Phillip worries about how close Corinne is getting to Michael and wants to get rid of her before the merge, although Cochran points out that it would look bad if they merged with the other Favorites and had already turned on one of their own.
The Reward Challenge is similar to both ones they've done in the past and my nightmare drill from my high school softball days. Both teams start on opposite sides of a track with each person carrying weight. They have to run around and try to catch the other team, and each person can hand off weight to someone else on his or her team if needed.
Before the challenge, Phillip bragged about how he was the strongest on his team, and yet he is the anchor on his team. He refuses to do anything but walk, and claims it's because the girls are getting tired and also because he will have to take everyone else's weight and he can't shoot his wad early. Dawn opts out fairly early, and then just as Gota is catching up, Cochran and Julia duck out. Phillip falls down, not that it matters, because Gota was right on their tail, and they quickly lose the challenge. Gota gets to have a feast of cookies and brownies and coffee drinks.
Phillip continues to court Julia to do his bidding, while the rest of Phillip's tribe keeps talking about how annoying he's getting. Then Phillip turns on Julia because she talks to Dawn about her alliance with Phillip, which he told her not to do. Meanwhile, Malcolm decides to make an alliance of the alpha males (him, Erik, Reynold, and Eddie). He talks to Reynold about it, and Mr. Loose Lips Reynold tells Malcolm that he has the Idol. Malcolm wisely doesn't reciprocate.
The Immunity Challenge involves three people paddling a boat out, diving down, releasing a statue and bringing it back to shore. Then three other people have to use grappling hooks to retrieve three sets of keys and use them to raise their statue to the top of a tower.
The tribes exchange the lead a few times during the water portion of the challenge, with Gota getting to shore first. Then Reynold becomes a grapple hook savant and snags all of the keyrings really quickly. Phillip handles the grapple hook for his tribe but honestly, I don't know that anyone could have beat Reynold. He was on fire, and as a result, Gota wins yet again.
After the Challenge, Phillip tells Cochran that he threw it because he wants to get rid of Julia, although Cochran is pretty sure that Phillip is full of shit. They decide to split the votes in case Michael or Julia has the Idol. Corinne is against splitting the votes because she doesn't want to jeopardize her relationship with Michael.
Corinne obviously lost that argument because the first vote is a tie between Michael and Julia. On the revote, everyone votes for Julia, and she's voted out. She might be great in real life but she was dull as dirt on the show, so I'm not sorry to see her go.
After Tribal, Bikal returns to camp. Julia says that she nearly wet herself (in fear, presumably) and Corinne apologizes for voting out Matt, since he was such a good guy. Phillip adds that they had to make a choice, and they chose to keep Michael and Julia. Michael interviews that, with Matt gone, he's totally on his own, so he's going to try to build trust and friendship with the Favorites.
Corinne and Michael have a quick talk in the shelter. They talk about how much they enjoy their mini-alliance. I do wonder how much Michael really likes Corinne and how much he realizes that she's his in with the Favorites. Corinne interviews that she will sacrifice someone from her own alliance to save Michael, and she plans to fight to keep him around. Maybe she should worry more about herself? And let Michael take care of himself? Corinne tells Michael that he just needs to survive to the merge.
Phillip watches this whole conversation and then interviews that Corinne keeps going and having these conversations with non-alliance members and then not disclosing what was said to her alliance. Look, I get that it's important to keep your alliance tight but Phillip is sounding, well, crazy. How dare she talk to people? And then not immediately run and tell him? Anyway, Phillip pulls Cochran aside and says that he wants Corinne gone. . Before the merge. Cochran says that he's worried about what the rest of their alliance will think if they betray an alliance member before the merge. Phillip just whisper-yells, "I don't trust that woman" and walks off. Cochran totally gives the camera a Jim Halpert stare.
The morning, Dawn gets tree mail about the Reward Challenge and it says something about "the strong will carry the weak." Cochran snarks that he definitely fits into the weak category and Julia adds that they lack some of the strength category. Phillip tells everyone that he's the strongest one out there when it comes to upper body strength because he's a power lifter, and it might not make him look beefy, but he's super strong. Everyone else is just like, "Okay, Grandpa." I mean, Phillip has been surprisingly effective in challenges, but I don't know that he could beat someone like Reynold or Eddie or maybe even Malcolm in a strength challenge.
