Survivor Game Changers Episode 4 Challenges Not Great for Troyzan

Both the Reward and Immunity Challenges from Survivor Game Changers episode 4 did not make Troyzan look good at all

Coming out of Survivor Game Changers episode 4, all anyone is talking about is possibly the most controversial and certainly unpredictable Tribal Council. With two tribes voting out one player, the boot was shocking and the buildup was thrilling. However, what fans need to be sure of is not to miss the other elements of the episode that could come into play. In this instance, that includes the two challenges.

The episode started out with the remaining 17 castaways on Survivor Game Changers ready to take on a Reward Challenge. Winners would receive coffee, cookies and all the dressings for each. Meanwhile, the tribe to finish in second would get a big thermos of iced coffee. And to add another wrinkle to it all, only two players would be competing in the challenge.

For the challenge they call Ram-Ball On, one player from each tribe would balance a ball on the end of a stick. They would then have to go up and under wooden beams while keeping the ball balanced. That would be step 1 before adding another piece to the stick and having to go through another obstacle. This continued for five obstacles before the player delivered a key to their tribe mate, who would unlock a box of sandbags and beg them at a grouping of pillars to knock all of them off.

Nuku sent out J.T. and Malcolm for the challenge, while Mana sent out Tai and Brad Culpepper with Tavua going with Ozzy and Troyzan. Here’s the way things played out:

Ozzy was predictably dominant in the first portion of the challenge, finishing ahead of both his competitors. However, that makes it all the more egregious that Troyzan couldn’t get it done. That Malcolm dominated the throwing portion isn’t a big deal as Nuku won.

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However, Tai took an eternity to get to Brad for him to just begin throwing. And hats off to Brad for being accurate while working in hyperdrive, but what the hell was Troyzan doing? Maybe it had something to do with that unorthodox (incorrect?) throwing motion.

Thus, Troyzan blowing Tavua’s lead cost his tribe reward. That then led to the Immunity Challenge, a familiar one called Ow-Pairs. With one caller directed two pairs of blindfolded tribe mates that are tied together, the goal is to pull down three buckets to get three bags that each contain a ball. Once all three bags are returned, they then must maneuver the ball through the suspended maze by pulling ropes and land each ball in a slot/hole in the center of the board.

However, with Nuku and Tavua both having six members still, they had to sit someone out. For Nuku, that was Sandra. Following his poor performance in the Reward Challenge, it was Troyzan elected to sit out for Tavua. With only one tribe being safe from Tribal Council, here’s how things played out:

Sure enough, it was Tavua that was able to capture Immunity from the ensuing wild Tribal Council. To recap for Troyzan, he single-handedly cost his tribe Reward and then followed that by watching Tavua win Immunity while he was sitting out. Yikes.

Troyzan has been isolated pretty heavily from the other five members of Tavua to this point in the game, and this is only going to worsen that situation. By all accounts, it would seem that Troyzan would be the first name on the chopping block whenever Tavua goes to Tribal Council. Of course, that could make things quite interesting.

Unbeknownst to the other five Tavuas, Troyzan found the Hidden Immunity Idol at the episode 3 challenge. Subsequently, the first time Tavua goes to Tribal Council would turn into Troyzan’s choice. He can idol someone out with just his one vote because no one has any idea that the idol is in his possession. So while things probably won’t get crazier than they did at this joint Tribal Council in episode 4, there are still plenty of twists, big reveals and much more to come.

Next: Survivor Game Changers: Ranking All 33 Previous Seasons

Survivor Game Changers episode 5 is next up and will air on Wednesday, March 29 at 8:00 p.m. ET on CBS.

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