Joey is riding high after the Cara vote. He has a few confessionals early on talking about how he’s on top, he’s running everything. While it’s true, it makes me nervous that these kinds of constant confessionals are setting him up for a fall, sooner rather than later.
George confronts Wai about her flipping. She gives her reasoning as being she felt like she was just being taken along for the ride through George’s strategy. She also felt uncomfortable with the constant chaos caused by George. Wai wants to enjoy her time. I get the sentiment, as George himself pointed out earlier to Baden, you don’t have to like each other, you just have to work together. It doesn’t bode well for Wai if these sorts of emotional queues can sway her so easily.
The Brawn tribe welcomes Cara into their home with open arms, as you would expect. She’s thoroughly enjoying herself. Some of that has to be from having an unexpected second life in the game. But a good chunk is definitely the environment and energy, which she connects with right away.
Cara is going to be a critical number in the tribe moving forward. If Simon can pull her to his side, will in turn give new life to his game. But if Shannon’s alliance gets to her first, it would solidify their majority power. I don’t like the non-elimination twists, but the positive it brings is that it does shake up the game in fun and unexpected ways. I would prefer to do away with them, but at least this one is shaping up to be a net positive.
Reward Challenge
The Brain tribe is – as expected – surprised to see Cara walk in with the Brawns. George is overjoyed to see her still in the game, even going so far as to tell the original Brawns he hopes they can finally hear what it’s actually like at the Brain tribe. George, my guy, you’ve got to learn to keep certain things to yourself. Yes, he’s already on the outs, but these kinds of comments can only serve to further alienate him, making it even more difficult to earn any favor back.
Each player holds a rope attached to a heavy barrel. You can tap out and hand your rope to another player, and you are then out of the challenge. First person to drop loses the challenge for the tribe. They’re playing for a “good old fashioned Aussie barbecue.”
Cara sits out and Shannon is the first from the Brawn tribe to trade off her handle. She takes the opportunity to further make a play for Cara to join her alliance.
In what can only be described as a big upset, the Brains actually win this challenge, earning their first reward of the season.
Reward
Joey and Baden have a quick conversation about potentially working together. Hayley sees them, and she’s worried she’s going to get outplayed by bigger players. She wants to make sure she has her chance to outwit, and seems itchy to make a big move. If the Brains lose immunity, it could spell doom for Joey.
Brawn
Simon knows how critical Cara is to his life in this game. He’s seeing the kind of person she is, so he knows he has to approach her in the correct way. He knows there has to be an emotional connection, and he has to be strategic in how he works it. So what does he do? He asks Cara how old women are when they go through menopause.
What??? I have to believe there was something before this that we didn’t see. That this question didn’t come as out of the blue as what we saw made it seem. But the edit cuts in right as Simon asks the question, so who knows.
Immunity Challenge
The tribes race up a ramp to collect ropes. Two players use the rope to build a bridge for the rest of the tribe to cross. They then climb a tower and retrieve an idol, before racing under cargo net to collect more rope. To finish, four players use the rope to hoist the idol, balancing on a disk, up to a hook.
Before the challenge starts, Jonathan tells everyone that there is an idol at the course, hidden beneath the big, main Survivor logo.
To no one’s surprise, George breaks away first to look for the idol, and Hayley and Gerald follow soon after. Hayley ends up finding it.
Both tribes work on the final step, but Brains just can’t quite get a technique down, and Brawn pulls out the immunity win.
Pre-Tribal
George – of course – is the main target. Joey once again declares Georgie is going home. But where have we heard that before? He doesn’t have an idol, but Hayley does, and just a quick reminder that earlier this episode Hayley said she’s looking to make a big play. And with Joey making even more comments about being in charge and being the puppet master, it seems like the show might be hinting at a Joey blindside.
George doesn’t go down without a fight; not that anyone would expect him to. He makes his pitch that getting rid of him is an emotional choice, not a strategic one. He offers up that Wai and Rachel are weaker than he is in challenges, and that he can still provide value to the tribe.
Hayley considers taking out Joey, and plans to do so without using her idol. She talks to Baden about working together to flip the game by voting out Joey. Her next steps are getting Rachel, Wai, and George on board. However, she heads to Tribal without having found a chance to talk to George about her plan.
Tribal Council
Hayley’s plan works to perfection, and Joey blindsided, voted out 5-3-1. It was unquestionably an impressive move by Hayley. She had to pull in another alliance member in Rachel, convince Baden it was a legitimate plan and not just a ploy to throw them off, had to get word to George at the last minute, and had to convince Wai to switch sides on a second consecutive vote. And she had to do all that without anyone else getting wise to her plan. So kudos to Hayley and a move well executed.
