To be honest, I was nervous going into this episode due to Jeff’s annoyed expression in the preview. I thought we might get another ugly moment at tribal like Varner in GC. Thankfully, we did not and we got something better.

Vokai gets back to camp and Lauren is bawling to Missy. Missy assures her that she needs Lauren and that they are so close. Since when are they close! The rest of old Lairo’s whole contribution is saying that they are on top. Elizabeth calls it a game changer. I swear before Game Changers this term was not used often but now it’s used every few episodes.

Lairo

It has been raining all night at Lairo and Karishma decides to say, “I’m wet”. Thank you for that insight Karishma. The editors do a cool thing by cutting to day on the same shot of Karishma lying down. The tribe decides to make fire and Jamal wants to do it. Jamal fails at it but he refuses to give someone else a try to the point of practically taking the flint from Kellee when she tries. Jack tells him to let Kellee try because she is good at it but Jamal refuses. Kellee lights the fire and we move to another example of Jamal being a jerk to the women on the tribe. Jamal blames Noura for the rice being low because she had a scoop on a shell. Noura goes to the girls to get him out but Janet says its too early and they should just get out Dean. Janet is correct because Vokai has the numbers and they can get him later. I just wish Dean was not the target. This discourse is interrupted by Janet having to go to the Island.

IotI

Janet meets Rob and Sandra. Sandra’s wrists are covers so I wonder what happened with that. Today’s lesson is calculated risk but you can argue every lesson has been calculated risk. The show uses Chris Underwood as an example and I can hear thousands of people being triggered by the mention of his win. Janet’s reward if she plays is the ability to leave one tribal up to final 7 and be safe but she cannot vote. The punishment is the normal punishment. Janet says no to the offer and Rob compliments her on it. I am happy that the safe play is not being rejected and it actually fits with the lesson. Sandra sees her as a winner and Janet goes back to Lairo.

Lairo

Janet flashes the tribe to confirm that she is empty handed. Kellee was worried about Janet going but Janet gives the same story as Kellee so crisis averted.

Vokai

We cut to night with Dan laying his arm on Elizabeth’s butt. The other make fun of this in the morning and Lauren tells us that she wants Dan to go. Tommy compares old Vokai to the chickens and that one of them will be eliminated. Tommy picks the red one to be him and Lauren picks the black one to be her. They laugh about it and then they spread a lie that Dan is targeting Aaron. Missy sees right through this and we learn that she wants to vote out Tommy so she can have Lauren.

Immunity

This challenge consist of the coconut throw that Semhar infamously was terrible at in South Pacific then a heavy puzzle of the logo. Dean, Janet and Jack shoot for Lairo while Missy, Elizabeth and Tommy shoot for Vokai. This was a close challenge. Vokai gets their puzzle done but Elaine notices that it is wrong. Lauren does not listen to her and is shocked when Jeff calls it as wrong. Vokai fixes it and wins by one piece because Lairo was kinda dumb in adding the middle piece last causing it to not fit in correctly. in the post challenge confessional, Kellee mentions her idol since it will expire and I immediately scream for her to use it on Dean.

Lairo

Back at camp, Jamal tells us it will be Dean and he is thinking that he will not need his idol and he might leave it at camp. I start to think that Jamal is going based on this. Dean is told the plan is Noura. Kellee has a moment of inspiration in a confessional about using the idol on Dean and sending who she wants home. I love the way this is edited because it showed the pause in which she thought about it. Then, Kellee tells us the plan. The plan is to give Dean the idol then, convince Noura to vote one of Jack or Jamal and finally she will vote for Dean to cover her tracks. I yelled out loud, “Yes Kellee! go for it!”. Anything to save Dean! Right before tribal, Kellee talks to Dean and tells him about the idol and we go to commercial on a cliffhanger.

Tribal

We start with Dean putting Noura’s plan from last episode out in the open. Noura backpedals by saying that she rather work with someone she hates (Jamal) than someone who she is indifferent to (Dean). Jamal brings up that Noura wants to start a women’s alliance and how it scares him. Kellee clocks the stigma around women alliances by saying how people don’t fear men’s alliance and how it is sexist to assume that there is a women’s alliance. They go into a discussion of how Survivor is a microcosm of America and the shift in the role of women in the past few years has changed the game and women are being more active. Janet gets a great monologue about how it takes both women and supportive men in order for women to be strong. I agree with Janet’s stance that everyone has to work together for things to change. Then, we see that Jeff clip from the preview that fooled everyone into thinking that tribal was ugly. Honestly, this was a great discussion of how men and women are treated differently on reality television. Survivor has now had a healthy discussion on heavy issues two weeks in a row. It is amazing that 39 seasons in we still get moments like this and that is why Survivor has remained generally popular because it is more than just a game. We get to the vote. Karishma tries to be clever by saying in her vote for Dean that he “shot three times and missed and now I am getting you the first time. Stay dry sweetheart”. The editors are really burying Karishma in an episode she was barely in. Dean plays Kellee’s idol and Kellee puts on an A+ acting performance. Jamal reacts by playing his idol on NOURA? I wish Jamal was sent home after doing that, but no, by a vote of 2-5…

My winner pick Jack goes and is the first member of the jury. My theory is that they did this to prevent a tie at final tribal. I liked Jack and while I am thrilled that Dean stayed, I am sad that Jack went. Jack was someone who could have made a deep run. Well, at least he made jury to quote Abi Maria. The winner of tribal is Kellee because she made the move with some stealth. The loser is Jamal who goes back with no idol and his closest ally gone. The most purple player this round was no one. Everyone had screen time and did something with it. This is rare in modern Survivor so I am proud of you editors.

Survivor also added a quick tribute to Rudy Boesch from Survivor Borneo who died this past week at the age of 92. Thank you Survivor for acknowledging it. RIP Rudy, he will be missed by everyone in the community and outside of it.

Next Time: We are at the merge!

Grab your stuff and head back to camp!