Castaways must decide between choosing heart over head as they enter the final six and last stage of the game. Letters from home feed the soul and strengthen bonds during this week's reward at the sanctuary.
The final six return to camp. Mitch claims that it is finally time to make his move. Eva explains that she is confident about her position in the game, since she has a strong alliance and is the only person whom she knows has a Hidden Immunity Idol.
This Tribal Council was the last time I could use my Safety Without Power, and I opted not to use it. Securing the safety of my entire team is more important than securing my own safety, but I still have an idol in my pocket, and from what I know, I'm the only one with any additional power. I feel really good about my position. I have a strong alliance that now is in the majority. With Kyle, Shauhin, Joe, and myself, that's four out of six. So it should be pretty cut and dry. We just pick off the other members.
I think we're in a unique situation, meaning the alliance that I'm a part of, because if the four stays strong, even if Mitch or Kamilla wins immunity, the other one would go home.
Kind of at a crossroads here. Been kinda trying to figure out whether or not I'm just gonna slide to the end with the four or try to make a final salvo with Kamilla and Mitch. And while Kamilla is definitely my clear cut number one, I do have emotional ties on the other side. But I've been playing with heart, and it's time to play with a little bit more of my head.
I am gonna be very, very, very mad if it's another arm-based challenge. (showing off legs) Look at these things. These things are incredible. They should be in a museum. Museum worthy. Didn't get to use them once? Come on, bro.
Mitch, he's like, 'Alright, it's time to play.' I'm sitting here thinking, do I wanna go with Joe and Eva? Or am I delusional? A lot of people think Joe has been playing the best game. I know he's not playing the best game. I'm playing the best game. And at the end of the day, I really care about Joe. I'm not trying to just make moves to make moves. I'm trying to win the game. So is it worth the risk - yet?
Now is the time to go after Joe because nobody wants to sit with Joe at the end because he's been perceived as the leader of the majority group. He's won so many challenges. He's got a good story.
So, Kyle still feels hesitant to get Joe out. He's playing a game of chicken with him and Shauhin, and one of them need to make a move first. But I'm like, now is the time to, like, actually start playing Survivor and not just let Joe and Eva decide who's going home. We're at the end. Like, this is our final shot. We have to take it now.
”
The Reward Challenge is Invertigo. The castaways must lie on an incline while holding on to narrow handgrips. As the challenge begins, Shauhin complains about the ganglion cyst on his wrist and the pain that the challenge causes him. Ultimately, Shauhin pulls off a surprising victory.
Finally, I won something. I have a busted wrist, but knowing that food and letters from home was on the line, I was winning that challenge. And now we get the ultimate reward. Filling your belly, rejuvenating your mind with some sleep, and then filling your soul.
I haven't eaten in a week. You could have given me cardboard with some salt on it, and I would have been pumped. The food was just insane, but knowing that I got to read my letter from my mom, that's the thing that I was looking forward to more than anything.
This one's from my mom. This is what I was fighting for. This is the one I wanted to read. “Since you have been born until now, you always have surprised me. Your achievements are so honorable that it brings me so much joy.” Today is a huge day for me. It's - it's Survivor euphoria.
He wrote “bravest dad ever”. And then he said, believe in yourself, dad. And he's 10. It is hard to believe in yourself out here. And then, you know, your 10 year old son has the wisdom to tell you that. It's pretty awesome.
My dad is, like, one of my best friends, my first friend. And now, I'm sitting next to Joe and Shauhin while I'm reading this letter and both of them have lost their dads. They both have had such significant loss. And Joe talks about his dad and - and the passing of his sister just a few years prior.
I lost my sister to domestic violence, and it was pretty brutal, the way she passed. And my last night, before she passed, we fought on the phone. And I've been struggling with that since she's been gone now for a while.
We always say we love each other when we get off the phone, but we didn't that night. And then I never heard her voice again. I never saw her again. And so living with that has been very difficult.
