In the penultimate episode of the season, it’s an all-Brains final four, made up of AJ, Kaelen, Myles, and Zara, aka The Postgraduates. Usually, an alliance of four making it to the end intact would suggest a steamroll of a season, but the path these four players cut to this point has been anything but smooth. You only have to look at the 2-1-1-1 vote at the last tribal council to see how individualistic this alliance is thinking.
After that dramatic vote, the final four returns to camp to break down what happened. Zara holds court, explaining how she had all the information and used the position to get rid of the person most threatening to her game. She makes it abundantly clear this was her move and that AJ and Kaelen both basically owe her their lives.
Meanwhile, Myles licks his wounds as he falls back into his familiar Jungle Rat position at the bottom of the tribe. AJ reads him the riot act, telling him that his attempted shot only served to harm his game and made sure nobody would take him to the end. AJ is soft-spoken, but his words are harsh, telling Myles that Kaelen doesn’t trust him and Zara doesn’t respect him, seeing him as a child who doesn’t deserve to win.
The following day, Myles gets assurances from Kaelen and Zara that things aren’t as dire as they seem. Both claim they’re willing to work with him should he win the next immunity challenge. But that right there is the sticking point. Myles knows he has no options unless that necklace is over his shoulders, so he heads into the final four immunity challenge with a point to prove and his life on the line.
In a multi-part obstacle course that involves manoeuvring a rope, aiming sandbags at a target, and landing five balls in the divots of a narrow circular plank, Myles scorches past the competition. Even though Kaelen and AJ eventually catch up to him, Myles remains calm under pressure, gets the knack of things, and lands all five balls for his first individual immunity win of the season.
While everyone is all smiles for Myles, deep down, this is their worst-case scenario. As AJ says, it could have been so simple: had Myles lost the challenge, he, Kaelen, and Zara would have had a clear path to the final three. Now, it’s time to scramble, well, for Zara, at least. For his part, AJ is firm in what he wants to do: he’s sticking with Kaelen no matter what, believing the pair of them are locked in to take each other to the final two.
Zara tries floating the idea of putting three votes on Kaelen, with AJ joining her and Myles to vote out the record-breaking challenge winner. AJ listens to Zara’s pitch, but it’s clear he has no intention of splitting away from Kaelen. And it’s not even that AJ and Kaelen made a pact; it’s that if AJ puts a vote on Kaelen, he leaves the door open for Zara and Myles to blindside him in a 2-1-1 vote.
With AJ unwilling to budge, Zara realises her best option is a 2-2 tie and a fire-making challenge. It’s so much more interesting when fire-making isn’t a guarantee at four but rather an option that can be strategised around. Zara tries one last pitch to see if Kaelen would consider voting for AJ, but when he shuts that down, she settles on his guidance to help her practice building fire.
Unfortunately for Zara, fire isn’t the guarantee she thinks it is. She lost sight of the third option, which is that Myles votes with AJ and Kaelen to send her home and guarantee themselves the final three. I can see why she’d put that thought aside, as Myles has shown himself to be a player who takes the most chaotic options 9 times out of 10. Sadly for her, this is the one time he decides to keep things simple.
At tribal council, Zara again touts her impressive move at the previous tribal, making sure the jury knows Kate went home at her hand. This probably doesn’t help her case for survival when her other tribemates are sitting there listening to what could be part of her final tribal speech. On top of that, Zara is an endurance challenge threat, and knowing that Aussie Survivor tends to end things with endurance, it isn’t a real surprise when the vote turns out to be 3-1, sending Zara to the jury.
And so we have our final three, AJ, Kaelen, and Myles. These three players came together early amid the chaos of the OG Brains tribe, but they haven’t always seen eye-to-eye. AJ seems to think he has the $500,000 in the bag regardless of who he sits next to. Myles will surely be fighting tooth and nail again to ensure he can go from Jungle Rat to Jungle King. And Kaelen might just surprise everyone by revealing he’s more than just the challenge beast, coconut boy.
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