This episode was entitled “I Love Crying.” I can’t really remember for sure who said the line. It sounds like something Devin would have said in an attempt to promote his own self-image of being some sort of benign guru. But I could also imagine Kilby saying it after Dina returned from Tribal Council.
There was a lot of crying in this episode. It started at the Dina tribe, with Eric sobbing while talking about how betrayed he felt by his “best friend” Kilby. It can sometimes be easy to forget when the show only airs once a week, but each episode of Survivor only covers two or three days of gameplay. So, Eric’s breakdown was over being betrayed by someone he had really only known for four days. According to his Survivor bio, Eric is a mental health professional.
Over at Toka, Maggie was crying because the rest of the tribe wasn’t as serious and humorless as she was. They made themselves a swing. She went to catch fish. Mike spent this episode worried that he was going to get voted out, but he shouldn’t have been worried—not as long as the Savu tribe consisted of only Devin, Jelly, and Ori.
It’s still difficult for me to believe just how completely the Savu tribe fell apart during the final part of the immunity challenge. They had been doing pretty well up until that point. Actually, now that I think about it, Ori was the one who had been doing well. He was the one who pulled over the puzzle pieces. He was the one who threw the beanbags that knocked all of the puzzle pieces to the ground. He was the one who, briefly, gave Savu a lead in the challenge. Then Jelly and Devin, both of whom regularly brag about their genius, spent the rest of the challenge staring at the puzzle pieces and trying to figure out how to put them back together. Admittedly, some people aren’t good at puzzles. I absolutely suck at puzzles, but I’m also willing to admit that. Devin has spent this entire game bragging about his abilities, but he’s yet to really back any of it up.
Before Tribal Council, Jelly secured her safety by telling Devin and Ori that she had an immunity idol. With Ori voting for Devin and Devin voting for Ori, it came down to Jelly’s decision, and there really wasn’t any doubt that she was going to stick with Devin. I, honestly, would have stuck with Ori because Ori can actually do things, but Jelly and Devin have an unbreakable bond. Ori gave up his vote to play his Shot in the Dark, which is one of those moves that I’ve only seen succeed once in the history of Survivor. As such, Ori was voted out of the game by a vote of 2-0.
Along with everything else, this episode also featured one of those terrible summit meetings. The three tribes sent one representative each to the summit. Ori, Sharonda, and Kristen met on the beach and were told that two would be able to take food back to their tribe and one would go to Exile Island. Sharonda and Ori both waited for Kristen to volunteer to go to Exile and, of course, that’s what Kristen did. Sharonda bragged about how she manipulated Kristen into giving up food, but to me, I don’t really get that strategy. Anyone who goes to Exile is going to have a chance to get an advantage. Manipulating Kristen into doing something that could be good for her game really isn’t something to brag about.
By going to Exile, Kristen got the tether idol, which means that she can give immunity to either Sharonda or Ori (whoops) up until the top five. However, if Sharonda and Ori are both voted out, it becomes a regular immunity idol. Ori is now gone, so all Kristen has to do now is hope that Sharonda follows.
Next week—the tribes merge! Oh, this is going to be a mess. There will be 7 former Toka members and 4 former Savu members on the tribe, along with Carter, who was a member of both tribes before the shakeup. It’ll be interesting to see who stays loyal to whom.
Lisa Marie
