Episode Report Card Kim: B+ | 31 USERS: B+ YOU GRADE IT Making a Move
By Kim | Season 27 | Episode 11 | Aired on 11.28.2013
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.At the Redemption Island Truel, Tina, Laura, and Vytas have to retrieve four colored cubes and then stack them so that no side has repeating colors. So not so much physical, more puzzle, which favors the ladies. All three are close in retrieving the blocks. Laura gets her puzzle complete first, and spins her own puzzle so that Vytas can't look at it to finish. Then Laura starts giving Tina pointers. But Vytas can hear the pointers and follows them. Tina finishes one second before Vytas, so Vytas goes home. And he's pissed. Laura gives the Idol clue to Ciera, who burns it.
Hayden talks to Caleb about blindsiding Tyson while they have the chance. Katie is, of course, on board. They try to get Ciera on board, and she immediately goes and tells Tyson. He gets Gervase on board to vote out Caleb and knock out this potential threat to their alliance. Later, Hayden twigs to the fact that Ciera is cozying up to Tyson, and gets rightfully paranoid about his plan.
So this Immunity Challenge is really important. They have to hold a rope attached to a bucket with 25% of their body weight. The last person holding up the bucket wins immunity. Or they can choose to skip the competition and feast on some food. Tyson, Gervase, and Ciera choose to eat. Probst makes sure to needle the competitors about how annoying it is that some people felt they didn't have to compete. Katie is the first one out of the challenge, followed a while later by Caleb. Hayden eventually drops the bucket and Monica wins immunity AGAIN. Maybe someone should start worrying about Monica making the finals because they never get the chance to vote her out?
After realizing that Ciera's with Tyson, Caleb and Hayden discuss what to do, since now they only have three, which isn't the majority. So Caleb and Hayden straight out talk to Tyson about how Ciera's playing both sides to try to convince him to vote out Ciera. Tyson and Gervase have to decide whether to trust Ciera or Caleb and Hayden and then vote accordingly.
At Tribal Council, there's a lot of talk about trust and alliances and who feels safe and who doesn't. Tyson plays his Idol, but not before making a big show about not being able to find it and dumping out his bag. Everyone else is pretty surprised. Turns out he didn't need to play it because his alliance pulled through and voted out Caleb. Hayden's face is like, “Oooooohhhh crap.”
Want more? The full recap starts right below!The tribe returns from voting out Laura, with everyone offering Ciera comfort since she just had to vote out her mom. Katie interviews that Ciera clearly has a plan, and her mom isn't part of it. Ciera interviews that she hopes this move proved that she's trustworthy and she needs to be taken seriously. Her problem is that she really needed people to think that she isn't serious about the game; now she's a threat, since she's shown that she's capable of making strategic moves. As Tyson says, voting out her mom showed Ciera's loyalty, but it also showed how hard she's playing the game, and she's dangerous.
Laura arrives at Redemption Island and for a second, pretends that she's Katie to fake Tina out. It weirdly works; doesn't Tina recognize her own daughter's voice? Laura tells Vytas and Tina how Ciera had to vote her out, and reveals her conflicting emotions surrounding that. Laura's no dummy; she points out that Monica is winning a lot of challenges and Tyson is running the show and yet no one has made a move against either one of them. Vytas and Tina can't understand why no one is voting Tyson out. Agreed.
Redemption Island Truel. Vytas, Tina, and Laura arrive, and then Probst has to make a big stinking deal about how Ciera voted her mom out of the game. Maybe he feels like it's his last chance to milk the Blood Vs. Water thing. Laura cries a little and says they knew one would have to vote out the other eventually, but she didn't think it would be so soon. Ciera mouths "Sorry" and Laura says it's okay and she'll come back. Ciera doesn't mouth "Please don't," but she probably should.
Now that he's sucked some more tears out of contestants, Probst moves on to explain the challenge. They will have to remove four cubes through a long net-covered tunnel, and then stack the cubes so that no side has repeating colors. So not so much physical and lots of puzzling – great for Laura, not so great for Vytas. After Probst tells them to start, Vytas and Laura get their boxes through the tunnel quickly and start working on their puzzle at the same time. Tina is only on her third out of four boxes when they start working. Shortly after Tina finally gets her fourth box free of the tunnel, Laura figures out her puzzle and wins first place in the challenge.
Once Probst certifies that Laura has it right, she stands between her finished product and Vytas so that he can't see her solution, and then she starts spinning it. Is she allowed to just take it apart? Because it seems like that would be a lot easier. Then she starts coaching Tina on how to finish. Coaching might be understating it; she's telling Tina which cubes to put where. But Vytas can hear her too, and benefits from her instruction. Probst hears the whole thing and doesn't tell Laura to stop, so it's not cheating. Tina finishes seconds before Vytas, and Probst certifies her win. Tina hugs Laura and thanks her and then goes and hugs Vytas. Laura also tries to hug Vytas but he's like, "Nope." I don't blame him for being mad; I'd be mad too.