Survivor Island of the Idols episode 13 Immunity Challenge: Spinning out

A classic Survivor obstacle course capped by a tough word puzzle made for an all-important Immunity Challenge in the penultimate episode of Island of the Idols.

This article discusses the events from episode 13 of Survivor: Island of the Idols.

As with most recent seasons of Survivor, Island of the Idols has been following the same old pattern of the biggest threats getting targeted, leaving the “goats” till the end. Entering the second last episode of the season, Elaine was a serious contender to win it all. This pivotal challenge helped to shift the dynamics and shape the final days of this season.

Immunity Challenge Review

The seven remaining castaways were tasked with making their way through a dizzying obstacle course. They first have to spin to unravel themselves from a coil of rope. Once they finish that, the players will have to fight through their dizziness to walk a balance beam, collecting a puzzle piece along the way.

Then comes an extremely long word puzzle, where the castaways have to come up with the phrase: “This game will mess with your mind.” While having some letters stuck together in a block presented a cool and helpful twist, it’s still an incredibly difficult phrase to come up with. You can have another look at this challenge below.

The spinning phase got everyone but Tommy stumbling, as he whipped through the course reaching the balance beam with a strong lead. However, that’s where Tommy squandered his advantage as he could not get past the beam. That opened the door for Noura and Dean who made it across first. Shortly after, all seven castaways were onto the word puzzle.

As soon as Elaine entered the challenge grounds, she immediately remarked negatively about having to deal with a word puzzle! That said, she was the first person to actually get something going and had a good idea of what the phrase was. However, it was Dean stationed right next to Elaine who figured out the phrase as well and quickly shifted his blocks to surpass Elaine and win his first Individual Immunity Necklace.

Challenge Takeaways

Overall, it was an interesting take on an obstacle course and a word puzzle. It wasn’t anything revolutionary, but it did add a nice accent to a Survivor staple. That close finish between Elaine and Dean was huge. With Elaine out of the running, Lauren and Tommy remain as the sole castaways who have a strong possibility of winning the million.

Dean finally had a successful challenge moment, but he’ll need many more clutch moments if he wants a legitimate shot at becoming the Sole Survivor. I’ll say it again, this is a surprisingly balanced playing field where anybody can win. Tommy appears to be a clear physical threat, even though he hasn’t won anything yet.

I would love to know if Tommy has actually been intentionally holding back to mask his threat level. If he has, that is certainly remarkable, and hopefully we can see him step it up in the next two challenges. Noura remains a threat to win each challenge, but like Dean, winning the next two might not be enough to help her case against Tommy or Lauren.

Immunity Challenge Rankings:

Creativity: 2/5

Difficulty: 2/5

Entertainment Value: 3/5