'Survivor' 26×04 "Kill or Be Killed" — Phillip Contains the Threat

Last week, Bikal won the reward/immunity challenge bringing drama to the Gota tribe which anticipated a split vote. The split vote  between Shamar, Eddie, and Hope ending in Hope being voted out. In Bikal, Malcolm and Corinne found the hidden immunity idol while Andrea and Cochran get Brandon on their side to shove Corinne out.

Reward Challenge:

Two members from each tribe are placed on separate platforms, the rest of the tribe must use planks to transfer them to the final platform. After that, everyone must swim to a final, small platform which every member must climb onto. The first team with all eight members on or above the top platform wins the reward. The reward for winning this wonderful challenge is a bushman with a home warming gift. He knows how to live off the land, so he’ll come to the winning tribe’s camp and teach them to do the same as he also brings a chicken and fruit. Bikal has an extra member on their team, so Cochran gets to sit out. No giddy-girl comments from me during this challenge!

Brenda and Andrea are the ones walking the plank for Bikal with Julia and Laura walking for Gota. They are dead even at this point, until Laura keeps faltering as Andrea and Brenda speed through. Gota falls behind as the favourites get their girls through first. They catch up on the small platform. Shamar immediately has a plan to kneel down with the girls climbing on top of him and everyone else on the outside. It sounds like a great plan, and does work really well but the slight lead Bikal had gives them the win. When everyone jumps off the platform Shamar cheers at first thinking he’d won, awe poor Shamar.

When the bushman comes he gives them demonstrations and it really seems like a fun time more than anything. There were some great lines from Malcolm and Cochran including Filipino Gollum, and Cochran talking about himself coming off as a predator.

Immunity Challenge:

Members must swim to a platform, climb to the top, smash a tile, retrieve a key, and swim back until all of the keys are back on land. The two remaining tribe members will use the five retrieved keys to unlock to open a chest full of sandbags. The sandbags are then used to knock down all the blocks on a ledge so the team flag is raised. The first team to raise their flag wins immunity.

Bikal has an early lead and Erik has no problem getting the first key. Sherri for Gota clips the key but doesn’t have it fall so she has to go back up until she breaks it. Brandon is back with Bikal’s second key almost at the same time as Sherri with Gota’s first. Eddie knows he has to make up time so he has a running start on the platform and helps his team catch up. Malcolm gets the last key for Bikal and they have a lead unlocking the chest. Phillip and Cochran are working on the locks and get them all done before Gota is back on shore working on the locks. Phillip throws for Bikal as Laura has a tough time with the locks. When Gota gets their chest open Reynold tries to catch up and makes a lot of ground really getting them back in it, but Phillip keeps his lead and wins immunity for the favourites.

Drama:

Gota (Orange/Fans):

When they get home from last weeks tribal council Eddie and Sherri have it out because they were turned on again. Sherri really doesn’t come off as likable, but then again, Reynold doesn’t seem to chummy either. Reynold and Eddie expect they’ll be the next to go, and mention that Gota will never win challenges without them, but they aren’t winning challenges now so… After the reward challenge Reynold immediately wants to vote off Laura for slowing them down, and then Shamar is sleeping in the shelter and he’s back on that frustration. This time the entire tribe is feeling it when Shamar lays down some rules: bring him rice once a day and he’ll stay in the game. Suddenly everyone is thinking he needs to go which is great for Reynold and Eddie.

That night there’s a hurricane with massive winds and a rat infestation to make it even better. The next morning they have cuts and scratches all over from it and I can’t imagine a worse night in the jungle. Shamar wants to get his eye fixed, because apparently he scratched it and now it’s puffy, and he’s acting like a big baby with all of his problems. Jeff comes out with medical to give an assessment. I love that the medical people are always Aussies or Kiwis, makes me feel a little bit at home in all of this, although I guess they’re two of the closest places a lot of the time with the training this show wants. They make sure nothing is wrong with his eye by putting in an orange dye as Jeff talks to him about his “difficult journey” during the game. The medical discover there are two divots on his cornea which could affect his vision and they can’t do anything about them in the camp. They advise that he gets pulled from the game to get it fixed and everyone breathes a sigh of relief that he’ll be leaving the game. Reynold quickly makes a journal saying he mistakenly thought it wasn’t serious, but goes on to say Shamar was still lazy and an ass. Well, aren’t you friendly.

When they’re back from the immunity challenge everyone acknowledges Reynold’s massive contribution to the challenge, definitely keeping him safe for the night. Finally they’re realizing the smart decision is to vote out Laura because she’s by far the weakest link, but Reynold is concerned about whether to play the idol.

Bikal (Purple/Favourites):

I never realize how much I miss Phillip until the episode comes on each week. This time, he’s “containing the threat” which is Brandon by giving him a nickname to make him feel like part of the alliance. I love that everyone goes along with Phillip’s craziness, but not only that… Brandon seems to genuinely feel happy about getting welcomed by Phillip because he’s infiltrated the alliance. Phillip can’t actually be the ringleader of his alliance, can he? Andrea gets frustrated as Phillip gives the final three members of Bikal a name: Phillip is The Specialist, Dawn is True Grit, Erik is The Silent One, Corinne is Dominatrix, Andrea is The Eliminator, Cochran is The Intelligencia Attaché, Malcolm is The Enforcer, Brandon is The Conqueror, and finally Brenda is Serenity.

Tribal Council:

The big discussion during tribal is how everything has been affected by Shamar’s exit from the show. Reynold gets to talk more about his Shamar obsession and the alliance is mentioned a lot. He also brings up how without him and Eddie there would be no chance of winning challenges. Laura says this vote will show whether the tribe things strength or alliance is more important. Until the merge it should always be a no brainer: physical strength comes first to keep numbers for a merge, then alliances can prosper. Laura brings up possible twists that could happen with jumbled tribes, but that just makes her seem silly putting predicting the future ahead of physical strength.

I love when titles of a show get mentioned during the episode, and this time Eddie got the winning line as he’s voting for Laura. Reynold gives up his idol, Jeff tallies the votes and it looks like strength won out. Laura is voted off with the votes going 5-1. The one vote not for her was for Reynold and it didn’t even count. How awful.

Next Episode “Every season there is one moment that nobody will ever forget.” Brandon seems to have actually gone crazy this time, throwing stuff around and dumping out all of the tribes rice. Why would you do such things?