Survivor: Kaoh Rong recap, episode 3: Scot Pollard's tribe actually won something!

The third week of Survivor: Kaoh Rong was a make-or-break for Scot Pollard's Brawn tribe. The inexorably terrible group of athletes and bounty hunters had been one of the worst tribes of all time. They had no real strategy, were terrible in challenges and nobody trusted anybody else. In spite of all this they actually did something right.

Upon returning from tribal council Scot told Alecia that he was the only person who voted for her. Why? Nobody knows. Pollard gained literally nothing by telling her and all it did was put a target on his chest. Alecia immediately began to formulate a plan to kick Scot out, but this required the hidden immunity idol.

It's here where we need to talk a little more about Alecia, who could be the worst player on the worst tribe of all time. That's an impressive honor. The problem with Alecia is that she completely, implicitly trusts Cydney who absolutely does not like Alecia in return and is in a firm alliance with Scot and Jason. This meant that when Alecia found a clue to the hidden immunity idol while out with Cydney she totally shared the information, and then Cydney ran and told Jason and Scot.

End result: Jason has the idol. Alecia has nothing.

The Tai minute ...

While Scot Pollard remains our focus, we need to spend time talking about Tai -- who might be the best Survivor contestant ever.

When we last saw Tai he was making his feet bleed and stepped in a red ant nest trying to recover the key that would unlock the hidden immunity idol. His quest continued on Day 6 and he immediately realized he lost the tool required to get the key.

Is this a problem for Tai? HELL NO! Tai isn't going to have a little setback like this. Tai don't give a f***. Instead he fashioned a new tool out of sticks and got the idol anyway. There's a twist this season: If someone finds two immunity idols they can be bonded together to form a "Super Idol," which can be used after the votes are read. It's kind of amazing that "Super Idol" is the best phrase they could come up with this. Anyways, Tai's immunity quest is far from over. Now he seeks to own the Super Idol and take his power level to over 9,000.

The thing that's so amazing about Tai is that he wears his heart on his sleeve without reservation or fear. When the tribe decided to kill a chicken he was beyond upset. Up to this point he'd spent his time protecting bees, kissing trees and discussing his love of nature. Even though he knew his tribe had to a kill a chicken, he was devastated.

Tai bounced back and dominated the challenge to help Beauty win again. We love you, Tai.

Meanwhile, back in Scot's world ...

The challenge this week was pretty dang difficult. Tribes needed to haul bags of rice through the water, push them though a hole, then cut open the bags, retrieve balls and navigate a vertical maze with them. This was the kind of challenge Brawn sucks at (well, they suck at everything) but when push came to shove they managed to actually win.

There was much fanfare. Finally Scot's tribe wouldn't be voting someone out. As a reward the tribe got its personal items from home as a comfort. People had teddy bears, letters from loved ones ...

Guess what? The Brains tribe overthinks things.

Tribal council for Brains was an utter mess. A good alliance is a collaborative effort, or at least pretends to be collaborative. It's one or two people running things, but you NEVER let the other people know they're being played. Peter and Liz made it way too obvious that they were running the alliance and went around barking votes to people.

In turn, everyone hates them -- and they have no idea.

Never was this more perfect that when Peter started getting cocky at tribal council. He was so confident in his position that he called out Neal with one of the greatest quotes in Survivor history.

What happened next was poetry. Liz got completely blindsided following a tie vote, which sent a message to Peter that he was next. The before and after photo speaks for itself.

Can Scot Pollard's Brawn tribe mount a run? Will Tai find a Super Idol? Is the man in ice cream pants actually a snake in ice cream pants? We'll find out next week.