After ending up on the short-end of a reshuffled Fang tribe, Jacque Berg, a 25-year-old medical device sales representative from Santa Barbara, CA, became the fourth castaway eliminated from Survivor: Gabon during last night's broadcast of the CBS reality series.

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"I'm so upset. I kind of saw it coming. If I would stayed in one more round I feel like I could've made it all the way in a  sense, so they were probably smart in saving their own butts," said Jacque after her elimination.

Survivor: Gabon's fourth episode began as the Kota tribe members returned to their camp following the Tribal Council elimination of Paloma Soto-Castillo and commenting how difficult the elimination process had been for them.

Kelly Czarnecki -- a 22-year-old retail salesperson from Buffalo Grove, IL who had been Paloma's only Kota ally -- expressed doubt regarding her future in the game as well as her dislike for Ace Gordon, a 27-year-old fashion photographer and jewelry salesman from Naples, FL.

"I definitely lost a partner in the game who I can like talk to about things and I'm
worried about the chopping block," she said following her discussions with the tribe. "But things could change all the time. What I just wanna do right now is, I want Ace off. I just don't like Ace."

Ace later made it clear that Kelly's dislike of him was mutual, saying that she would be "the next lamb to the slaughter."

The next day, Randy Bailey, a 49-year-old videographer from Eagle Rock, MO, once again attempted convince his fellow Fang tribe members that they needed to begin limiting their food intake to one meal a day after going through half their rice bag in only 10 days.

After still receiving resistance to the idea from tribe mates Ken Hoang, a 22-year-old professional video gamer from Westminster, CA; Crystal Cox, a 29-year-old 2004 Olympic gold-medalist track athlete from Durham, NC; and Danny "G.C." Brown, a 26-year-old maintenance supervisor from Portland, OR; a frustrated Randy decided to solidify an alliance with Matty Whitmore, a 29-year-old personal trainer from Pacific Palisades, CA; Dan Kay, a 32-year-old lawyer from Walpole, MA; and Susie Smith, a 47-year-old hairdresser and assistant teacher from Charles City, IA.

Later that day, the two tribes met with Survivor: Gabon host Jeff Probst where they were told that they would be given tally boards to privately rank their tribe mates according to their individual importance to the tribe.

"You guys have been out here for 10 days, you've gotten to know each other pretty well," Probst told both tribes. "Now were gonna put that knowledge to use."

After tallying the votes, each tribe would be positioned according to their tribe mates opinions of them on layered pedestals.

Marcus Lehman, a 28-year-old doctor from Atlanta, GA, was deemed the most important member of the Kota tribe. He was followed by Ace; Robert "Bob" Crowley, a 57-year-old physics teacher from South Portland, ME;  Charlie Herschel, a 29-year-old lawyer from New York, NY; Jacque; Corinne Kaplan, a 29-year-old pharmaceutical sales representative from Los Angeles, CA;  Jessica "Sugar" Kiper, a 29-year-old pin-up model and actress from Brooklyn, NY; and Kelly. 

Matty was voted the most important member of Fang. He was followed Dan, Randy, Crystal -- who was insulted by her ranking below Randy, who she described as "someone who can barely walk -- Ken, G.C., and Susie.

However, after letting each tribe size the other up, Jeff surprised the castaways by revealing that the players would be picking new tribes.

With each team's most important member -- Marcus and Matty -- serving as captains, the teams conducted a pick' em similar to the one they participated in immediately after they arrived in Gabon.

With their initial picks, Marcus chose former Fang member Dan to join Kota while Matty chose former Kota member Ace to join Fang.  Each subsequent pick was then tasked with selecting a castaway that was not a member of their original tribe.

By the time the pick' em was finished, the "new" Kota tribe consisted of Marcus, Dan, Charlie, Randy, Corinne, Susie, and Bob.

The "new" Fang tribe consisted of Matty, Ace, Crystal, Jacque, Ken, Kelly, and G.C.

Sugar -- the last castaway who neither team chose to join their reassembled tribes -- was told by Jeff that she would be sent to Exile and remain there until the next Tribal Council had concluded. She would then join the tribe who had gone to the Tribal Council and eliminated a tribemate.

"Here's a map, not that you don't know the way," Jeff said with a smirk to Sugar as she left for her second visit to Exile in ten days.

However, having already secured the Immunity Idol during her last visit, Sugar hardly suffered at Exile as she chose the "Comfort" option and enjoyed living in a comfortable hut and eating an array of fruits while sunbathing and swimming in a lake.

