Don't Bite the Hand That Feeds You

Don't Bite the Hand That Feeds You
Episode Information
Version	United States
Season	Island of the Idols
Episode Number	5/14 (574)
Original Release	October 23, 2019
Viewership (in Millions)	6.82
Ratings/Share (18-49)	1.3/6
Episode Chronology
Previous	"Plan Z"
Next	"Suck It Up Buttercup"
Subpages

Don't Bite the Hand That Feeds You is the fifth episode of Survivor: Island of the Idols.

Story

Day 12

	Dean	“	At Tribal Council, I was completely blindsided by the Chelsea vote out. I absolutely feel left out, ostracized, and like, it's absolutely a wake-up call. My boys at home would say I got "got". Dean Kowalski woke up and immediately turned to Detective Dean Kowalski, the goal being who ordered this hit. Detective Dean Kowalski is looking for motive in the Chelsea Walker case. I don't think it's me clearly, I don't think it's Chelsea; she's at home eating Oreos. My man Tom wanted Karishma out forever. So my main suspects are Elizabeth, Elaine, Missy, and Aaron; so I interrogate them.	”

	Dean	“	I want to find out who the hell is this strategic mastermind that's convinced the whole freaking tribe away from Karishma and toward Chelsea because they are super, super good at this game and most likely need to be not only watched, but need to go.	”

	Missy	“	Yeah, Dean, it was me! I took your girlfriend out of this game. [...] I felt good about that blindside! I put it together quickly, and people pulled it off, but Dean doesn't take the blindside well. He's mad. Well, crap, Dean! I kept you here today. You don't bite the hand that feeds you; you really don't. You shouldn't; you really, really shouldn't.	”

	Lauren	“	When Jeff says, "Everyone, drop your buffs.", I was cringing so hard because nothing is set in stone! It's like you have to start all over again from square one and sort of solidify your position within a new tribe, and that just scares me big time!	”

A Tribe Switch occurred.

Dean Lairo	Jack Lairo	Jamal Lairo	Janet Lairo	Karishma Lairo	Kellee Lairo	Noura Lairo	Tom Lairo
Aaron Vokai	Dan Vokai	Elaine Vokai	Elizabeth Vokai	Jason Vokai	Lauren Vokai	Missy Vokai	Tommy Vokai

	Dan	“	We're opening up our boxes, and I have purple, and at that moment, I could breathe; and I just sort of looked around for who is going to be purple, and immediately I see that our tribe is four and four, so this is a doomsday scenario.	”

	Elaine	“	I got lucky! I got real lucky because even though we're four-four here on Vokai, we have strong people to win challenges, and I got on a tribe with my alliance. Survivor gods shined on me basically, so I got-- I got real lucky, and I was so happy!	”

	Dean	“	I was excited for a new change because I was blindsided by the whole tribe on the Chelsea vote-out; but where I landed, I'm down five-three, and already I'm thinking to myself, "Not a good spot to be".	”

	Karishma	“	I love Applebee's! Applebee's is by far my favorite like, sit-down restaurant! [...] This is the biggest reward, and we are going to get this!	”

	Tom	“	We had a chance at a great reward, and I hate to keep putting it on the same person, but Karishma just was not going to be able to perform going through the sand, and the sad thing is she's been on puzzles, we tried her in the physical role, and she just hasn't been able to do anything, so we have our work cut out for us.	”

	Tommy	“	Walking up to Applebee's was unbelievable because first thing we saw was the Shark Bowl, clear, ocean blue with the gummy shark on top! We're in the Fiji Islands and that's just the island drink you want, [...] and all this food in the background, the Buffalo wings, the spinach artichoke dip! [...] Their fajitas was amazing, and my mouth was watering! It was unbelievable, so it was one of the greatest moments, and it's something I will never forget for the rest of my life!	”

	Jason	“	The dangers of a four-four split are-- it's even hard to put into words because there is so much danger, and there is so much that could potentially happen. For example, we could have a tie at Tribal Council, and there's a chance that we have to draw rocks to see who goes home, so we really have to think of a way to get one of these new Vokai members over with us.	”

