First a few notes from my rewatch of last week’s episode.

When Kyle and Kevin arrived to compete for their tribe’s supplies, Kyle jumped out of the boat first, and offered his hand to help Kevin out. Kevin took it without hesitation. Its not a big deal but isn’t something you usually see – one man helping another out of a boat like that. Maybe Kevin told Kyle he’d injured his shoulder?

There’s an interesting dynamic on the Lagi tribe. Joe, Shauhin and Thomas formed the “California Girls” alliance and are deciding between Eva and Bianca to be their 4th. Joe and Eva have bonded. Joe has even vowed to sacrifice his own game to help Eva. Thomas feels closer to Bianca. This may come down to who is willing to fight harder for their partner. I think Joe will win this struggle, but will it eventually cost him when Shauhin and Thomas suspect he’s got an unbreakable bond with Eva?

In a secret scene, we may have found out why Thomas told Bianca “I’m so glad you’re on my fucking tribe.” Joe, Star, Eva and Bianca were working on the shelter. Bianca silently listened as the other three bonded over their love of team sports. All Bianca could contribute was “I’ was a theater kid. I ran track because if you did a sport you could get out of Gym class.” When Star asked what her event was, Biana replied “I don’t even remember.” If Thomas was as equally put off by all the sports talk, it figures he’d embrace Bianca.

And digging deeper into the Joe/Eva partnership, I wonder what will Joe do if Eva ends up on a different team in a split-squad challenge? If she has one of her episodes during or after a challenge, will Joe go to calm her down, knowing that will expose their alliance? Will he and Eva get any blowback from Thomas, Shauhin, Bianca or Star for not telling them about Eva’s autism?

Joe ran the Immunity Challenge with a toothpick in his mouth. Wendell did the same thing in Ghost Island. I’m not positive, but I think Jeremy had a lot of toothpicks too, but I don’t know if he had them in SJdS, Cambodia, or Winners at War. Wendell won his season. Jeremy won in Cambodia. Just sayin’.

At Tribal Council, Stephanie mentioned there were three Air signs on their tribe (Stephanie is a Libra). Sai said, “Because I’m an Air sign, I know for a fact I don’t typically get along with other air signs.” I don’t know who the third Air sign on that tribe is, but Sai may have told them they won’t get along. If that person is Justin, Kevin or Mary (who were all iffy about Sai to begin with) that statement could have put them over the edge.

Last season, we watched Rachel play her Shot in the Dark, then carefully eye the other players to see if their reactions would reveal if they voted for her. I was reminded of that moment when Stephanie played her Shot in the Dark. Kevin, Justin and Sai all looked worried when Stephanie stood up. They also looked relieved when Probst showed the “Not Safe” scroll. Sai has admitted she can’t hide her facial reactions, but apparently neither can Kevin or Justin. This could come into play if/when they decide to go after Sai, which very well could be in this episode.

It certainly seems like Vula will be returning to Tribal Council. They can’t match the pure strength the other tribes have in David and Joe. On top of that, Stephanie did most of the puzzle solving in the first challenge. They only lost by three pieces. With more time, Vula may have done better, but they took too long getting their sled up the ramp because they only put 2 players at the bottom to push it up or hold it in place. That was bad planning. They’ll have to outwit Lagi and Civa to get a win. If they fail, does it mean Mary is a goner, or will they decide the more volatile Sai needs to go? Let’s find out.

And away we go ...

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Right off the bat we’re reminded of how Mary doesn’t trust Sai and voted against her. Does that mean one of them are leaving tonight?

Sai confronts Mary immediately and says, “I have no hard feelings.” Mary calls her on her BS.

Mary in confessional: “I got got, but I didn’t got ... I didn’t get as got got as Stephanie did.” I had to listen to that four times to get it right. Mary cracked me up with that line.

Kevin and Sai are pretty bad at doing damage control with Mary, and Mary is worse at pretending she can get over it.

Sai: “I don’t want Mary to think I hold grudges, but I hold grudges.” No shit. Subtlety is NOT a part of Sai’s game.

Sai: “My Idol and my Core 4 keeps me safe.” That sounds like famous last words to me.

Charity is talking about her “haggard” toes. Dee talked about her T.O.U.S. (Toes of unusual size) and turned in an amazing game. Her toes won an Immunity for her.

I thought I’d have trouble typing misspelling “Cedrek” and “Sai.” I just caught myself typing “Chastity.”

David: “I’ve got four nipples. Maybe that’s why I like milk so much.” I know what he meant, but that line struck up a disgusting visual for me.

The levity on the Civa tribe will go a long way, especially for Charity who started off on shaky ground. It worked pretty well for the Siga tribe in Survivor 46. They put two members in the finals.

I was disappointed we didn’t get to see Chrissy’s black hole of a belly button. We saw David’s extra nipples, Charity’s ugly toes and Kyle’s wart/callus.

Star: “I’ve been hesitant to talk strategy ... it makes me wonder if anybody wants to work with me.” News flash, Star. That’s a great way to get yourself voted out first like Stephanie. If you’re not having strategic conversations, everyone else is having them about you.

