In the aftermath of Gary and Amy's decision to boot Brian last week, they're badly outnumbered at Yaxha and hoping for the best. They get the best of the reward challenge when their team outmummifies and out-unmummifies Nakum in a challenge that's quite delightful in its physical awkwardness. The teams even strain for détente during a quick birthday party for Danni. But we're back in competitive mode during a puzzle-building immunity challenge. In spite of Steph's well-documented puzzle-related ineptitude, Nakum manages to get immunity, sending Yaxha to tribal council. While it briefly looks like Amy might manage a boot of Bobby Jon based on Farmer Beavis's oddball sense of honor, things work out just as it initially appears that they will, and Amy and her giant ankle are thrown right out of the tribe. And at the very end, Jeff spontaneously performs the merge by sending the rest of Yaxha off to Nakum's camp without further ado. Bobby Jon, Brandon, Danni, Gary, Judd, Steph, Jamie, Rafe, Lydia, Cindy. You'll notice that Bobby Jon and Steph, either of whom would have made a perfectly good free boot on the basis that they've been here before, are both making the merge. Very interesting, the minds of tribes.
Previously on Shoving A Ball, Wish You Were Here: Nakum found Margaret's attitude a downer, and didn't understand why she had to be so bummed about their naked plans to get rid of her. At the challenge, the tribes competed for a reward by pushing a giant ball around in some kind of dystopian salute to the gladiators of a gray and sports-less future. Amy's ankle got crunched again, but she soldiered on, leaving it to other members of her tribe to lose the challenge to Nakum after Bobby Jon went all krazy kookoopants on Jamie. Because both tribes were destined to spend the evening at tribal council, the only immunity challenge of the week involved the ball-victorious Nakumians, who carried out a fairly pedestrian individual competition won by Rafe, with an assist from (no, I swear) Judd. At the first of two tribal councils, Judd flipped his lid, went off on Margaret, scared the bejeezus out of half his tribe, but got his way anyway when Margaret was sent home. Boo! At the second tribal council, the generally happy Yaxha tribe fairly reluctantly got rid of Brian, in spite of his proven ability to bust a wedge. Boo! Eleven left -- who will go out ?
Credits. Update: I now find even still photos of Judd completely unsettling.
It is night, and the leaf-carrying ants are still marching. A mouse enjoys a late snack. The moon hangs. The mouse is menaced by...a spider, I think. It's brutal out here in the night-vision jungle. It is Night 15 at Nakum as the tribe returns to camp. Because Judd has been too gracious and not nearly megalomaniacal enough up to this point, he decides to crow about how grateful he is that Margaret was booted. He tells the group, "My bark ain't as big as my bite," and I'm...not sure that's what he intended to say, unless he wanted everyone to start sleeping with one eye open. Oh, and he's nervously scratching himself as he talks, which is always a sign that all is well, temperament-wise.
Judd interviews all about how Margaret was sent home because he couldn't take the way she kept pushing and pushing his buttons. By, you know, being a woman who was smart and not impressed by Judd in the slightest. He congratulates himself for having "a little outburst" that "put her in her place." Just as with Bobby Jon, I think he has no idea what it means to put someone in his or her place. There's an implication there of making the other person look bad, or making them feel chagrined, or something. All he did with Margaret was get his way with the vote, which he was going to get anyway. The "outburst" did absolutely nothing except make Judd look bad, prove that every single thing Margaret was saying about him was true, and probably make some of the tribe feel fairly guilty and reluctant about voting Margaret out. He gives a lecture to everybody else around the fire about how Margaret lost her "mom" role when the tribes shifted, and that this "just devastated her." If he thought that, then why was he such a dick to her? It makes no sense. Nothing Judd says about Margaret makes any sense. His fixation on her is just...odd.
