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The frustrated women onlookers demand that their teammates simply look at the men's solved puzzle and copy it. This infuriates the men. Leif tells the women that they suck while Tarzan yells out “CHEAT! CHEATER!” Alicia responds with a thought provoking “Kiss my ass!” Several moments later, Alicia and Chelsea finally solve the easiest puzzle whose solution they studied carefully for several moments. It is not a proud moment for the educational systems in Illinois and South Carolina. Sabrina and Kim head toward the second puzzle but the men solve the third one before they finish it. Alicia’s need to prove that she can do puzzles has ended the women’s winning streak.

“That was a blowout. That barely qualified as a challenge.” Jeff Probst utters these words. How does Alicia respond to the humiliation? She smiles and giggles. It is funny to her that she tried and failed so completely. Monica and Sabrina look on with unmitigated hatred at this act of self-centered immaturity. Monica wants so badly to rip Monica’s face off. Even Kat is disgusted by Alicia. The F in BFF no longer stands for forever.

Christina believes this turn of events cracks the door for a reversal of fortune. She believes that the Salani alliance is vulnerable. Sabrina agrees. She informs Kim that Alicia has to go. This catches her counterpart off guard. Kim had believed that Christina would be the next player eliminated. Sabrina’s desire to “shake things up” is uncomfortable. If Alicia isn’t eliminated after this nonsense, the women deserve to lose this game.

At the men’s camp, Bill is giddy over this turn of events. He knew he was in trouble. A win at the immunity challenge affords him three days to smooth things over with the members of the Misfits Alliance. Bill’s first step is to broker peace with Colton. What Bill does not realize is that the color of his skin is enough for Colton never to relate to him. This is an unfortunate truth.

Bill begins the conversation in a cordial and friendly manner. “I just want to squash some beef between us. Let’s handle it like adults, bro.” Bill’s incorrect assumption is that Colton is an adult. He is met with a reply of, “Oh my God, I don’t want to talk. I just want to lay here. I don’t want to think about this game.” Bill presses the matter because he genuinely wants to smooth over the situation. This makes the child-like Colton all the more intransigent. It even makes him come up with the craziest plan in the history of Survivor.

The problem is that Bill has underestimated the enmity his tribemate feels toward him. There is nothing he can do about it, either. Colton is racist while Bill is African-American. There is absolutely no gameplay involved in what occurs next. All of it is the subtext as well as the cause and eventually the effect of something much deeper and more profound than the game of Survivor. Bill is not aware of the unmitigated hatred Colton has directed at him over the past several days. In Colton’s fractured mind, Bill is completely responsible for all of the suffering the gay Alabaman has experienced since his arrival on the Survivor set. It doesn’t have to make sense and in fact it could not make sense. It is what it is.

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