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Galu feels more united than ever against Foa Foa and ready to pick them off one-by-one. They think they'll get their chance when a "randomly-chosen" team of five Galu members beats a team of three Foa Foas, Laura, and the random guy (with bonus member Natalie!), winning a reward of some time near a waterfall, fried chicken, and a clue to the new hidden immunity idol. They resolve not to tell Foa Foa there's another idol, but it doesn't matter since Li'l Russell took advantage of the absence of all those Galu members during their reward trip to look around for the idol he's sure is there. And since the producers are lazy and probably want Li'l Russell to find the idol anyway, he does so easily. He vows not to tell anyone about this one before running off to tell Shambo. They plan to use the idol to surprise eliminate Laura, but that plan goes awry when she wins yet another immunity challenge because she's kind of awesome. The target becomes Kelly instead, since she's part of Laura's inner circle and more of a threat than useless Monica. Meanwhile, Monica proves to actually be of some use when she asks if Galu should make some kind of contingency plan in case Li'l Russell somehow found the idol. John agrees with her, but Dave Ball is just sure that Li'l Russell doesn't know there's an idol around to find, let alone where. Oops! Li'l Russell gets all seven Galu votes and none of them count, as he uses an idol for the second Tribal Council in a row. Kelly doesn't have much to say on her way out, but then, she didn't have much to say during the rest of the season, either.
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Want more? The full recap starts right below!The Erik-less Aiga return to camp on Night 21. Random Brett makes random conversation about the random things he wants to eat. Could the Survivor auction be coming up? I always look forward to the Survivor auction! Lest we forget that Li'l Russell exists and is the greatest thing ever to grace our television screens, he pops up to interview that he thought Galu was gunning for him, so he played his idol unnecessarily. Better to play it unnecessarily than be voted out while holding onto it, though, as I'm sure Erik would tell him if he weren't currently en route to the Losers Lodge. Now that he doesn't have an idol to play, he thinks he'll be going unless a miracle happens. Because if God was going to help anyone out with anything, wouldn't it be some little troll man to win a million dollars? I think so.
Back in the shelter, the women (lead by Laura) bask in the glow of victory. Yes, what an accomplishment! You fractured your own tribe. Awesome. Ah, but Laura is also happy that they flushed out Li'l Russell's immunity idol. She interviews that playing the idol was "the dumbest move" on his part and isn't it nice to see someone calling Li'l Russell an idiot in an interview instead of the other way around? "Russell is gonna be gone ," she promises us.
The morning, Natalie happens upon a cute little mouse-rat-thing that the producers drugged so it wouldn't run away when Natalie came crashing through its forest home. She lets loose about a million oh my goshes while trying to decide what she should use to kill it. Wow, she didn't even question it. There was no discussion as to whether or not she SHOULD kill the mouse-rat for food. Just HOW. That's kind of cool. She picks up a convenient nearby stick and hovers over the mouse-rat, which still does not move. Um, really? Is that mouse-rat really the one you want to eat? Because if it's not even trying to run away then it's probably sick. You don't want to eat sick rat. Or maybe it's fine but stuck on the glue trap the producers stuck it on because they think hot blonde girls killin' stuff will be a ratings bonanza. Finally, Natalie brings the stick down and kills the mouse-rat with many an "oh my Lord," drops it into a hollowed-out coconut, and brings it back to camp with "I killed something, y'all!" While Mick and Jaison don't even bother to sit up, Laura has the perfect reaction: "What? Ew." Natalie runs off to Li'l Russell in the hopes of praise. Random Brett is quick to congratulate her, but that's only because if he pretends he's looking down at the dead thing in the coconut, he can totally stare at her boobs. Jaison interviews that Natalie has really grown and changed during this game, having entered it as a shy and demure Southern belle. "She wasn't a Shambo," he says. And she still isn't. Can you imagine what would have happened if Shambo had been the one to find the mouse-rat? I'm sure it would have ended with her accidentally burning the camp down and the mouse-rat going on to live a long and healthy life. Random Brett cooks the mouse-rat and it is split up amongst everyone, giving them all about a grasshopper's worth of protein each. That was worth it.
Mick and Li'l Russell fetch the treemail. While Mick focuses on the task at hand, Li'l Russell takes the opportunity to look around for the idol. Mick just laughs that off because obviously no one on this show except for Li'l Russell has any idea how this game is played. They return to camp with no idol but with a treemail that quotes Monty Python and thus can go fuck itself. It's for the reward challenge, and it promises a feast for the winner. But surely they're all full from that mouse-rat?
