Survivor: Game Changers Episode 7 Recap: Changes

Survivor: Game Changers had an emotional Tribal Council to cap off an episode that turned out to be the most emotional of the season to date.

Tonight’s episode of Survivor: Game Changers had a fairly long Tribal Council in a season that has already had some big ones. Spoilers follow, as you may expect.

Nuku’s Night 16 kicked off with Debbie offering some commentary on the Tribal Council, naming the episode in the first confessional, and then a bit of concern from Ozzy about Tai throwing his name out. (And, of course, more Debbie commentary on that.) Jeff and Zeke had a private conversation about the Sandra fallout, and it seemed like a new alliance was bubbling.

On Day 17, Mana learned about Sandra’s elimination from the game ahead of the reward challenge. Players started by untwisting ropes from a pole, getting a key for their efforts. Next, they had to put together a ladder to use the key for a bag of balls. After getting through some nets, they had to launch the balls into targets. With even numbers, no one had to sit out.

Ozzy, Andrea, and Sarah built the lead for Nuku, and Tai, Jeff, and Zeke maintained it on the ladder portion. Brad tried to play catch up on the launcher for Mana, but Ozzy just had too much time to learn the mechanics. As a result, Nuku won pizza and soda.

Thus, sans pizza, the mood at Mana’s camp was understandably not great. Tears started flowing as they spoke about the difficulties of the game and how it had changed them the first time around. Brad spoke about both his and his wife’s experiences, and it brought Aubry and Cirie to come and talk to him.

A Post-Pizza Plan

But over on Nuku, they sat down and started eating. They had 10 pizzas, but even in the celebration, Jeff’s confessional talked about targeting Ozzy. After the feast, he started speaking to Sarah about knocking him out. She seemed rather open to it.

The Day 18 immunity challenge put the players out in the ocean. To start, four players had to swim out to a raft, then pull it back, with one person diving in to collect three sets of buoys along the way, and the final three then had to unscramble a 13-letter word.

Nuku, presumably fueled by the pizza and the sheer diving ability of Ozzy, gave Debbie, Andrea, and Jeff quite a bit of time to start working before Mana arrived for Cirie, Sierra, and Michaela. Hali, though, gave them the start: “M-E-T-A.” Mana captured the win with metamorphosis, and their expressions certainly changed when Jeff Probst said they’d won.

Jeff wanted time to speak to everyone and said he had no idol. Ozzy and Jeff went off to get water, and Sarah started making the case to take Ozzy out. While taking to Zeke, Jeff had the idea to tell Sarah and Andrea in particular that Zeke was more on Team Ozzy.

It had the intended effect: Sarah was angry, more than Andrea.

Tears at Tribal Council

Jeff Probst didn’t bother to dance around things and immediately talked to Jeff Varner about who’s going home. “They are not six strong,” he declared, and then he admitted the Ozzy plan, going back to his Ozzy and Zeke theory and said it showed Zeke was lying.

“There’s more,” he said.

Then he asked Zeke why Zeke hadn’t told anyone that he was transgender.

Debbie, Andrea, Ozzy, Sarah, and Tai all had a negative reaction ranging from tears and anger to Ozzy saying “You should be ashamed of yourself.” Zeke didn’t say much. Jeff tried to apologize.

Zeke finally said that he hadn’t wanted to blindside Jeff about the vote out. Andrea and Tai both said they got why it had been done. By then, Jeff himself was in tears.

Jeff Probst asked Zeke to speak a little about his experiences, and though he called Varner’s question “not cool,” he mostly said he was okay with it and that he’d grown. Sarah, then, in tears, said she had learned as well.

At the end, Jeff Probst confirmed that there was no need to vote. Jeff and Zeke exchanged a hug before Jeff had his torch snuffed.

Next: Survivor: Ranking Every Season

Probst called it an “ultimately beautiful night.”

On the next episode of Survivor: Game Changers, there will be a merge.