Joel Rindelaub has seen Jesse Tuke's true colours and they're golder than gold because he's a winner, baby. Photo / TVNZ
Joel Rindelaub has seen Jesse Tuke's true colours and they're golder than gold because he's a winner, baby. Photo / TVNZ
REVIEW:
One question is plaguing the camps: What the heck is in that stone monolith? Is it red wine? Maybe a puppy? A toilet? The guesses are as endless as they are wacky.
Personally, I think whatever is in that monolith will tear apart the ginormous flowchart of alliances currentlyzig-zagging their way through the camps - wouldn't that be a game changer?
Speaking of alliances, Mangō's Karen O'Leary and Perlina Lau decide to sneakily approach Courtenay Louise and find out if they could be in an alliance together.
What's not looking good is Kuaka's Dylan Schmidt showing Jesse Tuke the clue he was slipped by Mangō's Ron Cribb, following last night's challenge.
Guys, it can only be a secret if you don't get caught. Photo / TVNZ
Well, it did look good but then Dame Susan Devoy walked past and saw them with the clue in their hands. And now I see why Spy has picked her as the winner. She is in the right place at all the right times. Keeping your friends close and your enemies closer. I see you, Devoy, I see you.
"You are kidding me," Tuke says of the clue's potentially damning details. "I'm just thinking how am I going to spin this one?"
But the sports commentator isn't just quick-witted, he's also quick thinking: "Dylan, I'll fix this for you, but you're a bloody idiot."
In front of the team, Devoy calls the bromance buds out on their not-so-secret alliance chat, and they spin a yarn hoping their noses don't grow three sizes. The suspense is killing me. They are really stuck between a rock and a hard place.
Thankfully it's exactly that which saves them: A rock (parachute) lands on the hard place (the deck), and voila: Everyone is distracted.
Mangō and Kuaka pack their bags and off they go to the mystery challenge. It would have been nerve-wracking but everyone was too distracted by the romantic scenery to think about anything else. What a beautiful place for a wedding.
Host Matt Chisholm welcomes them to the lush beach, and announces this challenge has one rule. All for one and one for all. Yes, it's an individual challenge.
First, the celebs must dig under a log and slip underneath it before going onto a bunch of other challenges. Simple enough, right? Wrong, nothing on Treasure Island is ever simple.
Halfway under the log, Mangō's O'Leary gets stuck. Bless Kuaka's Tuke: Despite being in the lead, he turns around to help his pal. O'Leary is smitten: "You know when someone's just a genuinely sweet person."
He's funny, smart, and a genuinely nice guy. What can't this man do? Photo / TVNZ
After helping O'Leary he races back to the challenge and somehow comes first place. Is he a superhero, or is it karma for helping O'Leary? We may never know.
What we do know is the kind act and following win was a miscalculation on Tuke's part because Mangō's Joel Rindelaub is making some notes: "He's starting to show his colours that we know he has and has been hiding previously."
Tuke has officially become the underdog in the competition and he joins Mangō's Louise, Rindelaub and Kuaka's Schmidt, Cam Mansel, Siobhan Marshall, Shimpal Leliti and Melodie Robinson in the next round.
"It's got endurance challenge written all over it," Tuke says of the next event.
I'm tired just thinking about it. How do these celebs do it?
The eight celebs are told to split into groups of two and, thinking they were being clever, Kuaka pair up with other Kuaka teammates while Mangō's Louise and Rindelaub are given no choice but to team up with each other.
Through a bit of a giggle, host Chisholm spills the beans telling the celebs whoever they're teamed up with is who they will verse in the endurance round.
Tuke realises he's made another grand mistake: "Dylan is the last person I'd want to be in an endurance challenge with. His calves are bigger than my two legs put together," he laughs as he quietly dies inside.
The celebs start playing tactically, deciding who will be better to go into the next round and it leaves us with Marshall, Mansel and Tuke, but things take a turn when Louise and Rindelaub are found still hanging onto what looks more like a budget primary school playground than an adults' obstacle course that's being used in the challenge.
Louise doesn't trust him and he doesn't trust her, but all it takes is Tuke to pipe up from the winner's corner.
"Joel, if you go down, we'll protect you in the next elimination round because, brother, you're name is on the top of the list," he tells Rindelaub.
It reminds me of the primary school playground at lunch time. Photo / TVNZ
Louise immediately jumps down from the kiddie monkey bars.
Later she tells the confession cam: "As soon as I heard that, I knew that they were threatened by him, so I'm like, I see you."
Everyone takes a minute to catch their breath but out of the corner of his eye Rindelaub spots something shady.
Louise, Robinson, Mansel and Marshall are forming the Girls and Gays Alliance – it's actually called Take Down the Big Boys League, but Mansel's idea of the girls and the gays is way more fun.
"I think I just collected another alliance, now I've got three and I'm so excited" Marshall gushes to the confession cam. "But somehow, I need to warn Joel because he's in my other alliance."
It turns out that might be easier than the Outrageous Fortune star planned.
Do it for the girls and the gays. Photo / TVNZ
However, before any spicy drama can occur, the Treasure Island producers do what they do best and leave us high and dry. And we're still none the wiser about the contents of the monolith.
Unbelievable.
Celebrity Treasure Island airs weekly, Mon-Wed, 7.30pm on TVNZ2 and TVNZ +.
