Myles finds his fourth idol, Kaelan wins his fourth Individual Immunity, and the votes at Tribal Council go 4-4 twice.
The scramble starts at the top of the episode. Kristin does a heat check with AJ to assess the damage from her move to tell Karin she was the target at the last Tribal Council. AJ is magnanimous in his forgiveness, but they will end up on opposite sides of the vote next Tribal Council.
Zara finds herself at the bottom, having been the alternate target to Karin. And who better to counsel a bottom than the King Rat of bottoms, Myles. His pep talk invigorates all of us. It is freeing and exciting to play from the bottom; your brain is afire, and you are fearless.
When Kristin wins the Reward Challenge of an overnight stay at the clumsily named Ikea Better Sleep Retreat, she selects Morgan, then Logan, to go with her for a shower, bubbles and snacks, and a night’s sleep in a bed, with a pillow menu. This Clean Three will vote together, along with Morgan’s unbreakable two, Kate, at Tribal Council.
Zara channels the best Survivor spirit when she declares, “I can wash my hair after 47 days, but I can’t get these moments again.” She reassembles The Graduates (now without Karin, they are the Post Graduates), the longest-surviving alliance in the game. Zara, Kaelan, Myles and AJ will vote together.
Kaelan has private reservations about Myles and AJ, telling us that they love dramatics and may screw things up just to have some fun at Tribal. Better win immunity then, Kaelan. And reader, he does, while being the only castaway ever to be excited by the prospect of smashing through a bamboo wall.
Not content with holding the record for the most successful idol plays at three, Myles finds a record fourth Hidden Immunity Idol, equalling Rick Devens in Survivor: Edge of Extinction. This takes him from funky little rat to Australian Survivor legend Rat King. He immediately tells AJ, who informs us in confessional, “That idol is mine.”
Kristin hopes AJ and Kaelen will hold tight to the Berries alliance for the Zara vote. She smartly gleans that Kaelan is lying to her but figures her plan will work if the Clean Three plus Kate stay as a solid four on Zara, and the Dirty Four spilt their vote.
Meanwhile, in a flashback (reverse surf and all) AJ organises a Logan vote, an opposing solid four of The Post Graduates. It will be his “gift to the jury,” showing he is in charge. The Post Graduates swear to go to rocks at a tie, no matter where the vote falls.
At Tribal Council, Myles declares, “They went on the overnight retreat, and we went on the overnight attack,” drawing battle lines between the groups. And so it is as it was foretold. Twice the vote goes to 4-4 on Logan and Zara. Before the revote, to drive home the point, Myles tells the other side, “I hope you guys are ready to go to rocks.” Indeed, AJ calls over his shoulder in the voting booth, “I hope we go to rocks, it’ll be so much fun”.
JLP gives them five minutes (sigh, it should have been four) to discuss as a tribe and see if they can find a unanimous vote. Otherwise, there will be a rock draw. Myles, collaring the discussion from the start, assures the opposing side that he and AJ “are the biggest psychopaths on the tribe.”
Logan says that, unlike Zara, she won’t demand that her side go to rocks for her. Zara, in full flight, says that neither will she. That her side agreed on rocks beforehand, no matter who the target would be.
A little maths shows that the Post Graduates only have two chances of getting the bad rock, with Kaelan and Zara immune. On Logan’s side, there are three who are vulnerable.
Logan tells her side it is okay if they vote for her. No Logan! Fight! Let it go to rocks! But although that fire is what we wanted to see from Logan in her final moments, it doesn’t make sense for Kristin, Morgan and Kate, all of whom have voted for Logan previously.
And so a great social game comes to an end. Though we wish she had fought, she understood it was inevitable and took the reins of her own elimination. With her confessional minutes just behind AJ and Myles (thanks, Agreeable-Work8302 on Reddit), the audience always saw Logan’s game. That’s what we want, editors, to understand the players and their moves, agree with them or not as we may. And in a jury that so far is serving lewks, surely Jury Logan will stun from the other side of Tribal Council.
Next time, is Zara turning on The Boys?
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