We left off last week’s episode with our castaways in an interesting place. 13 players remain after Dee Valladares became the first member of the jury and those who believe they’re responsible for orchestrating her exit were acting pretty high and mighty as they entered Tribal Council, so we have a pretty good idea they’re going to be on an even higher horse riding out of it.
But viewers at home already know something they don’t…there are a few spies on the inside of their alliance. And the key philosophy of Survivor is that when you feel the most on top, you’re usually about to fall. But longtime fans of the show also know, it’s easier to keep around the people no one likes because they aren’t real threats.
So as we go into episode 8, “Double the Fun, Double the Demise,” we’re wondering if the “honor and integrity” alliance is about to be corrupted, or if one of our early Cila power players—who’s been laying low strategically since the merge—might find themselves sitting next to Dee as Survivor 50’s second juror.
Credit where credit isn’t due
Coach Wade takes full credit for Dee’s elimination. He brags to Jonathan Young about they tried to come for him, but they’re never gonna get him because he’s running the game. Jonathan advises him to just maybe tone it down a bit in front of everyone else, which Coach doesn’t really know how to do, but he tells Jonathan he won’t run the next vote to appease everyone.
Jonathan, Stephenie LaGrossa Kendrick, and Chrissy Hofbeck connect about the fear of their fourth ally Coach being too much and turning off the other players. They need to keep their core fourth and their additional allies of Ozzy Lusth, Cirie Fields, and Joe Hunter united in order to vote out the “middle people”—Aubry Bracco, Emily Flippen, Christian Hubicki, and Rick Devens—who are most likely to sneak their way to the end with great resumes.
While this is happening, Ozzy Lusth meets up with Tiffany to let her know he voted for her because he needs to stay on Coach’s good side to keep an in with that alliance in order to take him out. But he’s secretly working with Cirie and Rizo Velovic to flip the switch and control the game from the inside of all alliances. Tiffany trusts Ozzy, respecting that he told her what’s up.
Look! There’s a boat!
A boat approaches with a note for the castaways to divide into six pairs with one outlier. Devens, Cirie, and Aubry opt to sit out, so they put their shot in the darks in a bag for a blind pull and Cirie is randomly chosen to be out. Jonathan asks Joe how they did this in Survivor 48 where they kind of just chose their closest ally. So instead, they decide to network to pick their pairs.
They choose to pair up as:
- Jonathan Young and Christian Hubicki
- Emily Flippen and Rizo Velovic
- Aubry Bracco and Rick Devens
- Coach Wade and Chrissy Hofbeck
- Ozzy Lusth and Stephenie LaGrossa Kendrick
- Joe Hunter and Tiffany Ervin
After everyone pairs up, Jonathan and Joe connect, wondering who to vote out tonight with Joe throwing out Tiff’s name. Ozzy approaches and recommends Devens because he’s the idol guy and there’s likely an idol back in play after Aubry flushed it at the last Tribal Council.
Chrissy tells Coach to just lay low, but recommends that he tells Tiff that he didn’t drive the plan for the Tiff split vote. He sits down Tiff and tells her that he was pushing for Emily, not her and when she asks who was pushing for her name, he doesn’t know what to say. She acts like everything’s fine, but it obviously isn’t.
New challenge, new twist
At the challenge arena, host Jeff Probst meets the pairs, letting them know he has another twist for them. The pairs they are in will run the challenge together, and they will win immunity together. At Tribal Council, everyone will vote individually, but they can only vote for a pair and a pair will be eliminated together.
Since Cirie isn’t in a pair, she isn’t able to play for immunity, but she also isn’t up for elimination as a pair. So she is sent to Exile Island, not able to participate in the vote, but remaining safe.
The pairs will run an obstacle course together and the first three to finish will move on to compete in the final immunity challenge. They’re also competing for reward: a spaghetti dinner back at camp with wine and tiramisu.
The challenge begins and Joe and Tiffany are the clear front runners with Jonathan and Christian right behind them. Stephenie and Ozzy make a quick show on the second task and forge ahead while Devens and Aubry sneak their way into the fold as well. By the final puzzle, almost everyone is in it, but in the end, Tiffany and Joe make it to the finals first, followed by Stephenie and Ozzy, then Aubry and Devens.
Still in pairs, the three have to maneuver two paddles in a cage to remove a ball and then move two balls through a maze. Aubry and Devens easily work together through the first section of the task and make it to the maze, followed slightly behind by Stephenie and Ozzy. About halfway through the maze, Devens and Aubry fall out while Stephenie and Ozzy nearly make it to the end, but fall off.
