The conceit this season, as you've probably heard, is that there are three tribes: Beauty, Brains, and Brawn. Not that the people in the non-Beauty tribes are a bunch of uggos, or the people in the non-Brawn tribe are a bunch of scrawny toothpicks. It remains to be seen if the non-Brains are dummies.
When the tribes converge on the beach, Probst explains their designations and then each tribe has to appoint a leader. The leader picks the weakest person in the tribe to…do something? They don't know why they are choosing the person. Maybe to go home? Maybe to switch tribes? It turns out that each person gets to go to their own tribe's camp early for reasons. This seems really convoluted. The three tribes thing is already a little confusing; do we really need an extra twist?
The outcast gets to choose between an extra bag of rice for the tribe or a clue to the Hidden Immunity Idol for themselves. Garrett from the Brains tribe chooses the clue and immediately starts looking. Trish from the Brawn tribe chooses the bag of rice like a dummy. Morgan from the Beauty tribe chooses the clue. Garrett finds the Idol. Morgan doesn't yet, but she does come up with a pretty good lie that she got to choose supplies for the tribe.
The Brawn Tribe is psyched that Trish got them an extra bag of rice, and they also welcome former NBA player Cliff Robertson. The Brains Tribe is annoyed by J'Tia, who barks orders at everyone.
At the Immunity Challenge, the tribes have to retrieve keys in order to unlock treasure chests, and then pull the heavy chests on a cart, then get the chests AND the cart through an obstacle. Then they have to reassemble the cart, and then open the chests to get puzzle pieces and assemble a puzzle. The Brain Tribe does poorly and Probst seems to relish taking every opportunity to denigrate the Brain Tribe about how poorly they are doing, and it's pretty gross. The Beauty Tribe finishes first, with Brawn second. So the Brains are going to Tribal Council.
The Brains discuss who to jettison. Some people want to get rid of J'Tia because she's bossy. Some people want to get rid of David because he's a threat. Garrett rallies the troops against David (partly as revenge for choosing him as the weakest, and partly just to get rid of a threat) and David goes home first.
With only five people left, the Brains tribe has split with the two guys, the two girls, and then Kass left as the swing vote. She verbally agrees to join up with the guys, but privately vows to keep her options open. Meanwhile, Tony on the Brawn tribe is already in full on paranoia and decides to build a spying spot into the tribe's shelter.
At the second Immunity Challenge, the tribe members must swim out and get some fish traps, then use the pieces inside to solve a puzzle. The Brain tribe gets back with quite a lead and J'Tia starts solving the puzzle. The Brawn tribe gets back second but Sarah finishes the puzzle first. The Beauty tribe is way behind but LJ quickly solves the puzzle and the Brain tribe completely blows their lead and it's all J'Tia's fault because she's terrible at puzzles.
The Brawn tribe gets a reward and Tony finds a Hidden Immunity Idol clue. He secretly goes searching and finds a Hidden Immunity Idol.
The Brains tribe all sit together and Garrett decides to announce that J'Tia should go home and then pretend that it's settled. Way to give her only ally, Tasha, time to scramble and get Kass on her side, dummy. Of course, it doesn't really matter what Tasha does because while she's trying to get people on her side, J'Tia decides to dump all of the rice in the fire. Then they go to Tribal Council and argue about whether or not it was a mistake to tell J'Tia she was going home. Garrett plays the victim and reveals too much information, then tries to backtrack. This tribe is a disaster. They send Garrett home, so I guess the women did get together after all, but J'Tia might kill them all in their sleep, so there's that.
As we see the typical shots of the newest batch of contestants being transported to their camps via boat and helicopter, Probst says in a voiceover that this season, they will be divided into three tribes based on their strengths. So first up is the Brains tribe, which has an average IQ of 130. That doesn't tell us that much; it could be one really smart person and then a bunch of semi-smart people and some dummies. That's leaving aside whether or not IQ is a good indicator of intelligence. Anyway, there's a dude named Spencer who claims to be a diabolical genius, although you'd think a genius might rethink that haircut and that 1998 ringer tee from Old Navy. There's a dude named David who is the President of the Miami Marlins and also quite wee. A woman named Kass is an undefeated attorney who hopes people will think she's an unassuming mom, and she's the only one I like on that tribe so far.