Aiga arrive at the challenge. Probst explains that they'll be "randomly" divided into two teams of five. Four members of the team will race out, two at a time, to fetch five poles with black and white coconuts on them that will then be arranged on a board so that the white coconuts spell out a four-digit number. Once they have that number, they must tell it to their fifth teammate, who is blindfolded and standing in front of a large bicycle lock-style dial. She will have to feel out the four matching numbers on the dial to unlock it and win the prize. And just what will they win? A trip to a naturally-formed rock waterslide that the contestants don't care about half as much as the picnic lunch of fried chicken and brownies. With that, the teams are "randomly" chosen off-camera. Because there are 11 players left in the game, Natalie is not on either team. Probst explains that she gets to choose a team to root for in this challenge. If that team wins, she gets to enjoy the reward with them. If they lose, so does she. I have a feeling this challenge was supposed to happen at a point in the show when there was an even number of players, but thanks to various injuries, that didn't happen so they had to come up with this. Natalie has to choose between a team of three Foa Foas, Random Brett, and Laura, or five Galus. On one hand, Laura is awesome at this stuff and whichever team she's on should do well. On the other, Foa Foa sucks out loud at challenges and all three of them are on one team, so it's sure to fail despite the presence of Laura. And yet, on a third hand, Shambo is on the all-Galu team and she's pretty awful, too, so Galu could lose after all. This is a tough choice indeed for Natalie. As it is, she was probably hoping to be sent off to Exile Island or something to get an immunity idol. In the end, she sides with her fellow Foa Foa losers.
Probst says go and there is much running and pole-fetching. Dave Ball has been paired up with Shambo, and makes sure she has no part of the challenge. It's pretty close throughout the first part, although the Foa Foa team has a slight advantage because they have four men while the Galus have two women. And yet, Probst delights in calling out "Shambo really slowing purple down!" as if she's supposed to sprint as fast as a man ten years younger than her. Come on. "That gives yellow a lot of advantage," he says. Then I guess you should make sure the teams have an even number of men and women on them time, hmm?
The Foa Foa team is back with their poles first, but Galu isn't too far behind. We have an obligatory shot of Shambo dropping one of the poles. What did she do to make the editors hate her so much? Not be a hot girl they could ogle all day long? That's not her fault. Both teams struggle with their poles, coming close to forming the four numbers only to have one white coconut in the wrong place. At one point, Foa Foa's display looks like what my alarm clock read the time I accidentally spilled water on it. Over on Galu, Dave Ball appears to be the one who figures out the right way to align the coconuts, and they come up with the number 4673. He calls out to blindfolded Monica to put that into the combination lock and she gets to work. Foa Foa, meanwhile, has the number 95ךּ♫. And then, suddenly, they have 7346. Basically, they have the same number as Galu but in a slightly different order. Which means that even though they said there would be no cheating, it would have been pretty easy for Foa Foa to look at what Galu had and figure out that their number was similar. Laura gets to work on her combination lock. But Monica gets the numbers lined up first -- or so she thinks. Because when she tries to release the lock, it doesn't give. She switches one number and gets it. Galu cheer for fried chicken. The other six are sent back to camp. Where they've got two live chickens and one member who has proven herself capable of killing animals, right? I'm just saying.
Happy reward music plays us to the rock water slide, which looks pretty high up and terrifying to me, actually. But John slides down without hesitation. Even though the pool he falls into doesn't look very deep. "The rock slides are killer!" he interviews. Kelly, on the other hand, isn't such a fan, standing well back and calling out to everyone to be careful. Monica goes down one, though, so she kind of has to follow suit. "I'm like so terrified of waterslides!" she says. Here's a tip, Kelly: don't go on The Amazing Race. She does end up sliding down, as does everyone except Shambo, who is not shown having fun with her team because the editors only want her on screen when she's doing something doofy. Then it's time to enjoy the fried chicken, sandwiches, brownies, and "redonkulous" (as Monica describes them) donuts. And there, in the fruit basket, is a scroll! It basically says there's another immunity idol hidden at camp, but not where. Dave Ball says they should tell Random Brett and Laura about this but not anyone from Foa Foa, just to make their triumph over the tribe that much easier. John says he's "comfortable" with the plan to knock off the Foa Foa members one by one, even though last week he said that was "junior varsity" Survivor.
