On this week’s episode, going into the merge, the numbers were not in favour of the former members of Foa Foa. Their only hope was to exploit any existing tensions in the former Galu tribe. This strategy has been tried previously without much success.
Meanwhile, it would seem that this season is the season for firsts. Russell is the first person in “Survivor” history to find an immunity idol without a clue. He is also the first person to find an idol three times. As much as Russell is manipulative and misogynistic, his game play is certainly admirable.
It was clear after the end of last week’s tribal council, that this week would be a showdown between Russell and Laura. This week the numbers did not seem to be in the favour of the Foa Foa foursome, with Galu still representing six votes. What Galu did not immediately realize is that Shambo had switched sides. Treating Shambo like an outsider came back to bite Galu hard. Personality clashes make for interesting viewing, but they reduce the possibility of winning the game for individual contestants.
Shambo pulled John aside and made it clear that should Laura fail to win the immunity idol this week, she intended to target her. John is just as conniving as Russell, but he has managed thus far to fly under the radar because he not as flamboyant. Alone with camera, he made it clear that his number one objective was to look out for himself. John is a rocket scientist and the lack of attention to his intelligence is astounding.
As Probes was telling the castaways about this week’s reward, Russell began to consider if the clue to the immunity idol would be a part of this week’s spoils. The castaways were divided into two equal teams of five. When the smoke cleared, Russell, Dave, Natalie, Brett and Laura were declared the winners. While they were away on the challenge, Mick and Jaison attempted to reach out to Monica. They hoped to sway her vote at the next tribal council, thereby giving the former Foa Foa members a seven to three lead. She remained noncommittal but did attempt to draw out which members of Galu they had thus far managed to turn.
Upon arriving back at camp, the search began for the hidden immunity idol. Dave attempted to shadow Russell, sure in the knowledge that Russell would be the most likely to find it. Proving once again just how intelligent he is, Russell lead Dave on a wild goose chase and then doubled back to claim his prize. It seems that no matter where this idol is hidden, Russell is able to ferret out its location.
Laura went into the immunity competition with much trepidation, knowing that if she did not win the idol her time on “Survivor” would be over. In the end, Mick claimed the immunity idol for the first time. It was nice to see him actually win something in this game.
Mick’s win left Galu scrambling, because Shambo had made it very clear that she intended to vote for Laura. Ready to fall into last week’s trap again, the former members of Galu considered once again targeting Russell. It was only after John made it clear that strategically this would be a mistake that they refocused their efforts on Natalie. John said that since Natalie spent the least amount of time looking for the idol, it was most likely not in her possession. Even though his reasoning was sound, it was once again interesting that a woman was being targeted for elimination.
Not content with the possibility of the vote going to a tie, Monica attempted to confuse the former members of Foa Foa by claiming that she intended to vote for John. She told them that she did not trust John and needed Laura for a feeling of security. Sensing that this was just an act, Russell approached John and told him of Laura’s deception. At that point, he offered John the option to align himself with the former members of Foa Foa by casting his vote to eliminate Laura
Alone with camera John said,
“Laura picked a fight with someone that I think is about to get [her] eliminated. Sorry Laura, I’m not going to stand in the way of the punch.”
As the castaways went to the tribal council, the question hanging in the air was whether or not John would consider making the switch. Considering that the former Galu members were so ready to throw him under the bus, his loyalty had a huge question mark over it, to say the least. The very first vote ended in a five/five tie between Laura and Natalie. This meant that the castaways had to vote again. If it once again ended in a tie, they would draw rocks with the person turning over the coloured rock being immediately eliminated. Considering that each person now had a one in ten chance of winning a million dollars, choosing to vote along former tribal lines was an extreme risk.
When Probes counted the votes for a second time, Laura was eliminated. Clearly, John went with self-preservation and decided to turn on his former tribe. The shock clearly registered on the faces of Dave, and Monica. As Shambo had said earlier at tribal council, the former Galu is no more.
In turning the vote in their favour, it is now highly unlikely that the women will remain strong enough to be competitive in the game. Natalie and Shambo seem to be the strongest female contestants and that strength is solely because of their alliance with Russell. This group of contestants is quite possibly comprised of the most accomplished castaways ever. However, it is still sad to see that once again, familiar patterns are hard to escape.