The Bounty tribe might have enjoyed baked goods in this latest episode of Australian Survivor, but tribal council was anything but a piece of cake. With distrust and revenge running through the camp, former allies fractured, returnees were humbled, and a new castaway continued to make a name for themselves.
Fresh off the Eliza blindside, Jackson returns to camp wounded and wondering what the hell happened. After no one wants to take responsibility for leading the vote, Lyndl eventually pulls Jackson aside and explains why she voted for Eliza. She once again airs her grievances about Eliza waking her up in the middle of the night to tell her she was on the bottom (a fact), and confesses to getting the ball rolling against Jackson’s number one.
But Jackson needn’t worry, because Harry is there to take him under his wing, just as Lottie predicted. We’re only four episodes in, but Lottie is proving to be the most astute player on the cast, even including the returnees. She’s essentially running the Bounty tribe, but doing so in a way that isn’t overbearing or domineering. People trust her, and when she proposes a plan, they listen.
From the beginning, Lottie recognized the danger of having two returnees on the beach, especially when they were working together. But she didn’t come out swinging at them; instead, she’s been slowly chipping away. And now, within a matter of days, she’s managed to drive enough of a wedge that Simon ends up voting against Harry’s best interests.
Lottie first plants the seeds in a late-night strat-chat with Simon, letting him know that Paula has been throwing his name around. We haven’t really seen proof of that, but Aisha says the same later, so there must be a sliver of truth to it. For Lottie, taking out Paula and having Simon vote with her achieves two goals. She weakens Harry by taking out a close ally, and she creates distrust between the pair of returnees.
It’s smart, carefully planned gameplay, the kind you’d expect from a seasoned player. It’s certainly head and shoulders above the other newbies, so far, at least. Take fellow Bounty member, Lyndl, for example. She might have an idol, but her reads on the game are off. She brushed off Eliza’s accurate information about her being on the bottom, and she expresses similar doubts here when she’s told that Paula is pitching her name. Instead, her focus remains on Jackson because she voted out his number one and doesn’t want that hanging around her neck for any longer.
Jackson, too, has had a tough time getting a handle on the game. He’s been pulled in different directions and isn’t sure what to believe. So, when Lottie tells him that Paula was the one actually coralling the votes against Eliza and that Harry was in on it, it takes him a minute to fully comprehend. Again, though, Lottie isn’t forceful with the information; she doesn’t push it. She presents the facts and waits for Jackson to come around.
One thing that isn’t quite clear yet is who Lottie considers her number one. She seems to get along with the entire tribe, but we haven’t seen any ride-or-die alliances. Perhaps there is something with Aisha, who excitedly jumps aboard the Paula plan once Lottie presents it to her. Aisha has quite the episode here, thanks to the slice of cake Richard dishes out at the reward. With the cake cut into different sizes, Richard is left to decide who gets what and who misses out. Aisha’s slice ends up containing a clue to an advantage, which she quickly discovers near the tribe’s well.
The advantage is an interesting one. It allows Aisha to save a player (including herself) by removing them from tribal council. We’ve seen this before in the form of Safety Without Power, but this one comes with a wrinkle. Not only does Aisha choose a player to save, but she can pick a member of the immune tribe to take that person’s place and vote at tribal council. It has to be used within the next three tribals, so what’s the betting it ends up being used at the first non-elimination tribal of the season?
Aisha decides not to use it at this first trouble, and it’s a smart choice, seeing as she doesn’t appear to be in any danger right now. She is firmly in the majority and fully on board with Lottie’s Paula plan, which soon picks up steam around the beach. But there are a couple of forks in the road, including Lyndl, who still wants to vote out Jackson, and Jackson, who isn’t sure who he can trust.
Then there’s Simon. He’s worked with his fellow returnee Harry from the start, so severing that trust and voting out Paula is a major decision. After hearing Paula’s been pitching his name, Simon pulls Harry aside to get the lay of the land. Harry doesn’t instill confidence, leaving Simon feeling like something is off.
There’s a reason why Harry doesn’t instill confidence, though, and that’s because he isn’t confident. He senses something is up, especially with people blatantly walking away from him when he approaches. And he enters tribal fully prepared to see his name written down. What he failed to see, however, was that the target wasn’t on him, but his closest ally.
At tribal, Lottie pulls off her blindside, sending Paula home in an impressive 7-2-1 vote. All Harry can do is turn to Jackson and ask the same question Jackson asked him at the last tribal, “Did you know about this?”
It was a very Bounty-heavy episode, with not a lot going on at the Barren camp, other than Don forgetting his fake last name and forming the Corn Chip Mafia alliance with Mark and Caleb after coming to clean to Mark about his relation to Mat Rogers. But if this episode taught us anything, it’s not to underestimate these newbie players.
Written by