HINA - NIGHT 10
Jason is gone, ULI has waged an all out war on old HINA, and Jawan thinks that the Jason vote is a blindside. HUH???? Is Jawan really that unaware? Guy, nothing about an original tribe targeting the two guys from old HINA that got swap screwed especially not the second one. Come on now.
REWARD CHALLENGE - DAY 11
Alex, SAY LESS!!!! Keep your chicken sayings to yourself. Keep your killing of the chickens to yourself. Keep your exhaustion to a minimum when the other tribe is clearly on death’s door.
DROP YOUR BUFFS…AGAIN
BACK TO THREE TRIBES AGAIN, WOW!!!
KELE 3.0 - Steven, Jawan, Shannon, and Sage
HINA 3.0 - Rizo, Savannah, Sophi, and MC
ULI 2.0 (red returns!) - Alex, Sophie, Nate, and Kristina
Before Jeff can even begin to check in with the new tribes, Kristina is on the floor. Yes, we have been told that these first 11 days of this season have been brutally hot, so, fine. But, let’s be honest, Kristina needs to sit down because for the first time in the game, her world has truly been rocked! She’s once again on a new tribe, she’s lost people she has connected with on her tribe, and she’s missing her family. I can’t help but feel like she’s not cut out for this game and considering she hasn’t been to Tribal yet, all the other traumas she is experiencing is able to literally knock her off her feet.
REWARD
1st Place - Grilled Cheeses, Potato Chips, Iced Tea, and Brownies
2nd Place - Grilled Cheeses
Great challenge. Loved not having a puzzle at the end and instead the ring toss. Rizo wins it for HINA and especially for Sophi who gets her first win of any kind this season. The second reward of grilled cheeses only, which is a great reward, comes down to KELE and ULI at the ring toss with Alex winning it for ULI and securing the sandwiches. The losers of this challenge are KELE (Sage, Shannon, Steven, and Jawan) who head back to camp with nothing to show for it…yet they do have the remaining chickens, so not all is lost for them.
HINA’S REWARD
The food is overwhelming, especially for Sophi, but nothing is more overwhelming than MC’s disadvantage in the game being swap screwed to be the odd one out. MC does have the power of information in the game in the form of knowing about Rizo’s idol, so she drops the bomb on him right away. Plus, MC is sitting on her Beware Advantage so if HINA 3.0 loses, she will be ready.
ULI’S REWARD
Like MC, Nate finds himself in an inferior position. Nate’s strategy game is high, at least in his mind. He tries to sell Sophie, Alex, and Kristina on Matt being an easy decision and Jason being a tough one. I give Nate credit. He is recognizing the situation he is in and the narrative that he needs to portray. He’s a smart guy and a worthy strategist, but the other 3 weren’t born yesterday. They know that it’s original ULI until the wheels come off.
KELE 3.0 NO REWARD
Then there is KELE, who once again finds themselves on the losing end again and now they are even losing the chickens. Steven is losing most of all being the odd one out being original HINA, but he is nerding out with Jawan. The conversation between them sharing cheesy dad jokes has me feeling like their 10 year old child who is embarrassed to be around them.
Cringe.
Despite all that, the easy vote remains at this tribe (according to Jawan) to keep voting with original Tribal lines and that doesn’t bode well for Steven. You could say “Looks like this vote’s gonna be grate for us… and nacho lucky day!”
(I had to use the help of ChatGPT to help write that because my brain can’t go to that level of cringe)
DAY 12
HOW THE HELL DID ALEX CATCH THAT CRAB?!?!?!?!? That may have been the most impressive moment of the entire season. Outside of incredible feats of athleticism on the beach, I think Alex may be in the most interesting position in the game because he doesn’t have anybody, except Sophi, from original KELE, but he now is on another tribe and doesn’t have the same old tribe connections that Kristina or Sophie does.
The drama continues at KELE 3.0 with Sage and Shannon. I love that Sage is still not buying her act and the comment about remembering the “womb” and the fake kisses is absolutely awful. I feel your pain Sage, I feel it too deeply. I cannot imagine how brutal that was to actually have to do it.
