Kaleb is riding high after his Shot in the Dark play. But still, all other 11 players voted against him (Austin sacrificed his vote to get his Beware idol to a fully powered idol). He has some serious work to do. He knows there might be some people he can trust, who maybe only voted for him so as to be in the majority from the jump.
Bruce confronts Katurah about her being on the fence about wanting to vote for Kaleb. But he does it in front of other players, putting her immediately on the defensive. As if Katurah needed another reason to target Bruce.
Katurah takes this opportunity and runs with it. It starts with Kaleb, who at least makes it seem like he’s coming around to Katurah’s side of thinking. Kellie and Kendra talk on their own about whether or not they want to keep Bruce. Kellie is a little more hesitant, just because Bruce sees her as his number one. At least, that’s what he’s telling her. But even if she’s not his true number one (and she very well may be), he does value her partnership in the game.
Jake is excited that Kaleb made it through. He likes Kaleb and wants to continue working with him. But he also wants to work with Bruce, and he knows Kaleb and Bruce don’t exactly see eye-to-eye. But Bruce does not want to work Kaleb. He knows what Kaleb is capable of, and wants him out. Kellie and Jake talk at the water well. They agree they want to keep Bruce, but they see the writing on the wall. It’s obvious to them that the rest of the tribe is souring on Bruce.
Immunity Challenge
We have a classic Survivor challenge! Except, it’s wasted on the stupid, pointless split tribe “twist.” Climb a pole and hold on as long as you can. An epic challenge that I love to see back. But not like this. Not like this. I hate the 6-6 split so much. There’s no point to it. It puts players in a corner where it’s harder to make any moves. It’s stupid and terrible and awful and pointless. And also stupid.
As usual, the 12 are split into two groups. The winner of each group earns immunity, with each group voting one player out. The ultimate winner also earns a reward for their group, a visit to the Survivor Sanctuary. In addition, that group goes to Tribal Council second.
And there’s also a new twist. The player voted out first will not make the jury. At first blush, I’m not a fan of this. I like that the show is trying something new, but this seems unnecessarily unfair and arbitrary. If they want to use that twist, just make it a regular individual immunity challenge. One winner, one vote, and that person misses the jury. The show has had the first merge boot miss the jury before; this would be no different.
Kellie wins for Blue, Dee for Red. Dee crushes it, seemingly easily outlasting Kellie, earning reward for the Red group, and forcing the Blue boot to miss out on the jury.
Reward/Pre-Tribal
Kaleb would seem like the obvious boot from the Red group, but Jake is going to do whatever he can to keep Kaleb around. In a perfect world, he would vote Dee, but obviously can’t. That makes his next best option Julie, who everyone knows is tight with Dee.
Austin also doesn’t want to get rid of Kaleb. He wants to keep him around as big threat. But Dee isn’t having it. She wants to vote Kaleb no matter what. Jake is playing along like a good little soldier, but he has absolutely no desire to go along with that plan. He and Kaleb want to bring in Katurah. They are assuming a 3-3 tie between Julie and Kaleb, and want to target Austin to flip on the revote.
As Jake explains their plan, the show does a first. It shows small clips of the upcoming Tribal Council, showing a vote or two each for Kaleb and Julie. I kind of like it? But I also kind of hate it? It obviously didn’t spoil the result, or even if there will be a tie. And sure, at this point it feels set in stone that the vote will be between these two, but to take all suspense out of that? I like the swing with something so different. But I hope it doesn’t become a normal thing.
Kaleb and Jake both tell Katurah – separately – about Bruce’s idol. She still likes the 3-3 plan, but now isn’t so sure she can trust Jake and Kaleb, after learning they kept the idol knowledge from her. But she also doesn’t know Dee, Julie, and Austin.
Over with the Red group, Drew is considering using his Safety Without Power. Except for one small, tiny detail. He left his bag bag at camp, and their group was sent to the old Lulu beach. Come on my dude! Rookie mistake! You always bring your bag everywhere you go. Fate might be on his side, though, as Bruce is starting off as the consensus vote. But Bruce senses this, plus he has his idol.
Kellie talks to Kendra about making Sifu the vote. They know there wouldn’t be much love lost with Sifu gone. Kendra really wants to take Bruce out, and Drew is on board with that.
Tribal Council
Red
Bruce opts to not play his idol, and he read the vote correctly, as Sifu is voted out 5-1.
Blue
Kaleb is voted out, with Katurah siding with Dee, Austin, and Julie. Kaleb gives Katurah a death stare before leaving. This feels a bit shortsighted by Katurah. Yes, she took the guaranteed safety at this vote. But how does this set her up going forward? Are Dee, Julie, and Austin really going to work with her? She might have been at the bottom of the old Belo group, but she’s definitely at the bottom of any new group she jumps to.
Even worse, the most likable player is now gone. There are several fun personalities left, but Kaleb was in a class by himself.
But! Survivor Auction is back next week! We’ll see how production messes it up, but let’s be hopeful until then!
One quick scheduling note. Likely no blog recap next week, and our episode for Talking Llama will be out on Friday rather than our usual Thursday.
