Despite the odds, the Foa Foa four managed to outwit Galu and they are now in charge of the game. Unlike Galu, they stood by each other. As they head into the final days, the question is: at what point in the game will the Foa Foa four begin to turn on each other? Only three people can be in the final.
Natalie has made her religious beliefs a part of the game, and sensing that he could use this to build a relationship, Brett began to spend time with her. They sat together talking about the Bible and other books, laughing and enjoying themselves. When it came time to create teams for the reward challenge, Natalie’s first pick was Brett, which roused suspicion with Jaison, Shambo and Russell.
As the game progressed, Natalie told Brett that she was a prayer warrior and they clasped hands and began to pray for victory. At present, there is starvation, war, the earth’s weather patterns have been disturbed, and there are children who cry cry themselves to sleep each night, and struck me as funny that God is supposed to help these two win a reward challenge. I suppose there is nothing like focusing on the important things in life. Perhaps God decided to deny their request because ze will need hir energy for the Super Bowl, as both teams will be calling on hir for help. Decisions, decisions.
For the first time since winning Shambo over, Russell began to speak negatively about her. Since he could find no fault with her personality, he immediately began to attack her appearance:
“She should shave that whole head. The mullet went out in the seventies; it looks terrible. Her hair is funky. You see Shambo that’s where she sneaks food; she puts it in her hair. Nobody knows. Nobody can see it. She puts bananas in there and pieces of coconut. It’s nasty; peanuts, all kinds of different stuff. It’s kind of disgusting. If I didn’t need Shambo I would definitely get rid of her cause I know we gotta look at that bush of hair that she has”.
Russell has played an extremely strategic game, but had Shambo not given him her vote during a critical juncture in the game, it is quite certain that he would be sitting on the jury now. Rather than showing her even a modicum respect, Russell decided that it was appropriate to sit in judgment of her physical appearance. Unfortunately, Russell would not be the only man to question Shambo on her appearance. During the reward challenge, Probes asked Shambo what she called her hair, as though it was some sort of foreign entity. He would never have asked that question of Natalie, who is not only younger but more readily conforms to idealized beauty standards.
The bashing of Shambo would not end there. Alone in conversation, Russell decided to show that he was loyal to Mick by running down Shambo:
“Shambo, she gets on my nerves. I tell you what, I don’t even like her breath, and she always wants to talk to you three inches away from your face, and you gotta smell that breath. I don’t even know why she is still here. I know why she is still here, cause we’re using her stupid butt for votes”.
As long as Shambo could be useful to Russell and other members of Foa Foa, Russell had nothing negative to say about her. This leads one to believe that in Russell’s opinion, women must be pliant and useful like Natalie or else they are expendable. Jaison would mirror this sentiment when he suggested that Shambo be voted off. He was also quite ready to forget everything she has done for him, because she has repeatedly failed to be a strong contender in the challenges.
The goal of the Foa Foa four is to get Brett removed from the game, because the jury is stocked with former Galu members. Even though Shambo’s vote no longer holds the weight that it once did, keeping her in the game should have seemed advantageous to the Foa Foa four, because she is most certainly understood to be a traitor by the members of the jury. The willingness to get rid of Shambo is really a reflection of the way that women have been treated from the outset of this season.
In the end, it would be Shambo who was blindsided at tribal council. Though she asked Russell directly if they planned to vote her off that night, he was evasive. Even if Shambo had been given a warning regarding her impending departure from the game, she could not possibly have changed the outcome. A failure to at least offer her that small amount of dignity, after all that she has done to help the Foa Foa four get to a position of dominance in the game, was truly a slap in the face.
The only woman that remains in the game is Natalie. She formed an alliance with Russell from day two. She has worked on the sidelines of the game to keep Russell informed of the game play of the other castaways. Though she has never won a challenge, she has remained competitive and has come close to winning on several occasions. If she is in the final three, it will be interesting to see if the jury will be able to recognize her nuanced form of play, or if will they simply believe that she rode Russell’s coat tails to the finish line.