Episode 1
Caleb gazes longily into the sunset riding into Kaoh Rong on the boat, fully duckface'd
"Puzzles lay down for me like lovers" -Debbie
Kyle thinks Alecia is weak, and wants her out first. He forms individual alliances with Scot, Jennifer, and Cydney.
Darnell and Cydney agree to work together, and concur that Alecia should probably go first
Anna and Julia form an alliance. They plan to bring in Michelle aswell. Anna trusts Caleb since he was apparently loyal on Big Brother, but they also consider working with Tai
Neal and Liz talk about how Debbie and Joe should probably be first to go, and want the younger 4 to stay together. Neal confirms this with Peter.
Tai goes idol hunting, but everyone else realizes it pretty quickly and goes to break it up.
Aubry gets super overheated and dehydrated on day 2 and has a pseudo panic attack
A bug enters and crawls into Jennifer's ear, causing great pain and bleeding for the first couple days, but it crawls out before the immunity challenge
Brains and Beauty win immunity and reward (Darnell and Alecia both underperformed in the challenge)
Knowing it's between herself and Darnell, Alecia tries throwing Darnell under the bus, and even goes so far as to hint she may have an idol. This annoys Scot, who told her she's safe.
The tribe generally agrees to vote Darnell, but Cydney strongly prefers Alecia
Darnell admits fault and even cries a bit at tribal. This strikes a cord with Jenny, who no longer wants to vote for him
The vote ends up being tied between Alecia and Darnell, most likely a planned split. On the revote, however, Darnell is easily voted out
Favorites as of this episode; Liz, Neal, Scot, Jason
Episode 2
Alecia "Mental Giant" Holden refers to an ember as an "embryo"
Tai goes idol hunting again and finds a box. In the box is a tool and a note that explains he must now find a key and use this tool to help reach it. He finds the key, but it's at the top of a very tall and difficult to climb palm tree. He decides to come back for it later.
Debbie believes she's really impressing everyone, but people think she's stupid
"My question is whether she has 30 or 40 cats" -Peter. Peter also says he wants to keep her around as a goat.
Joe accidentally wastes a good amount of kerosene, and annoys his tribe. He clashes with the young people, especially Liz.
Robo-Liz discovers emotions and does not care for them
Alecia, visibly on the bottom of her tribe, worked all day and managed to get fire for her tribe
Debbie, equipped with pom-poms, cheers on her tribe as she sits immunity out
Brains and Beauty once again win immunity
Scot and Jason agree to just send Alecia home. Alecia goes for a painfully obvious idol hunt.
Jenny is in an alliance with Jason, but is getting really annoyed by him and considers where her loyalties lie, and talks with Alecia about forming a women's alliance and plan about flipping on Jason
Jenny doesn't also want to backstab Scot though, and majorly wonders what to do.
Jennifer actually admits publically she doesn't know who she's going to be loyal to. She fucks herself over with over sides, by admitting she plotted against Jason but also saying it was Alecia's idea. No one trusts her now. Before the vote she actually stands up in her seat and sarcastically begs god for forgiveness LOLOLOLOLOL
In the end, Jenny ended up messing up too badly. Jason and Cydney flip on her, as she proved she couldn't be trusted, and combined with Alecia's vote, she's voted out.
Favorites: Liz, Jason, Scot, Tai, Caleb
Episode 3
Scot does damage control with Alecia, saying he knew the votes would send Jenny home and he promised he would never write her name down. Alecia sees this as BS
Cydney keeps Alecia believing they're tight, but her real allegiance is to the guys
Tai actually lost the tool he found with the box that helps him reach the key, but he fastens together some long sticks to reach the key. He follows the clue gained with the key and finds the idol!
Along with the idol, the idol twist is explained- one can combine two normal idols to form the Tyler Perry idol
Peter and Liz think that Debbie and Joe will not only be more loyal than Aubry and Neal, but can also be goats later on. They actually plan to flip on the Young People alliance and want to vote out Neal
Debbie, meanwhile, rallies Joe to try and vote out Liz. She talks to Aubry and Neal about it. Debbie says in confessional that her plan is to sit back, fly under the radar, and gather intelligence
Tai and Caleb kill a chicken, and Tai cries
Anna doesn't really trust Nick. The 3 girls are already tight, so she tries swinging Caleb to her side also. Caleb thinks this is a good idea.
