Abi isn't sure why they kept her around, but she doesn't want to leave yet. Her latest strategy is to convince Lisa that she's on the bottom of her final four alliance, and she won't make it to the finals. Lisa isn't buying it, but she knows that she needs to keep Abi on her side whether to go to the finals or as a jury member.
Reward Challenge: The Survivors have to climb up and slide down a ramp, and retrieve two bags of rings from the water. Then they have to toss the rings onto pegs. Skupin and Malcolm are neck and neck throughout, but Skupin gets all his rings on pegs first and wins. He chooses Malcolm and Lisa to come with him on a helicopter ride to eat pizza on a boat.
Poor Denise is left on the beach with Abi, who doesn't get why she wasn't chosen to go on Reward, like does she still not get that no one likes her? Meanwhile, on the boat, Lisa, Skupin, and Malcolm make a final three deal. Skupin also drinks soda for the first time in thirty years and gets a little loopy.
The morning, Denise discovers that she got bit or stung by something in the night and she seems to be having an allergic reaction, but she decides to try to suck it up and carry on.
Immunity Challenge: Cross a bridge and retrieve puzzle pieces, and use them to assemble a maze and then solve it. Malcolm is in first place but he falls off the bridge and has to start over. This gives Denise a chance to solve the maze, but she can't quite put it together and in an impressive feat, Malcolm comes from behind and wins the challenge. So now he has Immunity PLUS he has to play his Idol tonight, as it's the last night it can be played. If I were Denise, I would ask him to give me his Idol so that Lisa and Skupin don't start any shenanigans. That would let her know if Malcolm is really planning on taking her to the finals.
Denise does ask Malcolm for his Idol and he says she doesn't need it so he doesn't give it to her. Lisa and Skupin consider their options. They know keeping Abi makes sense from a finals perspective, but they also know they'll need Denise's challenge expertise to keep Malcolm from winning immunity in the challenge.
At Tribal Council, Abi makes a big pitch to keep her around, since she thinks either Malcolm or Denise is going to win, so Lisa and Skupin are stupid to keep them instead of her. And then THANK GOD, they vote Abi out because I could not take her bullshit anymore. At least now, whoever wins, I will feel that it's deserved.
After voting out Carter, a mostly sad Dangrayne tribe returns to camp. Abi thanks everyone for keeping her, as if they kept her around because they like her or care about her. Abi interviews that she bluffed with her fake Hidden Immunity Idol, and she's not sure if people believed it, but she's going to keep it going. Lisa comments that it was tough to vote Carter off because he was such a nice guy. She interviews that the game isn't fair, but when choosing who to keep around, she has to keep the people she thinks she can beat.
As they settle in to sleep, Skupin jokes that he guesses Abi always thought she would make it this far, but probably thought she'd be with very different people. Heh. I'm sure she thought she'd be in the final five with Pete, Artis, and maybe Lisa and Skupin but maybe not. Malcolm interviews that Lisa admitted at Tribal Council that she wants to keep people around that she thinks she can beat, so he knows now that she's playing the game seriously with her head, and he's got to keep an eye on her.
The morning, Malcolm, Denise, and Skupin cook breakfast and express hopes that Carter is resting well and feeling better. Abi makes a really obvious announcement that she's going to get some water. Once she's out of earshot, Skupin and Malcolm both comment on how not sly she is. Malcolm interviews that no one buys that Abi has an Idol, because if she did, she would have played it last night. Abi interviews that Malcolm is using his Idol to stay around, and she needs to destroy his alliance with Denise because it's too strong. She wants to get rid of Denise ASAP.
Later, Abi lays in the sun until she's alone with Lisa, and then dramatically gets up and warns Lisa to be careful, because she's on the bottom of her four-person alliance. Abi is such a terrible liar that she has no backing evidence and hasn't even put much thought into how she might convince Lisa she's telling the truth. Like she could say, "I heard Malcolm and Denise talking about how they didn't want to take you to the finals because you can beat them since the jury is largely made up of former Tandang members." There's an idea. Instead, Abi just says, "I think you're on the bottom, so be careful." Dummy. Lisa interviews that she doesn't believe a word Abi's saying, but she needs to keep Abi close, either to take her to the finals (which Lisa admits "feels yucky"), or as a potential jury voter. Lisa further interviews that she would love to vote off Denise and keep Abi, but she may have to keep her alliance intact. She's keeping her options open.
