Forget about "girls against boys" as a strategy for Survivor: Africa.
"Li'l" Kim Powers, the young marketing specialist who walked away from an earlier alliance with twentysomething layabouts Brandon and Lindsey to become a contender in the pseudo-reality adventure game show, was sent packing on last night's episode.
That despite the best efforts of Teresa to consolidate a voting block with the two Kims and systematically pick off remaining male players Lex, Tom, and Ethan. Teresa's gender-based reasoning wasn't enough to convince Kim The Elder.
Like the episode itself, Kim The Younger's ouster seemed like a non-event that merely brought Survivor's dry season a step closer to completion. (The final shootout between contestants is slated for Jan. 11.)
It did buy some time for the bloodthirsty Lex, who failed to win his fourth immunity challenge. His sway with the others kept him at the centre of the game for the time being.
Even with nothing in the way of conflict to meander over, Surivor's cameras still gave Lex the most face time last night after he triumphed in yet another challenge.
After viewing some typically cutesy messages from home -- we found out that, among other things, Tom really is a goat herder and Lex has two nice sons and an alternawife with almost as many tattoos as him -- the tribe were challenged to a Dating Game-style quiz.
Winner Lex got to spend the night in jungle luxury at a specially made resort. A bender ensued when winner Lex chose to take along Big Tom, who proceeded to marvel over the accommodations --"Hey, Tattoo, we got our own pooper!" -- and compare himself, not unfairly, to the grunting "wild-er-beasts" he saw on safari.
He also drank what must have been every drop of bourbon in Kenya.
Expect the party to reach its end next week, however. The scenes-from-next-week teasers had Lex on about "cutting throats." Again.
