It’s night 13 at Coyopa Beach and the tribe returns to camp from Tribal where Dale’s daughter, Kelley was slaughtered right in front of his eyes. It wasn’t an easy thing to watch, but he’s proud of his daughter and he’s determined to stay alive in the game. He’s not giving up until he sees his name written down four times. He’s got to do something drastic, though! The next day, Dale approaches Jon with a fake Immunity Idol. They can’t vote him out next now! Sure, it’s not a real idol, but Dale knows it will at least cause a little chaos in the minds of his tribe mates for a couple of nights. Mission accomplished, Dale. Jon is scared.
At Hunaphu, Jeremy and Alec are sitting together and Alec is really hoping Jeff doesn’t come to camp and tear it all down in exchange for food. If they lose the roof to their shelter they could be in real trouble! Because remember… Reed asked Jeff if they could take a trip to the Survivor Market to get more food since they are pretty much out of rice. Jeremy is NOT happy about this. They could win a reward tomorrow, a feast even! The rest of the tribe needs to suck it up. When Jeff shows up toting a full bag of rice Julie is immediately scared of whatever is about to go down. They show Jeff how much rice they have left and Jeff is just flabbergasted. Never in Survivor history has a tribe had so much trouble. Sure, in Australia they had to barter with Jeff for rice, but that wasn’t entirely their fault.
So… what’s up, guys? Reed explains that some big personalities on the former Hunaphu tribe insisted upon eating lots of rice and no one else wanted to speak up and put a target on their back. Jeff acknowledges that the former Coyopa people had nothing to do with the mass rice consumption and Josh explains how difficult it was to come over to a tribe with barely any rice after they had been conscious of how much rice they were eating. Jeff knows he has to be fair to the former Coyopa, who were playing the game correctly, but the penalty has to be steep for the Hunaphu members still on the tribe. Oh… He has enough rice with him, but in exchange for leaving that bag with the tribe he wants almost EVERYTHING they have.
All their comfort items – gone; he also wants the hatchet, the hammer, a pot and the extra flint. If Hunaphu wants a full bag of rice, they have to, metaphorically, start the game over with only the basic essentials. Julie is super scared of not having a tarp; it’s a really big deal to her. Being in the cold is really going to test her and when Jeff leaves, dragging their stuff behind him, he makes the ominous comment: “hope it doesn’t rain”. And you know Jeff knows it’s going to rain! Back at his camp he as access to the internet, or access to people who do, and he can check the forecast.
At the Reward Challenge, Natalie is shocked that Kelley was voted out, but Jeff jumps right to the challenge. One person from each tribe will maneuver through a series of obstacles, blindfolded, to a station with a mask and three bags of puzzle pieces. They must bring the bags back to the puzzle solving station one at a time, study the mask then put the puzzle together at the other station. There are dummy pieces though and they are bright red so that their tribe mates can see as they put the wrong pieces in place, but they can’t say a word! Mwah ha ha ha ha! And guess what they are playing for!!! Steak and Chicken kabobs! Mwah ha ha ha ha! Since the tribes are all switched up, it doesn’t matter who plays and each tribe can decide who will compete. Baylor goes up for Coyopa and Reed takes on the challenge for Hunaphu.
So the challenge begins and each person has a different strategy… According to Jeff. To me it seems they both have the same strategy. Get a bag, study the mask a bit, bring bag to solving station, go back to get a bag, study the mask a bit… Only Reed is doing something a little different. Reed is studying the pieces in the bags a little bit as he brings the back. And Baylor keeps bumping her head on the poles… Baylor has all three bags first because Reed is spending more time studying the mask and the pieces. Reed has all three bags soon enough and works quickly to solve the puzzle, but OH NO! He puts a red piece in, but OH WAIT! He double checks before he says something to Jeff about checking his puzzle and… REED wins Reward! So Baylor is going to Exile and Reed chooses Julie to join her, but OH WAIT! Natalie wants to go because she is good with Missy and if she gets in good with Baylor too… And Reed is all, okay, whatever, if you want to go, I won’t stop you.
