Mama Said There'd Be Days Like This

Mama Said There'd Be Days Like This
Episode Information
Version	United States
Season	Tocantins
Episode Number	3/15 (262)
Original Release	February 26, 2009
Viewership (in Millions)	12.05
Ratings/Share (18-49)	3.9/11
Episode Chronology
Previous	"The Poison Apple Needs to Go"
Next	"The Strongest Man Alive"
Subpages

Mama Said There'd Be Days Like This is the third episode of Survivor: Tocantins.

Story

Night 6

Timbira returns from Tribal Council after voting out Candace Smith, and Erinn Lobdell—having been aligned with her—tells her tribe the only reason she was aligned with her was because she wanted to see what she was up to. Coach Wade feels insulted, not believing Erinn, and decides because she had ties with Candace, she is the next target.

Day 7

Timbira awakes the next morning. Erinn feels on the bottom, and hopes to outperform Debbie Beebe and Sierra Reed to make her tribe see she is worth keeping around. Meanwhile, Jerry Sims has not been eating very much; his stomach is hurting. Jerry tries to put up a brave face, wanting to continue being seen as a strong member of the tribe.

On Jalapao, the tribe is having trouble catching minos, still learning how to handle the fishing net. Eventually, they collect enough minos to use on fishing poles, and they catch plenty of big fish to eat over the fire. Joe Dowdle is confident that Jalapao will be strong compared to Timbira.

At the Reward Challenge, the tribes learn it's a blindfold race through a maze to collect water, then corn, with a caller to guide them. The first tribe to fill both buckets and raise their flags wins a tarp and comfort items. Joe guides Jalapao, and Debbie guides Timbira. Jalapao takes the early lead, collecting their buckets and filling them with water, while Timbira is missing a bucket. Once Timbira finally gets their three buckets of water, Jalapao moves on to the corn. Timbira fails to raise any of their flags, and continue to fall behind. Jalapao easily wins the Reward Challenge, sending Brendan Synnott back to Exile Island, and he once again brings Taj Johnson-George with him.

Timbira returns to camp disheartened. Coach felt angry and humiliated, and Debbie felt responsible because she was the caller, but everyone agrees not to talk badly about anyone in groups because the tribe does not need that right now. However, while trying to fish, Coach vents his annoyance to Tyson Apostol about Erinn and Sierra. Coach wants Erinn out next, and calls Tyson his assistant coach, much to Tyson's internal glee.

On Jalapao, the tribe is happy they won, and Joe believes Timbira will crumble if they can win another challenge. The rain begins to fall, but now that they have a tarp, they use it to cover their shelter to keep themselves dry.

Timbira does not have the same luxury, the downpour hitting their camp. However, Coach no longer cares they lost a tarp, confessing he is determined to win this game.

On Exile Island, Brendan and Taj share their second clue, learning the Hidden Immunity Idol is surrounded by wood. They both agree they can use the clues to give each of them a chance to have their own idols.

As night falls on Exile Island, Brendan and Taj realize if someone new goes to Exile, their plans could be outed. Should they both not get sent again, Taj suggests sending Stephen Fishbach from Jalapao, and Brendan suggests Sierra from Timbira. Once the merge hits, all four of them can become a secret alliance. With the plan set, Taj laughs as thunder rolls in the background.

Day 9

Jalapao slept well thanks to their new tarp and blankets, even better knowing Timbira was all wet. The tribe is eager to lower their morale even more by winning immunity.

Taj and Brendan return for the Immunity Challenge, where they must bring blocks to a tower, then form them into a staircase while spelling their tribe name correctly. The challenge went back and forth between both tribes as pairs went out. Jalapao had the lead, then struggled. Jerry on Timbira gets hit by one of Jalapao's as it was rolling. Timbira gets their blocks back first with Jalapao right behind. Timbira has the lead on the stairs, but stops when trying to figure out if they are placing the right blocks; this lets Jalapao catch up, and in a close finish, Jalapao wins immunity.