All of the Brawn tribe goes idol hunting. Alecia actually finds the 1st clue and shares it with Cydney
Cydney finds the tool, but waits until Alecia walks away to take it. Cydney then tells the guys what the clue said
Jason and Scot find the key, but Alecia sees them and waits right by them. Scot got the key down, Alecia and Jason wrestle a bit over the key when it falls, and in the end, Jason ends up with the idol
By literally a second, Brawn finally wins an immunity challenge, along with Beauty. Debbie ultimately cost the Brains the win.
Liz wants to try and split the votes between Neal and Aubry by getting Joe and Debbie to vote Neal. However, Debbie sees through this and tells Neal.
Peter lies to Neal and Aubry and tells them to simply vote out Joe
Aubry dislikes Peter and tries to convince Debbie to vote for him instead of Liz
Peter and Neal bicker at tribal and Peter openly reveals the plan to split and vote Neal out
Oppositely to what Liz and Peter planned, the vote actually comes to be a tie between Aubry, Liz, and Peter.
On the revote, Liz is sent home
Favorites: Jason, Neal, Caleb, Debbie
Episode 4
Due to very intense heat during the reward challenge, everyone is incredibly drained and in pain. A simple sand-dig for bags takes 45 minutes.
Debbie actually has a heat stroke and collapses onto the sand. After treatment, though, she is fine.
However, afterwards, Caleb and Cydney also collapse. Cydney manages to recover, but Caleb's is so severe that he has to be med evac'd (it is revealed via text that he fully recovered and hopes to play again someday)
Alecia gets mad at Scot for saying "keep letting her be a cheerleader, it's all she's good at". they bicker back at camp, and naturally Jason joins in
Jason sort of explains his temper with Alecia in confessional- he acts hard with his daughters so that they grow to be strong and independant, and he sees someone like Alecia who can't do anything well on her own, and he gets frustrated
Brains win first in immunity, and Beauty comes in second, sending Brawn to a third tribal council
when questioned after the challenge, Scot tells Probst Alecia has 0 chance of staying, and Probst almost lets them have tribal right then and there LOOOL
For once, no one else in the Brawn tribe throws themselves under the bus, and Alecia is finally voted out
Favorites: Jason, Neal, Debbie, Tai
Episode 5
Peter knows he needs to suck up to his tribemates, so he goes into Doctor mode to care for Joe's finger injury
Neal goes on an idol hunt, maninly to ensure Peter doesn't find it. Neal finds the idol!
*TRIBE DISSOLVE*
New Chan Loh: Debbie, Cydney, Neal, Jason, Nick, Michele
New Gondol: Scot, Tai, Joseph, Aubry, Peter, Anna
Julia draws a Red buff, and is sent to the old Brawn tribe. It serves as an Exile Island, and they'll join the losing tribe after the vote.
Peter schemes with Aubry, and since Julia will join them if they lose, they should vote out a beauty
Aubry doesn't trust Peter in the slightest though, and is unsure if she wants to work with him
Scot naturally hops happily onto the "vote for a beauty" train
Debbie wants to work with the Brawn, since they'll not only help win challenges, but she can use them as a shield post-merge
In lieu of Caleb's evac, Tai forms a new little bromance with Scot
Anna realizes it'll be her or Tai, so she rats out Tai being caught looking for the idol
Nick goes to work trying to bring the Brawns to the Beauty's side
Chan Loh wins immunity
Peter prefers Anna out, Aubry and Joe want Tai
Peter lets Anna and Tai know that it'll be one of them going
To combat this, Tai lets Anna and Scot know he has the idol. They wanna use it to blindside Peter
Scot, though, realizes he now knows who has 2 idols- he gets the idea to blindside Anna so the idol can be preserved for the Super Idol
Joe says he believes there are actually no idols this season. Whether he's just bluffing or genuinely believes that is unknown
Tai doesn't play his idol on Anna, going with Scot's plan and sending Anna home
Favorites: Jason, Scot, Tai, Anna (RIP), Debbie, Neal
Episode 6
Peter isn't forgetting that he was on bottom back at Brains, and talks with Tai about maybe getting Joe out
Nick and Debbie bond over being models.... yep
Peter swoops in on the new Gondol member, Julia and talks about getting Joe or Aubry out
Aubry want an easy vote-off of Julia, but notices Peter isolating himself from herself and Joe, and has to question whether she wants to keep Peter or not
Debbie talks with Michele about possibly getting Jason out. Michele brings this up to Nick, who instantly shoots it down
Joe finally approaches Peter about Peter going off with all the others individually. Peter denies this. Joe knows he's lying and, if they lose, now plans on voting him out.
