First, a reminder of who has whom following our redraft:
Second, 5 bonus points to Carol for knowing “Meet the
new loss, same as the old loss” is paraphrased “Meet the new boss, same as the
old boss” from The
Who’s “Won’t Get Fooled Again”. That
classic song contains one of the iconic screams in rock history. Check it out!
We pick back up with the Cursed Vula tribe who, despite
having all new members, found themselves at Tribal again and saw Littlefinger
voted out following Kyle’s perfect hidden immunity idol play. Shauhin is upset that the Golden Girls
alliance didn’t last a single tribal (1 point for “Mention ‘in this game’”
[Shauhin] to Lia!) .
Kyle says he would have voted with them but saw that someone
went through his bag and that sketched him out.
Wow, a totally brutal play by Kyle there, making Lord Baelish’s demise
the fault of his allies. Brilliant! (1 point for “Mention ‘in this game’”
[Kyle] to Angela!)
At the season’s first Reward challenge, they have to throw
sandbags at a rotating target until it releases a bag of balls, then bounce the
balls off a trampoline into a net. Once
complete, they have to roll a ball onto a target. Since the tribes are uneven, we have sit
outs. (2 points for “Volunteer to sit
out a challenge” [Charity, Sai] to Sheila and Dylan!)
As they progress through the first stage, Jeff reminds us
that Survivor is just like real life – when your balls drop you enter a new
stage.
Though Civa hits puberty first, Vula and Lagi quickly tie at
2 sunken balls (I heard it) while Civa is hopeless. Jeff blames Cedrek, calling
him an abysmal failure (3 points for “Jeff says something negative about you
in a challenge” [Cedrek] to Sheila!). Civa
falls behind until Mitch takes over and sinks all three balls in rapid
succession.
They’re all on stage three together, but Lagi makes quick
work of it, winning a trip to the Sanctuary. Right behind them, Vula takes 2nd.
(6 points each for “Win tribal
reward” [Shauhin, Mary, Eva, Kamila, Kyle, Star] to Brian, Lia and Angela!). (3 points each for “Win tribal reward” [Charity,
David, Joe] to Sheila, Iyasah, and Carol)
Mary’s victory excitement is too much for Sai who thinks she
should win with more tact.
Back at Civa, Bianca is freaked that her #1 Littlefinger is
gone. Chrissy sees Sai’s “I’ve done every challenge” excuse as the weak-sauce
it is, and thinks Sai is digging her own grave.
Now that Littlefinger is gone, Mitch says he thinks the “weaken old
Lagi” target logic is fading from Bianca. Really, it’s Sai driving him crazy –
and his getting to know Bianca is a nice person - that’s taking priority.
Bianca sees the options of playing the middle against Chrissy/Mitch and
Sai/Cedrek as a safe way forward (1 point for “Mention ‘in this game’” [Bianca]
to Dylan!)
Sai continues whining about how Chrissy is used to telling
people what to do and thinks her Cedrek/Bianca threesome will be enough to get
her out.
Vula bonds over pastries, coffee and as much milk as David
can drink to the point that Kamila sees the 2-2 vote being a thing of the past
and would love to keep them with her.
That’s all well-and-good until someone loses a challenge….
At the immunity challenge they must swim to shore while
towing a boat as a tribe), then carry a heavy chest up the beach and unbraid 3
ropes to get a key. Then they dig out
the sand to get under a log and get to a chest. The key unlocks a chest containing
four balls. Then each tribe member must navigate a ball through a table maze.
First two to finish have a night off. Losing tribe gets
mocked by me in the Tribal Council portion of the update. Let’s get it on! As Civa and Lagi still have extra people, we
have more sit-outs (3 points each for “Volunteer to sit out a challenge”
[Star, Cedrek] to Angela, Sheila!)
As in the reward challenge, Civa quickly falls behind as
Lagi and Vula finish unbraiding the key about the same time. Kyle gets stuck in
the sand allowing Civa to catch up. Though Lagi got through first, they are all
on the table maze at about the same time.
Vula crushes the table maze!
Civa and Lagi tie up at 2. Mary makes it look easy, giving
Lagi a 3-2 lead, leading Jeff to think Sai feels pressure. When she denies feeling
it, Jeff says she should! Sai taps out and allows Chrissy to sink her ball
putting them even 3-3.
We see Joe several times watching from the side as Eva gets increasingly
flustered. It’s honestly difficult to watch.
Just when it looks like she might completely cr. le, she sucks it up,
picks up the speed and lands Lagi’s 4th ball, earning them immunity.
(6 points each for “Win tribal immunity” [Shauhin, Mary, Eva, Kamila, Kyle,
Star] to Brian, Lia and Angela!). (3
points each for “Win tribal immunity” [Charity, David, Joe] to Sheila, Iyasah, and
Carol)
But the story of this competition is about what happened
afterword.
