Big Bad Wolf

Big Bad Wolf is the tenth episode of.

Day 24
A storm brewed as Kasama returned to camp after voting out Tina Wesson. Her daughter Katie Collins was pessimistic, as despite her tribemates’ efforts to console her, she knew she was the next target. Meanwhile, Ciera Eastin and Laura Morett congratulated each other on being the last pair standing. They discussed the plan moving forward to vote out Katie (or Monica Culpepper if Katie were to win the Immunity Challenge), but in a confessional, Ciera noted the danger associated with being the last pair in the game.

Day 25
The next morning, Ciera and Laura again discussed the plan, agreeing to let Tyson Apostol hold the cards. Ciera urged her mother to avoid strategy talk in order to keep the target off of their back, and to cosy up to the women in the tribe as a “girl’s girl.”

Kasama then trekked to Redemption Island Arena for the first post-Merge Duel. The competitors Aras Baskauskas, Vytas Baskauskas and Tina Wesson filed into the Arena. Jeff Probst then revealed the challenge: Puppet Master. Each contestant would use a grappling hook to retrieve three bags, each containing a ball. They would then use one of those balls to navigate a large maze, riddled with hole traps, using hanging handles to tilt the maze. The first two people to navigate their ball into the center point would remain in the game, whilst the last-place finisher would become the first member of the Jury. In addition, the first place winner of the challenge would be able to give a clue to the Hidden Immunity Idol to any member of Kasama. Jeff asked Tina is she had considered allowing Katie to take her place at Redemption, but she insisted that she wouldn’t allow it.

Tina pulled out to an early lead, hooking her first bag with her first throw. As Aras collected his first bag, Vytas struggled to get a hang of the rope. Tina collected her second bag, and was cheered on by Laura, followed by Aras jovially caling out a request for Laura’s support. With her fourth throw, Tina got her third bag and began work on the table maze. Vytas finally got his first bag as Aras picked up his second. Vytas followed this up by retrieving his second bag to put the brothers on equal footing. As Tina began to navigate the ball through the maze, Vytas hooked his final bag, though Aras was not far behind.

With her headstart, Tina was rapidly nearing the center of the maze. Despite being urged to take his time by Gervase Peterson on the sidelines, Aras’ ball fell through a hole in the maze, forcing him to start over. Meanwhile, Vytas had made up a lot of ground to put himself neck-and-neck with Tina. Tina managed to navigate the ball into the final ring, but as she tried to tilt the maze to land it in the finishing spot, the ball rolled out of the ring and into a hole, sending her back to the start. Vytas also managed to get into the center section and managed to land his ball in the finishing spot to remain in the game.

Aras and Tina both neared the middle of the maze, but Tina once again reached the center ring first. Despite a close call, Tina landed her ball in the finishing spot first, to become the second person to remain at Redemption, and eliminate Aras from the game.

Jeff asked Aras about his relationship with Vytas, pointing back to the Sumo challenge in which his brother had taken a cheap shot. Aras struggled for an answer, and Vytas interjected that their old rivalries had re-emerged in the game, but he wouldn’t take advantage of his brother again and believed that they would develop a healthy relationship over time. Aras agreed that their bond had been getting better with every day, and he hoped that they would grow old together and be able to tell their grandchildren “about the experience we had out here when we got blindsided by Gervase” (to which Vytas and Gervase both chuckled). With no hard feelings, Aras hugged Vytas and Tina goodbye, promised to eat some cheeseburgers for them and tossed his Buff into the fire, becoming the tenth person eliminated from, and the first member of the Jury.

Vytas was then given the choice of who would receive the clue to the Hidden Immunity Idol, and he chose to share it with Katie. She decided to keep the clue, and break the tradition of publicly burning them. Tina and Vytas returned to Redemption Island, and Kasama headed back to camp.

Back at camp, the tribe congratulated Katie on her mother’s behalf. Katie excused herself to go to the bathroom, but the tribe joked that she could go and read her clue. Sure enough, in private she read the clue to the Hidden Immunity Idol (which also contained an illustrated direction to its location). Determining the location of the Idol, Katie began her hunt.

Meanwhile, at camp, Laura suggested hiding the sharp tools to prevent Katie from having anything to dig with, and the Singles Alliance agreed that it would be possible to find it before she did, or at the very least, dig near her. Tyson, however wasn’t worried as he already possessed the Idol. Rather he wanted to pursue a big move and approached Caleb Bankston and Hayden Moss about splitting the vote with the men’s votes on Laura in order to split up the last pair, and also avoid needing Ciera to write her mother’s name down. Caleb and Hayden agreed to the plan, and Tyson noted that it would be the last opportunity to get rid of Laura before she started to become suspicious. In a confessional, Hayden weighed up the options, but reiterated his loyalty to Tyson.