So then Phillip challenges Cochran to an arm-wrestling match, and makes Cochran put all of his weight on Phillip's hand and still can't get it to the ground. And the whole time, Phillip is babbling about his arm-wrestling strategy like who has an arm-wrestling strategy? Who even thinks about arm wrestling enough to have a strategy? The only arm-wrestling strategy I would respect would be turning your hat around backwards like Stallone in Over the Top. Anyway, Phillip's all puffed up about his prowess and ready for the Reward Challenge. I'm sure he will prevail. Cochran seems pleased to have helped Phillip get even more confidence. I don't know about you guys, but I'm a little tired of the Phillip show. I like watching the others be amused by his idiocy, but lately it seems like he just pisses them off, and that's not as fun.
The two tribes report for the Reward Challenge. Each tribe will be roped together and each tribe member has to carry weight. They will run around an oval track in the water until one tribe catches the other one. If needed, a tribe member can give their weight to someone else and drop out. I don't know why Bikal wouldn't just immediately give all their weight to say, Phillip, Corinne and maybe Michael and let them go for it. Three people, even with extra weight, are going to be able to move way faster than six. Plus, there's no way Bikal is winning on endurance over the youngsters, so they should just all out sprint and hope it pays off in the first minute. Also, we used to do this drill during softball practice, running around the bases, and it was hell for a slow runner like me. It was always me and the other fat girl just running and running. I think our coach hated fat people. Anyway. She wore bike shorts with nothing over them so who wins in life?
Probst tells them the Reward, which is a trip to a coffee bar with all manner of sweet treats, like brownies and cookies. Brenda sits out for Gota and the tribes take a minute to strategize. Malcolm tells his tribe that they have more endurance and strength, so they should just try to stay even until the other tribe falters. Ah, the lions hunting gazelles strategy. Works for me. Phillip doesn't want to be in the back because then he'll be stuck in the back? There's no rule that you can't pass the person in front of you, right? They don't have to stay in order? I mean, it makes sense to have a fast person in front. Is Phillip the fastest?
So the two tribes take up their positions. Bikal has Phillip in front and Julia in the back with everyone else somewhere in the middle. Gota has Erik in front, Malcolm second and Reynold in back. They start out trotting but Phillip quickly tells his tribe to walk and Gota makes a slight gain, although Malcolm tells everyone to take it slow. Malcolm is clearly the leader of his tribe. Probst comments that Bikal has their oldest guy in front while Gota has "arguably their fittest guy" in the front. Erik? Fittest? He might have the most endurance. He looks like a long-distance runner. I don't know if that means he's the most fit, though. Maybe he runs marathons, what do I know?
Phillip's tribe keeps asking if they can start running as Gota edges closer and closer, but Phillip keeps making excuses. He says that he thinks the girls will get tired more quickly, and then finally snaps that he knows he's going to have to take on extra weight, and he doesn't want to blow his wad, so to speak. Okay, but does he understand that it won't matter how tired they get or who takes on extra weight if Gota catches them shortly? Michael realizes that Phillip is lagging and he tries to take up the slack; he actually passes Phillip and encourages the others to run. Probst can't stop yapping about how much Bikal's strategy sucks.
Dawn opts out of the challenge and Corinne takes her weight. Malcolm gets his tribe to run and they nearly catch up. Julia and Cochran clip out and that allows Bikal to regain a small, small lead, and it doesn't hurt that Andrea falls down for Gota. But then Phillip falls and the inevitable happens; Erik taps Phillip on the back and Gota wins reward. Gota celebrates, and Dawn tries to console her tribe by telling them that they didn't even want that reward because it's going to give everyone on Gota diarrhea. I know, when times are sad, I like to console myself by thinking of my tormentors having diarrhea. It's a time-honored tradition.