	Elaine	“	I like the new tribe members. This is like the honeymoon phase, so pretty soon, that may fade and the alcohol fades. Then we'll see, [...] and my tribe, they were immediately chitchattin' and cuttin' up with the Vokai people. I don't like that because we don't know these people. Like, they could be lying through their teeth. Y'know, you can't trust them, so we definitely need to stay four-strong.	”

	Karishma	“	I had been really hating my tribe for a long time. They essentially bullied me, refused to work with me and wrote my name down at two Tribal Councils in a row. On top of that, I just showed my entire new tribe how weak I am in challenges physically, so I'm screwed! [...] I have one choice to stay alive; I have one choice to keep breathing, and that's to flip on old Lairo.	”

	Tom	“	From the old tribe, we've got Dean, who I had a pretty good relationship with and uh, Karishma, who uh, I don't know how I would describe that, but I would say her and I are not best friends; and on top of that, I'm on a tribe where we are down in numbers five to three. It's not a great feeling, but y'know, that's Survivor. Y'know, coming into the game, that's the way it is, and you can't sit around and mope about it. You got to get to work.	”

	Dean	“	Kellee and I have been vibin' a bit. Funny thing is I come to find out we have a mutual friend, a very special mutual friend, my only like long-term girlfriend, [...] one that I dated for six plus years, and they happen to go to business school together. Being able to talk about shared experiences, shared friends brings your relationship to another level that you don't necessarily have with other people, so I'm going to try to work that angle.	”

	Kellee	“	Dean and I immediately had a close bond, and after our conversation, I was like, "Okay, this sounds like a guy I could definitely work with"-- but Karishma wants to flip. Like, I think she's with us. It's five old Vokai, three old Lairo, and as far as I know, we're staying Vokai strong; so these three people seem to be at the mercy of the five old Vokai members.	”

	Karishma	“	I feel really good about my new family. It is incredible to open up and be vulnerable at that level and talk about my marriage.	”

	Karishma	“	I've been married for four and a half years, but I've been questioning my life choices, and I really, really need to understand what this next chapter is gonna entail. That is my purpose here in this game.	”

	Karishma	“	You know, I've had really meaningful conversations with the Vokai members. I can relate to them more. They may understand me on a level that old Lairo just could not understand me, [...] so I think I may be able to get a footing in this game. I am no longer Lairo; I'm moving, I am moving over.	”

	Aaron	“	Elaine is doing what she does. She's doing an incredible job at the social game, and that's the only way you're going to win this game is to get people to genuinely, truly like you.	”

	Aaron	“	So I have to form real relationships and real bonds with people, and say, "You know what, let's just talk about our kids. Let's just talk about family" because if they don't like you, why are they going to keep you around?	”

	Aaron	“	I'm very fortunate that I get to experience Survivor with my son. I mean, to visually see your child everyday and his smile, it's like, "All right, buddy! Like, we're going to do this man!"	”

	Tommy	“	Aaron and myself, we're like bros, so bing! I'm with him now. I know he wants to work with me, and I hope he's willing to vote out one of the old Lairo!	”

	Missy	“	I agree with Aaron. Lairo has been dead; orange does not exist anymore. [...] It's like, "Hey new tribe! By the way, I, I love this swap, and I'm super happy, and I'm ready to flip."	”

Day 14

	Jack	“	Tom, Karishma, and Dean, I feel like I've connected with them all very, very well; but Karishma did not do herself any favors. She has an inability to perform in challenges, and I'm ready for a "W" in orange.	”

	Dean	“	I'm a Division I basketball player, and that was my Survivor moment, and I blew it. I can't believe it was to that long, pale redhead goofball-looking guy. [...] To add to it, me, Tom, and Karishma are just at their whim really, and it's like, it's up to me to make the best scenario why not me.	”

	Tom	“	We're kind of limited in what we can do. They're not going to send one of their own people home. It's going to be one of us three that are going to go home tonight, but what I'm encouraged by is they don't want to lose any more challenges, and that really points the finger at Karishma.	”

