Episode Report Card Kim: B | 45 USERS: A- YOU GRADE IT The Brains Have It
By Kim | Season 28 | Episode 4 | Aired on 03.19.2014
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.At the Reward Challenge, Probst tells everyone to drop their buffs because the tribes are being scrambled and Brains, Brawn and Beauty are no more. Now there are two tribes: Aparri (Sarah, Spencer, Morgan, Kass, Tasha, Jeremiah and Alexis) and Solana (Woo, Cliff, Trish, Jefra, LJ, Lindsay and Tony). Sarah lost her entire tribe, and all three Brains stayed together. Wow. It did seem pretty random, since they had to pick tied-up packages from a basket, so there was really no way for Production to rig it that I can tell.
For the Reward Challenge, one tribe member holds onto a pole while two members of the opposing tribe try to drag him or her across a line before the other team. Despite strong efforts by Tasha and Sarah, Aparri loses. They chose to have their two dudes attack Cliff on the other pole, so they didn’t have anyone heavy/strong to hold the pole in the final round. Solana wins a food reward.
Over on Solana, Trish tries to bond with LJ while Cliff and Woo are happy they’re still together with Lindsay. At Aparri, Sarah talks about the first-day choice and how they got extra rice because Trish didn’t look for the Idol, which outs Morgan, since she looked for the Idol.
In scheming news on Solana, Jefra tells Trish that she and LJ are tight, and forms a bond with her. While on Aparri, both Alexis and Jeremiah separately approach the former Brains and says that they want to join with them.
For the Immunity Challenge, the tribes have to carry this giant carved battering ram through three walls and then do a maze that involves maneuvering a knob through the grooves in the battering ram. It’s close, but Aparri wins; the former Brain tribe is thrilled to avoid Tribal Council.
Trish goes on a campaign to get rid of Cliff and keep LJ. Obviously, LJ and Jefra are on board, and Trish tries to convince Tony to join them. Everyone else wants to get rid of LJ, although they don’t know he has an Idol. LJ doesn’t play his Idol and their plan actually works; Cliff is voted out and Woo and Lindsay are shocked. And Lindsay is screwed, because she has done nothing to make any other alliances and contributes nothing to the overall tribe. Woo might be able to argue that he’s an asset, but she’s useless.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!The Brains tribe finally ditched J'Tia! They return from Tribal Council and Spencer thanks Kass and Tasha for keeping him. He doesn't know how they made their decision, but it was kind of intense to watch them do it during Tribal Council. Kass is sure that if they kept J'Tia, they'd just be back in three days voting her out, so might as well save some time. Kass interviews that she knew they would lose the next challenge if they kept J'Tia, and Spencer's been killing it in challenges. Kass avoids calling their tribe "shit for brains" but barely, and she does call them "a rolling logjam mess with a couple of nerds on top." Spencer adds that they could be the final three, since there are only two entire tribes in the way. They all laugh, but he could be right!
Tasha gets Treemail the next morning, and they discover that it's a food reward. Spencer vows that this will be the start of their comeback. They head off down the beach.
All three tribes converge and Probst tells them to drop their buffs, because they're going to be resorted into two tribes. Sarah interviews that she's devastated because she just started to figure out whom to trust in her own tribe. Probst walks around with a bowl filled with buffs wrapped up in canvas. It does seem pretty random; I know in past seasons, there have been allegations that production influenced the tribal mix-ups. I never gave much credence to them, but some did. This time, though, I don't see how it could have been fixed unless there was some next-level David Blaine shit involved.
They all unwrap their buffs and then move to form their new tribes. The entire Brain tribe is still together, and the entire Brawn tribe is still together except for Sarah. Shit, Sarah's screwed. Anyway, the new Aparri (Orange) tribe is Sarah, Spencer, Morgan, Kass, Tasha, Jeremiah and Alexis. The new Solana (Purple) tribe is Woo, Cliff, Trish, Jefra, LJ, Lindsey and Tony. So basically, the Brains tribe stayed together entirely, the Brawn tribe stayed together minus Sarah, and the Beauty tribe got split in half. Sarah admits that she feels like her whole tribe walked away from her and Tasha says she's excited about how strong their tribe feels. Jefra is happy to be with the strong people and hopes she and LJ can find a way to fit in, while Cliff admits that this will shift people's strategies and alliances.
Probst is ready to start the challenge. One person will grab onto a pole while two people from the opposing tribe try to grab the person and drag him or her across a finish line. It will be best of three attempts. The winning tribe gets a bunch of pastries and sweet treats.