Lydia, for her part, comments that she's "just glad this is all over with," and that's how Margaret got herself voted off, really. Just a lot of people who were tired and wanted it over with, combined with a Steph-Judd-Jamie axis that people weren't quite ready to buck. Judd insists to us that he's no "loose cannon." He never blows up around camp, he insists, all evidence to the contrary. He doesn't explain what about blowing up at tribal council but not at camp would make one not a "loose cannon," either. "Hopefully," he interviews, "I'll be laughing my ass to the bank and she'll still be at home making chicken wings or something." In case you didn't know, that's what girls do, even if they're nurse practitioners. They stay at home and make chicken wings. I wonder if, watching this on TV, Judd can see how transparently terrified of Margaret he appears. And..."to the bank"? Doubtful.
Jamie rather perceptively interviews that he knows Judd makes people uneasy, but that Jamie himself is not really uneasy with Judd -- he sort of thinks Judd would be a good person to take to the end, since no one would vote for him. Jamie predicts that Judd will "keep blowing up." You can see how "put her in her place" really isn't what Judd did back there with Margaret, you know?
On the morning of Day 16 at Yaxha, there's some talk about how cold it is, and then Bobby Jon undertakes the ugly task of peeling -- no, peeling -- off his shirt, which is cemented to a wound on his shoulder from yesterday's ball-pushing challenge. There's very little I like more than men's shoulders, but this is not what I had in mind, so much. "That really hurt," comments Bobby Jon, once he yanks the shirt off. He explains to us in an interview that, after the ball-pushing yesterday, everyone has the same scrapes he does. We get a particularly disgusting shot of the one Bobby Jon's sporting on his shoulder, off of which he had to rip his shirt, which truly does look quite gross, in part because it's not clean. It's a recipe for an infection, and screams for Bactine -- or just soap and water -- like nothing I've ever seen. When we see Farmer Beavis, he has several similar spots on his shoulder. I almost never fault the challenge producers, who I generally think are rad, but it does seem that perhaps somebody missed the boat as far as what they made that ball out of and what they made the texture like, because it seems like this should not happen -- at least not to everyone. Amy comments on how gross Farmer Beavis's sores are, and she asks him to confirm that she doesn't have any quite like that. He tells her she does have one scrape on her chin, and one on the back of her shoulder. It's weird to think that one of their problems is that they have absolutely no access to mirrors, so they can't see how bad their own faces look when they're beat up. "It makes you look tough, I think," Farmer Beavis tells Amy. "Yeah, you like that?" she asks a little playfully, with a smile. Heh. Farmer Beavis refers in an interview to his own "open, festering sores," and says that he's hoping he "won't even feel it" once he gets to the challenge.
Petrified croc skull.
We move to a challenge course that appears, at first, simply to be composed of a long strip of dirt with a series of poles along it. Jeff brings in the tribes, explaining how Margaret was booted by Nakum and Brian by Yaxha. Jeff explains that the challenge will involve four team members wrapping thirty feet of material around themselves and then unwrapping it. The way it works is that one person goes to the pole with the first bunch of material wrapped around it, and he unspools the material from the pole and onto himself. Spinning, or whatever. Then, he goes to the pole where another person is waiting. The two of them then wrap a load of material around both of their bodies, then they do the same with the person and the . Then, they gradually start to unwrap, releasing one person at a time. A fifth tribe member will act as a sort of facilitator, helping them wrap and helping them move from one pole to another without falling over. It's one of those that's really hard to envision if you've never been put in the position of sharing a sarcophagus.
So what are we playing for? Well, the reward is a famous Mayan discovery -- chocolate. (Incidentally, they weren't kidding about lots of people being beat-up from the ball -- you can see a big scrape along Danni's jaw here, too.) And the chocolate comes with a zipline tour of the jungle. I strongly recommend not eating your chocolate before your death-defying, stomach-into-your-throat zipline experience. Just saying. Nakum sits out Judd, which my fingers actually resist typing, so convinced are they that this should be followed by "Don't you mean Lydia?"
