WARNING: THIS OPENING PARAGRAPH IS A SPOILER!
Thanks to the wonders of our modern need to know everything before the fact and the media's love of spoilers, a preview clip of tonight's episode revealed that tonight's Tribal is going to end in a tie vote which will result in the dreaded black/white rock reveal. This has only happened once before in Survivor history, way back in Season 4, Survivor Marquesas. When there's a second tie vote at Tribal all non-immune players are forced to pick a rock from a bag. Whoever draws the single rock gets the boot. The rule has existed for years but no Tribal has ever repeated the event until tonight, probably because nobody wants to be randomly eliminated. But wait, there's more. The preview also showed the jury reaction and now we know who lost at Redemption Island. Right next to Aras and Vytas is Caleb as the third member of the jury. I have no problem in a little preview of events to get people interested but what the hell were they thinking. They may as well end tonight's episode with "Next time on Survivor; Blood vs Water, Tyson reveals what it's like to finally be the sole survivor." Back to our regularly scheduled review . . .
With the failed attempt to blindside Tyson, we open tonight's episode on the eve of night 29, Hayden gives kudos to Tyson and let's everyone know they better be happy with second place because if Tyson makes it to the end he wins. Tyson appreciates the kudos but he's beginning to wonder if he should have played the idol. Well it's a little late for that. Hope his alliance is as solid as he thinks.
In the morning we Return to the Redemption Island Arena where we get Laura, Tina and Caleb who refuses to look up at the players in the stands. He's still pretty pissed for being blindsided, as he should be. Especially with Tyson and Gervase who he felt he had an alliance with. Obviously it wasn't as tight an alliance as he thought.
For today's duel players have 150 wooden tiles to build a house of cards 8 feet tall, or the highest after 30 minutes. Laura's tower is over 7 feet when she loses a few, but with Tina at 3 feet and Caleb at only 2, she has a great lead and, as per usual, wins again. Three minutes left to see whether Tina or Caleb will take second place, when Tina starts to lose a few t iles. With only 1 minute left, Caleb's entire stack goes over and Tina's new strategy is to stop building. Good strategy. 30 days into the game and it's time for Caleb to go.
When Jeff talks about his relationship with Colton, a relationship he still can't figure out, Caleb says that opposites attract but they have a lot of similarities. When Jeff asks how they're similar, Caleb says, "We're both guys," and everyone laughs. He's got ya there Jeff.
Laura gets the clue for the Hidden Immunity Idol and once again gives the clue to her daughter Ciera, but this time Ciera keeps it. I think she's finally figured out that her alliance could crash at any moment and it's time to look out for herself. Then again, maybe not.
Ciera knew that Tyson had played his idol so there was a new one in play and she wanted it, but for some reason she shares the clue with Tyson, Gervase and Monica. Not to be outdone Hayden starts looking in the same area even without the clue. Tyson knows that, as threat number one, he needs that idol again. There's even a little breakdown scene with Tyson just before he finds the new Hidden Immunity Idol. Again he decides to keep it to himself. Good move for Tyson, not so much for Ciera. Even worse for Hayden.
Speaking of Hayden, he still sees an opportunity to create a wedge into the alliance with Gervase and returns to him to blindside Tyson. Gervase seems up for it if Hayden has a plan, but without a plan he's not going to mess up his own game. Time to outthink the big bad wolf, Hayden . . . and hope that Gervase doesn't pull a Ciera and run straight back to Tyson.
Day 32 and it's time for the Immunity Challenge. Race through a series of obstacles while balancing a ball on an ever increasing pole, get to the end of three courses and use the ball to release a key to unlock the box of sandbags then knock down 9 targets. Winner also gets an ice cream cart delivered to camp for their enjoyment. Tyson drops the ball first and has to go back, then Hayden, then Ciera, then Hayden again. Meanwhile Monica is the first one through the first section, what a surprise. Gervase is right behind her. Monica gets through the second section, followed by Gervase, then Tyson, and then Hayden. Katie meanwhile keeps falling behind and going back. It's Monica and Gervase to the key station and Monica starts to throw sandbags. Gervase gets three right away, . . . then three more, eventually he has only one left while Monica has four, . . . then three. Now Tyson is in it and starts throwing sandbags but it's pretty much Monica and Gervase until finally Gervase hits the last target.
Gervase wins immunity and ice cream. When he's told that ice cream for one is no fun and he can take one more person, he chooses Monica. Good choice, she earned it. Then Jeff ups the ante and gives him one more choice. This could be a million dollar decision but Gervase sticks with his original alliance and chooses Tyson. I'd have probably done the same even though it may leave Hayden open to approach the others about a blindside. He'd better or he's likely to be joining Tina and Laura very soon.
Back at camp everyone congratulates Gervase on his win. It's nice to see nobody bitter about it. As I suspected, Gervase's decision opened the door for Hayden to try and turn Ciera. This should be an easy thing to do but Ciera's either pretty loyal or pretty stubborn. She's not willing to make the move. When the ice cream leaves Hayden has a chance to talk to Gervase and Ciera together but they're both just not seeing the opportunity. With his chance pretty much gone, he tells Tyson he was planning to turn Gervase and Ciera and blindside him but they won't turn. That's a good alliance Tyson has, I hope they're good at polishing his crown.
Time for Tribal. where Hayden points out that Ciera, Gervase and Monica are controlled by Tyson while he and Katie are next to go. Hayden has nothing to lose so he's all in at this point. Jeff turns to Katie for her input but she just whimpers about being at the bottom. Jeff points out that if Ciera switches they'll have a tie and they can pull rocks.When Monica points out that four is better than six, Hayden points out that Ciera is number four. Jeff repeats that point and Tyson says Ciera isn't four, but that means Monica is. Hayden pushes for Ciera to make her move and they can draw rocks. Now we're talking about rustling/ruffling/russelling feathers and I have no idea what the hell they're on about . . . and from the look on Jeff's face, neither does he. Time to vote.
Jeff goes to tally the votes and Tyson decides not to play the Hidden Immunity Idol. The tally is . . . Hayden, Hayden, Monica, Monica, Hayden, Monica, . . . time to revote, except for Hayden and Monica. The new tally is . . . Monica, Hayden, Monica, Hayden, . . . and it's a deadlock. Jeff gives them the chance to come to a consensus but they decide to draw rocks. Katie, Ciera, Tyson and Monica reach in and grab a rock . . . White means you go home, Black means you're still in the game. When they reveal, Katie has the White rock.
Unfortunate luck of the draw for Katie, and it certainly doesn't help Hayden's game but at least he's still in it. As they get up to leave Tribal, Hayden is so happy he forgets to grab his torch but Tyson reminds him and hands it to him, "If you want it". When Katie arrives at Redemption Island her mother and Laura are shocked that it went to rocks.
Next week we find out if Tina is willing to just give up and let Katie win the duel but I'm hoping she doesn't. Despite how much she loves her daughter that wouldn't teach Katie anything. It also wouldn't guarantee her anything more than one more challenge because she's just not as much of a fighter as her mother. Meanwhile Monica is beginning to feel like somebody's whipping dog and that's not gonna sit too well with her. Time to step it up, girl.
Hopefully the preview clips during the week don't reveal as much as this weeks did, but it wouldn't surprise me. Hope everyone enjoyed tonight's show and my review. See you all next week, or Sunday night for my review of the Amazing Race Finale. Have a great week.