Episode 4
Blood
Back at Blood camp, Dave finds himself clearly on the outs, after his fumbling Tribal Council performance. On the one hand, he’s the easy next vote. But on the other, he could be such an obvious option that the vote could swing to another player. But what’s best for Dave in the immediate future is to avoid Tribal Council (I mean, duh, but if Dave wants to rebuild trust, he’ll need time to do that).
Water
Khanh is feeling himself right now. He’s got the cooking down, so he has the goodwill there. That’s not a game winner by any means, but any goodwill helps. He’s also forming positive bonds with most everyone on the tribe. And he has his idol, which he still hopes can someday turn into the super idol (whoops). Mark has been working with Khanh, but realizes how dangerous he is becoming. He wants to flush Khanh’s idol, while still hopefully keeping their working relationship alive.
Reward Challenge
Dave sticks to his word with Khanh and removes his hat, signaling to Khanh he played his idol.
In a series of one on one battles, the tribes face off in a trench. They race to to a bell on the opposite side, while also trying to stop the opponent. The first player to ring the other tribe’s bell wins a point. First to three points wins a morning tea reward.
Mark faces off against Croc in the first matchup, and Mark straight up dominates Croc. Nothing important here, just that Mark is an absolute beast.
Blood wins the reward in a tight 3-2 fight. They also get to pick one person from Water to join them on the reward and they choose Shay.
Reward
With Shay visiting, there’s the usual emphasis on gathering as much information as they can about the other tribe. I’m super impressed with Sam’s perspective on this whole thing. With Shay coming, it would be easy for any player to become jealous that Ben got to spend time with his loved one. But Sam knows taking Mark away from his tribe could easily do more harm than good, also acknowledging that emotions can be dangerous in a game like Survivor.
But on the other side, credit has to go to Shay as well. She came into camp and focused on talking to other players, not just Ben. I think I would tend to agree more with Sam’s perspective here, but it sure seems like Shay made the most out of her opportunity.
Immunity Challenge
The tribes open a heavy gate to release a boat. They paddle out into the water to retrieve a set of puzzle pieces, which they. bring back to shore. The challenge finishes with an arched word puzzle. After lots of tumbling blocks, with people getting knocked around (always a crowd pleaser), Water wins their second immunity in a row.
Before sending the tribes off, JLP tells Water they will be attending Tribal Council to watch.
Pre-Tribal
Dave remains the easy choice. Sophie, who sees herself as the leader of the tribe, takes it upon herself to whip the votes. She pulls the numbers without any hassle, which makes sense. Everyone seems keen to get rid of Dave as soon as possible. But Sandra’s not so sure. And not because she necessarily wants to keep Dave around, but because of how Sophie and her guys are acting. In the water, Sophie, Ben, Jordan, and Croc dictate to Sandra to write Dave’s name down. So obviously this makes Sandra flip the target around onto Sophie.
Sandra brings in Michelle and Amy, but then lets Amy work on the remaining votes. She wants any potential blame to come back onto Amy, while she just sits back and reaps the rewards. Sam and Jesse are the last two brought on board, with good reasons to go with either plan.
But with Sophie’s confessionals this episode, it seems pretty clear that she’s going home. Every confessional has been about how she’s in control, how she has these unbreakable bonds, how she’s so confident her plan is going to work. Those types of comments get said every episode, but showing her with so many feels like a little bit of overkill.
Tribal Council
Sandra and Amy’s plan works to perfection…except that this Tribal was a patented Australian Survivor non-elimination. Sophie is voted out of Blood, and joins Water right away at Tribal Council. I’m definitely not a fan of the non-elims, but I’ve grown to accept them in the world of Australian Survivor. One of the biggest issues I had was that it’s an unfair twist to the players. Unfair in a way that the rest of the game isn’t. But at this point (earlier than this season, if we’re being honest), these are clearly part of the game. Players need to know to plan for these. There are probably only a very few Tribal Councils that you can feel completely safe in assuming it’s a traditional one. And here, with the other tribe present, I’m sure the players at least discussed the possibility. So as far as non-eliminations go, I didn’t hate this one.