Chan Loh wins immunity
During the challenge, Joe pulls a Kelly Remington and gets smashed in the head by a heavy block. He seems fine, however.
Aubry decides she needs the numbers too bad right now, so she can't get rid of Peter. She goes forward with trying to get Julia out.
Joe and Peter make up, and Peter decides to just play it easy and join the "vote Julia" train
Tai, Scot, and Julia know that the brains are voting together, and they know Joe is too loyal, so they talk to Aubry about voting Peter. They say he's been gunning for her in addition to Joe. Aubry considers this.
HOWEVER, Tai and Scot don't want to go to a tie and consider just simply voting Julia out
Tribal goes CRAZY, with everyone talking amongst themselves on who to vote. Scot even says loudly across the council to Julia "Original plan"
Tai, Scot, and Julia go with their plan of voting Peter. Joe and Peter stick with THEIR original plan and vote Julia, but Aubry actually crossed off Julia's name and flipped on Peter, sending him home
Favorites: Jason, Scot, Tai, Debbie, Neal
Episode 7
Scot, because of the Brain's indecision, plans on picking them off post-merge
"At this part of the game, Tai's chicken is doing better than me" -Joseph del Campo
Cydney notices Neal's idol. She and Jason want to flush it out.
*MERGE*
Tai is most loyal to Scot
Brains want to stay strong
Neal tries negotiating a brains/beauties alliance with Nick. Nick needs to get Michelle on their side. Nick isn't 100% going to commit to Brains either, though.
Jason also goes to work trying yo get Nick on HIS side, and reveals Neal has an idol. Scot also reveals Tai has one.
Nick now strongly considers going with the brawns, not only for their idol power, but because Nick believes they're so cocky that they can be wasily blindsided later on
Debbie proposes an alliance to Tai, trying to get him to her side. Tai agrees but is bullshitting her.
Jason and Scot solidify with Michelle and Julia, and reveal Neal's idol. They wanna target Aubry.
Debbie's aggressive ally-gaining is rubbing the Beauties the wrong way, but so is Jascot's arrogance
Neal tells Aubry about his idol
Neal has a swollen up infection on his knee, dubbed Mt St Neal. Several other players reveal they also have some, Tai even having two.
Nick beats Tai in the ball-balancing challenge, winning first individual immunity
Neal considers using his idol on him, Aubry, or even not at all
Nick and Michele finally decide upon joing the Brawns and voting Aubry out
Probst, concerned with the castaways health, makes a house call to the camp with the doctor
Tai gets the OK, Scot gets the "we need to keep an eye on you", Aubry gets put on antibiotics
Unfortunately, Neal has a nasty infection on his knee, and the doctor feels it's necessary to pull the poor ice cream man out of the game, along with his idol in-pocket
Favorites: Jason, Scot, Tai, Neal (RIP), Nick
Episode 8
The Beauty and the Brawn are more or less pretty united now. They plan to split the vote between Aubry and Debbie for the vote.
Jason tells the tribe a heartfelt story about his Autistic daughter (he even says in confessional that it wasn't to get him ahead). Cydney, in confessional, says this makes him a bigger FTC threat.
Aubry chose a team for the reward challenge and they get majorly stomped. She has a crying confessional where she feels she can't get her head above water and so defeated.
Scot ALSO gives a heartfelt story about his rough childhood and paternal complications
Jascot worry a bit about an all-girls alliance. Nick isn't really concerned with it but goes along with them. Jascot wants to make sure to get a girl out next.
Nick asks/tells Julia about the idea. Cydney sees/hears him and gets pissed. She gets suspicious and kinda calls out Jascot and Nick.
Jason takes Cyd off to the well, blames the girl alliance idea on Nick, and tries comforting her
Probst tempts the survivors with a feast to step down during the endurance immunity comp. Jason, Scot, Joe, and Michele all step down.
