Hello intrepid International Survivor Pals, we are here in week 4 of Australian Survivor Blood v Water. I am pretty happy with it all so far, I love Sandra but I’m hoping losing her and Sophie will allow the season to breathe more, give more people who don’t want to talk about being pilots airtime. So let’s begin.

Episode 10 (kemperboyd)

• Chrissy is complaining that they’ve had rice and beans for 63 meals in a row and thye have to fake to Khanh that it’s still nice.
• Nina talks to us about her decision to stick with Josh. She feels like she has built really good trust and that the guys think they are in control. She does incorrectly state that her vote decided Amy going home but it was a split vote and Amy went home with a 6-2-1 vote.
• The big boys start talking about targeting Shay to get Ben to crumble. But Nina doesn’t want to go for Shay, she likes her and Shay is an endurance beast. I will say Shay also seems incredibly naive and easily manipulatable.
• OH NO a get to know Nina segment. Nina hates her job, which makes sense, she does finance at a chicken factory.
• Nina shall push Mel so it’s not Shay.
• On Blue Jessie is talking about the need to make big moves. Jessie wants to target Ben, which is a pretty decent idea to be honest. Ben is apparently making a huge issue on food and in the tribe he is in it’s a good way to sway the women against him. Not to mention the big boys have taken control at red, it means that Michelle, KJ and even Sam should consider the need to get rid of a non-aligned big lad to A) free up a partner and B) give them a better shot post merge. Jessie talks to Sam about wanting to boot Ben. She agrees.
• At the Reward Challenge Khanh is very sad to see Amy go, despite the fact it should lower his threat level.
  The challenge is a slide race to a basketball match. The reward is a family picnic. The tribes are split into two teams each, the two teams who score two first win, so that could mean all of red, all of blue or 4 from each side. Mark scores for pink. Nina, Michelle, Mel and KJ go next. Nina does not like heights, Nina hurts her ankle and sinks into the water, SHIT. Mel scores.  Michelle/Mel and KJ pick her up and carry her to the platform. Medical look at her and say she seems to have just twisted it and can continue on. Jordan scores for pink and that mean Nina, Mark, Jordan and Jordy are eating. Dave scores for red and it’s all of Blood going for the picnic.
• Mark finds a clue to an idol at the reward, he thinks no one saw. But Jordie sees. Mark says he didn’t find anything.
• After the reward Nina has to be removed for X-Rays. One bonus of Australian Survivor  is she can be removed for 24 hours to get looked at. She really needed to get removed over a Tribal like Georgia last season.
• At the Immunity Challenge the Water tribe as about Nina, she is brought in on crutches. BOLLOCKS. Nina has a fractured ankle, the ligament has pulled away and Nina has to leave the game. This is heartbreaking. She really really was on her way to becoming a superb player. American Survivor needs to cast her, I cannot stress how enjoyable she has been to watch. It’s such a shame she couldn’t make it through and wreaked havoc on the season. At the end JLP says he feels like this will not be the last time they will see her on Australian Survivor. So we have that. She’s a star Jeff, get her cast, put her on South African Survivor. Put her anywhere and everywhere.
• The Immunity Challenge is another physical challenge. For those counting that is zero real puzzles in any challenges. The winning tribe will also go back to camp with an advantage in the game. Water had a huge lead and blew it. Blood win.
• At Water Sam, Jessie and Ben talk about splitting between Michelle and Khanh.
• The plan is really to split between Ben and Khanh. I feel like a twist is coming, please do not forget about the “tribe advantage”.
• For some reason Chrissy tells Ben it’s coming for him. Croc doesn’t want to vote for Ben as he is very secure in that alliance and they are mates.
• We get a confessional from KJ expressing that she at 37 is being told what to do by 21 year old Jessie. She would like to see Khanh go with an idol. Which for me is not good thinking for her as a single. She should be looking at Khanh as someone she should be making a bond with. Two free agents. An ally with an idol is better than no idols in the game and a strong player who doesn’t talk to you. We only have David, Khanh and KJ currently with no partner, so either they could be huge targets or assets but it should be easier to move together because if KJ decides to go with a hypothetical alliance of Mark, Sam, Jessie and Jordie who will they be sacrificing if they need to?