Then there's the Beauty tribe, as if everyone else on the show is a total uggo. Anyway, they all vow to use their looks to get what they want, because that generally works out well and when the pretty people band together, no one suspects a thing! Except that the really pretty people usually get voted out early and/or blindsided.
Then there's the Brawn tribe, which features former NBA star Cliff Robinson. A woman named Sarah is a police officer who does MMA and Tony is a police officer in Jersey City. I bet they will bond over being police officers!
Probst voiceovers that it's the ultimate challenge: Brawn vs. Brains vs. Beauty, and this will tell us which trait is most important. Will it? I don't think so. Because it's not like the Brains and Brawn members are ugly, or the Brawn and Beauty people are all stupid, or the Brains and Beauty people are weaklings. That's why these false delineations are useless. I think I liked it better when they just named the tribes randomly and didn't try to pretend like one trait defined a person. We'll see if it's turns out to be interesting, but I don't like the concept.
The three tribes converge on the beach and take note of the makeup of the other tribes. Probst welcomes them and explains how their tribes were formed. Once Probst explains the tribe names, they easily identify which tribe is which. He then instructs them to choose a leader. The Beauty tribe chooses LJ (who I'm guessing might be the oldest tribe member), the Brawn tribe chooses Sarah (MMA Cop) and the Brains tribe chooses David (Tiny Baseball Club Owner). There is much joking about why each person was chosen, until Probst says that each leader now has to choose the weakest tribe member. Yikes.
For Beauty, LJ chooses Morgan, and he explains in an interview that Morgan is hot while the other girls are just cute, and he doesn't trust hot girls. I would take offense to that, but Morgan is the type who says things like, "I use my looks to get men to do what I want" and "Other girls are jealous" so she's not part of the movement anyway, right? Sarah doesn't want to choose anyone, but she ultimately chooses Trish, an older woman who is nonetheless super buff. David makes a crack about how he's not wearing a suit (despite what Probst says) because his jacket and pants don't match, and then chooses Garrett. Probst wants to know why and David nerdily explains that he's thinking about the last two-thirds of the game. David interviews that Garrett is obviously smart, and he's also really fit, so he's a threat. Yeah, except that he's really fit and might help you nerds in physical challenges so why not keep him around until the merge? That's terrible reasoning. I thought he was supposed to be smart.
Probst tells the rejects, Morgan, Trish and Garrett, that they are not being eliminated now. Instead, they will get to fly to their camps early and will have to make a decision that will affect their tribemates. The rejects get to fly in a helicopter while everyone else has to walk. And yet it's not all sunshine and lollipops in the chopper since they are feeling isolated and rejected.
When Garrett arrives at the Brains camp, he reads a note that says he can either help his tribe by choosing a second bag of rice or help himself by choosing a clue to the Hidden Immunity Idol. Why would anyone pick the rice? That's hardly even a choice. Garrett agrees with me, and follows the clue to start hunting. Trish arrives at the Brawn camp and stupidly chooses the rice. Seriously? They will never know and if they do, they should understand the choice. Trish mentions a few times that she thinks she got chosen as the weakest because she's so skinny and she might have a little body dysmorphic disorder because she is certainly thin, but she also looks very strong. Over at the Beauty camp, Morgan admits that she will hold a grudge against LJ, and that she's going to take the clue and look for the Idol. She takes off down the beach, on the hunt.
Garrett follows the clues and ends up in a pool of water beneath a waterfall, searching around. He feels dumb as he struggles with the search, but finally he does find the Hidden Immunity Idol. He vows to do everything he can to get rid of David. I get why he'd be upset, but a true brain would realize that sometimes you need to keep your enemy around to get rid of a bigger threat to your game. He's already taking it personally when that's usually the worst reason to get rid of someone in this game.
Morgan is searching in a rock shelf, but she looks for so long that the rest of the tribe shows up. Because she's not a Brain, she has to work really hard to come up with a lie to tell her tribe about what she was doing. She tells everyone that she had to choose the stuff that they were actually given by production. That works in the moment, but I don't know how that will go over when they merge at some point and discover that all the tribes have what Morgan "chose." LJ says that he hates that Morgan is already walking around in her underwear, and he thinks she's too calm for someone who just got voted out. Well, she didn't get voted out. She got singled out, maybe. LJ shakes her hand and hopes she's not "a hot girl with a grudge." Brice the Fashion Plate decides to use the power of his purple pants to take advantage of Morgan's vulnerability and befriend her. Morgan agrees to hang with him for the time being, since the rest of the tribe seems to have split, with the other two guys hanging out and the other two girls hanging out.
