TDT
REWARD CHALLENGE: Kelly, ? go on sliding rocks reward A bunch of people run around, swim, break things, and/or untie things, with the eventual goal of doing puzzles, all while enduring Jeff Probst's constant bellowing. Then somebody wins something.
No idea what the challenge is yet, but from the post-Ep8 preview and the web promo, we think Kelly gets to go on the reward, and from the waterfall visible in the background (and her swimsuit), we think the reward may be a trip to Papase'ea Sliding Rock, a river with a small waterfall you can slide down. Not clear if Kelly herself wins, or if the person(s) she's with do, though.
IMMUNITY CHALLENGE: Grappling hooks? - ? wins?The contestants face off in a battle for the blessings of the all-powerful necklace. Not sure yet if this is the challenge in which they do so, but it's all we have to go on so far.
This looks like a direct repeat of a challenge last seen as "Snag, Drag & Bag" in S18: Tocantins, which was used as the Ep10 IC. In that challenge, the contestants used grappling hooks to collect three bags. The first three to do so then proceeded to the next stage, where they moved a ball through a tilting table maze (leading to Coach's "Dragon Slayer!" challenge win). Since they've already used the second half in the ill-fated challenge in which Russell Swan collapsed, it seems unlikely they'd use it again here.
So far from the promos, there's no evidence of a second stage (or for that matter, a necklace). It looked to us like Russell might be in a different position in the shot with the purple flag behind him, but with more shots (the one with Laura and Natalie), it looks like it's all at the same time. Although in the NFL ad's audio, Probst yells "Laura... Russell.. it's a race!"
BOOT: Laura? One would think that the prior week's targets (Monica, Jaison, Laura) would remain as such this week.
To boot another Galu member, the Foa Foas need Shambo (who remained outside on the Erik vote) plus one other person. Laura and Monica made clear they weren't falling for Russell's hidden idol schtick in Ep8, but John potentially remains in allied with Russell, at least on the surface. So a Galu could go, and while John would probably prefer that person to be Monica, Russell might suggest "90%" Laura (a choice that would easily attract Shambo's vote).
Update: Further evidence for Laura being this week's boot:
- The "Russell was stupid to play his idol" clip featured in the post-Ep8 preview seems likely to be from right after (the previous) tribal council, and as such, may be the opening scene of Ep9. That never works out well for the lucky victim, which would be Laura here.
- Also, as noted at Blows (by SquidProQuo and Corvis), Probst included this passage in the original version of his EW blog for Ep8: "Erik could not have been cockier. He was absolutely certain the outcome was set. He never-saw-it-coming. Neither did Laura, nor most anybody else on the former Galu." Shortly thereafter, the Laura line was removed (current version here). Although to be fair, it's unclear if it was removed for spoiler reasons, or because it simply made no sense. Maybe he'll blame it on Zyrtec again.
- Finally, Laura has had public viewing parties in Salem for at least the past two episodes, but has announced none for this week's one (as far as we know). Pretty flimsy evidence, but slightly better than none at all.
If not, the default Foa Foa boot would appear to be Jaison, although from the post-Ep8 preview, it looks like Russell is the decoy boot, so having it really be a different Foa Foa would be a bit odd. Plus the Foas need their numbers, and there are still plenty of Galu cracks to explot.
Update: never mind, Jaison's safe for a while.
http://www.truedorktimes.com/survivor_samoa/spoilers/index.htm