A new episode of Survivor airs tonight on CBS. Read a live recap here.
The episode picks up after last week’s tribal council. Xander and Evvie are thrilled their plan to fool Liana worked. Liana misplayed her advantage after she failed to take Xander’s hidden immunity idol. In addition, Evvie survived elimination by one vote. However, Xander and Evvie aren’t in the clear yet. The next morning, the former Yase tribe members Xander, Evvie, Liana, and Tiffany scramble to stay in the game. They have individual talks with the other castaways and acknowledge the Yase tribe members are no longer a solid group. However, their pleas seem to fall on deaf ears. Deshawn remarks how he wants Evvie, Tiffany, and Xander to be the next three voted out.
Next is a reward challenge. They will be randomly divided into two teams to compete for grilled cheese. One tribe member must sit out to keep the teams even. However, unbeknownst to the castaways, a secret advantage will be hidden underneath the sit-out bench. The castaways draw rocks to determine the teams and the odd person out. Erica draws the odd rock, meaning she will be sitting out of the challenge. However, Xander volunteers to take her place. He claims he wants to take Erica’s place since she was recently exiled for two days and must be starving. The challenge begins with Evvie, Erica, Ricard, Danny, and Deshawn on the Blue Team and Shan, Heather, Liana, Tiffany, and Naseer on the Yellow team. For this challenge, the castaways must jump off a ramp into the ocean to retrieve puzzle pieces. They must then throw their puzzle pieces on a boat and paddle their way to the puzzle making platform. The first team to complete the puzzle will win the challenge. During the challenge, Xander looks around for an advantage. He clearly volunteered to sit out of the challenge since he assumed there would be a hidden advantage. However, he does not find it. The challenge is relatively close, but Evvie solves the pyramid puzzle almost immediately. Evvie, Erica, Ricard, Danny, and Deshawn win reward!
While the winning team members enjoy their reward, the members on the losing team are in low spirits. Shan and Tiffany are struggling with the lack of food, but Shan refocuses on the game. Shan tries to put in a plan to target Evvie at the upcoming tribal council. Shan and Liana talk to Xander about targeting Evvie. Xander is receptive to the idea, especially after he found out Evvie shared secret game information when she went to the summit. Evvie told Deshawn that Xander has an idol, which Deshawn revealed at the last tribal council. Later, Shan gets bothered by Ricard’s behavior. While the losing team shares some papaya, Ricard takes a bite for himself. Shan points out how Ricard just ate grilled cheese from the reward and he could have spared the papaya for the others. However, Ricard thinks it’s unreasonable that he can’t eat anything else for the rest of the day just because he won a reward challenge. Shan and Ricard are each other’s closest allies from the former Ua tribe, but Ricard worries that Shan will resent him down the line.
It’s time for the immunity challenge. It’s an endurance challenge that will require the castaways to balance themselves within a wooden frame. They will have to stand on their toes with a block of wood wedged between their head and the frame. The last one standing will win immunity. Jeff reveals there’s a twist. They can compete or eat. If one person sits out, then he or she will have a single portion of rice. If multiple people sit out, then he will give the tribe enough rice for three days. They ask Jeff how many people will be enough for three days of rice, and Jeff tells them it’s a negotiation. Jeff starts the negotiation with seven people, but he eventually settles for five. Shan and Naseer step forward, but everyone else is hesitant to give up possible immunity. Xander says he will step forward if Jeff accepts four sit outs. Jeff accepts, and Xander steps forward. They just need one more person, and Ricard steps forward. Shan, Naseer, Xander, and Ricard will not compete for immunity, but the entire tribe will have enough rice for three days. The challenge begins, and Deshawn, Erica, and Tiffany are eliminated right away. A few minutes later, Danny is the next one out. Only Liana, Heather, and Evvie remain. Liana is the next one to drop. It’s now a showdown between Heather and Evvie. Heather’s block falls. Evvie wins immunity!
The tribe returns to camp. Evvie was the target, but Liana is hopeful the target will shift to Tiffany. She also wants Xander to waste his immunity idol. There is a plan to split the votes between Xander and Tiffany, but Danny suggests targeting Naseer instead. Danny and Deshawn want to consider voting out Naseer, but Shan shuts that plan down. She’s adamant that Xander is a bigger threat than Naseer. She also believes Naseer is more valuable to keep around than Xander. Deshawn is bothered by Shan’s unwillingness to consider voting out Naseer. He says he won’t be able to work with someone like that if she keeps it up. Deshawn pulls Shan aside and tells her she needs to listen to people better. Shan tries to appease to everyone for the rest of her conversations, but she still wants to make sure her plan is the one everyone is on board with. Shan lets Naseer knows that Xander thinks Naseer is the target, but Naseer doesn’t want his name out there. Shan goes back to Xander to get him to think Heather is the new plan. However, Xander does not think this makes sense. He compares notes with Tiffany, and Tiffany believes she is the target. Shan also lets Heather know the plan, but Heather is concerned she could be voted out if idols are played tonight. Heather also does not like how Shan has taken on the role of telling everybody what they need to do. Shan comments in her confessional how everyone has gone nuts and tribal council could be unpredictable tonight.
It’s time for tribal council. Jeff asks about the negotiation before the immunity challenge. Shan explains she just wanted everyone to eat. Xander wanted to prove to his tribe he was willing to sacrifice for them. Naseer said he would rather take care of his tribe than compete for immunity. Jeff asks how they feel about their safety in the game. Heather was scared and wanted to give it a shot since she feels like she’s on the bottom. Tiffany is not comfortable where the numbers lay at the moment. Danny is not sure how to feel since the game moves very fast. Shan expects whispering to happen tonight. Evvie says no one told her who to vote for. She’s aware of plans, but no one pulled her aside tonight. Danny explains that Tiffany, Xander, and Evvie are the question marks. They seemed like a strong group at the last tribal council, but they were throwing each other under the bus the next morning. Evvie says the only reason she is still in the game is because Sydney gambled for her 1/6 shot at safety. Erica says it’s a leap of faith since no one knows who is with who. Before the vote, tribal council becomes chaotic after Heather whispers to Tiffany to trust her before she suggests voting for Naseer. The word spreads that Heather wants to flip the vote on Naseer, but Shan now wants them all to vote for Heather. Deshawn tells them he will go along with the plan, but he’s clearly bothered and refuses to speak to them. Shan tries to placate him and asks for his thoughts, but Deshawn stays seated. After Shan tries to get him to join the group whispering, Shan stands up and stays she’s not going to baby him. Afterwards, it’s time for the vote.
No one plays an advantage or hidden immunity idol before Jeff reads the votes. The first vote is for…
Xander
Xander
Heather
Heather
Naseer
Tiffany
Tiffany
Tiffany
Tiffany
Tiffany
Tiffany is the eighth person voted out and the first member of the jury.
And that wraps up tonight’s episode of Survivor. Thanks for reading and come back next week for another live recap.