Later in the day, as Tyson continued to joke around camp, Ciera pulled Laura aside to discuss the future of their games. In a confessional, Ciera said that she needed to have the difficult conversation about voting out her own mother, but expressed that it was something she didn’t want to do, but might need to do to further her own game. As the pair sat on the beach, Ciera laid out her opinion that had Laura not been in the game at that point, she was on lock for the Final Three. Laura questioned whether Ciera would win in that scenario, and Ciera bluntly replied that she wasn’t certain of that, but believed she had a better chance of winning than her mother. She thought that in order for Laura to make it all the way to the end, she’d have to go on an Immunity streak, which would only result in Ciera being voted out in her mother’s stead. She also worried that Katie could replace her in the alliance, but Laura thought the alliance would hold together. Nevertheless, Ciera didn’t think it was reasonable to expect the two of them to make it all the way to the end. Laura accepted her daughter’s argument, and in a confessional, tearfully discussed her pride in Ciera’s courage, strength and determination.

Day 26
Before dawn broke, Katie awoke and tried to sneak away from camp to dig for the Idol. However, Laura noticed she’s left the shelter and chased down the beach after her. Laura caught her, spoiling Katie’s plans, but Katie chose to “search” in the wrong places in order to throw Laura off the scent. Back at camp, Hayden and Caleb told Gervase, Tyson and Ciera about Laura’s pursuit.

In confessional, Tyson revealed that he planned to tell Ciera about the move to take out her mother in hope that it might soften the blowback. The two took a walk to the well where he announced that he had something to tell her. Ciera guessed that he was voting for her mother, but Tyson lied that he wasn’t voting for Laura, but told her that Caleb and Hayden were planning to vote for her mother. Ciera told him that she was okay with her mother being out of the game, but in a confessional, she revealed that she’d hoped that day would come later rather than sooner.

At the Immunity Challenge, Jeff first took back the Immunity Necklace from Katie. He then revealed the challenge: Splash Back. Each castaway would stand on a small pivoting platform, leaning out over the water and holding onto a rope. Every five minutes, they would move down a knot on the rope, increasing the difficulty. The last person standing would win Immunity – and a reward of hamburgers, cheeseburgers, hot dogs, French fries and soft drink.

Very early on, Hayden began to struggle and became the first person out of the challenge. Caleb followed soon after. After moving down to the next knot, Gervase and Ciera slipped out of the challenge. Katie dropped out next to leave three: Laura, Monica and Tyson. Laura then fell out, as the two remaining competitors fought to keep their grip. Ultimately, Tyson fell out first, granting Monica her second Individual Immunity.

She received the Necklace and was then led to her Reward. Jeff told her that she could share it with one other castaway. Instead, she proposed that she give up the chance to eat herself, and give the food to her seven other tribemates, saying, “This is my family out here.” Jeff asked Caleb what he thought about Monica’s motivation for giving up her Reward. He answered that it might have a political component, but thought that it was mostly driven by Monica’s motherly spirit. As Monica and Kasama swapped places and her tribe dug into the food, the tribe thanked her.

Upon returning to camp, the tribe reiterated their thanks to Monica as a snake was detected in the shelter. Worried by the fact that Laura’s name was on the list, Ciera lay down in the hammock with Katie and rekindled their working relationship with a pinky swear. Ciera told her that Monica, Gervase and Tyson were voting for Laura and were trying to pull her in as the fourth vote. Katie told her that she still planned to play the Idol to be safe, but Ciera replied that she didn’t believe it, claiming that she had found the Idol. Almost instantly, Katie gave up her lie, asking Ciera where she’d found it.

Ciera then went to her mother and told her that the vote was planned against her, but she knew Katie didn’t have the Idol and proposed the idea of telling Tyson the information, and thus spare Laura, which Laura agreed to. Ciera then informed Tyson, Caleb and Hayden of her mind-tricks with Katie, and pushed for the vote to turn back on the original target. Hayden agreed to the change of plan given the target wasn’t on him, and Caleb added that it would be a more honourable move.

As the tribe sat down to play a game involving drawing rocks, Tyson noted in confessional that Ciera had shown herself to have more game than he had initially suspected, compounding his desire to take out Laura. Tyson later met up with Monica and told her that Ciera was trying to change the votes back to Katie, but instructed her to stick with the plan to oust Laura. He also instructed Gervase and Caleb to stick with voting Laura, but Caleb revealed in a confessional that he would prefer to vote out Katie.

