Australian Survivor 2019 episode 6 recap: Phoning home

With Steven Bradbury gone, the earliest alliance threat in Australian Survivor 2019 is no more. Who’s next with a power vacuum sucking the Champions up?

As the Champions tribe does its best job of self-imploding before a tribe swap, the Contenders have been hunky-dory in Australian Survivor 2019. They’re finding ways to keep themselves entertained with a bit of cricket because it seems only they can beat their own tribe in an Immunity Challenge.

We continue to get the “Ross is a bumbling fool” kind of edit over at the Champions tribe, but he has that kind of everyman approach to life that makes him very approachable on a tribe filled with egos and athletes. Janine certainly seems to like his approach to the game, and everyone else seems to be on board with his wishes to burn Bradbury’s leftover underwear.

It’s episode 6 of Australian Survivor 2019, yet it seems as though Ten Network isn’t confident enough in their own product not to remind people that ET is a rugby legend. The “never say die,” “know the exact time to strike” flashback edits a la Bradbury felt fairly telegraphed of the inevitable, while the “I miss my kids” flashbacks to Pia’s life back home oppositely felt like a reminder that she’s a late-game player.

The first ten minutes was essentially mindless pitter-patter serving as a slow recap of the past week of action, with Shaun blabbering about getting his eyes tweezered and making the Champions jealous. It was a time-wasting mechanic with a singular purpose; to remind us that he swapped a real Champions idol to receive a fake Contenders idol from David.

Baden, Casey, and Daisy sat out of the Reward Challenge for the Contenders, which illustrated just how dominant their tribe has been so far to have a three-player advantage on the veritable “Goliaths.” They sat out on a simple Tug of War competition, pulling a pulley onto their side in smaller three-person skirmishes. The first to win three times won cheeseburgers (in paradise).

The feats of strength and dexterity that have been the Reward Challenges has not gone unnoticed, as the brute strength of the Champions led them to an early 1-0 lead in this competition. Pia’s redemption arc and ET’s underdog vibes collided together in the second matchup, as the two helped the Champions overcome Hannah, Sam, and Harry, the first two being virtual ghosts in the edit.

With the Contenders facing defeat, Jonathan spiced things up with a 4v4 competition. Sam, Sarah, Harry, and Shaun lined up against Janine, Abbey, David, and ET at the anchor. David’s grip left his team taking a quick loss, giving the Contenders hope down 2-1. Another 4v4 skirmish of Harry, John, Matt, and Shaun had a real back-and-forth match against David, Ross, Simon, and Luke to tie things at 2-2.

To maximize the pressure, Jonathan kicked the spice up to a final notch in a 1v1 battle. Matt gave Shaun a major pep talk before Ross finally stepped up to the plate for a winded Champions tribe, keeping things even before Shaun slipped up. Baden was poached to enjoy the reward and, to David’s chagrin, picked Shaun to join him in burgers and beer.

With David worriedly hoping Shaun didn’t figure the fake idol out and Baden expounded ionosphere physics knowledge, everyone chowed down on some bacon and burgers. Surprisingly, the Contenders found solace in their strongest player getting fed as they sat in the cold barfing up undercooked rice and beans.

David’s golden god status has become more and more like Dennis from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, as he made sure with Shaun that he was convinced about his fake idol’s legitimacy. In broing down, he made it clear to the women in his alliance that he was trying to build a bigger army for later down the road, with Abbey and Pia especially setting their sights on David.

The Towers of Terror made a reappearance in the Australian Survivor 2019 episode 6 Immunity Challenge, but not before Matt continued to play up his cockiness. Two members from each tribe stayed on dunking platforms on the tower as three members per platform player held up sandbags keeping the players suspended on the platforms.

This challenge proved to be like the “Shoulder the Weight” challenge from Survivor with a dynamic relay twist. Once a player per trio holding the narrow rope transitioned to the player relieving them, they were taken out of the challenge. Finger pain, endurance, dexterity, strength to hold up the sandbag; this challenge pushed everyone in various ways.

The Contenders burned through their players early on both of their teams, going one anchor and a 2nd before David tapped out first for the Champions 11 minutes in. Even as John struggled to maintain his grip, the contrast between his hardship and Baden and Casey chatting about fish made the release hilarious.

ET managed to beast things out for 30 minutes before handing it off to Janine, who only held on for a few minutes before handing off to Ross as an anchor. As this was all going on, Casey relayed to Simon and Pia that David had told Shaun he had played an idol on Pia already, setting off a potential firestorm and reminding us that these players love to chat at challenges across tribal lines.

Shaun was burning through his burger reserves to hold on for 40 minutes before handing off to Matt as the Contenders’ final player left in the challenge. In a twist of fate, however, Ross slipped up in a rope-based challenge to drop Simon as Luke and Matt faced off in an epic test of will and pain. Matt eventually brought the Contenders immunity once again, popping off like a semi-professional wrestler at night who has no idea what a social game is.

With 20 minutes of runtime left before the end of the episode, the Australian Survivor 2019 editors did their best to pretend like the vote was going anywhere other than between ET and Simon. Sure, the fake David idol play shenanigans and floating Pia’s name did inject some flavor into the proceedings, but with so many episodes ahead and few athletes left, it served as foreshadowing.

Jonathan did his best to poke the bear at Tribal Council, asking the tough questions to David about how the “refresh” post-Bradbury’s elimination wasn’t really a refresh. The direction was pointed towards a future divide between the core six within the Champions tribe while constantly reminding us “David bad, Abbey and ET good.” (and Simon basically non-existent).

Meddling with tribe dynamics from Jonathan aside, this Tribal Council was a living wake for two great Australian sportsmen and people, with ET being the unfortunate 5-3 victim in the vote. Everyone got up to give him a hug, Abbey couldn’t hold back tears, and the tribe felt gutted. Who needs tribe strength when you’re facing Australian Survivor 2019’s tribe swap in the next episode, anyway?