The Beauty tribe works hard to gather materials and they manage to get fire started. They are all psyched that they're kicking butt even though everyone else probably thinks they're a bunch of idiots. This is like Probst's wet dream come true; it's just backing up his desire to cast a bunch of extremely good-looking people every year. All it really proves is that they happened to cast a bunch of people who were useful as well as good-looking.
Over on the Brawn tribe, Trish has no hard feelings about being chosen as the weakest and she gives a friendly greeting to her newly arrived tribemates. Trish tells everyone about the choice she was given. They all celebrate that she chose the rice, although Tony at least admits to the camera that he would have taken the clue. They split up and start building shelter. As they chop wood, Woo admits that he knows who Cliff is, and he was a favorite player growing up. I'm glad Cliff isn't trying to keep it a secret. That always annoys me because after the first week or so, it never seems to matter.
Sarah and Tony head off to try to start fire and Sarah quietly asks Tony if he's a cop, because he has the look. Tony lies that he's in construction and roofing. Why lie about that? It just seems like a dumb lie to tell and one that will be easy to slip up, which will only annoy and/or offend your teammates later. Too much risk, not enough reward. Sarah admits to him that she's a cop, and she interviews that she interrogates people every day and she knows when people are lying, so she doesn't trust Tony and wants him out.
When the Brains tribe shows up to greet Garrett, he doesn't even really come up with a good excuse for the choice he had to make, and none of them really question it. He just makes it out like he had the chance to explore the area, and he found a waterfall. J'Tia announces that she's a nuclear engineer, so she has a plan to build a shelter. She starts barking out orders and since no one else seems to have a plan, they all hop to. But after doing some pretty back-breaking labor and following J'Tia's instructions (note that J'Tia isn't doing any of the work herself), they realize that her plan isn't perfect and start pointing out the flaws. David and Kass have a side conversation about how J'Tia is digging her own grave, and they're just going to let her. J'Tia keeps nagging everyone else to do work while she stands around, and Tasha decides to test out the base of the structure. And the whole thing collapses under her weight. Sad trombone.
Time for the first Immunity Challenge! They have to move a cart through an obstacle course and collect three giant chests. Then they will have to disassemble the cart to get it (and the chests) through a gate, then reassemble it and take it to the finish line. Once there, two tribe members will open the chests and use the pieces inside to complete a puzzle. The winning tribe gets a fire-making kit, the second place tribe gets flint and the third place tribe gets to vote someone out at Tribal Council. Survivors ready?
All three tribes remain pretty close through the obstacle course segment, with the Brains tribe in last place because every time they unlock a chest, they forget to remove the chains that hold it onto the platform before trying to move it. The Brawn tribe works efficiently to get their cart taken apart, moved and reassembled, while the Brains tribe… doesn't. J'Tia is once again barking out orders without actually doing much work herself.
The Brains tribe runs into a couple of problems. One is that they can't figure out that there aren't any holes in the gate big enough to put the chests through upright, and they'll have to turn them on their sides. If even one person had glanced at the other two tribes a few times, that would have been clear. I mean, the one advantage of being in last place is that you can watch and see what worked for the others, right? The other problem is that they drop the chests through the wall, presumably because they don't have enough strong people to have a few on each side of the wall, and the chests pop open and puzzle pieces spill everywhere. This doesn't seem like a huge problem -- I mean, they've got plenty of people with nothing to do but pick up pieces -- but Probst acts like the pieces are lost forever.
The Brawn tribe starts working on the puzzle, and the Beauty tribe isn't too far behind. The Brains tribe is finally through the wall and working on reassembling their cart, but Probst is having a little too much fun taunting them about how they certainly aren't using their brain power now, and maybe their brains have evaporated. Did someone get picked on in high school, Jeffy? You'd think your millions of dollars would help you sleep at night, and you wouldn't have to take out your issues on these hapless contestants.