Now with Sophie united with her sister KJ, they could present both opportunities and danger for the sisters. They’re an obvious pair, which makes them an obvious threat. Any time someone switches tribes like this, they can be seen as an easy vote. That’s only amplified in a Blood V Water season when that person joins forces with their loved one. Sophie was talking a big game this episode; let’s see how she backs it up after this.
Episode 5
Water
Sophie is ready for revenge with her second life on the Water tribe. Revenge can only take you so far, so we’ll see how long before she gets her focus back where it needs to be. KJ is excited to be with her sister, but is also wary of how that dynamic will shake out. Does this put a target on her back? Or Sophie’s? Or both? KJ is worried (and apparently rightly so) that Sophie will come in guns blazing.
Sophie talks to Mark and Nina about Sam and Sandra’s role in her vote. I hate how Sophie is handling this. All she’s doing is giving them reason to vote her right back out.
Blood
Sandra, Sam, Amy, and Michelle talk about trying to find a way to communicate to their loved ones to vote out Sophie. They know she’s pissed off, and they know what she is potentially capable of. It’s in many players’ best interests to get Sophie out as soon as possible.
Croc, Ben, and Jordan get to work trying to re-establish their position in the game. Croc and Jordan talk to Sandra, who gives them advice, but it’s nothing ground-breaking. Work on repairing relationships, gather numbers. Basic stuff. But she describes it in such a way that you feel like they think she’s doing them a favor. She’s the best.
Reward Challenge
It’s a Survivor classic. One on one battles, with padded bags. Knock your opponent off the deck into the water to win a point. First tribe to three points wins a cheese platter reward.
Mark faces off against Jesse in the first round. Mark asks Jesse about Sophie, who replies, calling her a snake. Love it. Use these little moments to gather information.
Once again, it’s Nina vs Sandra in the rubber match. Nina wins, securing the reward. And of course there’s another twist. Water will be visiting Blood tribe to enjoy their reward.
Reward
Sophie confronts Jordan, pissed at him for…reasons? She accuses him of now sleeping with the enemy. But it’s still so early in the game. Jordan, as he says, “needs to cover his arse as well.” KJ sees this happening and doesn’t like what she’s seeing.
Sophie then pulls sam away for a chat. “A good blindside, I don’t care about that, but that one hurt.” Um, I don’t know, it sure seems like you care quite a bit about this. And it makes sense, but you have to learn to control yourself. Sam’s mission to get Water to finish the job now goes full force.
Immunity Challenge
Everyone holds onto a heavy log, which are all connected together. You can drop out, but that just serves to add weight for everyone else to deal with.
Eventually the players have to switch to one hand for the rest of the way. Blood immediately starts dropping like flies. It comes down to Ben vs 8 on Water. And Ben, somehow, miraculously pulls it out. Unbelievable. What you would likely think to be a boring challenge to watch turned out to be really awesome. You love to see it.
Pre-Tribal
To nobody’s surprise, everyone comes back to camp with Sophie as their top choice. KJ knows Sophie is the target, and tries to swing things. But she’s not really doing a good job at all about pleading Sophie’s case. She also has to be careful to not push too hard, to avoid drawing heat on herself. She wants the others to at least consider blindsiding Khanh to get a dangerous player, and an idol, out of the game.
What’s interesting is that Sophie, who was so confident that she had all this influence on her new tribe, isn’t doing anything on her own behalf. When filling Chrissy in on the plan, KJ tells her they’re going to try to convince Khanh not to play his idol. You don’t need to convince him! He has no plans to do so! Leave it alone.
What’s super weird though, is that the split plan seems to settle on Khanh, Shay, and Sophie. They include Shay so she plays her idol. Which would make sense, if Shay wasn’t in on the plan. What?? You know what’s going to make Khanh suspicious and more likely to play his idol? Shay playing her idol when, in his mind, there should be no real reason for her to do so.
