Episode 4:

Tensions are mounting for Tagi, but Pagong has turned into an island lovefest. Pagong's Greg is the acknowledged team comedian; he walks around talking into a coconut shell as if it's a cellphone. Most are amused, including his cuddle muffin, Colleen, who giggles and giggles. Gretchen, the Air Force survival instructor, preschool teacher and mom, claims that Greg is more or less the team leader, but she's the one who actually motivates the others to do real work. Her first task -- take apart the shelter that B.B. bullied everyone into building. It was built too low on the beach, and flooded in the heavy rain. Gretchen wants to rebuild it underneath the protective canopy of the jungle.

After lying around with a queasy stomach for weeks, Ramona seems to have regained some of her strength. She knows she's vulnerable in an immunity challenge, and tries to show everyone what a team player she is. Her newfound helpfulness seems to largely consist of dragging pieces of wood from one spot to another and smiling a lot.

As for Tagi, Sean, the nipple-ringed surgeon, is proving to be a major pain; while the others work, he concentrates on building a primitive bowling alley. (Hey, those coconuts are good for something.) Sounds like Sean watched one too many episodes of "Gilligan's Island." Susan, the tough-talking, truck-driving matriarch of Tagi tribe, vows to the camera that she will vote Sean off the first chance she gets. Susan, Richard and river guide Kelly form a secret voting alliance, but is Susan to be trusted? The three approach Rudy. He turns down a loose offer to join the pack and continues to keep his mouth shut.

The teams undertake an SOS signal competition; the team whose signal is the most creative and easy to spot from the air will get a trunkload of creature comforts, including a hunting knife, pillows, a spice rack (to spice up the boring rice and rats) and a lot of towels with show sponsor Target's emblem all over them, dropped onto their beach from an airplane. Pagong's smiley face made out of tree branches and clothing is pretty lame. Tagi wins for writing "Tagi is groggy" in the sand in huge letters, coupled with castaways in yellow slickers lying on their backs in a circle moving their arms and legs to make a big pinwheel.

The immunity challenge this week: a relay race culminating in a dig for a treasure chest. Colleen swims a pathetically slow leadoff leg, from which Pagong never recovers; it's made worse when Gervase chokes again, this time on the crucial run through the jungle leg. For the first time, Probst crosses the unsaid wall between the production staff and the castaways. At the tribal council, Gervase boasts that he will be invincible in the upcoming vote. Probst enumerates Gervase's physical performance in the challenges and busts him slacking on the jungle run -- a shortcoming that his team hadn't witnessed. No matter: In the end, it's a race of shame for Ramona and Colleen, with Ramona being the fourth castaway voted off the island. As her teammate and turncoat friend Jenna explains, Ramona's sudden burst of energy was "a little too little too late."

(J.M.)

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