We've made it to Night 32 on "Survivor: Kaoh Rong," which means it's about time for people to really lose their minds. Joe tries to comfort Tai, who is gobsmacked that everybody else didn't do what he told them to and vote out Michele.
Tai's mad he wasted his extra vote, but he wasn't listening to anyone when they were telling him last week that they didn't want to vote for Michele — he was acting like he got to make all the decisions. Michele tries to explain to him that she's been in this alliance longer than him, but Tai just will not let it go.
Now Tai feels like he can't trust anyone, and Aubry tries to explain why everyone voted without him. He's upset that Aubry is making him sound unreasonable, when he was totally being unreasonable.
And we're jumping straight into the Reward Challenge! They have to race into the jungle to retrieve sandbags and then throw them onto targets. Reward is a spa day — a shower, a massage and a whole bunch of food, including cheesecake. To top it off, they get to spend the night and sleep in an actual bed.
Cydney is off like a shot and is the first to get to get a bag back to the platform, followed by Michele and Aubry. Joe is way, way behind. Only Cydney and Aubry manage to land in a target in the first round, and Aubry gets two. Cydney, Michele and Aubry get one in the second round.
Everyone runs out of bags without hitting all their targets except Joe, who is a full round behind, but the catch is that no one can get more bags until everyone is done. He hits three targets in his second round, and everyone is sitting around and waiting for him to shoot. It comes down to his last two bags, but he manages to sink both of them and wins the reward. That was kind of awesome.
Joe chooses Aubry to go with him, and he lets Aubry choose Cydney to come along as well. Tai is super pissed, and Michele sees that she's going to need to shake that group up and change the pecking order.
Aubry, Joe and Cydney arrive at the reward and sit down to eat. The first thing I would be doing is shower. It would make everything else so much more enjoyable, although that steak does look good. Too good, as Joe eats a ton of it and Cydney knows that's not going to end well.
They want to vote Tai out next, but can't because of his Idol. So it looks like it'll be Michele. Joe makes a comment that Aubry is the only threat left, which promptly sends Aubry into a tailspin.
Back at the beach, Tai and Michele are realizing they will probably have to work together. Tai decides to get everything out in the open about why he wanted to get rid of her last week. They basically agree that they are very different people but can work together to stay in the game. They have their own spa day at the beach and Tai gives Michele a massage. Mark the Chicken even joins them.
Michele and Tai agree that Cydney would be their best bet to worth with. Aubry and Joe are pretty much inseparable.
The next morning, Tai is finding the emotional part of the game much harder than the physical part. His ruminations are interrupted by Joe, Aubry and Cydney returning, much cleaner than they left.
A good night's sleep in a bed has seemingly convinced Aubry that she needs to take Joe and Tai to the final three. She's probably not wrong. I would vote for Cydney over her. She takes Tai aside and tells him, but I don't know if he'll believe her after last week.
But it seems that he does, because now there's hugging and crying going on. I can't keep track of how many times Tai has changed his mind about people.
Tai and Aubry come back from "getting water" and Cydney immediately notices that they look a little too comfortable with each other.
Michele thinks that she's got a solid three with herself, Cydney and Tai, but she doesn't know that Tai might have flip-flopped.
And it looks like Cydney was right about only eating one beef satay, while Joe had eight. Because Joe's in a whole lot of discomfort now, and is having trouble passing urine. Of course, Aubry is immediately worried about Joe and his health. Oh wait, no she's not, she's only worried about losing her best ally in the game.
Medical gets called in to check Joe out and they offer to give him some medication. If that doesn't help, he might end up getting pulled from the game. Tai is also worried about Joe and the amount of pain he's in. Oh no, Tai is totally only worried about himself, too.
(But I'm assuming that both Tai and Aubry were genuinely concerned about Joe and his well-being, and the editing monkeys chose to use the clips about the game.)
The medication they gave Joe is helping a little, but he's still a lot of pain. Everyone is worried that he's going to be leaving the game. Everyone is in tears, which gives you a good idea of how much they all like him, since we haven't really seen that much from him compared to some of the other players. Things are not getting better, and as night falls, Jeff and the doctor are back to check him out.
The question is whether Joe needs to be pulled from the game. He's looking at possible kidney damage. Joe can deal with the pain, but the doctor makes the decision to pull him because of the risk of permanent damage.
There are more tears as Joe says his goodbyes. And now that's three people who have been pulled from the game this season — the most in "Survivor" history.
So no Tribal Council this week? Nope. So long, Joe, you probably weren't going to win, but it sucks to go out like this at this late stage of the game.
Next week: It's an individual game now — who's going to come out on top?