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Returning to camp after the vote that saw Gabby’s torch snuffed, we learn what convinced Christian to play his idol, saving his life. Davie had warned him and told him he needed to do it.
Meanwhile, Nick has devised a plan to keep the others from looking for a hidden immunity idol. He makes a fake one, wraps it in the original note that came with the idol he already has, and hides it for someone else to find. That way, he says, everyone will stop looking for the idol and he can look in peace.
In a late night meeting right where he hid the fake idol, Nick decides to “find” it himself. Angelina is thrilled for him, Mike is less so and Davie is skeptical. He thinks Nick’s idol actually is the one he already found. Davie continues looking for idols, and he tells Christian that Nick now has two idols, which puts a huge target on his back.
Reward challenge
For this challenge, the players are tethered to a giant round corral of sorts, where they must unwind enough rope to go over and under hurdles and reach a table with sandbags on it. They must then throw the bags at a stack of wooden blocks, knocking them completely off the table. If they don’t succeed, they’ll have to collect their errant sandbags to use again, which means they better uncoil plenty of rope.
Winner gets flown by helicopter to a nice place with lots of food and drink.
Davie takes an early lead and finishes just ahead of Nick. He is allowed to bring two people with him and he decides to repay Nick for picking him to go on the family picnic reward. Angelina begs to go, saying she really hates to play this card, but she did get them rice by agreeing to sit out an immunity challenge, otherwise they’d be starving. Davie picks Kara.
Back at camp, Angelina brings up the rice again and how much she hates to mention it — which doesn’t stop her from mentioning it over and over again — and decides to cook a big pot of revenge rice.
On the reward, Davie says he’s keeping his frenemy (Nick) and friend (Kara) close. You treat them nice, then you slit their throats, he says with such glee that if we were there, we’d hide all the sharp instruments.
Davie also tells Kara about Nick’s idol and potential second idol. They agree now is the time to vote him out. When they return, Kara draws Alison into the plot. The vote against Nick will be with Davie, Kara, Alison and Christian, but they don’t want to tell Mike and Angelina.
Alison goes to Mike and tells him about the plan. She wants to partner with him and thinks this information will prove her loyalty and value.
Mike knows Nick is dangerous, but he’s had a good working relationship with him. He thinks it’s funny that Nick and Davie are going after each other. Mike’s excited to see what he does. He wants to be surprised by himself. (Isn’t that like trying to tickle yourself?)
The next morning before dawn, Davie goes searching for an idol. He finds a clue that tells him to search in the spot where they had the merge feast. He waits until it’s raining and the others are huddled in the shelter, then goes to retrieve his hidden immunity.
He finds a necklace and a table with four urns. The idol is only good for the next Tribal Council, but if he wants to risk it, he can break open two urns and extend the life of idol. However, if he breaks a wrong urn, he loses his vote at the next tribal council. He looks for a sign from God on what to do, and decides the wind blowing away from the urns is telling him not to risk it.
Immunity Challenge
Everyone stands on a narrow wooden perch, balancing a ball on a disc. At set intervals, they’ll have to add another ball. Drop the ball or fall off the perch, you’re out. Everyone makes it through the first round and they reset with two balls.
Kara drops first, followed by Angelina, Davie, Christian and Nick. Alison and Mike make it through the second round and into the third and final one, balancing three balls. Mike struggles, but it’s Alison who drops her balls, giving Mike his first immunity necklace.
Mike is feeling pretty powerful, but no one is listening to him. Mike wants to vote out Christian, but Nick wants to vote out Alison. Nick tells Davie that the idol he found was a fake one, which convinces Davie that Nick doesn’t need to go. Davie agrees to vote with Nick to get rid of Alison.
Mike still wants to get rid of Christian, so he tells Nick that Davie is going to vote him off, which seems to really pain Nick. Mike tells him they need to vote off Christian and take Davie out the next time.
If you’re keeping score, well, forget about it. Everyone, except Mike with his immunity necklace, appears to be ripe for a torch snuffing.
Tribal Council
Angelina says you can’t trust anyone, but you have to rely on others to get you through to the finals. Davie agrees, and says it’s hard to know if you should trust the person you met on the first day or the person you partnered with after a tribe switch, or maybe the one after the merge.
Mike says there is no death grudge. They all like each other and even if you voted for someone and they didn’t go home, everything changes the next day, you might partner with them tomorrow and it’s a free-for-all.
Alison thinks she’s a threat and always in trouble at tribal. Christian says he’s had 15 votes against him — the record in a season was 19 — so he doesn’t need any more.
Votes are cast and when Jeff Probst ask for hidden immunity idols, Davie plays his for himself and, even though Angelina tells Nick she doesn’t think he needs to, Nick decides to play his real one.
Davie gets one vote, Alison gets two and and Christian gets three, ending a run by a truly quirky, interesting and kind guy. Nick, who didn’t get a single vote, feels he wasted his hidden immunity idol, and yeah, well, that’s because he did. The question is, will he be upset with Davie or with Mike, who pretty much tricked him into playing it?
Next time: It’s the season finale!
