Last week on Survivor, I speculated that Rome might throw the Immunity Challenge so he could use his Steal-A-Vote Advantage to take Sol’s vote, then vote him out. Rome tormented Sol in camp by following him around to prevent him from finding an Idol. Then during the Immunity Challenge, Rome and his partner Genevieve worked the puzzle at the end. While his Lavo tribe started on the puzzle first, Rome casually sat at the base of the puzzle. Genevieve handed him piece after piece (it looked like a 30-piece puzzle to me), yet Rome never placed a single piece correctly. A frustrated Sol repeated “That’s not the right piece, Rome.” Sol asked Rome to swap out so someone else could work the puzzle, but Rome ignored him.

Lavo lost the challenge, as Gata and Tuku breezed by them on the puzzle. Sol said “I’ve never seen this before.” I was convinced we’d see a confessional from Rome gloating about how well he fooled Sol when he threw the challenge, but that didn’t happen ... yet. But Sol’s statement inspired me to do another historical deep dive into thrown challenges.

Survivor has seen dozens of thrown challenges, beginning in the very first season when eventual winner Rich stepped out of the final 3 Immunity Challenge. Rich knew if Rudy won, he’d take Rich to the finals. He also knew Kelly would take him because she believed she’d lose to Rudy. We’ve also seen several players sandbag their challenge talent as a means of lowering their threat level. Aras did this to perfection in Panama, and Yul acknowledged doing the same thing in Cook Islands. But for this look at the past, I’m gonna focus on pre-merge thrown challenges.

Africa - The first pre-merge thrown challenge was the brainchild of eventual winner and 3-time Survivor legend Ethan Zohn in Season 3, Africa. Survivor introduced the first-ever tribe swap that season. Players saw Survivor as more of a team game back then. The tribes were even 6-6, and Ethan saw his two closest Boran tribe partners Lex and Big Tom swapped to the Samburu tribe. Frank and Teresa joined Ethan’s tribe, along with Silas. Kim J. discovered Silas was leading the Samburu majority. Ethan wanted to remove physically strong players, so he realized if they threw the challenge, they could remove Silas from the opposing alliance or Clarence, who was the outsider on his tribe. He could also save his original tribe members Lex, Big Tom and Kelly, who’d been swapped to Samburu. So, when they got to the challenge, Silas found himself as the only one working on the puzzle. They voted Silas out that night.

Thailand - The Sook Jai tribe held an 8-6 advantage over Chuay Gahn. They hadn’t lost a challenge, but nobody trusted Jed, whom they also saw as camp-lazy. They also blamed him for losing their fishing net. The majority of the tribe chose not to help Jed at the end of the challenge, then voted him out.

Pearl Islands – Rupert’s Drake tribe won the first six challenges and held an 8-5 advantage over the Morgan tribe. Burton and Shawn realized Rupert was the strongest challenge performer and decided to throw a challenge to remove him. That way, they wouldn’t have to compete against him in individual challenges after the merge. Burton even convinced Rupert to sit out of the challenge. But a twist allowed Morgan to kidnap one Drake member, sparing that person from the vote. Morgan kidnapped Rupert, then Burton got voted out.

Cook Islands – This season began with four 5-member tribes divided by race. Ozzy convinced his Aitu tribe to throw a challenge to remove Billy, whom Ozzy saw as both annoying and a challenge liability. They threw the challenge and eventually removed Billy, but that’s not where the damage was done. After the challenge, Aitu had to send one person to Exile Island. Ozzy sent Yul without consulting his tribe’s women. Yul found the overpowered Idol, and eventually won the game.

China – A tribe swap came when Fei-Long held a 7-5 advantage over Zhan-Hu, and the two physically strongest players in the game (James and Aaron) joined Zhan Hu. Peih-Gee and Jaime saw a chance to remove the post-merge Immunity threats, so they threw a challenge, and voted Aaron out because they’d learned he was his tribe’s leader. But at Tribal Council, they admitted they threw it, which infuriated James. Then at the next Reward Challenge, they realized the players they’d lost (Frosti and Sherea) might not be loyal to them, and suddenly they needed James on their side. James wouldn’t flip, and Zhan-Hu got picked off after the merge.

