A new episode of Survivor airs tonight on CBS. Read a live recap here.
The episode begins with the Ua tribe returning to camp after tribal council. Genie is upset she was left out of the loop. She was the only one to not vote for Brad. She’s aware she’s on the outs of the tribe, but Shan tries to do damage control. She tells Genie about all of Brad’s advantages; she uses this information to justify voting him out. JD is surprised to hear about Brad’s advantages, and he’s bothered that Shan withheld this information. His trust was previously questioned for keeping his extra vote advantage a secret, but Shan has been withholding information too. Shan explains that it was Brad’s information; it wasn’t her secret to share.
It’s time for the reward challenge. They must toss a ball through a series of obstacles. The first two tribes to land their balls atop a wooden frame will win reward. The first placing tribe will have a visitor at their camp to teach them how to live off the land. The second placing tribe will win a single fish to share. The challenge begins, and Heather puts the Luvu tribe far behind. Eventually, Ua is the first to finish the challenge. Ua wins reward, and they are followed by Yase. After the challenge, Heather breaks down in tears. She apologizes for her performance in the challenge, but everyone tells her it’s okay and to not beat herself up over it.
The Yase tribe members are in good spirits after enjoying their fish reward. They are proud of their teamwork and success in the recent challenges. Back at the Ua tribe, they are impressed by their visitor who gathers coconuts and hunts fish for the tribe. He manages to catch three big fish for them, which Shan calls “striking gold.” Meanwhile at the Luvu tribe, Erika and Deshawn talk game. Luvu has yet to attend tribal council, but Erika is eager to start playing the game and voting people out. She notes Heather didn’t perform well in the challenge, but she’s iffy about Sydney. She says Sydney is too impulsive and reactive. Erika brings up the possibility of targeting Sydney, and Deshawn is agreeable. However, Deshawn is closer to Sydney than with Erika. Deshawn thinks Erika is too sneaky, and he runs back to Sydney to share this information. Sydney is surprised Erika is targeting her. She says Erika must be jealous. “They hate me ’cause they ain’t me,” Sydney says. Deshawn, Danny, and Sydney talk game, and they are contemplating throwing the upcoming immunity challenge to vote out Erika. Danny understands the reasoning, but the competitor in him is unsure if he can follow through with that plan. He wants to win.
It’s time for the immunity challenge. They must race through the water collecting three bags of logs. After they collect the logs, they must push the logs through a tunnel and then collect rings. They must then toss the rings onto posts. The first two tribes to land all their rings will win immunity. The challenge begins, and Luvu takes the lead even with Danny and Deshawn trying to move as slowly as possible. Yase is struggling despite Deshawn and Danny’s effort to throw the challenge. Deshawn even ties knots instead of untying knots, but Yase is still in last place. The other Luvu tribe members are putting enough effort to keep them in first place. Luvu is the first tribe to reach the ring tossing portion of the challenge. Deshawn goes to toss the rings, and he repeatedly misses on purpose. Ua and Yase eventually catch up, and Naseer takes over for Deshawn. Xander lands the final ring for Yase. Yase wins immunity! It’s now a showdown between JD and Naseer, and Naseer lands the final ring for Luvu. Luvu wins immunity! Ua will go to tribal council tonight.
Ua returns to camp, and Genie shares with JD that she’s planning to roll her die tonight. The die could earn her safety, but she will lose her vote if she rolls it. JD tries to talk Genie out of rolling her die, and he shares what Genie said to Ricard. Meanwhile, Genie tells Shan that she wants to vote out Ricard tonight. Shan tries to shut that down, and she wants to sway Genie into targeting JD instead. Shan comes up with a plan to try to get JD’s advantage. She wants to prevent JD from using his advantage, so she pretends that she’s paranoid that JD is coming up with a plan to go against her. Shan eventually gets JD to agree to give her his advantage as collateral again. Now that Shan has JD’s extra vote advantage in her possession, she’s contemplating voting out JD tonight to keep the extra vote advantage for herself. She’s torn since she has grown close to JD, but voting him out would be a big move.
It’s time for tribal council. Jeff says this is a turning point for the tribe. Ricard says it hurts their feelings to vote each other. Shan agrees they have grown very close. Genie says she is playing from the bottom. She was blindsided by the vote last time. She’s scrambling, but she doesn’t know how she can believe anyone. Genie thinks it’s going to be a 3 – 1 vote against her. She thinks the die in her pocket is the only thing she can control right now. JD tries to dissuade Genie from rolling her die. He says she could ruin the game of someone willing to work with her. JD says there is still a lot of game left for him to play. He’s not ready for his Survivor game to end yet. Genie says she will miss her tribe members if she’s voted out tonight. Everyone agrees that they have all bonded from the time they spent together. Afterwards, it’s time for the vote. Genie does not choose to roll her die.
Jeff reads the vote. The first vote is for…
Genie
JD
JD
JD
JD is the fifth person voted out of Survivor 41. He is blindsided and asks for a reason. Shan just says they love him before he gets his torch snuffed and walks away.
And that wraps up tonight’s episode of Survivor. Thanks for reading and come back next week for another live recap.
