Last Week
Scot, Kyle and Nick feared an all-female alliance. Nick wasn’t particularly discrete in approaching Julia about the possibility of that happening, leaving Cydney extremely irritated and motivated to rally the girls to take Nick out.
Her plan to give Nick the boot worked, leaving Scot and Kyle stunned.
Post-Blindside
“Girl power, huh?” Tai says to the remaining ladies on their way back to camp following Nick’s departure.
“Well, the girls pulled a good one,” Scot told cameras, expressing that Nick wasn’t the only one to feel blindsided.
The men are clearly not happy with how last week’s plan collapsed beneath them, and the alliance of former Brawns is down to Scot and Kyle.
They round up Tai to discuss what when down by the fire and immunity idol strategy.
“They don’t know I have it,” Tai says about the girls.
They then decide that it’s time to strike back, and let the real game begin.
Every Man For Himself
The next morning the girls wake to find that the tools they typically use to bust open coconuts have disappeared (spoiler: The guys hid the tools in an effort to make their lives more difficult).
“The main reason for sabotage is to weaken them,” Scot admits. “I’m hoping that it switches things up.”
When Debbie and Cydney figure out a way to crack coconuts without the hidden tools they make sure to vocalize how they did so with ease – meaning they are not going to let missing tools weaken them.
“So I’m listening to the ‘Oh we’re good, we got this,’” Scot tells viewers, adding that the bragging was the tipping point for him.
“Now,” he continued, “I’m steaming, so I’m going to do something stupid…” In the heat of the moment he grabbed a five-gallon jug of water and doused the tribe’s fire to nothing but ashy slush, ending any speculation as to who hid the tools and setting a new tone for the game moving forward.
Reward Challenge
Competitors are divided into two teams of four. Each team will clip onto the end of a rope, anchored on a distant log, which has been braided with the ropes of other team members. They must then work together to undo the braid and move to the other side of the anchor.
Once there they unclip and race to a chest of sandbags. They must then throw the sandbags at a series of blocks stacked on a wooden beam. The first team to clear the beam wins a feast of Chinese takeout.
“We were going to do a schoolyard pick,” Jeff says as he’s explaining the challenge. “But if you can all agree to pick your own teams, then do it right now.”
Nine castaways remain so Joe decides to sit this one out – in doing so he gets to pick the team he thinks will win before they begin. If that team is victorious he gets to join the feast, if not, then no dice. Five girls are left standing so Julia volunteers to team up with Scot, Kyle and Tai to make the numbers even.
“At this point in the game I know that pulling in Scot and [Kyle] could be very beneficial for me,” she said.
They’re off and Scot’s team takes an early lead on the braid and is first to make it to the sandbags.
Scot and Kyle knock down blocks with ease as the girls finally start catching up. The men and Julia close it out and win the feast.
No Feast For You
“Julia and the boys won,” Aubry said, irritated at another reward challenge lost. While she notes that Julia jumped the female ship this challenge to put herself in a better position, which is part of the game, Aubry is still displeased. “She’s playing both sides… I can’t trust her as far as I can throw her.”
As the winners enjoy their takeout, the boys take an opportunity to pick Julia’s brain about the current tensions at camp.
“If you could have your way,” Kyle says to her, “What would you do? And it’s okay if we’re not in that picture, I understand.”
She explains that the boys are in that picture. For now. “Getting rid of you guys would be a dumb move on my part because then I’m going to be at the bottom of the Cydney, Joe, Debbie, Aubry chain.”
She later divulges in her confessional that taking Kyle or Scot to the end if ideal because nobody on the jury would vote for them after the way they’ve been behaving.
No More Pollard?
Everyone wakes the next morning to find that the fire had been put out again – this time at the hands of Tai – and Aubry is quick to blame Scot for using childish antics to aim votes at himself because he has an idol. So she decided that Julia must be the one to go. #Logic
Later on Debbie expresses her frustration and distaste for Scot. “I want him gone,” she said to Aubry.
“There’s no way he did that out of a temper,” she replied, letting Debbie know that he’s smart enough to know to shake things up. While she and Cydney push to vote for Julia, Debbie continues to think in the wake of her anger and frustration, also letting Julia know that she wants Scot out.
Immunity Challenge
Castaways are tasked with maneuvering through a trip obstacle while strategically placing and spacing narrow blocks along a wooden beam, one at a time. Should they trip, all of their blocks will fall and they must start over.
Once they’ve completely filled the beam, they tip the first block and the whole thing must come down domino style, causing the final block at the end of the beam to hit a small platform. First contestant to complete the challenge wins immunity.
It’s speed versus precision and everyone is locked-in trying not to drop any blocks.
Kyle is the first to knock all his blocks over and is forced to start over. Scot and Tai are right behind him and must begin again. Michelle takes a huge lead as a result.
While multiple contestants have been forced to start over, Julia has slid slow and steady under the radar. She, Michelle and Debbie are now neck-in-neck for the win. Michelle finishes placing her blocks, begins the domino train and comes up short on her last two blocks, turning back to restack everything.
Kyle is next to tip his blocks and also comes up short, followed by Debbie.
Julia then goes to tip her blocks and is victorious.
Maybe Some More Pollard
After returning to camp everyone must deliberate about the upcoming vote.
“I say we split the vote between Tai and Scot,” Debbie tells the girls. “[Kyle] will expect it to be him. There’s no way the three of them have an idol.”
Cydney and Aubry become concerned about her emotionally-driven strategy. “Deb says ‘This is the plan’ right in front of Julia,” Aubry said to cameras. In private, the two agree that it may be time to let Debbie go.
As the discussion continues Julia finds an excuse to step away from the group and go find Tai, and tells all three guys about the plan. They decide Cydney’s time has come and plan on voting for her.
Julia is safe, so Cydney and Michelle ask her if she’s serious about sticking with the girls. She tells them yes and agrees to vote for Debbie.
“I have the power to send Debbie home right now and I have the power to send Cydney home right now,” Julia said. It’s up to her whether she rolls with the boys or wants to shake things up for a second week.
Tribal Counsel
Neal and Nick are brought out to the tribal council circle as jury members and Jeff begins with Debbie.
She expresses her concern for the sabotage Kyle and Scot have caused this week. Aubry chimes in with the possibility of the fire and water incident being a deliberate attempt to shake things up and nothing more.
As Jeff continues to address the group Scot interrupts him, “Jeff, we could go ahead and just tell everybody what’s going to happen.”
Kyle agrees and the two proceed to reveal that Tai is safe, because he has an idol.
Jaws begin to drop as Tai shows it off to everybody. Kyle then pulls out his idol and everyone around them scrambles to figure out who they will vote for knowing that their original plan may be foiled.
“If anybody has an immunity idol and wants to play it, now would be the time to do so,” Jeff says to the group. Kyle and Scot rock, paper, scissors for Kyle’s idol, but then decide to give it to Tai, creating a superidol – which can now be played after the votes are read.
Scot and Cydney’s names are called first and neither are surprised by this. Jeff then reads the first vote for Debbie and this has the guys confused.
Julia sticks with the girls and Debbie is out.
Weekly Pollardism
“We’re pulling out all the stops.”
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