Some people are born to play Survivor; others are born to be Survivor fans. The latest boot on Australian Survivor: Redemption fell squarely into the latter category. Look, Tez seems like a nice enough guy, but he might be in the running for one of the worst Survivor players ever. He talked a big game in his confessionals about wanting to make moves and take control, but there’s a difference between desire and execution.
Tez had enough self-awareness to recognise he was at the bottom, but he lacked the social and strategic skills to turn things around. His mumbled conversations with his fellow castaways were awkward, stilted, and did nothing to inspire trust. It’s probably due to a lack of confidence, meaning he struggled to commit to an idea or quickly crumbled under the pressure of bigger personalities. So, it’s no surprise he ended up going home in this latest episode.
But how did we get there?
The episode opens with the Bounty tribe reflecting on the Lyndl boot, and Caleb wants to know who wrote his name. Tez cops to it, while awkwardly explaining his reasoning. In confessional, Tez claims this is all part of his plan to make the others think he is a weak player with no agency. But honestly, I don’t think anyone needed convincing.
Faith and Keeley meet up the next day for a morning Beach chat and discuss their options moving forward. They’re in a strong position with the Head Office alliance, but are still eyeing up a Mark blindside for somewhere down the road. Keeley suggests they have the numbers to take out Mark right now, if they so wished, but Faith puts a pin in it, for the time being.
Meanwhile, there is some moving and shaking going on on Barren beach. Even though Jackson is in the numerical majority with his ex-Bounty members, he still doesn’t feel included in the group. Aisha, Cameron, and Lottie clearly have their own thing going on and have been having more conversations with OG Barren Blanche than they have with him.
So, Jackson decides to create a new majority, plotting an uprising alongside Simon and bringing aboard Loz and OG Barrens Brooke and Ben to form the Beauty and the Beasts alliance. The group gets together in the middle of the night for a sneaky strat chat, where they commit to working together and setting their targets on Aisha.
At the immunity challenge, David reveals that tribal immunity is taking a rest for the evening. Instead, two individual immunity necklaces are up for grabs, since both tribes will attend tribal council. The tribes are split into pairs of opposing tribe members for a muscle-testing endurance challenge, with Faith and Simon ultimately coming out on top.
Until this point, I was fearing a non-elimination twist; maybe a vote to switch two tribe members. But David announced that one player would become the ninth person voted out of the game, meaning there were some actual stakes on the line. The question was, how would this elimination work? Would both tribes vote together? Or separately?
Both tribes put plans and backup plans into action ahead of this mysterious tribal. For the Barren tribe, Aisha, Cameron, Lottie, and Blanche are gungho about taking out Brooke, and they believe everyone is on board, save for Brooke, obviously, and possibly Ben. Little do they know, the Beauty and the Beasts are mounting a counterattack on Aisha.
Simon, though, is conflicted. If he makes this move, he risks severing his ride-or-die alliance with Lottie. He’s also worried about a twist throwing a spanner into the works, meaning Aisha could end up staying even if they target her. So, to play it safe, he suggests voting out Blanche, framing it as a compromise made with Mark on the Bounty tribe in return for protecting Richard.
The Blanche idea fails to gain traction, with both groups preferring bigger fish. If Jackson is making a move, he wants to take down a top player, namely, Aisha. And, likewise, Aisha isn’t about to cut loose a potential ally in Blanche when Brooke is a big juicy target ready to take down.
Over on the Bounty tribe, the plan appears to be simple: the majority of votes on Tez, with a split on Richard, or the outside possibility of taking out Aisha if both tribes end up voting as one. Tez does what he does best, that is, shuffle around camp, wondering why nobody is talking game with him while doing nothing to be proactive about it. Caleb gives him a pep talk, telling him to go and convince others why Richard would make a better target, but even then, Tez struggles to throw a name out.
At tribal, things get spicy, and not just because Simon talks about the game ‘spanking’ his butt red raw. Jackson calls out Caleb for cosplaying as Dirty Harry at a previous challenge. The pair take shots back and forth, with Jackson calling Caleb’s actions disrespectful. There is also some debate about whether the Bounty tribe was genuinely taking the piss out of Richard when Mark “stole” his hat and jacket.
But what everyone really wants to know is how this tribal will work. Well, tonight is going to be a little bit different (shoutout JLP, we miss you.). David explains that both tribes will select a “hero” to compete in a head-to-head fire-making challenge. Whoever wins will earn immunity for their entire tribe, while the loser’s tribe will vote someone out.
It’s a cool little variation on a twist we’ve seen before, and certainly makes some interesting, pre-firemaking chatter. There is a lot of whispered discussions about who best to put up as fire-maker, with the Barren tribe particularly torn because many of them want to throw it. Simon volunteers, and half of them want him to throw it so they can vote out Brooke, and the other half wants him to throw it to vote out Aisha.
The Bounty tribe is also conflicted, with Faith telling Mark and Keeley she’d prefer to lose and vote someone out. In the end, Mark steps up to the table to take on Simon in a returnee versus returnee showdown. While it initially appears Simon is throwing, he ends up sparking a flame and using the tarp to shield from the wind. It’s a neck-and-neck battle, but ultimately, Simon’s fire burns through the rope first.
Before heading back to camp, Simon asks if he’s still allowed to hand his immunity necklace to someone on the losing tribe. He ummed and ahhed about giving it to Richard before the fire-making challenge, but was stared and scared down by Faith, who told him it was unnecessary. But now that he’s guaranteed to be safe, Simon follows through in handing the necklace to Richard, despite Faith and Keeley’s protests.
I don’t know how I feel about Simon being allowed to hand the necklace over after the challenge. Beforehand was fair game, as both tribes were part of the tribal, and there was still the chance for either tribe to end up as the losers. But after the fire-making challenge, it essentially became a Bounty tribal council, so having Simon give Richard the necklace at that point was a little dodgy.
Regardless, I don’t think Richard was in danger. As Faith said, it seemed like a “simple” Tez vote from the off, and that’s exactly what happens. Despite a last-ditch effort from Tez to get Mark and Keeley to vote for Caleb, Tez is voted out in a unanimous vote. And so ends a superfan’s dream.
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