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The vote was supposed to be simple and uncomplicated. Everyone but Rick wanted to vote off the television newscaster. Rick’s torch was flickering, almost out, and things got a little crazy.
Let’s review, shall we? First off, it’s the family visit episode with Rick’s wife, Becca; Julie’s husband, Mark; Lauren’s dad, Joey; Ron’s husband, Lloyd; Victoria’s dad, Ralph; Aurora’s brother, Shane; and Gavin’s bride, Carly.
As expected, everyone is blubbering, but the most heart-string tugging is Gavin and Carly, who had pushed their wedding up a week and said the I dos just two days before Gavin got on a plane to play “Survivor.”
Ron ends up winning, and he chooses Julie and hubby, and Gavin and bride, to join him and Lloyd for a fried chicken picnic back at camp. Victoria is particularly bitter that Ron doesn’t pick her, and says maybe she’s not as tight with Ron as she thinks.
With everyone on board for voting Rick off, Ron decides to get unnecessarily cute and cruel. He gives Rick the special advantage he had won on the first day of competition — a menu of choices, including immunity. Only problem is, the advantage expired long ago.
Ron thinks that by giving Rick a fake advantage, he won’t be motivated to go searching for a hidden immunity idol, and perhaps not be as determined to win at the Immunity Challenge.
That might have worked except Aurora decides to go through Rick’s bag, to see if he has an idol, and gets caught. Rick decides maybe it will show them what’s what if he does go idol hunting, which he does and finds a clue to an idol hidden in camp, above the sleeping platform.
Rick scales a tree, none too gracefully, and grabs the idol while the others are sleeping.
When Gavin, not Rick, wins the Immunity Torture, we mean Challenge, it seems that Rick will be on the chopping block, but of course, things start going sideways. Ron can’t leave well enough alone. He and Julie tell Rick they are going to vote off Aurora, and Rick says cool, he’ll cast his vote for her, too.
Ron figures that if Rick has found a hidden idol, then Aurora goes home and that’s fine with him. Julie feels a little guilty at blatantly lying to Rick, but she gets over it quickly.
Meanwhile, Lauren and Victoria, still burning over not getting to eat chicken with their fathers, decide that if everyone else is voting for Rick and he plays an idol, they want to decide who goes home in his place. They decide Ron will be the perfect sacrifice, and Aurora throws her lot in with them.
For those of you keeping score, Ron, Julie and Gavin are voting for Rick; Victoria, Lauren and Aurora are voting for Ron; and Rick is voting for Aurora.
Victoria and Lauren try to bring Gavin into their “snuff Ron’s torch” alliance, and Aurora gives Gavin her extra vote.
Let’s just take a minute to puzzle this out: Aurora has an extra vote, but for some reason, she thinks that she won’t be able to use it, because she expects to get into a tie with Rick or Ron. A tie means those two people can’t participate in the mano-a-mano re-vote.
But there is nothing to stop her from voting before there is a tie, and probably avoiding one in the first place. Maybe she was trying to sway Gavin, as she had Ron in a previous episode, but she put her money on the wrong horse.
Gavin feels beholden to Ron for taking him and his wife on the reward challenge, although Ron says giving the newlyweds a few hours together had nothing to do with sentimentality. He just wants Gavin on his side.
Mercifully, we come to the end of the episode. Rick tries to play the expired advantage first, and when he is told it is no good, he plays his hidden immunity idol and is safe from any votes coming his way — and there are four of them, from Ron, Julie and Gavin, who gives him two. Aurora gets one vote from Rick, but Ron is sent packing with three. He heads off to Extinction Island, which is quiet this episode.
Next time: Rick is still on the chopping block, and something is finally happening on Extinction Island.
Favorite quotes
“Words is not bible.” Aurora
“It’s not so random as it might seem.” Ron
“If you don’t go home tonight, at least there’s been a line drawn in the sand.” Lauren, in casting her ballot for Ron
“Ron and Julie, you are villains. You just wanted to make me feel stupid.” Rick, after finding out the advantage Ron gave him had expired, and before gleefully playing his hidden immunity idol
