Coco debriefs back at camp after the Lindsay vote. We learn that the larger group did clue in Geo and Ryan that Lindsay was the vote. But Cassidy is a little uneasy, as she received the one rogue vote. Geo confesses to placing his vote on Cassidy, as a potential safeguard if things went sideways. Geo feels no love lost with Lindsay, especially because he still believes he has the numbers, and Cassidy doesn’t really have anywhere to go. However, Karla and Cassidy are busy laughing at that notion, happy to let Geo and Ryan believe the Lindsay vote was, in any part, “their move.” Geo doesn’t see it, but he’s in trouble.
Baka
Elie and Jeanine go searching for the idol, and Jeanine finds Baka’s Beware Advantage (hidden in a bug-filled tree, gross). Before making her decision, she takes it to Elie to discuss the best move. Jeanine and Elie mention again that they’re in a good position to vote Gabler. BUT GABLER STILL HAS AN IDOL THAT IS ONLY GOOD FOR ONE MORE TRIBAL COUNCIL! She restates that they still aren’t sure Gabler knows this. Unbelievable.
Jeanine and Elie make the extremely smart and definitely not terrible decision to read the note at the WATER WELL. Literally the one place that anyone could come to at any time. And what do you know, but Owen wanders up right at this moment. The two girls have no choice but to let Owen in their discover.
Elie goes to Sami, and says, “This is kind of Jeanine’s information to tell you, but she found the Beware Advantage.” Love it. Absolutely love it. So now everyone but Gabler knows about this.
Gabler becomes the last holdout on the beads, and everything is complicated as he had been saving beads to make bracelets for his daughter. He initially notes his “special” bead as one he had earmarked for his daughter. But Jeanine offers to trade back the first two he gave her in exchange for that one, giving Jeanine her idol. Immediately after this, Sami takes Gabler to the beach and reveals what just happened.
Now seeing all three tribes go through the new Beware Advantage, I think I’m out on the beads. It was fun the first time, but maybe that was just because Cody is amazing. It seemed incredibly easy for all three players to get the beads, so the second and third times through ended up being kind of a nothing burger from a TV standpoint. Karla’s social navigating was impressive, but she’s been a pretty clear social threat the whole time. It didn’t reveal anything new. And for Jeanine, everyone but Gabler was involved, so they couldn’t really say no if they wanted to.
It’s still wildly better than the dumb phrases from 41 and 42, but the Beware Advantage still needs some work. Now, it still could pay off if anyone still has their idol come the merge. It will be easy for Cody, Karla, or Jeanine – and anyone who knows about the beads – to spot who has an idol. I’m not generally a fan of making this information easily known, but fireworks could result from it. Not holding out a lot of hope, but we’ll see.
Immunity Challenge
Four tribe members start the challenge tied together. They must navigate through a series of obstacles, and then grabbing a bucket to fill with water. They then cross a giant teeter totter, then pouring whatever water remains into a new bucket attached to a gate. They repeat this until the second bucket has enough water to lower the gate. At the finish, they must roll three balls up a ramp, landing them on the top of the platform without rolling back off. They’re also playing for a tarp reward.
Vesi takes the first win, with Baka coming in for second.
Vesi chooses Geo and Jeanine to go on the journey, with Jesse going as their representative.
Near the end of the challenge, Ryan had just one ball left, then zipped the third ball up towards the other two, knocking all three off the platform. It seemed like a horrible throw, but after the challenge, Ryan has a confessional where he says he did it on purpose so they could vote Cassidy out. At this point, it seems to be a decision he made on his own, which is always risky. I don’t know about you, but if one of my alliance partners wanted to throw a challenge, that’s a plan I need to be involved in, or at the very least aware of. Not everyone is willing to take that risk and willingly go to Tribal.
Row Row Row Your Boat
Instead of a hike this time, the trio gets to take a row boat. When I’ve said I want the show to change up this part, this is not what I had in mind. I don’t care about the mechanics of how they get to the decision point – hike, row boat, whatever. It’s the actual decision-making that’s lacking excitement.
Geo tells Jesse and Jeanine that he’s definitely risking his vote. Jeanine doesn’t fully believe Geo that he’s as up against it as he claims to be. Jesse isn’t thinking about Geo’s position; he’s just unsure if the risk is worth it for his own game. In the end, all three risk their vote.
Results
Jesse tells his tribe the truth, and decides to open his scroll with everyone, revealing he lost his vote.
Jeanine reads her note in private, learning she also lost her vote. She then goes to her tribe to open her note for the “first time.”
So we now know that Geo claimed the advantage. It’s just a matter of how he handles it.
Pre-Tribal
We learn first thing from Ryan that threw the challenge on his own. He feels supremely confident that his Cassidy plan will work. Exceeeept, James tells Cassidy right away about Ryan’s plan to vote Cassidy, with Ryan as the decoy vote. Cassidy and James discuss making Ryan the actual target, feeling pretty certain that an idol or advantage wouldn’t be used on him.
Cassidy goes to Ryan, saying she doesn’t want to vote him (bs, obviously). And Ryan, oh my goodness Ryan. He tells Cassidy to vote for Ryan, so that if the plan is Ryan, she remains on the right side of the numbers and doesn’t hurt her game moving forward. This is hilariously bad gameplay. Could not be more here for this.
Upon returning, Geo tells everyone he played it safe, but tells his alliance the truth. He tells Karla first, and learns he now has the Knowledge Is Power Advantage. Karla, having the idol, is now worried that Geo could use the Knowledge against her. James is on board to switch to Geo, but Cassidy wants to stick with the Ryan plan. They have flashbacks to literally the last Tribal Council with Lindsay, and feel like they could be in the exact same situation. Not the place you want to be in right before Tribal.
Tribal Council
Thankfully, Karla and James stick with reason and vote out Geo. Cassidy looked please with the result, so she must have come around fairly easily on switching from Ryan to Geo. But this was the smart play. Had Karla and James actually gone after Cassidy (though to be fair, that definitely felt like an obvious red herring), it would have been very short-sighted. Same with Cassidy had she stuck too strong to the Ryan plan. Geo was the clear vote, and I’m glad the trio saw that and followed through.
