Survivor Island of the Idols episode 6: Immunity and Reward Challenges

The first Survivor: Island of the Idols episode after the swap featured two simple but thrilling challenges with some entertaining finishes.

Coming into yesterday’s episode of Survivor, we knew that they were squeezing in a Reward Challenge, an Immunity Challenge and even an Island of the Idols visit all in one time slot. Surprisingly it worked out fine without feeling overly rushed. Although the challenges weren’t anything revolutionary, they were good enough to host two fierce battles. Let’s start with the first one.

Reward Challenge

The two tribes were tasked with carrying a sled that held a bunch of sandbags and one of their castaways. They had to transport this sled through an obstacle course that included grabbing a key and moving a ton of heavy bags onto a platform.

Once they are through the course, the castaways on the sled will use the key to unlock a slingshot and try to knock down three targets to win reward. The winning tribe will win five chickens. Vokai picked Elaine to sit out, and she was immediately sent to Island of the Idols with a few of her trademark hilarious remarks along the way. You can watch this challenge again below.

Throughout the challenge, Vokai held a slight lead, but Lairo was an echo behind them every step of the way. It was Jack from Lairo who knocked down the first target, but then Aaron took over and connected with the three targets with ease to give Vokai another victory. Having an ending slingshot phase isn’t anything new, but the lead up towards that showdown was pretty unique.

Reward Challenge rankings

Creativity: 2.5/5

Difficulty: 2/5

Entertainment Value: 3/5

Immunity Challenge

The Immunity Challenge also presented a new take on an obstacle course paired with a simple, basketball-like shooting phase. The tribes had to carry a bamboo cage along a path while stopping at a few stations to untie a set of balls. Underneath the first table of balls was Elaine’s secret Block a Vote advantage.

Once at the end of the obstacle course, the castaways will have to shoot from within the cage, trying to land their balls into five different targets. Lauren was picked to sit out for Vokai. Have another look at this nail-biting challenge here.

As per usual, Vokai took an early lead as they got to their first station in no time. That gave Elaine the opportunity to act, as she casually made her way to that area of the table, and Elizabeth covered for her by blocking everyone’s view while they were busy untying knots.

Elaine was able to scoop it up fairly quickly, but then it popped out when she tried to put it in her pants, giving us flashbacks of Sharn’s hilarious mishap in Australian Survivor. Thankfully, Elaine was able to subtly recover the advantage and actually secure it this time.

By the time Lairo made it to the final stage, Vokai already nailed one basket thanks to Tommy. However, Lairo answered quickly as both Jamal and Dean connected with their targets. Then Aaron went off, making three quick baskets, bringing Vokai to the brink of another victory.

Down four to two, Jamal took over by nailing the two farthest baskets, tieing it up. This time the collegiate basketball star, Dean Kowalski came up clutch for Lairo, sinking their final basket and giving their tribe a much needed win.

The entire cage aspect of this challenge was a very innovative idea that added a different element to this fight for immunity. On top of that, you factor in the drama with Elaine’s advantage and that back and forth finale and we have perhaps the most exciting challenge of the season thus far.

Immunity Challenge rankings

Creativity: 4/5

Difficulty: 2/5

Entertainment Value: 5/5