After the Noelle vote, Sami has a hole to dig himself out of. The other group is asking him who he voted for, assuming he voted for Karla. He tries to throw Gabler under the bus, but they’re not buying it. And Sami realizes he just has to come out and be honest about it. He tries to play it off that he thought Karla had an idol, and that she would play it so Noelle would go home anyway.
Gabler talks to Owen, who was also left out of the vote. He knows Owen is going to feel betrayed, so he’s being proactive jumping on this opportunity right away. Gabler tells him he has a plan to get Owen further in the game, but we don’t get to hear his plan, as Owen is really down, having voted incorrectly yet again.
The next day, Sami tries to psyche himself back up. He talks to Karla, who tells him she’s open to working with him. She asks him who was the first to mention her name, and Sami lies and says Cassidy. At this point, Sami says he just wants to create some chaos. With Karla having told Cassidy about her idol, she can make herself believe Cassidy may have wanted to target her.
So Karla talks to Cassidy, and Cassidy tells her she wants to get Sami out. She’s worried he’s going to try to sow distrust between the two (nailed it). Karla plays it off nonchalantly, telling her Sami hasn’t been doing that, choosing to keep that part close to vest, at least for now. But back to Sami, I love him going big, trying to create trust by telling a huge lie to Karla. And a huge lie about Karla’s apparent number one connection. We’ll see how it plays out, but I’m all in on him throwing caution to the wind and going for it.
The next day, a boat shows up and leaves a note for the tribe, telling them that an advantage is hidden in the jungle. No more clues than that. And it’s off to the races. There’s a very obvious, not-at-all-hidden envelop tied to a tree, and nobody notices. Everyone walks by time and time again, but don’t nobody takes note of it. Until Cody eventually happens to see it, but it takes him turning to the tree and staring directly at it.
The advantage, called the Choose Your Champion Advantage, allows him to bet on one player at the next immunity challenge. If that player wins, so does Cody. The note tells him it’s the Last Gasp challenge, where the players hold their breath underwater beneath the gates. We see him write down Owen’s name as his bet.
There’s noticeably no downside to this advantage. I don’t know what would make sense for a punishment if you lose your bet. A lost vote seems like too much at this point in the game. There’s no real social downside by not picking this person or that person. And a free chance like this seems a little too much on the other side. But it’s also such a random guess with this particular challenge. There’s almost no real strategy in making your bet. Sure, you probably have enough insight to make an educated guess, but this challenge can always go any number of ways. So with that, I suppose no negative outcome isn’t the worst thing, with how hard it should be to make the right guess.
Challenge
Probst reveals one last twist in the advantage. It will be kept a secret, and won’t be revealed until after the votes have been cast, but before they have been read. So if anyone wants to vote for Cody, they will have to do so knowing he might be immune. I’m not on board with this part. Cody essentially has implied immunity with this setup. With numbers this small, a split vote would be almost impossible to pull off. It’s simply too much of a risk to target Cody given the circumstances.
Cody goes out in fourth, but Owen is still there. It comes down to Owen and Karla, who end up outlasting the tide. This is insane. With the water lowering to the point where they can each breathe again, Probst makes the call to end the challenge, giving both Karla and Owen – and by extension, Cody – immunity.
This was an incredible moment in a vacuum, but it doesn’t leave me with a lot of hope for the rest of the episode. Three people are immune out of seven, plus there are three idols and the Shot in the Dark in play. Thankfully two of those idols are Karla’s and Cody’s so hopefully they won’t see any need to play theirs. Though with Cody not knowing about Jesse’s idol, his playing his idol for Jesse isn’t entirely out of the question.
Pre-Tribal
Cassidy tries to pitch Sami as the easy vote. Karla isn’t opposed, but she’s also worried that Cassidy might start blabbing about her idol. She goes to Sami with this idea, and Sami is (obviously) thrilled. But he’s rightfully wary, knowing how close Karla and Cassidy are.
Everyone seems to be on board, but Jesse has other ideas. If Karla is voting for Cassidy, maybe Cassidy isn’t as vital to Karla’s end game as previously thought. If she’s building bridges with Sami, maybe now is the time to go after Sami. So he talks to Owen about switching the vote to Sami, but still letting Karla vote for Cassidy, driving a wedge between the two. He talks to Cody about it, but Cody is less enthusiastic. He wants to split up Karla and Cassidy, break up that duo. Plus, he points out Sami hasn’t proven to be much of an immunity threat, while Cassidy has.
We notably didn’t see any discussion about whether or not Cody was immune. I’m assuming the working assumption was that yes, he was immune. But I would have liked to at least see someone ask Cody, to see how he handled it.
Tribal Council
Sami tells everyone he’s playing his Shot in the Dark. Karla and Jesse kind of call him out, that it’s showing signs of distrust to do that. And I get the point being made. But it’s also a tricky thing to try to call someone out like that.
Sami does indeed play his Shot in the Dark, and it comes up Not Safe (again). But playing the Shot in the Dark was the right read, as he’s voted out unanimously. Interesting that there was not a single back-up vote.
We’re down to the final 6 and two episodes left! The game really feels wide open still, which is a great feeling to have this close to the end.