So naturally Star finds the Beware Advantage and has to solve the puzzle and get the Idol.

Star tells Joe about her Advantage. Everybody trusts Joe. But this also means Eva will know about it soon. It also means Star hasn’t been reading “Screaming at the Screen.”

Joe brings Shauhin in on the plan, and Shauhin knows he’s got the power now. He and Joe can backstab her now, and that’s exactly what Shauhin is considering doing. I’ll say it again, the first Idol is rarely worth the trouble it takes to find it.

So now Star tells Thomas and Bianca about it too? Star doesn’t seem to realize the rest of her tribe will talk and realize Star is playing them all against each other. The more people know about your Advantage, the more likely they are to work against you BECAUSE you have an Advantage.

And immediately Thomas knows Star doesn’t have a vote and starts plotting against her because she’s a sitting duck.

But Thomas tells Shauhin to “just lose the puzzle guide” he got from Star, and that makes Shauhin suspicious of Thomas. Then Shauhin tells Joe that everybody knows about Star’s puzzle now.

Joe is worried about stabbing someone in the back? Does he know what game he’s playing? Does he think his mighty toothpick of power will give him advice from the Survivor Gods?

Joe clues Eva in on Star’s Advantage. This of course means everyone in the game will know about it if/when there’s a swap or merge, should Star last that long.

Vula is the land of the flies? That reminds me of the vicious sand flies in Marquesas.

Kevin is anticipating losing Immunity again. In pregame, Kevin said he hoped his tribe lost at least two members before the merge. With that attitude, he might get his wish. But it’s a mistake to pitch people on booting Sai so quickly. Now Cedrek and Justin have plenty of time to figure out how to save Sai if they want to. In the whack-a-mole era of Survivor, Kevin just stuck his head up.

I say it every season. “Get on the boat, lose your vote.”

But this season, Producers removed the players’ ability to choose who goes. That means each person who goes doesn’t necessarily look like they’re aggressive about it ... until Mary celebrates and jumps into the boat.

Sai throws a mini-fit about Mary going and her staying. Yeah, Sai is a “my way or the highway” type of player. She seems to think her alliance is working FOR her instead of WITH her.

Sai sniffing her armpit as Mary left just made me laugh.

Once again, those on the Journey can’t choose not to participate. They’re all forced to risk losing their vote. But Thomas asked them both “Do you want to do it?” Did they actually have the option of not participating? Did all three of them have to agree?

Mary loses her vote so this means she has to bluff about it and make her tribe think she’s got an Advantage. Mary knows everyone on her tribe has already lied to her, so she has no reason to tell anyone the truth. And the Vula men have to decide which woman they want to try and fool between Mary and Sai.

Thomas gets a Steal a vote, and Mitch gets a Block a vote. I wonder what Mary would have gotten. Probably Safety Without Power.

Mary tells the truth to everyone. That was just plain dumb. Does she think they won’t believe her and that somehow will keep her safe?

But Thomas lies and says he didn’t play at all. Thomas: “The second someone knows you have an Advantage, not only does it put a target on your back, but you can’t use it as well ... That’s why it has to be kept secret.” Yeah, Thomas has been reading my column. It’s nice to see Charity isn’t being a loner anymore.

Chrissy: “Do you want to split into twos (to find the Idol)?” That’s smart because that increases the chance she’ll know if somebody finds something.

Kyle finds the Beware Advantage, and immediately tells David, blowing the opportunity to keep it secret. And David wants to tell Kamilla and Chrissy. The question now is, will anybody tell Mitch, for fear he’ll tell Charity?

I like that the word to solve the puzzle is different for each tribe.

This brings up an interesting question. Kyle found the Beware Advantage, but Kamilla solved the puzzle. Does she have a legit claim to the Idol? Probably not, but I wonder if she thought to ask the Producers?

Kyle’s Idol has one large orange bead, two small yellow beads and one red bead on it. Sai’s has two green beads and one blue bead in the middle, all of the same size. File that away for future reference.

They’re using the same two-story tower for the Immunity Challenge again. We’ll probably see it a couple more times this season. And once again the tribes are aligned the same way – Lagi on the left, Vula in the middle, and Civa on the right. There’s no puzzle in this challenge, so Vula won’t have the advantage of being able to look at the other tribes, but I’m still wondering why they never vary the tribe positions.

I like the way Probst handled his question about Mitch’s speech impediment. Letting Mitch tell people how he wanted them to address him was very classy.

We’ve seen every part of this Immunity Challenge before except the part where a duo works together to cross the balance beam. The spotlight role would be whoever goes first to release the buoys, and whoever does the basketball shooting.

After Star made all that noise about not wanting to sit out, guess who sits out?

To no surprise David goes first for his tribe, but I’m shocked Joe didn’t go first too. Maybe he chose to stay close to Eva in case she had an episode.

David over rotated on his dive into the water and ended up behind Mary, but he was faster in releasing his buoys and getting them into the bin.

Moriah and Liz had a similar “nice to meet you” moment on the sitout bench in 46.

