Strength vs. Loyalty

S26E04

After Tribal, Reynold and Eddie yell at their tribe for… not switching things up? I never get the whole, "Yell at your tribe for the way they voted because it wasn't the way you wanted them to vote." You're mad because you're in the minority alliance. That's on you. Don't take it out on your tribemates if you want any chance at all to turn things around.

Ooh, a Reward Challenge. The prize is time in camp with a local bushman, who will help them learn to live off the land, and who will bring food. The challenge is actually really interesting; they have to hold boards in the water such that two tribemates can walk on them from one platform to another. And then the entire tribe has to swim to a third small platform and all stand on it for five seconds. It's neck-and-neck throughout. Laura is a bit uncoordinated for the Fans when moving from board to board but her hesitation doesn't really matter in the end. The Fans are just unable to get everyone up on the platform before the Favorites do, so the Favorites win Reward. Shamar thought his team won (mostly because he was buried at the bottom of the platform) and embarrasses himself by celebrating his team's loss.

The Favorites are delighted by the tiny man who comes to show them how to cook and survive on the beach. The Fans continue to be annoyed by Shamar, who continues to lie in the shelter and order people to bring him rice. Then he gets a grain of sand in his eye and he scratches it and they call in the medical team. The medic says that he has a divot in his cornea and she wants to pull him from the game rather than potentially compromise his vision in that eye. Shamar acts all sad that he's leaving but honestly? I think he's relieved that he didn't have to make the decision to quit. And his tribe is sad to lose a big guy but probably happy that they didn't have to vote him out just because he was being annoying.

Both tribes report for the Immunity Challenge and the Favorites find out that Shamar is gone. For the challenge, they have to swim out to a platform, climb it, jump off and smash a tile, which will release a key. Once five keys have been retrieved, the other two tribe members use them to unlock a chest full of sandbags, and they have to throw them and knock over blocks. The best part of this challenge is watching them run out into the water on this wobbly bridge because just about everyone wipes out in spectacular fashion. Sherri goes first for the Fans and misses the tile when she jumps off the platform, so she has to climb all the way up again. This puts the Fans way behind. Reynold almost catches them up by knocking the blocks off quickly and efficiently. Out of like forty blocks. Reynold gets his down to five left while Phillip has two for the Favorites, but Phillip is some sort of major-league pitcher in addition to being a federal agent and he wins immunity for the Favorites. Again.

Matt and Michael claim to want to vote out Laura because she's so useless in challenges, especially compared to Reynold or Eddie. Reynold worries that they're trying to lull him into not playing the Idol and then blindsiding him. Sherri worries that her alliance is falling apart.

At Tribal Council, the various factions make their cases for keeping strong challenge players versus rewarding loyalty and then they vote. Reynold does play his Idol. But he didn't need to, because the rest of the tribe (probably wisely) realized that they need to start winning challenges if they don't want to get picked off one-by-one after the merge; they vote out Laura. She really was terrible at challenges.

As usual, we open right after the Tribal Council where the Fans voted out Hope, leaving Reynold and Eddie with none. No hope, get it? Eddie starts yelling at everyone because they said they wanted the strongest team possible and yet Laura is still there. At least I think he pointed to Laura. It's tough to tell in night vision. Eddie interviews that they got rid of Hope because she's the prettiest one there. Yeah, Eddie. That's exactly why they voted her out. It has nothing to do with her alliance with you and Reynold. You dummy.

Then Reynold calls Laura out for tricking him into voting for Shamar. Wasn't he already going to vote for Shamar? All Laura did was give him hope and keep him from making another play. Everyone else points out that Reynold's just mad because he got played, which is totally true. Reynold basically says, "Fuck y'all." Keep that in mind for the future.

The morning, Phillip is still keeping his whole "Spy Team" thing going. He explains that Napoleon, when going to Waterloo, couldn't pay his troops so he gave them titles. First of all, Napoleon was defeated at Waterloo, so bad example. And second, giving someone a title instead of a raise is the shittiest kind of corporate bullshit, and anyone who falls for it deserves what they get.

Anyway, Phillip has decided to give Brandon a title so that he thinks he's part of the group even though Brandon isn't part of the group. Phillip takes him into the jungle and welcomes him to "Stealth R Us" and Brandon asks like he just got into the National Honor Society. Anyway, his spy name is The Conqueror, due to his challenge performances. Brandon interviews that Phillip is a terrible agent (duh) because he doesn't know that Brandon is totally lying to him. Phillip gives Erik the name "The Silent One" (come on, he's not even trying).