Gabon – With the Kota tribe holding a 9-7 edge, Ace decided to sit out his tribe’s stronger members in a Reward Challenge because the pillows and blankets weren’t worth the effort. There was no immediate blowback on the tribe because there was a tribe swap, but a few players lost trust in Ace, who got voted out before the merge.

Redemption Island – Russell Hantz played a third time in this season and promised his tribe he wouldn’t be the backstabbing liar he was in his first two seasons. Then he got caught stealing and lying about having an Idol clue. So his tribe threw an Immunity Challenge to remove him. Russell could only watch as puzzle wizard David pretended he couldn’t solve a slide puzzle with numbered pieces. (Does that sound familiar?) They sent Russell to Redemption Island where he lost a duel and was eliminated.

Caramoan – Russell’s nephew Brandon proved to be unstable, unpredictable and volatile. He got furious at Phillip and dumped out the tribe’s rice and beans. The Favorites tribe didn’t throw the challenge, they straight up forfeited it. Brandon was so fed up, he said he was happy to go home.

Cagayan – Sarah believed Tony’s lie when he said Cliff and Lindsey were targeting her. So, Sarah talked Trish and Woo into throwing a challenge to remove Cliff. But sadly for Sarah, the Brains tribe was so bad in that challenge, they couldn’t win even when Sarah’s Brawn tribe was trying to lose.

San Juan del Sur – Drew’s Hunaphu tribe held a 9-6 advantage, so Drew decided it was “time to weed out the snakes in our tribe.” He took the ring-tossing spotlight role at the end of the challenge and made sure his tribe lost. He tried to convince his tribe’s men that the women, led by Kelley Wentworth, were targeting them. But Drew didn’t know Jeremy was already aligned with the women. So when Natalie Anderson and Missy sniffed out Drew’s plan, Jeremy helped the women blindside Drew.

Worlds Apart – A tribe swap saw challenge beast Joey Amazing fall into a minority position on Mike and Rodney’s Escameca tribe. Rodney asked his original tribe members to throw the challenge to remove Joe. But Mike saw how close Rodney had become to Joaquin who’d also been swapped to Escameca. They threw the challenge, but Mike saw to it that Joaquin was voted out instead of Joey Amazing. Rodney had one of his many meltdowns that season after the vote.

Cambodia – After a tribe swap saw two tribes become three, Jeremy’s Ta Keo tribe saw two Bayon members (Spencer and Kelly Wiglesworth) join them. Kimmi had been aligned with Monica, but inexplicably decided Monica was gonna flip. Jeremy and Monica sat out of the Immunity Challenge, then Kimmi and Stephen Fishbach did some horrible work on the slingshot. Stephen even hit an opposing tribe’s target. They voted Monica out.

Game Changers – A swap put two-time winner Sandra in a 5-2 hole. The five Nuku members, led by Ozzy, couldn’t resist the chance to take out the Queen, so they threw the challenge. Ozzy curiously swam much slower than normal. Then they let Sandra and Jeff Varner pull with all their might while the rest of them lightly pushed a cart from behind. Then Ozzy took a day and a half to unload their puzzle pieces. They voted out Sandra that night.

Ghost Island – At Final 14, Domenick and Chelsea threw a challenge, but their target might have changed. They might have originally intended on removing swapped member Libby, then changed their target to remove their original tribemate Bradley, who’d become very annoying. Chelsea sat out of the challenge, but Domenick’s intentionally show swimming on his leg of a water obstacle course put them so far behind, they didn’t have a chance.

There you have it. If Sol hasn’t seen any of these thrown challenges, he must not have been paying very close attention. Many of these players came clean about throwing challenges – both during and after their seasons. Will we see Rome come clean this week? Time will tell.

And away we go…

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Teeny: “I’ve been bamboozled.” I remember when Richard Hatch said that in Survivor: All-Stars when he got voted out.

Rome’s social game is just plain horrible. He knew Teeny was aware of the plan. He also knew she was left out of the blindside on Kishan. What is to be gained by confronting Teeny in front of the entire tribe? Doesn’t he realize he still needs Teeny’s vote? Does Rome think everyone is obligated to obey him? Rome is taking a Russell Hantz approach here.

