When we return from commercials, it is still the same endless Day 16 at Aitu, and they are enjoying their bounty. Apparently, they have both smooth and crunchy peanut butter. Crunchy rules! Smooth drools! I'm not sure I can think of anything off the top of my head that involves peanut butter and potatoes, unless you were making some kind of Asian stir-fry, which they aren't really situated to pull off. So it's not surprising that they seem to be just eating the peanut butter in great fistfuls. Candice and JessiFlicka are so happy about the peanut butter that they come very close to making out. Candice is really friendly. She loves everyone! But it's still cold and rainy, so when the peanut butter porn is over, Yul huddles with Candice and JessiFlicka under a blanket as JessiFlicka voices over that she hopes that they continue growing together and so forth. She is overly optimistic on a variety of fronts.

Day 16 at Raro. Rain is dripping from trees. I have a feeling they're in that kind of weather where, when it rains endlessly, it gets a little chilly and it's hard to get warm. I used to live in Portland, Oregon, and it's totally like that all winter long. Nate is telling a sad Rebecca that she did her best at the challenge and "stepped to the plate." He puts an arm around her. No hard feelings about being unable to swim from point A to point B without dying, after all. Rebecca tells Nate that she feels like the loss was her fault. Which, of course, it was. Nate says in an interview that the team could really have used him today. He seems utterly convinced that with his help, they would have won. He says he was frustrated, though, because he couldn't do anything and couldn't really compete. He insists that he's a good swimmer.

Talk among the tribe turns to Brad's decision to sit out the swim and do the puzzle instead. He explains that he feels like they keep losing challenges at the end and choking, and he wanted to be there at the end. In the end, though, he agrees that they needed another strong swimmer. So the debate is over, right? He agrees that it was probably the wrong choice, and they understand what he was thinking? Of course not! No, in an interview, Nate says, "For Brad to want to take the back seat today, and want to be puzzle boy? When we have a swimming challenge? Pissed me off. I don't know what his deal was. Maybe he didn't want to get wet, maybe he was cold, maybe he's a nancy boy, I don't know what he was thinking. But he did not get his ass up and swim. We needed him there, I don't care about no stupid puzzle." And then Nate adopts a distinctly soft, mincing tone and says, "'I'm good at puzzles, I'm real --' I don't care about that nonsense." First of all, there's no excuse for "nancy boy" under any circumstances. Obviously, it has a homophobic stench, whether you mean it that way or not. Second of all, why isn't this just a matter of Brad making a bad strategy decision? Why would it mean he was weak, or that he didn't want to swim? What about Brad's wrestling Ozzy last week made anybody think he was weak? What about Brad in general would make anyone think that he would shy away from a physical task? "Afraid to get wet"? It's just a little suspicious to me that Brad happens to be the only gay person on the tribe, and he happens to be the one being called a "nancy boy." Is it possible? Oh, I suppose. Is it the most likely explanation? I think not.