'Survivor' 26×03 "There's Gonna be Hell to Pay"

Last week, Bikal (the favourites) rose from their first episode jitters and won the reward/immunity challenge leading to Gota (the fans) sending Allie home. Previously, Shamar has been causing drama on Gota because he is lazy and Brandon has been going crazy on Bikal to be like his cousin Russell Hantz.

Reward/Immunity Challenge:

Teams swim out to a big bamboo cage they must climb and retrieve a heavy trunk. Underwater they have to untie a trap door and then pull the trunk onto shore. Next, they must use grappling rings to retrieve three missing parts of track and then push the trunk along the track once it is completed and onto the finishing platform. Not only does this challenge hold immunity, but the winners get a reward of tarp, pillows, blanket, and chairs.

Teams can’t start on the knots to get the trunk of the cage until after everyone is over the bamboo cage. With a few weaker swimmers on each tribe it’s really up to them for which team will start out on top. Laura from Gota slows down them giving Bikal (favourites) a bit of a lead. Bikal falls behind when trying to untie the knots and fall further behind when pulling it through the water. Gota has a harder time getting their trunk on the track so Bikal is onto the grappling stage first. Malcolm starts tossing for Bikal first, why does Malcolm always do the tossing exercises? Reynold starts tossing for Gota and they get their first track piece immediately. Clearly it’s smart to have Reynold tossing. Back at Bikal, Phillip has started tossing and locks the first track piece into place pretty quickly. Instead of Malcolm they should get Phillip to do tossing activities. Bikal is back in the lead when Malcolm gets the second track piece. Shamar gets the second piece for Gota soon after. Brandon (Bikal) and Eddie (Gota) are in a showdown to get the third track piece in. This is probably one of the closest challenges we’ve ever had. Jeff Probst is running back and forth yelling and getting all too worked up about the almost tie and Brandon locks in the third track piece. Eddie misses again, Brandon is being silly and Bikal gets their trunk on the final platform.

Drama:

Gota (Orange/Fans)

Immediately after last weeks tribal council, Shamar gets in yelling matches with everyone for absolutely everything that has happened during the previous week. Should Shamar leave? Yes, not only does everyone want him gone but he doesn’t want to continue either. He decides to quit Survivor because he isn’t happy here, but after discussing it with his teammates he turns it around to he’ll be loyal to his alliance and continue fighting for a few days. You’re not heroic for unquitting…

After the challenge, Shamar gets pissed off towards Reynold again but Laura knows that she’ll be on the chopping block because she sucked at the swimming portion of the challenge. Because Reynold has the idol and his alliance is only himself, Eddie, and Hope, they know the three of them will be on the chopping block. Laura and Sherri devise a plan to flush out the idol where they split the votes 3/3 for Hope and Eddie, boys voting Eddie girls voting Hope, but Shamar realizes the other 3 votes will go to him. It’s a smart plan if no one changes or talks, but that’s always likely to happen with Shamar around.

Shamar starts talking to Hope and hints to her that she can save herself if she votes for Eddie instead, which she then relates to his alliance. Sherri gets mad and both Julia and Laura are concerned Shamar isn’t voting with them anymore. Laura talks to Reynold about getting him, Eddie, and Hope to vote for Shamar along with herself and Julia so he’ll go instead of her. I don’t think anyone has said Laura’s name once for sending home but she’s terrified as everyone probably is going into tribal council. But will Julia actually vote for Shamar?

Bikal (Purple/Favourites)

Some of my favourite moments are the quiet camp moments when Phillip tells us something questionable about his life, such as how great he is at basketball, playing men half his age. He sure is old school, that’s for sure. What’s the point of hiding the hidden immunity idols anymore, because Malcolm was easily able to find it when him and Corinne went looking. I’m super happy that Malcolm will have some added power with that idol. Back at camp with everyone, Phillip has put a basket on his head to cool himself down which Cochran decides to try out as well. I love that everyone accepts crazy Phillip’s antics because their camp life seems to be so much more fun than Gota. One of my favourite things about this season is getting such great commentary about life on Survivor through Cochran. He gets his wonderful natural throne chair and tells us all about the wondrous happenings, such as women walking around in their underwear all the time. Andrea starts strategizing to get Corinne out and Brandon in, but Brandon is concerned they’re wanting to chuck him. He’s never the kind of person you want to chuck out because he’ll destroy camp if he knows it’s coming.

Tribal Council:

Once again, Shamar is on the hot seat about his temper and he really doesn’t know how to play the social aspect of this game. Hope tells everyone at tribal how Shamar spilled the strategy beans to her in the water, and then Matt explains why Shamar is disliked. Julia opens up about how Shamar yelled at her and she seems like a good candidate for voting him out as well. Eddie thinks he is so much more important that he is, Shamar’s been trying to get him out? Only because he’s aligned with Reynold. Eddie got no votes last week and although he’s talked about for votes this time it’s merely so they can split the votes. Although Reynold was open about his immunity idol last time, on this week’s tribal he’s very quiet about it, only saying that it’s a “poker game.”

This week we have a three way tie for Shamar, Eddie, and Hope just as it had been initially planned. We get another vote, this time people can only vote for those three, and they are not allowed to vote themselves. This time out of six, Hope gets voted out 5-1 leaving only Eddie and Reynold in her alliance.

Next Episode proves to be difficult for team Gota. After thinking they’ve hit rock bottom a hurricane strikes and a rat infestation shows them just how much lower they can go.