While the others swim and frolic, Kelly, Monica, and Shambo talk about which Foa Foa member to take out . Kelly is all for Li'l Russell going, but Shambo says no because "he sucks at challenges," despite the fact that all the evidence has pointed to the contrary. Kelly now thinks that Shambo is protecting Li'l Russell, although I don't know if you can call such a transparent attempt "protection." If anything, it made Li'l Russell more of a target since Shambo so clearly wants him to stick around as long as possible. "He needs to go," Kelly interviews. Monica stresses the importance of not telling anyone from Foa Foa about the clue, especially since Li'l Russell was able to find one without a clue. Which means he doesn't need a clue to find an idol, right? And he's back at camp with three of his tribemates and only two Galus to keep an eye on him, one of whom is invisible? But they're too busy worrying that Shambo could join Foa Foa to pay that any mind.
Back at Aiga, Li'l Russell searches for the idol. He says if he finds it this time, he won't tell anyone. He said that last time, though, and then he told everyone. He searches and searches around landmarks, figuring the idol must be hidden near one. "There cannot be any other place," he says. Why not? Used to be in this game, they buried the idol in totally random spots that were like twenty paces away from a tall tree. But now they're lazy, so they just stuck it under the swamp bridge, where Li'l Russell totally finds it. UGH. Fuck you, idol hiding crew. No one should be able to find it without a clue. Especially not TWICE. Of course, Li'l Russell runs right to the nearest camera to interview about how awesome he is. "This might be worth one meel-yon dollars," he says. Dude, if you're going to tell us that you're a millionaire you should at least act like you've been there before. He says he may have missed out on fried chicken and brownies, but it was worth it for the immunity idol. Fuck that. Fried chicken and brownies sound delicious. Also, I have to say that if they hadn't shoved this guy down our throats from the very beginning and let him sit in the background sometimes or cut back on the 1,456 interviews he got every episode, there's a good chance I would have liked Li'l Russell. He's not even playing against the other contestants -- he's playing against the producers and exploiting their laziness and predictability. Every time he finds a "hidden" idol without a clue it's a welcome "TRY HARDER" sign for everyone associated with this show, who have been resting on their laurels for several seasons now.
The reward winners return to camp and Shambo and Li'l Russell go off together immediately. Just in case you forgot over the commercial break, Li'l Russell ONCE AGAIN tells us that he found the immunity idol all by himself. And also once again he can't keep it to himself so he shows it to Shambo to try to win her complete trust. "Dude, you d -- you are shitting me," Shambo says. She gives Li'l Russell a kiss, and I have to say if given the choice between fried chicken and brownies or the immunity idol and a kiss from Shambo (who bathes infrequently and when she does bathe, it's in the swamp), I'd take the food. Shambo says the idol might as well be a sword to chop off Laura's head. Shambo interviews that she's had an alliance with Foa Foa since she went to the camp the first time and she trusts Li'l Russell "impeccably," which is like implicitly but not. Meanwhile, she tried to vote Jaison out last night, so how is that an alliance? Li'l Russell wants Shambo to make sure that Galu votes for him at Tribal Council and she says that's easy since they're already planning to get rid of him ASAP. Ha, watch her now go back to Galu and clumsily talk about how Li'l Russell needs to go and make them all suspicious. Shambo is "so excited" about this plan. But it's not 100% for sure yet -- Laura could still win immunity.
Immunity Challenge! Probst takes the immunity necklaces back, with John cockily saying he's sure he'll be getting it back soon. It turns out that there will only be one immunity necklace this week, and of course they're using the one with the pointy things on it. Probst explains the challenge: everyone has a grappling hook he must use to retrieve two bags with puzzle pieces in them. The first three to get both bags advance to the final, where they'll shove their puzzle piece peg thing into a board (it looks like a vertical version of Perfection) with a peg-shaped hole in it. Then another piece will drop down and so on until all the holes have been filled by pegs. That's pretty cool, actually.
Probst calls go, and the grappling hooks are tossed. Of course, Probst compliments Li'l Russell's toss even though it didn't get him a bag. Amazingly, Shambo is the first person to get a bag, followed by Mick and then Kelly. Dave Ball, meanwhile, could not be worse at throwing his hook. Mick gets his second bag, becoming the first person in the final round. He will not win, of course, because he is from Foa Foa. Jaison and Natalie get their first bags, and then Laura is on the board as well. The second person to make it to the finals is Shambo. Somehow. Li'l Russell manages to snag his second bag and smirks as he slowly reels it in for the third place in the finals. BUT WAIT! Laura just snagged her second bag too, and she is going to reel it in with a quickness. Li'l Russell tries to hurry up to beat her, but his haste causes him to lose the bag while Laura gets hers. HA HA HA! She gets the last spot in the final round. Laura is amazing. And she is so going to win this -- she's up against Shambo, who will probably lose both of her pegs before the round even starts, and Mick, who is destined to fail.
