On the Brains tribe, the women are vowing to stick together so Spencer is the odd man out. Meanwhile, on the Brawn tribe, Tony finally admits to Sarah that he's also a cop and they decide to align. Tony uses her new loyalty to feed her some bullshit about other tribemates being out to get her.
Everyone is miserable because the weather is wet and windy and they just can't ever get dry. LJ remembers that Morgan was poking around a nearby reef when they all arrived at camp, so he decides to investigate the area and finds the Hidden Immunity Idol.
The Brains tribe gets their treemail and learns that it will be a physical challenge. J'Tia immediately says that she needs to eat rice and everyone is like, "Are you serious with this? Did you forget that you dumped all of our rice?" Tasha wants to practice their water scooping technique, but no one else does. She convinces them to do so, even though they don't really know what the challenge will entail. I guess it can't hurt. At least it makes them feel like a team.
The Immunity Challenge does involve passing water by throwing a bucket from one team member to another, and then tossing the water like the Brains tribe practiced and finally using it to fill a bucket which will release a ball. Then they have to get that ball through a maze. The Brains tribe finishes phase one last, despite all their practice. The Brawn tribe finishes the maze first and wins. Kass and Spencer kick ass together on the maze, while the Beauty tribe falls apart and ends up losing.
The Beauty tribe splits into two factions: LJ thinks he's the tribe's leader, and he thinks everyone is voting for Brice. Meanwhile, Brice and Morgan think they have an alliance with Jeremiah and they plan to vote out Alexis. The problem is that they need a fourth to avoid a tie, so they approach Jefra only she's not down with their plan.
So THEN, they start to worry that Brice has an Idol and they decide that they should split the vote. LJ and Jeremiah will vote Morgan. Alexis and Jefra will vote Brice. Brice and Morgan plan to vote Alexis. Jeremiah isn't sure what to do: force a tie or just take out Alexis and expose his secret alliance?
At Tribal Council, Brice, Alexis and Morgan each get two votes, so there's a three-way tie. That means that Jeremiah, Jefra and LJ have to vote again, and can only vote for the three that already got votes. So Brice goes home. Boy, that could have almost been interesting.
Night 6. The Brains tribe returns to camp after blindsiding Garrett, and Spencer congratulates them for their subterfuge. He interviews that Garrett was so bad at the game that his tribe chose to keep someone who threw all the rice in the fire and oust Garrett. Spencer knows he's probably to go unless he can pull something out of his ass.
Tasha admits that if Garrett had just allowed them to have private conversations, she would have voted out J'Tia. She says this right in front of J'Tia, who then interviews that she thought she was going home, and their tribe is an entertaining disaster. Tasha explains that she got pissed when she found out that Garrett, Kass, and Spencer had an alliance, and then she interviews that she plans to get Kass on board for an all-girl alliance. Kass interviews that her thinking was that Garrett was dangerous, and while J'Tia has a temper, you can replace rice, plus now they have J'Tia's loyalty for saving her. So the all-girl alliance is one! For now.
Over on the Brawn tribe, Tony is sneaking around in his spy hut, except everyone's asleep, so that isn't fruitful. He sits by the fire and Sarah joins him. Tony decides to come clean, and tells Sarah that he really is a cop, as she guessed. They decide to band together in a cops alliance. Sarah seems especially convinced that this will last until the end. Then, just when he actually had some smart gameplay, Tony has to go over the top as usual and screw it up. He lies to Sarah that Cliff and Lindsay are plotting to get her out because she's too smart. Sarah is shocked. We'll see how this plays out.
Then there is a lot of footage of thunder, lightning, and rain. There is a lot of rain. No one can sleep. No one can stay dry. Everyone is miserable. They are trying desperately to keep their fire going, but all the wood is wet.
The morning, the weather is still bad. Look, we've all complained about the weather this winter, but at least the majority of us had, you know, a heated domicile of some sort. Anyway, the Brawn tribe is trying to rebuild or fortify their shelter but the wind has come up and branches are just blowing around. Woo is the only one who seems energized by this weather. Then there are a lot of shots of miserable people, with very wrinkly hands and feet. Lindsey just pulls off one of her toenails; her feet have been so wet for so long that it just came off.
Sarah interviews that she doesn't feel bad for Lindsey because of what Tony said last night. Sarah asks him for more details on exactly what was said, and Tony goes into a whole improve skit where Lindsay wanted to keep Sarah because she likes her but Cliff was pushing to get Sarah out, because they could get rid of Trish at any time but they needed to target Sarah before she suspected anything. It's actually not a bad story, because it would be good strategy, plus it's flattering to Sarah so she's more likely to believe it. It's just not a necessary lie, and it's one that is really likely to be found out eventually. Anyway, Sarah and Tony solidify their alliance with both a fist bump and a full hand handshake. Tony interviews that he doesn't trust anyone there, which is probably smart, but also going to make it difficult to get to the end of the game.
