We’re back with another episode of Survivor: Integrity Island, and it’s the final nine. Chrissy dropped some bombs as she departed, mostly against David, Joe, and Eva, but somehow, it’s Shauhin who’s the most peeved as he doesn’t get why Chrissy threw a vote on him of all people. Meanwhile, David owns up to throwing Kamilla’s name out, making him look like a hypocrite in her eyes after all his honesty talk. He’s dead to her, and she’ll shade his entire game until the day she’s gone. But David’s eyes are set on Kyle because he went way too hard at saving Kamilla for his own good, and now the undercover alliance isn’t so stealthy.
The next morning, the Strong Five (called the Core Six with Mary involved) come together and discuss the next vote, and David directs the votes against Kamilla instead of Mitch to Kyle’s chagrin. Kyle has played the middle for a while, but he sees his time to strike and rallies Shauhin as a number, framing his pitch as David and Mary coming for Kamilla to weaken Shauhin himself. David and Mary read the room and sense a flip is coming, but their warnings fall on deaf ears as Eva writes them off as paranoid vibe-ruiners.
So, with that not working… why not just bring the fight to Kyle straight up? And Kyle, of course, isn’t happy with being called out for his shady gameplay, so his mind is set: Mary and David gotta go one after the other because he’s not dealing with bullish players trying to strong-arm him in this game.
But before we continue with David vs. Kyle, we get another potential crack in the Strong Five. Eva heads out at night to grab her taco reward advantage as her parchment instructed her to, but Shauhin catches her leaving camp, knows exactly what she’s going off to do as a diehard fan, and informs Joe… who’s actually chill with it! He thinks Eva will be an honest team player, brushes off Shauhin, and goes back to sleep as Eva reaches her destination.
By default, Eva has an extra vote here, but if she’s willing to risk it, she can take a 50/50 chance to upgrade it to Safety Without Power or lose her advantage entirely. Feeling safe in her alliance, she’s down to risk it, and the Safety Without Power is hers! Faced with a second game of chance with 1-in-3 odds, she can upgrade her power to a full idol but declines. She’s already got an idol anyway, so there’s really no reason to get greedy here. And in the morning, Eva opens up to her entire alliance about the advantage she got with complete honesty, putting Shauhin’s mind at ease and confirming Joe’s gut instincts.
But this info isn’t staying within the majority. Kyle runs off with Kamilla and spills Eva’s secret, and the David vs. Kyle war is back on. David takes his solid reads to Joe next and says Shauhin and Kyle are plotting against them, but Joe’s not budging either. So David pushes even harder to get his point across, accusing Joe of breaking his word about booting Kamilla last time. If you know anything about Joe, you’ll know he HATES being called dishonorable. So once again, David’s warnings go in one ear and out the other as Joe loses faith in his fellow jock. He has Eva, he has Shauhin, he has Kyle… but David might be on thin ice.
Meanwhile, Mitch gives Star some swimming lessons on the side of all this drama, but don’t think we’re getting a breakout episode for them here. This is still the Strong Five’s show, and we get another play at Joe’s loyalty courtesy of Kyle who wants to connect to the most powerful player in the game by opening up about his background. Turns out Kyle grew up as a troublemaker and underage drinker who dealt with the law on occasion, but he turned his life around and didn’t give up on self-improving, and now he’s an accomplished guy making a name for himself as a lawyer and playing a great game of Survivor too.
So, all that drama with David? It was a bit triggering for Kyle. It might be for strategic purposes in the context of this game, but it’s a genuine heart-to-heart between two big-hearted, emotional guys, and it works beautifully. Joe’s loving Kyle and hating David, and he’s open to making a move against Mary to punish David’s behavior despite his ride-or-die Eva preferring to keep the alliance together until the end.
Up for grabs at the challenge is another immunity necklace as well as a ham and cheese wrap reward. Not at the Sanctuary, though, because I guess they can’t afford to rent that place out every episode anymore. It’s another showdown between Joe and David, and despite a massive flub from Joe putting him on the edge of a loss early on, the firefighter pulls off another win as David beats himself up over a stupid lapse in concentration. With immunity comes three spots on his reward. Mitch is an easy first pick because the guy hasn’t been on a reward yet, and nobody wants to deny him food for this long (perhaps another reaction to Survivor 46’s craziness); then comes Shauhin and Eva as Joe’s two Lagi allies.
Back at camp, David and Mary are feeling some pressure and considering various options. David suggests throwing their votes on Mitch because Kamilla might have an idol played on her and Star might be an ally worth bringing into the fold. Then Star comes in and suggests voting for Shauhin out of nowhere, only for her plan to get shot down as she’s dragged into the Mitch vote without much input. Meanwhile, the reward winners start plotting against David as Mitch throws his name out, and Shauhin revels in his seeds against the stuntman, finally sprouting.
When the groups reunite, David and Mary keep pushing Eva to join them as Kyle tries getting her to turn on David. But Eva’s here to make friends and take them to the end, not to break her word and backstab people she’s built trust with, so she’s still not ready to flip against the alliance.
Taking a minute to talk it out with Joe, she finds herself in the middle, deciding who goes home tonight as Joe’s following her to the end of the Earth here. Eva dreams of staying six strong and working with the allies she trusts with her heart, but a blindside on David would end this rampant paranoia and keep the rest of her alliance tight, even as a Strong Four. Personal satisfaction and loyalty, or long-term alliance cohesion? Well, she chooses cohesion over loyalty, sending David to drink all the chocolate milk he wants at Ponderosa in a 6-3 vote, blindsiding Mary and Star in the process.
On paper, this should be an exciting blindside that breaks the game wide open and gives a fun villain a big downfall, but the actual results aren’t as hopeful for a crazy endgame as you’d think. Sure, something finally happened, but it comes at the cost of booting the final person causing genuine conflict in a very kumbaya, straightforward cast of players, and it’s not like they totally shattered a core power structure. We just exorcised one of the people actually reading the room correctly and aiming to play messier while those in power retained their majority, solidified their loyalty with each other, and kept all their advantages to use against a future uprising on the horizon.
Those outside the Strong Five won the battle here by proxy, but the one-sided war rages on, and this was a calculated, tactical sacrifice, if anything, not a full-on power shift. While I’d love to believe the next episode will bring a revolution by the underdogs, the fact that said underdogs are the epitome of expendable side characters to this season’s broader story doesn’t leave me too hopeful for a big turnaround.
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hmmm this is one of those seasons that starts quite strong but then the second half is a snooze fest. Yeah, none of the side characters get any strategy moments. Star is learning how to swim and Mary and Mitch said nothing all episode. Where was Kamilla?
Not a fun episode. It felt so incredibly long.. The first time I felt this way in the 90 minute era (which I normally love). We all know Kyle is going to win this season and that Shahin will also make it to final 3. Then it’s either Eva/ Joe or Kamilla joining them in the Final 3.