Survivor: David vs. Goliath episode 3 recap: Scorched earth

Napalm Natalie blows through the Goliath camp and the David tribe recovers from the vote in our Survivor: David vs. Goliath episode 3 recap.

After Jessica was voted out in last episode’s Tribal Council, it set the tone for what looks to be an entertaining season. Any character can break out and pull off some big moves, and you never know who you can trust. The Fijian rain kept everyone working on camp before, but now is the time to make up for lost Survivor gameplay.

It was a bit awkward on Night 6, with Davie upset that he was blindsided by who he considered his number one allies. Christian, for what it’s worth, threw his first partner under the bus, blaming Gabby for the blindside as Christian and Nick were poached at the last second. It put the Mason-Dixon Line in a power position in the tribe, but just how long will that last?

Carl and Bi were hurt, but awakened, by the blindside, and they made Gabby out to be the number one target. It seems as though she was trusted more not to be sneaky, but the people who ultimately voted against them are the best allies to have. It’s weird to see the tribe’s dynamics after the first vote.

Over at the Goliath tribe, everyone’s hunky-dory with John, as he seems to be becoming less of a wrestling character and more of a person. It makes his partnership and goal of making it far with Natalie at odds with the tribe’s goals. On the flipside, we saw Jeremy open up about his family and his father’s battle with Alzheimer’s, as well as Mike White’s hesitance to work with someone who would do anything for that million-dollar prize all the way to the end.

For some reason, the Day 8 David tribe saw Christian and Gabby nerd out over the Mayor of Slamtown and his constituents, much to the chagrin of Carl. Meanwhile, Davie, Bi and Nick were talking about pulling a blindside on Gabby as Elizabeth fished for the tribe, with Nick completely happy with throwing the blame off of him.

While the David tribe seemed rightfully talking strategy ahead of the Immunity Challenge, Jeremy seemed like it was too much for the Goliath tribe to start having people pair off ahead of a tribe swap. He brought it up in front of the entire tribe, although what that did was paint a bigger target on his back.

What was the first thing that Jeremy started doing after that talk? Start going up to people like John, Alec and Alison and pin a target on Dan’s back, positing that he has an idol. John and Angelina both had strong reads on Jeremy’s threat status; something that wasn’t there before he started speaking out. Again, playing hard early is going to make you stand out on a tribe of laidback players.

Day 9 opened up the skies once more, with the Immunity Challenge happening now in the middle of a thunderstorm. One player from each tribe would run through a rope obstacle course, with three following suit by unbundling rope. Later, a player would toss a ring as the tribe hauled in a sled, with a player solving a 3D triangular prism puzzle.

Both tribes were even heading into the three-person rope-unbundling, as both tribes were able to communicate and work well in that portion. Carl and Elizabeth used their lasso skills to the best of their ability, but it was John and Dan that were able to pull in their sled first. It all came down to a puzzle portion, and Christian’s puzzle-solving skills came in the clutch once more, winning immunity for David for the first time all season. Bi’s knee got a little banged up, and it was brought up a few times in prominence. That will likely be a story going forward.

It’s rare for the winning tribe to be the first tribe we see after an Immunity Challenge, but Bi’s MCL sprain got a bit of a sidebar to remind viewers for what will be a future storyline. Before that, there was some shade thrown by Natalia over Angelina’s ability to solve the puzzle, and that led into the Goliath tribe’s deliberations over who should be their tribe’s first Survivor boot.

Natalie and Jeremy had a heart-to-heart on the back of their familial brother and sisterhood, but who knew that their disagreement would play into who everyone sides beside in a Tribal Council vote. Alison wanted to get Natalie out for her failure in the challenge, but Angelina tried to whip the vote in voting out Jeremy due to his sketchiness.

It put a split on the tribe’s dynamics, as the women leading a power alliance an episode ago were split on who to vote out. To make things complicated, Jeremy went off on Natalie, acting like a child and tried to sit in on a conversation that had nothing to do with him. It put the entire tribe in a pickle, with players arguing either keeping Natalie because she’s not a threat or keeping Jeremy because he’s not going to drag the tribe’s morale down.

As the Goliath tribe entered Tribal Council for the first time, we got our first look at the set as the rain came falling down. Angelina talked about general tribal life, but Jeremy went straight into the gameplay, talking about how everyone got along at the Goliath camp except for Natalie before going off on a tirade about how Natalie addresses others.

That’s when the tribe talked about the idea of perception and the difficulties of overcoming a difficult first impression, where the tribe is headed ahead of a swap and what it means to keep the tribe swap. Natalie iterated that she is Goliath strong; a problem that many had feared about her heading into the vote.

You can tell that both Natalie and Jeremy were completely over each other, as Natalie gave a scathing passive-aggressive voting confessional that ended with her praising Jeremy’s skin quality. That may not have helped lessen the blow of the blindside, as the tribe unanimously decided to vote out Jeremy. Napalm Natalie takes her first victim.

The “Next Time On Survivor” promo did reveal that everyone will be dropping their buffs next episode, bringing forth the first real change in David vs. Goliath. Let’s see if Christian can bring about the Charmpocalypse like he says!