The Beauty tribe is also experiencing the rain misery. Jefra's hands are white and wrinkly like a corpse. Near tears in an interview, Jefra details how difficult the night has been, since they can't sleep or make a fire, so they can't eat. LJ interviews that Jefra is doing a lot of complaining and not much doing, so the men band together and build the shelter, while the women stand around and watch and offer suggestions. They all huddle in the rebuilt shelter and try to get warm.
LJ interviews that he's sitting there doing nothing, so his mind is running. He remembers that, when they first showed up, Morgan was over by a reef looking around, and he wonders if she might have seen a clue to the Hidden Immunity Idol. He decides it can't hurt to look, although it's not clear what he tells his tribemates about his little adventure. He heads into the water and searches around the rocks in the pouring rain. Eventually, he starts looking in the water and finally finds the Hidden Immunity Idol. So that means all three have been found, although I'm not sure if Garrett's will be rehidden now that he's gone. LJ vows to keep it a secret, although that's what they all say, isn't it?
Day 8. Brains tribe. Kass and Spencer go to pick up treemail and find a scroll with a small Buddha figure. They take it back to Tasha and J'Tia and read it aloud. Tasha reads that it will be a maze, and they will have to work together to toss water from bucket to bucket and fill up a larger bucket. They could win a tarp, so they are thrilled. Their shelter is looking pretty raggedy. J'Tia immediately says that she's going to have some rice and everyone just looks at her like, "Did you really just say that?" They all hold their tongues and agree that they should eat and drink water to get ready for the challenge.
Tasha isn't holding her tongue in her interviews though. She can't believe J'Tia's cheek, and she's also frustrated that no one else seems to want to practice now that they know what the challenge will be about. Tasha tells everyone she would feel a lot better if they practiced some different techniques to see what works. Kass says she wants to do "interior decorating" and puts their new figurine on top of the shelter. Spencer says he's really dehydrated and needs to drink water. Were they collecting rain water at all during that huge storm? Tasha is perturbed. She points out to Spencer that he, of all people, should really want to practice. He doesn't seem to catch what she's throwing, so she spells it out: "If we lose, someone has to go home." She doesn't say it will be him, but he has to know, right? Spencer says it's more important to him to drink water.
Cut to Spencer and Tasha using coconut shells to practice tossing water through the air. This seems like a pretty impossible task, but I also never took physics, so I don't know what the best strategy would be to keep the water in one big stream instead of scattering everywhere. I guess that's why Tasha wants to practice, so that they can try different techniques. Kass and J'Tia eventually join them and they all work on different techniques. Tasha is a little bossy, but at this point, this tribe needs someone to light a fire under their asses.
Well, let's see if the practice paid off as we head to the Immunity Challenge. Probst explains the rules: Person #1 will use a bucket to scoop water from the ocean. They will throw the full bucket to Person #2, who will throw the bucket to Person #3. That person will throw just the water to Person #4, who will use whatever water is left to fill a larger bucket. Once the larger bucket is full, a ball will be released, and then two people will have to use ropes to manipulate the ball through a large wooden vertical circle maze. The winning team gets a bunch of shelter stuff, and the second place team gets a tarp.
There are a lot of difficulties in this challenge. The person scooping the water from the ocean will tire quickly. The people catching the buckets and water have to stand on small platforms to ensure that the bucket is thrown the full distance; it also means that they don't have a lot of leeway to catch the bucket and often end up dropping it. They don't really show enough on one tribe's entire line for me to figure out what's working and what's not, but whatever the Brains tribe is doing isn't working, and it seems like the problem is in the Tasha (#2) and J'Tia (#3) area.
The Beauty tribe fills their bucket first and heads to the maze. As they get started, the Brawn tribe finishes and heads to their maze too. After some unspecified amount of time, the Brains tribe finally fills their bucket and heads to the maze too. Brawn is the first to figure out how to work best with the maze; it involves doing hard pulls on the rope to make the circular maze spin. The Beauty tribe is struggling, and somehow the Brains tribe pulls it off and wins second place. There is much celebrating, and J'Tia starts sobbing.
The Brawn tribe returns to their camp with their new comfort items, which include a tarp, pillows, blankets, and a hammock. They are psyched. Tony pretends like he's looking to see what all they have, but he's really checking to see if there's any sort of clue. He doesn't need it; he already has the Idol. But he doesn't want anyone else to get it, which is actually pretty smart. He's way too self-congratulatory about his idea though. I mean, it's just common sense. He strikes me as one of those slightly above average in intelligence people who hangs around with a lot of dummies, so he thinks he's way smarter than he actually is.
