After Andy’s miraculous survival last week, the Gata Tribe is in damage-control mode. Andy feels as though he has a new lease on life, and his anxiety is fading, due in part to the rest of the tribe actually praising him for his coconut-chopping skills. But as the rest of the tribe puts it themselves, Andy is still on the bottom and desperate for affirmation, and they’ll only placate him so he doesn’t fly off the handle again.
While the women head off together, Sam is left on Andy-sitting duty so he can’t run off and find an idol. It’s not the most exciting work in the world. Still, Sam sees the upside: being Andy’s buoy in a wild ocean could win him Andy’s favor, and you never know when someone like Andy could suddenly go from the bottom to the top and become a hero, so he shouldn’t be underestimated. But all it takes is one poorly timed bathroom break on Sam’s part and, you guessed it, Andy finds the Beware Advantage. But contrary to expectations, Andy decides to leave it behind and return later if he really needs an idol.
Sam and Anika discover Andy’s gone missing and rush to find the idol first, and because Andy took his own risk and left it behind, into Sam’s clutches it goes. As for the idol itself, Sam’s got to untie hundreds of knots around the roots of a tree to get his key, and with so much time to spend, it’s not long before info spreads. Anika runs to Rachel and leaks everything, Sam runs to Sierra and decides Anika can’t be trusted, Sam goes to Rachel to undo any of Anika’s strategic efforts, and poor Andy, having seen his advantage taken, confesses his findings to Sam and ironically boosts his standing in the tribe.
And so Sam’s got a new plan: make Andy the third wheel to himself and Sierra, play the idol for him, and secure a solid three. And with him taking the single Tribal idol and playing it safe, he’s set up for their next loss.
Meanwhile, Lavo is the Rome show as their resident pariah returns to unlock his box, but it’s too dark to read the note inside. So with time to kill before sunrise, he shows Teeny the box to build trust. Suddenly, Rome has some stakes in the tribe’s community, and Teeny might have to reconsider booting him right away. But Teeny plays a bit too hard and sneaks off with Kishan to examine the box in the morning, and Rome shows up at the worst possible time to catch them in the act.
They play it off as simply showing Kishan to solidify their alliance and admit they should’ve told Rome beforehand, but Rome’s just cocky, not stupid. He knows he’s getting conned, and so he takes the single Tribal idol to guarantee himself safety with zero risk of being blindsided with it in his pocket because he had the chance to get greedy.
Rome’s safety ultimately proves to be a drag on Lavo’s dynamics, as he’s by far the loudest personality on the island and isn’t afraid to let the rest know. He brags about his fire-making skills, only to flop at the task and force Kishan to step in and show him how it’s done. As Kishan says, sometimes it pays off to be low-key and not draw attention to yourself, even if you have an idol to protect you.
Then we have Tuku, where alliances are solidifying and cracking. TK and Kyle are down for the bromance alliance, and even though Gabe has proven himself a liar to TK’s face, he’s still a valuable number they can’t afford to lose yet. Also in the mix is Tiyana, who prides herself on wanting to roll with the big dogs and feels secure knowing she’d be above Gabe in the pecking order. It’s a solid four boasting all the physical threats, and they want to knock out Sue… but Gabe’s not about to let his number one go home and informs Sue and Caroline about the danger they’re in.
According to Gabe, Sue and Caroline are wounded birds who need to be nursed to health, and he can be the one to save their games; they’ll be tight until the very end when Gabe believes he would sweep a jury vote. Potentially famous last words, perhaps, but a plan’s a plan. Sue’s already on board, and once Gabe shows Caroline his idol as a sign of trust, she’s convinced the alleged bromance is a sham and agrees to the alliance.
But they also need a target, and TK is making himself a juicy one. Sue and Tiyana head down to the beach to get some sleep, but TK just starts chatting with Kyle. Loudly. For the entire hour. Two feet from the women. Fed up with the disrespect, Sue vents about being looked down on despite how badass she actually is back home and swears she’ll make TK regret getting on her bad side.
After a rough immunity loss to Gata and Lavo, there’s already a crack to exploit. Feeling heated over the loss and his tribe’s overly polite reaction to it, TK throws Tiyana under the bus and implies his tribe has a loser mentality he can’t stand to play with, setting off a series of shady eye rolls from Tiyana herself. She’s emotional, and therefore, she’s malleable. If Gabe, Sue, and Caroline need a flipper, they just got one handed to them on a silver platter because of TK’s lack of social grace.
Kyle insists on keeping the alliance together despite the sudden beef, but his peacekeeping attempt can only do so much when Tiyana and TK can’t see eye to eye. She admits she can be emotional, sure, but she wants to play smart too. TK is annoying and dismissive, but he is Tuku’s biggest challenge asset. Breaking up the four over some drama could totally blow up her chances if she puts herself at the bottom with this move.
Sue and Caroline put in the work to flip her, though, pitching an “epic boss girl move” against TK where they’ll go to rocks against the guys if need be. If all goes to plan, even if Tiyana tries to stick with the bromance, she’d surrender on the revote to save herself once it’s obvious her majority fell apart and someone (aka Gabe) already flipped.
Tribal is the testing ground for plans like this, but Gabe throws a wrench in everything by playing his idol… on himself instead of Sue. Bizarre choice, but I can see the logic here: get the target off his back for the future and guarantee his safety just in case he read the room wrong, especially if it goes to rocks and gives his side the best odds possible. I still think playing it on Sue was the ideal move, but it won’t matter.
Tiyana flips, sending TK home in a 4-2 vote to the surprise of his entire alliance, Tiyana included. The underdogs have become the top dogs. Gabe, Sue, and Caroline control the tribe, Kyle is left on the bottom as he lets out a devastated “no” when TK exits, and Tiyana has changed her game for better or worse. A great blindside to cap off a great episode, and hopefully one of many to come.
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