We’re down to two episodes a week, and eleven players left.
Will the main male alliance march towards the end, or will the sidelined sheilas shake stuff up?

Episode 15 (Something Quirky)

• It’s Day 29, and we open with Chrissy asking if Dave’s dead.
• He is not.
• Sam and Chrissy do some bonding over improvised makeup, while also complaining about the male dominance.
• Michelle asks KJ if what Mel said at Tribal about Josh being the leader was helpful.
  KJ says it was.
• Josh says he is a strategic threat but is trying to minimise it.
  He counts the main alliance as the three couples, then Dave and Chrissy.
• Josh is uneasy with Jordie having revealed that Mark has an idol.
• Chrissy tells him he needs to tell Mark, so evidently Josh told Chrissy.
  (Or this was an edited in conversation about something unrelated.)
  
• Josh tells Mark, with Sam, Chrissy, and Dave present.
  Chrissy queries when Sam found out.
  Mark says he told her on Day 1 (of merge), and Sam corrects him by saying no, Jordie told her.
• Sam is concerned about Jordie being targeted, due to her close relationship with Jesse.
• Jesse tells Sam he and Jordie feel like they should go after Josh, and then they, Mark, and Sam would have a clear run to Final 4.
• Sam sees the merits in that, but also thinks that Mark’s alliance with Josh is more stable (due to Jordie’s talkativeness).
• Reward Challenge time:
  JLP asks Josh about Mel throwing him under the bus, and pushes the “committee” phrasing to the point I think he’s taking the piss.
  The challenge is connected-at-the-wrist pairs stacking randomly shaped blocks on an uneven platform, for a KFC reward.
  Dave picks the “unlucky rock” in the drawing for teams, so doesn’t participate, and picks the team of “J and J” (Josh and Jesse) as the winners. If he’s right he can join them for reward.
  Chrissy and Jordie win.
  They of course get to pick people to join them, and pick Jesse, then Mark, then Josh.
  JLP to the rest of them: “Go enjoy that rice and beans!”
  Sassy JLP > terrible metaphor JLP
• Reward time:
  Actually Chrissy, it’s legally too sugary to be called “bread”.
  Chrissy mentions to Josh they’ll need to watch Mark and Jordie. Mark has a voice over saying there’s probably a clue so he needs to keep an eye on Jordie.
  Yes, Bali is the stereotypical bogan Aussie overseas holiday.
  Jordie stealthily finds a clue by shaking out a towel (and immediately drops it back over the clue).
  Jordie beckons Jesse over on the guise of asking for some chicken, and uses that opportunity to slip the clue into Jesse’s shorts.
  Chrissy looks for a clue while everyone watches.
  Jesse adjusts the clue from the back of his pants to the front.
  Chrissy may or may not have seen.
• Everyone is back at camp.
• Sam and Chrissy suspect Jordie and Jesse have a clue.
  Dave is also present.
• Sam talks to Jordie, and he just reinforces that they should go for Josh.
• Sam (with Mark there) asks Jordie if he has anything and he says no.
• Mark’s intense military training has given him the specialty skills to deduce that Jordie is lying.
