In episode 10 of Survivor 48, we saw Star Toomey voted out of the game. Episode 11, "Coconut Etiquette," begins back at camp, and everyone is congratulating each other on making it to the Final Seven.
Mary Zheng pulled Kamilla Karthigesu aside to pitch the idea of keeping her around. She wants to get rid of either Eva Erickson or Joe Hunter. Kamilla agrees with this idea because Eva and Joe are a duo. Of course, Mitch Guerra also wants to see Joe out of the game, as well.
As a new morning dawns on Survivor, we see Joe, Shauhin Davari, and Kyle Fraser talking about the path to the Final Four. But, this also leads to Kyle admitting that he is seriously thinking about whether or not this is the time to take out Joe. And, this includes seeing Kyle and Mary talking about what to do about Joe and Eva.
The problem with Mary is that she is actually upsetting the other survivors over the way that she is eating all of the coconut. And, when Eva says something to her, she basically says that everyone is being chosen for rewards, while she hasn't eaten in days.
Later, Kyle and Kamilla are once again discussing strategy, specifically, going after Joe now. But, this is not easy for Kyle, as he is close with Kamilla, Joe, Eva, and Shauhin. He doesn't want to betray anyone. Of course, it does depend on who wins the immunity challenge, so he could be worrying for nothing.
As everyone is doing their own thing, including fishing and napping, a boat shows up. One person must go on a journey, and they end up going to rocks to decide who will be going. Eva ends up with the purple rock, which means she is going on the journey.
On the journey, Eva's vote is on the line. She must stack tiles on a spinning platform to keep her vote, and if she gets it stacked eight tiles high, she also wins an advantage, the Knowledge is Power advantage. Once she makes it to four tiles high, Eva ends up stopping the challenge, so she could keep her vote rather than risk it on an advantage that could cost her a vote.
Eva comes back to the beach and tells everyone what her challenge was and what happened. She admits she didn't go for the advantage because she didn't need it. This leads to Mary and Shauhin going off and talking. She shares her pitch of going after Joe and Eva by sending Joe out of the game.
Mary Zheng is the 12th player voted out of Survivor 48
After an emotional Tribal Council, we are left with nothing left to do but vote. While Joe gets one vote, which was clearly from Mary, the rest of the votes are for Mary, and Mary Zheng was the 12th player voted out of Survivor 48 and fifth member of the jury.
As she gets her torch snuffed, David stands up for her. He stands as a silent sentinel to his former alliance member. And, it is clear that he is not happy with the way the game is going.
There are a lot of questions as to how we got to this point. So we have to ask, how did Mary get to this point?
The immunity challenge gives us an arch puzzle with a reward on the line
The immunity challenge has the players pushing a wheelbarrow with a vase on the end that they have to balance as they go over obstacles. Then they must stack another vase on the end and keep moving towards a lock. Once they get the lock unlocked, they will have to build an arch puzzle.
Every time they drop the vase, they have to go back to the mat and start the obstacles again. And, everyone struggles with keeping their vase on the wheelbarrow. Once through the obstacles, they have two keys that will unlock puzzle pieces. The first person to make it to the puzzle portion is Shauhin.
Shauhin works on unscrambling the letters to figure out the word. Then, Mitch is able to finish the obstacle, followed by Joe and then Kamilla. Eva and Kyle make it to the puzzle, with Mary still struggling to get through the obstacle portion of the challenge.
Joe thinks he has it, but he doesn't have it. Then Kyle thinks the same thing, but he spelled the word wrong on one side, since it all has to be right on both sides. Kamilla ends up dropping with one block to go, while Mary is still fighting to even get to the puzzle.
Joe steps backs, and at first, he is named the winner by Jeff, but upon review, it isn't Joe with the win. Kamilla actually wins immunity. Apparently, Joe didn't have the eye facing the correct way, because the black eye is facing the side with all the white letters, and this means Kamilla wins individual immunity!
After the challenge, Kamilla picks Mitch for the reward of sushi, drinks, and cake first. When she gets to choose a second person, she chooses Eva.
We learn why she chose Eva for the reward, and she explains that she wanted to keep Joe and Eva comfortable. On the other hand, Eva believes the vote is for Mary, but that doesn't seem to be the plan at all, and the idea is to flip the vote and send Joe home.
Eva even tells Kamilla and Mitch when she is using her idol and that she would use it on Joe if needed. But, Eva has no clue that there is a plan to go after Joe.
At camp, Shauhin is frustrated with himself. He wants to win the immunity challenge. Mary leaves the camp, and the guys notice, questioning where she went. While she is gone from camp, Joe is still pushing for Mary to go home to Kyle and Shauhin.
Mary tells Joe that she is going to write his name down. She wants to cause chaos, and it sounds like she is, as Joe wants to throw out another name so that she is safe. And while everyone else tells him not to worry that she doesn't have anything, Joe is feeling paranoid.
This paranoia definitely gets people talking, including Shauhin and Kyle who are now seriously considering voting for Joe.
Tribal Council gets emotional as everyone has a reason why they are here
Tribal Council starts with a discussion about people's personal lives. Kyle admits that when he gets home, he is getting married about a month and a half after the game ends. Joe talks about putting his life on the line, and that he is sacrificing time with his family to be here.
Every single player has a reason that they are on Survivor. And, they are all sharing their whys. It's an emotional tribal council, as some of these whys are very personal and resonate with so many other people beyond the game.
But with $1 million on the line, who is getting voted out is the real question of the night.
In the end, the talk about voting for Joe was just that, talk. And instead of taking a shot at Joe while they had the chance, the tribe opted to vote out Mary.