As the Brawn and Beauty tribes complete the first of four puzzle sections, the Brains tribe finally gets their cart together and heads toward what looks to me as the most difficult section of the course: it's bumpy terrain and you have to get the cart and chests through the whole thing. Of course, their cart starts falling apart and Probst says this is the worst first-challenge performance in the history of the show. That's helping. They finally get to the puzzle, and Kass and Tasha go to work, but the other two tribes are already three-fourths of the way done. Beauty finishes up first, with Brawn right behind them. The Brains tribe was about halfway done. It's not the puzzle-makers' fault. I don't know whose fault it is; they didn't work together well, but they also just didn't have enough people to muscle that cart through the obstacles.
Back at camp, the Brains tribe has a post-mortem on the challenge and what they could have done better, but Tasha interviews that it really just came down to their tribe not working together well.
Kass and David have another little pow wow on the way back from getting water. Kass notes that they performed at the challenge the same way they've been performing at camp for the last few days: no execution. She adds that she was supposed to be handling keys, but then J'Tia grabbed the first key and took over. David wants to move on to discuss the vote before they get back to camp. David still wants to get rid of Garrett, because despite being the biggest guy on the tribe, he didn't contribute much in the challenge and he's a threat to David's game. Again, David is looking too far ahead. You've got plenty of time to get rid of him; even if he's a klutz, he's going to contribute more than J'Tia. Kass agrees with me, and tells David that she wants J'Tia gone. Kass interviews that Garrett is a workhorse around camp, while J'Tia hasn't contributed anything but disharmony.
So I'm thinking Kass is a good strategist and then she pulls the bonehead move of the century: when J'Tia asks who Kass wants to get rid of, Kass says she wants to vote out J'Tia, because she orders them around and then doesn't do any work herself. J'Tia manages to keep her temper in check (I wouldn't) and says that she did contribute in the challenge. Kass retorts that she should've, since she did nothing but rest of three days. There's not much else to say after that except an exchange of, "I guess you're entitled to your opinion" and "I'm just being honest" and all that jazz. J'Tia wins me back a little bit in an interview when she sheds a few tears and says that Kass hurt her feelings and J'Tia just thought she was being motivating but clearly it didn't come off that way. She seems sincere; it just seems like this tribe is made up of a bunch of people with no social skills.
Tasha finds J'Tia sitting alone and asks what's going on. J'Tia relates her encounter with Kass, and Tasha admits that J'Tia might have rubbed some people the wrong way. Garrett comes upon them and tells J'Tia that she's fine, and they should band together and get rid of David. Garrett interviews that he does think J'Tia is bossy, but David is more of a threat to him since he wants Garrett out. Garrett says he'll talk to Spencer about voting with them.
Garrett approaches Spencer, who isn't averse to voting out David, but he's worried that David has a Hidden Immunity Idol and thinks it's weird that they haven't seen a clue. Garrett doesn't reveal that there WAS a clue, and he found the Idol, understandably. Spencer wants to vote out J'Tia, because he's pretty sure she doesn't have an Idol since she's done nothing but sit around camp and yell at people. Garrett interviews that now he's nervous about his David power play since he isn't sure he has four votes. Here's what Garrett should do. Pretend to accept that David might have an Idol. Pretend like they knew it and are going to try to flush it out. Tell Spencer, J'Tia and Tasha to vote for David along with him, knowing that David and Kass will vote for J'Tia. Tell Spencer that if David does have the Idol, he'll have to play it and then J'Tia goes home. And they can tell David that it's nothing personal, but they wanted to flush out his Idol. Why is this a problem? David already hates Garrett. Why not make a move now?
Tribal Council. Before they can even get started, Garrett does a full body shakedown because there's a spider crawling on him. Once he settles in, J'Tia doesn't even wait for Probst to ask her and instead volunteers that people are considering voting her out. J'Tia explains that she's an engineer and she thought she'd be helpful and engineer the shelter, but she understands that people didn't like her being bossy and plus her shelter fell down. Kass pats her leg for comfort so I guess they've kissed and made up.
David confirms that J'Tia's plan was terrible and J'Tia is like, "Hold up!" Probst asks why she's getting offended now, when David's basically repeating what she herself admitted. J'Tia says that she can admit that her plan failed, but she was really excited about it. That said, she claims that she's open to suggestion and she wants them to succeed as a tribe.