Okay, so you may be thinking this whole naming business is ridonk, but Phillip's the only one who takes it seriously so who cares? Except then Andrea interviews that she was okay with giving Brandon a name, although she wishes Phillip had checked with her first, but then he gave Erik a name, and she wonders if he's going to give Brenda a name too! How dare he! Give out stupid names for his fake alliance? It just devalues Andrea's stupid name for her fake alliance. Gah, she is dumb. So then Phillip gives Brenda a name and tells her the names of everyone else in the tribe, and her name is "Serenity" which doesn't even make sense. But whatever. I don't care about Phillip's fake names other than they are slightly amusing and they make everyone else look dumb.

By Kim

Hey, it's a Reward Challenge! I've missed you, two-challenge episodes. In this one, two tribe members stand on platforms in the water. The rest of the tribe holds up wood squares to make a temporary bridge for the platform-dwellers to move to a third platform. There are not enough squares to make a full bridge so the people in the water will have to do a lot of scrambling. Then everyone has to swim to a final, very small platform. All eight members have to be on or above the platform for the win. The reward is a local bushman coming to their camp. He will bring them food and also give them instruction on how to live off the land.

Both tribes rush out and untie their planks. The tribes are even as they transport the first two people, Brenda and Julia. Once the Fans get to the second platform, Laura joins in and slows them down a lot because they can't move from one plank to the very quickly. The Favorites get a jump on the final phase and start climbing up the platform, but the Fans aren't far behind. Shamar just makes himself part of the platform and tells everyone to just climb on top of him. The Favorites get up there and start to tilt, but steady themselves for five seconds and win reward. Everyone jumps off and Shamar starts celebrating until everyone tells him that his team lost. Oops. I feel bad for him because he was seriously under a pile of humanity and probably when everyone started jumping off, he thought they won. It does speak to his inability to read the room that he didn't notice that no one else on his tribe seemed happy. That one didn't seem to be any one person's fault. Laura slowed them down a bit, but I don't know that those extra seconds would have made a difference. It seemed like they just had a bad plan for the platform, plus they have bigger people in general on their tribe, making it more of a challenge.

Probst tells the Favorites to get back to camp to meet their reward bushman, and tells the Fans to hit the bricks. Reynold, predictably, interviews that Laura caused them to lose they challenge and they should vote her off.

A bit later, the Favorites are hanging out in their camp when they see a gentleman rowing towards their beach. Brandon starts off the antics by hollering at everyone to look at their "little guy." I mean, he's short in stature, but Brandon's no giant. But that's just the beginning. As they help the man pull his catamaran onto the beach, someone (Corinne?) calls him "a Filipino Jesus!"

Malcolm interviews that they weren't prepared for this little guy, and accurately describes him as "four feet tall, about sixty years old, knotted up with muscle, and he hits the beach and he doesn't mess around!" The guy's name is Tata (sp?) and he immediately starts showing them how to cook rice inside a bamboo pole. I don't know why this method would be better than in a pot, except maybe it's like a rice cooker and you can just put the stuff in, leave it for a while, and then it's done and it won't burn? Malcolm interviews that you can only understand half of what he's saying and he's like "a Filipino Gollum." I'm kind of offended by that, but then the editors show a shot of him crouching down and saying, "Veerry niiiiiiice, veeeery goooood" and damned if he doesn't look and sound just like Gollum.

They all stand around and try to understand what in the hell he's talking about, but while they are suffering, Tata cooks a fantastic meal for them with rice, chicken, and potatoes, and they are all grateful. Tata also shows them how to shore up their shelter and make it sturdier. And then he gets everyone playing some music with bamboo while he dances with all of the girls. Cochran jealously calls him a "bizarre little woodland creature." Okay, he's a human being. That's a bit much. Anyway, all of the ladies dance and kiss Tata on the cheek and Cochran makes a masturbation joke. Gross, Cochran. You are gross.

Over at the Fans camp, Shamar seems pretty jovial for someone who just lost. Mike interviews that the Favorites have won every reward and they have nothing. Shamar immediately goes back to sleep while Eddie and Reynold bitch about how lazy he is. When he wakes up, he says that he's exhausted and due to his size and the lack of food, he can't hack it. Then he says that he'll stay in the game and they will bring him rice once a day. Everyone is like, "Are you kidding me?" Except for Sherri, who admits that she doesn't even wait on her husband, but she's going to bring Shamar rice. Laura interviews that Shamar is claiming he has deep dark secrets from his time at war, and he probably is starving, but they're all starving and they're all sucking it up. Seriously. I would have no patience for that, and add his attitude problem on top of it? If I were Sherri, now that she's got Reynold and Eddie running scared, I would be making a Plan B. One that didn't include Shamar.

