Operation Thunder Dome

Operation Thunder Dome is the sixth episode of.

Challenges
Immunity Challenge: Crate Outdoors Each tribe sends two members at a time out to a field scattered with crates. Once all six crates were returned, they would be used to build a staircase that spelled "FANS VS. FAVORITES". The whole tribe then had to climb the staircase. The first tribe to climb the staircase after it is finished wins immunity. Winner: Gota

Day 14
On day 14, when the tribes arrived at what looked like a challenge, they were instead surprised by a tribal swap. With a smashing of paint filled eggs, the new Gota became Andrea, Brenda, Eddie, Erik, Malcolm, Reynold, and Sherri. The new Bikal was Cochran, Corinne, Dawn, Julia, Matt, Michael, and Phillip. Both tribes had a favorites majority. The new tribes did not partake in a challenge, but instead returned to their campsites.

At the new Gota, Eddie and Reynold told Erik and Malcolm that Sherri had been gunning for them from day 1 and they would be happy to join the Favorites in voting her out. Meanwhile, Sherri told her side of the story to Andrea and Brenda. Andrea and Malcolm later shared notes about the factions within the former Gota. Over at the new Bikal, Phillip approached Julia about flipping to the Favorites after the tribal merge. Corinne and Dawn were not happy that Phillip was talking possible alliances with Julia because they were already in an alliance with him.

Day 16
The Immunity Challenge was thoroughly dominated by Gota. With Brandon gone, Phillip and Corinne wanted to turn their attention to voting the other out, but they were stuck with each other, as they had to keep the Favorites alliance in the majority. Phillip told Matt and Michael that he was voting for Julia and that they could join the Stealth R Us alliance if they followed one of his orders some time in the future. Matt and Michael told Julia that they would join her in voting for Dawn, but were really going to vote for Julia. The Favorites discussed voting out Julia or Matt, who was suggested to be a target by Cochran to break up his alliance with Michael. When the voting came at Tribal Council, the Favorites decided to vote out Matt, and he was sent home by a vote of 4-2-1.

Behind the Scenes

 * This immunity challenge was used first in and later in Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains.
 * This challenge seems to be identical to the challenge that was supposed to be started in the previous episode, but the former favorites tribe decided to forfeit the challenge in order to vote off Brandon Hantz.  However, in episode 5, there was no instructions aired to the challenge to confirm this.
 * This is the first episode ever to show the castaways returning in the midday instead of at night after Tribal Council. This was due to the previous vote-off being held during the daytime.

Other

 * After the Tribe Switch, each tribe had one female Fan, two male Fans, two female Favorites, and two male Favorites. This made each tribe have 4 Favorites and 3 Fans, and also 4 male and 3 female members.
 * This marks the first time a male contestant was eliminated at the regular setting for exiting the game this season, as Shamar was medically evacuated and Brandon was voted off at an Impromptu Tribal Council at the challenge site.

Episode Title

 * This episode was named by Phillip, naming the strategy he planned on using to try and vote Corinne out with.