It's raining so hard that everyone's hair is getting wet even though they're presumably underneath a shelter of some sort. Even Probst is wilting. Anyway, he wants to talk about David choosing Garrett as the weakest player. David says he made a snap decision and Garrett says it sucked to be the outcast so early on. David says that Garrett's safe tonight, and Probst asks J'Tia if it might be her instead. J'Tia says it could, but that they need to think about their tribe right now, not the endgame and she's loyal to her current tribe, so they should get rid of David instead. David thinks she's just scrambling because she's going home. Spencer knows this vote will establish how their tribe will move forward, so they have to vote for tribal harmony and trust. Sure sounds like he's voting out J'Tia, doesn't it? Time to vote.
Man, as they wait for Probst to tally the votes, they are all just soaking wet. I don't remember seeing a Tribal Council where they got this wet DURING the ceremony. David gets four votes and J'Tia gets two (David and Kass, I'm assuming). And there's no Redemption Island this season, so he's gone, baby, gone. So it's raining this hard and they still don't have a working shelter? In his exit interview, David says that his tribe doesn't have it together… or they do, and somehow organized against him.
The morning on the Brains tribe, the sun is out and J'Tia is ready to start a fire with the flint they got at Tribal. Garrett lounges in an interview, looking like a Playgirl layout, and says that he's not having fun because it's a lot of work and he's starving. Has he seen this show before? Why did he think it would be fun? Was he expecting pickup volleyball games on the beach? He's super whiny as he says he doesn't want to have to survive in the wilderness, and that wasn't how he wanted to play the game. He's an idiot.
Garrett and Spencer discuss how Tribal Council went well, because Kass was at odds with J'Tia, so they can just exploit that split. Garrett and Spencer plan to vote out either Tasha or J'Tia at the Tribal Council, and want to approach Kass about working with them, although Garrett is also thinking about taking out Kass. So he hates ladies? Kass interviews that she's realized that she's the swing vote now, because Garrett and Spencer are together and J'Tia and Tasha are together. Garrett and Spencer want a final three pact with Kass and they do a weird three-way handshake. Kass interviews that she's telling them she'll vote with them, but she really intends on just floating and seeing who offers the better deal. She's adopting the Sandra motto: "Anyone but me."
Hey, what are the other tribes getting up to? Cliff and Woo on the Brawn tribe are going fishing in the boat. Cliff jokes that Woo is his wingman, the Pippen to his Jordan. Except then they tip the boat and both fall in the water. They paddle back and Cliff gets Tony to help him lift one end of the boat to get the water out. Sarah interviews that Cliff is really likable, and Tony interviews that Lindsay, Sarah and Woo all seem to worship Cliff, so Tony's just keeping an eye out.
Over on the Beauty tribe, they're playing beach games, like bowling with coconuts. Brice interviews that he's trying to take the measure of his tribe, and he's noting who is just flirting (Alexis), and who is just really, really dumb (Jefra). He notes that Jeremiah seems to be into his girl Morgan, so he approaches both of them about an alliance, since he thinks they're "the brains of this operation." Morgan is the brains? That's a scary thought. Jeremiah and Morgan are into the alliance, though.
Things are not all rosy over on the Brawn tribe. Trisha gathers wood and then tells Lindsay that there's more wood to grab. Lindsay, who was just standing there doing nothing, asks why Trisha is singling her out. I don't know why Trisha doesn't just say, "Because you're not doing anything." Instead she says they all just need to chip in and walks off. Lindsay takes the opportunity to make fun of "Malnu-Trisha" (okay, that's not bad). Trisha is equally annoyed with Lindsay and her fawning all over Cliff with the other younger tribe members. Trisha and Tony band together in their shared annoyance. Trisha reminds me of Boston comic Sue Costello, except less funny.
Meanwhile, Tony's building the shelter apparently all by himself? And he's building in a secret hideaway that only he will know about where he can spy on the others. Does he really think that no one will look at the shelter at any point? And wonder why there's a secret room in the back? Tony is hilarious. He interviews that Cliff is his main target, because he's the lion of the pride, and he needs to be killed so that Tony can then take out the cubs. It's not a bad strategy except that none of the cubs are going to vote out Cliff, so…
Immunity Challenge! The tribes have to swim out to a bamboo cage in the water to retrieve some fish traps full of puzzle pieces. Then one tribe members uses the pieces to solve a puzzle. The winning tribe wins a deluxe fishing kit, the second place tribe gets a mediocre fishing kit and the losers go to Tribal Council.