HINA 3.0 is feeling rejuvenated after their reward but the paranoia of what MC could be holding has Sophi, Savannah and Rizo searching high and low for an advantage and then Sophi finds it.
WELCOME BACK KNOWLEDGE IS POWER!!! The advantage is BACK!!! First, I’m excited that Sophi found it, but I’m most excited that SHE DIDN’T SHARE THAT SHE FOUND IT with Rizo and Savannah. Finally, we are in the game folks. We got rewards. We got twists. We got advantages. WE GOT SECRETS!!!
IMMUNITY CHALLENGE - DAY 12
4 vs. 4 vs. 4 challenge for immunity with one loser going to Tribal.
HINA gets out to an early lead with MC’s height being the familiar advantage it is and this sets up Sophi to build the pole from sticks to retrieve a key. Those grilled cheeses and chips help her crush this part of the challenge and get HINA to the table maze first. Steven gets KELE 3.0 to the maze next. Kristina is pulling up the rear for ULI 2.0 putting Sophie and Nate at a disadvantage at the maze.
No surprise, HINA wins again thanks to Rizo and Savannah conquering the maze first. With this outcome, they also win their flint and prevent MC from retrieving her Beware Advantage idol.
The challenge ends with another non-surprise, KELE losing. Doesn’t matter that it’s the 3.0 version, KELE loses again. Sage and Jawan dropped their ball in the maze and get beat by Nate and Sophie (ULI). Now, KELE 3.0 (Shannon, Sage, Jawan, Steven) is headed to Tribal and for Steven, Sage, and Shannon, it will be their first one. Despite that unfavorable position, it feels like there are several cracks at KELE 3.0 and he needs to find them.
KELE 3.0 PRE-TRIBAL SCRAMBLE - DAY 12
The shark in Shannon is coming out of the grass quickly and ready to take down Jawan because he doesn’t offer any new connections in the game while Steven can be a “bridge” to other people in the game. However, my favorite player and narrative in the game right now is Sage playing into Shannon’s desire to lead and control the game, but really wants to take her out. I love that Sage is showing Jawan her perspective on Shannon and having his back, but this requires Jawan to stop playing a scared game and break away from the original ULI.
Heading into Tribal Council all I can say is I’m rooting for Sage to get her way and put an end to Shannon’s whole schtick. Jawan, step up. Steven, save yourself. Sage, MAKE IT HAPPEN!
PREDICTION: Shannon gets voted out and I celebrate alongside Sage. 🤞
TRIBAL COUNCIL - NIGHT 12
First, it’s pretty crazy that 12 days into the game, three out of four players at Tribal have never been there and we are still getting the wow moments from people. I love that. I’m sure I would do the same.
The game design of having a Tribal with 4 at this point in the game is really landing. It’s intimate, it’s small, every player’s voice is able to be heard, and every eye roll from Sage is picked up on.
VOTES
SHANNON - 3
JAWAN - 1
Sage is SOOOOOOOOOO PLEASED with herself for orchestrating that vote. Then, the best part of the episode comes when Sage stops Shannon’s hug because in that moment she doesn’t have to pretend anymore to be her “spiritual sister”. It was a perfect boundary to see set in that moment. Sage was finally able to be authentic and stop pretending, and her authenticity wanted NO PART of that fakeness anymore. Love it, relate to it, and so happy for Sage. Am I rooting for her the most in this game????
Shannon being voted out is a relief. I’m not a very spiritual person and so I definitely would have struggled, like Sage, to connect with Shannon, even for game purposes. Shannon’s whole yogi/guru/meditation bit is just fake. It’s not how people want to play the game, nor is it the game that we the viewers want to see be played.
The game loses nothing by having Shannon be voted out. She played too hard to everyone. She rubbed everyone a certain way and when Sage finally addressed the elephant in the room, Jawan and Steven helped make everyone’s desire come true. I’m happy she didn’t make the merge, nor the jury. We are not going to miss her energy nor her vibe and the season is better off to part ways with her here.
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