EPISODE 8:
After Donald has been voted out, Britney celebrated on the walk back to camp, while Marco couldn't wipe the smile off of his face. In a confessional, Marco explained how happy he was that he finally managed to beat Donald at something. Meanwhile, Loveita was annoyed at the tribe's decision to vote out someone so blatantly bad at the game, while keeping large threats like Taylor around. To try and clear the air, So immediately pulled Taylor aside, apologising for voting for him, stating that she didn't know what came over her, and that Donald deserved to go home for his racially insensitive comments. Taylor berated her for her decision, not seeing the strategic benefit in doing so, but agreed to continue working with her nonetheless. In a confessional, Taylor stated that his game with So was pretty much over calling her 'So last year' before chuckling to himself.
The next morning, the La Flor tribe opened their tree-mail which hinted at a tribe merge, which was confirmed when the tribes arrived at a designated meeting point to the standard merge feast. Thus, the merge tribe was as follows:
~ LIBERTAD ~
• Amanda Cerny
• Britney Haynes
• Fabio Birza
• Glazed Donut
• Loveita Adams
• Luke Hemmings
• Marco Rubio
• Patsy Stone
• So Kim
• Tatianna
• Tisha Mai
• Taylor Lautner
During the meal, the castaways who hadn't met before introduced themselves to one another, and toasted towards playing a good game. During the meal, Tisha, thinking that no one had seen her, took off with one of the bottles of red wine, under the guise that she had to pee, when in reality she just wanted to get drunk. This didn't go unnoticed however, as Fabio pointed out that a wine bottle was missing, with Loveita then pointing the finger at Tisha. In a confessional, Loveita revealed that she had no idea whether Tisha took the wine, but if people started to not like Tisha, she could replace Donald as her end-game goat.
Once back at camp, Taylor reconnected with his original alliance with Luke and Patsy, spilling the beans on So's disloyalty, and how they were better off forming a new alliance, to form the majority. Patsy suggested working with Tatianna, someone who she had bonded with over on post-swap La Flor (as well as having a secret deal with), and asking her if she could bring in some others so that she would feel more comfortable in the new alliance, to which the other two agreed. Meanwhile, still high off her vote-off success, Britney spoke to Marco and So about realigning with their original La Flor tribe members (Luke, Patsy & Taylor) to go to the end six-strong. While So was nervous about whether they would be willing to trust her after her constant flipping, Marco reassured her. Britney then suggested that they target Tisha for her actions at the merge feast. Both Marco and So agreed that she would be the target, so long as she didn't win immunity.
At the immunity challenge, Jeff revealed that there would be two immunity necklaces, one for each gender who performed the best in an endurance challenge. Many of the women struggled in the challenge, with Patsy, Britney and Tisha dropping out early (much to Britney's enjoyment), shortly followed by Loveita and Amanda. This meant it came down to So and Tatianna, with the latter pulling out the win. For the men, Glazed Donut couldn't hold on and was thus disqualified, while Luke dropped out almost immediately. After 40 minutes of holding on, Marco requested a deal that if the other men were to drop out, he would not vote for any of them until the final 9. The others agreed to it, dropping, and giving Marco the win. Back at camp, with Tisha vulnerable, Britney put her plan into action, and suggested So approach the others about the plan. Shortly afterwards, So approached Luke about the vote, suggesting it as an easy option, and asked him to tell the others, to which he agreed.
After learning of Britney's plans, Taylor approached Loveita about what her plans were for the vote. While Loveita acknowledged that voting for Tisha would be the easier option, she suggested flipping the script on Britney herself, as she was much more dangerous in the game. Taylor agreed that Britney was a bigger threat than Tisha, however stated in a confessional that he felt he could trust her in the long-run. Loveita then approached her former allies, Fabio and Tisha, alerting them that Britney was pressuring people to vote for Tisha, and that they should instead vote for her.
At tribal council, #winegate was brought up, although Glazed Donut brought up the fact that Tisha had most likely stolen the wine, she was quickly backed up by both Fabio and Loveita, who remarked that Glazed Donut should mind his own business. Jeff then questioned several tribe members as to whether tribal divisions would play a role in the vote, to which Tatianna agreed. Before the votes were cast, neither Amanda nor Luke decided to play their idols. When the votes were revealed however, Britney was shocked to learn that the tribe had flipped on her, when Patsy and Taylor joined forces with the original Espada's to vote her out of the game in a 8-4 vote.
