Australian Survivor 2019 episode 10 recap: Idol feelings

After the Champions pulled a literal “Mr. Steal Your Man” at the last Tribal Council, Australian Survivor 2019 is about to shift the power once again.

Things are looking good for Shaun on Australian Survivor. Instead of going down as a huge threat or possibly being tied to Harry’s shenanigans, he’s been poached by the Champions tribe, and he’s on the best beach. It’s unreal that the celebrities seemingly had a paradise compared to the Contenders at the start, but considering the Champions’ challenge track record, we could be due for a major confrontation between Shaun and David.

It’s incredible how Shaun simply existing around Daisy reminded her, “Oh, Australian Survivor is a numbers game. Maybe we shouldn’t throw all our support onto David and Luke.” Everyone falling back in love with Shaun became a huge concern for those creepin’ and Golden God’in in this game, so they worked quickly to make sure that the trio was all on the same page.

Shaun did an excellent job of convincing David he doesn’t know the idol given to him was fake, setting himself up to be in a position to blindside David down the line. Meanwhile, David is on the verge of ascending back into Golden God status while in reality, he has no idea that Shaun’s promise of a Final Five is dead in the water the opportunity a vote can send David out of the game.

Not only did the Contenders air out all their dirty laundry in front of the Champions at the last Tribal Council, but they had their meat shield and challenge beast taken away. At the very least, the tribe had a (mostly) common enemy in Dirty Harry, who planned on finding a way to take out The Godmother Janine anyway he could. He even made his “look at me + idol” plan as a tribute to Nick Wilson from David vs. Goliath! Love that there are international fans on the show.

With a little bit of a pep talk from Simon (he exists! that’s neat), as well as everyone on the Champions making fun of Harry and his stupid stick in the mouth, we got to the Immunity Challenge. Two at a time from each tribe retrieved balls while traveling through an obstacle course. Two more would become divers underneath an underwater platform to pull a sliding door down, opening up a slot for players on the top of the Tower of Terror to shoot the balls into the slot.

Surprisingly, the new workhorse for the Champions found it difficult to navigate through the water and nets, but eventually caught up to take a minor lead. Harry was a detriment for the Contenders, however, finding it difficult to retrieve his ball from atop the net. Janine also found it a bit difficult, giving the Champions a huge lead into the shooting portion.

However, it looks as though having professional footballers and a professional surfer helped both in the shooting and underwater diving aspects of this challenge. Simon was a legend on the toss, nailing four of the first eight shots into the net. Ross was just as much of a reason for their success, as he held his breath for so long for Simon to get his seventh of eight shots right before the buzzer. Harry dove for Simon to nail the eighth goal and secure safety for the Contenders.

Once again, the Champions headed to Tribal Council to make their tribe name all the more ironic. In fact, it was the seventh-straight time they were set to meet JLP, but Shaun had all the stars aligned to pull off a blindside. With Hannah in serious stomach pain, it was easy to convince David and Luke that everyone was throwing their votes on her when the real plan was to split the votes between those two.

However, Andy’s misplaced trust in David gave him the opportunity to pull a big move of his own. He went up to David and Luke roughly five minutes before Tribal Council to tell them that the votes will be split between them, and if the three of them throw votes on Daisy, she will go home. In their cockiness, they couldn’t suss out of Andy was being sincere or trying to flush their idols.

With no time to make an alternate plan before Tribal Council, it would all have to be hashed out there. Once Hannah was, unprompted, talking about how Shaun coming back was Actually Bad because she was going home, that’s when David got the whispers going. Daisy backing up Hannah’s concerns when they should be on the same page was the final straw.

That’s when we started to get the theatrics involved. As David and Luke drew concerns that they were being bamboozled, David whipped out his Hidden Immunity Idol, wearing it as a symbol that he wasn’t going home tonight. That’s when he started whispering to Luke that both need to play their idols and that Hannah won’t be the target after all.

After the votes were cast, the two OG Champions did play their idols, which should have resulted in a 2-1 vote for Shaun over Daisy in that instance. However, for some reason that wasn’t explained at all, the Contenders split votes between David and Hannah, with Hannah going home immediately if David played an idol and Andy didn’t vote for Daisy.

However, because both idols were flushed, we went through a drawn-out process with a revote that sent Hannah out the door. Seriously, I don’t understand why the Contenders on this tribe insist on eating their own, as even in their vote split plan their backup strategy takes out Hannah; a number of their own. At least she received some sort of reasoning, and Hannah even had a confessional!