• At Tribal the advantage is said to be Blood being able to watch the Tribal but this one is different, there is no chat, JLP tells them to vote. The votes come down to Ben with 5, Khanh with 3 and a throw away on KJ.
• JLP asks Blood about the second part of their advantage and Mel pulls it out of her bra. Blood get to chose a player to join their tribe from the opposition, but only one who received a vote.
• Shay is desperate for them to pick Ben but they decide to leave him as a ticking time bomb and vote to take KJ. This is unequivocally the correct move for me. Why reunite a couple or pick a guy with a idol when there is an unattached person sitting there. You can use her strategically or just use her for an easy vote out.

Episode 11 (Something Quirky)

• The episode opens with the Blood tribe coming back to camp with KJ.
  (Which is the reverse of her sister, who went from Blood to Water. Still an odd coincidence.)
• Shay tries to hide her disappointment that Ben didn’t join the tribe, and says she’s glad for another girl.
  (Later, Mark brings that up as a reason to potentially vote her out, which seemed a bit dickish.)
• It’s Day 23, and we’re back at the Water camp.
• Jesse tries to mend things with Ben while Chrissy makes a face nearby.
• Chrissy and Jesse talk about getting to the merge and wanting to link up with the big guys (and Sam).
  They also talk about throwing the challenge to get Ben out.
• Ben seems to be blaming the blindside on Chrissy.
  Which, I guess is good for her that people think she could have orchestrated that.
• Back over with the Blood tribe, KJ is very happy.
• She is also enthusiastic to link up with the big guys (and, to a lesser extent, Mel).
• Shay is on the outs, and sad.
  She’s concerned for herself (and missing Nina), but is also worried that if her tribe wins immunity Ben will go home.
• Immunity Challenge time:
  We see Chrissy’s face before seeing the challenge, which is a bunch of upright mazes.
  Ben’s apparently fine with everything.
  The challenge is a bunch of connected mazes in a line, and everyone needs to work three balls across the whole thing.
  If you drop a ball, you need to restart your section of the maze.
  Now we’re getting puzzle adjacent.
  Michelle whispers to Sam and the people in her immediate vicinity to throw it.
  Little editing mistake: we see Mark with a ball he’d already brought through.
  JLP twice mentions Mark having “military precision”.
  The tribes actually seem relatively close, though with Blood leading all the way through and Water dropping a few times.
  Blood wins.
  Ben says “better not be f-ing me again” as he hugs Sam.
  Ben then says to Jesse “please not me again”.
• At the Water camp, everyone seems to be on board with voting out Ben.
• Croc is a bit sad about it, and is weighing up what to do.
• He suggests the possibility of voting out Jesse to Mel and Khanh, with Chrissy there.
  He brings up that come merge, Jesse and Jordie together are a threat, Khanh and Mel are in the minority, and he and Chrissy are at the bottom of the majority.
• Chrissy is not particularly happy with this idea.
• Some snakes might float. (I know it was holding onto the branch.)
  Some land snakes can swim. Sea snakes are rather scary.
• Croc suggests voting Jesse out to Ben, after a discussion on trust and not previously having voted for each other.
• Ben goes straight to Jesse and Sam to tell them what Croc says, while throwing in some passive aggression.
  (Ben’s saying he’s showing them his loyalty, the people who were willing to throw a challenge to vote him out a second time.)
• Chrissy talks to Michelle about not being sure what to do; vote Jesse, or Ben to save Jesse and start playing a separate game to Croc.
• Chrissy and Jesse have a conversation where it seems clear something’s up with her, but she affirms sticking to the Ben plan.
  It is interesting that she was fine telling Ben his name had been thrown out, when that could have come back to bite Jesse, but won’t tell Jesse his name is out there because it could backfire on Croc.
• Tribal Council time:
  They play nice about the Ben blindside, it’s water under the bridge, he was a future threat, that’s a badge of honour.