Reward Challenge. Probst explains that the castaways will have to run over a slide (it's tall, like maybe eight feet?) into the water and retrieve a bundle of rings. Then they'll return to their original spot and toss the rings onto pegs. First one to get five pegs on five rings wins reward, which is a boat trip with catered pizza lunch, and the winner gets to bring two friends.
The slides are pretty awesome because the contestants go FLYING down the other side and somersault into the sand, especially the first time when they don't know how fast they're going to be. Skupin takes an early lead with Malcolm right behind. Lisa is way behind and Abi whatever. Skupin is first to start tossing his rings with Malcolm and Denise right behind. Skupin quickly gets three out of five rings landed. Malcolm manages to tie Skupin at four out of five, so it's down to the two of them, and then Skupin scores his last ring and wins.
Probst tells Skupin that the helicopter is going to pick him up, and Skupin reminds everyone that his last Survivor helicopter ride involved a medical evacuation. Anyway, Skupin has to make his picks. First, he chooses Malcolm, since Malcolm let him visit with his son in the last Reward Challenge. Skupin looks over the other three and chooses Lisa. Skupin makes a point of telling Denise that she can have all his fruit back at camp. Nothing for Abi, I guess. She looks pissed. She heaves a big sigh and looks pointedly at Probst, and he notes that she looks heartbroken. Abi says dramatically, "I guess my vote doesn't mean anything." If she means her vote in the game? It really doesn't. I can't figure out if she's actually surprised that she didn't get chosen or if she's continuing her fiction that she has some power in the game due to her fake Idol.
Denise is stuck back at camp with Abi, of all people. Abi interviews that she's really crushed because she's on the bottom of the alliance, and she also has to hang out with Denise, whom she calls a "horrible person." Interesting that pretty much every other person who has met Denise has liked her. Denise interviews that she's just going to try to be nice and get through the afternoon. Abi tells Denise that she's the swing vote, because she's still pretending that she has an Idol. Denise just keeps saying, "Uh huh! That's true. For sure!" She's a trooper.
Meanwhile, on the boat, Malcolm, Skupin, and Lisa are eating what looks like the world's worst pizza (I'm sure they don't care), cookies, and soda. Skupin never drinks soda so he gets a little loopy from the sugar high. Later, they go in the water and snorkel to a whale shark. Malcolm even gets to put his hand on it, which is pretty amazing. Skupin, of course, almost runs into it, because it wouldn't be Skupin if he didn't nearly get into a fatal accident.
After their swim, Malcolm, Skupin, and Lisa talk about forming a final three alliance. Malcolm is the one to propose it, and Skupin says that he wants to make a bond and not get left out like Penner. Lisa says that she has liked not having to scramble since they formed their final four alliance, and she'd like to feel that way for the few rounds too. It's not clear to me here from Malcolm's interviews if he's legitimately planning to throw over Denise or if he's just trying to keep Skupin and Lisa from doing so. Lisa interviews that she didn't really have time to talk the deal over with Skupin before he agreed, so she just went with it, and decided that if it works out, she's golden, but if she decides it won't work, she'll just have to break her word.
The morning, Denise tells everyone about some pain that she's having in her neck. Not like she slept on it wrong, like a burning sensation. And she's all stuffed up. And you can see two bite marks on her neck. Jesus. Something clearly bit her and put some venom into her system, and she explains that it hurts to even move her arm. Denise interviews that she's trying to tell herself to suck it up because she's only got three days left and if it's an allergic reaction, she hopes it will pass, but in the meantime, she's in a lot of pain. Lisa and Skupin pray over Denise while she cries. I'm sure part of Denise (given that she's stated her aversion to asking God for help) wants to roll her eyes, but also part of her is like, "Whatever works." Abi interviews that she feels bad for Denise but she's also hoping this will affect her in the challenge.
