It's the 29th night as they return from Tribal and Tai is still rambling. Jason points out to the others that both Tai and Aubry are going to be hard to beat at the end and he's right, but he's also scrambling. Tai is confirming his alliance with Joe and Aubry and tells them about his advantage with the extra vote , on top of his hidden idol. Unfortunately, all those advantages are giving him a sense of security in the game and we all know how that worked for Scot.
Morning dawns and Tai has found a huge grub so he feeds it to Mark, the chicken. Jason has pretty much given up on eating the tribes mascot even though he's on the outside looking in. Joe notices Jason and goes over to chat with him but he's decided nobody is playing the game anymore and Joe doesn't like his attitude. Joe figures Jason has just given up and become dead weight. Maybe he has.
It's time for the Reward Challenge where they're divided into two teams, a yellow and a blue, which need to get over some floating obstacles and then maneuver a ball through a floating maze by walking around the outer edge. The first team to win goes to the Wildlife Alliance to meet rescued animals and enjoy a picnic lunch.
Jason is first in the water as usual for the blue team while Joe is off to a slow start for yellow. Jason is at the end and Michelle is in before Joe has even finished, and then Tai is in before Cydney eventually hits the water. Jason, Tai and Michelle are way ahead working on their floating maze as Jason takes control. While the yellow team struggles, blue gets their first ball and Jason goes to get the second ball, and in no time it's in.
Meanwhile the yellow team has finally gotten their first ball in the hole. Blue is on to their third when yellow starts on their second but it's all for naught as Jason, Tai, and Michelle win the Reward Challenge and they are on their way to the Wildlife Alliance animal rescue. That looked like a pretty cool challenge and something every beach resort should invest in.
Back at camp Joe decides somebody needs to take charge and he elects himself. Neither of the girls are keen on that, least of all Cydney. As she and Aubry search for wood she lets Aubry know she's not happy with Joe. Joe is just getting bossier and bossier with the girls and Cydney will have none of it. She hasn't made it this far in the game by kowtowing to the demands of others and she's not about to start now. Of course, that leaves Aubry to tend to damage control.
On the reward Jason Tai and Michelle climb into a little open cabin for their lunch and then the Director of the Wildlife Alliance walks over with Lucky the elephant. Everyone loves the elephant Jason is really playing up how much his daughter would love this place and as he's communing with nature and all Michelle is seeing him in a little different light but she also knows that part of that could just be game play. It's hard not to enjoy ones time with animals though, unless you're really afraid of them, and Jason doesn't look like the type that would shy away from animals, not even the caged monkeys that jump at him.
Tai is also warming up to Jason and that's causing him to think it's time to get rid of Michelle, which is not the way his alliance was thinking before they left on the reward. As usual, Tai is back on the trampoline ready to flip around. No idea why Aubry didn't advise him to use his idol at the last tribal, at least then it would be gone.
Time for tonight's Immunity Challenge and this one looks easy, on the surface, but not so much once it's been explained. Before that Jeff retrieves the Immunity Necklace from Michelle's neck and then tells them they need to balance a teetering platform at the end of a really long rope while travelling back and forth building a tower of blocks to spell the word "Immunity", preferably correctly. As the tower gets taller it gets harder to balance that platform and if your blocks fall you get to gather them up and start over.
Everyone races across to place their first block and tighten up their rope and Joe, at 71, is off to an early lead as he places his second block. Falling way behind is Cydney who is slowly moving backwards as Joe places his sexpvond, then his third. It's Joe, then Michelle then Tai, then Joe gets his fifth block, then Tai gets his fifth, . . . and then Joe dumps everything. Michelle takes the lead but then drops and Tai is in the lead. Now Tai drops and Jason takes the lead. As Joe starts again he grabs the wrong letter and then Jason dumps and, guess what, Cydney has now taken the lead with her tortoise pace. Joe grabs another wrong block while Cydney continues to stay ahead.
Jason really needs to win this as he picks up speed, while Joe keeps grabbing the wrong block. Michelle is back at five but then she dumps, then Tai dumps, then . . . well, it's pretty much down to Cydney versus Jason in this challenge with both of them at six blocks. Now they're both at seven with one block left and Jason grabs his eighth block first. Slow and steady, they both place their blocks . . . and then Jason dumps and Cydney wins Individual Immunity. That was a lot harder than it looked. Jeff congratulates her as he puts on the necklace and then sends them back to camp.
Everyone seems to agree that that was one of their favorite challenges. Out in the water Tai has decided to tell his alliance to vote out Michelle but nobody seems to agree with that. Tai intends to use his advantage vote to get rid of Michelle and afterwards he goes to Jason and says, "vote for Michelle". Jason doesn't trust anything Tai says anymore so he hasn't decided what to do with his vote.
Off on their own both Joe and Cydney disagree with Tai's decision and then Cydney goes to Michelle to give her a heads up. She's almost in as bad a spot as Jason but not quite. Cydney goes to Aubry with the same complaint about Tai and it puts Aubry in a tight spot because, as good a game move as it is to vote out Michelle, it's not necessarily the best move. Time to head for tribal.
At Tribal Council everyone gets comfortable as Jeff brings in the jury and Scot still looks angry with everyone. Jeff points out he's never seen so many lead changes in a challenge and Jason agrees that it's all over the place. Cydney points out that some people are getting too comfortable and Michelle points out that it's Tai. Tai defends his comfortability and then it's everyone against Tai as he keeps rambling about groups and sizes of those groups. Everyone except Jason who has learnt enough to just stay quiet.
Michelle knows where Tai thinks she sits but she disagrees with him and pints out how he's flipped back and forth on everything. Then Tai wonders how she even got into his alliance. Jason stays silent and smiles as Aubry discusses how Tai plays the game differently than her. Eventually Jeff has to pull Jason into the conversation and he's hoping that all the commotion means he stays another day. I guess we'll see soon enough as its time to vote.
Jason gets things started and then e erroneous follows. Tai obviously writes down Michelle and then, before Jeff can tally the vote, Tai asks to use his advantage. So Tai casts his second vote for Michelle again to ensure she goes home and then Jeff grabs the votes. He calls for the Hidden Immunity Idol but Tai doesn't play it.
Jeff reads the votes, . . . Jason, Michelle, Michelle, Jason, Joe, Jason, and finally . . . Jason. So much for Tai's advantage as Jason gets up and leaves Tribal Council. In his farewell he says he's proud of how he's played and I tend to agree with him for the most part. He fought the good fight.
Next week Tai is a little upset that his plan backfired and he completed wasted his advantage being the only person to vote for Michelle, but somehow he's managed to turn that around. It appears that Tai has formed a new alliance with Michelle so it'll be interesting to see how an alliance of two can work so late in the game. I'll be right here to let you know how that plays out. Be sure to check out my Big Brother reviews this week to see who checks out next and then stop back to enjoy my Friday review of the Amazing Race. Otherwise, I'll see you at the next tribal survivors.