Chanelle bemoans the fact that she was on the wrong side of the first merge vote. She talks to Hai to hopefully firm up their relationship. Hai tries to calm her fears by telling her it was the last minute scrambling, that he didn’t leave her out on purpose. To her credit, Chanelle recognizes this as a wake up call. She’s got some work to do if she wants to get back on that inside track.
Mike continues trying to make genuine connections on the island, this time with Omar. Mike asks him about his Muslim faith, and it clearly has a very positive impact on Omar’s perception of Mike. Feels like a potential winner’s moment…
Reward Challenge
Split into two teams, they leap into the water and swim to a platform, maneuvering a buoy through a series of obstacles. Once they have all five buoys, they shoot them into a basket. They’re playing for PB&J and potato chips back at camp.
Before the challenge begins, we see Jeff hide a Beware Advantage on the sit out bench.
Blue: Lindsay, Chanelle, Mike, Rocksroy, Tori
Orange: Jonathan, Hai, Omar, Romeo, Maryanne
Maryanne draws the gray rock, leaving her out of the challenge. But Drea offers up her spot for Maryanne, saying she doesn’t like PB&J.
Drea finds the advantage and takes it.
On the back of -who else – Jonathan, Orange completes a comeback, winning reward.
Reward/Camp
Drea’s advantage from the challenge is actually just a clue to an advantage, hidden close to the water well. The only “Beware” part is that it’s so close to a place where everyone goes. Which is dumb. But then, when she finds it, she reaches her hand into a hole, covering her hand in red paint. Now that’s something I can get behind. At first, the Beware part seems like it absolutely sucks, but then pivots to this. I love it. What I don’t love is what Drea finds: the Knowledge is Power advantage, allowing her to steal an idol or advantage from another player. Booooo.
Tori notices remnants of the paint on Drea’s hand. Drea tries to play it off that she was painting the tribe flag. But Tori sees that there isn’t anything painted yet on the flag. Tori also thinks she sees something in Drea’s pants, and that Drea is covering her bag, as if she’s protecting something.
Immunity Challenge
Stand on a perch, holding a buoy between two poles. Last one standing wins.
Jeff gives them a choice of trading competing in the challenge in exchange for an individual portion of rice. He also gives them the choice for “enough” people to sit out of the challenge to get enough rice for everyone for four days.
Jeff pushes for six people to sit out, but eventually says he’ll settle at four. Maryanne, Lindsay, Drea, and Omar all end up sitting out.
It comes down to Jonathan and Tori, and Tori wins her second consecutive immunity. Jonathan, once again, shows he may not be the ultimate challenge threat he seems so obviously to be. Yes, he’s superhuman in the team challenges, but he might be extremely beatable in the individual challenges.
Pre-Tribal
Mike and Hai get right to work, angling for Chanelle, with Romeo as the split. Romeo doesn’t feel comfortable going into the vote. He was left out of the previous vote, so he’s not sure who he can work with going forward. He also realizes how calm everyone else seems to be. With so many people left, and so many competing relationships and alliances, more people should be nervous.
But Romeo’s nerves may be getting the best of him. He starts scrambling, but is a little sloppy, coming off as super paranoid instead, stirring up chaos in the process. But to be fair, he is the decoy vote. Sure, his actions may say “paranoid,” but it’s absolutely warranted in this situation. When Hai says Romeo “was genuinely safe,” that’s not exactly true. A split vote option is by definition not safe. Sure, he was maybe safer than Chanelle, but it wouldn’t take much for the vote to fall on Romeo. In any event, Omar and Hai start working on switching the vote to Romeo.
Mike, on the other hand, doesn’t want to change the vote. He wants Chanelle out, and he wants her out bad. Even though we’re heading into Tribal Council with a little uncertainty, it’s still not all that interesting. There are no competing alliances here, no middle swing vote. The only debate is between who is the primary vote and who is the split vote. So unless two Shots in the Dark get played successfully, it should still be a pretty straightforward vote.
Tribal Council
Nobody plays their Shot in the Dark, and Chanelle is voted out, becoming the first member of the jury.
This was a solid episode, nothing special. And that’s totally fine. Not every episode has to be a banger. But I still have my eyes open for a massive drop of multiple advantages and idols played at once. Hopefully not, but the longer we go without them, the stronger the possibility.
