A new episode of Survivor airs tonight on CBS. Read a live recap here.
The episode begins with the tribe returning to camp after voting out David. Mary laments losing her #1 ally. She feels like she is on the bottom of the tribe again. Later, Eva apologizes to Mary. Eva also admits she might have to write down Mary’s name later. Eva explains in her confessional that she wants to be straightforward and commit to Joe, Kyle, and Shauhin. She feels safe with her numbers and advantages. She doesn’t think the people on the outs can do anything to take down her alliance. Meanwhile, Star, Kamilla, and Mary discuss targeting that group. They hope they can pull in Mitch and form a revolution. Star says “the big people will be eaten by the piranhas.” The three of them agree to vote out Joe if he doesn’t win immunity.
The next morning, we hear Shauhin’s thought about the game. He is concerned Kamilla and Mitch will realize they are on the outs and make a move against his alliance with Joe, Star, and Kyle. In his confessional, Joe also feels confident in this four-person alliance. He wants to use Kamilla and Mitch as two extra numbers. Joe and Eva discuss the plan for the upcoming votes. They agree Star and Mary should be the next two to go, and then Kamilla and Mitch will be the next ones out. Joe is confident they can make it to the end of the game with their alliance.
Meanwhile, Star talks to Mitch about joining the revolution. She brings up the possibility of the vote going to rocks if it’s a tie. In his confessional, Mitch calls it the “biggest joke.” He has no interest working with Star since she voted for him last time. Kamilla, on the other hand, doesn’t want to be a number for the alliance of Joe, Eva, Shauhin, and Kyle. Kamilla trusts Kyle though, so she tells him about the plan to vote out Joe. Kyle is not on board with betraying Joe. Kyle says he has built a personal bond with Joe, so he wants to stay out of any plan to blindside Joe. He’s okay if Kamilla makes the move, but he wants no part of it.
It’s time for the reward challenge. Their arms and legs will be tied while they slither through the sand and drag a buoy with their mouths. They will then have to untangle the rope attached to the buoy. At the end of the challenge, they must toss rings onto a post. The first to land three rings will win a picnic reward. The challenge begins, and Shauhin takes the early lead. Kyle eventually passes Shauhin, but Eva is close behind too. While untangling the rope, Joe gets ahead of everyone and tosses his rings first. Eventually, everyone but Kamilla is tossing rings. Kyle is the first to land a ring, but Eva and Joe land a ring too. Joe lands his second ring, and Kyle lands his second one right afterwards. Kyle lands his third ring second before Joe lands his third ring. Kyle wins reward! He is allowed to pick someone to join him on reward. He chooses Eva. Jeff tells him to choose another person. Kyle picks Kamilla. Jeff says he can pick one more person. Kyle picks Shauhin.
We next see Kyle, Eva, Kamilla, and Shauhin riding a boat to their picnic reward. While eating, they agree they need to prevent Star and Mary from winning immunity. Eva also feels confident that no one will try to make a move against their alliance. Back at camp, Joe admits in his confessional that he was bothered Kyle didn’t bring him to the reward. However, he guesses Kyle left him behind to babysit the others. Joe also wants to work on his jury management, so Joe pulls Mary for a chat. Mary admits she feels vulnerable after David was blindsided. Joe candidly tells her that it’s her fault David was voted out. Joe says everyone believes Mary got into David’s ear, and that’s why he got so paranoid. He wants to be honest with her. In her confessional, Mary says she knows Joe is pandering for her jury vote by telling her the truth. Mary calls Joe’s tactic hilarious.
After her conversation with Joe, Mary asks Mitch if he’s willing to go to rocks at this next vote. Mitch wasn’t planning to, but he’s having second thoughts after Kyle didn’t pick him to go on the reward picnic. Mitch admits he doesn’t want to play a scared game. Mary says the plan is to vote for Joe if he doesn’t win immunity.
It’s time for the immunity challenge. They must stack letter blocks one at a time while balancing a wobbly table. The first person to spell “immunity” will win immunity. In addition, Jeff tells them there’s a rice negotiation today. Three people must give up immunity to earn enough rice for the rest of the game. They reject the rice. Everyone will compete for immunity. The challenge begins, and it begins fairly evenly. As the challenge progresses, multiple people drop their blocks. Eventually, Joe is in the lead with six blocks stacked. Kyle is close behind with five blocks, but both Joe and Kyle drop their blocks. Shauhin and Mitch are now in the lead. Shauhin was almost done, but he drops his blocks for the first time. Mitch drops his blocks too. Now Kyle and Joe are back in the lead. Kyle drops his blocks, putting Joe comfortably in the lead. Joe places his final block on the table. If he makes it back to the starting point without dropping any blocks, then he wins immunity. And he does so. Joe wins immunity!
After the tribe returns to camp, Mitch tells Star she might need to play her Shot in the Dark tonight. Kamilla asks Mitch his thoughts, and he says he doesn’t want to make a move since he doesn’t trust Star or Mary. Kamilla and Mary talk about Mitch not being on board. Mary suggests shifting the target to Kyle instead. Kamilla is not on board with sending Kyle home, so now Kamilla wants to vote out Mary tonight. Mary and Star compare notes, and they realize they are on the chopping block tonight. They know they will have to vote for each other to try to survive the vote. Shauhin prefers to vote out Star instead of Mary tonight, and he gives his pitch to his allies. Mary told Shauhin she’s willing to work with him, and Shauhin knows Star has thrown his name out before. The vote seems to be on Star, but Shauhin and Joe have one more conversation before tribal council. Shauhin mentions how Mary threw out Eva’s name before, and now Joe wants the vote to shift to Mary. He adds that Mary has a better chance winning immunity than Star does.
It’s time for tribal council. Jeff asks what’s going on back at camp. Mitch says everyone is trying to figure out how to move forward in the game individually in small groups. Mary says it’s a doozy trying to figure out which groups are real. Shauhin says operating in a place of trust is better than operating in a place of paranoia. Star says Mitch told her to play her Shot in the Dark. She says until Jeff snuffs her torch, then she will keep the faith. Joe says you have to be confident in your decision. Mary says she doesn’t have time for paranoia. She wants to play with trust. Eva says everyone is doing what was discussed earlier. Kamilla says if people are not thinking about whom to sit next to in the Final 3, then they are lying. Mary says she feels like she’s going home tonight, so she’s not thinking about Final 3 scenarios. She says her pitch to stay is she’s chill and can be used as a number. Star says she laid back today and had nothing to lie about. She will consider playing her Shot in the Dark, but she doesn’t know what she’s doing yet. Finally, it’s time for the vote.
Jeff reads the votes. The first vote is for…
Star
Mary
Star
Mary
Star
Mary
Star
Star
Star is the eleventh person voted out and the fourth 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.