Probst calls go, and the finalists get to work opening their bags. Probst says that one of the pegs will fit in a hole in the board and the other will not. That means luck will play a part in this, too. Which is why Mick will lose. Mick and then Shambo get their bags open and make their way to the board. Laura is still struggling with her bag. Uh oh. Shambo gets the peg in first and is on her way. Mick soon follows. Laura finally gets her pegs out of the bags, but takes forever trying to find the correct hole. She eventually does, but Shambo and Mick are well ahead. Oh, but then Shambo and Mick slow down while Laura gets peg after peg. Go Laura! Li'l Russell is not pleased, but this is his own fault for smirking instead of being a finalist. Meanwhile, Shambo is trying to fit, like, an arrow-shaped peg in a plus sign-shaped hole. And then... Laura does it! She wins immunity! The other two weren't even close. Probst puts the immunity necklace on her while Shambo is so pissed. On the way out, Laura says Li'l Russell will be going home tonight.
The tribe returns to camp. Shambo straddles a hammock and then whines about how Laura won immunity and her heart is broken. But that just means that Kelly is going home , since she's more of a threat than Monica, strength and friendship wise. Um... how about voting out one of the Galu men? Why is that not an option? Oh, I guess because they want to eliminate a member of Laura's inner circle. Way to be useless enough to stay in there for another round, Monica.
Back at camp, Li'l Russell and Jaison head out to the woods, where Li'l Russell tells Jaison about his immunity idol. Jaison seems kind of jealous, but where was he when Li'l Russell was looking around for the idol? Back at camp hiding in the shelter, most likely. Li'l Russell says the plan is to vote for Kelly and he'll play the idol and she'll be gone. Jaison seems to agree. He interviews that it's in his own best interests to keep this a secret from Galu, since if they know that Li'l Russell has the idol, they'll simply target someone else on Foa Foa -- and there's a 33% chance it would be him. So he goes to the shelter and tells Mick and Natalie about the plan. Li'l Russell stops by and says the same thing. Alone, Mick and Jaison talk about how much they like Li'l Russell. Mick says he had no idea there would even be a second immunity idol, let alone where it was hidden. Um, Mick sucks. Does he do anything? [Hmm... he was "chief" of Foa Foa... back before they gave up on that stupid twist - Angel]
Galu meet up and go over their plan of Foa Foa elimination action. They want Li'l Russell gone first, then Natalie, Mick, and finally Jaison. Jaison is less of a threat to them than Natalie. That is sad. But then! Monica brings up the possibility that someone on Foa Foa may have found the idol, and when they try to vote for Li'l Russell, he'll use it and take out someone on Galu. Dave Ball shuts her down, saying they can't worry about that right now and Foa Foa doesn't even know there's an idol to find. John says if he were on Foa Foa, he'd be looking everywhere for the idol. Unlike as a member of Galu, in which case he has apparently done no looking at all for the idol. He says Li'l Russell found his first idol without a clue -- why wouldn't he find a second one the same way? But still, Dave Ball doesn't think there's a chance that Li'l Russell has another idol. He does, however, say that they could vote for Natalie tonight instead of Li'l Russell if they want. And Li'l Russell just happens to be walking by them and overhears, so now he thinks it'll be Natalie tonight and doesn't know whether he should play and potentially waste another idol tonight, or keep it and risk pulling an Erik.
Back at the Galu secret meeting, Dave Ball says that when they're finished with Foa Foa, they'll celebrate with some roasted chicken. Everyone agrees to this pretty quickly. Laura interviews that Galu is at least six members strong, so they'll be just fine tonight.
Tribal Council! Probst is looking especially stern as the contestants enter. I didn't think he was capable of making facial expressions anymore with all that botox. Good for him. He brings Erik in to sit on the jury, and Erik's expression is even angrier than Probst's. He holds up a necklace he's wearing with what is apparently a significant charm on it. It looks like a purple candy corn. So either he's angrily celebrating Halloween or he feels like the purple Galu team should've done a better job of sticking together. Even though he was the one who wanted to get rid of Laura and Monica. Who were on Galu. And yet, he's so angry that someone beat him at his own game that he didn't even bother to shave or clean up at the Losers Lodge. Probst asks Dave Ball if Erik's ouster means that they are no longer playing as tribe against tribe, but as individuals. Dave Ball says if anything, Galu is even stronger because Erik was weakening their tribe from within and now he's out and they still have the majority over Foa Foa. Well, you just lost a juror vote, Dave Ball. Nice job. Erik is cartoonishly livid on the jury bench, shaking his fist in Dave Ball's general direction. Shambo just shakes her head sadly. Guess who's getting Erik's vote now?