Genevieve needs to do damage control with Teeny too. Telling Teeny “Rome and Sol are on the bottom, you and me are in the middle because they both want to work with us” was a good line logically, but Teeny still needs a reason to trust you. I think Genevieve is overestimating the effectiveness of her damage control with Teeny.

Rome in confessional: “Teeny feels like she’s on the bottom, and that’s exactly how I want her to feel.” If you were smart, Rome, you’d want Teeny to feel like you’re not that upset about it. That way, Teeny might bring information to you. By making Teeny feel on the bottom, Teeny will bring information to someone else with the goal of removing you.

Right to the challenge already? That means this is for Reward, not Immunity. And it’s set up for two teams – yellow and blue.

Gabe: “Only two tribes.” Is there an echo in here?

Genevieve: “I hope you all brought your stuff.”

Me: “I hope you all read my season preview column and learned not to repeat the mistakes made by Matt B. (44) and Drew (45).

Hmm ... Tuku brought their Immunity Idol to the challenge, but Gata didn’t. Wussupwitdat?

We’ve seen every element of this challenge before. I remember Chris Hammons bulldozing over people while crawling through the tunnel. I also remember Crystal Cox being absolutely pathetic in the basketball shooting portion in Gabon.

I like this twist. It pretty much guarantees everyone will play to win. It also guarantees cross-tribal communication, depending on how the teams are split. Just the same, no matter what team I’m on, I’m looking hard for an Idol or Advantage in camp or on the Reward.

This split worked out very well for Teeny, but not for Sol. If Teeny wins, new contacts can be made all over the place, especially with fellow Amulet holder Caroline there too. But Sol is shackled with Rome and Genevieve, who can watch his every move. Kyle only has to worry about Sue watching him, but I think it will be fairly easy to evade her. Odds are the blue team will pull it out because they have the more athletic players, especially the women.

Caroline was the last one to the mat. I’d have figured it would be Sue.

Team Yellow figures out the ladder maze and builds a huge lead. Kyle takes the spotlight role and unclips the bags. Shocker, Rome puts himself in the spotlight role again. That’s the 5th one for him. Kyle has 6. Rome was so slow in his part, Gabe stepped in. Tommy did the same thing when he stepped in for Aaron in Island of the Idols.

Team Yellow wins. The ladder portion was the equalizer. This could be the biggest break for Teeny and Kyle, and the worst break for Sol. Poor Gabe has to go back to camp alone ... and who knows if Sue told him she already found the Idol?

The winning team gets bottles that say “soda” on them. What? The marketing team couldn’t sell sponsorship on this one?

I love this twist. There’s so much potential for “good TV” drama. Those left back at camp will wonder what information was shared, and if those on the winning team will be completely truthful. New cracks could be forming all over the place.

Sam in confessional: “Sierra and I have a secret bond together.” No, it’s not a secret. Anika told you both tribes think you’re a power couple. There’s absolutely nothing secret about your connection to Sierra.

Tiyana blows up Gabe’s game. She might have been better served by sharing that in private conversations, especially since she’s already suspicious of Sue. Also, similar to Andy’s journey word vomiting, if Tiyana is so willing to share info about Gabe, it figures she’ll openly share information about everyone else if they give it to her.

If I’m playing cornhole, I’d be sandbagging. Never advertise your challenge talent if you don’t absolutely have to. I’d miss every shot.

Caroline to Rachel and Teeny: “Sue's my girl. She’s my #1.” As Q would say “Big Mistake.” Now they know if they have a plan that excludes Sue, they have to exclude you too.

To me, it looks like Rachel played this the best. She received the most information but gave away the least.

Man, I feel bad for Sol being stuck in camp with Rome. I’ve long wondered if a “frienemies” strategy could work. If everyone knows how much Sol and Rome dislike each other, the two of them could gather information from everyone and try to run the game. But that would require a lot more trust than these two have in each other.

Sol is an absolute fool for believing anything that comes out of Rome’s mouth. Even if he suspects Rome could be telling the truth about Teeny’s Amulets, Sol should verify it with Teeny first before making any decisions. But it sounds like Sol isn’t questioning anything coming from Rome.

