Last week Colton quit and John got voted out and was sent to Redemption Island to compete against his wife. But apparently this week is the most. Shocking. Episode. Ever. We’ll see.
We start out with John heading to Redemption Island, where Candace thinks he got voted out because he was too trusting. In his defense, he was blindsided pretty well. It’s not like it was obvious and he was oblivious.
Back at Tadhana, Caleb is a little worried that he won’t have as much value to his tribe, because he doesn’t have a counterpart on Galang since Colton quit.
Redemption Island Arena: Jeff asks Candace how she feels about John being the one voted off. Understandably, she wishes it had been someone she and Marissa could band together against, “like Brad Culpepper”. Monica looks super-sad that people don’t like her honey. It’s a game, Monica; you’re the one who’s played before and you should know that.
But then Jeff has to stir the pot. Candace calls Brad out on the stories that she’s heard, from the voted-off tribe members, about Brad telling people what to do and "hushing" the women. Monica comes to her husband’s defense. Brad tells John that John shouldn’t have trusted him. That’s telling. Hopefully the rest of Tadhana are listening and get rid of Brad while they can.
Finally, we get to the actual Redemption Island challenge. It’s a rope course with locks that leads to a puzzle. All three are pretty equal, and it’s too bad we can’t just make a new tribe out of these people -- I like them a heck of a lot more than the people still in the game.
John rocks out the puzzle, and even gets a little help from Brad on it (probably because he wants Candace out, since she loathes him.) Marissa is getting frustrated with the puzzle. Candace is calm and methodical, and she beats Marissa. So John and Candace, husband and wife, get to go back to Redemption Island. Which seems nice, until you realize that only one of them can get back in the game.
John is given the chance to give another Immunity Idol clue. Candace wants him to give it to Monica to put a target on her back, and he does. I get the feeling that he does what she tells him most of the time. Not in a bad way, just that he knows when to pick his battles and when to let her have her way. Monica recognizes the target this puts on her and burns the clue without even looking at it.
Back at Redemption Island, John and Candace are enjoying getting spend time together. That’s great and all, but we’re 20 minutes into the episode and it’s been all Redemption Island stuff.
Finally, we’re at Galang, but look, they’re talking about what happened at the arena, mostly Monica talking about Brad. She thinks he’s just being wonderful and helpful, and that people are just bitter. I hope Monica watches this footage when it airs, because people have a reason to be pissed at him.
Gervase, of all people, has a moment of clarity, telling Monica that the Brad she’s married to might not be the same Brad that’s playing this game. True that, Gervase.
Back at Tadhana, Brad is surprised that Candace is so pissed off at him. Well, she’s had to listen to people complain about how it’s your fault they got voted off, including her husband, who you were supposedly in an alliance with.
Brad is also thinking of targeting Caleb, since he has no connections. He also thinks no one will get mad at him about Caleb going home. Well, except for the fact that you’re also supposed to be in an alliance with him, and you’d be totally lying to his face about it.
Vytas, Caleb and Hayden are planning to vote out one of the girls if they lose again, but are also worried about being "johnned" and think it might be a good idea to get rid of Brad before he can betray them. YES, boys, yes it would.
At Galang, Tyson can’t do much because of his hurt shoulder. He admits he’s playing it up a little bit so he can get to rest more around camp. When everyone else goes fishing, Gervase and Tyson go drink coconuts and hide them from everyone else. Why are they hiding this? Why does it matter? Aren’t there a lot of coconuts to go around? You want a coconut, go get a darned coconut.
Challenge time! It’s more swimming and boats and puzzles, oh my. Reward is tea, coffee and pastries. Or more fishing gear, since Tadhana hasn’t won anything yet. Tina and Kat are sitting out for Galang. Jeff points out that Tyson is apparently more useful in a challenge hurt than Tina and Kat at full strength. Well, yes, he is.
They start out in the boats, and Galang still can’t steer to save their lives. Tadhana pulls out to an early lead, but they’ve done that before and still never won. And yup, Tadhana manages to almost capsize and loses a couple of their puzzle crates and loses the lead. Ciera and Laura go head to head again in the puzzle portion, and Galang beats Tadhana again.
Maybe they shouldn’t let Ciera do the puzzles any more, especially against her mother. Not that she’ll get the chance to, since she’s most likely going home tonight.
Instead of going to strategize with the guys, Brad stays behind and tells the girls that they need to vote for Caleb. Now, what the girls should do is go to Caleb and tell him that. Everyone is blaming Brad for running the tribe and making the decisions, but the rest of the tribe is letting him. Now Brad goes to the water hole and tells them that he told the girls that it was Caleb, but that they’re really going to vote for Ciera.
Based on the confessional, Brad wants Ciera to go home. We’ll see what really happens, because I don’t trust either the "Survivor" editing monkeys or Brad.
Tribal Council time! Jeff wastes no time rubbing salt in various wounds, from Tadhana’s inability to win challenges to Ciera’s general suckiness at puzzles, especially compared to her mother. Jeff also calls out Brad on his strategy of targeting people without loved ones in the game -- which means Caleb, since no one else on Galang has gone home except for Colton.
Caleb realizes it too, and immediately calls Brad out on it. He declares he was going to vote for Ciera, but now he’s going to vote for Brad and asks the girls to join him. Bold move, Caleb; I will enjoy it if it works for you.
The girls at least listened, because the vote is tied between Brad and Ciera. They vote again, and can only vote for Brad or Ciera, who don’t get to vote (they’d only vote for each other, so there’s no point.)
And Brad gets voted out! Good job guys! Brad leaves very graciously, admitting that he made a bad move. Hopefully this will light a fire under this tribe, and they might actually win something.
So Brad is headed to Redemption Island. Where Candace and John are. Yikes. That’s going to be awkward.
Next week: Caleb thinks he’s the king now, and Monica might switch with Brad.