We open with Cody rehashing how he got the beads from the rest of the tribe just in time before Tribal Council. With this now back to the normal 60 minute time slot, this seems like something that could have been included last week, with the extended 90 minute block.
But getting to the game, Jesse remains wary of Dwight. He worked all last episode of trying to get Dwight on board. But if that work is going to be all for naught, Jesse realizes Dwight might need to go next. For Noelle, the Justine vote confirms her place on the tribe – the bottom. She speaks to Dwight, as they know they have to maybe begin working together. They’re only a group of two, but they don’t have any other strong bonds to work with right now.
Baka
There is still drama surrounding Gabler’s idol. After going through his bag, Elie and Jeanine know his idol is good for one more Tribal Council. But they aren’t sure if Gabler knows that. That’s an honest to goodness conversation these two are having. Gabler has the literal piece of paper that explains exactly how it works. They’re basically insinuating he either can’t read or doesn’t have basic reading comprehension. This is hysterical. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like this.
Coco
Coco is in full celebration mode. They’re eating good, and celebrating James’ birthday. They have avoided Tribal Council so far, so spirits are high. But then James straight up says he wants to spend his day looking for an idol. Dude, come on! But it’s Karla who finds herself with some alone time, and takes the opportunity to go hunting, where she finds Coco’s Beware Advantage. But she decides to put it back. She played it safe at Risk or No Risk journey, and she plays it safe here.
I was always curious to see how Survivor players would approach the Beware Advantage in this season (and moving forward), now that they know how it works. They may not know the specifics, but they have the basic idea. Knowing your vote is probably at risk should make you at least take more time with your decision.
Back at camp, Karla talks to James about what he would do if he found the Beware Advantage. She starts to second guess herself, leading her to go back and take it. It’s the same Friendship Idol Bracelet that Cody had on Vesi. I was assuming that would be the case, but you never know.
She gets James’ bead easily, saying she wants to make a bracelet for her wife’s upcoming birthday. She gets Geo’s, though it took a little more work. Then she trades one earring each to Cassidy and Lindsay for their beads. She barters with Ryan, getting her last bead. That was way too easy. I liked watching her think through it and figure out how to approach each person differently. Either the bead thing isn’t as hard as Survivor production thought it would be, or the two people to find it so far were just the perfect two players.
Immunity Challenge
One by one, three players from each tribe leap off a tower into the ocean and swim to a stack of crates. They climb the crates and dive off the top back into the water to retrieve a key. Once they have all three keys, the remaining two players use the keys to unlock puzzle pieces to a turtle puzzle.
They’re also playing for a reward of a large tool kit and fruit basket for first place, and smaller tool kit and smaller basket of fruit for second.
They keys were attached to buoys underwater, which is nothing out of the ordinary. But the buoys seemed way easier to release than normal. Just a simple clip. Usually they have knots or something else to make it a little harder. Not a big deal, just an observation. Seems odd during this “new era” of Survivor that is supposed to be more difficult.
Elie and Jeanine dominate the puzzle, securing first for Baka. James and Lindsay stage an impressive comeback, overtaking Vesi for second, sending Vesi right back to Tribal Council.
Before sending the tribes back to camp, Jeff has one last piece of business. We’re back to the journey. Baka gets to choose one player from Vesi to go on a journey. They choose Noelle. They choose James from Vesi and Owen from their own tribe to accompany Noelle.
Risk Or No Risk
Noelle is rightfully apprehensive about being away from her tribe. Not only does she have Tribal Council coming up, but she was on the wrong side of the vote. Missing out on this time with her tribe is critical. From the audience side of things though, this is great. We get a great “personal package” from Noelle detailing a little bit about how she lost her leg and battled back. On the back of seeing her kick ass in the challenge, she continues to do nothing but impress. And not just from a physical standpoint. Her outlook and life is just incredible and has to be commended.
When they get to the decision. Owen and James decide not to risk to allow Noelle to get the advantage. They both feel pretty solid with their place in their tribes, and are looking at playing the long game with Noelle. Build trust now, (hopefully) link up after the merge.
Pre-Tribal
Nneka and Dwight talk about the vote. Nneka says she won’t leave Cody and Jesse, and the thought of voting out Noelle literally makes her cry. She seems to be leaning Noelle, but she’s not coming off as very decisive.
Cody and Jesse are thinking Nneka has to be the one to go. They’ve now lost two challenges in a row, and they have to start winning. But the hang-up is the bond they’ve made with Nneka. I think they have to target Noelle over Nneka. If the three of them are as tight as they say they are, they’re safe for this vote and the next. And if they go to Tribal as a threesome, Cody and Jesse can protect themselves and vote Nneka out then. Winning challenges doesn’t necessarily mean much if you’re winning with players you can’t work with.
Upon returning to camp, Noelle gives it the hard sell that she didn’t risk her vote and came back with nothing. It looks like they bought it, but she was going in pretty aggressive with it. We don’t see any confessionals to suggest it, but it looked like she might have oversold it.
She decides to share her advantage with Dwight, revealing she received a Steal A Vote. With her and Dwight potentially being on the wrong side of a 3-2 split, this could be huge. They’re hoping the vote is Nneka, but if they get the feeling that Jesse is going to turn it back around and target Noelle, she’ll steal his vote and she and Dwight will go after Jesse.
Tribal Council
When it gets down to the nitty gritty, Noelle chooses not to play her advantage. And she had the correct read, as Nneka is voted out 4-1. Good on Noelle for making the correct read. That can never be in easy position to be in, and I can only imagine how easy it would be to get jumpy and play it “just to be safe.” And not only that, now she has close to all the power in her tribe, if not all of it. Looks like she maybe just flipped her spot in the game in a single episode. Things could be looking up for Noelle.
On the other side, Cody and Jesse maybe did the same, only for the worse. Sure, had they gone after Noelle, she might have sniffed out their plan, but hindsight here is nothing more than results-based thinking (if you know one thing about me, know that I hate results-based thinking). I don’t see how Nneka was the right choice. They had a tight three, you need to keep that! I guess we’ll see what kind of fallout comes from this vote.