Genevieve in confessional: “Out of all the Lavo members left, Teeny is the easiest to work with.” Reason #73 why you should cut Rome loose.

Genevieve does what Sol didn’t do and sought to verify Rome’s story. Props to Genevieve on this one.

Genevieve: “If Rome’s not telling me everything, his value to me goes down and his danger level goes up. At some point that will tip the scales.” The scales have already been tipped. They were tipped when you saw how crappy he treated Sol. I’ll say it again, don’t make the mistake of thinking “Rome won’t do that to me.” He will. He did it to Aysha, then to Sol, and he just told you he wants to do it to Teeny. Remove him before he has a chance to prove that.

Gata won three chickens, and Sierra wants to release them? That’s a complete waste! Didn’t they learn anything from Tai in Kaoh Rong? Make little chicken leashes for them. Give them a little freedom and maybe they’ll lay some eggs. Don’t let Mark the chicken’s legacy fade away.

Sam played it smart by only sharing with Sierra that Tuku thinks they’re leading the Gata tribe. Now they have confirmation that Andy not only can’t keep his mouth shut but is willing to throw them under the bus. Just like Genevieve needs to remove Rome, Sam and Sierra can’t trust Andy.

Shortly after Teeny returns, Rome leaves the group to go swimming. Rome is really bad at this game. Does he think the other three won’t talk about him? Does he think he’s got such incredible control over them they won’t make a move without informing him?

Sue is correct for wanting to protect Gabe, but it sounds like she didn’t try to create any other options for herself at the Reward. Did she gather any information? If she didn’t make new connections, how does going after Tiyana this early help Sue? Does she plan to make it to the end only with help from Gabe and Caroline?

Gabe played it well when Tiyana reluctantly came clean. He kept open the possibility that Tiyana might bring information to him later on. There’s no chance in hell Rome would play it like Gabe did.

Gabe in confessional: “I want to crush her (Tiyana’s) Survivor dreams. I want to watch her torch get snuffed and smile while it happens.” This twist is working out brilliantly for the Producers (and us viewers). My question is this: Gabe wants Tiyana out. Rome wants Teeny out. Sierra wants Andy out, and Sam wants Anika out. What happens if everybody tries to throw the challenge? Do Jon, TK, Aysha, and/or Kishan get to return?

Wait, Gata brought their chickens to the Immunity Challenge? What the hell? They get to trade the chickens for 18 eggs? I’m not sure how I feel about this negotiation. If I’m on one of the other tribes, I might be angry. But then again, if the chickens aren’t laying eggs, I suppose it depends on if my tribemates were willing to kill a chicken. This was bizarre.

Anika and Sue sit out. Hmm ... If I’m Sol, there’s no way I’m letting Rome saw the rope or throw the sandbags at the puzzle.

I don’t know if Jon would be any better at it, but Andy has sucked in the last two Immunity Challenges. He has put them behind both times.

Rome throws first, and his throw sucks. He hits the bottom, and nothing moves. Then Sol throws, hits it high and knocks 4 blocks off. But Rome’s subsequent throws look like he’s giving a sincere effort.

Wow, Gata takes over 2nd place and starts on the puzzle before Lavo. With puzzle master Rachel, they’re starting to look good here.

Once again, Lavo is in the middle, and can get a better look at Tuku’s almost-completed puzzle.

It looked to me like Andy put the right piece in place, then took it off.

Sam and Sierra’s bickering is distracting Rachel. If she has to tell you to settle down, she’s not concentrating on the puzzle.

Lavo takes 2nd place. This one was very close. Everyone gave their best effort too.

Rachel points out the irony. They get a bunch of eggs but lose their flint and can’t cook them.

Andy thinks he’s safe, but the power lies with Sierra. Who does she want to side with? Sam & Andy or Anika & Rachel? She’s burning at least one player no matter what she does. Sam is gonna push for Anika and Anika’s gonna push for Andy. If Sierra boots Andy, she loses a lot of trust with Sam. If she boots Anika, she loses Rachel, but I think she can get her back. This is a tough call. The better long-term solution is to remove Andy. But she might not get a long-term unless she removes Anika.

