CBS
On the last episode of Survivor: Island of the Idols, things got crazy when Lauren Beck convinced nearly everyone to sit out the Immunity Challenge because of her Island of the Idols offer from Rob Mariano and Sandra Diaz-Twine. In the end, she got an Idol that she immediately played, only to have no votes cast against her.
Karishma Patel had seven votes cast against her, but her idol negated those, leaving Elizabeth Beisel and Janet Carbin in a 1-1 tie. Upon a revote, Elizabeth was sent packing. Who will be voted out this week on the episode titled “A Very Simple Plan”?
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.
8:07 — There are no previouslies, nor any post-Tribal powwows at camp. We jump right into the reward challenge, which is the loved ones visit. Not gonna lie, this makes me cry every. single. season. Karishma sobbing in her husband’s arms was… hooo boy. Pass the tissues. And Dan Spilo’s visitor is particularly cool because it’s his 13-year-old son. They’ve never someone that young do the loved one visit before.
8:12 — OK, wipe the tears away and let’s get serious. The challenge involves racing in pairs along a tether and then navigating a bamboo cage together and then digging their way under a heavy log. After that, they have to toss a weighted bag at a target. Dean Kowalski and Elaine Stott get off to an early lead, followed by Tommy Sheehan and Janet.
8:15 — They only have to land one bag, which seems like kind of an easy ending. Tommy and Janet pull it out, then are given the choice to pick two other castaways to join them. They pick Dan and Lauren. Karishma is fired up by not being chosen, trying to work Dean, Elaine and Noura up to see if they want to work with her, but it remains to be seen if that goes anywhere.
8:23 — The loved one visit is mostly just for fun, but the four castaways do talk about the other four and who should go next. They think maybe Elaine because she’s a threat to win immunity and the others aren’t. Meanwhile, back at camp, Noura is mad that she’s been loyal to those four all along and not getting chosen showed her where she stands in the alliance. She’s the odd person out, though the way she goes about it, by saying that she’s “the Karishma,” except that she’s “enjoyable to be around,” was maybe not the nicest thing to say. But either way, Noura goes on and on about the four castaways who aren’t there, so obviously, she’s ready to kick some butt.
8:26 — Dean asks Noura if she’d be willing to vote out Lauren, who is quite popular with the jury, and Noura says she would. So Lauren may be in trouble, but this foursome knows it’ll be a tie unless they get an idol… and then a few minutes later, Elaine finds a hidden idol. Now they just need to figure out who should play it at the next Tribal or that will all be for naught.
8:32 — The immunity challenge involves standing on a tiny block of wood (on one foot, no less) and holding a ball against a pole with a rolling pin-type thing. It’s supremely tricky and Dean, Tommy, Noura, Janet, Karishma, and Dan drop within minutes. Janet takes a hard fall when she stumbles off of her block and looks like she cuts up her foot pretty good.
8:34 — Elaine and Lauren both want immunity badly and at this point, they’ve gone 15 minutes, which for this challenge is a solid amount of time. Elaine looks a lot steadier than Lauren, but then just like that, Elaine drops seemingly out of nowhere. So Lauren has immunity and her alliance wants Karishma out. Will Elaine use her idol to protect Karishma, though? We’ll see.
8:42 — Back at camp, the loved one alliance decides Tommy, Dean, Elaine, and Lauren will vote for Karishma and Dan, Noura and Janet will vote for Elaine. They are operating under the assumption that Noura, Elaine, and Dean are going to vote with them, of course. Janet tells Noura the entire plan and Noura is ready to turn the tables on them. She tells Karishma and Elaine what is going on and they’re stoked that they know exactly what the other side is doing. They’re targeting Tommy, though Elaine is worried that Noura will flip out and ruin everything between now and Tribal.
8:44 — Right on cue, Noura starts talking numbers to Dean trying to make this much more complicated than it needs to be. She starts arranging palm leaves on the ground and talking to herself like something out of A Beautiful Mind. And her behavior sends up some red flags to Dan, who then asks his alliance if they should vote Noura out. Oh, Noura.
8:52 — At Tribal, Dean suddenly decides to tell Tommy that Tommy is going home. He says the other three (Noura, Elaine, and Karishma) are voting for Tommy, but he (Dean) is not. While Jeff is trying to talk about the loved ones visit, everyone is scrambling to whisper and figure out who to vote for. Then the whispering just starts being spoken out loud, as Noura starts railing against Dean, Elaine, and Karishma as she tries to save her own butt. She even reveals that Elaine has an idol! It’s insane! This season is bonkers. Over in the jury, Missy Byrd is eating pretend popcorn, which is hilarious.
8:56 — Now everyone is concerned about the unstable, unpredictable Noura nad she may have just stamped her own ticket out of there. She rightly points out that Dean is actually the one who instigated this chaos when he chose Tribal Council to start talking to Tommy about the potential Tommy blindside, but by now the damage is done. It will be shocking if Noura doesn’t go home.
8:58 — But then… Karishma goes home?! This season is playing really fast and loose with the editing because they made it look as though some seriously crazy stuff was going down, just to send Karishma home after all? How anticlimactic. Also, I can’t believe people didn’t keep Karishma around so they could sit next to her in the finals. She wouldn’t win in a million years, she’s the perfect person to take.
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