Survivor Ghost Island episode 9 recap: Bugs and braids
Fitting a season with a classic “tribe vs. tribe” dynamic, Survivor Ghost Island episode 9 brought back the classic “eat gross stuff” Immunity Challenge.
Last week’s merge episode of Survivor Ghost Island was almost like the season premiere. It focused on a central idea; how cursed a player’s perception of the game can send them packing early. Chris didn’t even think of using his newly-found Hidden Immunity Idol, even in the face of Domenick yelling his name at Tribal Council. With Domenick and Wendell at the top, who becomes target No. 1?
The episode started back at camp, with Libby concerned about who voted for her at the previous Tribal Council. Meanwhile, Domenick immediately noticed that he could become the next target due to his Tribal performance, so he decided to take things slow heading into Day 23.
Wendell continued to build up his winner edit potential, talking about his alliance with Domenick, Laurel and Donathan as he continued to work on camp. However, noticing a bit of hesitation in Laurel, he decided to start solidifying his trust in her by telling her about both Domenick and Wendell’s Hidden Immunity Idols.
For what it’s worth, Laurel did let Wendell know about the vote coming his and Domenick’s way, but she also realizes how much this has become an individual game. It would be interesting to see how she gets to the Final Four without them, but their power in the game might sink her winning chances should she follow suit.
Watch Survivor on fuboTV: Watch over 67 live sports and entertainment channels (including CBS) with a 7-day FREE trial!
The Reward Challenge brought the winners to a taco hut filled with margaritas and fun food. Angela, Laurel, Libby, Chelsea, Donathan and Wendell suited up for the purple team, facing off against Michael, Desiree, Sebastian, Kellyn, Jenna and Domenick in a race to hit six targets with a slingshot.
The slingshot proved too much for many of the women in this competition, with players adopting a new strategy of sending weaker players out to shoot once, run back to the tribe platform and send out stronger players. Naviti benefitted from having both Wendell and Laurel reliably showing strength in this challenge, as they both excelled in bringing purple the reward.
The winning group also had the choice to send a player to Ghost Island, with Jenna selecting the white rock and getting randomly chosen for the punishment. However, we’ve seen countless advantages make their way to the island, even if not a single one has been used effectively so far this season. Even Domenick’s Legacy Advantage did nothing to change the vote, with the new result making him a possible voting target going forward.
Jenna became one of the few people to enter Ghost Island with a full idea of optimism, not scared that they’ll miss out on the social aspects of the game. Of course, that positivity faded as soon as she didn’t get the game of chance, with it becoming a bit of a bummer to see no personal content come from this journey.
On reward, Libby threw out her fears of getting voted out on the table, asking what she did wrong to get so many votes across three previous tribals. Angela noted how she could have been close to Michael, hence the easiness of the vote. The next day, Michael flipped things around on Angela, noting how Kellyn and Chelsea kept her out of the loop on Chris’ vote.
Thankfully, Angela did something that continues to reverse my stance on her; she made a big gameplay move. She took Michael’s possible vote flip on Wendell or Domenick and weaponized it against Kellyn, Chelsea and Desiree, causing a bit of chaos and placing the targets on the biggest players in the game. It’s a shame she was sidelined for most of the pre-merge play, but there’s a reason why she made it this far, and we’re starting to see it after the merge.
Related Story: Let’s Rank the Survivor Seasons by Their Locations
On Day 25, we came to the main event; “eat a bunch of gross s—” challenge for individual immunity. Inexplicably, everyone with long hair had double pigtail braids entering the challenge, which somehow ended up being the second-most disgusting thing of the day.
The first challenge between Desiree, Donathan, Libby, Michael, Jenna and Laurel was eating fish eyes. Michael finished first, Desiree was second and Laurel was third, with Libby falling just short. The second group saw Angela beast the competition, with Sebastian following and Domenick closing out the second group. For some reason, Wendell didn’t even really try.
The second challenge saw players eating three larvae grub a la Survivor Borneo, with Jeff Probst even name-dropping Gervase. It was Michael, Sebastian and Angela who ate them up real quick, moving on to the sea slug competition. Angela illustrated her monstrous abilities to eat the disgusting food by swallowing the first one whole while breaking up the second. She came second to Michael, who both faced off in a mother of pearl sea meat smorgasbord.
Related Story: Survivor Athletes: Ranking The Best To Play The Game
Angela came out of her shell in this episode, showboating all the way to her Individual Immunity win with some body shakes and dancing at the table. Not only did she secure her safety, but in placing the target on Michael, started to paint a picture that could see him go home.
It was Wendell who called Angela the “Sea Slug Slugger,” if anybody wanted to know who had the episode quote of the day. At camp, it was Laurel, Des, Chelsea, Kellyn and Donathan talking about splitting the votes between Michael and Libby, talking about a 5-4 split between them if they “stick to the plan.” Of course, those words are infamously cursed in Survivor, with Michael plotting Malolo to stick together and vote out Wendell.
Live Feed
Betsided
Laurel and Donathan were stuck in the middle of two groups, with Laurel knowing that she could build a resume by taking Wendell out. The two came together to talk about who to vote, with Donathan pitching sticking with Malolo and not making things even more lopsided. Libby then got thrust in the middle, with Domenick telling her she’s safe and Donathan saying the opposite.
Heading into Tribal Council, Wendell made one of those confessionals that seems planted after the fact, stating that he’ll be looking out for subtle clues at Tribal to determine if he needs to play his idol or not. He’s been highlighted being incorrect about his calls in previous episodes, making this a make-or-break moment for his game. Even Kellyn suggested she couldn’t read either Laurel or Donathan, which should have been enough for Wendell to feel anxious.
Once Tribal Council started, we started to see some of the “me” games break away from the “we” games. Angela got some complimentary moments, including some dancing around praising someone for their swallowing skills, but it happened to focus on the long-term game of Survivor Ghost Island as a whole.
This season deals with Survivor history, so it’s not a surprise to see a lot of meta-commentary about players being the big target, convincing others they’re not that, purple vs. orange and making it to the end as a coattail-rider ready to make a move near the end vs. being a top dog through to the end.
Surprisingly, nobody really tipped off voting targets until it became time to vote, although Wendell was shooting some glances when a player made a specific comment about making moves when you have the vote. Not a single vote was shown until Jeff Probst brought back the urn, with Michael deciding to use Ozzy’s F—ing Stick and negate a ton of votes his way. In the end, Libby was sent home in a 4-1 decision, with Wendell getting the other lone vote.
Next: Survivor: Ranking all 35 seasons
Considering that Libby was finally shown being concerned about receiving votes after three straight Tribal Councils she visited before tonight’s episode, we saw the trend of her coming to the spotlight only when the story necessitated it. “Naviti Strong” continues to prevail in the long run, however, which doesn’t bode well for Michael after escaping a tight jam this week.