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After Carl had his torch snuffed in last week’s episode, Nick is shocked to learn that Christian and Gabby orchestrated the move. The Davids had used three advantages to get the majority over the Goliaths, and now Nick perceives them once again as underdogs.
Christian makes his case for why Carl had to go, but Nick privately declares their Mason-Dixon Line Alliance dead. He’ll just pretend that it’s still going strong, and given the first chance, he’s going to blindside Christian.
Reward Challenge
Time for some love, from the family: Davie’s mom, Alison’s mom, Kara’s brother, Nick’s dad,Gabby’s mom, Angelina’s mom, Mike’s boyfriend and Christian’s girlfriend. Hang on a second, we’re having trouble seeing the keyboard. There seems to be water spilling from our eyes for some strange reason.
All of the reunions were touching and filled with raw emotion, but we have to mention Christian and girlfriend Emily because it was exactly what you’d expect from nerds in love — awkward and uncomfortably affectionate.
On to the challenge. The tribe is split into four pairs, and each team is roped together. They must race under an obstacle, dig up a ring of keys that will unlock two volleyball-sized balls. The pair must then each toss a ball on top of a high, narrow perch. First team to get the balls to stay up there wins a barbecue picnic with their loved ones.
The teams are Mike and Davie, Angelina and Nick, Alison and Kara, and Gabby and Christian.
Shockingly, Nick and Angelina come from behind to win, meaning Angelina will go on her first reward. They get to pick two other players to join them; Nick picks Davie and Angelina picks Mike.
The players and loved ones make their way to a floating platform. They all say that this could be the final four. Davie is feeling a little on the outside and doesn’t think this is a good alliance for him.
Back at camp, Christian talks about how shy Emily is and that he knew every compliment he paid her would make her more embarrassed. Gabby has a revelation that Christian is playing the roll of friend and comforter, to her and everyone else. In the game of Survivor, that sort of attribute must be crushed.
Gabby decides that she needs to break away from Christian, get him off the island and let everyone see that she’s playing her own game. She talks to Alison, who agrees Christian needs to go, not to prove Gabby is her own player but because she thinks no one can win against him.
Gabby wants the freedom to play her own game and get respect by slaying her No. 1 ally. Kara, who also wants to get Christian out, is surprised but all for the plan.
Immunity Challenge
The survivors will be balancing on a narrow perch while holding a pole connected to a bucket of water. Step off the perch, hold the pole too high or too low and the bucket will dump the water, washing away the chances of immunity.
Mike has a little twitch and becomes the first player out. After 5 minutes, the players have to take a step backward, which means they’re holding the pole out further from their bodies. Gabby has trouble in the transition and is out.
Alison is the next to go, followed by Angelina. After 15 minutes, they must take another step back. Angelina and Alison tutor Nick but although Christian appears doomed, it is Nick that is next to go.
Christian is next out, leaving Davie and Kara. Davie is being bugged by flies and in attempting to shake them off, he drops the pole a bit too low and he’s out, giving Kara immunity.
Alison is cautiously optimistic they’ll be voting Christian out, but admits they’ve tried before and failed. Gabby is giddy, nervous and sad.
Meanwhile, Christian is campaigning for Alison to go, while Gabby approaches Nick and Davie about voting off Christian. Nick is good with that. Mike and Angelina like the plan, too, but are worried about a hidden idol. As a backup, Mike thinks they should include a few votes for Gabby. It would be a fitting end — voted off while trying to orchestrate a signature move.
Davie, however, isn’t keen on the plan. He rats out Gabby to Christian, who is having trouble believing it. Davie tells him he thinks Nick plans to write down Christian’s name, too.
Christian weighs his options. He has an idol, but he’d like to keep it. The best thing to do is mend fences with Nick. Christian apologizes, expressing some confidence that he and Nick are a team again.
Tribal Council
Jeff Probst asks what the reaction was after the last blindside, and Angelina says there were upset people who hadn’t known about the vote, including her, as she continues to curry favor on the jury by confessing she played no role in ousting Carl.
Nick singles out Christian as masterminding the move, and said it jeopardized their alliance. He doesn’t understand how if Christian trusted him, he didn’t tell him what the plan was. But they had a good conversation and rebuilt the relationship.
Gabby talks about how she was always looking for reassurance on making moves, but now she is confident and from here on out, she’s playing with confidence in herself. If she gets voted out, at least she showed gumption. That’s tweaking the nose of fate if we ever saw a tweak.
Alison says she thinks people consider her even more of a threat because she survived being on the bottom, almost getting knocked out of the game and then becoming part of an epic blindside.
They all agree that this isn’t an easy game to play, and then it’s time to vote.
Christian had thought he’d done a lot to prevent his torch snuffing, but after some deliberation, looking around at each of the others, he plays his hidden immunity idol before the votes are read. And with none of the five votes cast for him counting, it comes down to Alison and Gabby. With just two votes, Gabby is sent to Loser Lodge with praise and apologies to her former ally.
Next time: Everyone is on the chopping block.
