This season of Survivor is really coming into its own. After last week’s absolutely wild and chaotic episodes, this week was a bit more back to basics. But it was still another great stretch of episodes, highlighted by the 12th episode. We all must bow down to Queen Hayley (if you haven’t already).
Episode 10
After blindsiding Shannon, Simon gets right to work trying to solidify a working relationship with Hayley and the rest of the original Brains. With Flick now on the bottom, she makes the likely next target. But Hayley has other plans. She wants to bring Flick into the Brain alliance, to get rid of Chelsea, Dani, and Simon.
Reward Challenge
Georgia is still with the medical team, and no decision has been made yet as to whether she is fit to stay in the game. Still ridiculous that this is a rule.
This is a challenge we’ve seen several times before across Survivor editions. Three members from each tribe hold a pole on their shoulders, with weight added at regular intervals. Last person left standing wins reward for their tribe. Playing for a taco reward. The Brain tribe pulls out the win, on the backs of Kez, Gerald, and Emmett.
Reward
During the reward, Georgia returns from her medical immunity. This is a pivotal moment for Laura and Rachel. While the three of them are still the clear minority, having a group of three now protects against a vote split.
Immunity Challenge
The tribes push a heavy sled under a cargo net, and then climb to retrieve sand bags from an overhead ledge. They throw the bags through a net tunnel, before finishing using a slingshot to fire the bags at five targets.
Brawn builds a big lead, and it’s enough to hold off a strong comeback attempt by the Brains, sending Brains to Tribal Council.
Pre-Tribal
As the majority can’t split their vote, they have to settle on one person. Georgia is the consensus. Georgia obviously realizes she’s at risk, and speaks to Emmett about other options. She know he won’t go for another Brawn, so she pitches either Cara or George. She paints them as untrustworthy and unpredictable. And of course she brings up Cara’s mistake vote sending Big D out of the game. While Emmett likes the logic behind the idea, he thinks continuing to work with George and Cara is the safest path for his game at this point.
Rachel, Laura, and Georgia realize they’re not swaying Emmett, so they change to talking to Kez about flipping. Kez still harbors heavy distrust towards Cara, so she wouldn’t be opposed to seeing Cara go. George and Cara are also viewed as the two (physically) weakest players, and Kez puts lots of value on that.
The thing is, though, Kez flipping would only tie the vote. She would have to bank on someone in her alliance flipping on the re-vote or would have to be willing to go to rocks. I completely understand her reasoning for wanting Cara gone, but the stars simply aren’t aligned right now for this move. I hope Kez can see that, (especially, selfishly, with her being my winner pick). She’s in a great position in the game right now. Assuming no more swaps before the merge, she has a cakewalk into the merge.
Tribal Council
The competing alliances make their respective pitches to Kez. Thankfully she sticks to her guns and stays with the majority, sending Georgia out of the game on a 5-3 vote. Had it only been a one player difference, I do think Kez would have flipped here. But even then, I still think it would have been the wrong move. Sticking with Emmett and Gerald is her ticket, at least for the time being. They’re both obvious physical threats, and both seem to be legitimate social threats.
Kez falls under both categories as well, but she should be able to use both of them as a shield, at least for a little while longer. They’re also her close allies! They have her back. She very well may have to flip on them at some point down the road, but oftentimes, the “easy” or “boring” play is still the correct play. And that’s the situation I see Kez’s game in right now.
Before getting into Episode 11, please take the time to read this thread from the Australian Survivor Twitter account. Georgia relays the story of her hospitalization and time out of the game. You can like or dislike the rules of the game, but that all gets pushed to the sideline when it comes to the players’ health and well-being. I hope I can speak for all fans in saying we’re beyond happy to hear Georgia is on the other side and doing better.
Australian Survivor takes the health and safety of our contestants very seriously. During filming, Georgia became ill and subsequently required hospitalisation. pic.twitter.com/0SxtN9TaLG
George is really feeling himself after his alliance sent Georgia home. He gleefully runs through all his enemies that’s prevailed against. Just Rachel and Laura are left. He’s sounding supremely confident, but he needs to be careful. It’s when you feel the most comfortable that the game – and a blindside – can sneak up on you.
