The finale? Already? Where did the season go? No time to worry about that now. We’ve got three players to get rid of tonight and three others to send to the always fun grilling by the jury.
Tempers flare when the tribe returns to camp after voting off Michaela. Sarah is steamed that Cirie tried to play the steal-a-vote advantage that Sarah had given her to hold as a show of faith. To retaliate, Sarah orchestrated the sudden move to get rid of Michaela, whom she saw as Cirie’s right hand.
Cirie tries to explain why she did it. She wanted to show Sarah that she was wrong to put her trust in Tai. Sarah wasn’t buying it. At first, Tai denies knowing anything, but then confesses that yes, he had panicked and wanted to vote Sarah off, knowing how strong she is.
Sarah and Cirie make up, and Tai is now on everyone’s list. He tries to get back in with Brad by telling him he has two hidden immunity idols. Brad tells Tai not to screw things up.
First Immunity Challenge
It’s a giant maze. The players have to work their way to three different stations where they’ll retrieve three bags of wooden pieces, which they’ll use to solve a puzzle. In addition to immunity, there’s a reward of pasta back at camp.
Brad, Aubry and Cirie are the first back with their puzzle pieces, followed closely by Troyzan. Tai and Sarah are a bit behind. It comes down to a puzzle-solving race between Brad and Sarah, and it’s Brad who wins immunity, again. We have a feeling Brad is about to make a run on immunity challenges.
Jeff Probst tells Brad he can choose two people to join him for dinner and he picks Troyzan and Sarah. They’ll have a hardy meal before going to Tribal Council to vote someone off.
Troyzan is happy Brad won because he see a Brad win as a win for himself. Plus he has a hidden immunity advantage he can play.
Sarah feels her only chance of making it to the final three is to join up with Brad and Troyzan. She asks who they should vote off. They discuss Tai and Aubry, but decide on Aubry.
Brad tries to intimidate Tai, telling him he wants Tai to play one of his idols for himself tonight, and to give Brad one to hold so there’s not any funny business. Brad tells him that Tai’s future is under his control now. Brad also tells Troyzan that he has no intention of giving Tai his second idol back.
Tai is not on board with the plan. He won’t give Brad his idol, just yet anyway. Tai goes to Aubry and tells her Brad’s plan, and promises to play his second idol for her. Cirie apologizes to Tai and asks him to vote with her and Aubry. Tai doesn’t know what to do and he spends the minutes before Tribal Council weeping.
Meanwhile, Troyzan tells Sarah about the two idols and now everyone is suspicious and worried about what Tai will do.
First Tribal Council
Aubry says when they went back to camp after the last vote, they came to the conclusion that Tai was a rat. Tai says they were all lying but he’s the only one getting blamed.
Sarah says that no one is on the same page with Tai. Troyzan says Tai won’t be able to recover from what’s happened. Tai says he was offered bribes and threats to vote their way. Brad says it’s buyer beware if you try to make a deal with Tai.
Everyone votes and when Probst asks for hidden immunity idols it’s a Blue Light special at Kmart. Tai plays one idol for himself, and one for Aubry. Then Sarah plays her secret legacy advantage, which gives her immunity. Troyzan then gets on the immunity train and plays his idol.
Let’s recap. Brad won immunity at the challenge and Tai, Aubry, Troyzan and Sarah have claimed immunity, so who’s left without an idol? Cirie. And even though there is not a single vote cast against her, she’s off to Loser Lodge and into the “Survivor” history books. Do they have those? Probably.
Cirie says the game has changed her. She’d never have met so many different people and had so many amazing experiences if she hadn’t gotten off her couch 11 years ago. But she’s going out in grand style. Probst says she has played every day with grace and it’s been an honor having her in the game.
Second Immunity Challenge
We’re back to the beach in a challenge that requires the players to balance balls on small flat paddles and work to transfer them from one paddle to another along a table obstacle course. It’s confusing, but looks very difficult. First person to get all three balls through wins immunity.
Brad wins yet again, and this time he breaks down. This win was for Monica, his wife, his says. For those living in caves, Brad and Monica signed up for an earlier season thinking they’d be playing together, but instead friends and family couples were split into two opposing tribes. Brad was eventually eliminated but Monica lasted to the finals, where she got one vote.
Back in camp, Sarah, Troyzan and Brad decide to vote off Aubry, who tries to get Sarah and Tai to vote with her and take out Troyzan. Aubry says if Brad wins immunity again at the next challenge, he’ll take Troyzan with him to the final four and ultimately to the finals.
Tai and Sarah, however, decide they need to vote off Aubry. Then Brad takes a few minutes to browbeat Tai. If he wants to stay in the game then he better vote the way Brad tells him to.
Tai doesn’t like being ordered around and he tells Sarah he thinks they should blind side Troyzan.
Second Tribal Council
Troyzan says it’s tough to see Brad romping through the challenges when he thought he was the challenge king. Aubry says she believes that Troyzan and Brad will be in the final three unless they do something, which is voting off Troyzan.
Sarah says you need to start considering who you want on the jury and who you want to sit next to. Brad says from what he’s hearing, he needs to win the next immunity challenge to guarantee he gets in. They all say there are people remaining who they can’t beat to win the million. Everyone except Troyzan, who appears to have a sudden surge of ego.