Amy is Yaxha's facilitator/wrapper/mummification coordinator, and Jamie is Nakum's. Ready? Go. Steph and Brandon are the first to wrap themselves. Steph moves ahead to Lydia, and then Brandon moves on to Gary. Steph and Lydia have a hard time cooperating, despite how bossy Steph is being. Hard to believe. I think it's safe to say, over on the Yaxha side of things, that this is the closest that the front of Gary has come to the back of another dude since his football days. One thing that's interesting is that Steph and Lydia tie themselves together face-to-face, while Gary and Brandon wind up one behind the other, which makes it much, much easier for the guys to walk together to the pole. Gary, Brandon, and Bobby Jon are now wrapping in one big homoerotic clump of spinning and rubbing and whatnot. They initially try to wrap Bobby Jon in so that he's front of Brandon, the three of them still lined up like they're paddling a canoe. But that arrangement falls apart a little, while over at Nakum, Lydia and Steph start to wrap Rafe up with them. Yaxha degenerates from its organized arrangement into a big, random amoeba shape as they try to wrap in Danni.
Steph fits in quite a palming of Rafe's ass as they, along with Lydia, continue to work around the pole. When that's done, they start to wrap in Cindy. It's close to a tie as the teams approach the end of the wrapping phase. Nakum actually takes a slight lead, and now it's time for both teams to start unwinding. Jamie runs to the mat, since his role is over. Then Amy finishes and heads for the mat, and Yaxha starts unwinding. As they unwind, it looks like maybe Nakum suffers slightly from the fact that their wrapping was very haphazard, and they seem to have a lot of trouble moving as a group. I think their arrangement of bodies and material is just a lot more random, and Yaxha's is slightly more ordered. Danni is the first person to be freed from the winding, and Yaxha takes the lead, but Cindy for Nakum is close behind. The climactic moment comes when serious problems befall Nakum as the clump of Steph, Rafe, and Lydia -- none of them brilliantly coordinated people -- falls over while trying to unwind. And that is not good. That will seriously cost you some time. Bobby Jon escapes for Yaxha. Gary and Brandon -- still lashed together simply, front-to-back, and therefore easily able to spin together -- make quick work of the end of Yaxha's unwinding, while Nakum still can't get up off the ground. Rafe gets out, but Brandon finishes up while Steph and Lydia are still unwinding, so the victory, chocolate, and zipline will be going to Yaxha. Nakum looks miserable as Jeff sends Yaxha directly off to their reward. Then, he insults Nakum a bit in his usual "Well, you sucked on that one, didn't you?" kind of supportive way, and he sends them back to camp. Losers!
We follow Yaxha to its reward. The group makes its way across a narrow little bridge in the middle of the jungle as Bobby Jon talks about how great it was for them to get this burst of momentum. Howlie observes from a nearby tree. Amy explains to us that because she's somewhat afraid of heights, it was pretty heady being strapped into the harness in preparation to glide down the zipline. The team affectionately encourages her not to worry. And then she takes the jump and starts down the zipline. It does look like the ride through the tops of the trees is pretty cool. I'm not sure Jeff's description of it as a "tour" makes a hell of a lot of sense, but it's not the first time he's described something rather...differently than I would. Howlie roars his approval as Amy passes. At least that's the way I like to think it happened. She reaches the end of the line and is safely unbuckled. She tells us that it was great, but that she doesn't feel an overwhelming need to do it again. Heh. Bobby Jon goes . He calls the experience "majestic." Gary follows. He is careful to take the ride not at all the way an NFL quarterback would. He rides the zipline like a landscaper, you know. I'm surprised he didn't start yelling out the names of plants. That would have been really convincing. Danni follows, enjoying herself by shrieking, which I normally don't like, but she's kind of growing on me, in spite of the cowboy hat. Farmer Beavis is the last to go.
When they're all on the other side, it's time to enjoy some delicious chocolate. A very, very large amount of delicious chocolate, actually. Bobby Jon tells us that, in fact, it was "a Chocolatefest." You know, I enjoy Chocolatefest, but they never have good bands anymore since the year the fans set all the Tootsie Rolls on fire. The tribe enjoys chocolate cake, pralines, cookies, chocolate-covered strawberries, and so forth. They all eat and eat. After recapping enough seasons of this show, there really aren't any new ways to convey to you that scarfing ensues. Farmer Beavis tells us that this was his biggest chocolate pig-out of all time, and I hope that's true, because I can't really imagine a situation that would be more fitting. Well, being dumped, I guess. Because the five of them are nowhere near able to eat the amount of chocolate that's there, they decide to take it home with them, so they're all hauling containers as they go home. "God, I hope I hold that down," Farmer Beavis remarks as they leave. I hope so, too. I've really seen all the throwing up this season that I think I need to see. And then some.
