In the aftermath of Vula’s first Tribal Council, Mary is squarely on the bottom. She wrote Sai’s name down, Sai wants revenge, and unless she can get Justin and Kevin to flip, she’s in rough waters. Thankfully for Mary, the three guys get together and plan ahead in case they lose, which seems likely given how pathetic their last two challenge performances have been. These guys are in a win-win situation now. They can vote for Sai as a trio, and if she plays her idol, Mary goes, they keep the numbers, and the idol is back in the jungle. If she doesn’t play it, even better! That way, Mary’s on their side as a more loyal ally and Sai’s chaotic control is no more.
Meanwhile, Civa continues to be the vibe tribe as they all bond over their “humble traits”, so to speak. Charity and her wonky toes, Chrissy and her absurdly deep belly button, Mitch’s stutter, Kyle and the wart he thought was a callus for ten years, and David’s extra nipples. But you know what’s not a vibe? The awkwardness happening on Lagi when Eva openly declares Star to be the best sitout option. Star’s on the bottom; the others are making it clear, and so she heads out to find a miracle in the form of a beware advantage. And like poetry, her success sends Lagi spiraling into messiness despite the obvious hierarchy. Because Star can’t solve the puzzle box alone, she recruits some allies to help her decode the clues. By “some allies,” I mean the entire tribe except for Eva. First, she goes to Joe, then to Shauhin, and then to Thomas and Bianca.
Suddenly, the others have the dilemma of helping her out and keeping her comfortable or sabotaging her and keeping her stuck without a vote. Thomas wants to toss away her clues and let Star rot on the bottom, but Shauhin thinks that gameplay is too sweaty, too brutal, and too ruthless for day four. Then there’s Joe, who finds himself emotionally distraught by the dilemma. Star trusts him first and foremost, but Joe’s working with her target: Eva. Their bond is the strongest of the season so far, so of course, Joe won’t betray his number one here. He informs her about Star’s entire game, and now the whole tribe knows what’s really going on… except for Star herself, who might end up without a vote or an idol. Back to the bottom she goes, powerless once more because of her loose lips.
But when you think you’re on the bottom, Advantage Island hungers for victims, and three players are selected to go on the first Journey of the game. This time, every player on the tribe has to put up one to five fingers, and the lowest unique number goes. If you don’t want to go, just put up five. If you want a shot, go low. Mitch wins for Civa, Thomas wins for Lagi, and despite Sai winning what was explicitly said to be a practice round, Mary wins for Vula, leaving Sai feeling burned by her alleged allies. Once the trio gets to Advantage Island, they’re sent to three different stations across the island to play a slide puzzle game for power in the game. Mitch crushes it, winning a Vote Blocker. Thomas struggles at first but pulls it off, too, winning a Vote Steal. But unfortunately for Mary, she times out and ends up losing her vote at her next Tribal, not that she really had much power to lose anyway.
Back at camp, Mary owns up to losing her vote and says it’s basically a death sentence. Thomas lies, saying he opted not to play the game and went home with nothing, and Mitch becomes the tribe hero by revealing his Vote Blocker to the others. Charity, in particular, is so happy for him as they celebrate together, but David doesn’t like this little duo they have going on. Charity’s the obvious out here, and Mitch is her closest ally, so them having any kind of power together is a huge problem. So off he goes with Kyle and Chrissy to find Civa’s idol. Kyle finds it first, but ultimately, his number one, Kamilla, does the heavy lifting in cracking the code with her gamer intellect.
At the immunity challenge, it’s the same old story as Lagi dominates without breaking a sweat, but Mitch clutches the final phase to help Civa pass them for a first place finish. But Lagi has nothing to worry about when Cedrek and Kevin experience an abysmal failure as Jeff puts it, denying Vula a chance to even compete in the last stage. Seems we have another trainwreck loser tribe on our hands, and Sai’s already got her eyes set on booting Mary despite Cedrek struggling in every challenge so far.
Back on Vula beach, Cedrek tearfully accepts his fate if they blame him for the loss and hold him accountable, but everyone’s got different agendas floating around, and none of them involves targeting the weak link. Sai believes it’s a surefire Mary boot, but Kevin and the guys are still down to throw votes on Sai and bring Mary into the fold. Kevin goes to Mary and tells her what’s up, but he’s not the only one playing his own game tonight. Cedrek feels way closer to Sai than either of the guys or Mary and so their plan is leaked to the last person who should’ve known. Sai knows she’s in danger, she’s ready to play the idol, and then Mary will be gone with nothing to save her.
Or so you’d think, but the sudden plot twist and Cedrek’s insight convinces her that Kevin might be the better target after all. He’s playing hard as a big threat, and he’s trying to scheme with Mary and the guys behind Sai’s back. Voting for him would give Sai some sweet satisfaction, at the very least. Cedrek tries to keep the target on Mary, hoping to keep all his options in the game for the next round, but Sai goes to Justin and pitches Kevin again, proving this plan cannot be stopped so easily. It’s only Day 5 and these people are playing like there’s a 2 in front of that number. Suddenly, Cedrek and Justin have all the power: do they vote for a voteless Mary and keep their guy Kevin on board for another round, or do they pull the trigger on a big betrayal two rounds in to clear out a huge threat?
Well, after another dramatic Tribal where Sai and Mary go at each other with snarky comments and Jeff calls out some BS excuses for Vula’s recurring challenge fails, it’s a unanimous Kevin blindside with him still thinking the vote was on Sai, who plays her idol to nullify his one vote. Mary loses yet another ally and ends up in an even worse spot than before. Sai survives and has Cedrek fiercely loyal to her as her father figure, and you might as well send Vula a ticket to another Tribal because they just dumped their best challenge performer for the sake of making an early big move.
Whether Vula becomes a total disaster tribe is yet to be decided, so we’ll see how they fare next week as Mary fights for her life, Star fights to unlock her idol, and the entire Civa tribe fights to protect their groins in the return of the brutal blindfolded obstacle course challenge.
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