In Survivor: Cook Islands, a game that started as a battle of the races, the whites are winning -- for now.
Last week, the Caucasian members of the Raro tribe banded together and kicked off Rebecca Borman (from the original African-American tribe) and Jenny Guzon-Bae (Asian-American tribe) after a special double-boot twist was revealed.
While it's impossible to know if the eliminations were based on race, a recent comment by player Jonathan Penner, that he wanted an "all-white" final four, points to that.
"I don't want to say I was naive, but it wasn't until last Thursday, after I saw the show, that I realized it was the four white people who voted me off," says Guzon-Bae, 36, a real estate agent from Illinois.
"I think because I am different and not white, I don't see colour. I think the only people who really do see racial lines are actually white people."
Guzon-Bae says she was floored when she saw the footage of Penner talking about his Caucasian alliance because she thought she had a strong connection with her tribe.
If you look at the past eliminations -- four Latinos, three blacks, three Asians and only one white -- it's clear the whites are currently controlling the game.
"It was weird for me to not have realized it then because I just saw these people as people -- not because of their colour," says Guzon-Bae, adding the show has proven to be an interesting social experiment. "My first reaction to it was the same as the public's reaction to it: 'Is that a good thing?' We'll see. I know the audience wants to see the whole racial thing come full circle."
Borman, a 34-year-old make-up artist, also thinks it's interesting to see how the race twist is playing out. But she still doesn't think it was a good idea to separate the tribes by the colour of their skin.
"At first, I was pretty upset about it. I just felt uncomfortable being part of any kind of segregation at all," she says. "At the same time, I thought maybe it would alleviate some of the stereotypes that are out there because there's not that much racial diversity in television. But it only lasted for a week, so, unfortunately, it didn't do that either."
In the past, Survivor has come under fire for casting mostly Caucasians and editing the footage to make minorities look lazy.
While the show was edited last week to make it look like Borman wasn't pulling her weight, she does not think she was the victim of racism.
"If you watched the whole season, you knew I was not a lazy person. From my first day there on the island, they really showed me as a strong person."
Borman says it was her tribe, not the producers, who pegged her as lazy as an excuse to get rid of her. But, as a member of the jury, she now has a way to get even.
"I probably would not vote for anyone on my tribe -- actually, I will not."
Survivor airs on Global and CBS tonight at 9 p.m.