Hayley continues doing Hayley things, working to ingratiate herself with Simon and Dani. She straight up asks Dani when she sees herself making a move against Simon. Dani reveals that she has a plan in mind for how to go about it, code named “Sandra Bullock” after the movie The Blind Side. Average movie, incredible name. What kind of witch superpowers does Hayley have?! For someone so aligned with Simon to just so easily give up a massive plan like that? She is something else.
On Day 22, the players all receive letters from home. In Hayley’s letter, her boyfriend Jimmy includes a message indicating he’s planning to propose. Hayley’s time on Survivor just keeps getting better!
Back in game mode, Emmett is taking note of the potential for George and Cara to leave them and align with Rachel and Laura, giving them a majority instead. He wants to make sure to get rid of Rachel and Laura asap. And if that can extend to George and/or Cara, even better. He and Gerald aren’t necessarily going to throw immunity challenges, but neither feel too concerned if they were to keep losing them.
Immunity Challenge
Four members of each tribe slide a series of blocks to untangle ropes which releases a key. The whole tribe pushes a giant box through a tunnel, where they use the key to unlock three rings. They work the rings up and over a pole to release bags of balls. They carry the balls through a mud pit, and then roll them down a beam into a bowl.
Brawn wins in a slaughter. The Brains didn’t even the slide puzzle. I don’t know if Emmett was full-on throwing it, but he certainly wasn’t giving it 100%. It’s hard to speak in black and white terms in Survivor, especially when it comes to throwing challenges (just ask Drew Christy). But this doesn’t seem like the worst time to lose.
Pre-Tribal
The power five decide Rachel is the vote. Once again they have the numbers to split the vote. You’d have to assume Cara wouldn’t make the same mistake again, but it would be hard to blame someone for letting that get in their heads.
Rachel and Laura pitch George about him and Cara flipping to vote out Emmett. George isn’t swayed, but he already had that idea himself. George wanted the three guys to vote Rachel with Kez and Cara voting Laura. This was intentional, as it leaves George an opening to switch his vote and vote out Emmett. With the split vote, he doesn’t need Cara to flip with him to make the move.
This is a great move by George. In a different season, other players might have caught on to George’s plan. But this season has given the impression that it’s not filled with as many fans as some other seasons might be. It’s kind of like Natalie Anderson in San Juan del Sur. She got away with some big, a little riskier moves because of who she was playing with. It’s no less credit to George (or Natalie). If you realize the players with you aren’t necessarily caught up strategically, you have to take advantage of that.
Tribal Council
George decides to stick with his alliance, and Rachel is voted out by way of a 3-2-2 vote.
Episode 12
After voting our Rachel, Laura is firmly in an alliance of one. But while she may be down, she’s not out. George believes himself to be on the bottom of the power five. So he speaks to Laura about potentially working together. But. Why now? If he actually thought that, why wouldn’t he have taken his shot at Emmett when he had the chance? By all accounts, now the best he can hope for (sans an idol or other advantage) is a 3-3 split. But I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
Meanwhile on the Brawn tribe, Simon is waxing poetic on his position in the game. He’s got two idols, he’s in a very strong alliance, he’s proven himself to be a leader and a challenge beast. He’s feeling great about his spot in the game. And he should, but he just might be getting a little too confident and too comfortable. This is magnified when he reveals to Chelsea and Dani that he has two idols. Dani views this as the potential moment to cut Simon out.
Reward Challenge
The tribes row out to collect six rings. After getting back to shore, they toss the rings to land them on paddles to spell out REWARD.
They’re playing for a trip to the Survivor Candy Store. Brains win reward, with Simon once again closing it out.
Reward
YES! It’s an individual reward. They go one at a time into the store. So you know there’s something *extra* hidden there. Idol, advantage, clue, something is for sure there. George knows this, so he deftly picks a longer stick when they draw for the order. But instead they go shortest to longest? Why?