Sarah decides to be the first to try out the hammock. Lindsay "jokes" that she hopes Sarah falls on her ass, which is exactly what Sarah does because the hammock isn't secure. Lindsay laughs and laughs, and she's just not a very nice person, is she? Between this and her mocking of Trish, we definitely haven't seen her kind and giving side, if she has one.
The Beauty tribe mopes back to their camp. Alexis interviews that after the "hurricane," and the loss, and the exhaustion, the energy at their camp is about to turn dark and suspicious. LJ says this is probably a dumb question, but he wonders if anyone wants to go home. It's been that miserable, I guess. No one admits to wanting to go, so there goes the easy vote.
In an interview, LJ sets out the way he sees things going. He's got an alliance with Jefra, Alexis, and Jeremiah, so their votes will go toward either Brice or Morgan, and LJ thinks that Brice is a bigger threat down the road. Brice, meanwhile, recognizes that he could be targeted, but he thinks Jeremiah is on HIS side, so he's not worried.
Brice and Jeremiah take a stroll. Brice says he wants to get rid of Alexis, and wonders what LJ is up to. Jeremiah admits that LJ wants to get rid of Brice, who doesn't look worried. He does tell Jeremiah that he will be after Brice, because presumably LJ is clearly trying to get rid of the threats. Brice wants to just let LJ keep thinking he's getting Brice out, so he doesn't get suspicious and scramble, but Brice and Jeremiah will know they are voting Alexis. The one problem with this plan is that a three-person alliance doesn't do you much good on a six-person tribe.
Morgan, of all people, has figured out the numbers problem, so she tries to get Jefra on their side. She corners Jefra and tells her that they're voting out Alexis. Jefra actually shows some brains and wonders why they're not voting out LJ while they can, but Morgan thinks they need LJ for challenges. Eh, do you? Jefra also wants to know how long Jeremiah has been with them, and Morgan says it's been happening all along, and he's just pretending to be with LJ. Jefra interviews that she's very confused now, and she's not excited about tonight, because she thinks someone will be blindsided. That right there is why she shouldn't have been cast this season; she should be excited that someone will get blindsided.
Jefra goes to talk to Jeremiah and ask him about this crazy talk with Morgan. Jeremiah denies being in an alliance with Brice and Morgan and says that he's going to vote out Brice with the rest. Jeremiah interviews that he's "stook" (stuck) which he's really not. I mean, he should go with the side that has four, right?
Alexis joins them and discusses splitting their votes in case someone has an Idol. Jefra is worried that it's too dangerous, but Alexis points out that if there's a three-way tie, they get to revote and everyone in their alliance will vote for the same person, and they have the numbers. I feel like they should draw this out with a stick in the sand. So their plan is for the girls to vote for Brice and the boys to vote for Morgan. Jeremiah interviews that, if there's a tie, he could be the deciding factor and it would put him in a position of power in the tribe. Brice interviews that alliances will be exposed tonight and people "will be put in their place." That's a terrible reason to vote someone out. Jeremiah interviews that he doesn't want to hurt anyone's feelings or lose anyone's trust. He is playing the wrong game, then.
Tribal Council. Probst asks Jefra if she likes being on the Beauty tribe. You will be shocked; she does. Brice, on the other hand, thinks he's a butterfly. I don't even know what he's going on about. Jefra says that things were like a party at first, but then the storms came, and they lost the challenge, and now everyone is paranoid. She doesn't think anyone was talking strategy until today. Brice disagrees, and says that even before today, people were forming little groups.
Brice goes on to say that he and Morgan are on the outs, and Alexis has never talked "strategics" with him, so he's pretty sure Alexis will be voting for him. Probst wants to know if the reverse is also true, and Brice says that he likes people who pull their weight around camp. Probst adds, "Dot dot dot?" and Brice echoes, "Dot dot dot HMMM?" That was funny. At least Brice has a personality, even if it's a bit obnoxious at times. Alexis just says she likes Brice blah blah blah.
Probst wants to know if anyone is talking about Idols. Brice says that there's "talk of the town" that Morgan might have one since she got to camp first. I think Brice is trying to make Morgan seem like she does have an Idol, but is he doing it so people vote for her to flush it out, or so they don't waste a vote on her? He also says "talk of the town" like three times. Morgan says that she hopes things go according to plan, but she also knows that people backstab in this game.
Jeremiah says that he thinks he knows where things are going too, but it's going to suck and people will be hurt. Probst says no one sounds too certain, so they should vote and make things more sure.
Probst tallies and reads the votes, and it's a three-way tie with two votes each going to Alexis, Brice, and Morgan. So Jeremiah did stick with his four-person alliance. Brice immediately knows what happened, obviously. So now Alexis, Brice, and Morgan won't vote while Jeremiah, LJ, and Jefra have to vote for one of the three vote-getters. So we know how this will go. It's Brice. Well, that tribe just got a lot more boring.