Last week, the steamroll continued when the revolution fell apart, and now we’re left with a ragtag group of underdogs who can’t get on the same page versus an alliance of four committed to the bit of never betraying one another. Mary makes the only pitch she can: keep her around to take a shot at Joe and Eva while she can function as both a number for the plan and a shield to take the bullet if those two play their idol. Kamilla and Mitch love the sound of that, but they still need to convince Kyle and/or Shauhin to make the move too, so it’s just spitballing at this point.
Meanwhile, Kyle and Joe head off to talk game, and Joe’s plan is pretty clear. Mary goes next, then Mitch, then Kamilla, and finally, the Strong Four battle it out, best against the best, to earn the title. But Kyle’s not sold on this vision despite his bond with the guy. Joe’s a huge jury threat, his number one ally has all the advantages, and Shauhin might be closer to them than Kyle, leaving him fighting for his life at four if he stays loyal. The temptation to make a move is real, but it has to be at the right time for the right reasons for someone in a middle-man position.
At some point, though, Kyle has to betray someone. It could be Joe, the guy he’s shared real-life conversations with, sharing deeply personal traumas and bonding soul to soul like best friends. It could be Kamilla, his strategic number one, who he’s made long-term promises to after uniting on Civa. But before Final Tribal Council, he’ll have to make a choice. And the weight of it is crushing, especially for an emotional, impulsive guy with a big heart.
For now, he’ll keep his desire to turn on Joe a secret so that nothing gets leaked and Joe stays comfortable. Unfortunately, that’s not the answer Mary was looking for with her pitch making the rounds, so she’s feeling hopeless once more. Hopeless enough to go scorched earth on the tribe’s food supply, as she chops up and eats their last coconut out of spite. It’s not like she’s winning any rewards or being taken on them, so she’s eating what she wants when she wants to, and the others can deal with that. And they deal with it by hating her guts, so Mary’s strategic pitches have just lost a ton of power because nobody wants to work with someone who happily eats all their food.
As Kyle, Shauhin, and Mitch bond over fishing on the reef, a boat arrives to take someone away for another Journey, and even though Mary needs this so badly, nobody’s willing to let her just waltz off to find some power. By the luck of a random draw, the rich might get richer as Eva is selected for the trip. The upside is that she already has two ways to stay safe, so her vote isn’t really important for her own safety. But, the downside is that if she does lose her vote, that forces a 3-3 situation where one of her allies might pay the price for her mistakes.
When she arrives, it turns out she’s playing for the Knowledge is Power, everyone’s favorite, totally balanced, not at all broken twist. Once again, the advantage proves to be a huge flop in practice because while this thing is perfect for an underdog to win in this situation (almost conveniently, so I might add), when the top dog with all the advantages has it, it’s useless at best and miserable at worst if someone on the bottom happens to find an idol. After winning her vote back, Eva can continue playing for the advantage but declines. The advantage is useless. Her vote isn’t. Makes sense.
Back at camp, she’s open and honest about the Journey to an almost annoying degree if you ask the underdogs, who see it more as a socially aloof brag than anything. But oh well, nothing’s changed. So right now, it’s still a numbers game without any more added variables, and Mary’s off to recruit Shauhin since she might as well try everyone at some point. But once again, Mary can’t get anywhere at all.
Despite Shauhin knowing that Joe’s a big threat at the end and everyone wants to see a move be made… he somehow thinks he can beat him on gameplay alone after being his follower since the merge. He might have good relationships with some jurors and kept his options open, but if the jury thinks he played scared and chickened out of making any moves with said options, he’s going to regret playing the middle and waiting for the jocks to turn on each other for his benefit.
This week’s challenge is a combo for immunity and reward. After tackling a difficult arch puzzle where dexterity is more important than brains once everyone knows the word, it turns out brains actually matter more when a minor oversight from Joe lets Kamilla take her first immunity win against the challenge beasts, finally leaving Joe vulnerable for a blindside. But she also has some reward picks to make: Mitch and Eva. Mary’s in tears over missing out, but that’s what bad coconut etiquette gets you, I guess.