The teamwork between Joe and Eva was easily the best.

This balance beam portion was the deciding factor this time.

Joe starts shooting taking a spotlight role. Kyle does the same for Civa. Eva steps in for Joe and sinks a couple. Then Mitch swaps in for Kyle. In Island of the Idols, eventual winner Tommy stepped in a couple of times but never went first. He avoided the challenge beast label, which helped him a lot.

Sai screams a lot during challenges. My reaction was the same as Mary’s.

Eva and Joe were pretty good shooters for Lagi, but Star was a pro basketball player. It seemed like a no-brainer for her to do the shooting. This makes me wonder if she’s sandbagging her challenge talent.

I feel bad for Cedrek, but he was killing his tribe in this challenge. That’s two in a row for him now.

It was a very quick shot, but Charity was celebrating a little too hard again after Lagi nailed second place.

This Tribal Council would have been interesting if Mary had tried to bluff, but there’s still a chance Kevin and Justin will want to remove the way-too-aggressive Sai. They should already know they can’t influence how she votes.

Cedrek is making the same mistake Stephanie made last week. Apologizing for causing a loss is the worst thing you can do right when people are gonna decide how to vote. You’re telling them to consider booting you. Even if he doesn’t leave tonight, they’ll remember his apology if they lose again.

Kevin pitches Cedrek on booting Sai, but again, he’s moving too early. Lock in Justin first then tell Cedrek last. Don’t give him all day to warn Sai, who’d then play her Idol. If that happens, an angry Sai might boot Kevin instead. Kevin gave Cedrek way too much time to think about it.

And that’s exactly what Cedrek is doing.

Cedrek to Sai: “How much can you conceal your emotions?” Sai “Good.” Cedrek’s laughing reaction spoke for the entire audience. I was cracking up right with him.

Justin clues Cedrek in on a plan to flip the vote to Kevin, and Cedrek realizes Sai couldn’t keep her mouth shut either. Justin proves that he who has all the information makes the decision. Justin and Cedrek are making the call tonight. I say keep the vote you can influence and boot the vote you can’t. They can’t influence Sai’s vote. But I admit, I have no idea who’s leaving. Unpredictable Survivor is good Survivor.

Sai comes out of the gate identifying her alliance of four. Kevin, I feel your pain.

Sai’s word vomiting reminds me of Bhanu doing the same thing in 46.

Sai: “Mary and I are working out the kinks.” Mary: “You’re gonna win a dishonest game by being honest?” I love how Mary called Sai out on her bullshit.

I’ll pat myself on the back when I predicted Sai and Mary wouldn’t get along. Going after Kevin would be a terrible move here. The next vote will still be a grudge match and they’ll be stuck with someone they can’t work with either way.

Sai plays her Idol. This is the 13th time an Idol has been played before the merge, starting with Tom in Heroes vs Villains, and most recently Gabe last season. Nobody who played an Idol or was saved by an Idol pre-merge went on to win the game.

Bye Kevin. I guess his shoulder injury won’t be a factor this season.

I can admit I was totally wrong about thinking Mary would leave first or second from her tribe.

Now Justin and Cedrek have to decide who they want to move forward with. Mary knows you’ve lied to her twice now and probably won’t stick with you through a swap or merge. And Sai will blurt out information that exposes your strategy and alliances. They’re screwed either way.

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Recap

Kevin really shot himself in the foot. Last week we saw how Cedrek spoke up to keep Sai around. Kevin obviously didn’t pick up on that and thought it would be easy to talk Cedrek into booting Sai.

In my pregame column, I said “Kevin talked a lot about the importance of making a “Big Move.” That tells me he’ll take an unnecessary risk that will end up getting him voted out like what happened to recent players like Genevieve, Tevin, Emily and Danny Massa.” Yeah, Kevin had “Big move-itis,” and his execution was horrible. He knew how close Cedrek was to Sai, and he knew Sai had an Idol. The move was to give Cedrek as little time as possible to come up with a plan to defeat his own plan. Or maybe he should have realized the chances Sai would get tipped off were too great and he should have just cut Mary loose. Kevin cited Yul as one of his inspirations, but he played more like his other inspiration in Kaleb. He was overconfident in his ability to secure Cedrek’s vote, and he was even worse at reading Justin.

I’m not sure if I like this move for Justin either. Sure, it locks him in more with Cedrek and Sai, but now he’s a clear #3 with them. Vula doesn’t figure to win Immunity soon, so that means Justin is #2 on the hit list. If he’d kept Kevin around, he’d have at least a 50/50 shot against Cedrek and Sai, especially if they flushed Sai’s Idol.

I’m getting the feeling Civa will enter the merge totally intact. They’re pretty strong and get along very well. And Lagi will only go to Tribal if they throw a challenge, which would only happen if somebody wants to separate Star from her possible Idol.

What do you think? Was removing Kevin a smart move for Justin? Has Star’s inability to keep her Advantage a secret gonna spell her demise? Will Shauhin sell out Thomas’ scheming? Has Charity done a good job of improving her social game? Let me know in the comments.