Speaking of Challenges, it's time for the Immunity Challenge. Probst greets them and Denise says that she's feeling the effects of some sort of bite. Probst points out that it's a possible opening for Abi, and she agrees. But if she has the Idol, she doesn't need it, right? I feel like she's forgetting her own cover story. Anyway, the challenge is to use planks to cross a rope bridge while collecting maze pieces. Once across, they will assemble the maze and use a ball to complete it.
They have two planks and have to crawl across a long rope ladder. So they have to place both planks and crawl out onto them, and then retrieve one plank and place it ahead, crawl onto that, lather, rinse, repeat. And along the way, they have to stop and untie ropes to retrieve the puzzle pieces. Everyone is fairly even as they start out, with Malcolm having a slight lead. Just as he is getting ready to finish the rope ladder, his plank comes off, the ropes split apart, and he falls onto the sand. He has to start over, and he's pissed. Everyone else has started assembling mazes. Abi is so bad at this; she puts pieces in places that make zero sense. Denise seems to be sailing along, although the nature of the puzzle is such that you could be nearly done and then suddenly have to pull out half of the pieces because it's all wrong. Malcolm is across the bridge for the second time and ready to start assembling his maze.
Denise finishes her maze but then realizes that the last piece she put in doesn't quite fit. It looks like it should, but it doesn't line up exactly, so it's wrong and she has to rearrange things. Lisa seems like she's not even close and I thought she was supposed to be the puzzle master. I'd like to see Penner try this. Malcolm suddenly gets all his pieces in and puts the ball through the maze. He won. Wow. That was quite a come-from-behind victory and he seemed really intent on winning for someone who already had an Idol.
Hey, Skupin hasn't nearly died in like half an episode. That means it's time for him to get injured again. And a rock pops in the fire while he's cooking and hits his foot, but he narrowly escapes death once again. I've got to say, popping rocks are dangerous. My brother got a hot rock in his EYEBALL when we were kids and my grandfather was an EMT and my mom and grandma had to hold him down on the couch while my grandpa used like a wire loop to scoop it out. I still have the willies and that was like thirty years ago. Also, one time a popped rock landed in my shoe and I got a blister. Okay, that's not quite at the same level.
Abi interviews that she's discouraged since she didn't win immunity, and she feels drained, but she knows that she needs to fight, and her plan is to get Skupin and Lisa to vote with her against Denise. Abi talks to Skupin on the beach and says that Skupin and Lisa don't have a chance at beating Denise OR Malcolm in the finals, so they should bring her, since no one will vote for her. She's not wrong. Skupin interviews that it's a hard decision because everything matters in the endgame. Skupin tells Abi that she's making sense and he needs to talk to Lisa. Skupin interviews that Abi is really unlikable but hanging out with her for three more days could earn him the million.
Skupin finds Lisa and they carefully talk about how Abi wants a final three deal. Lisa says that she thinks they should do it, because the only votes Abi could potentially get are from Pete and Artis, so they should consider voting out Denise.
Meanwhile, Malcolm and Denise are having their own chat. Denise reminds him that this is the last night he can play his Immunity Idol, and he also has considers it and then says that he would give it to her if the situation called for it. Denise immediately agrees with him that Lisa and Skupin wouldn't keep Abi, even though we saw them considering doing just that a few moments ago. I really want Denise to stay for two reasons: I like Denise, and I think keeping her makes for a far more interesting final. If Abi goes to the finals, she won't win and she'll be annoying when responding to jury questions. Any combination of the other four in the finals would be interesting. I think they could each make an argument, and it would be interesting to see which jury members vote which way. Anyway, Malcolm's not giving up the Idol because he wants to keep it as a souvenir, although given his conversation on the boat, you have to wonder if there's a part of him that wouldn't mind seeing Denise go home as long as he has plausible deniability.