As he's lying there, Shamar tells Matt that he scratched his eyeball. Eddie interviews that it's always something with Shamar and he thinks everyone is ready to get rid of him, finally. The others stand around and talk about how good they could be as a tribe without Shamar, because he just brings drama to the tribe. Laura tells Sherri that she was hoping to put off the Shamar vote for as long as possible, but it's not looking possible for much longer.

By Kim

That night, the Fans are miserable in their shelter, which isn't even much of a shelter. There's a bit rainstorm, and they're all huddled together trying to keep out of the wind. And then a bunch of rats head for higher ground and crawl right over them. Michael interviews that they had a hard night with the storm and the rats and they're all scratched up and hungry. And now they think Shamar's going to quit. Shamar sits at the edge of the shelter rocking back and forth.

As they discuss how real Shamar's injury is, Reynold thinks that Shamar is a Marine and he should suck it up. Shamar walks down near the beach to wait for the medic alone. Probst and the medics show up, and Shamar says that something's wrong with his eye. The super chipper medic shows up and says she's going to look at his eye. She peels back his eyelid and sees how red his eye is. It's bad. She puts some dye into his eye so that she can see if he has an abrasion on his cornea. Probst talks to Shamar about the highs and lows of being on the show, and Shamar says he's done his best but he's in a lot of pain. The medic sees a divot on his cornea and says they can't treat it in the camp and it could affect his vision; she wants to pull him from the game.

Probst, ever sensitive, asks Shamar if he feels bad since he's basically screwing his tribe in terms of challenges and even just in numbers. Shamar says he can't risk his vision. And let's face it, he wanted to leave anyway. Probst calls the tribe over and says Shamar's being pulled, and Shamar says that he knows his tribe cares about his well-being. Was that sarcastic? Did they already give him painkillers? As Shamar takes off on the boat, Reynold interviews that he was wrong, and Shamar's injury is serious. That said, Reynold is still happy to see Shamar go. Frankly, everyone kind of is, including Matt and Mike. Sherri quickly reaffirms that they still plan to get rid of Reynold or Eddie at their Tribal, and Matt says they do.

Immunity Challenge! The Favorites find out that Shamar was medically evacuated, and there are only seven fans left to the Favorites' nine. The Challenge involves each tribe member swimming out to a giant platform, and then jumping off the platform while swinging at and breaking a tile, which will release a key. They swim back with the key and the person goes, until they have collected five keys. The remaining two tribe members use the five keys to open three locks on a chest containing sandbags, and then throw the sandbags at many, many blocks on a beam. Once all of the blocks have been knocked off the beam, that team wins.

The first two tribe members head out - Erik for the Favorites and Sherri for the Fans. Instead of just going straight out into the water, they have to run out a bridge that consists of multiple squares tenuously attached to one another and, predictably, they fall down. A lot. And then have to crawl to the first platform, where they can finally dive off and just swim. Erik gets to the platform first and he's got his key and is heading back before Sherri has jumped. And then when Sherri does jump, she clips the edge of the tile but fails to get the key. Oops. So she has to climb up again, which is exhausting. My favorite part of this challenge is watching people haul ass out into the water, confident that unlike everyone before them, they will be able to run across that bridge. And then they fall, pretty spectacularly.

The Favorites end up almost one whole person ahead of the Fans due to Sherri's mistake, so they are ready to start unlocking their chest while Michael still has to retrieve the final key for the Fans. Phillip is the designated tosser for the Favorites, and he starts throwing before Michael is even back. Phillip has probably half of the blocks gone before Reynold even starts tossing for the Fans. Reynold manages to make up some ground, though. He gets down to five blocks when Phillip only has one, but Phillip finally manages to get that last blocks and the Favorites win. Again. Who knew Phillip had such a great arm? And was such a Challenge monster? I don't remember him being such a Challenge monster in his season, but maybe there was heavier competition.

The Fans return to camp and talk about how close the challenge was. Matt congratulates Reynold on his superior effort, and thinks it was amazing that they caught up as much as they did. Matt adds that it sucks that they're going to lose two people in one day. Eddie interviews that he and Reynold know they're on the outs, and they need to figure out a new plan quickly or one of them is going home tonight. Are they just figuring this out? Or are they thinking that with Shamar gone, they might have a chance to swing things around?

