Survivor Gabon recaplet: Charlie and Marcus in the inner layer of a large onion

The new season of Survivor debuted last night. This time the competition is set in "Earth's last Eden" the African nation of Gabon. Gabon has high hopes for the series, having set aside land to be protected, even though preserving that land has cost the country jobs. The country is hoping Survivor will help its young eco-tourism industry. I suspect the talk about "one of the last untouched places on the planet" and images like this, I can see how it'll tempt travelers.

Sadly, Jeff Probst will not be included in your view

As usual, we meet the new cast who are taken into the wild "with nothing but their street clothes". That means they're inappropriately dressed, a Survivor tradition. At least no one complains about how uncomfortable they are in shoes that are obviously inappropriate for roughing it. Well... Olympic medalist Crystal complains about how heavy her shoes are as she struggles to climb uphill, but they turn out to be sensible-looking athletic shoes.

While preparing for a trip to the jungle, be sure to pack your suit so that it doesn't wrinkle.

This time the castaways are allowed to pick out their own teams gym-school-nightmare style, which turns out to be awkward/hilarious since . Our guy Charlie gets picked for the Kota Tribe in the fourth round by the "tall farmer-looking boy" Marcus. Charlie responds with an excited run and a clingy hug that just telegraphs what is coming up.

"Charlie's happy."

Yep, Charlie has a very obvious crush on Marcus, which inspires mixed feelings for me. On one hand, it's a little bit cringe-inspiring to see the stereotype of a gay man enthralled with an unavailable straight guy. Still, Charlie doesn't try in the slightest to hide his crush and it doesn't seem to bother Marcus in the slightest or cause any other kind of drama. In fact, Marcus agrees to team up with Charlie in an alliance, "I don't see any romance between Charlie and I. I think he's a great guy, you know. I can see that he's handsome and smart and all those things. I really can appreciate that about him. It's just not really the way I roll."

Alright, so Charlie's crush on Marcus is pretty understandable.

Marcus and Charlie quickly start giving Survivor: Gabon great lines. In dealing with Ace, who's one of those bossy people who thinks adding "Why don't we..." to the beginning of every sentence makes him seem less bossy, they walk off and have the following conversation:

Marcus: What do you think? Day four or five it's going to get really irritating?

Charlie: One.

Yes, that makes Marcus Charlie's straight man in the comedic sense as well. I hope after this season wraps up they take their act on tour.

It's just a matter of time before Ace talks about "Not being here to make friends."

The Kota Tribe is lucky to have physics teacher Bob as their elder member, who turns out to be great at putting their camp together, since he spends his summers as a lobster fisherman. On the other hand, the Fang Tribe has Gillian, who quickly goes looking for elephant dung thinking food and water can be foraged from it. That turns out to be too much roughing it for her tribemates.

Gillian is a little too fascinated with the elephant dung.

The Marcus and Charlie alliance does have its cringe-inducing moments, however. On the fourth day, Charlie confesses to being a little too dependent on Marcus telling him:

I can't stress enough how safe I feel because I have you. Because when you go off, I do get this pang of (gasps), you know? When I see that you're there, it's like even if I'm not there, I feel like I'm there in spirit. I'm like -- someone's gonna back me up if I get knocked down. Our alliance is -- clearly, I just can't imagine there being a stronger one.

Charlie and Marcus talk alliance

I really hope Charlie isn't letting his guard down too much. Still, Marcus doesn't seem to be looking to be taking advantage of Charlie's attachment to him. When he talks about expanding their alliance, Marcus compares it to an onion with Charlie being the "innermost layer". Jacquie (think you have a unusual way of spelling your name Ms. McQueen?) and Corinne and Bob gets added to the "large onion" alliance.

I'm a little worried about Corinne considering that in her introductory interview she warned the audience, "I'm going to be a total bitch... and I'm going to hurt people's feelings and I'm going to laugh when they cry and I'm going to own it." I hope that's not foreshadowing a fatal mistake for Charlie. Then again, Charlie said he would be "playing under the radar" so maybe seeming to fall so hard on Marcus is part of seeming harmless?

Or maybe Corinne will be first to say she's not here to make friends:

Fortunately, the "large onion" alliance didn't get tested last night as the Kota Tribe dominated the challenges. Not only did they win the first amenity challenge, winning the tribe additional food, they win all the challenges following, getting flint to make fire, fishing equipment and avoiding tribal council twice. Unfortunately, one of the two Fang tribe members voted out included the entertainingly odd, elephant-dung-seeking Gillian. Ah, well, this is Survivor, I'm sure the eccentricity vacuum won't last long.

"Bummer" I'll miss ya Gillian.

How did you feel about Charlie and his first time out in Gabon? Does his alliance with Marcus look solid? Is he setting himself up for disappointment?

At the very least, we know he'll win "Most dazzling smile" every week: