We’re back with another strong week of Australian Survivor. Lots of players get the chance to let their personalities shine, we’ve got blindsides, idols, big moves, and our first non-elimination episode of the season. Let’s get to it!
Episode 4
Simon and Emmett are feeling the heat after seeing their close ally Gavin voted out. Clearly in the minority, they go idol hunting, assuming Kez’s idol has been re-hidden. On the flip side, Shannon and Kez are feeling supremely confident. Hopefully they don’t let it go to their heads and keep their focus on the game.
George remains in a similar position on the Brain tribe. He knows where he stands, so he also goes out searching for the idol. Baden follows suit, eventually finding a clue to an idol. He thinks he knows where it’s hidden, but like Kez’s, it’s right in plain view of camp.
Reward Challenge
Tethered together, two players from each tribe race through a series of obstacles to retrieve their tribe’s ball from the other side. They need to take it back to their side to shoot it into a basket in the center of the challenge course. First to three wins. They’re playing for comfort items and bacon and eggs.
For the fourth time in a row, Brawn win reward. The Brains will surely keep taking the losses if it means they keep winning immunity. But sooner or later, you’d have to imagine the lack of food will eventually catch up to them.
Brain
Baden decides to make his move to retrieve the idol. George takes note of this and follows him along with Wai, hoping to beat him to it. George ultimately does find it, and without Baden noticing. An idol can of course change the course of the game, but George and Wai are still just a group of two
Immunity Challenge
Carry a cage through an obstacle course, collecting bags of puzzle pieces, up a ramp and climb out of the cage and over a wall, climb over a net, one player unhitches a rope to release a bridge, cross the bridge and solve a word puzzle.
Brawn starts the puzzle with a nice lead, but once again, Brain completes the come back, sending Brawn to Tribal for the third consecutive time.
Pre-Tribal
Big D and Simon both put the majority of the blame on Benny. But can they pull the numbers? Simon doesn’t have much, if any, wiggle room. Big D could cook something up, but he might be better off staying with the majority for now, before trying to make a big move.
Benny further worsens his position by revealing to Dani that the majority is targeting Simon. That’s just a rookie mistake. All it takes is one idol to screw up even the best-laid plans. Knowing who to play the idol for is often the hardest part of an idol play. Benny handed that information to the minority on a silver platter. Even if they don’t have an idol, knowing vital information like that can help form a counter plan.
Simon gets to work on pitching Benny, starting with Big D. Simon then makes a bigger move and approaches Shannon and Flick with the idea of voting Benny, pitching the move as a way to keep the tribe stronger. Shannon doesn’t appear to be swayed, as she still wants to vote Simon, considering his threat level and the fact that he’s had it out for Shannon for some time.
Tribal Council
Simon makes his case for voting out Benny, and Shannon admits to having second thoughts on their original plan When Benny hears this, Shannon offers to hear him out on any reasoning why he believes he should stay. And he doesn’t take that opportunity to defend himself.
The vote ends a 6-6 tie between Simon and Benny. On the revote, Benny is eliminated 6-2, with both Shannon and Kez switching their votes, leaving Gerald and Flick as the two lone Benny votes. Shannon, Kez, and Flick had been a strong trio, so there could be some backlash within the group after this split. I like that group a lot, though, so I’m hoping they can patch anything up rather quickly and get back to where they were.
Episode 5
Even though the vote went their way, Simon and Emmett know they’re still not a solid spot. They get right back to work looking for an idol. Simon does locate the idol, but he has to wait for a moment alone before he can grab it. That proves difficult as everyone knows what he’s up to. He’s eventually able to sneak away for just long enough to retrieve it.
Reward Challenge
The tribes square off in a series of one on one log rolling competitions. First to three wins toasties. And what do you know, but Brawn wins again. The constant loss of food has to take a toll on the Brain tribe. But we haven’t seen it manifest yet in an Immunity loss. But how much longer can that last?
Reward
Back at camp, Simon finds a second idol hidden in a hitching sack. Though he’s still clearly down in the numbers, two idols can make a world of difference. However, unbeknownst to Simon, Gerald saw him grab this second idol.
Idol fever is running high at the Brain camp as well. George reveals his idol to Baden, hoping he can use it to work together. George knows he’s on the outs, so he’s got make inroads somewhere. And while Baden isn’t the biggest George fan, he’ll work with whoever he needs to. As he says, “Everyone’s vote is worth the same.” The unlikely pair could make for a formidable duo.
Immunity Challenge
One player releases a series of balls, which the rest of the tribe races to catch, before it hits the ground. If you miss, you have to go back and start over. Once everyone has a ball, each castaway then has to roll their ball through a chute, carry it through a mud pit, before finally landing it on an overhead frame.
Brawn gets a nice lead heading into the final stage of the challenge, aided by George’s struggle on the ball chute. This time they are able to hold onto the lead, saving themselves from a fourth consecutive trip to Tribal.
Pre-Tribal
As expected, George is the target. Not only are others still a bit peeved from how George (mis)played his advantage at the first Tribal Council, but he’s revealed himself as a real strategic threat, a sneaky player. That’s not often a type of player you want to keep around, especially when they’re not on your side.
George makes the…interesting decision to wear his idol openly at camp. He doesn’t make much noise about it, he just lets its existence speak for itself.
Even after saying he believes Joey is “the glue that holds them together,” George wants to target Laura? If Joey is the critical person in the majority alliance, why wouldn’t you vote for him?
