A new episode of Survivor: Game Changers airs tonight on CBS. Read a live recap and join the discussion here.
The episode begins with the tribe returning to camp after tribal council. Brad was blindsided by the vote, and he says he now feels like he’s in a bad position in the game. Sarah admits to everyone that she was the swing vote that sent Debbie home. In her confessional, she hopes the jury will see this as a game changing move if she makes it to the Final 3. They ask why did they choose to vote out Debbie, and Zeke says it seems like she was controlling things. The people who helped vote out Debbie are happy that circumstances have changed to their advantage. Cirie says they took control away from Sierra and Brad, but she adds that they must still keep an eagle eye. No one can ever feel comfortable in the game.
It’s now time for the reward challenge. They will be divided into two teams of five. One team member at a time must go through a series of obstacles to reach a chair. The other team members must lift the chair by pulling ropes so the person in the chair can retrieve puzzle pieces. They will repeat this process with another team member sitting in the chair until they have all their puzzle pieces. The first team to retrieve all their puzzle pieces and solve the puzzle will win reward. Today they are playing for a night in a luxury resort. Before the challenge begins, a schoolyard pick determines the teams: Andrea, Sarah, Aubry, Zeke, and Brad versus Sierra, Troyzan, Cirie, Tai, and Michaela. The challenge begins, and Michaela manages to get her team ahead right away. Nonetheless, Brad is doing a good job for his team to make it a close challenge. Eventually both teams get all their letters and are now working on the puzzle. However, both teams are struggling with the word puzzle. 50 minutes later, neither tribe has managed to solve the puzzle. They’re all going through the letters as they try to figure out the phrase. Andrea suddenly thinks of the word “reinventing,” which helps them solve the rest of the phrase: “Reinventing how the game is played.” Andrea, Sarah, Aubry, Zeke, and Brad win reward. Before they go to reward, we hear a confessional from Brad. He feels like this overnight reward will be a good opportunity to talk game with people so he can save himself from elimination.
We next see the winning team enjoy their reward at the resort. While they are eating, Brad bonds with Zeke by discussing football. Andrea notices and is bothered by it. Andrea already doesn’t trust Zeke since he tried to vote her out earlier in the game, even though they both voted out Debbie. She now believes Zeke will try to align himself with Brad. Meanwhile, we see the losers of the reward challenge back at camp. Tai and Troyzan talk game, and they agree to look out for one another. However, Tai still hasn’t told anyone about his hidden immunity idols, and he doubts whether he’ll tell anyone.
The winning team of the reward challenge returns to camp, and we hear a confessional from Aubry. She is also concerned about Brad and Zeke bonding at the reward. Later, Andrea goes talk game with Cirie. She tells Cirie that Zeke is the most dangerous person in the game and that he needs to go. Cirie agrees Zeke needs to go, but she’s unsure if Sarah would be on board with this plan. Nonetheless, Cirie later asks Sarah her thoughts about voting out Zeke. Sarah is not on board with this plan. Sarah trusts Zeke, but she simply tells Cirie that she’s not concerned about Zeke. She even reveals her secret advantage to Cirie (she can steal a vote). She says due to her advantage, they don’t need to worry about Zeke. However, as Sarah explains in her confessional, she’s still playing the middle.
Zeke and Sarah talk game at the well. Zeke wants to propose a Final 5 deal with him, Sarah, Brad, Troyzan, and Michaela. Sarah tells him she’s on board with this plan. We later see Zeke approach Brad and Troyzan about this. Brad is happy to hear this. He feels like he improved his status a lot in the past 24 hours, and he asserts he is here to win the game.
It’s now time for the immunity challenge. They must stack a series of blocks on a beam while walking through an obstacle that will make the beam go off-balance if they bump into it. The first person to stack all their blocks and make them fall like dominoes until the last block falls into a basket will win immunity. The challenge begins, and it’s a close challenge at the start. Brad is the first to accidentally send his blocks to the ground. Andrea is the first to place all her blocks on the beam, but she doesn’t stack them correctly since the blocks aren’t close to the end of the beam. She has to rearrange her blocks, and she manages to do so before anyone else catches up to her. She tips her blocks, and they all fall down successfully. Andrea wins immunity!
Now that Andrea is safe, she feels like she wants to make a big move since she doesn’t have to worry about going home tonight. The plan was to vote out Sierra, but she wants to vote out Zeke instead. She goes to tell Cirie this plan, but Cirie reminds her that Sarah won’t be on board with this plan. However, they believe that Sierra would be willing to vote with them since it’s her name on the chopping block right now. And as they discuss this, Sierra walks up and tells them that she is willing to write down any name they tell her. She’ll do anything to survive the vote tonight. Later, Andrea and Cirie talk to Sarah about the plan to vote out Zeke again. She’s not on board with this plan at all, but she doesn’t let them know. In her confessional, she says she needs Zeke around for a few more votes, but she fears she’ll be in hot water is she scrambles to try to save Zeke. While Andrea and Cirie go around telling people to vote out Zeke, Michaela says in her confessional that she’s not on board with this plan. She fears that taking out someone who was on their side in the last vote will give the minority a chance to regain majority. If they vote out Zeke tonight, Brad, Sierra, Troyzan, and Tai will only need to flip one more person on their side to gain majority. She shares her thoughts with Sarah, and Sarah agrees with Michaela. Sarah says that she and Michaela are the swing votes tonight.
It’s time for tribal council. They discuss the previous vote, and Sarah admits she was the swing vote that voted out Debbie. Brad, Tai, Troyzan, and Sierra also say they fear one of them will be voted out tonight. While discussing tonight’s vote, Michaela says that the new six people majority will likely stick together, but admit that six versus four isn’t too big of an advantage. Zeke also adds that it’s all about timing when it comes to voting people out. Sierra says that she’s willing to be a number to anyone if it keeps her around. However, Sarah says that people will say whatever they can to save themselves. Michaela also says that she has to turn her heart off in order to make it to the end of the game. She’ll be friends with anyone after Day 39, but other people have to go so she can stay in the game. Jeff asks Andrea about the flip side to that, and Andrea says that they can’t treat people like human chess pieces either since they won’t likely make it to the end if they do that. Afterwards, it’s time to vote.
We see Sierra vote for Tai, and Zeke vote for Sierra. But who will be voted out?
Jeff reads the votes. The first vote is…
Tai
Sierra
Tai
Sierra
Tai
Zeke
Zeke
Zeke
Zeke
Zeke
Zeke is voted out and the fourth member of the jury.
And that wraps up tonight’s episode of Survivor: Game Changers. Thanks for reading, post your thoughts in the comment section below, and come back next week for another live recap.