• Sam’s complete lack of military training also picks up that he’s lying.
• Immunity challenge time:
  Stand on increasingly smaller posts while using ropes to hold up a mechanism with a ball balancing on it.
  JLP says Jordie might struggle because you need to focus.
  Jordie asks JLP if he can do something about the wind.
  JLP’s reaction to Josh saying that the difficult part of this challenge is holding a small rope is great: “Huh. Right.”
  It gets down to Jordie and Mark.
  Mark loses his balance and Jordie wins immunity.
  JLP was not expecting it, and Sam tells someone it “wasn’t exactly what we’d hoped for”.
• Back at camp, the four Js and Mark discuss that they’ll vote Shay and split with KJ.
• Jordie and Jesse approach Sam about voting out Josh.
• Sam is nervous that it’s too early.
• Jordie talks to Mel, Mark, and Jesse about voting out Josh.
• Jesse and Mark talk across KJ about voting Josh.
• Mark doesn’t trust Jesse and Jordie as much as he trust Jordan and Josh, so tells Josh that they are going for him.
  Dave is also there.
  Josh wants to put all the votes onto Jesse.
• Josh tells Chrissy, Sam, and Jordan to vote Jesse.
• Mark says (in a voiceover) how great it will be to vote Jesse out.
• Mark tells Sam the plan.
  Sam says it’s “yucky” for her.
  Mark says it’s easy and the plan’s set and can’t be changed.
• Jesse and Josh BS each other at the water.
• Jesse thinks camp is now too calm and gets suspicious.
• He goes searching for the idol, and finds it.
• While he’s reading the note, Sam jumps out.
• She offers to hide the idol for him in her sarong skirt when they go back to camp.
• Jesse feels like he doesn’t need it tonight, and trusts that Sam will give it back if he needs it.
• There’s some cool didgeridoo music before Tribal Council:
  JLP asks Sam if there’s subcommittees within the committee and she essentially says yes.
  Jordie asks if they can stop saying “committee” and start saying “majority”, and I am thankful.
  He and Josh say that yes there’s a majority and minority/outsiders.
  Mark says there’s definitely idols in play.
  JLP points out an idol has not been successfully played.
  We get shots of Dave and Khanh.
  Sam and Jesse talk about needing numbers and trust.
  JLP says a move is usually made when there’s uneven numbers.
  Sam says there could be a move, and you’ve got to guess how long the majority alliance will stick together.
  Kid, your majority might be the jury.
  Sam votes Jesse and says “thanks for the idol”.
  One vote for KJ (Josh).
  Four votes Josh.
  The rest of the votes come out for Jesse.
  Jesse goes to Sam and asks if she knew.
  She says yes and tells him that Jordie was telling lies.
  Jesse asks Sam if she’ll give Jordie the idol, or should he burn her now.
  Sam says she’ll talk to Jordie.
  Jesse tells her, pretty threateningly, he could burn her pretty badly right now.
  He hugs her and moves on to Jordie, telling him Sam has the idol.
• Jesse says at the end that he wouldn’t have played it, even if he was holding it.

