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“Survivor: Extinction Island” was lining up to be one of those quiet introspective episodes where players reflect on the struggle and the temptations to just go home. But then Tribal Council happened.
Getting us to that point was a combination of last week’s vote, which took hometown favorite Eric from Livermore out of the game, for now, and ramped up paranoia on the part of Julie, one of the Kama Strong who up until then had been cruising through the game on the right side of the chips.
But when the Kama Alliance decided to oust Eric, one of its own, no one clued Julie and Ron in on the plan. Ron went from thinking he was running the game to fear he was the next to be voted out. Julie just went off the deep end, crying hysterically and questioning her reason for being in the game at all.
When Gavin wins the immunity necklace, the remaining Kama Strong alliance seem good with his plan to vote off David, one of the two returning players that remain in the game. But then people start talking and alternate plans are hatched that include getting rid of Kelley, the other remaining former player.
It all goes toes up during Tribal Council when Aurora talks a little too much about “the plan,” and Julia, who is running the show, tries to put a lid on it by, among other things, snapping at Wardog to shut up, and telling Rick he is just a passenger.
As it turns out, Rick isn’t a passenger — he is driving the Crazy Town Bus. Aurora makes a sarcastic comment that if the five remaining Lesu tribe players — Rick, David, Kelley, Lauren and Wardog — weren’t so dysfunctional, they could get together with Ron and Julie and make something happen, and Rick dives on the idea.
Before long, Julie is crying again and shouting “I’m out. I’m out!” She had felt left out of the Eric vote, and she thinks she saw suspicious looks being exchanged all day among Julia, Aurora and Victoria. She announces that she’s ready to “jump ship,” turning her back on the Kama Alliance and join Rick and David in whatever they want to do.
Ron appears to be a harder sell. He wants to make a move but is clearly frightened by the prospect of truly being an outsider on the Kama alliance. No one is bothering to lower their voices and thus David learns he is the intended target tonight, but things now seem to be swinging in his favor.
Julia, who is horrified to see the walls crumbling around her, tries to hold her splintering alliance together, but as they say, that dog won’t hunt. David and Rick play their joint hidden immunity idol on behalf of David, just in case, but except for one vote for David and one for Kelley, all the others fall to Julia, who heads off to Extinction Island, where she’ll join Reem, Chris, Aubry, Joe and Eric.
Next time: Fragile alliances seem to be falling and reforming with lightening speed.