I'm, like, frustrated with how things are going at this game. It was like, alright. If we get to six, like, we can make moves. We can make sure that we're in control, that we fuel the right people. But the move Shauhin made didn't make sense from a competitive standpoint.
Mitch is, like, super frustrated with Shauhin at this point for handing Joe a million dollars because you are feeding the enemy. We need Joe to not win immunity.
It felt like all my boys went out on the town, went to go have a banger of a night, and left me home with my parents. I'm sitting home with two, like, adults that wanna, like, watch the news. But I hope that they do think of me when they're there and maybe, like, cheers a burger to me to be like, you know what? Like, we have her back at camp to watch the other two and make sure they're not scheming.
I have been incredibly patient in this game so far. Thoughtful, waiting to make a move, but is it all gas, no brakes time? Is it time to throw caution to the wind? Risk it all?
I've been spooked of Shauhin ever since he went through my bag and lied to my face on new Vula. So I realized Shauhin is now starting to sort of make his play, and I think that he needs me to be a part of that. And it's like the game of chicken between me and him because it truly does come down to who might make the move first.
Thankfully, Shauhin helps me out by proposing to me betraying the other people in our alliance. Now I think he's actually ready to make a move against Joe or Eva.
I wanna make a move, but I don't wanna make Shauhin's move. And whether this conversation is real or not, it gives me every single bit of moral go ahead to play the game the way I want to. The game of chicken is over, but I do have to beat him to the punch, and it just so happens that he's my punchline. He has to be my target, and I have to figure out a way to paint the perfect target on his back.
The reward was great. I was able to get full and get a clear head, but I couldn't sleep that much because I was thinking about all the things that needed to get done. We all do our pleasantries, but then I know it's kinda time to get to business. So I need to talk to Kamilla. The best leverage I have in this game is that no one knows that Kamilla and I are working the room together. And we've really been trying to workshop ideas on how we both can get to the end, how one of us can get to the end, and most importantly, how one of us can get to the end and win.
I'm trying to figure out a way for Kamilla and I to guarantee ourselves to the final four. And the only way that I could think to do it is to actually get rid of Shauhin, but to do it without blood on Kamilla and I's hands. To the contrary, I actually need it to look like Kamilla and I saved Joe and Eva by saying that Shauhin's trying to flip and you're the target.
This plan is absolutely wild. Kyle is going to start a little rumor that involves me. And I'm gonna say that Shauhin wanted to make a move, and he showed me he had this idol.
And I'm like, damn. Kyle is smart. Like, I couldn't have even thought of something like that. Like, that is an amazing plan. And I think through it. I'm like, this actually could work.
This is gonna be a very hard sell. Kamilla and I have had to act together a lot through this game. But to me, this kinda seems like our final act that we need to do.
This plan is, like, super risky, but if we can pull off this move, we can take out one of the bigger threats in this game. So, we're gonna frame Shauhin tonight.
Coming into this game, my motivation was my sister. She's the one that wanted to be here. She's the one that saw it from the first episode. That's why I applied. I wanted to be Joanna's voice. And so, I needed some closure to try to hopefully help start some healing.
I think that getting those letters of my son telling me I'm courageous gave me the push to have the courage to just say that stuff out loud. I needed some closure and just that chance to say goodbye. So.
Joe completely smoked everyone in that challenge. I bet he wouldn't have if he wasn't fed or well-rested. So Shauhin just threw his own game, really, because he might very likely go home tonight. And if he goes home tonight, it's because he fed Joe.
I have this plan to blindside Shauhin, and Kamilla and I are already prepped. We've already sort of figured out our roles. The first person that I need to talk to and the first step of this plan is I need to get to Joe. But Shauhin's the guy that Joe's been working with since day one. And Joe having the necklace makes it all the harder because Joe, when he doesn't have the necklace, has shown to be not cool head Joe. So it makes my plan to blindside Shauhin even harder to sell because I needed Joe sort of in a little bit of a tizzy. But regardless, it's now or never. It just requires a little bit more creativity from Kamilla and I. You gotta roll up your sleeves and go to work. I always have my sleeves rolled just in case I gotta do a little dirty work.