Voted Out: Britney Haynes (8-4)
EPISODE 9:
After being left out of the previous vote, Luke expressed in a confessional that he was left feeling upset and betrayed by his allies Patsy and Taylor by not telling him of the plans to vote for Britney, and leaving him in the minority. The next morning, in order to do damage control, Luke approached the pair and declared that he had voted for Britney at tribal council, and that the fourth vote must have come from Fabio. While they both nodded along, Taylor exclaimed in a confessional that Luke was unnecessarily lying and putting himself in a worse position. In an effort to discover the truth, before the reward challenge, Taylor confronted Fabio about the vote, questioning what his motives would be for voting for Tisha. While Fabio acknowledged that he thought Tisha was a snaky slut, he had no reason to vote for her as he had gone with the Espada tribe. Taylor thanked him for being honest, and suggested that they have each others backs, to ensure that a guy wins the game, to which Fabio agreed. In his confessional, Fabio explained his deal with Taylor, and stated that he hoped a guys alliance would work after it hadn't work in his actual Survivor season.
At the reward challenge, the teams split into two, with Patsy not being picked for either team; she was informed that if he correctly picked which team won the challenge, he would be able to join them on the reward. Patsy was unsuccessful, when the team she didn't pick (consisting of Amanda, Fabio, Glazed Donut, Loveita and So) won. While on the reward, Glazed Donut expressed in a confessional that he was happy for being picked in the team draft, despite being a poor physical competitor, showing that members of the tribe were starting to warm to him. Furthermore, he stated that after being called out as a floater at the previous tribal council, he needed to step up his social game in befriending the members of the tribe. Back at camp, Taylor apologised to Marco and So for leaving them out of the previous vote, stating that they himself and Patsy changed their minds at the last minute and didn't have time to tell them. While both Marco and So forgave him, Marco did make the point of that now the original La Flor's were now the minority in the tribe.
The next day, Taylor questioned Luke about his vote once again, admitting that he had spoken to Fabio about it, who had said although he didn't like Tisha, he didn't vote for her. Feeling the pressure, Luke spilled the beans, admitting that he lied, but stated that he wasn't sure if Fabio had voted for her, after Loveita told him that Tisha had stolen the wine at the merge feast. Taylor thanked him for being honest, and decided that he would speak to Tisha about it. Shortly afterwards, he approached Tisha asking whether the rumours regarding her stealing the wine were true, to which Tisha avidly denied (even though they were true). Going back and forth, Taylor then relayed this information to Fabio, stating that it was a lie that Tisha had stolen the wine, and that it was a lie planted by Loveita to get him to turn against Tisha, something that surprised Fabio as the three of them had started off the game in an alliance. In a confessional, Fabio confessed that he had no idea what was going on, and didn't know who he could trust.
The contestants then took part in their next immunity challenge, a memory test. In a surprising turn of events, Glazed Donut managed to pull out a win. In a confessional, Glazed Donut revealed that he had an excellent memory after sitting on the supermarket shelves for so long. Additionally, he hoped that this immunity win would start to make people consider him as a genuine competitor in the game. Back at camp, upset from his talk with Taylor, Fabio approached his closest ally in the game, Loveita, to confront her about whether she had made up the lies about Tisha. While Loveita didn't admit the story was a purposeful lie, she did admit that she wasn't sure whether it was actually Tisha or not. This led to Fabio completely breaking down in front of everyone at camp, exclaiming how he wasn't sure if he could trust Loveita anymore, and how he was sorry that he had voted for Tisha. Tisha then began to break down, upset that Fabio, a former ally of hers, had been wanting her out. Following the blow up, Loveita approached the rest of the original Espada alliance (Amanda, Glazed Donut, Tatianna and Tisha) suggesting they vote for Fabio due to his unpredictability, to which they all agreed.
At tribal council, it quickly became evident that Fabio was in the swing vote position between his original Espada tribe alliance, and the minority La Flor tribe alliance. Fabio explained that the La Flor tribe had been trustworthy and honest with him, while his Espada alliance-mates had continuously lied to one another. Loveita became emotional about the situation, not wanting to lose a friend in Fabio, whilst Tisha pleaded that they would pretend nothing had happened if Fabio were to stick with them. Marco comforted Tisha throughout tribal, feeling sorry for her situation, but also assured Fabio that him and the rest of the La Flor tribe would be willing to vote how he wanted. In the end, despite their best efforts, Fabio flipped to the La Flor tribe, sending home Tisha in a 6-5 vote.
