Warning: Here be series-wide spoilers!

PREVIOUSLY ON SURVIVOR: TOCANTINS…

LET’S GET THIS SHOW STARTED!

It’s Day 13 at Jalapao and the morning after Tribal Council! And Taj is suffering from an itchy back, luckily she has her little helper Stephen to assist in scratching.

She explains that her vote for Joe last night was a purely throwaway vote, as she didn’t have the heart to put Sandy’s name down. After some well-needed scratching, she and Stephen head off to Tree Mail to find the Idol.

Both Idols have now been discovered! They decide that Stephen should put the Idol in his pocket to avoid suspicion, and also because he’s the only one of the two that has pockets.

Over at Timbira, Sierra confronts Brendan about not informing her of the Exile Alliance. They’re all smiles and sunshine afterwards though.

REWARD CHALLENGE!

Four members of each tribe have to sit on a spinning top, while a teammate pulls a rope that will make it spin and make them dizzy. The dizzy castaway then has to try and cross a balance beam. First tribe with three members over the line wins a coffee date with loads of delicious cake and pastries. Exile Island is also at play, meaning that one unlucky person on the winning tribe has to miss the reward.

On the spinning tops, we have Taj, Spencer, J.T. and Sydney for Jalapao, while Tyson, Erinn, Sierra and Debbie will get dizzy for Timbira. And off we go…

First round, it’s Tyson vs Taj. After all the spinning is done, both are stumbling around like they’ve both just took 5 shots of vodka which is fairly amusing to watch. Taj gets a little overeager and falls off, Tyson keeps it together and crosses the line.

1-0 to Timbira!

Second round, it’s Erinn vs Spencer. Both fall off at the first attempt, and at the second attempt Spencer very narrowly avoids falling off just before crossing the line.

Jalapao make it 1-1!

Third round, and it’s Sierra vs J.T. As they’re spinning, Sierra is struggling to keep herself and her rail thin frame from flying off the spinning top. Both are stumbling on the ground like Bambi on ice and fall off the balance beam. J.T. eventually shakes it off and flies across the beam.

2-1 to Jalapao!

Final round, and it’s Debbie vs Sydney. Debbie is having an even harder time trying to hold onto the spinning top than Sierra did. Sydney falls off at the first attempt, but zips across on her second attempt and crosses the line.

Jalapao wins reward!

Time to send some people off to Exile Island, Jalapao pick Brendan again, while he in return picks Stephen, meaning that he’s not going to enjoy stuffing his face with cake today.

Immediately Tyson is suspicious about the whole thing. He knows that Brendan has spent a lot of time in Exile Island and is worried about the amount of contact he’s had with the other tribe.

Time for the coffee date at the Charmin Cafe, where the lucky Jalapao members waste no time in getting stuck in upon arrival.

After spending some time eating and joking, J.T. heads over to the hammock and finds a little extra gift…

They’re letters from loved ones. Cue the waterworks and all the feels.

Over at Timbira, Tyson begins to share his suspicions about Brendan with the rest of the tribe.

Meanwhile, Coach can feel a sudden change in the breeze, meaning that a storm is likely coming. However, he sees some clouds breaking up on the horizon, so he’s convinced that the storm will miss them.

Oops.

Over at Exile Island, Brendan and Stephen talk about how they’ve now found both Idols. So now all of their plans are in place.

However, Stephen is very wary about fully committing himself to this alliance. He senses that Brendan is a very strong player, and thus can’t put all of his trust on him.

It’s Day 15 at Jalapao! And Sydney and Spencer get chatting about significant others back at home. Sydney has a boyfriend and wants to marry him, while Spencer is single. Things get awkward when Sydney questions him about girls he likes… You see, it turns out that Spencer is actually gay, and doesn’t feel comfortable about coming out to the rest of the tribe.

I’m a boring straight woman so it’s not my place to discuss these matters, but it’s kind of weird watching this back in 2018 where LGBT issues aren’t so much of a taboo these days. But fair play to him, he’s not required to make a big song and dance about his orientation.

He’s particularly worried about what J.T. would think of him, considering that he’s a ‘Bama Boy. Which is fair enough, I know nothing about J.T.’s political leanings, but we’re talking about the state where 45% of its residents were more than happy to vote for a child molester to be senator after all.

IMMUNITY CHALLENGE!

Four members of each tribe have to catch a ball being flung at them from a giant slingshot with a hand net. A successful catch wins that tribe a point. First tribe with five points wins, losers get Tribal Council.

In charge of the slingshots are Stephen and Sydney for Jalapao, and Erinn and Debbie for Timbira. Everyone else is in the water. And off we go…

After four rounds, the scores are level at 2-2.

Round 5: J.T. makes another good catch to make it 3-2, but in the process the ball smacks him right in the mouth, and he ends up spitting out half a tooth.

He throws the broken tooth away, but Jeff wants it, and Brendan finds the tooth fragment in the water.

The game resumes, and J.T. is pretty much a one-man scoring machine. It’s now 4-2 to Jalapao.

However, their lead doesn’t last. Mainly down to Spencer doing a bad job at man-marking Tyson, who scores 2 points. It’s now 4-4, winner takes all.

Timbira wins immunity!

A really frustrated Jalapao are now back at camp, and J.T. is PISSED at Spencer. If you’ve seen all three of his Survivor appearances to date, you get the impression that J.T. is very much a guy who values hard work, and doesn’t take too kindly to people who he perceives to not be pulling their weight, as Michaela Bradshaw would find out the hard way in Game Changers.

I get the feeling that he wouldn’t like me very much… #LazyAndProud

Joe picked up a cut on his knee during the challenge (spoiler alert: it doesn’t heal), while Taj is furious about the whole thing and ends up letting off more steam than a sauna.

Joe is not impressed with her little outburst, and Stephen is now left undecided over what to do. Spencer is paranoid that J.T. is now bad-mouthing him, and walks in on him doing exactly that.

Spencer tries his best to curry favour by claiming that he’s not the worst of the tribe, while J.T. flat out tells him that he didn’t think he was pulling his weight today and that it’s either him or Taj going home tonight.

Ouch.

Apparently they totally kissed and made up before Tribal Council though, so things weren’t that nasty in the end. #SelectiveEditing

TRIBAL COUNCIL!

Once Jalapao sit down, Jeff asks Spencer about the challenge, where he admits that his performance was pathetic. Jeff then asks Taj about the atmosphere at camp and she admits to throwing her toys out of the pram.

After some more discussion about what happened that day, Taj is then asked about her time at Exile Island and whether that can help or hurt her. After some teasing, she claims that she doesn’t have the Idol, which is technically true.

It’s time to vote!

Let’s read the votes, who’s going to be the scapegoat?

Goodbye Spencer, don’t beat yourself up too much.

Because episode 6 is pretty much just a “bonus footage” episode, I don’t really see the point in recapping it, sorry. See you guys for episode 7!