After the challenge at Coyopa the fish aren’t biting for Keith and Jon lets his girlfriend Jaclyn and Missy know that Dale approached him earlier to show him that he had an idol. They talk about voting out Keith instead and then we cut to Exile Island. Natalie tells us that getting in good with Baylor gets her in good with Missy and that’s a good thing. They choose their urns, Baylor gets the clue and she shares it with Natalie which Natalie says is far more valuable than a food reward. Natalie considers herself, Julie and Jeremy on the chopping block so having the Immunity Idol would be awesome. And she trusts Missy and if she can trust Missy, she can trust Baylor so… It’s all good in the hood, baby! She just needs to find that idol…
At Hunaphu… FEAST! Josh is so proud of Reed for pulling it out… NO COMMENT! Jeremy is less than thrilled. He’s super annoyed that Reed and Josh are so open with their affections. If Val was still around you’d wonder if they even liked each other! Reed and Josh are putting a huge target on their backs with all the lovey dovey actions. Cut to eating meat… Alec is a meat collector! He LOVES meat and boy is Hunaphu enjoying their reward food. Jeremy thinks they are so dumb! And I agree with him. They just gave up all their comfort for a bag a rice, the merge is coming and any player who knows the game knows that the merge is coming. If they had waited just ONE DAY… Just one day… They could have kept their tarp and all of that comfort, but noooooooo. That bag of rice was so important…
CUE THE RAIN! And oh man… It’s really raining. This is hardcore, super rain and Julie is in agony. She’s crying, ready to go home and Jeremy is just… disgusted really. He’s dying for numbers and she’s one of his numbers, but if she has to go, LORD, please let her go before him so he can make the merge and make some magic happen. The next morning, Jeremy is actually very supportive of Julie. He tries his best to pull her up by her boot straps, but last night was the hardest night of her life, but she made it through and that speaks volumes. I guess she’s feeling pretty good about herself, but who knows. This is Survivor and it’s not an easy game to play and honestly… If you can’t take the cold, wet, hunger… Don’t be on Survivor! Obviously Julie is unfamiliar with the show, but she made it through the night without quitting so kudos to her. Proud of you. See?! You’re stronger than you thought, Julie! Good for you…
Immunity Challenge Time! Players must race up and over a wall then they have to push a big, wooden cube across the sand to retrieve three hanging bags then two tribe members must use the flags inside to solve a puzzle. First tribe to raise all the flags in the correctly solved puzzle wins Immunity. Julie will sit this one out and Survivors ready… GO! Hunaphu is first over the wall and they start pushing around the cube post haste, but Coyopa isn’t far behind them! Jeremy heads up to retrieve the first bag for Hunaphu, but Coyopa gets theirs first, then at the second bag… omg… Jeremy messes up and gets the bag all tangled while Jon from Coyopa just flies through it. So Hunaphu is trailing and Coyopa is first at the puzzle station and Jon and Missy are working together well. Not too long after, though, Josh and Reed start working on the puzzle for Hunaphu, but they are behind, but Missy and Jon are messing up! Coyopa loses their lead and Hunaphu moves ahead aaand… HUNAPHU. WINS. IMMUNITY!
Coyopa… Post Immunity Challenge… Keith is so frustrated. They were THERE today! He just wants to get Dale out, make the merge, get with his son Wes and own the game. And he’s got an Immunity Idol! He always has that. Around the camp fire, Dale expresses to Jon that he doesn’t want to play his Idol that night at Tribal Council and he makes an offer: If he’s not voted out that night, he’ll give Jon his “Idol”. Dale offers his hand for a shake, Jon accepts, cut to Jon talking to Jaclyn, Missy and who I assume is Baylor about Dale having and Idol aaand… Missy and Baylor start harping on splitting the votes to flush out the “Idol”. Missy will be sad if Keith goes home, but at least she and Baylor will still be there. And once again! Jon and Jaclyn are the swing vote… Jon expresses that their best bet would be to go to with Dale to get that idol, but overall, he needs to be a power couple with Jaclyn at the merge… Ummmmm…. That’s only worked once, Jon… And I’m sorry, but you are NOT Boston Rob and Amber…
TRIBAL COUNCIL… blah blah blah… There’s talk of Baylor being at Exile, which made her feel like a little kid lost at the supermarket looking for their parent… blah blah blah! How does that feel, Missy – oh yeah it’s tough. Baylor is brought to tears and blah blah blah… Dale, how does it feel that Kelley is gone? Oh it’s a twelve hour strategy now and Jon confirms that Dale is ready to do what it takes and Jeff is prompt to point out that Jon and Jaclyn are the swing vote again and BLAH BLAH BLAH. It’s totally up in the air at this point who Team JJ are going to team with, but when the votes are revealed… Team JJ doesn’t give a crap about no Immunity Idol that Dale has! They are gonna stick with Baylor and Missy and it’s bye bye bye, Dale.
Next week on Survivor! MERGE! It’s GAME ON! OMG! I can’t wait for next week. Merge episode is one of my favorites! I can’t wait to see what happens and I know you can’t either! BUT FIRST…