  Khanh speaks for the first time in a while, and says he hasn’t heard his name in the lead up to Tribal, which could be bad.
  They talk about still being unified in their voting.
  Ben says “Nobody here goes without a voice” and the camera immediately focuses on Michelle. Ouch.
  Chrissy strongly implies she’s not voting Jesse.
  Jesse is very confident the plan he’s a part of (voting out Croc) will happen.
  Croc is confident his plan (voting out Jesse) will happen.
  Ben, “THE KID” TRIED TO BLINDSIDE YOU!
  Is Jesse going to get to the end and then just get no credit for things?
  Khanh does not play his idol, and neither does Croc.
  The votes come out with one vote for Jesse (Croc), two votes for Ben (Chrissy and Khanh), and then the rest of the votes for Croc.
  Chrissy is very upset.
  Sam is surprised that Croc and Chrissy didn’t vote together.
  (And she tells Jesse that Chrissy is allowed to be upset, after he tries to touch her knee and tell her it’s okay, and she moves it away.)
  It’s unclear if Croc managed to sneak the idol to Chrissy, but from what we saw I’m guessing not.
  (But we can never be 100% sure with Australian Survivor.)
• This would have been a more interesting Tribal had the promos for the episode not being about another big threat going.
• JLP’s parting sentiment/metaphor made enough sense that I was not frustrated by it, so that was good.

Episode 12 (Barbara Anderson)

• We begin with some nude bathing on Day 24 on Water, while Ben is excited that he was able to pull off the Croc blindside and is confident that his pinky promise alliance will propel him further in the game.
• Chrissy, meanwhile, is bummed that not only is Croc gone, but so is their idol (No clue on if they didn’t know they could pass it off after he was voted out ala Kez or if that is now a rule because of Kez). She is now feeling the homesickness because her connection to home is gone. Sam and Chrissy hash out the blindside, where Sam reveals that Ben ratted them out. Chrissy is now going after Ben for revenge since Croc trusted him so much.
• The Blood men are bragging about how rare it is for men to call the shots on Survivor. Joy. Mark talks about how Shay is next because she is a major threat across the board including finding idols.
• Speaking of idols, Mark then decides to look for the idol that his clue goes to. He thinks that his military skills prevented other people from seeing him find the clue. We then get confirmation that Jordie saw him find the clue. Mark ends up finding the idol, just before Jordie comes up to him and confronts him about the clue. Mark decides to play dumb and have Jordie help him find the idol that is already in his pocket. That façade quickly ends when Mark just reveals it to him because Mark just trusts him so much. Jordie is excited because that he can control Mark due to this knowledge.
• At the Immunity Challenge, Blood is shocked that Croc is gone but fully aware that Chrissy is pissed. Like Something Quirky said earlier, if we comment every time Chrissy makes a face, then a lot of our recap would that phrase over and over, so just imagine a lot of Chrissy faces during the mat talk. JLP then drops the bomb that today’s immunity challenge is not for tribal immunity, but rather for individual immunity with both tribes going to Tribal Council. The challenge is the holding the ball with a rolling pin challenge from modern Survivor but the castaways stand on pegs. A lot of Blood quickly drop out, while Ben and Chrissy discuss the Croc blindside. Ben apologizes, but he says that it is fair game since Croc knew that Ben was getting blindsided. We get a lot of humanizing moments from people falling out of the challenge with their tribemates and/or loved ones showing concern. Khanh and Sam, the last two standing on Water, make a deal where Sam will step down so Khanh will win, but Khanh will give her the immunity necklace. Sam agrees and steps down, but while she is sitting down and recovering, she passes out. After what feels like a while, the medics get to her. it’s truly a scary situation, but she recovers and is cleared. While this is happening, Shay and Jordie are still competing for the Blood immunity. Eventually, Jordie slips and Shay wins immunity. On the way back to camp, Khanh worries that Sam is setting him up to take him out, Reichenbach style (he doesn’t mention Erik, but it is implied).