Tai, in a huge standoff, wins immunity over Cydney
Nick lets Aubry know that they're splitting the vote between her and Debbie, and clues her in to join them
Cydney talks to Debb and Aubry about getting Nick out. They agree.
Cyd then takes it to the Beauty girls, but they don't really seem to be down for it right now.
Tai accidentally reveals he knows the secret idol twist, which not everyone knew, not only revealing a bit of alliance order but also strongly hints he has an idol
Michele, Julia, and Cydney DO end up going with the women's (and Joe's) vote, and Nick is majorly blindsided (Also, for whatever reason, Tai voted for Jason??)
Favorites: Jason, Tai, Debbie, Cydney, Nick (RIP)
Episode 9
Tai explains that his vote for Jason was due to him realizing he screwed up and tried guessing who the target was to save himself. He lies to Jason and claims to have voted for Debbie.
Jason and Scot decide to hide the camp supplies to weaken everyone. They also plan to form the super idol.
Everyone gets pissed at Jascot for sabotage. They find a new way to eat without tools, and openly taunt Scot about it, prompting him to dump out the water on the fire
Due to all the division in the camp, Probst actually lets them choose their own teams for Reward. Joe sits out and Julia jumps at the opportunity to join the guys' team. She wants to be on their good sides for possible allies/jurors. This makes Cydney and other girls suspicious of her though.
The guys + Julia win reward in an epic showdown
Julia talks to the guys about joining them (she knows they'd be goats and that she's kinda on the bottom with the women)
Cydney doesnt believe a thing Julia says, but Debb is confident Julia won't flip
Tai doesn't like how Jascot treat the rest of the tribe, but knows he has to stay on their good side and wants to stay loyal to them, so HE puts out the fire at night
Aubry theorizes that the boys are sabotaging so that they're targeted and will play an idol. She wants to blindside Julia instead. Debbie is pissed at Scot and wants him out though.
Julia wins immunity
Debbie wants to split the vote between Tai and Scot (she says this including Julia). Julia tells the boys about it.
The boys want to vote Cydney with Julia, ruining the split plan.
Aubry is super opposed to the split plan and to a lesser extent working with Debbie in general.
Aubry and Cydney plan to actually blindside Debbie, saying they can get rid of the boys later. Joe shoots it down, though, making Aubry and Cyd depend on Julia's vote for it to go through.
Julia is in power, deciding to send home Cydney or Debbie.
Scot and Jason come out at tribal council and reveal they have 2 idols in front of everyone. They declare the three are going to rock-paper-scissor before the vote, and the 2 winners will use the idols. This naturally causes mass chaos.
Jason gives his idol to Tai, forming the Super Idol, but he didn't even need it as the girls' plan went through, majorly blindsiding Debbie
Favorites: Jason, Aubry
Episode 10
Tai gives Jason his idol back
Tai talks to Scot about ending the sabotage and bringing camp back together. Scot talks to Aubry, saying their beef is really with Cydney and camp life will be back to normal if she goes.
Players get to choose which reward they play for- Food, Letter from Home, or Game Advantage. They will only compete against people who chose the same option.
For Advantage: Tai, Cydney, Aubry (Tai wins)
For Food: Scot, Jason, Michele (Michele wins)
For Letter: Julia, Joe (Julia wins)
Tai's advantage is an extra vote at Tribal, good up until final 5
Julia continues to play both sides, wanting to flush the guys' idols but still stay loyal to them
Julia plans with the girls to all vote (including Joe of course) for Tai (it's unsure yet if she'll actually follow through or not)
Aubry goes to Tai and they bond a good amount. Aubry tries swaying him to her side, alerting him Julia planned to stack votes on him.
Tai talks to Jascot about maybe bringing Aubry in, and Scot shoots it down, saying they should get rid of her next instead. This makes Tai feel like kind of an outsider.
In ANOTHER epic showdown, Jason wins immunity over Aubry
Julia rats out her own plan (of course making sure not to reveal she brought it up) to Jascot
Jascot gets a final 3 deal with Julia
Cydney and Aubry keep trying to work Tai over. Aubry wants to use Tai's usually good conscience to get him on her side, and tells Tai about the women's plan to vote for him
Tai's conflicted between going with his heart- working with Aubry- and his brain- working with the guys
Tai debates with Mark the Chicken over what route to take and seems to side with the guys
Aubry got Joe and Cydney along and they deviated from the Tai plan, trying to blindside Scot
Julia whispers to Tai at tribal, trying to convince him to play the idol. Scot whispers back telling him not to.