Joey talks to his group about switching the vote to Mitch. He’s a clear strategic threat, plus Mitch still acts as the tribe leader. Both are clear, easy reasons to target someone, particularly when your desired target (George) will seemingly be protecting himself with an idol.
Tribal Council
George plays his idol, but it’s wasted as only Mitch votes for him. Joey’s Plan B wins out, sending Mitch home in a 6-4 vote over Laura. This is a prime example of the risk you take by showing your cards too early, in this case the cards being George’s idol. Had he been able to keep it a secret, Joey’s group likely would have kept to their plan to vote George, and George’s group could have successfully voted out Laura. Even though George’s Day 1 nemesis is now gone, it wasn’t his move and he’s arguably in no better a position than he was before. But even with his rough start to the game, he’s shown some real strategic acumen and just might be able to pull himself out of this hole yet.
Episode 6
Gerald tells Kez and Flick about Simon’s idol. It’s of course bad news, but the silver lining is that Simon doesn’t know they know. Some nice Friends vibes here (maybe missing a layer or two, if I’m being honest, but I’ll use this GIF any chance I get).
George is upset with Rachel after the Mitch vote. He doesn’t like the lying that was involved. Dude, you’re playing Survivor!
Reward Challenge
The entire tribe is tethered to a rope and they must dig under a log, where they next weave through a series of obstacles. The last person through has a key which unlocks a box of sandbags. Two players throw the bags to smash six targets. Playing for chocolate milk and lamingtons.
Brawn gets off to a huge lead, with George and Wai really struggling to bring up the rear. They eventually do catch up, even taking the lead with the targets. It comes down to five targets each. But even after their big comeback, the Brawn prevails once again. Six rewards in a row. Brutal for the Brains tribe.
In a small twist, Brawn gets to choose one player from Brain to join them on reward and they pick Joey.
Reward
The Brawns tribe picked Joey as they thought they could get the most out of him. He’s been the most talkative at challenges, so they thought it stood to reason that they could get him talking. And talk he does. He spills all sorts of beans on how the previous Tribal Council went down. I don’t know if he realizes it (probably not as he’s doing it) but this could spell doom for my guy Joey.
Brain Camp
Back at camp, Rachel talks to George about his poor attitude heading into challenges. George overreacts and takes this as an aggressive attack (Rachel could not have broached the subject any calmer if she’d tried). George stomps off and Georgia accompanies him but he has no interest in discussing what just happened. He doesn’t like the games he thinks she’s playing, going so far as to say in a confessional that he’ll make sure she’s a target, a bigger target than him.
Immunity Challenge
One member from each tribe paddles out into the water on a board to collect one of five keys. Once they have a key, the rest of the tribe uses a giant wench to pull them back in. Once they have all five keys, they unlock giant puzzle pieces to solve the puzzle.
Brain leaves Wai, likely their best puzzler, on the sidelines. The first part of the challenge was very physical, so it makes sense from that standpoint. But everything before the puzzle is simply window dressing. A lead doesn’t mean anything if you can’t solve a puzzle.
And that decision may have come back to haunt them as the Brawns finally crack a puzzle, winning Immunity again.
Pre-Tribal
George remains the clear Public Enemy #1, so he gets right to work. He thinks Georgia should be the one going home. But before he starts working the numbers, he goes searching once again for an idol, advantage, anything to give him a little breathing room. Cara joins him and she ends up finding the idol.
The majority of six is worried that the George group found something. They know they can’t split the vote with a 6-4 split, so they decide to try to pull over one more number. Joey approaches Wai about flipping to their side.
Wai then makes the , shall we say, interesting decision to tell George, Cara, and Baden that she’s considering flipping. What?! That leaves them to scramble and come up with something creative to give their plan some more gusto.
Tribal Council
Though Cara walks into Tribal wearing the idol, she Baden, and George play a little hot potato with it, each taking a turn to wear it. George loads up on complimenting Wai and her character, and it clearly has some level of an affect on her.
We see that Wai votes for George, saying, “You can’t do one thing and expect someone to be loyal for the rest of their time here.”
Cara plays her idol for George. This brings George to tears, as he knows this likely spells the end of Cara’s game, believing Wai to have flipped. The idol negates four votes for George, leaving a 3-3 split between Cara and Georgia. George is beside himself with his emotions as he watches Cara get voted out 6-2 on the re-vote.
HOWEVER
The camera follows Cara down the path as she heads towards Ponderosa, or at least that’s what we think. In one of Australian Survivor’s patented non-elimination episodes, Cara instead finds a torch, fresh buff, and a note telling her while one tribe has spoken, a new tribe awaits her.
Geez. I typically hate non-vote-out-votes when the other players don’t know the person they’re voting for isn’t actually eliminated. This is one of Australian Survivor’s biggest weaknesses, the non-eliminations in general. I’m a firm believer that if you’re voted out, you should be out. But on the flip side, if the players know the person they’re voting “out” – sending them to Exile Island, for example – at least everyone knows what the stakes are. But it takes away most, if not all, of any lingering tension. You know the player being voted for still has life in the game. It’s a tricky balance to strike, and more often than not if falls flat.
That being said, production could not have asked for this one to play out any better than it did. The minority finds an idol exactly when they need it, Cara sacrifices her own game for George’s sake, breaking him emotionally, and she gets to rise from the ashes like a phoenix reborn. As much as I wish Aussie Survivor would do away with these types of episodes, I cannot wait to see how it plays out on Sunday, particularly with how George reacts to seeing his savior still alive in the game.