Timbira returns to camp, exhausted. Jerry feels worse, because of his stomach and because he felt he let the team down. The other six talk about Jerry's condition in the lake, worried for him because the beans might have made him sick. Coach notices Erinn smiling upon hearing that, angering him. He and Tyson agree it should be Erinn next, despite Jerry's illness. Coach tries to convince Debbie and Sierra, but Sierra confesses she does not want to vote Erinn just to end a feud; she remembers getting votes for being sick, so to her, Jerry is no different. Meanwhile, Brendan searches for the idol, and with the help of the clues he succeeds in finding it. Jerry begins feeling a little better, while Erinn is determined to stay, trying to figure out how to swing more votes onto Jerry. Tyson feels Jerry may need to go if he's the weak link, but wants to blindside Erinn, as he enjoys blindsides.

At Tribal Council, the topic of selecting a leader is brought up in hopes of improving the tribe. Jerry suggests Brendan, much to Coach's surprise; he would like to be the leader. Erinn then argues while Coach is used to being a leader, she feels Brendan does that job better. When asked by Jeff Probst, Jerry states the tribe should vote off the weakest person in order to do better. Timbira decides to stick with that plan, unanimously sending Jerry home 6-1.

Challenges

• Reward
• Immunity

Challenge: Blind Leading the Blind
Six castaways from each tribe would be blindfolded and tethered together in pairs. The remaining castaway would work as a caller to direct the paired tribemates through a maze. Each set of tribemates would have to locate a bucket in the maze, navigate the rest of the maze to a tower, fill the bucket with water from the tower, return to the beginning of the maze, and empty the bucket into a container which would raise a flag. Once the water container was filled enough to raise a flag, the process would have to be repeated again, this time filling the buckets with corn from a different tower. The first tribe to raise both flags would win.
Reward: A tarp, an umbrella, folding chairs, pillows, blankets, and a hammock.
Winner: Jalapao (exiled Brendan Synnott; Brendan chose Taj Johnson-George to accompany him.)

Challenge: A Crate Idea
In pairs, the castaways would race across a field to retrieve six large crates painted in their tribe's colors. Once all six crates were retrieved, the tribes would have to stack the crates into a staircase with the name of their tribe properly aligned along the sides. The first tribe to complete the staircase and get all of their members up the staircase to the top of a platform would win.
Winner: Jalapao

Tribal Council

Tribal Council 3: Timbira
Voted Against	Voter
Jerry (6 votes)	Brendan, Coach, Debbie, Erinn, Sierra, Tyson
Erinn (1 vote)	Jerry
VOTED OUT: Jerry Sims

Voting Confessionals

Erinn's confessional and an edited version of Jerry's confessional were shown in the episode.

	Coach	“	(voting against Jerry) Jerry, we had a plan. Too bad you couldn't stay healthy enough to see it through, baby. See you on the other side.	”

	Erinn	“	(voting against Jerry) I hope you feel better.	”

	Tyson	“	(voting against Jerry) Your wish is my command, buddy.	”

	Sierra	“	(voting against Jerry) Get better.	”

	Jerry	“	(voting against Erinn) Love you, sweetheart, but we made a decision to send you home.	”

	Debbie	“	(voting against Jerry) Jerry, we're really gonna miss you. You're an incredible man, but you need to go home and get well. Take care.	”

	Brendan	“	(voting against Jerry) Sorry, Jerry. See you soon.	”

Final Words

	Jerry	“	As far as my experiences in Afghanistan and my military career, this by far was the toughest thing I've ever endured in my life. I don't know what happened to my stomach. But in 130 degree heat and me not being able to eat anything, beginning to toll on my body. So I'm hoping and praying that one of my tribe members will win that million dollars.	”

Still in the Running

Carolina 16th	Candace 15th	Jerry 14th	Brendan Timbira	Coach Timbira	Debbie Timbira	Erinn Timbira	J.T. Jalapao
Joe Jalapao	Sandy Jalapao	Sierra Timbira	Spencer Jalapao	Stephen Jalapao	Sydney Jalapao	Taj Jalapao	Tyson Timbira

Trivia

• This is the only episode where Sierra does not have any votes cast against her.
• On the Survivor: Tocantins DVD, when one selects this episode and it goes to the menu of this particular episode, it mistakenly says "You're Going to Want That Tooth", though it plays the correct episode.