It's night in Drake Camp and Rupert is reflecting on his first tribal council and the game's shifting momentum. He's also whispering in tongues with his snake, Balboa, trying to nurse the reptile back to health.

The next morning, Balboa is dead and Rupert is bummed out and determined to give his friend proper burial. Remember this moment, because a snake gets the proper burial at the end of Thursday (Oct. 23) night's "Survivor: Pearl Island" as well.

Back in Morgan, nothing exciting is happening, because nothing exciting ever happens in Morgan unless Rupert is there.

Enter the world's scrawniest pelican. Ryan bonds with it. Clearly he learned his lesson from the unfortunate incident where he killed an albatross and got all those years of bad luck. Like leprechauns, waterfowl are not to be messed with.

Osten, however, seems less convinced. Water, water everywhere, Osten, and not a drop to drink. Oblivious to the fate of the tribe, Osten sharpens his machete and eyes the pelican with inexplicable rage. Rage, or lust. It's difficult to tell.

Mississippi Mortician Darrah says something about the pelican. Or about Osten's fear of the pelican. Or about the Marlins' chance of taking the Yankees in six. Or about the lowering costs of flat screen televisions. Or about the fact that it's nearly November and "Threat Matrix" and "Whoopi!" are both still on television. Oh, who knows what Darrah said?

Over at Drake, tensions are rising over the desire to move the tribal sleeping area to foil the buggy invaders. Jon begins to twitch and freak out, but interestingly, he's almost justified, since Shawn is being a pain about absolutely nothing. Strangely, just because Jon's irrational behavior is temporarily rational, it doesn't make him any less annoying.

There's a sprightly breeze ablowin' as tree mail arrives, signaling a reward challenge. The crabs are dancin', the squids are inkin' and Drake is buckin' to recapture that elusive momentum.

The tribes are shooting cannons at targets in order to win a grill, some seasonings, some lobsters, some steak and a visit from Rachael Ray. Actually, the Food Network's dimpled pixie guru is nowhere to be seen, but otherwise the materials are in place for a surf and turf banquet.

Drake is victorious, though Morgan succeeds in sinking a small frigate and sacking Tortuga.

Beef, it's what's for dinner. Unless you happen to live in Morgan, in which case Pete the Pelican is starting to look rather tasty.

The meat is sizzling and the lobsters are boiling at Drake. Sandra can almost be forgiven for calling the repast "the bomb."

Jon is sent to loot Morgan which, let's face it, could hardly be a worse idea. He leaves vowing to crush the flagging Morgan morale, but when he arrives, he's diplomatic and receives a dab of shampoo for his trouble. But after getting his hair clean, he taunts the opposing tribe with the knowledge that Drake threw the seventh challenge. This ruffles the requisite feathers and prompts Andrew to call him a pissant. Good call, Andrew.

The immunity challenge involves weighing down various tribe members with bags of sand on sticks which has an unfortunate and unavoidable crucifixion vibe to it.

Once again, Rupert outlasts Ancient Mariner Osten in a battle of strength. The man is an absolute monster. Still, even he gets weighed down eventually. Andrew (who I refuse to call "Savage" no matter how many times Jeff does) shows impressive stamina and power, refusing to let the pissant get the best of him on this "Survivor" Appian Way. Soon, Krista is the only person remaining for Drake and she finally breaks, giving immunity to Morgan for the third week in a row.

There is much blame to go around at Drake. Actually, there's only a limited amount of blame, and it's all pointing at Shawn. While all the blame is going to Shawn, Trish is leading a mutiny against Rupert and weasley Jon is more than happy go along. Krista and Sandra have honor and warn Rupert. Suddenly, despite being largely responsible for their immunity loss, Shawn has all of the power.

At Tribal Council, Rupert is on the verge of tears. He makes a passionate speech for team unity. Trish should feel ashamed, but she doesn't. In fact, she lies through her teeth about the plot against Rupert.

When the votes are tallied, Rupert survives. Trish looks perplexed, extinguishes her torch and slithers away into the grass. Jon looks stunned and slinks back to camp.