The episode begins with the Coco tribe returning to camp. Cassidy talks to Geo after he voted for her. Cassidy is annoyed, but she says in her confessional that Ryan and Geo are on the bottom of the tribe. She says they mistakenly believe they are running the tribe. Cassidy wants payback. Meanwhile, Geo doesn’t think Cassidy likes him or trusts him. Geo believes Cassidy is on the outs. Karla says in her confessional that she wants Ryan and Geo to continue believing they are running the tribe so they make mistakes.
On the Baka tribe, Jeanine and Elie look for an advantage. Jeanine stumbles upon the Beware Advantage and shows it to Elie. Jeanine opens it herself. They have the same instructions as the other tribes. In order to not lose her vote, Jeanine must collect specific beads from her tribe members. They try to keep it a secret, but Owen walks up to them. As a result, they are forced to reveal the advantage to him. Owen now knows he has options. In his confessional, Owen admits he’s playing both sides. Owen gives his bead to Jeanine to build trust with her. Elie also tells Sami about the Beware Advantage. Later at camp, Jeanine collects 4/5 beads from everyone. Gabler’s bead is the last bead she needs. He wanted to keep a bead for his daughter, but Jeanine manages to trade him three beads for the one she needs. Jeanine’s hidden immunity idol is now activated, and she won’t lose her vote. Afterwards, Sami tells Gabler they just gave Jeanine an idol. He explains the situation and says he didn’t have time to tell Gabler ahead of time. Gabler now realizes the game has become a lot more complicated.
It’s time for the immunity challenge. The tribe members must go through a series of obstacles while tethered together. Along the way, they must dump water into a bucket to open a gate. At the end of the challenge, there is a ramp they must roll three balls to the top of the platform. The first two tribes to land their three balls will win immunity. The challenge begins fairly even, but Coco eventually takes the lead with Vesi close behind. All three tribes make it to the end of the challenge and each get a ball to the top of the ramp. It’s a close challenge, but Dwight lands the third ball for Vesi first. Vesi wins immunity! The challenge continues, and Ryan knocks down all the balls. Coco now has zero balls on their ramp while Baka still has two. Sami lands the third ball for Baka. Baka wins immunity! Vesi gets to choose the three castaways to go on a journey. They choose Geo, Jeanine, and Jesse. Before the commercial break, we hear a confessional from Ryan. He admits he purposefully knocked down the balls from the ramp to lose the challenge. He wants Cassidy voted out, and he’s confident the votes are there to send her home.
Coco returns to camp. Ryan is excited to go to tribal council tonight. He is confident Cassidy is the target, and he’s the decoy target. He thinks Cassidy will write his name down and everyone else will vote for her. Cassidy talks to Ryan, and he lies to her. He tells her to vote for him so she won’t be on the wrong side of the vote. Cassidy says Ryan is full of BS and she vents her frustration with Karla. Cassidy, Karla, and James had agreed to vote for Geo, but now they reconsider voting out Ryan tonight instead.
Meanwhile, Jeanine, Jesse, and Geo arrive on a platform out in the ocean. They are given a boat, and they must row themselves to an island. They talk game on their way there. Geo says he feels scared and says he was almost voted out last time. He doesn’t really believe he’s on the outs, but he wants to make Jeanine and Jesse willingly give him the advantage. After they arrive on the island, Geo tells Jeanine and Jesse he is risking his vote. They all make their decisions, and they choose to risk their vote too. One of them will win an advantage; the other two will lose their votes at an upcoming tribal council.
Jesse returns to Vesi and reveals they all risked their votes. Jesse unwraps his scroll and learns he lost his vote at the next tribal council. At Baka, Jeanine reads her note by herself when everyone is asleep. She opens it again when they’re awake, and they all know she lost her vote at her next tribal council. Over at the Coco tribe, Geo lies to everyone and says he chose not to risk his vote. Later, Geo unwraps his scroll while walking on the beach with Karla. Geo learns he won the Knowledge is Power advantage. He can steal an idol or advantage from another player. He gets one chance to ask someone if he or she has an advantage, and he or she cannot lie. Geo is excited, and he plans to save his advantage for later since he believes he’s safe tonight. Now that Karla knows Geo has an advantage, she wants the vote to flip back on Geo. Karla tells James and Cassidy that Geo risked his vote and won an advantage. Karla and James want to vote out Geo, but Cassidy is determined to vote out Ryan tonight. Cassidy is frustrated, and James and Karla are bothered by Cassidy’s reaction. They said they went through this same scenario with Lindsay, and now they wonder if they should vote out Cassidy tonight.
It’s time for tribal council. Jeff asks them about momentum. Cassidy says it shifted, but it can still shift back in their favor. Ryan says it’s synergy. He admits to dropping the ball at the challenge. Ryan says he’s prepared to be voted out if that’s what the tribe decided. Cassidy says it’s interesting to hear this perspective from Ryan. She says she wouldn’t have done the same thing. Ryan says he’s always been a giver (Cassidy rolls her eyes at this statement). Karla says “Why not?” at voting out Ryan if it makes it an easy decision tonight. Geo says he’s uneasy since he wasn’t part of these conversations. He just wants to make sure he’s voting with the majority and doesn’t go home tonight. Jeff asks about Geo’s journey, and James says Geo told them what happened when he returned to camp. He says information keeps flowing as they approach the merge. Geo says he will just trust his gut and hopes he’s on the right side tonight. Karla says they have to trust in their alliance to survive a vote. Cassidy thinks the tribe will be more unified after tonight’s vote. Afterwards, it’s time for the vote.
Jeff reads the votes. The first vote is for…
Cassidy
Cassidy
Geo
Geo
Geo
Geo is the fifth person voted out of Survivor 43. He is visibly blindsided as he gets his torch snuffed and walks away.
And that wraps up tonight’s episode of Survivor. Thanks for reading, and come back next week for another live recap.
