My Brother's Keeper

My Brother's Keeper is the ninth episode of.

Day 21
Kasama returned to camp after having voted out Aras Baskauskas. Vytas Baskauskas congratulated the tribe on a good strategic move, but made it clear that he was unhappy about it on a personal level. Tina Wesson, however, was less amiable about the blindside, calling out Monica Culpepper and Tyson Apostol for flipping on the alliance, claiming, “You won the battle, but you didn’t win the war because you’ve got five Jury votes that you’ll never get.” Tyson argued that Aras, Vytas, Tina and Katie Collins were pushing him out of the alliance, which Tina denied. Laura Morett and Caleb Bankston then revealed that Aras had formed alliances with everybody on the tribe, and had thus, betrayed the entire tribe.

Day 22
The following morning, Tina met with Katie and apologised for her own mistakes impacting Katie’s game. Tina urged her daughter to further her own game and distance herself from her mother, who had attracted such a large target. However, Katie was hesitant to abandon her mother, and discussed the inner conflict in a confessional.

The tribe then assembled for the next Immunity Challenge. Jeff Probst took back the Immunity Necklace from Vytas, and then revealed the challenge: Pesky Palate. The castaways would compete in a series of elimination rounds, with the first people to finish consuming a local “gross food” delicacy moving onto the next round until one competitor remained.

In the first round, Katie, Laura M, Monica, Tyson and Vytas squared off with a shot glass containing forty live meal worms, with three competitors making it through to the next round. Tyson was the first to finish, whilst Vytas coughed up his serve and began picking the worms off the ground to stay in the challenge. Monica was the next to finish, as Laura struggled. Katie was close to finishing hers, but it was Vytas who secured the last place in the round, eliminating Katie and Laura from the challenge.

In the next round, Caleb, Ciera, Gervase, Hayden and Tina took on the same delicacy. Gervase jumped up and down as he tried to chew the worms, as Ciera began spitting up the worms to drop out of the challenge. Caleb and Tina also struggled to keep the worms down, and Hayden was the first to finish. Gervase managed to finish his serve next, with Caleb claiming the last place in the next round.

The next delicacy was three ounces of pig intestines. As Tyson asked how they were prepared (“Beautifully,” answered Jeff), Monica psyched herself up. Hayden struggled to chew through it and Tyson began spitting up his serve. Meanwhile, Caleb, Gervase, Monica and Vytas fought through their retching to make slow and steady work of their plates. Telling herself it was “for the kids,” Monica was the first to finish. Gervase and Vytas both got their last bites into their mouths, but it was Gervase who finished first, to eliminate Caleb, Hayden, Tyson and Vytas from the challenge.

For the final round, Gervase and Monica squared off with two butok grubs, harkening back to the first season, in which Gervase lost immunity for his tribe when he struggled to eat grubs. Gervase reacted with horror at the sight and tried to psych himself up to get through it. When the round began, Gervase tried to down them both in one go, but dropped them on the table, and began jumping up and down once again as he tried to bite through them. Monica, too, retched as she chewed through one grub at a time. As Gervase powered through both at once, Monica finished her first grub and began on her second. However, it was Monica who finished first, running over to embrace Jeff as she showed her empty mouth. Thus, Monica was rewarded with Individual Immunity and the tribe headed back to camp.

Back at camp, Laura suggested that the Singles Alliance split the vote with the men targeting the primary target Vytas, and the women pooling votes on Katie to counter a Hidden Immunity Idol. In a confessional, Tyson discussed his reticence to complicate the vote, but didn’t want to reveal the fact that he had the Idol.

Vytas returned from a swim and asked the alliance who was on the block, but the group didn’t give him an answer. He later pulled Hayden aside and asked him if he was going home. Hayden told Vytas that the vote would be split between him and Katie. Vytas deduced that the split would be 4-3, and urged Hayden to put the four vote majority on Katie. Katie walked up to the conversation, and Vytas assured her that he wasn’t turning on her, although in a confessional, he noted that he would write her name down if it kept him in the game.

Meanwhile, Monica noticed the many discussions that were going on, and worried that the tribe was scrambling at the last minute because they’d been intending to vote her out if she hadn’t won Immunity. She confided her concern in Laura, who reiterated the split vote but was baffled by Monica’s paranoia.

Vytas approached Tyson to plead his case to split the vote with the majority on Katie, adding that leaving a pair in the game remained a bigger threat. Tyson told him that they were splitting the vote with four votes on Katie, but Vytas underscored his argument by putting his Jury vote on the table, saying he’d be more likely to vote for Tyson at the end if he was spared at this vote. Tyson brought the discussion to his alliance, and proposed taking out Katie instead. However, Ciera argued that it didn’t matter who went if they were solid in their alliance, and Kasama departed for Tribal Council.