The one main reservation I have behind the move is timing. This would be the seventh vote, a swap would likely be coming soon – and it is indeed coming in the next episode. She could easily find herself on the outs right after making the season’s biggest move. But she has her idol. Perhaps that gave her a little more confidence to pull the trigger now. There’s also still so much game left to play. Could a high-profile move like this put a big target on her back? It’s especially of concern with Hayley, as she’s been playing mostly a quiet, yet effective, game up until now.
But I still come down in favor of the move. Hayley saw her chance and she took it, and it literally could not have gone any better. Sure, she’ll have some damage control, maybe more maybe less depending how the swap shakes out. But no matter what, I can’t wait to see how it all plays out.
Episode 8
While talking to Rachel, Laura finds an out of place rope a little ways away from camp. It leads her to an idol. Unfortunately for her, George had been following her and he sees her find it.
This also now makes four idols (!) in the game. So, Australian Survivor, I ask you this. What happens if, at the final 5, four idols are played and the fifth person wins immunity? How the hell does that work? I’m assuming production was playing the percentages and banking on all four idols not making it that far, but still. The possibility exists. As curious as I am as to how that would play out, let’s still probs avoid that altogether.
Let’s Mix Things Up
The tribes arrive at what they probably assume to be a challenge, but JLP drops those three epic words, “Drop your buffs.”
Simon talks to his fellow original Brawn members Shannon, Dani, Flick, and Chelsea about sticking Brawn strong. He reveals that he has an idol (but not that he has two) in hopes they can rally around that plus their potential natural majority.
Brain
George is thrilled to be united again with Cara, of course. They pick up right where they left off, with Cara bringing George into her alliance with Gerald, Emmett, Kez, and Big D. Simon actually has a couple very astute points. He doesn’t necessarily trust George, but he trusts Cara’s belief in him. And he knows it’s better to have George on his side, calm and under control, versus having him on the opposition, causing constant chaos. George could not be happier. After scraping and clawing from Day 1, he finally finds himself in a position of power.
Immunity Challenge
In pairs, six tribemates carry six balls through a series of obstacles to a pontoon. The three remaining tribemates maneuver the balls through a maze.
Brawn lands five balls before Brain can even finish the obstacle course. The huge lead proves too much and Brawn finishes off the easy win.
Pre-Tribal
George lays out his plan for a split vote. With their 6-3 advantage, it should be an easy plan. They split the vote between Rachel and Georgia. On the re-vote, they’ll vote out whoever is not saved by idol, or Rachel if the idol is not played. Simon needs to clarify the vote split plan with George. He even says it sounds too complicated, that it should be simpler than this. What???? Some of the other players don’t quite seem to fully understand either. In what should be one of the most straightforward split votes you’ll ever see, things are feeling less certain than you would like.
Tribal Council
So. George’s seemingly simple vote split plan turned out to be anything but. It was supposed to be three votes on Georgia and three votes on Rachel. If Laura plays the idol on either of them, the other goes out on the re-vote. If she doesn’t play it, or if she plays it on herself, Rachel gets voted out. Essentially, Laura’s idol is powerless. She should either play it on herself or not at all.
So what does Laura do? She plays her idol on Rachel, negating the three votes cast against her. It shouldn’t matter, as Georgia receives three votes, resulting in a tie with whoever Rachel, Laura, and Georgia vote for, who turns out to be Big D. They then vote out Georgia on the re-vote.
Except. That’s not what happens. Georgia receives two votes, and Cara, for some reason, votes for Laura. The minority of three is able to vote out Big D on an absurd 3-2-1-0 vote. My head almost exploded watching this play out. A 6-3 majority should result in one of the easiest vote splits you’ll come across. But this new Brains tribe (“Brains in name only” as King George says) just couldn’t get it together.
What also bears mentioning is how Laura, Georgia, and Rachel approached the vote. Laura discussed her idol and who she should play it on, as if it made any difference. In this case, she got beyond lucky and it did make a difference; it made all the difference, in fact. Could be an unfair edit, and Laura did in fact know what dire straits they were in. And that’s how I would lean. But we can only go off what we see.
But once again, it shouldn’t have. Laura should have played it on herself, given that there’s essentially a 2/3 chance she’s part of the vote split. Or she could have gone big and not played it at all, hoping that the split would be between the other two, or that she wouldn’t be the main target. Then she still has an idol to play with. Risky, yes. But a potential play.