Skittish windup bird.
Over at Nakum, we see that Rafe has figured out how to play cards with leaves. Today, they're going to play Uno, which I think is completely adorable. Rafe explains that he tries to come up with activities to pass the time. Aw! He says that they actually came up with a 52-card deck that they created by painting suits and numbers onto leaves. "With even two jokers," he says. Hee. Well, they do have the time, I guess. My favorite part is where Steph explains to Jamie, who seems to be new to card-playing, that you have to put the stems on the bottom. To, presumably, be able to read the numbers and such. I just like that he can't figure out how to hold homemade playing cards.
Yaxha, meanwhile, is paddling over to Camp Nakum, which Danni explains in an interview is the result of its being her birthday. They decided to "invite Nakum over for a little pool party." Gary cautions as they paddle that he doesn't want to get in the middle of anything that might go down between Bobby Jon and Jamie, and Bobby Jon promises he's too "mature" to let that happen. Pfft. Once you've chest-bumped a guy for no good reason, you're not getting back to the high road without a hot-air balloon. They tie up at Nakum's dock, and the card players look up from their game when there is a loud cry of "Nakuuuum!" There is some talk among Nakum about whether to go down to the dock and see what the deal is -- Rafe correctly surmises that maybe they'll be invited to swim in the pool. "I ain't goin' to their pool," Jamie huffs. "These are our enemies at this point," Judd snots in agreement, apparently choosing to ignore the fact that there's going to be a merge literally any day now. Steph encourages the tribe to head down, and they eventually do. Cindy, however, grumps that she's "not interested in their silly little game-playin'." People, you're all going to be living together very, very soon. This is probably not the most productive possible attitude. I'm nicer than this to people who move into my apartment building, and I don't have to sleep to them without the benefit of toothpaste or deodorant.
When they get down to the dock, Danni explains about her birthday and the pool party. Gary promises that it will just be fun by the pool, no game talk or anything. Danni also promises "birthday treats." It's kind of like organizational meetings in college -- you serve pizza, or nobody shows up. Those are the only two choices. Judd says he'll go. Steph says she'll go, too. Danni explains in an interview that she really, truly just wanted to have a little party for her birthday. The two tribes paddle toward Yaxha. On the way there, Jamie grumps to his tribe that he doesn't really want to go, and Cindy says, "Don't let them sway you with their peace offerings." Sway you...into what? Cindy, weirdly, is the last person who should be bitching, because within her own tribe, she's pretty clearly not in with the majority. One would think she might see that forging bonds with Yaxha members for after the merge would be in her best interests. She bitches in a very unbecoming interview that it was hot and a long boat ride, and she thought it was "unnecessary." I mean, nothing they do here is "necessary" in the "flu shot" sense. It's not like she was busy, unless she had in the card game. Anyway, she says she went along with it because she felt like she had to play along.
When Nakum arrives at camp Yaxha, Lydia gives Amy a big hug. Danni brings down a bowl of chocolates, and Steph doesn't understand how there can be "extra chocolate." Heh. As a general matter, I entirely agree, but she didn't see, among other things, just how much chocolate was thrown at them. If there wasn't extra chocolate, there would be MedEvac helicopters. Nakum grabs some chocolates by the pool. After enjoying their treats, they hop in for a swim. I really did not need to se Judd in his white underpants. That's just...disturbing. And it makes me think of COPS.
