Thomas is gone. The California Girls are down a man. And it’s a rough night for the remaining two as Shauhin reflects on losing his number one. He got cocky and assumed Kyle didn’t have an idol despite searching his stuff, fell for Kyle and Kamilla’s acting, and suffered the consequences alongside Joe. So now it’s a two versus two with no advantages left among these four, meaning the Civa duo has to keep acting and looking for cracks to exploit as the Lagi duo picks up the pieces.
The tribes gather for a reward challenge with a pastry feast on the line, and it’s a dominant Lagi win, followed by Vula taking second place. Despite Mitch’s throwing skills, Civa struggles and goes hungry for the day, and Sai isn’t happy about it. Fed up with the victory celebrations of the winners, Mary in particular, she calls out everyone for rubbing it in and gets the sore loser label stamped on her, then makes her standing even worse by fighting with Chrissy back at camp. Both women have competed in all the challenges so far, but Sai took to the bench to rest before Chrissy could even get a word in to make her case. Then Sai takes some of Civa’s fruit when they get back to camp just to add insult to injury.
So Chrissy doesn’t like her. Mitch doesn’t like her. Cedrek actually likes her, but she doesn’t like Cedrek in return. Bianca wants to work with Sai, but she has no vote, so she’s prepared to just dump Sai to get to the merge if that’s how the others decide to vote. It could be an easy Sai boot, but Sai wants Chrissy gone, so Cedrek and Sai could stay Vula strong and force a tie. Options indeed, and Bianca’s goal here is just keeping her head down.
While Lagi enjoys their Sanctuary reward, especially milk-obsessed David, it’s not all good vibes among the victors. Charity’s bad vibes have once again earned her someone’s ire, and this time it’s Eva getting fed up with her attitude. She might not understand every social cue, but something about Charity just rubs her the wrong way. And with Eva’s best ally on this tribe being fellow Charity-hater David, Charity’s position might be even worse than Star’s at this point.
Despite only taking second place, Vula has by far the most enlightening win of the day. Hard times hit, and the four of them turn to bonding over their unique origins. Shauhin’s the son of refugees from the Iranian Revolution, Kamilla’s family escaped the Sri Lankan civil war, Joe’s sharecropper father survived Jim Crow laws while dating a White woman. It’s so touching, so much so that the Vulas create a voting bloc for the merge forged from the ashes of a brutal Tribal and the bonds of victory.
But if you think that scene was inspirational, the immunity challenge delivers what might be the moment of the season when all’s said and done. It’s a challenge that requires everyone to complete the dexterity-testing table maze at the end of the course, and after Vula sweeps and most of Lagi finishes, it’s all up to Eva to finish the job as Civa closes in on second place. She struggles. She gets frustrated. But after so many attempts, she narrowly wins it for her tribe and gets her hero moment.
The emotions stir her into an episode, and Jeff gives Joe the okay to cross tribal lines to calm her down as she taught him to do all those days ago. It’s a moment that goes far beyond the game. It’s humans looking out for each other when they need help, and come what may for these two as players in a cutthroat game where only one winner emerges victorious, it’s a moment where the game gets paused, bonds can be cemented, and lessons can be learned not just for the players, but anyone at home who faces similar struggles.
Without fear or shame, Eva opens up to the rest of the cast about her autism diagnosis. She explains how it’s shaped her life, from the moments when she was told she’d never amount to anything but dependency to the dedication of her parents, who pushed her to become a shining example of perseverance, conquering any obstacle in your way. Now, her autism isn’t an obstacle to be ashamed of, just another part of her complex human self, just like it is for anyone else with the condition. And with everyone (even Jeff) in tears, the challenge ends on a high note as Lagi returns to camp to celebrate.
Eva opening up inspires Star to put their feud to rest and play a more honest game true to her heart, so the rest of the tribe joins her in an idol hunt to finally solve her Beware Advantage puzzle box. When Eva’s the one to solve it, Star makes the ultimate selfless move and lets Eva take her idol to make up for any beef they had in the game. She earned it. The feud is over, enemies have become allies, and with the merge ahead, spirits are high.
But not on Civa. For these five, it’s all about survival. One more night, and it’s merge time. Bianca gets to work, telling the Vulas and Civas opposite stories to get two votes on Chrissy and two votes on Sai, forcing a totally safe revote when it turns out she doesn’t have a vote at all. She’s lying, but she’s surviving. But Sai’s still a bit out on Cedrek because he’s so messy and unreliable, even though he considers her his number one. Chrissy and Mitch try to get Cedrek on board to turn on her, though, and they think he’s buying what they’re selling.
To Bianca, this all sounds even better! She might get to keep her lost vote a secret tonight… and then Cedrek tells her he’s actually voting for Chrissy instead. Out of nowhere, Bianca’s lips get too loose for her own good, and she tells him about her lost vote in an attempt to buy some trust in advance and pressure him to vote out Sai anyway.
So once again, Cedrek’s in the middle of a lost vote hot mess. He could keep his mouth shut and go all in with Bianca at Sai’s expense, he could stick to the tie-vote plan and see what happens again, or he could totally burn Bianca and turn things against her to keep Sai. Well, Cedrek chooses chaos yet again as he seemingly pulls Chrissy into a secret plan to blindside Bianca in the first 2-1-1 vote in Survivor US history.
Granted, it took Bianca losing her vote in a game of Yahtzee to get us here, but this vote’s not as egregious as the Justin boot because, well, Bianca would’ve been totally fine if she didn’t tell Cedrek about it. She was sitting pretty until she flew too close to the sun and exposed her own lies for no reason, and once Cedrek’s messiness was thrown into the fray, it was only a matter of time until it blew up in her face.
That might’ve been the best episode of the season, honestly. Heartfelt and inspirational moments, great interpersonal drama, wacky comic relief doing their thing, and a fun self-inflicted blindside to cap it off. Can’t ask for much more. It’s been a rocky pre-merge with how advantage-heavy and lopsided in challenges it got at times, and you’ll never catch me defending the way Justin went home. But the foundation is there for a great post-merge as the dynamics are changing and strengthening heading into the next phase of the game.
We know so much more about this cast after this episode, former bottom feeders have a real shot to turn their games around, and there’s no real dominant force controlling this season with a firm grip to make things predictable. It truly feels like it’s anyone’s game for the most part, not just to win the season but to be voted out next. Fingers crossed that the ball is not dropped, and this episode marks a turning point after a very hit-or-miss pre-merge.
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