Voted Out: Tisha Mai (6-5)
EPISODE 10:
Returning back from camp, Loveita immediately broke down in tears, profusely apologising to Fabio for not only lying to him, but turning against him. The pair then went off to discuss matters privately, where Loveita pledged to go to the final two with him, and that she swore on her life that she wouldn't break that promise. In a confessional, Loveita stated that she was actually being sincere in that moment, and didn't want to lose her morals while playing the game. Meanwhile, So, Luke and Taylor privately celebrated getting Tisha out of the game, but decided that they had to be careful that Fabio didn't flip back to the other side.
The next morning, Amanda woke close ally Tatianna up to go on a walk down the beach. The two discussed their position in the game in both having connections to the La Flor alliance (through Patsy) as well as having huge shields in the form of Fabio and Loveita, were the Esapda's to get picked off. The pair then contemplated whether it would be their best move to stick with the Espada tribe, or to flip to the La Flor alliance where there were clear cracks. Returning back to camp, they were surprised to see Luke working hard, working the fire and collecting fire wood, something totally out of character for him. In a confessional, Luke announced a change of heart in his attitude towards the game, wanting to embrace the survival aspect. His contributions did not go unnoticed, when members of his alliance, as well as Glazed Donut thanked him for his efforts.
At the reward challenge, the tribe would once again be split into two teams in a bid to win a trip to a Nicaraguan volcano as well as a lunchtime feast. The challenge was won by the team of Amanda, Glazed Donut, Fabio, Loveita and So. Returning back to camp, Luke almost immediately volunteered to go fishing with Taylor in order to catch something for dinner that evening. In a confessional, Tatianna saw Luke's tribe efforts as a form of jury management, wanting to prove himself valuable for when he got to the end of the game. This was also the topic of conversation on the reward, where Loveita hinted that it was all fake in order to be liked by the tribe. When So took a break to go to the bathroom, Amanda seized the opportunity to hold a meeting with the Espada alliance as to who to target for the next elimination. Glazed Donut brought up Marco's behaviour at tribal council, and how he comforted Tisha in order to get her jury vote, which a lot of the tribe agreed to. The group then concluded that they would target Marco for the next vote, and Luke would be the back-up target were Marco to win immunity. In a confessional however, Fabio stated that he would not feel comfortable voting for Marco however, after making a deal with him at the first individual immunity challenge to keep each other safe until the final 9.
At the endurance-based immunity challenge, the hopes of the Espada alliance were crushed when Marco won out, causing them to go with their back-up plan to vote for Luke. Once they had returned back to camp, Tatianna pulled Amanda aside, concerned that by voting out Luke it would potentially jeopardise or ruin their relationship with Patsy, who was key in including them in the strategic talks of the other tribe, and considered changing the plan. Amanda suggested that they find out who the La Flor alliance were targeting and then weigh up their options. Over at the La Flor discussion, the group debated between targeting Fabio and Loveita. Although Fabio had switched and voted with their alliance at the last tribal council, it had become evident how close he had become with Loveita in the past couple of days and that he was firmly with the Espada tribe. Marco pointed out how unreliable Fabio was, and that he constantly switched alliances to suit what was best for his game. Conversely, Taylor pushed for Loveita to go as she was the superior strategist of the two, who dominated in the pre-merge portion of the game. Shortly thereafter, Patsy went to inform Tatianna of their alliances plans, allowing Tatianna and Amanda to decide how they would be voting.
At tribal council, the focus was still on tribal lines, with Marco outlining that although they had now merged, it was definitely still a tribal game. Jeff questioned Glazed Donut as to whether there had been attempts to flip members from either tribe, to which Glazed Donut denied, stating that he was expecting a deadlocked vote. With that in mind, Jeff questioned several members as to whether they would be willing to draw rocks. Luke and Taylor were fully for drawing rocks, wanting to keep their loyalty, while Tatianna rather ominously stated that she didn't want to put her game on the line. At the vote, no idols were played, and the votes seemed to be going down tribal lines. The first 3 votes were for Luke, however the Espada members were shocked, when the vote flipped on them, and Fabio ended up being the victim, sent home in a 7-3 vote.
Here we go