Artsandentertainment: Jan watch

WHAT HAPPENED: Thanks to the unrelenting hunger and harsh conditions, our contestants' patience has worn tissue-thin. So it's no wonder Sook Jai bonehead Robb Zbacnik found himself locking horns with New York City police officer Ken Stafford -- first by complaining that Stafford tried to vote him off the island during the last Tribal Council and later over Zbacnik's impulsive decision to raid a banana stash the group had been saving. Luckily, the bonehead helped them win a lavish dinner during a reward challenge (by catching wicker balls thrown by a huge slingshot: go figure). But Gentry's Chuay Gahn tribe pulled off the victory that mattered, removing the right number of flags during a complex competition (it's really not worth recounting here) to win immunity yet again.

JAN'S WORST MOVE: Further contributing to her image as an unreliable flake with her teammates by breaking into tears over a stillborn bat she found on the beach -- arranging an impromptu funeral her teammates ridiculed behind her back.

JAN'S BEST MOVE: Winding up on the team that won immunity again. It may just be crafty editing by Survivor producers, but Gentry's teammates seem positively raring to kick her off the show.

BEST QUOTE: Skateboarding musclehead Zbacnik's observation, after a good meal and a long walk with Stafford convinced him to stop acting like a horse's patootie: "He made me make sense to myself. And not many people have done that." Um, okay.

WHO GOT THE BOOT: Surprise! Zbacnik, 23, got ejected by his Sook Jai teammates, despite a fourth-quarter conversion that found the bartender getting all sensitive and encouraging his pals to cry and open up emotionally. True to Survivor's conniving spirit, they bonded and shed tears together, just before unanimously voting to send him packing back to Arizona.

-- Eric Deggans, Times television critic

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