The truth is that Shauhin actually is thinking about flipping. The flat out lie is that Kamilla saw Shauhin with an idol. I need to see Joe's paranoia come out a little bit because if he is scared of an idol, he won't go to Shauhin to confront him about this.
When I hear this information, I freeze for a moment and analyze who's telling me this. Why are they telling me it? Body language, eye contact. So basically, once I get the transcript in my head, I have to think of why. Why are you telling me this?
Hearing that Shauhin was flipping on us felt like a punch in the gut. I've been working with him for a very long time, but he's smart enough to realize if he sits next to me and Joe, he's not winning.
So I corroborate Kyle's story with Joe. I tell him all of the lies, and Joe seems to buy it. I will throw Shauhin completely under the bus. My favorite thing to do on Survivor is just pick a person, don't give them any heads up, run them over with a bus, back up, run them over again. That's just what I've been doing out here, and it's fun.
Joe and Shauhin have been tight this entire game. So this is scary to pull off because if Joe goes back to Shauhin and tells him, Kamilla told me that she saw your idol. It's very likely that I'll get caught in all these lies and I might be the person going home tonight.
I have a conversation with Shauhin, and I straight went dad mode. And that's where you believe now, based on the facts, there's a possibility your kids put their hands in the cookie jar.
I even baited him. I was hoping that maybe he would sense my vibe, and just go, “alright, man. Here's what I did.” But he stuck to our original story, which is we're gonna vote out Mitch.
I finally get a chance to talk to my number one and he doesn't wanna talk to me? I don't know where that came from. You're acting like you're bummed, and I don't understand how you could possibly be bummed when you for sure have a spot in the final five. Cheer up, buddy. You get to be viewed as a savage in this game. You get to walk around with your shirt off in those massive pecs. It felt like I was being put on time out, and I don't like being treated like a child.
This is my nightmare. It's a very meta sort of inception like experience where I know that I'm trying to flip on Shauhin and get him out of this game. And to do so, I have to talk through all the options with him.
This does remind me a little bit of the new Vula days when Kamilla and I kinda had to put on a show for everybody. But the hope is that we pull off this plan to blindside Shauhin, and that Kamilla and I are rock solid undercover still. That's something that I don't wanna be revealed until the very end of this game.
Tonight's vote is crucial. It's scary, but, like, if we can pull this off, it'll be huge. And I'd rather go out trying to make a massive move than like sit there and be voted out at five. People see Eva and Joe as like this big duo in the game but they're a duo that's just sitting there. Like, me and Kyle are this duo that are, like, working the game hard. As long as Joe doesn't freak out, I think things will go according to plan, and me and Kyle will have a massive move to claim.
It's a gut call at the end of the day. It's just, this is all so fresh, and I need time to kind of put what makes sense together. I'm just trying to figure out who to vote off. Definitely someone's being deceitful without a doubt. Something was cooking behind the scenes. The question is by who? Is it Kyle, Kamilla, or Shauhin? That’s really the question. The who matters. So tonight at Tribal Council, that’s what I’ve gotta try to figure it out.
Challenge:Invertigo The castaways will lie on a wooden plank at an incline, supporting themselves by handgrips attached to the planks. At regular intervals, they will slide down the plank; at the lowest point, they must keep their legs outstretched for the remainder of the challenge. The last person holding on wins. Reward: Overnight stay at the sanctuary with burgers and letters from home Winner:Shauhin Davari(shared with Joe Hunter and Kyle Fraser)
Aw, man. Aw, it's hard to believe that it's over, dude, really hard to believe that it's over. I don't even know what I'm supposed to say right now. Hopefully I'm making a lot of my friends and family happy and, uh, ugh.
At the sanctuary, Shauhin references Liz Wilcox's meltdown during "Run the Red Light", stating that he would have thrown a fit if he had not won or been picked for the reward.