She added that her hopes were hinging on Kelly's elimination from Fang so she could rejoin Ace, her closest ally.

After arriving at his new camp, Randy immediately began worrying that Marcus, Charlie, Corinne, and Bob would stick together and oust one of the tribe's three former Fang members if Kota lost the next challenge.

"If it its not me, I'll go along with it. If it is me, I'll burn the camp down," he said in a determined tone.

Meanwhile over at Fang's camp, G.C. was happy to know that he still had his old Kota tribemates Ken, Matty, and Crystal with him.

"I still got four people from my original tribe and I think that is great position right now." he said with a smile.

After listening to Kelly make it clear that she had felt like an outsider at her former Kota tribe, Crystal and Ken both saw the opportunity to add her to their alliance and strengthen their power in the tribe.

"When I saw Kelly as the last one picked I knew I could sway her to my side because she did not get along with Kota," said Ken -- who had ignored both Matty and Ace's advice and picked Kelly during the second pick' em. "Right now I'm only using her for a vote."

On Day 12, the tribes traveled to a small lake and met Jeff for their next Immunity Challenge.  Once there, they learned that the challenge would be an aquatic lacrosse-like game in which each tribe member would be given a small raft and paddle and have to attempt to put a ball in their opponent's floating net.

The first team to score three goals on the other tribe would win immunity, while the losers would face Tribal Council that evening.

After both teams took some time to acclimate themselves to the rafts, Kota blew out Fang with Randy scoring all three goals while Fang hardly touched the ball at all.

Once they got back to camp, Fang's members sat around the campfire dejected because of their performance in the Immunity Challenge.

"It was like we were legless chickens racing against slick weasels, and losing badly along the way," Ace said later.

After the venting ended, the talk soon shifted to who should be eliminated at the evening's Tribal Council session. Although Fang's original members had previously discussed keeping Kelly around as a potential ally, they began thinking that given her poor challenge performance and Jacque's strong effort, the tribe would probably be better served voting Kelly off instead of Jacque.

However, after speaking with Dan, Crystal and Matty -- who all initially agreed to eliminate Kelly -- G.C. pointed out that if Sugar had found the Immunity Idol during her lengthy stay in Exile that she might be willing to share it with Ace or Jacque but not Kelly.

"She could have the immunity. I [think she does]. And the last thing we want is for Ace, Sugar, and Jacque to become the power in this tribe," G.C. told them as his reasoning for eliminating Jacque instead of Kelly.

Matty continued to push for Kelly's elimination, he agreed to vote with the group regardless of their decision.  However shortly thereafter, Matty informed Jacque of her possible elimination -- causing her to make a couple of last ditch efforts to convince Ken and Crystal that she had no loyalty to Ace or Sugar and would rather ally herself with Fang's original members.

"I don't want to see you leave, but if I did vote with you, it would not have mattered anyways," Ken told Jacque.

"Matty told me that everybody assumes that Sugar is going to have the [Immunity Idol] -- now she'll be out [at Exile] for four days now  -- and they all wanna vote me out," said Jacque prior to leaving for Tribal Council. "I'm feeling totally on the outs right now and really, really nervous."

Upon arriving at Council, Matty said that his voting priority was to keep his tribe as physically strong as possible and added that he had been embarrassed by the tribe's performance in the last Immunity Challenge.

"I don't know if I trust Ace, but I want Ace on my side," he added. "He's a powerful contributor and I want him on my team right now."

"When I came to the tribe I thought we would have, like, awesome teamwork," Jacque told Jeff of her new tribe's performance. "I thought we were for sure gonna win the challenge over the Kota tribe, and I was working my butt off. I was hoping that we'd win. I definitely didn't wanna be here."

After being asked to assess her challenge performance, Kelly made the unusual decision to tell Jeff that Ken and Crystal -- two of the new tribemates that controlled her fate in the game -- had also struggled in the Immunity Challenge.

The comment irked Crystal, who took offense and responded that it "was just one challenge."

Jeff credited Jacque as being one of the tribe's strongest members -- man or woman -- prior to the vote, however given the looming vote, Jacque took little solace in the compliment.

While Ace and Jacque voted for Kelly's elimination, Matty, Crystal, Kelly, Ken, and G.C. all voted for Jacque and successfully eliminated her from the competition.

After being informed that Sugar would be joining their tribe due to Jacque's departure, Fang left Tribal Council to return to camp.

Survivor: Gabon's next episode will air Thursday, October 16 at 8PM ET/PT on CBS.
About The Author: John Bracchitta

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