At Tribal Council, Tina was first asked about the response at camp after Aras’ blindside. She recounted her mishap in publicly calling out Monica and Tyson. Vytas added that he was happy that Tina had made a scene, because he’d felt the same way, but didn’t want to make a bad impression. However, without warning, he launched into a rant expressing his anger at his brother’s blindside in which he cussed out the majority alliance. Jeff called him out for allegedly not wanting to make a scene, but then speaking up at Tribal. Vytas argued that it was the natural reaction, but he’d wanted his first impression to be one of understanding. Gervase noted that he understood all of Vytas’ emotional response, pointing out that he’d also threatened the rival tribe after his neice Marissa Peterson’s elimination.

Vytas acknowledged that it was a smart game move in a game about betrayal given that Aras did have a few alliance going, but then called out Monica’s paranoia and unpredictability as the catalyst for such a betrayal. Monica answered that she’d been true to her word in the game, and argued back that Vytas had flipped on her husband Brad Culpepper, leading to his elimination. Vytas countered that flipping was self-preservation, deriding Monica’s holier-than-thou attitude, saying she’d broken the trust they’d formed as part of the Galang tribe.

Katie was asked if it was obvious that it would be herself, Tina or Vytas on the block, and she wholeheartedly agreed. She added that if she survived the vote, then she’d hope to find some cracks in the majority alliance. Asked about his argument for staying, Vytas pointed to a potential women’s alliance if he was sent home, suggesting it would be the smart thing for the women to do after his elimination as Tyson and Gervase were the people in power.

Laura was called to vote first, followed by Katie, Vytas and Caleb. Monica then voted for Vytas, switching from the split vote plan at the last minute. Tina and Ciera followed, with the later casting her vote for Katie. Gervase, Tyson and Hayden concluded the proceeding and Jeff tallied the votes.

Nobody chose to play a Hidden Immunity Idol, and Jeff read the votes. The first was for Vytas, followed by one for Katie. The next vote was for Tyson (“Thai Sun”), to even the score at one vote each on Katie, Tyson and Vytas. However, the remaining votes all fell on Vytas, to make him the 11th person voted out of. Silently, his torch was snuffed and he departed for Redemption Island. Kasama then returned to camp, with Jeff noting that whilst Katie and Tina were now on the bottom, it also meant they had nothing to lose.

Kasama returned to camp, and Monica boasted of her decision to switch her vote to Vytas, repeating her voting confessional to the tribe. However, Gervase was disgruntled by her last minute choice, and entertained the idea of getting rid of Monica at the next vote.

Day 23
At Redemption Island, Aras and Vytas sat on the shore and discussed their predicament. Vytas was frustrated, and blamed Aras’ misjudgement of the alliance for his own elimination. Aras, however, remained optimistic, arguing that they were still in the game, but Vytas countered that Redemption Island was merely “purgatory.” Aras continued to disagree (“If I wasn’t in the game, I’d be eating a cheeseburger right now”), and was optimistic that he could make it back from Redemption. Vytas insisted that ‘’he’’ would win Redemption, and Aras insisted that he’d be happy either way – a view that the older brother did not share.

Day 24
The next day, Kasama convened for the next Immunity Challenge. Jeff took back the Immunity Necklace from Monica and revealed the challenge: Balancing Point. Each castaway would balance a sword on a rounded shield with one hand, and use the other to stack coins of different sizes on the hilt of the sword. If the coins fell off the sword they would be eliminated from the challenge, and the last person standing would claim Immunity.

Barely into the challenge, Ciera’s hands began to shake, but it was Monica who fell out of the challenge first. However, Ciera soon followed. Tina was the next person to slip out of the challenge, and she offered support to Katie from the sidelines. Gervase dropped out next, followed closely by Laura. Caleb’s coins were the next to fall, leaving only three: Hayden, Katie and Tyson. The three made it through the next couple coins, but in one fell swoop, Hayden and Tyson dropped their coins. Thus, Katie won Individual Immunity.

Back at camp, Katie and Tina discussed their next move. Tina decided to spend the afternoon trying to track down the Hidden Immunity Idol, and elsewhere, Tyson pulled in Caleb and Hayden to trail Tina to prevent her from finding it. Sure enough, when Tina disappeared up the beach, Ciera pointed the men in her direction and the trio pursued her down the beach. Although Tina didn’t have clear clues to work with, she managed to give her pursuers the slip. Nevertheless, they eventually caught up with her, locking Tina and Caleb, Hayden and Tyson in a stalemate. After biding her time long enough to hopefully cast some suspicion, Tina agreed to return to camp.

Later, Monica discussed the possibility of Tina having the Idol with Laura and Tyson. They entertained the idea of splitting the votes, but realising they’d have to split a vote onto a member of their alliance, they dropped the subject. Nevertheless, Monica was rattled, and worried that she might be the mark, but Tyson assured her that Tina was being closely watched.

