After returning from Tribal, the group of four is in good spirits. Even more so when Maryanne – unprompted – reveals her extra vote. The trend continues.
The next day they go group idol hunting and Maryanne finds the Beware Advantage. Her phrase is “It’s another classic case of the bunny rabbit having dinner in the mailbox.” That is absurd.
Vati
Daniel wants to get another look at Mike’s advantage, so he can get the full details. He didn’t notice the fine print that says the vote penalty would end at the merge, and it would become a full idol. Hilariously, Daniel drops the idol at some point, so when he gives it back to Mike, Mike – predictably and rightfully – freaks out. They go looking, and luckily the find it. Disaster averted. Good for them, bad for entertainment.
Immunity Challenge
Before starting the challenge, Maryanne goes for it and says her phrase. She makes up a story about a bunny rabbit and a mailbox, playing it off as though it’s an old fable that some people might be familiar with. It’s not a bad effort, given how over-the-top ridiculous her phrase is.
The tribes race out to retrieve a ladder off the ocean floor. They climb up to reach a key. Once back on shore, they climb the ladder to unlock sand bags. The have to land the sand bags on a series of five targets.
First two tribes win immunity and reward. First place tribe wins a fruit basket and tool kit. The second place tribe wins a smaller kit and smaller fruit basket.
Taku wins in a complete blowout. Jonathan was an absolute force, carrying the ladder on his own, and even swimming back to help his tribemates get through the water.
The waves were intense and non-stop. Eventually, Jeff stops the challenge and has Ika and Vati bring their ladders to shore. The Survivor Dream Team or those on the safety team (nobody clarifies, doesn’t matter) retrieves the keys for both tribes, and they start again on shore. Ika ultimately takes second place.
Taku chooses one person from Vati to go on a journey, and they send Chanelle. They get to choose one other person, from either their tribe or Ika, to accompany her. They decide to send Omar.
Journey
Chanelle knows how valuable her vote is at the upcoming Tribal Council so she can’t leave without her vote. They talk openly and both say they don’t want to do anything to screw over the other. At the end it’s the same Risk/Protect decision. Based on what Chanelle told him, Omar is pretty confident Chanelle wants to play it safe and keep her vote, so he risks his. But then Chanelle also risks her vote. She gives the classic “I’m playing for $1 million, I’m not here to play it safe.”
Omar completely made the right decision here. Nothing Chanelle said or did gave any indication she would risk her vote. Obviously nothing is a sure thing, but Omar was playing the odds and he played them correctly. Sometimes you lose.
I don’t like how Chanelle handled this. In a vacuum, I don’t mind the risk, even with how important her vote is. But she *has* to know Omar is going to risk his vote, after how she laid everything out. Not realizing that is a huge miss.
Pre-Tribal
Mike and Jenny want to target Lydia. Lydia and Hai want to vote Jenny.
They try to plan around Chanelle’s possible no vote with some convoluted 2-1-1 split vote. But Hai thinks something feels off about how Chanelle’s acting.
Tribal Council
We start Tribal Council with 20 minutes left, so we know something is going down. It results in a 2-2 split between Jenny and Lydia. Only Hai and Daniel can even vote on the re-vote. And we get another 1-1 tie. Hai is beside himself in confusion. And there’s more. Because Chanelle and Mike couldn’t vote, they don’t get to be apart of the final decision-making. It comes down to whether or not Hai and Daniel can come to a decision together. Otherwise, we’re going to rocks.
Daniel starts off by saying he really does not want to draw rocks. Daniel gave up so much power by starting with that. He then gives Hai the opening to strong arm, by saying he’s not going t change his vote, which he does. It ends up working, as Daniel eventually succumbs and agrees to vote out Jenny.
And that’s another strong episode in the books, let’s keep it going 42!
