It’s another night of Survivor and it should be another good one. Will Tyson eliminate himself for his girlfriend (hoping no) and will Colton actually quit (hoping yes)? Those are just a few story lines for tonight and I look forward to what will happen.
I will be back later with my recap and as always please feel free to discuss below.
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According to Twitter this was a crazy episode so I am looking forward to watching everything go down. I stayed away from spoilers (luckily) so let’s get this started.
We open up at Galang there is some peaceful talk and enjoyment. Except for Colton of course who wants to burst the peaceful bubble and force everyone to talk strategy for no reason at all. Colton asks Aras if he is in trouble and Aras says yes but things can change. Colton says he knows his days are numbered and without people rolling with you then you are in trouble. Maybe it would help if you weren’t a total asshat.
Tyson instantly knows that Rachel was voted out to try to target Tyson which Rachel agrees with. Rachel tells him to stay with her tribe because he has a better chance of winning in the end. Tyson puts the loved ones on notice that he is coming for them and Culpepper says that it is the returning players fault for winning so much and celebrating.
Marissa jumps on this since the loved ones continue to vote out their stronger people and says “F*** You Brad Culpepper” which may be the greatest Survivor quote ever. There is some more back and forth and all a sudden Colton is crying. Why I do not know since I thought he loved drama.
He says he doesn’t want to be there anymore and can’t do it anymore. He’s a total waste of space. It just pisses me off so much when people take the chance to be on Survivor and quit. Its garbage and so many people want to play this game and he’s a loser.
Jeff calls Colton out for quitting twice and faking an illness twice. Jeff tells him that Colton promised he had changed and wanted to show everyone and now is repeating his lameness. Colton says that he doesn’t like his tribe and his back is against a wall but his tribe calls him out for being an asshole before he was ever in trouble. Tina calls it best since Colton is quitting because no one will play his game and he can’t win anymore. Basically taking his ball and going home.
Caleb says he is sad because Colton loves the game and he doesn’t understand why Colton doesn’t just play. Jeff says that they brought a quitter back and got a quitter again. Colton basically throws a hissy fit and goes and sits in Caleb’s lap as Caleb tells him to do what he needs to do.
Jeff doesn’t allow him to throw his buff in the urn and basically tells him to get out and don’t let the door hit him. Such a waste of space. There is no way Caleb wins this since him winning will reward Colton and the jury will remember that.
And now we are finally at the Redemption Island Duel. They will need to stack blocks on a platform and watch for trip wires that can knock down the blocks. If the blocks fall they start over. First two to knock down the tiles lock dominoes and launch a ball to break a tile will stay alive and the loser will be the third person out of the game.
Candice is first to try the dominoes and she nails it to win the challenge. Marissa tries it but fails. Rachel hits a trip wire and loses her tile but it is good enough that she would have launched the ball. It goes back and forth. They both launch at almost the same time but Rachel falls short and Marissa nails it to stay alive.
Rachel’s time on Survivor is over but on the bright side she gets to burn her buff. Candice gives a second clue to the hidden immunity idol to her husband John. They are messing this up. John is missing the opportunity to build some trust by getting Candice to share the clue with an alliance mate. I understand why Candice is giving it to him but John is playing a poor game at building trust and it will come back to hurt him at some point.
Back at Galang Tyson gets some hugs for losing Rachel. He plays it tough that he is ok. He says he needs to win it all now because he will regret not saving her if he doesn’t win it all. He says a lot of people take the game too seriously and can’t handle it to just have fun. This is the perfect example of Colton and the tribe all agrees that he quit just because no one wanted to talk strategy at this point when they were winning.
Talk then turns to Culpepper being attacked so much and how awkward it is to be there with Monica watching her husband get attacked as the ring leader. Tyson says that he won’t hold it against Monica that her husband doesn’t know how to play the game.
Culpepper laments that he was called out by people at the duel but says that although he is trying to make all the decisions he is also trying to make others think they have a say. John and Hayden say that they are glad for Culpepper because he knows how to build and lead a team. They say that they couldn’t be dropped off in a better location (except for the fact that they haven’t won anything yet but that isn’t mentioned).
John decides that now is the time to share the clue and he is closest with Brad so he shares the clue with him to try to build back some trust. Right idea but I don’t understand why he wouldn’t just share it with his alliance and not just Culpepper. Of course he then missteps by telling Culpepper to not search for the idol with him. Culpepper says that this will be a litmus test to see if he can trust John.
And it is Tree Mail time and Culpepper gets his wish for a physical challenge. Aras wants to take on his brother because of all the times he was bullied as a kid so is happy to play his brother on a level playing field.
Vytas is looking for coaching from Culpepper and says he needs to beat Aras because Aras was always the golden boy and it made Vytas jealous. This could get interesting.
