'Survivor: Caramoan', Episode 4 recap: An eye for an eye

Wednesday night's episode of Survivor: Caramoan sure was irritating, quite literally. An eye abrasion led to a medical evacuation of a player and a tribe made a questionable call at the Tribal Council that followed, despite logical objections against said decision being raised.

Plus, we've now gone four episodes or so and Brenda Lowe has nearly been given the "Purple Kelly edit," where we barely have seen or heard from her in confessional. Julia over at the Fans tribe on the other hand, would kill for a Purple Kelly amount of screen time. She's been seen so little, that if this keeps up, the invisible edit will be renamed the "Julia edit" henceforth.

Anyways, onward with the recap.

Hope Fades. Following Tribal Council, Eddie and Reynold react pretty loudly to once again being duped with the vote and having to say goodbye to yet another ally. They try to remind the others of their physical prowess and how they are needed to win challenges, to which Sherri points out that, yeah, they haven't been doing all that great thus far seeing that they've gone to two straight Tribal Councils.

Stealth-R-Us Shows Record Growth. With so little happening game-wise over at the Favorites camp, we have been getting a weekly comedy segment that could be called "Cochran & The Specialist." Phillip is shown acting all Phillip-y, while Cochran supplies the hilarious one-liners. In this week's episode, Phillip expands Stealth-R-Us - his "super secret" alliance - to include...well, everybody on the tribe. That's right, the secret alliance contains everyone. He claims that Napoleon used the tactic, where soldiers were given names and titles instead of money, to make them feel a part of things. Brandon is brought in and dubbed "The Conqueror," Erik becomes "The Silent One," and Brenda is "Serenity." "Nice, I'll take it," Brenda tells him, laughing. Brandon isn't buying what Phillip is selling though, and looks to infiltrate and destroy Stealth-R-Us. "This agent sucks. Bad," Brandon tells us.

Reward Challenge. This was a cool water challenge involving the Survivors holding platforms in which teammates needed to leapfrog across in order to reach a small platform. Once all of the Survivors got to the platform, they would all have to fit on it in order to win...not an easy task with how small it was. The Favorites won the reward, but Shamar must have been confused when he yelled out, "That's what I'm talking about!" He hadn't realized that it was his team that had lost. For reward, the Favorites got a visit from a native "bushman," who would show them tips and secrets about cooking and living in the wild.

Ladies Man. The bushman provided another comedic Favorites segment, with the old, short man being dubbed a "Filipino Gollum" from Malcolm. The sly devil, he was popular with the ladies, danced with them and got a kiss from all of them, leading to some serious tongue-in-cheek envy from Cochran, who doubted he could pull of the same shenanigans as the bushman.

Back to Scratch. Morale is pretty crappy over at the Fans camp, loser of yet another challenge. Michael, for one, didn't expect to lose so much. Per norm, all frustration becomes directed at Shamar, who is called lazy for sleeping in the shelter most every hour of the day. Having wanted to quit but staying out of loyalty, Shamar then tells the group that from now on, "You all going to bring me rice once a day." Oh no he didn't! "I don't even wait on my husband," Sherri told the others, but strategically wanting to keep Shamar close, Sherri brought him over his rice dinner. It wasn't long after, Shamar started complaining about his eye. Apparently, he scratched at it and its bothering him. The others grew tired of Shamar's constant drama...until Jeff Probst and medical showed up on their beach.

Sham-Wow. Probst and medical are never a good thing to have show up at your camp and it rarely results in good news. Upon a thorough examination of Shamar's eye, they detect some scratches near his pupil. They recommend that he be removed from the game. Shamar sheds a tear from his good eye, but promptly agrees. So there you go: Shamar is officially out of the game. The rest of the Fans come over to say their good-byes in what can only be described as indifferent. Reynold feels bad that he chalked up the injury to more Shamar drama but follows it up with, "Still, he's disrespectful, lazy and I'm glad he's gone." There you have it.

Immunity Challenge. The Favorites are legitimately shocked when they see the Fans tribe sans Shamar, but onward goes the game. The challenge consisted of swimming out to a ledge, jumping off the ledge into water to smash a tile, that would then release a floating key back into the water. Bring all five keys back to shore, use them to unlock a chest filled with sandbags and then throw those sandbags to knock off every single block on your tribe's fence. First to do so wins Immunity. With Laura once again dragging down the speed of the Fans tribe, the Favorites had a big lead, but that all but evaporated once Reynold got to throwing the sandbags. It was Reynold versus Phillip and despite a very good effort, Reynold wasn't able to pull it out. Phillip clinched yet another Favorites tribe win, meaning that the Fans would be losing a second person this episode.

Changing Tides. Reynold and Eddie contemplate their options, knowing they are on the chopping block, but having Reynold's Idol to play with. Matt tries to persuade Michael that maybe they should keep the tribe strong and vote out their alliance-mate, Laura. "There goes the alliance," Michael tells us. Michael isn't too sure of Matt's plan, but he's pretty adamant about enacting it. He approaches Sherri as well, who is equally not on board, it seemed.

Tribal Council. The main debate came down to a tried-and-true Survivor argument: Early in the game, do you keep the strongest physical players in order to win challenges? Or is it more important to keep your strategic alliances, knowing that you may have less physical players left to compete for Immunity? Laura makes some great points in favor of the latter theory, considering that if there was a tribal shake-up, you want to have allies and that Reynold and Eddie's brawn won't do them much good at that point.

The Vote. Knowing his neck was on the line, Reynold decided to play his hidden Idol to save himself. Although it did deflect just one vote (that of Laura's) the rest of the tribe unanimously voted out Laura, considered to be their weakest physical link.

Analysis. Be sure to click this link for my further in-depth analysis of tonight's episode.

Next Time On...A very dramatic voice-over from Jeff Probst is accompanied by shocking visual images of Brandon Hantz...the powder keg who looks to be finally exploding in next week's episode. "Every season, there is one moment that no one will ever forget," Probst says. Brandon is seen dumping out the tribe rice and going a bit loco, calling out to Phillip, "I'm the author of my fate, buddy," and ending the preview by saying, "Now vote me out, bitch!" He may just get his wish next week.

So make sure you are getting all of the latest Survivor coverage this season! Be sure to subscribe to this column (above) and make a note to check back in throughout the upcoming season. Here's how it works:

• Every Wednesday, get an episode preview article in the morning, detailing the night's episode.
• Following the episode each week, my full episode recap will be online usually by around Midnight EST.
• Linking in with the full episode recap, will be my weekly episode analysis at TheTVKing.com. This article goes beyond simply recapping things and is where we dig right in to the events of the most recent episode.
• Every Thursday, join me for my exclusive exit interview with the voted-out contestant(s).
• Lastly, as a movie critic and member of the Detroit & Online Film Critic Societies, check out my blog, FilmSurvivor.com, to find all of my movie reviews as well as Survivor coverage all in one place!

Be sure to follow me on Twitter, @tomsantilli, and at tomsantilli.com as well!

Also, make sure you check out one of my favorite Survivor sites, Survivor Fever.