Matt and Michael take a walk into the jungle, probably to discuss their move. Reynold and Eddie talk about how everyone is going to try to blindside him because he has an Idol, and Eddie says that obviously they're going to vote him out, since he doesn't. Laura just stands there, listening.

Michael tells Matt that they only reason they were even close in that challenge was because of him, Reynold, and Eddie. So Michael thinks they should vote out Laura. That may be the smartest thing to do in terms of winning challenge, but is it the smartest thing to do strategically? Laura is loyal. She will stick with them at a merge. Reynold and Eddie will peel off in a hot second. Matt agrees that they have to win challenges and Eddie and Reynold are the strongest. Michael interviews that he knew their alliance wasn't made of strong people, but he trusts Laura more than Eddie, and he also doesn't want to leave "Mr. Awesome" in the tribe with the Idol. That's another good point. They should at least try to flush out the Idol while they still have the numbers.

By Kim

Matt pulls Reynold aside and says they want to vote out Laura. Reynold thinks they could be setting him up so he won't play the Idol, like Laura did last time. Matt understands, but he also knows that Reynold is the only reason they've even been close in challenges. Reynold isn't buying it and Matt says he doesn't need to - he can just play his Idol if he thinks he'll get the votes. Reynold interviews the most obvious information of all - he can play the Idol and stay safe, but if he plays the Idol and they vote for Laura, he's wasted his Idol. Wow, thanks for stating the obvious, Mr. Awesome.

Laura, Julia, and Sherri sit in the shelter and talk about possibly splitting the vote again. Laura interviews that she knows that Reynold and Eddie are throwing her name around, and she knows they think she sucks at challenges. Because she does. Matt and Sherri have a strategy talk and Matt reveals that they want to get rid of Laura. Sherri tries to talk him out of it by pointing out that they haven't won any challenges WITH Reynold and Eddie either, and then she interviews that she doesn't want to see her alliance fall apart and she's also uncomfortable with the idea of picking off the weak, since she's not as strong as any of the guys.

Sherri asks Julia if she's okay with the idea of them being the last two girls standing, knowing that the guys are voting to keep the strong players. Meanwhile, Laura asks Michael how they're voting and Michael sort of dodges the question and says maybe they should do a boys/girls split vote like last time. Michael reiterates the choice in an interview: keep the tribe strong for challenges, or keep their alliance strong, and he doesn't think there's a right or wrong answer. Hmm. I still think it's dumb to keep around a guy who's great at challenges and also has an Idol, in the long term.

By Kim

Tribal Council. Probst asks Matt how it feels to have Shamar gone, and Matt says that they miss him in the challenges. Probst asks Sherri if she misses Shamar. Sherri thinks about it for a while and says she misses him being part of their alliance. Reynold says that there's a strong alliance of five, and they don't want to splinter, but he thinks they won't win any challenges without him and Eddie. Laura says that Reynold has a good point but tonight's vote is about whether they prioritize physical strength or loyalty. Probst asks how she would make a case for herself, and Laura says that she hopes they know each other well enough now to trust one another. Reynold shakes his head and says they're all talking about trust, but they are going to trust one another and keep losing challenges.

Probst points out that Reynold almost single-handedly brought their team back today, and Sherri points out that they're still losing. Probst explicates that she's saying that they shouldn't break up their alliance since there's no guarantee that keeping Reynold and Eddie will equal wins. That's exactly my point. Eddie says that if they get rid of the weakest person and start winning, they don't have to come back to Tribal. Okay, but that's still predicated on winning. Eddie thinks Sherri and Laura are the weaker players, with Laura being the weakest.

Laura points out that the tribe will probably be jumbled up soon, and Eddie and Reynold probably wouldn't be loyal to their alliance in the future. Eddie admits that he's been screwed over by his tribe, but also vows that if he doesn't get voted out, his attitude will change.

Everyone votes, and then Reynold plays his Idol. I bet now they are wishing they voted him out. Although he's not as dangerous to keep around now that he doesn't have an Idol, I guess. The first two votes are for Laura (Reynold and Eddie) and the is for Reynold (from Laura). The vote is for Laura, and she bugs her eyes out in surprise. The vote is also for Laura, so she's history. If they don't win week's challenge, this could be a huge disaster. At least it will be interesting, I guess. It's been kind of blah so far. Anyway, looks like everyone except Laura voted for her, so at least they are sort of unified? Maybe?