Survivor: David vs. Goliath episode 13 recap: Thank you, next

The rain comes back and it brings thunderous gameplay to Survivor: David vs. Goliath episode 13 as the players prepare for the end of the endgame.

All good things must come to an end. After tonight’s episode of Survivor: David vs. Goliath, we only have one week left of our favorite reality competition this year. From Ghost Island to the footsteps of the David vs. Goliath finale, it’s been a down-then-very-up year, and after tonight’s episode, it looks like the year will end with a bang.

The “Last Time On” recap to kick off the episode noted that the Davids were in disarray, and after arriving on Night 32, they were down in the numbers. However, instead of focusing on Christian staying in the game, Nick Wilson managed to pull off an audible; he “planted” a fake Hidden Immunity Idol at the raft while “discovering” it with others.

Even though his plot was to get others to stop looking for the Hidden Immunity Idol, Davie sussed it out that it was fake based on the fact he knows that Nick found his first idol at night. He kept searching for the idol the next morning, but after coming up short, he convinced that Nick not only has one but two idols, necessitating his blindside. It seems as though he’s playing hard now that he’s earned Christian’s trust.

This led to the Reward Challenge; a Keith Nale special. He’s won this challenge the last two times it has been played, where players need to unfurl enough of their rope to reach the last obstacle, this time being a block structure to knock down with sandbags. However, something the players didn’t take into account is that you need enough rope to collect the missed bags.

This factor derailed Angelina and Kara’s chances immediately, as it became a battle between Davie and Nick. It was symbolic of the episode’s goal, as it would be the battle being set up by Davie with Christian just earlier. The two traded blows, with Nick opening up with a large hit. However, as it came down to the final block, Nick had a premature celebration with a hit that didn’t knock it off the table, leading to Davie securing the win.

The reward was for a helicopter ride to a relaxing meal on an island, and Davie chose Nick to go with him first. Angelina pleaded to be taken second since she secured extra rice for the tribe but Davie chose Kara so he could keep his friends and frenemies close. This got Angelina on a one-sided tirade complaining to Christian, Mike and Alison, while everyone else seemed to politely move things along.

On the reward, Davie used a moment where Nick stepped out to drop the strategy on her, telling her about the plan to have herself, himself, Alison and Christian to vote out Nick, giving a decisive numbers advantage and take out the guy with two (they all still believe it’s two) idols. Kara loved the plan and set her part in motion.

Kara told Alison about the plan to vote out Nick, but with very clear instructions; “Don’t tell Mike and Angelina.” While Alison was very aware that all this action means her back is no longer against the wall, she managed to push out of that spot by kicking right off that wall, flirting with fire and telling Mike White about the plan. This presented him with options ahead of the vote.

On Day 34, Davie used his information about Nick’s second idol “find” and decided to get up early once more to search for any piece of hope. He found it in another piece of blue felt, this time telling him to search for the merge feast spot when the time was right. Another coming storm proved to be the correct time, as he found himself with a one-round Hidden Immunity Idol.

It looked like Ghost Island’s Chris Noble Hidden Immunity Idol gamble came back for David vs. Goliath, as Davie had the chance to play for two additional rounds of safety. However, he needed to pick between a left and right urn to secure an additional round of safety, with the penalty of a lost vote if he chooses wrong at any time. Just like Kellyn on the first trip to Ghost Island, the risk wasn’t worth the reward, so he took his idol and planned to use it the following night.

Day 35 rolled around, bringing forth the difficult and elaborate “balance balls like a waiter on a beam” challenge. Amid the uncomfortable discussions of it being worse to have balls separate or clang together, there was some actual gameplay to discuss!

While everyone made it to the second round, it quickly became a battle of Goliath vs. Goliath heading into the final round, as Mike and Alison looked to be the last players standing on a perch with three balls separating and clanging together on their platters. Alison would become the first two-time Immunity winner of the season had she stuck around, but Mike “Challenge Beast” White ended up victorious, bringing a new immunity winner every episode since the merge.

As everyone arrived back at camp, the “plan” became simple; vote out the biggest ongoing challenge threat. And since Mike White just won the Immunity Challenge, the vote went to the second-biggest challenge threat available; Alison. Of course, Christian, Nick and Davie didn’t want the vote to make the game a 4-2 Goliath advantage, so Nick came clean to Davie that his second idol was a fake.

Thankfully for Davie, that cleared Nick of any ill will, as now the vote was squarely heading towards Alison. Even though Mike was itching to get out Christian now that he had the safety of the Immunity Necklace, he couldn’t swing the votes in his favor. However, he did have one play up his sleeve, and it came via Alison because she spilled the beans on the Davie vote-out plan.

Mike then sat Nick aside and spilled the beans on Davie’s plan, putting Nick onboard with voting out Davie. Nobody knew that Davie had a one-episode idol, and Kara suggested that she wasn’t able to whip enough votes to save Alison, but were some people still going to vote for Nick? Or are they going to vote for Davie, nullifying some of the votes? It wasn’t clear what was going to happen heading into Tribal Council.

As discussions around the fire started up, Nick preached keeping up the dynamic gameplay so close to the end. Everyone seemed to agree with the idea that nobody has any hard feelings and are willing to work with someone who voted against them prior, and Davie even brought up voting blocs like he was playing in Survivor Cambodia.

The discussion then focused on the idea of becoming an ongoing threat based on staying in the game as a threat for a long time. Alison noted that she feels the heat just for staying in the game for so long, while Christian was making others aware that he is willing to work with anyone going forward.

In yet another bombastic pre-vote-reading move, Davie played his one-round idol to save himself when nobody expected it. This led to Nick ingeniously playing his fake idol in an attempt to see everyone’s reactions, with Angelina even saying to Nick that he didn’t need to play his real idol. Nick didn’t believe her, played his real idol and negated exactly zero votes to his name.

In fact, Davie received two votes from Mike and Alison that he blocked, Alison received two from Davie and Christian and, in a stunning move, Christian received the decisive three votes from Angelina, Nick and Kara needed to send him out of the game.

The editors have been tinkering with a new storytelling method with the edit this season, and considering how little we saw of Christian for the first 55 minutes of the episode, it was a shocker he was voted out of David vs. Goliath. It sets us up with a wild finish where almost anyone has a shot at winning the million-dollar prize and the title of Sole Survivor.