If anyone thought that this international season of Australia v The World was taking any breaks, then they were dead wrong. Absolutely no one is safe, especially the people with legendary targets on their backs. With only ten players left, it is safe to assume this might be one of those seasons that absolutely no one will be able to predict until that Final Tribal Council arrives.
After that last crazy Tribal Council, the final five World members relish their survival. Parvati is dumbfounded about Tony going berserk and admits she’s glad she has an idol, because the target on her back has now grown exponentially. The five World members left theorise that a merge is soon approaching and declare that a war is coming against the Aussies.
The next day, the two tribes come together at the Survivor Auction. Luke and Tommi joke that they need to talk as they are the last two men in the game, while Parvati surmises this looks like a promising situation. As expected, JLP announces the merge is officially underway and hands the remaining ten players their merge buffs. Shonee declares she knew she was the Aussies’ target had they voted someone out at the previous Tribal, so she declares that aside from working with Kirby, she’s open to working with anyone who works in her favour.
The Survivor Auction then begins, with JLP uncovering a mysterious scroll as the first potential prize. Tommi immediately bets all of his money on it, and while Kirby contemplates doing the same, it’s Luke who ultimately bets against Tommi. They both draw rocks to see who gets the scroll, with Luke drawing the lucky rock. However, JLP tells Luke to read the scroll out loud to Luke’s chagrin. Eventually, it is revealed that Luke must send one player back to camp immediately, and he chooses Parvati as the unlucky player. Parvati threatens Luke that this decision will cost him, and even counts him down from five to see if he will change his mind. Luke sticks to his guns, though, and Parvati walks back to camp without any rewards.
Afterwards, Shonee gets a plate of delicious-looking ribs and a beer, Lisa receives a club sandwich, Kirby spends all of her money on an uncovered item, which turns out to be a huge jar filled with popcorn, and Sarah takes the cake home, literally, as she wins a gigantic chocolate cake for herself. JLP then surprises everyone by announcing the auction is over, with the people who didn’t win any food looking longingly at the people eating around them.
Back at the merge camp, Parvati is met with a tantalising decision as she encounters a cookie jar and a decision to have it all for herself or share it with the others. Parvati decides to keep it and to hide it before the rest comes back. As she’s trying to bury the jar in the sand, it breaks, spilling half of the cookies into the sand. It’s not all lost, though, as Parvati then finds a parchment amidst the cookies’ ruins, which turns out to be the Knowledge is Power advantage, which can be played for her to get another person’s idol before voting.
Parvati is extremely giddy as she now has an advantage and an idol and is barely able to hide all of the evidence before the rest of the players return to the camp from the auction. Everyone then starts getting to know each other, but both factions decide to stay together to hold the numerical advantage over the other.
Sneakily on the side, though, Kirby and Parvati start talking about working together. Later, Kirby also speaks with Cirie about working with her and Parvati. Cirie asks Kirby who she has on her side, and Kirby reveals that Sarah is afraid of big players, which stuns Cirie. Earlier, Sarah had spoken to Janine about being wary of Kirby, which Janine of course relayed back to her ally, Luke, and to Kirby herself. Sarah’s unnecessary paranoia rattled Kirby, and she and Shonee agree to work with the American women rather than with Sarah.
For her part, Sarah converses with Parvati, and as they bond, Sarah tells Parvati that the Aussies are a tribe wary of threats like her, especially born leaders like Kirby. Later, Parvati and Cirie exchange notes about the Aussies and realise that they’re being played.
At the first individual immunity challenge, JLP asks the players if they’ve come up with a name for their merged tribe. Kirby says they have and reveals it to be “Moorditj,” which means deadly. The players then fight over the individual immunity necklace as they battle through the iconic Survivor challenge, “Last Gasp.”
The first person to drop out is Lisa, followed by Cirie, Kirby, Parvati, Shonee, and Sarah. As rain and lightning start to come down, production intervenes to stop the challenge, as the weather conditions could endanger the players. A funny scene occurs as Tommi thinks he’s won when he’s being pulled from the water and celebrates until he realises he actually hasn’t, leaving him disappointed.
A bit later, JLP announces the challenge can’t go on as it is too unsafe to do so, so he gives the four players that were still competing a chance to earn immunity another way: agree on drawing rocks to see who the lucky person is to win the challenge, or if they don’t come to a consensus, no one gets immunity, and everyone will be at risk at the next Tribal Council. Janine, Luke, Kass, and Tommi, seeing no other option, go for rocks, and Tommi ultimately is the one who gets the odd white rock, which then earns him his first necklace of the season. It turns out, Tommi did indeed win immunity after all.
Back at camp, despite the unrelenting rain, the players scramble off, or at least they try to, in order to make their next move. Luke and Janine agree to vote out Kass as an “easy choice” to keep the Aussie team together, while also plotting to tell the former World tribe members it’s going to be Lisa to avoid an idol ruining their plans.
Tommi, Kass, and Lisa agree to keep it simple and write down Janine’s name, hoping Cirie and Parvati are on board as well. Sarah and Shonee also tell Parvati and Cirie the “Lisa lie plan,” but Shonee and Kirby then conspire with Parvati and Cirie to take out Sarah instead.
As Cirie wants the internationals to stay together, she tells them about the Sarah plan, and they all agree it must be a ploy to play an idol on their faction. Kirby talks with Luke about flipping on voting out Sarah, which Luke instantly shuts down, as it would give the internationals a leg up over the Aussies. Luke warns Kirby to hold off on going after Sarah until they have a solid majority, which leaves Kirby scrambling to decide what to do. With several possible contingency plans at play, players head towards Tribal Council.
At Tribal, Kass starts off the conversation by saying she doesn’t know whether to trust the Aussies’ word or not. As the conversation comes down to whether the former tribes are willing to work with new people or not, the international players wonder if the Aussies will play an idol. With tension building up by the second as no one knows who to trust in such a deceitful game, the vote ultimately comes down to three votes for Janine, three votes for Kass, and four votes for Sarah, which sends Sarah out of the game, and she becomes the first member of the jury.
Sarah takes it in stride, though, and despite the shocking blindside, tells the others to play hard as she wants to be entertained from the jury seat. It is later revealed that Shonee and Kirby switched to get rid of Sarah, as their two votes alongside Parvati’s and Cirie’s were the ones that swung the pendulum against the Aussie model. Sarah concedes in defeat that she should’ve stuck to David’s offer to work together, as it probably would’ve benefited her better in the long run.
With another great episode in its history books, this Australian season has been a never-ending journey of surprises, blindsides, and epic moments, and it seems it’s only gaining momentum. Parvati and Kirby, the self-appointed Black Widow and Black Mamba, respectively, appear to be the new power couple to beat, but other players, such as Luke, won’t go down without a fight. As Cirie says, this isn’t personal, and it’s just Survivor business, so hold on to your seats, as your favourite player could be next.
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