They all start swimming. The Brawn tribe gets everyone into the cage first, but it's fairly close. Then they have to untie ropes to release the front gate. Brawn and Brains do that first. Then they have to get the fish traps out and pull them to shore; they're quite heavy. Garrett seems to single-handedly get two to the beach by himself and the Brains tribe reaches the beach first. Brawn is second, with Beauty pretty far behind.
J'Tia is doing the puzzle for her tribe, with Sarah for Brawn and Beauty is still in the water. Sarah and Tony both got cut during the challenge and are bleeding all over. Once Sarah gets the first piece into the puzzle, it all seems to fall into place for her and she flies through the puzzle. Even she seems pretty amazed when she finishes first. She's done and J'Tia still only has one piece in there. LJ starts doing the puzzle for the Beauty tribe and he also flies through it once he gets started. He finishes the tribe and J'Tia only had two out of eight pieces in there. What in the hell happened there? I cannot figure it out. Did she throw it? Is she just really bad at puzzles? What went wrong? It starts raining pretty hard as the top two tribes grab their Immunity idols and rewards and head back to camp.
Once they return to camp, Tony's insane paranoia and vigilance pays off as he is apparently the only one who thinks there might be a Hidden Immunity Idol clue in the reward basket. He starts going through it and quickly finds a clue. He reads it for the camera and realizes that it's talking about the pond behind their camp. So he springs off to the pond, feels around below the water for a few minutes and comes up with the Hidden Immunity Idol. Man, I would not want to be blindly feeling around in a murky body of water, but I guess it worked out well for him. He vows that no one will know about the Idol, then puts it on and whisper-yells, "I'm King of the Jungle!" for the camera. He's like BFF with the cameraperson. I guess he's probably entertaining.
The Brains tribe returns to camp after the challenge, looking downtrodden. Garrett interviews that since J'Tia screwed up the challenge, it's her turn to go. As they all sit around, Garrett asks if everyone wants to have a hundred side conversations or if they can come up with a solution together. No one speaks, because no one wants to be the first one to stake a claim. Garrett is hoping that he can get Kass to state her loyalties publicly, because he doesn't want to play his Idol if he doesn't have to. Garrett asks Kass directly and instead of just saying that she's open to hearing arguments for anyone, she says she wants to vote J'Tia because she blew the challenge. Spencer agrees and asks if they are having an open forum right now. Garrett wants to and also piles on J'Tia, who hasn't said much in her own defense.
Tasha is the only one to say that she's not going to pile on, and she'd rather talk to people individually and see which way the wind blows. It makes sense. Garrett says he doesn't want to do that so they all just… go along with it? Tasha interviews that she looked forward to playing Survivor, and it seems like her tribemates are acting like they're above scheming and backstabbing. No one is above scheming and backstabbing, Tasha. Maybe Jesus. And even then, don't you think once in a while, he pulled Mary Magdalene aside and was like, "Can you believe what Judas wore to the Last Supper? I mean, 100 BC Me called and it wants it's robe back, am I right?" (Sorry not sorry.)
Tasha says she only needs to talk to a few people and Garret whines that he doesn't want to do it that way. Tasha loses her cool and tells Garrett that he should quite then, if he doesn't want to play the game that way. Because that IS the game. She should just point out that he doesn't want to play that way because it benefits him right now; if he were in J'Tia's shoes, he would absolutely be working backchannels because it would benefit him. Tasha interviews that Garrett just sits around and complains, and if he doesn't want to play the game the way it should be played, he need to get out. You can tell she wanted to say get the FUCK out and held back; I dig her.
After the break, J'Tia gives her side of things in an interview: her tribe sat her down and told her publicly that she had to go, and she wonders what about her personality made them think that was cool. Tasha is still frustrated because she thinks Garrett isn't thinking strategically and J'Tia jokes that once she's gone, they'll win every challenge and never have to go to Tribal Council again. The first real sign that Garrett is in trouble comes when Spencer, his ally, interviews that Garrett is an idiot for thinking it would be a good idea to have an open forum and tell J'Tia she's leaving when they could have just blindsided her.
Tasha goes down to the water and Kass joins her. Tasha quickly makes the case that they can flip the game right now, because Garrett and Spencer are obviously one and two in that alliance, so Tasha and Kass can be at the bottom on that side, or go their own way and be top dogs.