Probst asks Kelly how she felt about the tribe. Does anyone care what she thinks? I don't even know who she is. Every time she pops up (like once every three episodes) I start laughing because I think the editors accidentally left in a shot of a crew member. Kelly says she was happy to eliminate the "snake" in the group who was starting trouble as Laura nods smugly. They have also lost Erik's jury vote. Probst asks Natalie what it's like around camp knowing that she's on a tribe that isn't exactly welcome there. She says everyone is nice to her face, which Probst refuses to believe because he likes stirring shit up. She acknowledges that it's seven against four at camp so Probst will leave her alone and switch to Jaison, asking him what he thinks it means that Galu was willing to get rid of one of their own before a member of Foa Foa. I think it means they're stupid. Jaison just says he's not sure, since the Galu people are staying pretty quiet about everything while Foa Foa continues to look for cracks, hoping to find "another Erik."
Probst turns to Shambo and asks her for the "state of the game" in her opinion. I can't wait to hear this one. Shambo has no clue what's going on ever. She voted for Jaison last time! But this time she toes the party line and says Galu is sticking together. Mick says they still have to hope that someone from Galu recognizes that if he makes a "big move" he will have four solid votes from Foa Foa. Which is great except for the fact that four solid votes are not enough. Probst asks Li'l Russell if he's looking for cracks in Galu. Li'l Russell says he was, but now he's waiting for someone on Galu to come to Foa Foa. "But they seem to be pretty tight," he says with fake resignation. Probst asks Monica if she noticed Foa Foa people trying to talk to Galu people and convince them to turn against their own tribe. Monica says no, and that's probably because Foa Foa have just stopped trying, so intimidated are they by the closeness of Galu. "I don't think it's that hard of a try they're giving," she says. Uh, Monica? You not seeing them trying doesn't mean they aren't trying. In fact, it should make you all the more cautious because it means they aren't trying with you. Which means they're against you. Probst asks Dave Ball how Galu picked which member of Foa Foa would be the to go. Dave Ball says it's who is the biggest threat but won't provide a hint.
With that, they vote. We don't see any of the votes. As Probst goes off to tally them, the Galu members exchange smug looks. Those looks are about to change, because Probst is back with the urn and wants to know if anyone has an immunity idol he'd like to play. Li'l Russell stands up with a great musical flourish. Dave Ball is all 8-O. Man, I do love the "oh shit" expressions a good immunity idol play brings out, don't you? Erik, on the other hand, is loving this. "I ain't finished playin' just yet," Li'l Russell announces, and out comes the idol. I think Dave Ball is part shitting himself and part enjoying the hell out of this moment. Oh! And there, in the corner of the screen, is Shambo, totally pretending to be shocked! Go Shambo! It's the first Tribal Council where you've known anything!
Probst accepts the idol and says any votes against Li'l Russell will not count. So now the question becomes, are there any? Judging by the expressions on Galu's faces, I'd say yes. And so there are. As soon as Probst reveals the first one, Foa Foa know they've done it and allow themselves to try on Galu's smug smiles, now that they won't be needing them. Li'l Russell gets all seven of Galu's votes (nice job, Shambo. Or, rather, whoever told her to vote with Galu) and Galu wait to see on who among them the axe will fall. Much to everyone's surprise, it's Kelly. Now Galu have to act like they're sad to see her go when they've really got to be feeling pretty damn relieved it's not them. Kelly remains insignificant until the end, with Laura getting all the screentime with her whispered "he just stirred up a whole lot of hell, is what he did." So awesomely, Shambo turns and nods at Laura solemnly. When Kelly's torch is extinguished, it's Li'l Russell who gets the screentime. Good-bye, random blonde woman! See you in the jury! Or not, since your final question will probably get edited out anyway! Probst turns back around and says that the last two Tribal Councils have ended in blindsides (enh, not so much that first one, since everyone knew what was going on except Erik and Shambo) and idols being played. He asks if that will be enough to turn the tide for Foa Foa. And he announces that the immunity idol is going back into the game, since if he didn't I'm sure they'd all go around believing it was nowhere to be found while Li'l Russell got it again.
You can read more from Sara Morrison at L.A.me, follow her on Twitter, or you can email her at saramorrison@gmail.com.