Survivor Edge of Extinction episode 8 recap: Passenger pigeon

A Lesu divided against itself cannot stand, as our Survivor: Edge of Extinction episode 8 recap looks at a Devens scored and a Dr. Joe visit at a challenge.

Last week’s Survivor: Edge of Extinction merge rushed through a great number of storylines that the vote-out of Joe seemed to come out of nowhere. It was a decision between Kelley and Joe being targeted, yet with players left (and leaving

We skipped out on the “Previously On Survivor” to jump straight into the post-tribal scene for the first time all season. Ron and the Kama majority were quick to jump to David and Devens, with Eric in tow explaining just how his own tribe voted for David. They were able to be convincing enough to forget they voted against Kelley, too!

Wardog knew just how played the entire Lesu Five were, so he suggested that everyone come together and vote as a group alongside Aurora in order to go to rocks. We’ve seen this suggestion a third time from a third different tribe, but it goes to show just how invested these players in the minority are.

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We only saw a bit of Joe on Extinction Island this time, as he used Carl’s confessional telepathic powers before heading to the Reward Challenge. Players were split into two random teams of six as they swam to collect vertical puzzle pieces across a balance beam and up a crow’s nest. Two players at a time could grab one group of pieces while another two grabbed the second bundle. Finally, two players stood on a beam to create their vertical wood slat puzzle.

Lauren, Julie, Kelley, Gavin, David and Ron were on the yellow team, while Aurora, Rick, Wardog, Eric, Victoria and Julia are on the blue team. The blue team was a bit quicker on the unroping portion, giving Victoria and Julie a bit more time to observe the puzzle and encounter trial and error to start from the top and get to the bottom.

Meanwhile, the yellow team filled with Lesu players were too busy yelling a bunch of information at each other, showing their disarray as they stumbled from the gate. They pretty much left Victoria and Julia calmly finish their puzzle, earning a Chinese takeout reward to keep the Kama majority strong and, as Ron put it, kept Lauren and Kelley weak. Man, David’s been awful with puzzles in Survivor: Edge of Extinction!

As the blue team went on reward, it became clear that courting Devens was their goal. The Lesu players outside of him knew that in order to push forward in the game and try to take out Kama and regain some semblance of power, they need to bring in all of their numbers plus Aurora in order to draw for rocks.

While Kelley and David were able to make amends and push forward, with Wardog approaching Devens and trying to get him back to their side, Rick basically said, “That sounds like a great idea … NOT!” Rick’s trust in his original tribe was completely eroded after being voted against twice, and he was willing to become a pawn under Kama’s side of the chess board.

Even as David approached Rick about getting his head in the game, Rick was so completely against the idea that it became something of Survivor’s version of Marvel’s Civil War. “(Kama’s) my friend,” Rick snapped. “So was I,” David metaphorically responded, as the two came to an impasse where they were on the opposite sides of holding onto halves of a functional idol.

Day 21 brought us the second look at the Edge of Extinction, where the players were given a clue to yet another advantage in the game. They were told the game was rocky, to take back and assess where the next advantage would be, but only Aubry was “sneaky, sneaky” like Kelley Wentworth enough to spot the next clue where to go.

She was led to a staging area on the island where she could practice the first part of the final Edge of Extinction challenge, which seemed like it was placed where anybody could walk towards it and find it on the beach. She was also gifted an extra vote, showing that now a potential member of the jury can impact the game from an island so far removed from it.

The Immunity Challange was another example of a simple text of endurance and dexterity. All the players lined up into wooden frames, holding up a block with their head while standing on their tippy-toes. Wardog was out in seconds, but Eric and Gavin were not too far behind them. Kelley and Devens dropped seconds later (making the five fittest out of the competition).

Players kept dropping quickly, with Julia and Ron following mere seconds later, as well. David, Aurora, Lauren and Victoria stood there for a while, with David dropping first after 25 minutes. Lauren dropped out quite literally, warning Jeff Probst she was about to black out before crashing to the ground. It was quite the scary scene, as medical came immediately to her aid as she laid out unconscious.

It was at this moment we saw Aurora step out from behind the shadows, pleading with Victoria to drop out so she can win immunity as a sign of faith. This made so many players angry at Aurora’s selfishness, with Julie being visibly upset with her. Aurora even noted nobody was cheering for her to do well, with Rick giving a sarcastic “Go Aurora!” cheer seconds later.

She didn’t even need it, as Victoria stumbled and fell moments later and Aurora won the second individual Immunity Challenge of the season. She was also gifted an extra vote advantage by Aubry, showing just how strong the three players in the original Kama minority were to each other. Lauren would end up being fine, with Probst suggesting she was a fighter.

As the Kama Six (plus Aurora) came together on the beach, Ron and Eric were content on splitting the majority votes between Kelley and Lauren, trying to stay as Kama strong as possible while keeping David and Devens as loyal members of an eight-person group. Kelley and David saw how unfortunate the situation would become, as they were ready to say their goodbyes and eventual hellos on Extinction Island.

Wardog was not ready to go down without a fight, however, as he pitched to Gavin and Julia, separately, to let them know that Eric and Ron were willing to use David and Devens as pawns within Kama’s civil war. Julia confirmed this with “a test” (as Adam Klein would put it) to Eric, suggesting to take out David now.

When Eric said David would stay loyal to the eight, that was when Julia and Gavin sprung into action. They tried to devise a plan with the Lesu minority to take out either Ron or Eric in order to become “hashtag Game Changers,” which should be the biggest warning sign against going against your majority alliance too early.

Tribal Council saw the story of the Kama Seven versus the Lesu Five, but even within those groups, we saw fractures immediately. Devens was openly against his Lesu members, suggesting that they lost his trust after trying to vote him out again and again. David took a more passive approach, suggesting he was just a passenger at this tribal.

However, when it came down to who within Kama was staying loyal and who was acting into the paranoia, David leaned into the chaos by suggesting players sticking to Kama strong had blank papers, as opposed to filled-out resumes, this season. Though a plan was in motion before Tribal Council even began, it gave players like Aurora the opportunity to speak their mind and be more open about who within Kama is really loyal to whom.

Ultimately, Kama wasn’t nearly as strong as they thought. Rick and Julie voted for Lauren, Ron and Eric voted for Kelley, but everyone else in the game voted out Eric in an 8-2-2 vote, suggesting that it was finally time for people to start padding their Survivor resumes.