Jeff asks if they'd like to know what they're playing for. They all say they would, and Jeff turns and calls into the woods. To the sound of the kind of frantic drums that, on television, can only mean pornography or the arrival of natives, a man emerges from the woodsy brush. He is wearing some sort of a grass skirt, and Jeff introduces him as Da. Or Dah. Or something. Jeff might have made it up because the contestants aren't smart enough to pronounce his real name. Jeff explains that Da will be spending twenty-four hours with whichever team wins the challenge. During that time, the castaways will have the opportunity to take advantage of his "rock star" qualities when it comes to surviving in Vanuatu. Jeff warns the teams that Da doesn't speak a whole lot of English, which should make him feel right at home with people like Travis and Twila. Jeff claims that Da can explain how to improve their shelter, cook their food, and remove grass stains without damaging the color of the garment. Okay, not the last one. But as a general matter, he's there to make things easier for the inept, which, coincidentally, is exactly what these people need. Jeff points out that as a matter of fact, they're all pretty much wussies, because they've only been here for nine days, and they have thirty to go. I think the most educational thing about Survivor this season is that it teaches you that if Lost ever really happened, the people on it would quickly become much uglier than Matthew Fox.













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