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Last week on Survivor: Island of the Idols, the drama got personal when Kellee Kim’s discomfort over Dan Spilo’s unwanted touching was used as a tool within the game. Kellee was sent packing in the first of two episodes, then Janet Carbin broke down in tears at the following Tribal Council because she felt so betrayed that Missy Byrd and Elizabeth Beisel would use Kim’s issues with Dan to get Janet to vote for him (which was actually just a decoy to get Kim out).
Spilo absolutely did not want to address his actions, but host Jeff Probst pushed until the talent manager spoke up — offering a non-apology apology to Kellee and the other women. The only person who really had it right at that Tribal was Jamal Shipman, who defended Kellee against charges from other male tribemates that since they didn’t know about the touching, it couldn’t have been that bad, which was especially nice since Kellee wasn’t allowed to speak for herself (as a jury member, she has to sit quietly and only observe Tribal Council).
But then Jamal was promptly voted out by a 6-3 vote. It certainly looks as though the original Lairo members have control of the game right now. But let’s dive into Wednesday’s (Nov. 20) episode, titled “Two for the Price of One.”
SPOILER WARNING: Do not keep reading if you are not caught up on Survivor and do not want to be spoiled on tonight’s episode.
All times Eastern.
8:05 — Janet is exhausted and downtrodden after that Tribal Council. She’s kind of lost in the game now. She needs an alliance. Then all of a sudden a rat jumps on Karishma Patel’s face, which might be the most exciting thing that’s happened involving her on the show thus far. In the morning, everyone is soaked after a torrential downpour, which was not fun for anyone, but everyone’s upset that all Karishma did was complain all night. Everyone’s pretty fed up with how little work she does around camp.
8:08 — Noura Salman asks Karishma to go gather coconuts, which lets her find a hidden immunity idol. That should prove fun if the group keeps thinking she’s an easy elimination.
8:15 — It’s Immunity Challenge time because it’s a double elimination this week, so we’re just jumping right into the competition. The challenge is standing on a beam while spinning a ball on a circular track. They will have to move down the beam, which will narrow as it goes along. Also, the twist is that the tribe is being divided into two by a random draw — one immunity per group, one Tribal for each group. Ooooh, interesting. The teams are Missy, Tommy Sheehan, Elaine Stott, Elizabeth Beisel, and Karishma, then Dean Kowalski, Dan, Aaron Meredith, Lauren Beck, Noura, and Janet. Also, the last person standing wins for his or her group peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, plus the advantage of going to Tribal second. Karishma is out almost immediately.
8:18 — Once they have to move down the beam, castaways start dropping like flies until it’s Missy vs Elaine in one group, and Noura vs Dean in the other group. Then just like that Noura wins Immunity. But in her jubilation, she jumps off her beam and gives the other team the PB&J and the chance to go to Tribal last. Oh, Noura. You doof. Shortly thereafter, Elaine wins immunity in the other group.
A look into tonight’s Immunity Challenge. #Survivor
8:25 — Aaron is ecstatic, thinking that Karishma and Janet are toast because they got put on different groups. But Noura smartly realizes that Aaron, who is a beast in competitions, didn’t win for once and it may be their only chance to get him out. That’s a really smart play. Noura takes this idea to Janet, Dan, Dean and Lauren, and everyone seems on board… for about five minutes. Then Dean starts to wonder if they can afford to keep Janet in the game because she’s such a strong contender to win the whole thing if she gets to the end. Dan is very torn because Janet is his ally in the game.
8:28 — Meanwhile, at the other group, Missy and Elizabeth are trying to figure out what’s best for their game. Missy thinks they need to separate Tommy and Lauren. If they take out Tommy, Lauren will have no one else to align with but Missy and Elizabeth. They think they can get Karishma on board with this (which they probably can because then she can keep her idol) — except when Missy tries to talk to Karishma, telling her that she’s on the bottom so here’s what the plan is, Karishma freaks out and whines a bit and then just walks away. Karishma says in a talking-head that Missy was bullying her and apparently it’s really irksome because Missy is 13 years younger than her? It’s really dumb. I’m with Missy on this one — Karishma was about to be handed a lifeline and she blew it. That wasn’t bullying.
8:30 — Of course, Karishma turns out and gets Elaine on her side and they decide they need to vote out Missy. Elaine takes the plan to Tommy, telling him that Missy and Elizabeth are gunning for him, so he agrees to vote out Missy. But then Missy and Elizabeth come back to Karishma and sweet-talk her into possibly voting for Tommy. So this all hinges on what Karishma decides to do, plus she can probably keep her idol, so Karishma is suddenly quite powerful.
8:42 — Dan says that he thinks things are going to go as expected, which makes me think that he’s going to blindside Aaron by sticking with Janet’s plan, especially because Aaron seems to think he’s pretty safe. In their little hidey-hole, Rob Mariano says that Aaron’s leaving, while Sandra Diaz-Twine thinks it’s Janet.
It’s time for the first Tribal Council of the night! #Survivor
8:49 — Aaron is then voted out 4-1. Jack Nichting, Kellee Kim and Jamal Shipman all snicker a bit over in the jury box, which is where Jeff Probst sends Aaron immediately so the other group can see who got voted out.
8:52 — At the next Tribal, Elizabeth is particularly upset about Aaron’s ouster and Missy says that’s not how the jury should look. Um, that’s incorrect. The jury looks how the jury looks, there’s no “should.” Aaron should have been more scared the first time he didn’t win immunity. You can’t win so much and not be seen as a huge threat.
8:54 — Anyway, the plan for Missy, Elizabeth, and Karishma is for Missy and Karishma to criticize each other and really sell it that they are not allies. The word “bully” is thrown around, which… there’s a lot the viewers don’t see. In what we did see, it did not seem like Missy was being a bully. Either way, suddenly the Tribal Council veers into Missy telling Jeff that it hurt her a bit that he didn’t highlight the fact that last time, two African-Americans were wearing the immunity necklace at the same time. She says representation matters, which is totally true, but Jeff is also fair in saying that he didn’t think to highlight that because he didn’t want to act like it was a surprising thing. He says he’s learning too and thanks her for speaking up.
8:58 — Then by a vote of 3 to 2, Missy is sent home. Whoa. That was surprising. Karishma came to play tonight. Missy has a great reaction, telling them that it was dope. She also wonders who the third vote was, but… it wasn’t you and it wasn’t your girl Elizabeth, so mathematically, it has to be the other three people who voted you out. She’s hilarious on her way out, telling Elizabeth she now has to “kill Elaine, slowly and methodically.” Heh.
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