	Jamal	“	There's not much Karishma can do at this point to make a good case for herself in any challenge capacity. We all see it; we've been seeing it all, all game long. She is a liability. [...] If we vote out Karishma, then we don't have to worry about in the next few challenges how to minimize the damage that she can cause by the physical limitations that she has. Nothing mean about that, it's just the reality.	”

	Karishma	“	Considering how I was viewed as weak in the challenge, it definitely is not crazy to assume the tribe wants to let go of me, so I'm out here now with the old Vokai playing up the social game.	”

	Janet	“	Tom is old school man, very straight shooter, which is very typical of men of that age [...] He's just going to say it the way it is. There's going to be no hidden agendas with him, which I appreciate. He, however, has more of a tribal mentality, and I believe if we got to a merge, I would lose him to his old tribe.	”

	Kellee	“	I really like Dean. I want to work with him, but there's something about Dean that makes you want to work with him and makes you want to trust him, but also that makes me very, very weary of Dean and makes him a huge threat in this game, so Dean is not the right person to bring into the merge.	”

	Noura	“	Tonight is somewhat simple. The only monkey wrench in there is when I went to the Island of the Idols, I lost my vote for tonight, [...] so that puts us four-three, but thank God, we still have the numbers. I feel so lucky, and even though I don't have my vote, I still have a say. I still am analyzing the game like, what would be best for my game, our game. Some people are thinking Karishma because she's weaker; Dean is a physical threat; and Tom is likeable guy, but he's not as physical of a threat as I thought. So now you got these three people and you're like, "Do we go with the weakest person to go out so we do better in winning as a tribe, or do we just get rid of like the threats now so that we go to the merge and we don't have to deal with them then?" So I'm going to have to really think about it in order to make the best decision for this vote.	”

Challenges

• Reward
• Immunity

Challenge: Headlong Flight
The castaways' feet are tied together and their arms are bound to their sides. Tethered into three pairs of two, they must slither through the sand to make it across the finish line. Once the last pair is across, the two untethered members must solve a fire-shaped puzzle.
Reward: Fajita meal provided by Applebee's, including desserts and drinks.
Winner: Vokai

Challenge: Discography
Four castaways from each tribe must swim out to a giant ladder jutting out over the water, climb it, leap into the water, and dive down to retrieve buoys. They must then maneuver the buoys across a set of balance beams. The last four members must then use the buoys to score three baskets. The first tribe to score three baskets wins.
Winner: Vokai

Tribal Council

Tribal Council 5: Lairo
Voted Against	Voter (Noura ineligible to vote)
Tom (5 votes)	Jack, Jamal, Janet, Karishma, Kellee
Karishma (2 votes)	Dean, Tom
VOTED OUT: Tom Laidlaw

Voting Confessionals

No voting confessionals were aired this episode. Noura was seen writing down that she had no vote.

Final Words

	Tom	“	I guess I naively felt that Karishma was the one that was going home tonight. It was clear that she was holding people back in our challenges, but there's all kinds of strategies to the game and obviously they have a strategy to why they kept her. But I love being out here playing Survivor and I'm totally proud of myself. I am taking credit for being the first Canadian to play and I guess if I'm gonna to take credit for that, I have to take credit for the first Canadian to be voted out as well.	”

Still in the Running

Ronnie 20th	Molly 19th	Vince 18th	Chelsea 17th	Tom 16th	Aaron Vokai	Dan Vokai	Dean Lairo	Elaine Vokai	Elizabeth Vokai
Jack Lairo	Jamal Lairo	Janet Lairo	Jason Vokai	Karishma Lairo	Kellee Lairo	Lauren Vokai	Missy Vokai	Noura Lairo	Tommy Vokai

Trivia

Other

• No footage from Day 13 was shown in the episode.
• The title of this episode is said by Missy Byrd during a confessional about Dean Kowalski trying to figure out who instigated the blindside on Chelsea Walker at the previous Tribal Council.