An Emerging Plan

An Emerging Plan is the eighth episode of.

Day 15
During the night, it begins to rain and Courtney has a horrible time sleeping between being soaking wet and dealing with elbows from Shane.

Day 16
A miserable Courtney and Danielle discuss getting rid of Shane, who adamantly wanted out of their alliance. While tidying up his rock garden Bruce feels like he is the odd man out and he hopes that he can make it to the merge.

Sally looks for the idol at Exile Island but is happy to still be alive in the game. She wonders if Terry perhaps found the idol already...

At La Mina, tree-mail indicates that there is treasure to be found on the back of their beach. The three men take a walk to find it and discover a boat with a crate inside.A note tells them to pack up their things and meet up with Casaya where they can open the crate together -- must be a merge!

When a lazy Casaya sees the three coming, they quickly scarf down the rest of their rice so that they don't have to share and agree to go to the final six together. Upon Sally joining them from Exile Island, the castaways open the crate and confirm that they are a merged tribe! They share all of the food within and La Mina is pleased with how well they have been welcomed by Casaya.

Bruce finds himself in the swing vote position, entertaining both an offer from Terry and leadership respect from Shane and Aras. While working on a new shelter, Nick is cutting through some rope and accidentally hits Bruce in the face with the machete, splitting his lip and chipping a tooth. Nick is mortified but Bruce is okay and doesn't let it affect his game.

Day 17
The former La Mina members attempt to recruit a fifth member into their alliance but Austin has no luck with Aras, and Terry has no luck with Shane or Cirie. At the immunity challenge, Terry hangs on in an endurance challenge the longest and wins the first individual immunity.

Day 18
Casaya gathers together and debate on whether to vote for Austin or Nick. Shane annoys the former La Mina's, earning their votes. Austin reveals his strategy to appear weak in the immunity challenge but ultimately Nick is voted out 6-4.

Immunity
Challenge: Vampire Bats 

The members of the newly-merged tribe must use their arms and legs to hang beneath a raised log for as long as possible.

Winner: Terry Deitz

Voting Confessionals
"gitanos"

- No qualms man, just voting for you because you led the charge to get me out of here.

"gitanos"

- This makes me really sad.

Final Words
"gitanos"

- All you kids that are in their twenties and in my situation and are not sure which direction life is pulling you, you are just trying to find yourself...I urge us all, please, be hungry and foolish. Find yourself. Be who you potentially are and be true to your dreams and what you really want to do. If we all maximize that personal freedom, we will change the world.

Trivia

 * The two tribes merged on Day 16, this is the earliest merge in the history of the show.
 * This was the last time someone is voted out post-merge and is not part of the jury, until it happened in Blindside Time.

Episode Title
The episode title is a pun on the word "merge".