A genial Bobby Jon claims that the day is "about fellowship." And that is a guy who has spent a lot of time in church, because I know no other setting where the word "fellowship" is used so often in this kind of context. He spins a weird yarn about how ancient Maya leaders used to smoke together and visit and so forth, and he really should have stuck with "fellowship." Because I can believe he knows how to draw parallels with Sunday afternoon spaghetti feeds a lot more easily than I can believe he knows how to draw parallels with ancient civilizations. Jamie sits grumpily by the side of the pool. Hey, every party has a pooper. He tells us he was just observing, seeing whether Amy and Gary were with their current tribe, or whether they were waiting for the merge to get back with their original tribe. He also thought Stephenie might be getting along too well with everyone, which is a little funny, given the public perception of her these days. In any event, Judd has certainly resolved not to have a good time, so there appears to be no danger whatsoever of that.
Finally, it's time for Nakum to go home, and Steph interviews that Jamie was a little aggressive about suddenly announcing that he wanted to leave. She tells him as the group gets in the boat that she thinks his behavior came off "shady," and he tells her he'll like everyone after the game is over. He interviews that they stayed too long, and goes back to complaining that it was "too friendly" and so forth. I really don't understand what kind of voodoo vibes Jamie is thinking are going to be worked by people like...Brandon. You know? Anyway, as they paddle, Steph and Jamie continue to bicker a little, him telling her he's sticking to "the plan," and her telling him that it's not like she's not sticking to the plan just because she had a good time at the party. Steph tells us that she sometimes doesn't really understand Jamie's behavior. "There could be a clash between he [sic] and I [sic]."
Later, at Yaxha, late on Day 18, the group is hanging out in the pool. And in what is...seriously maybe the grossest thing ever on this show -- yeah, I said it -- we see that Bobby Jon is using his submerged open wound to attract minnows, which he is then trying to grab out of the water with his mouth. Oh, I'm not kidding. I sort of feel myself tilting back and forth from side to side trying not to pass out, even though I am seated. Seriously, y'all, I think I'm traumatized by that. That is so disgusting I may not be able to attract fish with my own oozing sores and then eat them raw ever again.
Gary and Amy have a chat about the fact that if they don't win immunity, they're going to have to fight pretty hard to save themselves. Gary says that Brandon, Danni, and Bobby Jon are still pretty tight, and his sense is that they might be leaning toward getting rid of Amy, so she may be on the block if they lose immunity. She teases Gary about how she'll track him down after the game if he tells lies about her. There's a lot of ho-ho-ho here about how she'll kill him if she finds out afterward that he really is a professional football player, but in fact, every evicted person for about the last four weeks has said over and over that they knew all along that Gary was ex-NFL, and that nobody really cared. In other words, I think Amy's kind of screwing with Gary, because she's since said that everyone knew. My favorite part is that after she talks about how she's going to find him after the game, Gary interviews that because his real name isn't Gary Hawkins, she'll never find him. "She could be searching for years," he says. And assuming that his existing fool's paradise is built on solid ground, that's true, assuming she doesn't, like, watch the show. Or read any publicity about it. In other words, even within Gary's fantasy world in which he's actually pulling this off, that makes no sense.
When the treemail arrives, it implies that the challenge will have something to do with "excavating" clues. I'll tell you...I thought basing a season on pirates was boring until I saw a season based on archeologists. ["Wait until they get to the season full of allusions to the Lost Bookkeepers of Madagascar." -- Wing Chun] Amy interviews that they really need to win immunity so that, in the event of a merge, they'll go in 5-5, as far as the current tribes. Bobby Jon interviews similarly, that he doesn't want to go into a merge down 6-4, because that will be Pagong City. The tribes head off for the challenge.
The teams head out to a challenge course that appears to be right up against one of their big pyramids. The way this will work, three members of each team will go out, one at a time, to retrieve puzzle pieces from a sand pit. Once you have twelve puzzle pieces, two different members of your tribe are responsible for putting the puzzle together. When finished, the puzzle will resemble the Maya calendar. First tribe to get the puzzle put together will win immunity. Losers to tribal council. Guess who's sitting out the challenge? Lydia! What a surprise. I wonder how much discussion they put into that.
