It's dawn on the morning after last week's Tribal Council, and Shirin is still in shock, and scrambling because Max (her only ally) is gone. She has a moment of self-doubt about why they wanted her gone (which proves she has a total lack of self-awareness.)
Hali tries to clue her in a little, which reminds Shirin of high school in Orange County where she was an outsider, which makes me feel a little bit of empathy. Of course, if she was constantly singing and whistling around me, it might not matter.
Over at Escameca, Dan is telling the same stories he's been telling for days, and Rodney is sick of hearing them. But now he has Joaquin, and they have a budding bromance and are bonding over their common shallowness. (Seriously. They're bonding about liking girls and drinking.)
Reward Challenge time! It's an obstacle course up a tower, and at the top of the tower is a giant slingshot. Once the teams get to the top, they have to hit six targets to win. The reward is a trip to a turtle sanctuary where they get to see the migration of the sea turtles. That actually sounds kind of awesome. I'm sure food will be served as well.
Rodney is the first one up and launching for Escameca. Nagarote is close behind, and they are the first one to hit a target. The teams stay pretty even through the challenge, but it's the Red Nagarote tribe who ekes out the win after Blue Escameca narrowly misses their sixth target.
Nagarote goes on their reward, and of, course, there is food - namely macaroni and cheese and beef stew, as well as fresh bread and hot chocolate. It's a bit of a random assortment.
The next part of the reward is watching a sea turtle come up on the beach, lay 120 eggs, and then head back into the ocean. It is pretty cool.
Apparently they knew what the reward food was going to be, since over at Blue tribe Joe is lamenting not getting any macaroni and cheese. He goes off to try and catch fish, and Sierra and Joaquin talk about an alliance, and she thinks that he's trustworthy. She's been a little sheltered, hasn't she? Joaquin tries to make nice between Sierra and Rodney, who really can't stand each other.
Rodney is feeling confident because he's got two alliances going. Comments like that are usually foreshadowing for going home. One can only hope. He's so confident, in fact, that he wants to throw the next Immunity Challenge so they can get rid of Joe. Oh, those plans always go well for the person planning them.
He goes to Mike with this plan, and Mike is actually on board because he thinks it will help keep Kelly safe over on Nagarote.
Immunity Challenge time! It's a memory challenge. Two players are shown a line of items. After they get to look at the items, they have to recreate them in the proper order. First tribe to three wins.
First up is Carolyn against Rodney, and I wouldn't want to make any assumptions about White Collar being better than Blue Collar at intellectual challenges, but in this particular match-up, it's totally true. And Carolyn kicks his butt. And then Hali beats Sierra, giving Nagarote a 2-0 lead. Will and Joe go head to head, and Joe wins the point for Escameca, keeping them in the game. Dan gets another point for Blue against Shirin.
So we're tied, as we always seem to end up, and it's Mike against Kelly, who are allies. Is Mike going to throw it? And if he does, how obvious will he make it? Mike is wrong, but so is Kelly. Mike flat out tells her that he's giving it to her, and tries to talk her through it. They're both wrong again. They draw again, and Mike plans to switch the two bottles to let her win, and this time it works. Red Nagarote wins Immunity, and Kelly is safe.
I hope it's not Joe going home. I like Joe.
Back at Escameca, Dan is pissed off that they lost, but Rodney is having problems keeping a smile off of his face. Mike is starting to doubt Rodney, because he sees how close Rodney has become with Joaquin. Does this mean there might be hope for Joe? Probably not, but I will keep hope alive.
Joaquin tries to counsel Rodney that Sierra is key to their plan working. Rodney doesn't care about Sierra. He might regret that. Mike, Dan, and Joe talk, and Mike tells Joe about Rodney's plan to get him out. And look at that - Sierra is the swing vote.
Dan and Mike suggest getting rid of Joaquin. Stupid move. If they want Sierra to go with them, they should have suggested getting rid of Rodney. She likes Joaquin, so she's more likely to side with him.
Tribal Council time! Jeff asks about the obvious majority of the Blue Collar tribe, we know that's not going to fly. Sierra flat out says that she likes the her new tribemates a whole lot better than the old.
Rodney then tries to play it out like he's the swing vote, because everybody wants him on their side. Sierra can barely control her eye roll. Sigh. Why couldn't Mike and Dan have targeted him? It would have been so much easier.
Voting time! We see Joaquin vote for Joe, and Joe vote for Joaquin (and he has just as much problem spelling it as I do - I seriously have to fix it almost every time I type it.) And it's Joaquin going home, with four votes, each one spelled a different way. I feel vindicated. Both for my spelling skills, which are usually pretty on point, and also because Joe was saved.
Next week: Rodney loses his calm and collectedness (surprised? I'm not). And it looks like a merge is coming.