Maine’s own Ashley Underwood is still mostly flying under the radar on “Survivor,” but on Wednesday night she and a few of her tribe mates proved they are destined for the halls of Congress.

After Underwood’s Ometepe tribe lost the immunity challenge, tribe member Matt Elrod, a 22-year-old pre-med student from Nashville, showed a little sportsmanship and crossed over to congratulate the Zapatera tribe on its win.

That spirit of bipartisanship didn’t sit well with Ometepe tribe leader Rob Mariano, ex-NFL player Grant Mattos, professional dancer Natalie Tenerelli and Underwood, who pronounced the move “not cool.”

Mariano, the veteran “Survivor” player who has been playing the rest of his tribe like a fiddle, convinced the other members of Ometepe that they should split their votes. Some were ordered to gun for Kristina Kell, a law student from Malibu, Calif., who had a hidden immunity idol. The rest would vote for Phillip Sheppard, the annoying former federal agent from Santa Monica, Calif.

The idea was that Kell would play her immunity idol to keep herself safe, and Sheppard would go home.

But Mariano, Mattos, Tenerelli and Underwood had other plans. They decided to secretly vote off the nice guy from Nashville.

“But we don’t tell anyone,” Underwood schemed in her pink bikini. It was probably the longest sentence she’s uttered on air since this season of “Survivor” began.

“Wow,” Elrod said when host Jeff Probst read the votes. As his torch was snuffed, Elrod said: “Good work, guys. My goodness.”

It was as if vultures had landed on Jimmy Stewart in “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” and pecked his eyes out.

“Only your second tribal council, and already a vicious blindside,” Probst pronounced after Elrod headed off to Redemption Island.

That wasn’t the only vicious part of Wednesday’s episode. While Sheppard — who is admittedly strange — ran around trying to catch crabs, the cameras lingered on the rest of his tribe (including Underwood) making fun of him.

None of the scorn appeared to phase Sheppard, who spoke about himself in the third person in a Stuart Smalley moment: “I still love Phillip Sheppard, and he’s a good guy, and that’s OK.”

Quote of the night went to Zapatera’s Ralph Kiser, the hirsute farmer from Virginia who found a hidden immunity idol (“Hot doggie!”) while he was picking up rocks, a feat that made famed idol-finder Russell Hantz seem a lot less threatening.

“That was as simple as wiping your hiney with toilet paper,” Kiser said. 

Staff Writer Meredith Goad can be contacted at 791-6332 or at:

mgoad@pressherald.com