Survivor: David vs. Goliath episode 9 recap: Thankful

There’s a lot to be thankful for when it comes to Survivor: David vs. Goliath episode 9, sending us to Thanksgiving on an appropriately high note.

First off, I would like to wish all of our readers a happy Thanksgiving! Soon, the show will allow Canadians to join the cast, and although we already enjoyed our version six weeks ago, Survivor: David vs. Goliath episode 9 continues the holiday tradition by saving the two-hour block until after the holidays. Tonight set things up for an exciting future as the finish line approaches the horizon.

Let’s be thankful for just how great the season has gone, as the Night 22 camp scene was reflective of just how crazy the previous Tribal Council was. Not only was Davie Rickenbacker coming off the top rope to take out the Mayor of Slamtown, but Alison also started to pivot to the Davids by pitching to Alec and Kara that the time to flip to the Goliaths is either now or never.

This frustrated Dan Rengering, who sat and complained about sitting on the beach for two hours and nobody went over to him to check up on him. It gave Kara unease to hear that Dan thought he could just sit in silence at camp and hope the game would come to him, so she made one of her most important moves of the game; she started to separate from him.

There are significant pre-season implications from Kara moving on from Dan and towards Alec (and Alison, on a lesser scale), but from a game perspective, it’s a huge moment from Kara. We’ve been reminded of her existence on the game, but so much of her charm and skill has only worked on Dan. Can she stand on her own and thrive at the Final 11?

The Reward Challenge saw 10 of 11 players (sorry, Carl) compete in teams of five, crawling through obstacles, retrieving numbered tiles, solving a combination lock and using the pieces of a snake to solve a snake puzzle. The reward of burgers and beer was enough to get both teams firing on all cylinders, and Mike solving the combination lock early for orange had that advantage negated as soon as he forgot to cover the top, letting the purple team stay even.

This set the end of the challenge down to Alison and Christian solving a snake puzzle for purple, while Alec and Kara teamed up for orange. Despite Christian being born to solve puzzles, the teamwork of Alec and Kara proved to be the right chemistry in solving the puzzle, winning the Reward Challenge.

Angelina took the loss pretty hard, suggesting that the Reward Challenge wasn’t about the winners, but who you’re competing with. Gabby and Alison rekindled their Tiva connection, with Gabby working hard to play into Alison’s hand and pitching a big move. Dan’s name was thrown out, and it played on Alison’s wishes to take out the player worthy of building her resume.

Survivor is a game of information as much as it is social and strategic gameplay. Unless your name is Mike Holloway, you need to have some idea of where the game is headed and who is protected. Despite Mike pitching the idea of staying “Goliath strong” and voting for Christian again, even he couldn’t script a convincing argument, and Kara decided she needed to shift gears.

One way to break up from your showmance and have others believe you? Tell others that your showmance partner has a second, secret, Hidden Immunity Idol. This is what Kara shared with Alec and Alison, pitching the notion that Dan needed to be voted out and done so with secrecy. Just like Elizabeth hanging out in the hammock at the merge, Dan was sitting in a position more precarious than he first thought.

With the Davids still at a numbers disadvantage, the team got together at the crack of dawn to search for a Hidden Immunity Idol. While most gave up after an early start to not make things look too easy, Christian didn’t take his possible threat level lightly. He employed a breadth-first search algorithm to pore over the island, eventually stumbling upon a coconut in an unnatural tree to find his first Hidden Immunity Idol. Everything’s coming up Christian!

This set up the third Immunity Challenge of the merge-tribe game, with players having to jump through a series of obstacles before needing to balance three balls on a paddle over a teeter-totter. Once that’s completed, the players would navigate a ball through a snake track on three targets to win immunity.

Alec was leaping over the knee-high obstacles, but Dan got to his snake track first. It was a two-person challenge, however, as the two were neck and neck until the very end. With skillful precision, dexterity and a steady hand, he masterfully slayed the competition en route to his first Individual Immunity win. He’s been one of the shining stars when it comes to competitions, he’s been a social butterfly, and he’s obviously the biggest threat in the game.

With Christian and Dan both being voting targets and holders of Hidden Immunity Idols, it set up for an interesting strategic talk dynamic at camp. With Alison and Kara talking to Gabby and Nick about splitting the vote, it dawned upon Alison that perhaps keeping the numbers advantage is important when trying to stay alive in the game.

This put Kara in an odd spot because she wanted to rip off the bandage and vote out Dan. However, with the Goliaths segregating and trying to keep things safe, they couldn’t get it past Nick that the Davids needed to sit down and discuss how to play this pivotal Tribal Council where they can even the playing field.

Nick gathered everyone together to lay the Davids’ cards on the table. Nick revealed that with Carl and Davie he found a Vote Steal advantage. This led to Christian revealing that he found the Hidden Immunity Idol and Carl talking about his Idol Nullifier.

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While Survivor: David vs. Goliath has been a season of growing characters and suffering the elements, we are starting to see the evolution of the game’s numerous advantages become the focus of discussion at post-immunity camp in back to back episodes. It is a crucial vote, and the Davids do have a lot of powers to work through, but it does become frustrating to take a small step back from such a personality-driven season.

It did, however, set up a Tribal Council where it wasn’t clear if the Davids could pull it off. Members of that group talked about staying humble in the face of a small victory, while Mike tried to keep the Goliaths together by suggesting nobody wants to be the first person to flip. It was another chance for the Davids to build social capital by saying “join our side,” right before attempting a big move.

Right before the vote, Nick declared that he was going to steal a vote. He took Alison’s, for what it’s worth, providing a brief moment of confusion for the viewer. Why remove her chance to flip? The game was afoot, and it became clear as the votes came out that Carl’s words of the Goliaths not earning the trust of the Davids rang true. When Dan played his idol, he learned that an Idol Nullifier was played against him. This meant that all votes would count against him.

In an instant, it became clear; we needed to hear about the advantages because almost all the tools were necessary for the Davids to take out the Goliaths. Like a stone striking between the eyes via slingshot, the Idol Nullifier, alongside the Davids votes, took out the biggest available threat in the game; Dan. Though it felt like a collision waiting to happen, that doesn’t mean the payoff wasn’t prime turkey-grade meat.