Kasama arrived at Tribal Council, and Aras, the first member of the Jury, joined them. Jeff first asked Katie about surviving the last vote only to know she was the next target. She said she’d felt the pressure, and had just hoped to receive the Idol clue at Redemption. Caleb said that there were a lot of “maybes” floating around, and that Katie could or could not have the Idol, and they just had to plan around that.

Asked about the last remaining pair in Ciera and Laura, Tyson noted that pairs had been targets since the beginning and nothing had changed by Day 26. Caleb added that Ciera and Laura had to be considered differently to Katie and Tina as the former couple had more drive as individual players. Hayden said there was some truth to the idea that Ciera and Laura were only playing for themselves, and may turn on each other, citing the competitiveness between them (“I brought you into this world...”), but asserted that the bond they shared was still much stronger than that between anybody else.

Laura countered that having a loved one pair made her more of an asset, saying that if someone got one of them, then they would automatically get two votes (at which point Ciera rolled her eyes in exasperation). Katie made the rebuttal that wanting to get to the end with a loved one made them a threat. Laura argued that sending a loved one home meant that the loved one would be able to lobby Jury votes for their player still in the game, and claimed that keeping her around would ensure that that influence was not on the Jury. She added that problems always arose when people started to bail out of the alliance early, which would only lead to the Final Three comprising of people who weren’t really in the original alliance and everybody else would be sitting on the Jury wondering “what the heck did we do wrong?”

Lastly, Caleb weighed up the options of splitting the pair with voting out the last member of the original alliance, but also noted several possible divisions in the future along gender or tribal lines, feeling the game could swing any way.

Katie was called to vote first, followed by Hayden and Gervase. Laura, Tyson and Monica voted next, and Caleb and Ciera rounded out the ritual. Jeff then tallied the votes.

Nobody elected to play an Idol, and Jeff read the votes. The first came up for Laura, followed by one for Katie. As the storm rumbled overhead, Jeff read the next two votes for Laura. As the fourth vote for Laura came up, Ciera was already tearful. The final nail in the coffin was Ciera’s vote for “Laura (Mom).” Ciera hugged her mother and apologised, but Laura told her that it was okay and that she would “come back for [her].”  Laura took her torch to Jeff, where it was snuffed for the second time to make her the 13th person voted out of. Before departing for Redemption, Laura turned back to tell Ciera that she loved her. With only individuals remaining in the game, Jeff sent Kasama back to camp.

Duel
Challenge: Puppet Master

Each player will toss a grappling hook to retrieve a bag that contains the ball. After the bag is retrieved, they will move immediately on to the table maze, where they must navigate a ball through a labyrinth using handles connected to the table in a puppet-style fashion. Tilting the table, they manipulate the ball through to the center. If the ball falls into a hole, the player must start over.

Winners (in order of finish):  Vytas Baskauskas and Tina Wesson (Vytas gave Hidden Immunity Idol clue to Katie Collins)

Reward/Immunity
Challenge: Back Splash

Each contestant holds onto a rope while leaning out over the water and balancing on a small platform. At designated intervals, the contestants will be lowered, increasing the angle at which they hang over the water by moving their hands down the rope. Last person holding on wins the challenge.

Reward: Hamburgers, hot dogs, french fries and soda.

Winner: Monica Culpepper (gave up the reward for the tribe)

Voting Confessionals
Unavailable.

Trivia

 * Two castaways participating in this episode's duel are both former Sole Survivors.
 * This also marks the first time a former winner has competed in a Redemption Island Duel.
 * This is the first time a female castaway competed in the first post-merge duel.
 * This episode marks the first time Aras Baskauskas has been eliminated from the game.
 * This episode's title is said by Tyson Apostol when describing himself.
 * This episode marks the first and only time a castaway has voted his or her loved one out.
 * This episode marks the first time this season that detailed voting results (that is, voting results showing who voted for who) were shown.
 * This episode marks the second time Laura Morett has been voted out this season with seven votes.
 * At this point, she has set the new record for most votes against accumulated in a season with 19, breaking the 17 votes set by Phillip Sheppard in Survivor: Redemption Island and Ozzy Lusth in Survivor: South Pacific.
 * This episode marks the first time in a Veterans vs. Newbies season (which includes, and this season, ) in which the new players have outnumbered the veterans in a Merged tribe.
 * However, due to Redemption Island, the number of veterans and new players in the game is still equal (3 in Kasama and 2 in Redemption Island for veterans, 4 in Kasama and 1 in Redemption Island for new players).
 * This episode marks Monica's second Individual Immunity win.
 * Ciera Eastin received the most confessionals in this episode, with seven.
 * Aras Baskauskas, Gervase Peterson, Monica Culpepper, Tina Wesson and Vytas Baskauskas received no confessionals in this episode.