Revenge is a dish best served cold…
Despite getting a fresh start in the game thanks to last week’s tribe swap and avoiding being voted out at the last tribal council, Peter lost no time planning Joe and Aubry’s demise - payback for voting out his ally, Liz, earlier in the game. He made a deal with Scot and Tai that they would take Joe out first.
The Greek god of the island…
Nick got the most screen time of the rest of the Chan Loh tribe this week, which is only to be expected. Believing himself to be the strongest, smartest, most manipulative and beautiful contestant this season, he said it was time to “play or go home.” First, he bonded with Debbie, who absolutely fawned over him, going so far as to call him an “Adonis.” Then he stepped up during the reward challenge and faced off against Scot in the “basketball” segment. It seemed as though he would beat the former NBA champion at his own game, but Scot came through in the end and won a lovely meal for Gondol to enjoy.
Should he stay or should he go?
When Julia arrived - she joined Gondol at the start of the reward challenge - Peter took an instant liking to her because she did not appear conniving. Thus, he deemed her a good recruit for his “take out Joe” campaign.
Watching Peter wander off with Julia, Scot and Tai (in turns) left Aubry and Joe feeling uneasy. The only argument for keeping Peter in the game was that it would give the Brains the numbers. Yet he couldn’t be trusted, so would he flip of his own accord anyway? With this in mind, Joe confronted Peter using his experience as a former FBI agent to determine if he was telling the truth. You didn’t need to be FBI-trained to tell that Peter was lying as he danced around the issue, confirming what Joe already suspected.
Over on the Chan Loh tribe, Michele looked to Debbie for some reassurance, since Michele felt responsible for the team losing the reward challenge. After they bonded, Debbie suggested that they form an alliance with Neal and Nick in order to get Jason out, since he doesn’t help around camp. It’s not clear if Debbie meant any of this because she formed an alliance with Jason and Cydney last week, but Michele was pretty convinced. When she approached Nick about it, though, he lectured her on who was lying and that they would be siding with Jason and Cydney instead of Debbie and Neal. Michele was very annoyed by Nick’s condescending tone, but she decided to let him go on thinking that he was calling the shots. Ultimately, she would make the choice that was best for her down the line.
The building blocks of Survivor…
This week’s immunity challenge involved navigating an obstacle course and then stacking blocks in the end. Usually this kind of competition highlights which group works well together and which one falls apart under pressure, but both tribes were pretty evenly matched throughout the entire race. It was hilarious to watch the almost 7-foot-tall Scot throwing his teammates up and over nets and logs like they were rag dolls, but in the end, it wasn’t enough to stop Chan Loh from winning their second immunity challenge in a row.
The scramble before tribal…
Aubry and Joe decided it would be better to keep Peter in order to bolster their numbers, which meant that Joe needed to make amends with Peter after their blowup. This, in turn, forced Peter to scrap his plans to take out Joe. Scot was angry when he learned that Peter had changed his mind, so Scot rounded up Tai and Julia to figure out a way to get Peter out.
Tai and Julia spoke with Aubry and told her how Peter had thrown Aubry and Joe under the bus. Aubry was taken aback, but she didn’t make any promises to Tai and Julia that she would vote out Peter. When she went back to Joe with the information, Joe told her they had to stick to the plan and not flip back and forth. Thinking they hadn’t made a difference with Aubry, Scot and Tai agreed that they would follow the Brains’ lead and vote out Julia.
Paging Dr. Peter…
Peter took a lot of heat at tribal council, since it was his idea to stack the boxes a certain way, which cost them the win. Then, of course, his sketchy strategizing was brought up, as well. And he was clearly on the outs as everyone whispered to finalize the vote during Probst’s questioning.
It looked like it was going to be a tie based on what was previously discussed, but Aubry changed her mind and voted out Peter instead.
Time will tell if this was the right move, but with the merge happening next week, we won’t have to wait long to find out!