Tai actually DID side with Aubry and friends, blindsiding Scot. In an epic moment of betrayal, Tai refused to give Scot his idol for the Suepr Idol, actually sending Scot home WITH Jason's idol in pocket.
Favorites: Jason, Tai, Aubry
Episode 11
Jason knows he's on bottom and tries to keep his head down and announces to anyone he'll work with whoever
Julia and Michele are frustrated with not being told of the Scot plan
Tai feels bad about backstabbing Jason and apologizes to him
"Mark and I are still in an alliance, man" -Kyle Jason
Jason really just wants revenge at this point, but hides his anger very well
The reward challenge is run in randomly drawn pairs. Due to the odd number of contestants, Jason is randomly drawn to sit out. Michele and cydney win, and both quickly decide to take Aubry along
Cydney and Aubry really want to blindside Tai at some point, the only question is "when?"
simultaneously, Jason and Julia also want to get rid of Tai, using his strong power in the game as reason to use them as votes and keep them around. They pitch this to Cydney, and make a very convincing argument (if Cyd votes with Jason Julia and Michele, either Tai is blindsided and goes home, or he plays his idol and Jason/Julia go home. Win-win for Cydney.).
Michele wins immunity
Aubry wants to target Julia, knowing Jason is a goat at this point. The majority alliance agrees (except Michele, in secret)
Julia tells Michele about the Tai plan. Michele will go with it if Cydney does.
Tai gets really nervous at tribal, and asks Aubry if he should play his idol. Aubry says no and Tai doesn't play it.
It proves to be a smart decision, as Michele and Cydney sided with the majority and voted Julia out
Favorites: Jason, Aubry, Mark the Chicken
Episode 12
Jason continues to campaign against Tai post-tribal, and also reinforcing the idea that he could be used as a goat
Tai reveals his extra vote to Joe and Aubry. They appear to be fairly soldi threesome, with Cydney as a fourth. Tai considers targeting Michele over Jason since Michele is more well-rounded.
Any notion of eating Mark the Chicken is officially adopted as a solid camp pet. Mark also consumes a big ass grub. Fun.
Jason intentionally slacks off around camp. Partly because he doesn't want to help the people voting him out, partly because he wants to make the others see him as a goat.
"You dumb ball" Joseph del Campo to a ball after bombing the reward challenge
Cydney is eating some coconut after the reward loss when she's told by Joe to get up and get some firewood. This gets Cydney pretty pissy. Joe also gets pissy with Aubry.
Jason is SHH'd by the wildlife manager at the reward after yelling in the monkey cage. With Jason's Autistic daughter loving animals so much, he shows a softer side that makes Tai start to warm back up to him.
Cydney wins immunity
Tai wants to try and convince the others to target Michele instead of Jason. Joe and Cydney are relunctant, Aubry seems to be fine with getting Michele out.
Cydney alerts Michele of Tai's campaigning for her. Cydney then talsk to Aubry, saying how she really wants Jason out, but Aubry is more on Tai's side on this one. Aubry is really split and will be making up her mind at tribal.
Tai and Michele argue a lot at tribal, and Tai blatantly calls her an outsider in the alliance and clearly states she's on bottom
Tai plays his second vote on Michele. This ends up not mattering since Aubry sided against Jason and Tai (and for whatever reason, Jason voted for Joe anyway)
Favorites: Jason (RIP), Aubry
Episode 13
Tai and Michele slightly bicker back at camp. Tai is kinda offended Joe and Aubry didn't vote with him.
Aubry explains to Tai that the alliance felt like Tai was takign too much control and that they didn't have a voice, thus why they voted Jason out. This is mainly just to calm Tai.
In a hilariously awkward and slow challenge, Grandpa Joe actually snags a win! He takes Aubry and Cydney with him.
Over reward, Joe casually mentions how Aubry is the biggest threat in the game, and Cydney mentions how she just wants to make finals. This causes Aubry to think and realize that Cydney is actually a pretty big threat.
Tai and Michele talk back at camp, and Tai basically says with some people he just kinda has his guard up, and Michele is one of those people. Michele tries enforcing the idea that her door is never closed. Tai gives her a massage, and they consider actually working together, hopefully swinging Cydney as a third.