Lisa and Skupin are still discussing their options. Lisa says that they want to go to the finals with Abi first, then Malcolm, and then Denise. Skupin points out that if Malcolm wins the immunity challenge, there's no guarantee Skupin and Lisa are both safe. Lisa agrees that they'd be better off keeping Denise for that reason - to provide yet another worthy opponent to Malcolm in the last Immunity Challenge. Yeah, but isn't Denise winning pretty much the same as Malcolm winning? Lisa interviews that she wants to go to the end with Abi, but now she's worried that Malcolm will continue winning immunity, and they need all available manpower to beat Malcolm, at which Abi would be useless. Lisa concludes that her decision tonight is based purely on strategy and which tradeoff will give her greatest reward, but she knows it's all a guessing game.
Tribal Council. Probst starts out by asking Lisa how things went at camp after Malcolm won immunity. Lisa says that Abi was the one scrambling the hardest, so Probst recounts all of the horrible (yet true) things that have been said about Abi, and Abi agrees that she's the best person to take to the end, since no one will vote for her in the finals. Denise says that she doesn't think Abi deserves to go to the end since she hasn't outwitted, outplayed, and outlasted everyone. Probst points out that Abi's still there though, and Denise thinks there might be some luck to that, since she was on Tandang. Lisa gets all fired up about how awesome Tandang was, and how it wasn't luck that kept their tribe intact for so long. Denise backs off, but she should have pointed out that she didn't say Tandang was lucky - she said Abi was lucky to have been randomly placed on Tandang. Unlike Denise, whose tribe was nearly eliminated entirely, Abi never had to go to a Tribal Council until after the merge. I think THAT'S what Denise meant and I'm sorry that she just backed down instead of clarifying. Also, Lisa just won major points with all the Tandang members of the jury.
Probst asks Malcolm if he's thinking of who he wants to sit with in the finals, and Malcolm says he is. What a dumb question. What information did Probst think he would uncover with that one? Abi starts babbling about how no one can beat Denise or Malcolm in the finals, and Lisa and Skupin are dumb if they don't realize that. Skupin rolls his eyes. Probst asks for his reaction and Skupin starts to answer but Abi interrupts and says, "You're an idiot." Everyone just kind of stares blankly and then Skupin's like, "So, anyyyyywayyyyy...." and Abi interrupts again and says, "You're a moron." Skupin tries to power through and Probst interrupts to ask for a reaction and Skupin basically says there's no point in getting upset.
Probst asks Lisa if she's considered keeping Abi around because she's so good at acting like an asshole in front of the jury. Well, he uses nicer words. Lisa reiterates that she's going to take people she thinks she can beat. Abi says that she's that person. Probst asks Abi why she cares, if she think she can't win, and Abi says she'd like to at least make it to the finals. Malcolm points out that people have used that argument before and ended up winning, and anyone who thinks taking Abi is a sure route to victory needs to be prepared to lose to her. Abi continues to pick on Denise, saying that Abi is playing the game as a loudmouth but Denise is playing as "the elite." And Abi is there to win a million dollars but Denise is there to make friends. What the fuck is Abi even talking about at this point? Is she just throwing out whatever words enter her brain? Denise clarifies that she's there to win the million too. At least Denise has learned to keep her mouth shut and not engage Abi. Probst says that it seems like it's either Abi or Denise going home, so it's time to vote.
Abi votes for Denise and calls her "patronizing, judgmental, not a good person." Ouch. Denise obviously votes for Abi and we don't see the rest of the votes. Probst tallies the votes and then asks for any Hidden Immunity Idols. Abi obviously doesn't have one to play, and Malcolm smirks. Everyone votes and during voting, Penner flips someone the bird but I can't figure out who it was for. Lisa? Abi? One of them. I guess we'll find out during the finale or the reunion.
Probst reads the votes. The first one is for Denise, and all of the rest are for Abi. Whew! From what I've read online, Abi has actually been really pleasant in her post-show interviews and even in the Ponderosa, immediately after being voted out. I'm glad that she's not that much of an asshole all the time, but I'm also glad that I don't have to watch her play this game anymore. On to the finale!