Gota heads to their reward. Andrea says that she wants to have fun times with the former Fans so that when she votes them out, they will be kind to her from the jury. Heh. Reynold is yelling about "spring break" and luxuriating in robust abundance. Isn't he like 30? Who is he kidding? Malcolm gets all hopped up on sugar and goes around kissing everyone. Malcolm interviews that his tribe seems happy, but he's also thinking about the merge and how no one will want to keep him around since he's a strong challenge competitor. So he's smiling now, but he's also putting pieces into place for after the merge. In my favorite shot of the episode, Erik falls asleep on the floor of the shack with a cookie in his hand, like a toddler.
Back at camp, Phillip lists all of the reasons why they were never going to win that challenge. I don't disagree with him, which is why they should have done an all-out sprint at the beginning and at least gone down fighting. Phillip says something about going to Tribal tonight because he forgot that it was a Reward challenge and not Immunity. Oops. Corinne interviews that Phillip is "a tubby lunchbox" and "a mess" and she hopes everyone sees his true colors.
Corinne tells Cochran that she could have taken everyone's weight and won them the challenge. Really, Corinne? You could have carried 140 pounds and outrun a fitter and faster tribe? Come on. Cochran notes that Phillip has an inflated sense of his strength. Cochran interviews that Phillip and Corinne hate one another and he's not sure about the future of the Favorites on Bikal. He notes that Michael seems to be doing a great job getting closer to Corinne, and while he finds Julia vanilla and boring (and he goes on a long rant about how vanilla is way more interesting than Julia), Phillip and Julia have grown closer. Phillip gives Julia a lecture about how she could be a double agent but she needs to keep that information from everyone but him, and she agrees. Julia interviews that Phillip is a nutball but she doesn't have a lot of other options.
Malcolm and Reynold have a confab in the water. Malcolm interviews that it's easy to bring people together over a common problem, and the four alpha males (Malcolm, Eddie, Reynold, and...Erik? Really?) need to stick together. So Malcolm proposes this alliance to Reynold, who is so happy to be part of another Cool Kids Alliance that he practically gives Malcolm a handy right there in the ocean. Reynold interviews that he's going with his instincts and trusting Malcolm, and he knows this could be the decision that kills him in the game, but he's got to try something. Reynold asks if the tribe will tell Malcolm if they're planning to vote Reynold out, and Malcolm says that they will. So Reynold, totally unprompted, reveals that he has the Idol. What a dummy. He cannot keep a secret. Malcolm interviews that he can't wait to take control of the game, and he's so filled with glee that you know this plan is going to fail miserably.
Dawn asks Julia what she's thinking about the game. Julia spills everything about how Phillip wants to work with her, and Julia's going along with it for now. Dawn is surprised that Julia's actually playing the game, and tells Julia that she won't say anything to anyone about their conversation.
Dawn immediately runs and tells Phillip about the conversation, and Phillip is mad that Julia ratted him out so quickly. Phillip interviews that Julia has managed to "commit several foo pas [sic]". Anyway, Phillip is now convinced that Julia has to go. Look, the time Bikal votes, it's obviously going to be Julia or Michael and honestly, I give zero fucks about which one goes. They're both boring.
Immunity Challenge. Three tribe members paddle a boat out to a platform and dive down to untie and retrieve a giant statue. Then three other tribe members toss grappling hooks in the sand to retrieve five keyrings, and then use the keys to open locks, raise the statue, and raise the tribe flag to win.
Gota gets a fast start and an early lead, but just before they reach the platform, they go off course and Bikal catches up. All three people from Gota (Brenda, Erik, and Eddie) jump in the water, while for Bikal, Corinne stays in the boat while Dawn and Michael jump in. The difference is negligible.
One big difference that I just noticed: when Gota's boat returned to shore, Malcolm and Reynold ran out and helped pull the boat in and carry the statue up to the shore. When Bikal returned, their tribemates just stood around like dummies and made the exhausted paddlers do all the work. I don't know if that's a sign of bad teamwork or what, but it does seem like a symbol. Anyway, Reynold's bizarre tossing juju continues and he retrieves all of the keys in like ten seconds. Phillip does all the tossing for his tribe and he does make a good run at it, but it's honestly never that close. Gota wins immunity yet again.