Tiffany and Joe get their ball out of the cage and make it to the maze just in time to catch up to the other two pairs starting over their second run. Ozzy and Stephenie make it to the end again, but fall off once more. On their first attempt, Joe and Tiffany land their ball. Stephenie and Ozzy follow up, finally landing their first ball. But Joe and Tiffany land their second ball and earn immunity.
Cirie is exiled to a coconut hunt
Cirie pulls up to Exile Island and finds a beach covered in coconuts. She reads a note that tells her that she has a chance to earn a vote in tonight’s Tribal Council. She has a limited time to search the 2,000 coconuts on the beach for the one with a phoenix. If she finds it, she will return to camp and vote. If she doesn’t she will spend the night on Exile Island, alone, and not get a say in Tribal Council.
She pushes through the heat and exhaustion and finds the phoenix coconut, getting back on the boat and making her way back to camp.
Double the campaigning, double the consequences
Back at camp, the conversations begin about how everyone’s going to vote at Tribal Council. Not only does everyone get to vote individually for a pair, but if any advantages are played (including the shot in the dark) making an individual safe, the pair is marked safe, which makes things even more dangerous.
Emily says now is the time to get rid of Coach and Chrissy because if they don’t now, the “honor and integrity” alliance is going to run the game. But Rizo tells Ozzy he thinks it needs to be Aubry and Devens because they’re currently in the swing position and that’s the position Rizo wants to be in, so he needs them out of the game.
While they’re enjoying spaghetti, Joe confesses to Tiffany that he voted for her last night at Coach’s gameplan. They decide to team up, agreeing that Aubry and Devens is the best duo to vote for because they’re unpredictable and they’ll be a swing vote at some point and that’s bad for everyone’s game.
Chrissy, whose fate is now directly tied to Coach, gives him a time out in the hammock until Tribal Council. She tells him no singing, no haikus, he’s to sit in the hammock and be silent so he doesn’t do anything that sends either of them home—considering he’s already on people’s bad side. She approaches Aubry and Devens about voting out Rizo and Emily, telling them about how Rizo had an idol the entire season in 49 and everyone was too scared to vote for him because of it. She wants him out, with the idol in his pocket, tonight.
Hammock time-out with Coach
Coach is in solitary in his hammock per Chrissy’s request. He’s quietly making haikus about it to himself, quoting philosophers and financial advisors about his experience sitting in a hammock all day by himself. As he’s lounging, Cirie returns to camp.
Immediately upon returning, Cirie orchestrates the importance of getting Chrissy and Coach out. Getting out the heads of the snake will leave their followers—Stephenie and Jonathan—bumbling and unaligned. And when Chrissy tells Cirie she wants to get out Rizo—one of Cirie’s closest allies—she knows it’s a done deal, Chrissy needs to go.
Rizo agrees, but knows Joe needs to be included on this vote because if he’s blindsided, he won’t work with any of them and he wants Joe in his corner. But when Cirie pitches Coach and Chrissy to Joe, he gets extremely upset and starts running around camp ensuring everyone is voting for Devens and Aubry.
An act worth (not) voting for?
Jeff asks how this vote is going to affect the game and it really draws a lot of lines in the sand. As everyone is talking, making it clear that there are a couple clear factions, Devens continues to show his nerves are growing and mentions he got a clue to an idol, but wasn’t able to get it…until now. So he gets up and picks up his fake idol and causes a ruckus around Tribal Council.
After the votes, Devens doesn’t play his “idol,” but Coach reveals that he played his shot in the dark and Jeff reveals that he and Chrissy are not safe.
Who was voted out of Survivor 50 episode 8?
Whether or not the idol mayhem was necessary, majority of votes went to Chrissy and Coach, making them the 12th and 13th players voted out of the game and the second and third members of the jury. But while the votes were being read, Joe looked very confused why so many votes were put on the two, clearly ready to return to camp and have a conversation with everyone about why they didn’t keep their word.
Next Time on Survivor…
With Coach and Chrissy gone, just as Cirie predicted, Jonathan and Stephenie need to build new alliances and after Joe looked so baffled during the vote, it wouldn’t be surprising if he became a key component of it. And now that we’ve seen two double eliminations and one triple elimination, truly anything could happen when episode 9 airs on Wednesday, April 22 at 8 p.m. ET on CBS and Paramount+.
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