Aubry solidifies a trio with Joe and Tai, and hope to blindside Cydney. Tai really trusts her now as she spilled her heart to him.
Cydney picks up that Aubry and Tai are getting a little too close and goes to solidify something with Michele.
Grandpa Joe reveals he's having tummy/bladder issues thanks to the copious amount of beef he ate over reward.
Since he's not longer passing water, medical is called to have a look at Joe. They get him some meds, but he just kept getting worse.
With the risk of long-term kidney damage, Grandpa Joe is officially pulled from the game, becoming the 3rd med evac of the season.
Favorites: Aubry
Episode 14
Mark the Chicken and Cydney battle it out, as Mark wakes the camp up pre-maturely. Tai says that he's associated with Mark and any small thing could get you the boot, so he takes Mark off onto the beach to not disturb anyone.
Aubry is shooting for a her-Cydney-Tai final 3, as Aubry realizes that Michele has not pissed anyone off and has made close relationships.
Michele and Cyd are still trying to work together, however
Aubry wins a big protein-heavy meal, which will give her a pretty big boost for the immunity challenge. She has the option to bring someone IF SHE WANTS. She brings Cydney.
Tai and Michele, once again left back at camp with each other, grow a bit closer. Michele realizes she needs a backup plan, and makes a pretty decent case to Tai as to why they should try and vote out Cydney or Aubry. They decide to target Aubry (but Tai is unsure who he actually wants to go with)
Michele wins immunity
Aubry and Tai are going to vote for Cydney, and assume there'll be a firemaking challenge.
Michele wants Aubry gone, as she's a big FTC threat with her great speaking skills. Cydney feels terrible about it but knows it's probably for the best.
Michele and Cydney tell this to Tai, and Tai definitely considers it. Aubry notices Tai acting a little shady and gets a general feeling of what's going to go down.
Tai forces the tie between Aubry and Cydney. Michele and Tai don't revote, forcing the firemaking challenge.
Aubry wins the firemaking challenge, sending Cydney to the jury.
Michele continues to reinforce how huge a jury threat Aubry is to Tai
It's revealed that there IS a final challenge- however, it ISN'T for immunity (meaning there IS a final 3)
In an unprecedented twist, whoever wins the final challenge earns the power to vote a jury member off of the jury, canceling out their vote.
Michele wins the big twist
It's obvious that Joe's vote is locked in for Aubry, so Michele wants to take him off. Aubry knows this and tries convincing Michele that Tai has more votes than he's letting on, and Jason and Scot might not only vote for him, but wouldn't be against slandering Michele in a jury speech.
Michele chooses to use her power to remove Neal, knowing his vote most likely would've went to Aubry, in addition to potentially being a very influential jury speaker. Neal, in his well-spoken Neal style, basically tells Michele she has no chance on his way out
Poor Neal, not only got Med Evac'd with an idol in pocket but now got removed from the jury =[
Everyone bids him a final goodbye as Tai releases Mark into the wild
In a 5-2-0 vote, Michele Fitzgerald is awarded the title of Sole Survivor!
Final thoughts: Easily a top 5 season for me. There's a good chance there's some bias in that, as this is only 1 of 3 seasons i've actually watched as it came out (and the other 2 were RI and SP so...), but I think most can agree this is a top tier season. It has, in my opinion, the best cast the show has ever seen (I mean, I think there are at LEAST 6 guaranteed returnees, and potential for more.). This cast had something for everyone. Great villains, downfalls, blindsides, heroes, game players, UTR's, girls who look pretty that Tengaged can worship for little actual reason, and some great Drew Christy-esque fuckovers. This season made history is several aspects and was executed perfectly. I would've been happier with an Aubry win, but i'm not upset with Michele either. Fucking great season. Oh, also, "Milennials vs Gen X" is A) Stupid as shit, B) Basically already been done (has production just decided to forget about Nicaragua, or?) and C) Unecessary. I really wish production would stop trying to theme every season nowadays. It's interesting when done right (BvBvB, Heroes vs Villains), but when you really have to reach (Worlds Apart), it becomes tacky and lame. Don't be afraid to have a "normallly cast" season liek Phillippines cause that shit was gold.
