Survivor: Game Changers Episode 4 Recap: All the Way Down the Ramp

Survivor: Game Changers surprised the players tonight with a few more twists and turns to keep them all on their toes, and eventually, one person went home.

On this week’s episode of Survivor: Game Changers, things did not end well for someone at a huge Tribal Council. Let’s recap this week’s episode.

Things opened as they traditionally do on episodes of Survivor: the losing tribe returning after Tribal Council. Obviously, Tai ended up the center of conversation, since he had to vote out his friend. The next morning, Hali expressed a wish to take Tai out to Debbie, but Debbie declared the following in a confessional:

"Debbie: “Hali, you have no options. None!”"

With so much to get through, the reward challenge was next on the docket. As we knew, only two people had to play for each tribe. The first person had to balance a ball on a pole through an obstacle course; the second then used the ball to unlock sandbags to knock down targets.

As deduced, J.T. and Malcolm went for Nuku; Ozzy and Troyzan played for Tavua; and Tai and Brad went for Mana. Unsurprisingly, Ozzy shot out to an early lead, but J.T. wasn’t far behind on the third obstacle.

That brought it down to Troyzan and Malcolm, leaving Brad to play catch up. Nuku took the first place reward: a coffee set, with cookies included. Mana then completed the comeback based on Brad’s arm and won some iced coffee. Not the biggest reward, but that’s caffeine and, perhaps more importantly for Mana, an actual win.

And Now, a Brief Camp Interlude

Tavua had no coffee of any kind, but Ozzy saw a benefit. Without extra food, he pointed out that he’s the primary source … but has the provider role ever really saved anyone? Fans were treated to some pretty shots of the ocean in Fiji, and then Ozzy returned with his haul, which included a stingray.

Nuku was naturally all smiles with its cookies and coffee, but as people started to split off, plans began to form. J.T. and Malcolm talked about taking Sandra out, should Nuku lose, though J.T. acknowledged in a confessional that Nuku losing may not be that likely.

Day 11 Twist Time

Jeff Probst summoned everyone to an immunity challenge and explained things first. It’s another variant of the blindfold challenge. Each blindfolded pair had to reach three towers and drop three bag. All three bags had a ball; three players then had to move the balls through a maze.

Then Probst dropped the twist: second place was just the first loser this time around.

Varner did the calling for Nuku; Cirie went for Tavua; and Brad called for Mana. Nuku shot out to a lead, the first to reach the maze, but Tavua and Mana weren’t too far behind. J.T. called in Michaela and then Malcolm for the second Nuku ball; Ozzy passed off to Sarah for Tavua. That meant it was down to Andrea and Varner for the third ball. (By the way, Brad had only just gotten the first ball in for Mana by the time this was going down.) But then Varner dropped the ball (literally), and Andrea won immunity for Tavua.

Then Probst told the losers the second part of the twist: Mana and Nuku would go to Tribal together and vote out just one person.

A Second Brief Camp Interlude

Nuku trudged back to camp and realized that they could basically pick anyone they wanted off of Mana, since they had the numbers advantage. J.T. reassured the rest of his tribemates that he was solid with them … and proceeded to argue with Sandra about who to take out. She wanted Sierra; he wanted Tai. Malcolm and J.T., meanwhile, noted that Brad may try and take Sandra out in a side conversation.

Over at Mana, they were coming to the same conclusions, including the plan to target Sandra. Brad did his best to secure Hali’s vote, and she then got to drop the episode title: “The Tables Have Turned,” because all of a sudden she was important as a number.

Tai, realizing he might be in trouble, went looking for an idol. At first, he found just a clue that required him to dig. However, he did find the idol and told everyone  (except Hali, apparently) on Mana right before they headed out.

A Huge Tribal Council

Night 11 saw everyone not on Tavua show up to Tribal Council, with J.T. getting the fire symbolism talk since he’d never been to Tribal before. Probst, naturally, brought up the 6-5 standoff. Debbie noted that J.T. was once tight with literally everyone on Mana. Sandra talked a good game, saying she was sure she wasn’t going home.

There were side conversations to keep Hali in with Mana, and Hali pointedly said that she wanted physical threats gone. That led Sandra to tell everyone on Nuku to switch to Brad, and J.T. and Malcolm had their side conversation.

Then J.T. got up and went to talk to Brad that Nuku had the plan to vote Sierra; Hali spoke to pretty much everyone on Nuku to vote for Brad. Things broke down into side conversations then. Once everyone had sat back down, Probst started asking questions … and then J.T. whispered that they needed to vote for Sandra to Brad.

Hali almost stopped the vote, confusing Probst for the second time in about ten minutes, but then the vote really did go down. Tai then played the idol on Sierra, based on Brad’s info from J.T.

It turned out to work, because Sierra had 6 votes nullified. The rest went to Malcolm, who had previously said he’d be “cussing all the way down the ramp” if he were to go home in the twist (thus naming our recap), and he had all 5 of Mana’s votes.

Next: Survivor: Ranking All 33 Previous Seasons

However, walking out of Tribal Council, Michaela whispered to Varner that she thought J.T. had set them up. If he wasn’t in trouble before, he certainly is now on Nuku, and the preview backed that up.

Survivor: Game Changers continues next week.