Nobody likes Bruce Perreault. That’s his story arc. He wanted to be seen as a “crazy drunk uncle” but he became more like the obnoxious co-worker who tells bad jokes and gives unsolicited advice. But in episode 8, he showed that he’s also kind of scrappy.
In the last episode, everybody complained that the 47-year-old insurance agent was paranoid because the only thing he’d say to people was that he couldn’t trust anyone, but it was actually true. He couldn’t trust anyone. And that tension carried over into the next episode where his situation got worse.
All of the contestants had to participate in the Survivor auction in which they had to collect money all over the island and then bid on food. The twist they learned later was that the person with the most money at the end of the auction lost their vote.
At first, Perreault, who put very little effort into collecting money, was in a great position because he had the least amount of money. By the end of the auction, though, he had the most money left over because, ironically, he couldn’t afford to outbid anyone.
Without a vote and everybody finding him annoying, he became the prime candidate to vote off. With his back against the wall, he was determined during the immunity challenge, which tested how long the players could hold on to a rope holding a third of their body weight.
On a side note, Jeff Probst, the host, also had a revealing moment. Before the immunity challenge, he offered the hungry contestants a bag of rice — enough to supply them with food for the remainder of the game — but only if four people volunteered not to participate in the challenge.
As the contestants discussed who would do what for the good of them all, Probst smiled as he said, “Let me help you” and nonchalantly stabbed the bag of rice with a bowie knife so it started to rapidly lose its contents. In other circumstances, it would be sadistic like a hostage taker hurting a hostage during negotiations, but since it happened in Survivor, it was kind of funny.
Back to Bruce.
Perreault held onto the rope as if his life depended on it. He held on as the weight was shifted so it was harder to hold and he kept holding. He held on for more than 20 minutes. And to the surprise of the other contestants, he won the immunity challenge.
In the end, the players did their colluding and scheming and opted to vote out the people closest to Perreault and Kellie Nalbandian became collateral damage because of her loose alliance with him.
Watch Survivor on Wednesday nights at 8 p.m. on CBS.
