Warning: Here be series-wide spoilers!

PREVIOUSLY ON SURVIVOR: TOCANTINS…

LET’S GET THIS SHOW STARTED!

It’s Night 21, everyone is up late and still reeling from Joe’s medevac last episode.

In an attempt to lift camp spirits, Coach decides to indulge everyone in a little campfire story about a near-death experience he had in the Amazon.

He claims that he was airlifted to the source of the Amazon river near the Peru/Ecuador border by a military helicopter. One day he was paddling down the river in a kayak and found himself being stalked by a tribe of pygmies armed with bows and arrows.

They captured him from the kayak, tied him up, dragged him to their village, tied him to a stake, and beat the living stuffing out of him with clubs.

Before they had a chance to finish him off, he wore through the ropes, busted out of the village and straight to his kayak, where he paddled so hard his hands were bleeding.

Cue tumbleweed and huge disbelief from everyone else.

Bear in mind… this story of kidnap and attempted murder was told in an attempt to CHEER PEOPLE UP.

It’s Day 22! And Coach is doing his morning meditation again, much to everyone else’s amusement.

Coach reiterates the plan to blindside Brendan, and has settled on christening himself as The Dragonslayer.

Meanwhile, J.T. has started giving Erinn one of his special fishing lessons. Erinn has just lost her only ally and is pretty bummed about it, which opens the door for J.T. to convince her to flip on her old tribe.

I’m struggling to keep up with all these alliances now.

REWARD CHALLENGE!

The castaways are divided into teams of three. Each team has a row of eight team-coloured ceramic tiles. One member from each team will throw a metal ball at the other two team’s tiles to try to break them. If a team has all of their tiles broken, they’re out. The last team left standing wins a whitewater rafting trip down the Rio Novo and a picnic. Exile Island is also in play.

In the black team, we have Brendan, J.T. and Debbie. In the red team, we have Coach, Tyson and Taj. In the white team, we have Erinn, Sierra and Stephen. And off we go…

Straight off the bat, J.T. is not impressed when Stephen goes to break a black tile in the first round. Hearing him exclaim “STEPHEN, MAAAYUN, WHAT ARE YEW DOOOIN’?!” in that thick Southern accent is pretty hilarious to me.

Eventually, the red team are the first ones out. The black team have one tile left, while the white team have two tiles left.

Brendan and Sierra try to break each other’s tiles. Sierra misses, but Brendan manages to smash a white tile. It’s now winner takes all.

After two rounds of misses, it those two again. Sierra misses again, and Brendan manages to chip the last white tile. However, Jeff states that the whole tile must be gone for it to count.

Now J.T. and Erinn have a go. J.T. misses, and Erinn chips the last black tile. So now both remaining teams have half a tile left.

Brendan and Sierra are back up again to try and finish things off. Sierra misses yet again, but Brendan manages to obliterate the last white tile.

The black team wins reward!

Before they can enjoy their trip, the black team have to pick one person to go to Exile Island. On their own. Debbie picks Stephen. Coach gives him some encouragement by telling him “be the wizard”.

Stephen arrives at Exile Island, and quickly finds out that there’s no new Idol hiding out there.

Bummer.

He’s concerned about fending for himself because he hasn’t managed to make fire yet. After an hour or two toiling away at the flint, The Wizard makes some magic…

Hooray!

Over at the Rio Novo, Brendan, J.T. and Debbie are enjoying their rafting trip. Brendan, who still had his target focused on J.T. at that point, starts to warm to him upon seeing the sincere, child-like joy on his face.

During the picnic, the two guys get chatting…

After the picnic, Brendan comes to the conclusion that J.T. winning the game would make him just as happy as him winning himself. The next day, he gushes to Sierra about how J.T. is the greatest person to ever live and how they totally need to keep him.

I would totally throw away a million dollars for J.T. as well.

IMMUNITY CHALLENGE!

Everyone is attached to a rope which is thread through three obstacles, and they have to climb under, over, and around to get through. The first three castaways to finish move on to the final round, which is a three level high obstacle. The first one to complete the obstacle wins immunity.

Off we go…

After a rather tight first round, Tyson, J.T. and Brendan advance to the final round. After a topsy-turvy final…

Tyson wins immunity!

When Forza get back to camp, the plan is to split the votes between Brendan and Sierra, and both Tyson and Coach are feeling very excited.

Meanwhile, Brendan only now decides to try and reactivate the Exile Alliance, and his plan is to vote out Coach. Stephen and J.T. go off to discuss matters, and Stephen is amazed that Brendan would be so willing to throw his game for J.T. like that.

TRIBAL COUNCIL!

As the new Forza tribe sit down for their first Tribal Council, Jeff asks some questions relating to how the tribe is bonding. J.T. and Taj bring up Coach’s Amazon story, and everyone starts getting massive grins on their faces.

Coach then claims that what he told them was the PG-13 version of the story, and talks about how the tribe who captured him wanted to eat his ass.

I swear that’s not me being hyperbolic or making (another) crass sex joke, those are (almost) the exact words that came out of his mouth. The room almost bursts into hysterics.

Jeff then turns the discussion on the old Timbira’s numbers advantage. Stephen talks about how he hopes that he will get enough time to get to know everyone better. Then he and Taj successfully manage to make it look like J.T. is the target, because he’s Mr. Perfect and those type of players don’t last long in the merge.

Jeff then asks Tyson about someone or some people having an Idol. Tyson says that he suspects that everyone who’s been to Exile Island has one.

Jeff then asks around if they have the Idol. Taj says no, Erinn says no, Stephen says no. Then Brendan, in a state of massive overconfidence, proudly exclaims that he has one.

It’s time to vote!

No Idol is played. Let’s read the votes! Who will become the first member of our jury?

Doh! The dragon has been slain. If it’s of any consolation to you Brendan, this kind of blindside will come back to royally bite J.T. in the ass in Game Changers…

See you guys for episode 10!