We, the audience, know Eva is autistic and one of her
triggers is overstimulation. The
frustration she felt, followed by the elation at winning is too much for her.
She cannot calm herself down and bursts into a crying fit. Watching her struggle leaves Joe visibly
pained, like the protective father he is.
When Jeff finally asks him to give her a hug, they race to each other,
and he helps her regain her composure. While it is clear Joe revealed his game
by giving her public comfort, he thinks it’s more important to be the man his
kids want him to be. (1 point for “Mention ‘in this game’” [Joe] to Carol!).
Eva has no choice but to tell everyone about her autism, how
doctors told her she would never live alone, never have a job or any type of
normal life but that her parents refused to listen and helped her to the point
she’s at. (1 point for “Mention ‘in
this game’” [Eva] to Brian!).
This is one of the greatest moments in 48 seasons of
Survivor, and it’s even got Jeff tearing up.
Eva is a hero. Joe is a hero. The only thing missing is their capes and
spandex.
Back at Lagi camp, everyone recognizes that moment for what
it was, and its brought Star around on Eva. She does a total 180 and is now completely,
vocally on Eva’s side, finally telling her about the Beware advantage (which
Eva already knew about, but still). Star
took Eva’s story so deeply to heart that it makes me wonder if Eva reminds her
of someone in her own life.
Now that it is out in the open, her new tribemates help Star
decode the Beware advantage. Once they
have all the letters, it is Eva who comes up with the word that opens the Cryptex. (2 points for “Complete Stage 1 of Beware
Advantage” [Eva] to Brian!) and Star
finally lands her idol! (5 points for “Find hidden immunity idol” [Star] to
Angela!)
But then, in the most shocking moment of the season so far,
Star publicly gives her idol to Eva!
This is my favorite episode.
We don’t have a category for “Someone gives you a hidden
immunity idol”. I’ll add it next season.
I scored it as if Eva had found it. (5 points for “Find a hidden immunity
idol” [Eva] to Brian!)
Over at Civa, Chrissy thinks they did great despite the loss which makes me wonder if she knows that moral victories lead to “The Tribe Has Spoken”
The wheels at Civa begin spinning as voteless Bianca pits
the twosomes against each other. Chrissy and Mitch try to turn Cedrek on Sai
but he didn’t buy it. When Chrissy
tries to “convince” Bianca to vote Sai, the small-but-mighty one keeps her lips
shut about not having a vote. That’s smart but it doesn’t last.
Bianca finally talks herself into telling Cedrek that she
has no vote. Seeing this new
information, Cedrek needs to do what’s best for him (1 point for “Mention
‘in this game’” [Cedrek] to nobody!). This move is so dumb even Bhanu
wouldn’t do it.
At tribal, Jeff asks Cedrek if attending so many tribals
helps you get better at navigating them to your advantage. Memo to Jeff: Last time Cedrek was at tribal,
he voted for his entire tribe (and Sai twice! And she is still here!). I guess getting
better at each tribal is not a thing, for Cedrek at least.
Mitch jumps in when talking about how Bianca is in the
center of the storm (1 point for “Mention ‘in this game’” [Mitch] to Carol!)
but that the vote is more complex
than “We are all twos, she’s a one”. Sai
thinks she can slither into a crack in the other tribe, which is weird because
all she does is complain about them. (1
point for “Mention ‘in this game’” [Sai] to Dylan!).
While Sai is first to vote (3 points for “First person
chosen to vote at tribal” [Sai] to Dylan!). Chrissy thinks the voting booth
is cool. I wonder if she’ll feel the
same way if she’s voted out. I suspect
so.
At the vote, Sai and Chrissy each receive a vote but in a
shocker it’s Bianca who gets the other two! She’s voted out 2-1-1 as Cedrek and
Chrissy both went for her. I get why
Cedrek did. I don’t understand Chrissy’s vote at all! (1 point each for “Received vote against”
[Sai, Chrissy] to Dylan, Iyasah!), (2 points for “Received vote against”
[Bianca] to Dylan!), and (-1 point for “The tribe has spoken” [Bianca] against
Dylan!)
So, what does this
mean for our scores?
Carol remains in the lead, but 2nd place Brian has narrowed the gap from 15 to 8! 3rd place Angela is close behind, just two points out of 2nd. It’s a 19-point gap to 4th place Iyasah who lost quite a bit of ground, thanks to Angela’s Kyle naming the episode and Star FINALLY opening her Beware advantage. 5th – 7th place Shelia, Lia and Dylan all remain in place, though Dylan fell a bit further into the abyss despite Sai’s voting first and Bianca’s votes. Pairing players from the same tribe can pay off…but it’s a risk!
|
1. Carol |
99 |
|
2. Brian |
92 |
|
3. Angela |
91 |
|
4. Iyasah |
72 |
|
5. Sheila |
66 |
|
6. Lia |
65 |
|
7. Dylan |
57 |
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