Survivor Samoa – Episode 10 Recap

Episode 10: “The Day of Reckoning”

Reward Challenge:

The tribe would be split into two teams. One castaway from each tribe would be hoisted aloft in a cradle held up by four ropes controlled by the other team members. The castaway in the cradle would have to be maneuvered around the playing field to collect 15 numbered flags in order and placed into a slot in a log. The first team to collect all 15 flags would win.

Reward: A plane trip to Savai’i and a picnic lunch at a waterfall

Immunity Challenge:

Each castaway would throw one stone at a set of three hanging tiles. For each tile broken, they would earn one spear to be used in the next round. The castaways would use a crossbow to shoot the spears they earned at a target. The castaway that shoots their spear closet to the center of the target would win.

When the tribe returned back to their campsite, Russell H. and Shambo gloated about how the last Tribal Council vote played out. The next day, Russell H. went searching for his third Hidden Immunity Idol. Shambo approached John about joining her alliance with the former Foa Foa and voting out Laura.

John figured that only he knew that Shambo had flipped allegiances, but was unsure what he would do with that knowledge and told her that he would not tell anybody about her proposal. At the Reward Challenge, the yellow team of Jaison, John, Mick, Monica, and Shambo lost to the purple team of Brett, Dave, Laura, Natalie, and Russell H.

The winning team was given a Palm Pre to use during their reward. While flipping through the phone’s photo gallery, Russell H. discovered a series of text, photo and video clues to the Hidden Immunity Idol hidden under a rock which he shared with the rest of the winning team.

Back at camp while the purple team was off on their reward, Jaison approached Monica about joining the Foa Foa alliance of five without telling her that Shambo was the fifth alliance member. Monica said that in order to get her vote, she wanted John to be voted out. Monica suspected that Shambo was the secret fifth vote. Back from the reward, Russell H. shared the clues to the Hidden Immunity Idol with Jaison and Mick.

When Russell H. and Jaison went looking for the idol, Dave and Laura followed him. Russell H. thought he recognized the rock from the video clue, but with Dave on his tail, he had to run through the forest to ditch Dave. He succeeded in ditching Dave, returned to the spot, and found his third idol.

Monica talked with Laura about the former Foa Foa’s proposal, but told Laura there were two people on board with them instead of the single person Jaison and Mick told her. Monica told Laura that she thought it was John and Shambo who had flipped sides. The Immunity Challenge was won by Mick.

Back at camp, Shambo told Brett that she was going to vote against Laura no matter what and that she would have in the past two Tribal Councils if Laura had not had immunity those two times. Dave and Laura wanted to vote Russell H. to flush out the Hidden Immunity Idol if he had one, but John said that it would be better to vote Natalie because she did not go looking for the idol and was the least likely to have it.

Monica came up with a plan to save Laura where she would tell the former Foa Foa members that she would be voting for John to get them to vote John, but she would actually vote for Natalie, hoping to have the vote five against Natalie, four against John, and one against Laura. Monica told Mick and Russell H. her story, but they were unsure if she was truly changing sides or telling them a story.

When Brett told John about Monica’s plan, he was not happy about being used as bait without being told first and was not going to save Laura at the expense of him getting votes. Russell H. told John that he thought the former Foa Foa members were being swindled into voting for John and would vote for Laura instead. John told Russell H. that if he were to switch his vote to Laura after a tie that the next person voted out must be a former Foa Foa.

John’s first instinct was to let the Tribal Council vote to go through two tie votes and then hope that one of the former Foa Foa loses in the stone picking tie breaker. At Tribal Council, Shambo said that the unity of the former Galu was broken when Erik was voted out. Laura disagreed and said that the former Galu was still strong, but Jeff pointed out that if Shambo was on the fence, Laura couldn’t say that the former Galu was still strong.

The votes were cast and Jeff tallied the vote to a 5-5 tie between Laura and Natalie. Per the rules, a second vote was held where Laura and Natalie would not vote and the remaining eight castaways had to vote for one of them. The second votes were cast, John changed his vote, and Laura was voted out 5-3.