Immunity will consists of people pairing off in a Sumo Style battle. They will use padded bags to push their opponent off the platform. First to five wins immunity and the reward for comfort of pillows and blankets or they can trade the reward for fishing gear. Galang sits out Monica.
We start off with Culppper and Gervase. It’s actually more even then I expected but Culpepper wins the point.
Next is Katie vs. Laura B. Laura hits hard off the bat but Katie handles it well. Katie isn’t really able to get any offense in and is sent into the water to tie it up.
Aras vs. John starts off with back and forth offence but John pulls off the win. Kat vs. Ciera is a joke as she ties it with one hit. Hayden matches Kats offence by hitting Tyson hard and tossing him in easily. Tyson appears to be hurt and he says he popped his shoulder and can’t lift it. 3-2 lead for Tadhana as medical checks on Tyson. Medical says that he should be able to tough it out and stays in the game.
Mother vs daughter as Tina takes on Katie. It is more physical than I expected and Tina is on the ropes often but pulls off the win to tie it.
Aras and Vytas are ready to take on each other. They talk about their history and this seems really personal. Aras has the eye of the tiger as he takes Vytas to the ground. He plays nice by allowing his brother a chance to reset and start over but Vytas plays dirty and tries to attack when Aras is not ready. It is all the sweeter when Aras pulls off the victory and takes a 4-3 lead. Aras and Vytas make some peace after the battle.
It’s another mother/daughter battle as Ciera takes on Laura. If Laura wins Galang wins the challenge. Laura is crying because she doesn’t want to hurt her daughter but Ciera tells her to go for it. It is not as physical as Tina/Katie but it is back and forth until Laura wins it for Galang. She asks Ciera if she is angry and she says she is not.
A challenge takes on so much meaning and intensity when it is family against each other although I would have liked to see Caleb vs. Colton.
John is upset that Tadhana lost and seems to be read to toss Ciera under the bus for the loss. He does know that Katie also lost twice. They try to play it off as close but Vytas says he was smoked by Aras. The five guys have a joint meeting and it seems like it will be one of the ladies heading home. They seem to agree Ciera will be going which sucks since I choose her to win and going this early would make me look foolish. I want her to at least make the merge because I am fully aware that she won’t win. Her best chance is to ride a coattail to the end and finish third.
But not so fast. As soon as John walks away Culpepper realizes that if John stays in the game and Candice wins her way back in that Candice will then control John rather than Culpepper controlling John. They seem shocked that Culpepper wants to blindside John and says that he knows the clue and there is no way John will find it today since it requires digging. Hayden does a shout out to Big Brother by saying that voting out John could be like opening Pandora’s box.
Culpepper tells the girls that they need to vote for John because if it is not John then it will be one of them. He then comes up with a crazy idea that he will be the only one to not vote for John so if he gets back into the game Culpepper could maybe get him back onside with them. Vytas is smartly having none of this and says that for him to do it that it has to be all or nothing. The move actually outs a target on Culpepper’s back as now thanks to that idiotic move Brad is now on the chopping block.
Somehow the girls have escaped danger and it is John or Culpepper going home. It they are smart it would be John. I could see him letting Candice win in the end to get back into the game and I think Monica would step out for her husband so a strong player could possible move over to Galang. That would be too risky and I think someone like Vytas would see that possibility since he seems to be playing a few moves ahead of others.
We are off to tribal council and Jeff points out that the guys got the points. Katie and Ciera say they were embarrassed to lose to their moms and feel bad for losing for their tribe.
Talk then moves on to whether there is a Guy’s Alliance. They undersell it as being more about trust then gender. John says that Candice knows that having the clues would put a target on his back but that he needs to know how to handle it himself. Vytas says that he is happy that he doesn’t have the clues but is also really glad an alliance mate has them so that it can be used to help the alliance.
Hayden says that it would depend on the clues on whether John as the idol. He admits that John has not shared the clues but he has to trust John.
Culpepper then continues to be a horrible talker by saying that everyone has to lie and at the end of the day there can only be one winner. It’s a true statement but did not need to be voiced at any point before the final tribal council to justify how you player. He really needs to start thinking before he just speaks.
It is time to vote and it is a blind side since no votes are shown. Let’s see what happens.
Ciera gets the first vote and that is followed by three votes for John which makes him realize it is all over for him. He gets one more and his torch is snuffed as he joins his wife and Marissa at Redemption Island.
I understand why they wanted John out but the timing makes no real sense. They lost a strong and smart player and it could hurt them in the next few challenges since they are not able to sit anyone out and Galang can sit out their weakest females for an advantage. Since they can also sit out a guy now Tyson can rest his shoulder if needed. It was just a good move down way too early in the game. Jeff put it best when he said that they were playing for the future but made their tribe weaker now.
Next Week Brad thinks he is in control of the game but controls to get called out by those at Redemption Island and next week it looks like he will be yelling back. See you next Wednesday!