• As is standard operating procedure, Shay winning immunity screws up the Blood majority alliance plan, but they still have two viable targets in KJ and Mel. They get together in the water and decide to go after Mel using a split vote since Michelle is still in the game, and they are a shifty pair together…I guess.
• KJ goes to argue her case since she is a free agent, but it feels unnecessary since the men had already decided the split vote. However, this sequence include a bit of tension between Shay and KJ where Shay bosses around KJ while she does yoga.
• Shay gets filled in on the split vote plan at the last moment by Josh. Since the men decide to go old tribe lines for the vote split, she would be voting for Mel, but she wants to take out KJ using her newfound confidence from winning immunity.  Mark is just worried that Tribal is going rattled him since this simple vote split is becoming not so simple.
• On Water, Chrissy still wants Ben out. She talks to Khanh and Sam to go after Ben again, which they are down for. They decide to loop in Jesse to give them the majority. However, Chrissy is not confident at all that this is going to happen since they took out Croc, but she has to rely on them.
• While Chrissy is asleep, Ben asks Sam about her. Sam says that Chrissy is not really happy with anyone, which gets Ben thinking about taking her out while flushing Khanh’s idol out at the same time by doing a 2-2-2 vote split. Jesse seems down since Croc wrote his name down. After this brief discussion, Sam and Jesse walk off to talk about doing the vote split, which ends up with them confirming that they have the power to do whatever they want with this vote. Before tribal, we do see Khanh giving Sam his immunity necklace.
• Double Tribal Council Time. We first get the Blood Tribal, while Water is awkwardly waiting in the Wings. After some discussion of the immunity challenge, Shay immediately screws up by saying that she won immunity, so the target is on the other two girls. However, they should be fine, even though anyone with eyes can tell that they are not. The rest of that tribal becomes a KJ and Mel pitchfest to mostly Mark about why they should stay, while Mark and Jordie declare that their vote about trust at the merge. Jordie also throws out some mentions of idols, which I don’t know was a play to get Mark to do what he wanted or a potential idol flush.
• On Water, Chrissy is still devastated that Croc is gone, but she thinks she is safe. Her vote tonight is based on broken trust (Ben) because of her loyal nature. Ben argues that his trust was broken first, so he had to gun for Croc. We get a check-in with Sam after her Immunity Challenge performance as well as checking with multiple people about why everyone on the tribe went all out to win. During this, Ben stands up and whispers to Khanh that he is going to go home on a vote split, so he needs to play his idol. JLP seems completely thrown by a live tribal, while Blood is excited by Ben’s play and Khanh is thrown by having his name thrown out like that. He doesn’t regret giving his Immunity necklace to Sam because he has his idol and his relationships to back him up. Sam is just honored that Khanh would do that for her while Chrissy just praises him to death in what feels like an eulogy. Khanh is crying and happy that he got to have so many real relationships from the show. At this point, Ben looks dejected as if he knows that he may have overplayed his hand. Sam ends the discussion by talking about how people needs to be open-minded enough to work with people who broke your trust earlier.
• Time to vote. Blood votes first, with KJ and Mel voting for each other for self-preservation. Water then votes with Ben voting for Khanh and Chrissy voting for Ben. Before the votes are read, JLP reveals another twist. The two people who are voted out get a second chance by competing in a fire-making challenge. The winner goes back to the tribe, while the loser goes home.
• Blood goes 3 for Mel, 3 for KJ, and 2 for Mel. KJ comforts Mel before she goes to fire. On the other tribe, Khanh holds tight to his idol. We get two votes for Ben, two votes for Khanh, and two votes for Ben.
• Mel vs. Ben ends up being closer than you would think. They both quickly use the husks, which produces strong flames that go out quickly. It goes back and forth with Michelle coaching Mel from the sidelines. Both flames are at the rope until the wind comes up. Mel jumps up to block the wind, which probably secures the win, but it is close. After comforting Shay, Ben is sent home.
• In the preview for next week, we are merged, Sam and Mark are arguing about something, and we hear a Twin speak in what feels like a confessional. Get hyped!