Cara finds an advantage. It’s a VIP ticket to Tribal Council, where she and another person of her choosing can attend – and VOTE at – the next Brawn Tribal Council. This was a bit disappointing, as Cara wasn’t even looking. She didn’t seem to have any idea that this would even be a possibility. Only Laura and George seem to make a point of looking for something besides food.
Brawn Camp
Dani tells Hayley about Simon’s two idols and her desire to vote him out because of it. She’s even willing to throw the next challenge to make it happen. Hayley tells everyone else, and they’re immediately on board with blindsiding Simon. The entire tribe seems to be on board with throwing the challenge. This is a case where I might be okay with that decision. But the two idols has to be worrisome. If he senses even a hint of a move against him, he can play one just to be safe, and he’ll still have one left. Should make for an interesting Tribal if Brawn loses.
Immunity Challenge
Standing on beams, each player pulls on a rope, suspending a disk. They have to balance six balls on disk, each on a pole standing up on the disk. Simon *volunteers* (!) to sit out of this challenge, thinking balance might not be his strong suit.
Brawn could not have asked for a better situation to throw a challenge. Even if Simon hadn’t sat out, this looked like an incredibly difficult challenge. It would have been a very easy (relatively speaking) time to mask their throwing of the challenge. And it works, as Brawn successfully loses the challenge.
Before heading back to camp, Cara plays her advantage, choosing herself and George to attend Tribal. I’m not a huge fan of this advantage, but I’m very pleased that Brawn knows those two will be attending and voting. As always, Survivor isn’t fair, but throwing something like that at a tribe last minute would be too much. So at least there’s that.
Pre-Tribal
Simon talks to Chelsea and Dani about voting out Flick. She’s voted against him before, and he believes she’ll flip right back to Gerald and Kez upon a merge.
Hayley is on board with the Simon vote, of course. But she is obviously worried about Simon playing an idol. The rest of the group wants to put all their votes on Simon, rather than splitting. If Simon plays an idol, his one vote could send Flick out of the game. But that doesn’t work for Hayley. She wants Dani to be that collateral damage in the event of an idol. She, Baden, and Andrew settle on voting for Dani, with the hope that they’ll be able to find time to talk to George and Cara and get them to vote for Simon as well.
Tribal Council
Simon has lots of talk about how he’s always nervous, you never know what can happen in Survivor, and even says, “Everyone loves a blindside.” And yet he doesn’t play an idol! Speaking like that, maybe it was more for show, and he actually did have complete trust in his alliance. I mean, he would have to, to not play an idol, right? But what gets me most is the addition of George and Cara. He couldn’t have really had any idea where their votes were going. True, it’s only two votes, but you just never know.
And just like that, Simon is voted out 6-3-1. And to his credit, he takes it in all in stride. He leaves with a smile on his face, and even gives JLP a hug on the way out. I’m going to miss Simon. He was a big character and flashed some chops. He was a ton of fun and I hope we see him on the next All-Stars season.
With the merge coming on Sunday, I cannot wait to see where Hayley takes her game next. She’s been playing the best game so far, and it’s not even close. The question then becomes, who will notice and how long will they wait to take action? And how will Dani react to seeing her name written down as a split vote here? Hayley will maybe luck out with the merge possibly providing some cover. But there will likely be some damage control to be done back at camp before then. And damage control as in not admitting it and hoping Dani will make some false assumptions, maybe helping her make them herself.
Lastly, the great Nick Iadanza made this great point about Hayley on Twitter. It’s not something I had noticed, but now that he mentioned it, he nailed it.
Hayley often volunteers for the bench, yet she is undoubtedly one of the strongest players.
To be willing to abdicate your position in those decisions lowers the attention on you massively, especially when so many people clamber for attention at challenge time.#SurvivorAU
Subtle moves like this can go a long way in the game. Entering merge without being seeing as a threat, physical or otherwise, can be a massive advantage. It’s doubtful anyone is going to be looking at Hayley as one of the bigger challenge threats early on. That could provide just the amount of wiggle room she needs. Even though Kez was my winner pick, I don’t know how I can root for anyone but Hayley at this point. Bow down to the Queen.