As the feasters chow down, Kamilla reveals she had no idea who she wanted to pick until the moment came. Mitch was an easy choice since he needed food, but Eva’s the questionable one. Kamilla doesn’t want to fuel Joe, she can’t pick Kyle or it could reveal their alliance, and picking lone bottom feeder Mary would expose her plans, so why not just take someone else from the majority and feed them to keep everyone in her “alliance” comfortable? Kamilla’s put pieces in place, Eva doesn’t see it coming and might not play her idol on Joe, so it all comes down to what Kyle and Kamilla decide to do.
Back at camp, Shauhin’s bitter about losing another challenge and sings a novelty song about his woes (leagues better than the Chicken and Waffles song, I must say!). But inside, he knows the vote might be less set in stone than it seems. Mary’s the plan; Joe doesn’t want to make anyone nervous by stressing it too much, and Mary’s still trying to survive however she can. Meanwhile, Kyle and Kamilla link back up, where Kyle reveals he’s actually a lawyer, not a teacher. He’s a great liar, but Kamilla doesn’t care that she’s been played as long as one of them can get to the end and win.
It’s that joyful loyalty that clears Kyle’s head: Eva and Joe… gotta go! At some point. Maybe tonight. Maybe another time. But Kamilla is having second thoughts about keeping Mary’s chaotic self around when she’s eating all the food and can’t be trusted.
As Tribal draws near, it’s game time. For Mary, it’s time to cause more chaos. Without missing a beat, she’s just calling out Joe’s name at camp and acting chill, hoping to convince them all she’s got an idol. Joe starts spiraling over it and debates splitting votes just in case, meaning one vote goes on someone else random. Mitch, Kyle, and Shauhin tell him to shut that stuff down and vote Mary just to keep the peace and not expose a pecking order.
Shauhin, in particular, takes it personally. He’s had his name written down twice (not that bad, but go off) and never known the safety of the immunity necklace, but Joe’s going to sit here and crash out over one vote that hasn’t even been cast when he’s been safe three times? Well, Shauhin’s so annoyed he might vote Joe tonight too, just out of spite. With Joe potentially throwing his vote, the door is wide open for the revolution to be reborn from the ashes with Kyle and Kamilla as its leaders.
But in an episode where timing is the talk of the town, the revolution will NOT be televised yet because after 90 minutes of building up to a huge blindside and putting pieces in place, including defeating Joe in the challenge by a hair, it’s just a unanimous Mary boot because she ate too much coconut. Yep, nothing to write home about here other than David randomly standing up on the jury bench to give Mary an honorable send-off. That was bizarre and cringeworthy, but hey, I’ll take whatever momentary entertainment this season gives me at this point, cringe or not.
Even if the boot itself was ho-hum, at least the rest of the episode actually had something going on to get invested in. Kamilla got a big moment and is allowed to play again. Kyle picked a path to get to the end alongside her after some compelling emotional turmoil. Joe and Shauhin crashed against each other and will continue doing so next week as the secret duo gets to work once more. There’s some actual content here and not just red herrings and frustration like last week’s snoozer.
No guarantee any of this hype pays off next time or if we just get another obvious vote when this big plan goes awry, but at least there’s some potential for a somewhat exciting last couple of episodes, even if the journey to get here was insanely underwhelming. It won’t save the season, of course, because it’s still a big dud in almost every way, but maybe it won’t be a sleep-inducing steamroll to the very end. Just one that barely keeps us awake.
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Totally agree Cory. This season cannot be saved anymore, it’s such a snooooze. Can we just fast forward to the season finale. I miss Sai!
Zzzz
I am a little confused, Cory. You’re vocally against all the bells and whistles of the new era, especially when production meddling affects vote outcomes (e.g. forced loss of votes, such as Justin and Bianca’s elimination this season). However, when we finally get some old-school game play with solid alliances that actually hold together without everyone getting big-move-itis, you’re criticizing that as well. I think 48 has just been classic old-school survivor where a strong alliance forms and doesn’t turn on each other. Yes, it doesn’t have massive strategic moves, but this is definitely more of a character-season than a strategy-season. The much older average age of this cast may be playing a role in that.