Garrett finally realizes that Tasha and Kass are alone on the beach, so he and Spencer head down to make sure they're not conspiring, but that means that J'Tia is alone in the shelter. Kass points out that she could be sabotaging the camp, since she's obviously pissed off. Garrett says he'd rather the four of them stick together (which shows a lack of trust.) So while they're gone, J'Tia dumps their entire bag of rice into the fire. What. The. Everloving. Fuck? That is just dumb. Either she's going home, in which case it's just a dick move, or she's staying, in which case it's really idiotic because now she has no food either. Plus, if she thinks she's leaving, she should wait and do it right before they go to Tribal Council so that they discover it only when they get back without her. She interviews that they're treating her like a mental patient, so she decided to do something crazy. It's not so much crazy as just really stupid.
When they all get back to the camp, Kass immediately notices all the rice in the fire, but J'Tia's not talking. No one can really believe that J'Tia poured ALL of the rice on the fire, but that's exactly what she did. They're so shocked that they don't even react, really. J'Tia walks off silently. Garrett whines that he wanted them to all stay together in the camp, which is useful NOW. Kass interviews that she wants to see how they determined who should be on the Brains tribe. Kass adds that Tasha had pretty much convinced her to vote with the girls, but she doesn't want to align with someone who would throw their rice on the fire. J'Tia might have blown it.
Tribal Council. Everyone is still shocked and pissed, and Probst notices and asks what's up. Spencer says that they had an "open forum discussion" after the challenge about their vote, which is not the typical Survivor move. Tasha adds that she wanted to talk to Garrett and Spencer alone, but Garrett wanted a group discussion, and Garrett adds that he was hoping to quell Kass's fears and let her know they were all on the same side. J'Tia admits that she was pissed at Garrett after he said he was going to vote her out, so she dumped the rice in the fire. Probst is stunned; what can you say? Tasha adds that it's why she wanted to keep the discussion private, because she knew J'Tia was volatile. If you know she's that crazy, why align with her? She's unpredictable. How can you trust her? That's what I don't get. Unless Tasha feels like she can control J'Tia.
Probst feels the need (perhaps rightfully so) to give the tribe a lesson in Survivor strategy, namely that blindsides aren't fun, but they are effective and that's why so many people try them. J'Tia feels like she was verbally spanked in front of her tribe, and Garrett thinks she's trying to make him look bad. J'Tia refrains from telling Garrett he's just reaping what he sowed.
Probst wants to know what Kass thinks. She blames Garrett for the rice dumping. Look, I get that Garrett is annoying, but that is hardly his fault. Kass is mad that he was so paranoid that he had to shadow her and Tasha instead of babysitting J'Tia. That is some seriously misplaced blame, but if it leads to Garrett going home, fine.
Tasha adds that her game is being stifled and Garrett says alliance instead of tribe, which is telling. Probst asks Kass what she thinks about this alliance and Kass says she's not in it. Garrett calls her out and reminds her of the alliance with him and Spencer, and Tasha and J'Tia make a big show of pretending to be surprised. Probst recaps: Garrett, Spencer and Kass are in an alliance with Tasha and J'Tia in danger and J'Tia probably going home. Garrett says that's not how he sees it and Probst is like, "Dude, I got all this from what you just said." Spencer backs Probst up, and Garrett now claims that Kass came to him and Spencer and suggested breaking up the J'Tia/Tasha alliance, so they agreed. And when J'Tia fucked up the puzzle, the choice was clear.
Kass says that Garrett isn't telling the truth and she doesn't trust anyone at this point. Tasha thinks Kass can trust her, because by Garrett's own admission, she's not part of his alliance. Garrett just wants to get rid of J'Tia and then the "the four of [them] are equal." Tasha asks which four he means, and Garrett isn't even sure how to respond because he's said so many different things. Dude, you're on record as wanting J'Tia out; you said it to J'Tia's face. No harm in saying it again now. Probst doesn't know what's going to happen, but it's time to vote.
Probst tallies the votes and starts revealing. There are two votes for J'Tia (from Garrett and Spencer) and two votes for Garrett (from J'Tia and Tasha) and the final vote is for… Garrett. He is bumfuzzled. He had an Idol! He didn't even bring his bag to Tribal Council! Now that's a blindside. And also, he's a dummy. Spencer asides, "Who wants to welcome me to the bottom?" and Kass snarks, "It's not so bad." Probst tells them that they are the oddest tribe he's ever encountered, but at least it seems like they're starting to learn how the game is played. Yeah, you can suck at challenges and throw out all the rice and still not get voted out!