Episode 9 of Survivor 48 saw David voted out of the game after he descended into a bit of paranoia at his tribal beach. The problem is that David wasn't being paranoid, but no one else really knew that. And now, Mary has officially lost her number one ally, which leaves her back at the bottom.
Eva pulls Mary aside and lets her know that she is not trying to get rid of her, but she also doesn't want to tell her that she will never write her name down. Eva goes back to tell her allies that she talked to Mary and told the other Survivor player to lie low.
Star, Mary, and Kamilla have a chat about being on the bottom and not wanting to allow that to continue. And they want to put up a fight, so they discuss aiming for a new target. But that target just so happens to be one of the stronger players, Joe.
Joe wants to confirm that his alliance is still good to go, and he basically pulls in Mitch and Kamilla to be part of the final six. But of course, he is truly fighting for the four, which is obviously himself, Eva, Shauhin, and Kyle. But what he doesn't know is that Kyle and Kamilla are a duo, which could cause issues for his final four vision.
At this point in the game, Kamilla wants to go after Joe. She feels like if she doesn't go for a bigger target than she won't make it to the final four. And she lets Kyle know her plan, but he doesn't want to betray Joe because of how close they have gotten, and he doesn't want to burn another jury vote.
Time for a Reward Challenge
With their arms tied down to their waist and their legs attached together, the Survivors have to slither through the sand, dragging a buoy in their mouth. They have to get over a sand mound before they can unleash themselves, and then they have to release the buoy from a rope maze to untie rings that they need to toss. There is fried chicken and waffles on the line at another Fijian island.
Shauhin gets off to a solid start, with Kyle right behind him. At the sand mound, Kyle is able to pass Shauhin and makes it to the mat first to maneuver the buoy through a rope maze. At the buoy rope maze, it is Joe who ends up in the lead and starts throwing his rings first. But pretty quickly, other people get in on the ring tossing action.
Kyle is the first Survivor to get his ring on the stand. But Eva and Joe are not far behind him. Joe takes the lead with two rings, and then Kyle gets his second landed. With seconds between them, Kyle ends up winning the reward challenge.
Kyle ends up getting the reward and picks Eva to go with him as he says she has been a support to him. And then he gets to pick a third person, and he chose Kamilla to go as well, as he says that she hasn't had a chance to eat in days. Then we have a fourth person who can go on the reward. Kyle chooses Shauhin because he points out that he hasn't been able to eat the coconut on the island, and he has been making people at camp laugh.
Mitch, Star, Joe and Mary are the players left behind. Which leaves them heading back to the camp without a reward.
Star is the 11th player voted out of Survivor 48
With a vote of five to three, it was Star that found herself voted out of Survivor 48. While Mary did pull three votes, somehow she was able to pull out enough support to keep her in the game.
And it was clear that the jury was confused by Star and why she didn't play her shot in the dark. But perhaps she knew that there was enough talk about Mary that she could have been saved.
So how did we get to this point?
Eva makes it clear that Star and Mary can't win the immunity necklace at the reward. And apparently Kyle intentionally chose not to bring Joe, Star, Mitch and Mary in order to help Kamilla make her move to potentially get Joe out of the game.
Back at the tribal beach, Joe mentions that he was feeling a bit worried about being left behind. But Joe then thinks that maybe he was left behind as a type of babysitter. And he goes to talk to Mary and tells her that the reason David went home was because of her. He tells Mary that people think she manipulated David. But at the same time, Mary knows that she is being used for jury management.
Of course, Mitch is also hurt that Kyle didn't choose him. He seems to realize that he is at the bottom of his alliance of six. And he and Mary start talking about what they need to do at the tribal council. The idea is that they need to go to rocks so that they can vote out Joe.
It's time for an immunity challenge and a rice negotiation
It's time for an iconic Survivor challenge, the players have to stack letters spelling the word immunity on a wobbly table. And we also have rice negotiation. He wants three people to sit out of the challenge to get enough rice for the entire game.
Right away, Mitch makes it clear that no one is going to take advantage of this negotiation. He points out that there are only like seven days left, so they all want to compete for their safety in the game.
As the challenge starts, the players get to quickly see just how difficult it is to keep their letters on the table. Star drops her letters quickly and Kyle does the same after playing a bit too hard. Eva also finds her letters dropping. Kamilla drops with six letters on her table.
Joe is in the lead, with Shauhin not far behind. Kyle is going full on with his stacking, and while it seems to be working, it is definitely a dangerous strategy and he ends up dropping. Joe also drops off at the same time. This leaves Shauhin in the lead with stacked letters. But right behind him is actually Mitch, who has been working slowly and steadily.
Shauhin drops with just one more block to go. Now Kyle is in the lead, with Mitch right behind him. But Joe is also in the hunt. And then Mitch drops. Once again, Kyle drop,s and now we have Joe in the lead. After he places his eighth block, he slowly moves back towards the platform, battling flies and his own ability to keep the table from wobbling. Will he make it without dropping?
Yes he will! Joe ends up winning his third immunity.
Joe winning immunity was the nail in Star's coffin
Now that Joe has immunity, who will they vote out of Survivor 48? Mitch tells Star that she needs to play her shot in the dark. Mitch goes to Shauhin to tell him that Star is pitching his name since Joe has immunity.
Mitch reveals that he doesn't trust Star or Mary, so he doesn't want to make a move with them. Mary tells Kamilla that she thinks that they should go after Kyle, because she doesn't think anyone would fight for him. So Kamilla goes to the group and reveals what Mary said about sending Kyle home.
Mary and Star come together and they realize that Kamilla is lying to them. And they know Mitch is not with them. They realize that they are the ones on the line. Mary tries to pitch to Shauhin that they should go for Star. But after Shauhin and Joe come together, they think that maybe they need to get Mary out of the game instead.
At tribal council, Mary shares that she feels like it is her against the group. But she also has no clue if maybe she is part of a different group that isn't against her.
Shauhin says that people need to play the game from a place of trust, because paranoia can lead to you getting voted out. And Star reveals that Mitch told her that she needs to play her shot in the dark.
The theme of this tribal council is trust versus paranoia. Mary says she doesn't want to play from a place of paranoia, and Kamilla seems to agree that people are playing from a place of trust as well.
Mary reveals that she thinks that she is the one going home. So she reveals that she pitched that she is trustworthy and can be a number. On the other hand, Star was like "I lay back" and let people come to her. Star says, "When your brain can't operate, your gut will never fail you." And that is the moment that Jeff calls time on the tribal council and says it is time to vote.
Ultimately, Star chose not to play her shot in the dark, even with Mitch warning her. In the end, this meant that she had no chance of staying in the game. And while Mary received three votes, it was Star who was the next member of the jury.