When the votes are cast, however, it’s a predictable ouster. Aubry has seen her last day in the game.
Third (and final) Immunity Challenge
Today’s torture involves untying keys and then racing through an obstacle platform and down a giant water slide. The keys will unlock bags of wooden pieces, which, you guessed it, will be used to solve a lighthouse puzzle. But first, they have to work through a second obstacle after they get the keys. And once they have the lighthouse almost built, they have to untie three numbered tiles and use them to open a combination lock and retrieve the top. Besides the physical challenge, there are multiple keys to try.
Sarah rocks it the obstacle courses, but falls behind trying to build her lighthouse. Tai catches up, but Brad edges him out to win his fifth immunity necklace.
Brad thinks he can beat any of the others when it comes to winning the million, but he’s gunning for Tai because, according to Brad, Tai betrayed him repeatedly. Tai might call it playing his own game and not doing everything Brad said just because he said it sternly. Regardless, Brad says it’s good to be the king.
We fear it’s time to say goodbye to our sensitive San Francisco gardener.
Brad and Troyzan celebrate on the beach. Troyzan wants to tell Tai that he’s being voted out, so he doesn’t suffer, but Brad says no. Tai needs to be punished for his defiance, and Brad wants Tai to think he still might have a chance. It’s his island and it’s going to be done his way.
Tai doesn’t get the memo though and suggests to Sarah that they should vote together against Troyzan and force a tie. A fire-making challenge would then decide who stays and who leaves. Sarah is tempted, partly because Brad is being insufferable. As usual, she’s the swing vote.
Third Tribal Council
Brad says it was an amazing feeling to win immunity, but now “we” have to decide who to put on the jury. Sarah says either she or Tai will be going home. Tai says that’s true, and that he wants them to vote for Troyzan, who appears not to know it wasn’t a lock that he was moving on.
Brad says he tried to throw Tai a lifeline and Tai just refused to accept it. Brad is the one in control; he’s the one with the necklace.
In the end there is no tie and no Tai, who becomes the 10th and final member of the jury. Sarah ends up going with the sure thing to get herself into the finals.
The final three enjoy a good breakfast, and let us just take a moment to say how glad we are that they discontinued the walk down memory lane, struggling to say something positive about the people who had been voted off.
On the other hand, we could have done without watching Brad boasting about himself, his five immunity challenge wins and how he doesn’t need the money.
Final Tribal Council
Probst announces they are changing up how the jury questions the finalists to focus on the three pillars of “Survivor” — outplay, outwit and outlast — and have more of a discussion. OK, let’s see how that goes.
Zeke says Sarah made amazing relationships and he wishes her the best. Andrea says she feels kind of gross about how Sarah played because she did a lot of lying to people. Sarah says her relationships were honest, which sends Debbie into gales of laughter.
Ozzy asks how they can trust her now? On the other hand, he says, Brad won challenges and was able to keep his hands clean. Ozzy champions Brad.
Cirie accuses Brad of riding on Sierra’s coat tails for most of the game. Brad denies that. Michaela asks him if he’s so good at the social game, to tell her some things he knows about her. He manages a few feeble statements about where she went to school and what she does for a living. Michaela says “No further questions your honor.” Brad waves her off.
Tai is shocked to hear how Sarah manipulated things. Sarah says that last time she played the game, she played as herself, but to get further this time, she knew she had to be more devious. As a cop, she played as if she was working undercover.
Debbie blasts her for basically being in the finals when Debbie isn’t. Delusional Deb says she’s on Ozzy’s side, which is Brad’s side, and she says without Brad, Sarah wouldn’t be there. Michaela says she doesn’t understand why people take the votes so personally. That’s the game and you should applaud people who were good at it.
Troyzan finally gets a question directed toward him, and Ozzy accuses him of being a passenger, not a driver. They all seem to agree that Troyzan has no chance of winning.
Andrea says Brad didn’t play much of a social game because he didn’t get close to anyone. Tai asks whether Brad understands how terribly he treats people? Brad ordered him around and spoke down to him. Brad doesn’t seem to think that was wrong.
Zeke says this ship has only one captain, and that is Sarah. She always made the right vote.
Ozzy says the outplay portion goes to Brad. If he hadn’t won the last four immunity challenges, he would not be in the finals. Brad played to win, Ozzy says, and he deserves to win because of that.
Sarah says wait a minute, Brad is an athlete. She had to play a strong mental game to get where she is. She talks about finding the hidden advantage that was sitting right at Michaela’s feet, and she had to vote out Sierra while still ensuring Sierra would leave her the advantage.
Michaela says not only did Sarah take the advantage that she missed, she used it to vote her off, and that was just genus.
When asked to make final statements, Brad says winning the game doesn’t mean you have to lie to everyone. All the work he did around camp, he did because that’s just who he is, not to win their votes.
Sarah says in this game you have to strike first. She believes all of the jurors could have beaten her, so she needed to make sure they weren’t in the finals and she was.
Troyzan says he might not have been the best game player, but he appreciates all of them. Playing the game meant everything to him. Troyzan, out.
Looks like it’s going to be a close vote, but not that close as it turns out. Brad gets three votes and the rest go to Sarah, who in our opinion deserves the win.
It’s been a really good season. We’ll see you back here in a few months.