Tyson brought up Monica’s paranoia in conversation with Gervase, who referred back to her impulse decision of switching her vote to Vytas. Gervase didn’t mind targeting Monica instead, and confirmed that back-up plan with Hayden. Hayden relayed the thought to Caleb as the alliance considered cutting their ties with Monica.

At Tribal Council, Jeff first asked Tina about her plan knowing she was outnumbered by the alliance and the obvious mark, and she said the only course of play was to find the Idol. She recounted her escapades with Caleb, Hayden and Tyson babysitting her on her Idol hunt and revealed that she’d managed to lose them twice. Jeff asked about the alternative solution of finding a crack in the alliance, which Tina affirmed and turned the attention to Monica, bluntly telling her she was on the bottom of the Singles Alliance.

Monica countered that that was a mere opinion and that she had her own relationships people within her alliance. Tina asked her if she didn’t think she was on the bottom, and Monica took a moment to think. She pointed out that Gervase and Tyson were a team, as were Caleb and Hayden, and the mother/daughter pairs. She agreed that she sometimes felt like an outsider.

Tina interjected that Monica was always the last to know about the vote because she talked too much and was therefore a liability. Gervase agreed that a talker was an “instantaneous” problem, adding that wildcards could pull down an entire plan in a second. Jeff asked Monica about the possibility of her going home and she agreed that there was always a fraction of doubt, and brought up the abandoned plan to split votes.

Hayden said that they ran through all possible scenarios, and concluded that it could be a safer play to counter the Idol and just vote out the seventh member of the alliance. Monica countered that voting her out was a stupid plan as she was a trustworthy member of the alliance. Tina argued that it was better to keep her around, as it offered the alliance an opportunity to get rid of Monica without the hassle and drama of a blindside, and concluded that the only way to ensure a blindside would be to pile votes on Tina only for them to nullified by an Idol.

Laura was called to vote first, followed by Tina and Caleb. Katie then cast her vote for Monica. Hayden and Ciera voted next, with Monica then casting her vote for Tina. Gervase and Tyson finished the votes, and Jeff tallied the result.

When asked if anybody had the Hidden Immunity Idol, Tina fumbled in her bag, but came up empty, joking, “I wish I found it, but I didn’t!” Jeff then read the votes. The first was for Monica, followed by one for Tina. A lone vote then emerged for Tyson, to leave the score at 1-1-1. However, the remaining votes were for Tina, and she became the 11th person voted out of. Tina kissed her daughter goodbye, and her torch was snuffed. She bid her former tribe farewell as she departed for Redemption Island. As Kasama headed back to camp, Jeff noted the emerging instabilities of the Singles Alliance.

Tina arrived at Redemption Island to greet Aras and Vytas. In confessionals, both Tina and Vytas were thinking about the upcoming Duel, with Tina optimistic that she might be able to survive despite the competition, but Vytas was confident she would be eliminated.

Immunity (Day 22)
Challenge: Pesky Palate

Castaways would have to eat exotic dishes in which they must eat all of it in their mouth and show their empty tongues to finish, in which a certain number of fastest finishers would advance to the next round. The castaway that finishes all stages wins immunity.

Winner: Monica Culpepper

Immunity (Day 24)
Challenge: Balancing Point

With one hand they will balance a sword on a shield. With their other hand, they will stack (unevenly sided) coins on the handle of the sword. As the stack of coins gets higher, it will get more difficult to balance. When the stack becomes too high, the coins may fall and they will then be out of the challenge. The last person standing wins immunity.

Winner: Katie Collins

Voting Confessionals
"kasama"

- What up, Brad?

Voting Confessionals
"kasama"

- Wonderful inspiration. Thanks for the fun.

Trivia

 * Vytas Baskauskas stated the episode title during Day 22's Tribal Council during his rant about Aras' elimination.
 * This is the first episode of the season to feature two Tribal Councils in a single episode, but not the first to feature multiple votes, as the first episode of the season saw two people voted out outside of Tribal Council in the First Impressions vote, along with a traditional Tribal Council vote-off.
 * This episode marks the first time Tina has been voted out during the merge phase of the game.
 * As of this episode, Aras and Vytas became the second loved one pair to live together on Redemption Island, the first being Candice and John Cody.
 * An additional round of the Pesky Palate challenge was unaired. Gervase, Monica and Vytas advanced from the second round featuring pig intestines. During the next round, the castaways left in the challenge ate cow eyeballs. Vytas was eliminated, whilst Gervase and Monica progressed to the final round. This was confirmed via a picture seen in CBS' official episode pictures, and also Monica Culpepper's and Vytas Baskauskas' Twitter.
 * Monica Culpepper and Tyson Apostol had the most confessionals this episode, with five each.
 * Ciera Eastin was the only castaway to not give a confessional in this episode.