Based on their reaction, I’m still not sure those three realize what happened. We’ll see in the next episode, but first reaction is they honestly believe they made a good play and didn’t survive by maybe the luckiest stroke of luck you’ll ever see on Survivor. Here, again, it could just be the result of an unfair edit, and that has to be the most likely scenario. But going strictly off what we were shown, it seems like they maybe didn’t fully grasp what just happened.
Episode 9
Immunity Challenge
Twist! Rather than tribal immunity, they’re playing for individual immunity. Two from each tribe will win immunity. Both tribes will go to Tribal and both will vote someone out (remember this wording for later). The four winners also win a champagne reward.
The players race through a rope obstacle and go up over a wall. They then have to find another player to work together as they cross over a beam and over a gate and across a tight rope. To win, they have to land two sand bags on a table.
Andrew and Wai win immunity from Brawn, Emmett and Rachel from Brains.
Reward
Rachel suggests to Emmett they vote out Cara next. Emmett, obviously, agrees to that plan. Rachel seems to take him at his word. Of course he’s going to say yes to that plan in this situation! Sure, maybe he’s telling the truth. Cara did make a massive mistake and she can be voted out while their group still maintains their majority. But still, Rachel needs to have a little more game awareness.
Brains
Georgia is temporarily removed from the game, as she had been sick for a couple days. News to me, but apparently players can be taken out of the game for 24 hours without forfeiting their spot in the game. This is the first I’ve ever heard of that, so I don’t know if that’s unique to Aussie Survivor or if other versions have the same rule. I believe it’s just Australia, though, for what it’s worth.
But, um, super hate this. She gets a free 24 hour pass where she can’t be voted out. If you’re at the point where medical has to remove you from the game, you should be out of the game. Someone else is going to be voted out of the game, while she has the medical team attend to her. It’s absolutely nothing against Georgia. It’s not her fault, obviously. The rule is just flawed.
Emmett and Kez discuss a game plan, and they both agree getting themselves plus Gerald to merge is their top priority. Emmett just wants to get rid of as many original Brains as possible.
Brawn
Hayley reveals her idol to the rest of the tribe, but with a twist. With both Andrew and Wai immune, the majority can only vote for her or Baden. She says she’s going to paper, scissors, rock (rock, paper, scissors, let’s be honest; but that’s what she said) to determine whether the idol gets played for her or Baden. She basically made her own version of the 50/50 coin Michele had in Winners at War. I love this.
Hayley’s goal is obvious. Nobody wants their fate in the game left to a 50% chance. The plan seems to work, as Shannon speaks to Simon about taking out Chelsea. Simon tells her he’s on board, but immediately goes to Chelsea and Dani to fill them in. They decide to turn the tables and target Shannon.
Shannon and Flick approach Hayley and Baden about voting Chelsea, while Simon, Chelsea, and Dani do the same about voting Shannon. Get some Hayley! Holy crap. My girl is having herself a week!
Tribal Council
Laura and Shannon are voted out by their respective tribes, but there’s another twist. Only one of them will be eliminated. The four players who won immunity – Andrew, Wai, Emmett, and Rachel – must come to a consensus decision between Laura and Shannon. If they can’t reach a unanimous decision, Laura and Shannon go to a fire-making challenge.
Andrew and Rachel vouch for Laura, with Wai and Emmett siding with Shannon. But after Simon reveals Shannon’s plan to vote out Chelsea, Wai and Emmett are swayed to switch to voting Shannon and saving Laura.
I hate this. I’m here for the wild stuff and I’m (almost) always down for chaos, but this was too much. This feels like Survivor production trying too hard to come up with some grand new idea. The immune players get their regular vote and then have literally all the power to determine who goes home? Four players out of 16? No thank you.
That being said, it still made for compelling television. I can’t lie and say I wasn’t audibly gasping and making other random, incredibly unappealing and unattractive noises while this was all playing out. My hands were on my head in shock and bewilderment. So from that perspective, it was an effective twist. But this was too much at once. For one time, sure, I’m okay with it. But I hope this doesn’t become a recurring twist for Survivor, Australian or otherwise.
And I need to end with once again, holy crap Hayley! She lays low for the first couple weeks before exploding this week, cementing herself as one of this season’s strongest players. The big thing here, though, is the Australian format, being a longer game. Did she expose herself too early? From what we’ve seen, the rest of the players don’t seem to recognize what a serious threat she is. But after her idol maneuvering in the 9th episode, that may change. I hope not, as she’s become a super fun and fascinating player to watch and I hope she sticks around for a good long time.
