Episode Report Card Kim: B- | 117 USERS: A YOU GRADE IT Battle of the Lauras
By Kim | Season 27 | Episode 5 | Aired on 10.16.2013
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.At Tadhana, the girls find out that the Brad vote-out wasn't preplanned, and everyone wonders which side Caleb will be on now. At Galang, Laura M is working her massage magic to bond with her tribe, especially Aras.
Redemption Island Truel. Candice and Monica and Brad bicker over whether Candice has any standing to make her claims against Brad. The truel itself involves talking apart a crate and using the planks to make a bridge. They have to take apart the bridge and use the planks to make an airplane. Just kidding, it's a puzzle. John finishes first. The entire Galang tribe cheers for Brad, supporting Monica. Brad and Candice are neck and neck, but Brad pulls it out just a few seconds ahead of Candice, so Candice goes home. Boo! John gives Monica the clue and she once again throws it in the fire.
Immunity Challenge. They have to slide down a giant water slide, grab a ring and toss it on a post before their opponent, earning a point. The first team to five points wins immunity and an awesome food reward. After taking an early lead, Tadhana never loses it and actually wins a challenge!
So now Galang has to vote someone out. Will the core alliance of Tyson, Gervase, Tina, Monica and Aras hold? Laura B tries to create dissent by claiming that the women who had to sit out in the challenge were bitching about Kat, but she oversells it hard and Kat and Tina and Tyson are all like, "The fuck is your problem?" Just not to her face. So everyone hates Laura B and they talk about how easy it would be to vote her out. Aras and Tyson discuss that they could put Laura M on Redemption Island and hope she beats Brad, since she's so good at puzzle challenges. Without Brad, Monica is hard in their alliance.
Tribal Council. Everyone debates whether it makes sense to keep someone who might rejoin a loved one at the merge, and whether it's a given that people will toss aside tribal allegiance after the merge. The tribe votes out Laura M, who obviously had no idea it was coming. God, I will be so happy if she outlasts both of the guys at Redemption Island.
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Want more? The full recap starts right below!Tadhana returns from voting out Brad, all still stunned at what just happened. Katie asks Vytas if he's upset about Brad leaving, and Vytas says he's not and reveals that he's the one who switched his vote and sent Brad home. Ciera interviews that now she's hopeful that Caleb will switch over to align with the women, and they will have a majority. She adds that even if that doesn't happen, she's happy to be there for at least three more days.
Ciera asks the guys if they had planned to vote out Brad, and they say no. Caleb says the feeling just festered until he felt forced into action. Vytas says that it was a huge move, and Hayden is stunned into silence. I feel like that probably happens to Hayden a lot. Like his mom buys a new brand of salad dressing and he can't even speak from the shock. Anyway, Hayden interviews that Caleb kind of screwed his alliance, and they don't know if he's even in their alliance anymore, which is bad news.
Brad reports to Redemption Island nervously, since John and Candice are there waiting for him and they're not his biggest fans, to put it mildly. He wakes them up and says he's waving a white flag. He launches into his apology before Candice is even fully awake, and she interviews that she was happy to see him, since it meant he got voted out. John laughs sadly about their so-called alliance. Candice and John finally wake up and have to sit there while Brad ruminates on the nature of the game, and how it's not personal. Neither of them seems to be buying what he's selling.
That same night over in Galang, Laura M. is giving Aras a massage. There are varying opinions on how intimate the massage is; I wouldn't say it's sensual, but I also don't know that, as a married woman, I would be pressing my boobs into a dude's bare back if he's not my husband. I have given plenty of back rubs to male friends with no ulterior motive, but I always kept the body contact to a minimum. Anyway, Laura M. admits that she's trying to get Aras to like her (but not like her like her), and Aras interviews that these massages aren't swaying him away from his core alliance with Tina, Monica, Tyson, and Gervase. He adds that Kat, Laura M., and Laura B. are on the outs.
Meanwhile, Laura B. is not able to make friends with anyone, because she's totally socially awkward. She blames it on the fact that everyone else has played the game before, but come on. Look, some people are good at making friends, and some aren't. I'm the queen of parent small talk at the playground, but I only have a few close friends, and I've had them forever. Newsflash: people are different! Everyone else sleeps snuggled up together and Laura B. is all by herself on her mat. I don't know why she couldn't just move her mat closer to them, but if she's anything like her husband, she fancies herself a bit of a martyr.