Ready...go! Brandon and Jamie are first out, and they bring back pieces. are Bobby Jon and Judd. Then Cindy and Danni. Cindy gets the edge on Danni and sends Jamie out. Danni has trouble getting her piece out, so she gives up. Brandon goes out for Yaxha as Jamie brings back Nakum's fourth piece. So Nakum is now up four pieces to two. Judd goes out for Nakum; Brandon brings back Yaxha's third. Bobby Jon, Judd, Cindy, Brandon, Bobby Jon, Jamie, Danni, Brandon, Bobby Jon, Judd, Jamie...and Bobby Jon takes quite a while to find a piece here, so we wind up tied at nine pieces. Have I mentioned that recapping this kind of a challenge is about as much fun as eating your own hair? Brandon has some trouble finding a piece for Yaxha. Jamie manages to throw a piece right at Steph's foot. ("Why am I always on the tribe with the person who throws a puzzle piece at my ankle? It's like I'm in a bad dream and I can't wake up.") Brandon just has a really difficult time finding a piece, and before you know it, Steph and Rafe are working on the puzzle while Yaxha is still looking for the last piece. Steph and Rafe make surprisingly quick work of the puzzle, and Yaxha never really has a chance to get back in it. As bad as Steph is at puzzles, she's not quite bad enough to squander this particular lead, so Nakum does indeed wind up taking immunity, to the disappointment of Yaxha -- particularly Amy, who has to know she's on the ropes. Jeff sends everybody home, vowing to see Yaxha at tribal council.
Back at camp, Yaxha is grumpy. Even the coatimundi and the impressively armored grasshopper thing don't look pleased. Amy interviews that she took the loss hard, because she knew going in that if they lost immunity, she was going to have a hard time staying in the game. She sits around with Danni as Danni pounds corn. "I just did not want to lose today," Danni says. Farmer Beavis throws a log on the fire. Amy asks Danni whether she has any sort of a shot with Bobby Jon and Farmer Beavis. Danni mutters noncommittally about the approaching merge, and Amy makes the rather strange point that "outwit" is really her only chance, since she'd never outlast or outplay. Danni brings up Bobby Jon's name in a roundabout way, saying that she'd hate to deny him the merge twice in a row, but she then notes that, of course, none of the rest of them has had a chance to make it to a merge either. Amy asks if Bobby Jon is an option, and Danni just isn't sure. This turns into a discussion in which Danni admits that she wasn't crazy about Bobby Jon and Steph getting to come back, since they have such an advantage from having played before. I'm not sure that's really been the case, but I can see how it would feel that way. Amy tells Danni that the Bobby Jon issue might present an opportunity, but that they'd need a third person. Amy says in her interview that she's thinking that approaching Gary with the possibility of voting out Bobby Jon on the basis that he's already had one shot might be her only opportunity to stay in the game.
Amy approaches Gary, who ultimately tells her that if Danni agrees to vote out Bobby Jon, Gary will, too. Amy admits to us that it would be "a miracle" to get this to work, but of course, stranger things have happened. Rain begins to approach as Bobby Jon and Brandon stand around camp. Bobby Jon tells Brandon that he feels worse at this point than he did in Palau. He feels like he's "so close." In a fairly odd interview, Bobby Jon says that making it as far as the jury would be a "lifelong dream." (As one of my friends wondered at the time...how old is Bobby Jon?) He says that second chances are pretty uncommon and that, having been given one, he doesn't want to blow it. Also, who will feed skin to the minnows?
In what I have to admit is a fairly dramatic scene, Danni walks out to the dock in the pouring rain to have a discussion with Farmer Beavis. She interviews that she doesn't really want to send anybody home, so she's not sure what to do. Brandon tells her, clearly sincerely, that he was "hoping it wouldn't come to this." Danni agrees. She raises the issue of the fact that Bobby Jon and Steph have had opportunities to play before. Farmer Beavis agrees that Amy may be "more deserving" of staying in the game than Bobby Jon. Brandon tells Danni that it's really been getting to him, because the game puts you in the position of forming alliances, and those alliances ultimately force you to vote out people you think may "deserve" (again) to stay in the game more than the people in your alliance. Basically, this is the first time Farmer Beavis has been forced to confront the fact that helping yourself and slowly picking off one by one the people you dislike the most aren't always consistent goals.
