‘Survivor’ pulls a fake-out in season premiere

The tribe has spoken: Jalapao eventually turned on Carolina, dumping her because, as she admitted at Tribal Council, "I came across [as] a little demanding." At camp following the immunity challenge, she suggested they clean up instead of relax ("Clean up the outdoors?" Taj asked). Carolina admitted that her "directness comes off as maybe a little whiny." It didn't help that she appeared to be weaker during the challenge — especially compared to Sandy, who's the oldest person this season, but who performed well in the challenge.

Survival is not for the dumbest: After Jeff Probst gave each tribe 60 seconds to gather whatever they could off of a truck, Timbira announced they had all of the water and dry food. Jalapao had no water, just cooking supplies and some produce. "We'll be all right," Spencer said, but they went on to lose the immunity challenge.

Listen carefully: As the game began, Jeff Probst told the Survivors that "one person from each tribe is not going to make this journey," and the tribes assumed their vote meant they were sending someone home. Instead, the two losers, Sandy and Sierra, got a helicopter ride to camp, while the rest walked for four hours through the desert in 110-degree heat. Pays to listen!

Anger, whining, and relief: The tribes thought they were getting rid of Sandy and Sierra, who immediately validated their tribes' near-unanimous decisions. Sandy said, "I'm pissed. I am so pissed," while Sierra started whining about being sick and having strep throat. "I'm sorry I have a fever of 102," she said. Once she arrived at camp, Sierra worked hard ("If you don't redeem yourself, you're pretty much in the doghouse forever," she said), but then made sure everyone knew how great she was. "I've built a whole entire shelter for eight people," she told her exhausted tribe once they arrived.

Slideshow Meet the ‘Survivor: Tocantins’ cast A look at each of the 16 contestants in the reality series who will compete for the $1 million prize.

This week's gross misunderstanding of the way Survivor works: Sandy told us that her response to her tribe was: "Screw you. ... Why the hell do I even want to waste the energy to get in your good graces?" Because they're going to vote you out if you don't?

North versus the South: Stephen was nervous about being on a tribe with obvious southerner and cowboy J.T. "I don't know how much he's going to like the anxious, New York Jew," Stephen said.

Brazilian baptism: "I'm probably not the stereotypical Mormon. I'm more of a free spirit," Tyson said, a good description for someone who stripped naked as he waded into the river to fill up the tribe's water containers.

Spicy: Sandy's tribe is named Jalapao, but she couldn't pronounce that so she called it "Jalapeno" instead.

Andy Dehnart is a writer, TV critic, and editor of reality blurred, and can be found on Facebook.

MORE FROM SURVIVOR

Another castaway goes home on ‘Survivor’

Another castaway goes home on ‘Survivor’ Tribal council trickery dooms ‘Survivor’ Ousted ‘Survivor’ castaway never saw it coming On ‘Survivor,’ the weak shall not inherit Swan dive brings some drama to ‘Survivor’ Another unanimous vote-off on ‘Survivor’ Is this the worst ‘Survivor’ season ever? Meet the cast of ‘Survivor: Samoa’   Add Survivor headlines to your news reader: