I am not sponsored by Applebees.

Lairo

To quote Dean, “he got got”, so he decides to go from Dean Kowalski to Detective Dean Kowalski. My opinion on Dean has gone from ironic enjoyment during his first two episodes to full on enjoyment these past few episodes. He interrogates Elizabeth, Elaine and Aaron and has no luck. Then, he talks to Missy and suspects her. Missy says that no one ordered a hit but she tells us that she is annoyed that Dean is questioning her because she saved him. I’m pretty sure that Elizabeth and Elaine saved Dean but whatever. I loved this segment so much.

Swap

Jeff announces the swap and Elaine is already feeling on the outs. She is not lucky. A small background moment I enjoyed was Jack wiping Tommy’s face with his buff then Tommy throws it on the ground. The swap happens and the tribes shake out to Lauren, Tommy, Jason, Dan, Missy, Elizabeth, Elaine and Aaron on Vokai and Dean, Karishma, Tom, Noura, Jack, Janet, Kellee and Jamal on Lairo. Vokai is so stacked and it shows in the reward challenge.

Reward

One of my favorite challenges, the snake challenge! The reward is the biggest reward of the season… Applebees. This sponsorship is so bad but so good at the same time. It is so over the top. I am sorry Karishma but Applebees should not be anyone’s favorite sit down restaurant. We start the challenge with three pairs going over sand hills by slithering their body up until the last pair reaches the mat and the final pair do a tree puzzle. I love how stupid this challenge is. The best part of the challenge was Noura physically dragging Karishma over the hill. It is a great metaphor for Karishma’s game and props to Noura for doing that. Vokai wins and they head to Fiji Applebees. Noura may have dragged Karishma physically but Tom verbally drags her in the post challenge confessional indicating that the three Lairo on new Lairo are not working together.

Applebees

Vokai gets to Applebees and the sponsorship continues with Tommy. Low key I might put Applebees as the number one spot in Power Rankings this week. The 4-4 split is talked about and Elaine is apprehensive of these new people. We end our Applebees journey with Missy done with eating Ls. The sponsorship overall was somewhat successful because I have not thought about Applebees in years and now it is a part of Survivor lore.

Lairo

On Lairo, Karishma immediately flips because they voted for her TWICE. As Abi Maria would tell you, “They’re dead to me”. Tom is on board to boot Karishma and Janet was surprised that Karishma was not voted out. Dean and Kellee find out that Dean’s ex went to school with Kellee so they bond over that. I am fine with a connection like that versus Ali and Patrick in HHH because Kellee and Dean did not know each other directly. Then, we get a great sequence about how Karishma had an arranged marriage for her parents and how her husband is more like a roommate. This was a powerful moment and I am happy that Karishma was willing to open up but imagine being Karishma’s husband when that aired. I hope Karishma opened up to him after filming due to this. Jack and Janet did a great job listening and this confirms that Karishma is done with Lairo.

Vokai

We begin with a Elaine and Missy wrestling segment and Elaine wins. This segment was more about how Aaron is bonding with his tribe. He talks to Tommy about his kids and Aaron is even wearing socks with his kids face on them. I did not notice them the first four episode. This was a great moment for Aaron as it humanized him. Aaron and Missy talk about them being willing to throw the other former Lairo under the bus. Orange is dead.

Immunity

The challenge is to gets balls in the ocean, balance them across a pair of beams then have someone shoot balls into nets. Karishma was getting called out by Jeff during the challenge for being slow. I have not seen this level of being called out since Katie in Philippines. Karishma at one point responds to Jeff saying she has been slow in this challenge by saying, “No i haven’t”. My question is why did Lairo not put her in the basketball part since only one person has to shoot the balls. This is the reason they lost because Dean almost caught up so I think Dean would have beat Tommy if they made it there faster. No surprise Vokai wins and Jack talks about Karishma as a boot in the post challenge confessional.

Lairo

Dean is beating himself up over losing to that red headed goofball since Dean was a D1 Basketball player. Dean and Tom are targeting Karishma and Jamal agrees that she is a liability in challenges. Janet talks to Tom and tells us that Tom is a straight shooter so he must go. This does not make sense since having a predictable player around is better than a loose cannon like Karishma. Kellee talks to Dean and tells him that she does not want to be the next Chelsea. Dean notes how they will just vote together and not cuddle. Kellee tells us that there is something about Dean that makes her want to work with him and that is threatening. I don’t know what is in the water on Lairo but clearly it causes players to think it’s day 33. Everyone is overplaying way too much for the premerge. This vote should be simple since it is too early to select a goat. Goats naturally happen in this game so you do not need to drag Karishma through the game. Finally, Noura reminds us that she has no vote but she will influence the vote

Tribal

We get our first appearance of Rob and Sandra this episode. I am fine with it being either a reward challenge or the island. the episode would have been cluttered if they did both. Rob thinks they have been to too many damn tribals. Tom talks about the three Lairo not finding a crack and Sandra and Rob can relate to being screwed at a swap. the discussion goes on with Karishma essentially being called useless in challenges compared to Dean and Tom until it gets to Noura and she starts laughing. Sandra is a Noura fan. Noura calls herself old and Tom says how he is way older. Noura explains she is thirty something with these 20 year olds. Tom and Janet say that their age does not affect them. Dean talks about how he talked to everyone but Janet says that he did not talk to her. This was not the right move for Janet since they were not planning on voting him out so why start a conflict. Rob thinks Dean is done until Rob is impressed on Dean saying that Karishma has connections if she voted with the majority on the Chelsea. Karishma claims that she was told last minute. Great play by Dean since it made Karishma look sketchy since she said she had to no connection but she still voted correctly. We end with Kellee give a non answer about the truth and Sandra calls Kellee her girl. It is time to vote. By a vote of 6 -2

Tom is voted out. I agree with Rob that they will never win a challenge with Karishma. I think this is the wrong move since Tom is predictable while Karishma could flip on a dime. At this point, tribe strength is still important since what if someone wants to pull a big move on their old tribe. Knowing this cast, that might happen even with Karishma and Dean as easy votes. Now, Tom is the first Canadian voted out of Survivor. I was initially down on this episode but after recapping it, I really liked it up to the vote out. Tom’s boot soured the episode to me but I like everything else.

Elizabeth continues the trend of the person who pulls off a blindside being invisible the next episode. I still think that Elizabeth has a shot and just needed a cool down episode especially since she is on the winning tribe. Maybe Elizabeth is not a fan of Applebees so they cut her out.

Next time: Noura wants to pull a fast one on the guys and Vokai talks about going to rocks.

Grab your stuff and head back to camp!