Brandon interviews that, indeed, he's "conflicted," because he's in an alliance with Bobby Jon, but Gary and Amy "maybe deserve to be here a little bit more" than Bobby Jon does, given that Bobby Jon's already had a shot. He tells us that this is probably his toughest moment in the game so far, voting-wise. He laments the fact that you wind up deceiving and lying and so forth when, of course, everyone could theoretically choose not to proceed that way, but just to vote off the people who aren't as good, or whatever. Of course, a meritocracy wouldn't make very good television, so he'd better hope he isn't overheard. They leave for tribal council.
When everyone is seated, Jeff (nice green shirt, you dork) asks Danni about still being here on Day 18. She says it feels good to be in the game, but that she isn't feeling good coming to tribal council and voting someone out. Jeff asks Gary why this seems worse -- what's different now from when they voted Brian out. I think the real answer is that while they all liked Brian fine, it didn't break their hearts to get rid of him quite as much as it's hurting to vote out Amy, partly because she has all kinds of extra trouper points for how she kept going last week after the second injury to her ankle. Gary says he thinks that the team is just really tight, and nobody really wants anybody to go. Jeff asks Amy about the experience, and she says that she experienced things during the game that won't come up anywhere else. Plus, she bonded with her team and everything. "I love these guys," she says. Aww.
Jeff asks Brandon about sending someone home, trying to make it sound as bad as possible, and asks how much harder it is than he thought it was going to be. Farmer Beavis responds that it's a lot harder than he expected, and that the worst part is indeed the part where you have to pick between who's not in your alliance and who "may not be as deserving" of remaining in the game. Right as Brandon says "may not be as deserving," we see Bobby Jon's head whip around, but it's always hard to say, because they tend to play very fast and loose with reaction shots at tribal council. Jeff asks Danni whether she anticipated the business about who was deserving. Danni says she knows that's part of the game, but that giving your word and keeping your word are two different things.
Jeff asks Bobby Jon how he goes about voting at tribal council. It probably wouldn't do to say that he votes by stomping his foot for the number of letters in the person's name, so he says that he just keeps to his old, ancient, Day 1 deals. Unless it's Blake, of course. Because sometimes, you have to break your old deals. But never ones that involve not voting out Bobby Jon. Hmmm, I sense an imperfect ethical construct. They should have some kind of an alarm for when that happens.
At any rate, it's time to vote. Bobby Jon votes first for Amy. "You're the strongest, most real human being I've ever met in my entire life," he says. "My entire life." He adds, "I won't never meet anybody more real than you ever." I'm sure she really appreciates that. Brandon votes. Amy votes for Bobby Jon. Gary votes. Danni votes.
We return to Jeff, who "tallies" the votes. He brings back the urn. One vote for Amy. One vote for Bobby Jon. Two for Amy. And...three for Amy, which is enough. Boo! I haven't been happy with the bootings recently at all. Amy gives everybody hugs, because she's that sort of person, and then she goes off to be snuffed. Farmer Beavis looks a little ill. Jeff tells what's left of Yaxha that this rather somber tribal council convinced him that they really are close. And now, the game is about to change, because they're merging as of right now. They're heading to Nakum's camp, and they're taking the new buffs for everyone with them. Jeff promises that the rewards they've won will be waiting for them there, so presumably, somebody is moving the pool. The new buffs, incidentally, are red. And the new tribe will need to come up with a name. Jeff sends Gary, Danni, Bobby Jon, and Brandon off to find Camp Nakum and start over.
In her exit interview, Amy says that she's totally proud of everything she did and everything she learned. Very cool lady, and no bitterness. I dig her.
week: merge. Being asked to "choose [her] fate" makes Stephenie get all Chandler's-Janice, with the "Oh my God." And, it appears, cracks in the head-kissing alliance of Judd and Jamie begin to appear. Not the head-kissing alliance!