Tribal Council
After the entire Tribal Council, when it comes time to vote, Alex asks the tribe to vote him out of the game. He hurt his back right away in the game, and it hasn’t really been getting better. I hate this. Quit or stick it out. Don’t put that on your tribe like this. But when the tribe refuses to vote him out, Alex decides to quit.
I hate seeing quits. But I don’t knock Alex for quitting. By all accounts he was in a great spot in the game. Everyone clearly loved him, evidenced multiple times. For him to still come to this decision couldn’t have been easy. It sucks.
Episode 6
Water
Sophie is reveling in surviving another Tribal Council, but nothing she did played any part in her safety. But at least to her credit, she fully realizes she’s on the bottom, so she has to get to work. She decides to approach Khanh about working together. She pitches her (unexpected) partnership as a way to help Khanh hold onto his idol for a little bit longer. But Khanh’s not having any of it. He knows she’s on the bottom, and he wants her to remain there. Good thing for Khanh that everyone else – minus KJ of course – also wants Sophie gone at the next opportunity.
Blood
Sandra is busy plotting. She still believes that Dave voted for her at Tribal Council, even though it was Sam. So that means she’s gunning for Dave. But Amy might have other plans. She trusts Dave, but is “shit-scared” to go against Sandra. Even still, though, she starts laying the groundwork with Dave to make a move against Sandra. But Sandra knows what’s going down. She sees that Amy and Dave, along with Jay, are forming a tight threesome.
Reward Challenge
They face off three on three. They start on opposing ramps, before racing to the middle to grab a ball in the water, trying to get the ball to the top of their ramp. First tribe to three points wins a club sandwich reward. Water wins reward, and this is an absolutely BRUTAL challenge for a reward.
Blood
Sandra and Sam continue to firm up their plans to break up the Dave/Jay/Amy trio, wanting to take them out in that order.
A big idol hunt gets underway between the two factions. Amy finds an unusual pole, which she thinks has something to do with an idol. Sam and Michelle soon notice it as well, but Amy manages to find and get the idol without them noticing.
Immunity Challenge
The tribes divide into swimmers and shooters. One by one, the swimmers swim out to climb up a net on a cliff base to collect a ball. They bring the ball back to the shore, where their tribemate shoots the ball into a goal. The first to five wins. Water pulls out the win.
Pre-Tribal
Sandra continues her crusade to get rid of Dave. And Amy smartly wants to target Sandra. Though she for some reason says Sandra is under the radar. Nope. It’s literally not possible for Sandra to be under the radar.
Michelle gets her first confessional! She talks about what Sandra has taught her, including the really unknown strategy of keeping immunity idols secret. It’s here we learn that Michelle actually in fact saw Amy find the idol, and she tells Sandra this. Sandra fills in Jessie, Jordan, and Croc. They start forming a plan to split the votes on Jay and Amy, assuming that if Amy were to play her idol, it would be for herself or Dave.
Jordan tells Amy everyone else knows about her idol. He wants her to stick around so they can potentially work together later on. But then he doesn’t take this opportunity to try to work with her? Not sure what that was about, unless he just felt so helpless on the bottom that he didn’t want to rock the boat and risk getting the vote flipped to him?
Tribal Council
Sandra blows up Amy’s spot, coaxing her to reveal her idol to the entire tribe. Sandra perfectly lays the groundwork to make Amy think about playing her idol. Have you heard, Sandra is really good at this Survivor thing? And Amy does indeed play the idol, playing it for herself. She negates her three votes, but it doesn’t matter, as Jay is voted out 4-3 over Sandra.
Wrap-Up
Well folks, another week, another solid showing from our Aussie friends (and Nina and Sandra, of course). I’m loving where the show’s going. Similar to the first week, it’s maybe a bit heavy on idols, but I’m okay with it. There have thankfully been no twists yet, save for the non-elimination episode, which hardly even counts as a twist anymore. All in all, it’s been fantastic, and I can’t wait to keep the train rolling next week.
