Welcome to the post holiday edition of the recap. Black Friday killed me so it’s going up late. Last time, The Mayor of Slamtown got slammed.

We open at camp, Davie is pumped that his move worked and he has John’s jacket. I don’t know why jackets are a theme this season. The trio of Alison, Alec and Kara discuss making a move with the Davids. Then, they notice Dan sitting by himself on the beach so, Kara goes to talk to him. Dan is feeling insecure after tribal and Kara is done with him. Kara and Dan hash it out and Kara, in her confessional, wants to cut Dan now. I think it might be too early to cut Dan since the Goliaths have the numbers. The ideal time to cut Dan is at final 8 or 9 but for the time being he still had an idol that only Kara knew about.

We cut straight to the reward challenge

The reward is the Bula Burger Bar. The reward includes beer which Carl is excited for. Unfortunately for Carl, he is randomly not assigned a team so he is unable to get his beer. The orange team is: Alec, Mike, Dan, Kara and Davie. The purple team is: Gabby, Christian, Nick, Angelina, and Alison. The challenge is to untie a bag of numbered tiles, unlock a code and then complete a snake puzzle. Some great moments include: Alison copying the other team’s combo before Mike covered it, Alec and Davie yelling out fake numbers to throw them off and Alec generally being a beast. Orange wins but, Gabby isn’t too sad since she can work Alison at camp.

Back at camp, the winners go off to the burger bar. Alison wants them to eat all the burgers for her. Angelina gets her only moment in the episode when she talks about crying over veggie burgers. Veggie burgers are not worth crying over as someone who has cooked them before I can attest to this. Alison and Gabby talk about how the big move would be to get out Dan. This has been Alison’s biggest episode so far. Not that there was much competition but good for her.

At the Bula Burger Bar, the Goliaths discuss staying together. Mike comments how they are hate each other as a joke but no one laughs. This is a great example of why the Goliaths have imploded. They’re all big personalities trying to work together. Mike is especially Goliath strong despite being on the bottom of that group. Mike is giving me Kellyn vibes. Mike suggests Christian for the tenth time and we cut back to camp.

Kara has replaced Mike in the Goliath trio. Kara tells Alec and Alison about Dan’s second idol. Alison has a confessional about the struggle of flipping versus staying in tribal lines and I pray Alison does not pull a Laurel from last season and loses due to her loyalty to strong players.

The next morning, the Davids wake up at dawn to look for the newly hidden idol. Everyone but Christian gives up a couple of hours later. In a confessional, Christian goes into detail about his search methods by breaking the island into sectors and looking a little in each sector. Christian notices blue yarn on a tree and blue yarn doesn’t naturally occur in Fiji so Christian finds the idol. Christian is gonna need this for the rest of the game.

Immunity Challenge

In this challenge, contestants must balance a ball across a teeter-totter three times then roll the balls down a ramp into three holes. Honestly this is a pretty standard immunity challenge and it was over quickly. The best part was Alec jumping over the first obstacle. Alec wins immunity and Dan thinks Christian is the target.

Before tribal, Kara goes to the Davids to split the votes between Dan and Angelina. The Davids accept it and Alison is suspicious making her firmly Goliath strong. Alec and Alison go over the plan and decides to tell Kara they are voting for Christian. Nick notices the Goliaths on the raft together and decides that the Goliaths are lying to them again and they need to strike.

Nick, Carl and Christian reveal their advantages to the Davids and they decide on how to play them. I love how coordinated the Davids are. They know they need to stick together and make a plan. The bond between them is fun to watch.

Tribal Council

Jeff asks Gabby if the Davids take joy in the Goliaths suffering. That was a funny question. This leads into the main point of the tribal, are the lines actually blurred. The Davids call out the Goliaths for never voting with them even if they are supposed to be aligned. The Davids are right that the vote proves trust but Dan also makes a great point that their pitch of one Goliath flipping is just asking for the flipper to be on the bottom of their alliance. Christian compares the Davids to an old car that maybe they will turn the key and it will work. Now it’s time to vote but, hold up! Nick plays his vote steal on Alison to the shock of everyone. Now, it’s time to vote. Throughout the vote, Kara, Dan and Alec whisper about playing the idol. Jeff finishes tallying the votes and Dan plays his idol on himself. Dan thinks he is safe but, Carl plays the idol nullifier on him. The third member of the jury is….

Dan by a vote of 6-2-2. Carl gets his only moment in the episode and yells BING. There is a debate if he said bing or ding. Nick says he heard ding but a lot of people heard bing. I heard bing so that’s what I’m going with. Dan is a good guy but, he played too much with his heart and that cost him the game. The loser of tonight’s vote is Kara and Alec since they flipped their votes to Angelina so, they will be seen as flippers. The winner is Christian since he still has his idol and did not go home.

The purple player of the night is Carl. Despite playing an advantage he still got no confessionals. I didn’t think Carl could win before but I think this episode solidifies it.

Next time, Carl and Gabby fight and Angelina goes into full villain mode.

Grab you stuff and head back to camp!