A downtrodden Bikal returns to camp, and as they all sit around moping, Phillip whispers to Cochran that he has a confession. They head off into the jungle to discuss, and here's the big confession: Phillip claims that he threw the challenge so that they could get rid of Julia. Cochran interviews that he knows its complete crap, and that if Phillip succeeded with a grappling hook, they'd never hear the end of it. Phillip continues to babble on about lions and rivals and Cochran manages to keep a straight face but I don't know how. Anyway, they're planning on splitting their vote and getting rid of Julia.
Cochran, Dawn, Corinne, and Phillip sit in the shelter and discuss their plan. Okay, if I'm Julia or Michael? Those four don't get left alone to strategize. I'm on them like a fly on shit. Anyway, they talk about splitting the vote between Julia and Michael to flush out any Idols. Corinne thinks splitting the vote is dumb, and no one understands why she cares, since they're voting out Julia anyway. Corinne explains that she thinks it will cause Michael to distrust them when they need him on their side going into the merge. I don't know why everyone is so concerned with adding people onto this already huge alliance. Corinne interviews that she's not worried about flushing out an Idol because she already knows that she and Malcolm have it. I wonder if Malcolm considers Corinne co-owner still?
Phillip says he doesn't care about hurting Michael's feelings because he doesn't need him in his alliance. Corinne and Dawn point out that they might, at some point. Phillip says he also might not and things start to get a tiny bit heated, so Phillip stands to end the conversation. Corinne tells him to stop yelling at her. Wow, was he not yelling at her. Anyway, Corinne is a dummy because she doesn't get why the others don't give a shit about Michael and why they're worried about Idols. Phillip is a dummy because he's doing everything he can to piss off his own alliance. They're both dummies.
Phillip interviews that Corinne is more interested in a show of unity than maintaining her alliance, and Phillip thinks that's selfish. He tells Dawn and Cochran that the three of them are the core alliance and Corinne is on the outs. Then Phillip interviews that he played with Boston Rob, and he knows what "BR would do." First of all, his first name is not Boston, so don't call him that. Second, BR wouldn't ditch one of his own alliance members by being prickly and starting arguments. He'd smile and agree and then stab them in the back. Come on, Phillip. Corinne walks up and wants to talk about it and Phillip starts giving her shit about interrupting his conversation with Dawn and Cochran and then they argue about whether or not he's rude. Corinne leaves and Phillip says that he doesn't like that Corinne is so close to Michael and putting him ahead of her alliance. Dawn and Cochran are just like, "Okay. Whatever." I mean, neither of them cares who gets voted off. They just want to make it to the merge.
Tribal Council. Probst asks Michael if morale is low at camp, and Michael says it is, and that brings out tension. Probst asks Julia what the tension is about, and Julia says that everyone is thinking past just the current Tribal Council. Probst asks Corinne if the tension among the Favorites is about whether to keep Michael or Julia, and Corinne agrees. Phillip says that he and Corinne have butted heads but they have the same end goal, so it will work out, and Dawn agrees. Corinne stays silent.
Probst wants to talk about the challenge, and points out that Phillip put himself in the clutch role and failed. Phillip babbles something that's nonsensical as usual. I tried to summarize it and he really says nothing most of the time. Probst asks Michael about his strategy, and Michael says that he's been trying to get people to trust him and work with him heading into the merge. Probst asks if Corinne's bond with Michael could hurt him, and Cochran agrees that any pairing is a cause for concern. Corinne pipes up that she barely knows Michael. Michael? Who's Michael? That guy with the glasses? Oh, is he gay? Who knew? Zip it, Corinne. You haven't stopped talking about how much you love "a gay" for two episodes now. You can't backpedal at this point.
Michael says that he just wants to get to the vote. Julia mumbles something boring about her game strategy. She has a game strategy? I haven't seen much strategy beyond, "Sit there and nod and agree with whatever anyone else tells you." They vote.
Probst tallies the votes and no one plays an Idol because no one on this tribe has one in his or her possession. He reads the votes, which come out to a three-three tie between Michael and Julia. Wow, Michael and Julia totally turned on one another. Anyway, the four Favorites have to revote, and this time they all vote for Julia. She's done. Boooo-ring. God, I hope things get more interesting soon.