The other X factor here is that Anika doesn’t have a vote. She told Rachel and Sierra, but we don’t know if Sierra relayed that info to Sam. If she did, it figures Sam told Andy too. If that’s the case, Anika’s a sitting duck because she can’t even play her Shot in the Dark.

Right about now is when everyone realizes they should have practiced making fire without a flint.

Andy: “My plan is to make Anika and Rachel think I believe I’m on the outs.” Dude, you accomplished that on the first day. You don’t have to pretend.

We’re seeing this vote plan from Andy’s perspective, but I think he’s got the weakest influence. The only one with less is Anika because she doesn’t have a vote. Are the Producers showing us so much of Andy because they think he’s more entertaining?

Sierra to Sam: “Anika 100% can’t vote.” I think that just sealed Anika’s fate. Why would Sierra face a 2/2 split?

Sam is worried about losing Andy’s trust if he plays his Idol. Uhh Sam, maybe if you’re confident three votes are going on Anika, you don’t have to play the Idol at all. Wow, did I just say that? After watching five people get blindsided with an Idol just before getting on the plane, that would be very tough for Sam to do.

Sam at Tribal Council on the Reward conversations “We just tried to be Gata the listeners.” That’s the best way to play it.

Andy: “I don’t think people care how good I am on a balance beam.” For once, Probst took the words out of my mouth. Probst: “Your tribemates care.” Andy simply doesn’t do well when speaking around a group of people. That’s the biggest reason to cut him loose. The merge is a big group of people.

On the other hand, Rachel is really good in answering Probst. She gave an acceptable response (“Being emotional can be good or bad”) without revealing how SHE really feels about it. Probst once said Tina Wesson (The Australian Outback, All-Stars & Blood vs. Water) was the best at giving a non-responsive response. Handling Probst is one of the bigger challenges in Survivor, and Rachel is pretty good at it.

Sierra gave a pretty good, non-responsive answer too.

Survivor loves it when the two people on the block have a name that starts with the same letter. It doesn’t happen much, but when it does, we always see someone writing that letter.

Sam sits on his Idol. He must be VERY sure of where the votes are going. And he must REALLY trust Sierra. If for any reason she wanted him gone this would have been a perfect move for her.

Bye, Anika. In one of her early confessionals, she said “Even though I told myself before coming out here ‘Do not take the lead,’ I’m a Project Manager true at heart. My head can’t help but say “Hey guys, these are the steps that need to happen in order to get from A to Z. Let’s do that.” I think Anika’s mistake of taking the lead and giving Sam orders on how to set up camp was a huge factor in her failure. Pretending to play nice with Sam could have gone a long way for her.

Was it really that important to micro-manage how Sam hung a clothesline? She also wanted to get on the boat, which led to her losing her vote. Anika also got a little too comfortable in her three-person women’s alliance. She could have done more to make Andy feel more comfortable BEFORE they lost Immunity.

Wow, Anika is really in shock, isn’t she? Anika: “Who owned this?” This goes to show how overconfident Anika was.

Anika looks back, Andy waves, and she says “Naah.” It took all of my strength not to laugh out loud, but it’s 1:30 AM and my wife is asleep. Still, this was the funniest moment I’ve seen on Survivor for a while. Anika must have set a record for longest time from last vote shown to torch snuffing. I think Dawson set the record in Philippines.

And now Andy is smiling bigger than Rome as he’s walking out. I think that’s gonna come back to haunt him too.

Recap

Anika’s blindside, especially the way she was crying as she gave her exit comments, reminded me a lot of Kat’s exit from One World. Like Kat, she was completely certain she was in the majority and was cruising along in a safe position. I think Anika believed she was in more control than Kat did, but the pure shock of seeing her name was identical.

What do you think? Did you like this challenge twist and Survivor Social Hour as much as I did? What do you think the fallout will be? Will there be immediate blowback on some people since we’re heading into mergeatory next week? Or will some people put that information in their pocket to use later on? Did Sierra make the right call, or did we just find out Sam has the stronger influence in their partnership? If you’re Teeny, what do you do, flip to Gata or to Tuku? Let me know in the comments.