Yam Yam breaks down the Sarah vote with Carolyn. He’s downtrodden after being left out of the vote. He had been working with Carolyn all game, but now can’t be sure of where he stands with her. And now Carolyn finds herself between two allies. She still likes Yam Yam, but feels working with Josh might be better for her game long term.
Yam Yam continues to try to mend fences, this time with Josh. Josh doesn’t trust Yam Yam, but Yam Yam (correctly) points out that they both lied to each other. Josh makes a fake idol and shows Yam Yam a piece of paper to further solidify his lie. (Awesome, another fake idol…).
Yam Yam might have found an in on the personal side of things. They have a really nice discussion about their coming out stories. Josh definitely feels connected to Yam Yam, but is wary of being driven too strongly by emotion. He seems to have two good options to move forward with.
Ratu
Matthew’s shoulder is still giving him problems. You know, from when he fell from a rock in the first episode. I feel bad for the guy, sure. But the sympathy only goes so far. He tried to climb a slippery rock face for basically no reason whatsoever. It didn’t happen during a challenge, he wasn’t trying to decipher an idol clue. Yeah, it sucks for him. But it’s all on him.
Meanwhile, Ratu newcomer Carson is feeling good about his new position in the game. He’s especially connecting with Kane, the two self-proclaimed nerds are coming together.
Soka
Jaime continues to be completely full of herself. She considers herself to be the most valuable person to every single person in the game. It “blows her mind” that Matt isn’t jumping to work with her. She even tells Frannie that she’s not so sure about Matt, that she doesn’t think he’s very effective in the game. And yes, that’s the same Frannie who is incredibly close to Matt. Who has been the entire time.
Immunity Challenge
The tribes are tied together and race through a series of obstacles, getting to a bucket. They fill the bucket with water and carry it over a hinged platform, where they pour it into another bucket. They repeat the water portion until the second bucket is heavy enough to release a gate. The challenge finishes with a table maze, done simultaneously with by two tribe members.
Ratu finishes first, with Soka finishing second close behind. Ratu chooses Brandon from their tribe, Danny from Soka, and Carolyn from Tika to go on the journey.
With Matthew having sat out of his second challenge in a row, and his shoulder still a problem, Jeff has him stay behind for medical to take a look. The doctor is worried, because it doesn’t seem to be getting any better. But it’s not a point – at least yet – where he feels he needs to pull Matthew from the game.
Journey
Brandon, Carolyn, and Danny find that there is no game waiting for them. Instead, they get to hang out for a bit in a little gazebo like shack, while enjoying s snack. Carolyn tells them about Josh’s pre-merge-only idol, so Danny and Brandon both realize Jaime has the same idol. Brandon and Danny have an instant connection, but don’t include Carolyn enough. It’s great for them that they liked each other right off the bat. But wow, that looked like some poor social play by basically ignoring her (at least based on what the show decided to show us).
Pre-Tribal
Yam Yam tries to convince Josh that Carolyn is playing them both against each other, and that maybe voting her out is the right move. Josh wants to wait for Carolyn to come back, and let her talk to each of them, and then have them compare notes on what she told them.
Back at camp, Carolyn wants to go straight back to Yam Yam. At the journey, Danny and Brandon agreed Josh was someone they would want to work with come merge. As Carolyn realizes she wouldn’t be included in their potential merge group, it gives her a good reason to vote out Josh.
But for some reason, she tells both Josh and Yam Yam about what they said. So of course Josh tells them both he’s playing his “second” idol. However, when he shows them the idol and the paper, it starts to fall apart. Yam Yam recognizes the beads Josh used as the beads from Tree Mail It even starts to come apart as Yam Yam looks it over. And Carolyn feels certain the note Josh showed them is the exact same note he showed her just a couple days ago.
Josh fully realizes Carolyn wants him out of the game, so he seems fully on board the “vote Carolyn out” train. But Yam Yam isn’t sure he can trust Josh, with the fake idol and all that.
Buuuuuuut. Shortly before leaving for Tribal, one Mr. Jeff Probst arrives. He tells them Matthew chose to leave the game to get his shoulder properly attended to. His bad news his Tika’s good news, as they no longer have to go to Tribal Council.
And with that, we have the best episode of the season, so…yay? The season highlight not even having a vote out isn’t exactly high praise, but at least we weren’t inundated with a thousand idols and fake idols and advantages all over the place. And next week, we see a maybe-merge. Remember, the note on the expiration idols went out of its way not to say the word “merge.” It was (not verbatim, but something along the lines of) “when the three tribes are living on the same beach.” It certainly feels like a Survivor: Thailand fake merge situation. And we all know how that was received…
