Sean and Vecepia head back to camp shrieking about the treemail. Vecepia announces that somebody might actually get a shower, and then they read the clue together:
Should we just give you treasures?
I wouldn't hold your breath
You're about to hit rock bottom
If you're faster than the rest
The style of the rich and famous
Pampered like a king
Hot showers, clean clothes, great food
That's what victory brings."
The standard ooohing, aaahing, and speculation follow; Kathy needs to handle the clue personally. The S7 work together to deduce that the challenge will involve water. Smarties. Sean tells us that he can swim a short distance to save his life, but that he's not comfortable in lots of water. Kathy instructs him that the worst thing he could do is be "over-anxious" or "over-zealous," which is just another way of saying that the worst thing he can do is "win." Kathy wants Sean to be calm. (And "lose.") She does not, however, offer diving instructions, which would have been fun. Sean says that it will be tough no matter what, and Robert wistfully says that he'd like to win something. Sean points out that they are all on their last legs. Actually, he says last "leg," but since they all have their own legs and are not sharing one big, giant leg, that's not quite grammatically correct.
A colored grid floats out in the water, and we see shots of yellow rocks on the ocean floor. Peachy greets the S7 and calls the challenge "an island version of musical chairs." In the first round, they will all swim down at once to retrieve one of six shells -- marked by yellow rocks for visibility -- scattered along the bottom. Whoever comes back without a shell is eliminated. The S7 will repeat the process until only four of the competitors remain. At that point, the final four will "engage in" a sprint from the floating dock to the shore while carrying the yellow, forty-pound rock. Peachy says, "The first one to drop the rock at my feet wins the reward." Do they get extra points for kissing his feet once they've dropped the rock there? Peachy takes great pleasure in, once again, revealing his "personal Visa," which he will loan the winner for one night. He/she will use the Visa card to book a room on a luxury cruise ship...but why does the winner need the Visa if he/she don't get any choice as to the purchase? Shouldn't all of the rewards, then, have been collected using Peachy's Visa? Peachy dramatically says, "That cruise ship, right out there!" and they all turn around and act surprised that the big boat has suddenly materialized behind them; it blows its happy little horn in greeting. Or maybe it just blows. Anyway, Peachy says that the winner will board and check in. He "imagines" that he/she will then want to take a shower, and I suspect he imagines that in more detail for some members of the S7 than for others. The winner will also get a change of clothes -- his/her first in twenty-eight days, Peachy says, although Robert appears to be wearing new clothes today -- and a multi-course meal on one of the observation decks. The S7 are sent out to the floating grid, and Peachy explains the challenge again, in case their attention spans are really that short.













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