Episode 16 (Barbara Anderson)

Before we get started with the recap proper, Sam and Jesse were out and about together last night, so they have buried the hatchet. Hopefully that will stop the discourse about how apparently Sam blindsiding Jesse makes her an awful mother.

• After tribal, everybody is hugging it out while Jordie is shockingly chill about it. Sam, in confessional, is just excited to have pull this move off by herself. Mark quickly reminds her that they are a couple with two idols, so their target is now larger after that move. Despite that, Sam is hopeful that they are able to keep their idols secret while also suspecting that Jordie knows. She decides to propose to Jordie that Sam’s idol becomes a three-person secret idol to be used to keep Jordie safe. Sam and Jordie both agree that it is not beneficial for him to talk about her idol. Mark is also there.
• On Day 31, Jordie is now extremely aware that he was the target at last tribal if he hadn’t worn Immunity. He talks to Shay about the emotions that come with being a single. In confessional, Jordie talks about how hard it was for him to watch his brother get blindsided like that, but he also knows that Jesse would want him to make a move. Jordie, Michelle, and Shay talk about how one of them are next since it looks like the unaligned singles are now targets(KJ is nowhere in sight). Jordie then mentions that he is pissed off at Sam for making the move and having Jesse’s idol.
• Jordie decides to talk to Sam about the plan they made the night before. He correctly points out that if Mark and Sam’s plan is to get to Final Four with Josh and Jordan, then playing the idol for him would be bad for their game. Sam says that her game is a moment-by-moment game, which doesn’t sound completely correct. Jordie doesn’t trust Sam and Mark and their two idols, but he knows that he has a lot of power knowing about both idols. He also doesn’t have to worry about tanking Jesse’s game any more. In a side conversation, one of the Js straight up confirms that Jordie is probably next to Jordie’s face, which is an extremely dumb move. Mark is also there.
• We then see Mark’s thought process after Sam tells him off screen the story of how she got Jesse’s idol, which was impressed, I guess. Sam says that she is reliant on Sandra’s advice of not telling people about her idol, which is a good move (I hope Sandra gets royalties for how much the season has been propelled by the advice she gave everybody). She also says that she is trying to keep close to Jordie to not piss him off more.
• Sam is excited to be in control of the narrative with her six-person alliance, but when Jordan says that Jordie needs to be next, she is down with it. She wants Jordie gone because he is a loose end and knows too much. Jordie still knows that he needs to win Immunity, so he has more freedom to manipulate Sam and Mark with his knowledge. This marks the beginning of him referring to himself as the Joker.
• At the Immunity Challenge, we get some mat discussion about the blindside. The Immunity Challenge is a combo of Chimney Sweep and When It Rains, It Pours from American Survivor, so yay, another endurance challenge. During the challenge Shay talks to Jordie and KJ about how it is going to be one of them. Chrissy doesn’t want to chit chat to JLP, while Mark talks about how the challenge wasn’t made for him. It is made for someone like Sam though Everybody stays in the challenge for at least 15 minutes and through two movement transitions before people start to exit.
• After 35 minutes, it is Sam vs Shay vs Jordie. JLP asks Jordie if he really needs it to, which he responds that he does because someone told him that he needed to win to stay. Sam asks him who told him that, which Jordie responds by saying “One of the big guys on the end”. Josh then seemingly proves that Jordie is telling the truth by telling him to keep going. Sam drops after 70 minutes. After 90 minutes, Shay finally steps down, but almost immediately after letting go of the handles, she gets faint, but unlike Sam, she quickly recovers. Jordie wins immunity, despite Mark’s read of the situation, and is now able to enact revenge for Jesse.
• Sam is pissed off that Jordie is immune. She then explains that the plan for the majority alliance is to take out Shay so the singles continue to lose numbers. She is worried about what Jordie might do though.
• Jordie goes to gather up the singles, so they can take out one of the couples and hopefully make a move. During his conversation with KJ and Michelle, he proposes taking out Mark because apparently, she will self-implode and cause herself to go home. During his conversation with Shay, he mentions wanting Dave to be part of the five, but Shay points out that he is close to the couples. Jordie is still hopeful that he will be able to convince him.
• Dave, though, wants to wait until the next vote to make a big move because he has hatched a plan that he declines to share with Jordie, which is a huge red flag. Jordie then decides to play his wild card by revealing to Dave and Michelle that Mark and Sam both have idols. He then stresses to Dave to keep it secret. Despite that, he becomes full Chaos Jordie and reveal to everybody about the idol situation. He gradually starts spreading it around camp. Chrissy makes some great faces when she is told. Sam becomes paranoid, while Mark in confessional wants them to remain calm and not make their target larger. Dave though thinks that Jordie has cooked the idol story up until he notices Sam’s behavior around camp.
• Tribal Council time. We got some fun jury fashion with Khanh’s harness, Mel’s apparent Lacoste dress, and Jesse’s fun and colorful athletic jacket. I bet they are having a great time at Loser Lodge. Anyway, the main focus of tribal is the aftermath of the Jesse blindside, which is the separation of the majority six and the unaligned singles, which are conveniently separated from each other. Jordie points out that while six can you far, there are not six places at the end. Dave is just excited that Jordie is finally play hard because he knows now what it is like to lose a loved one. After this, it becomes Sam wanting her majority alliance to stay intact and calm vs Jesse wanting everyone to make a move and be chaotic. To underline that point, Jordie goes to Dave and Chrissy and says that if they want to make a difference in the game, they should go with Jordie and vote out Mark. Throughout this live tribal, Sam is silently freaking out.
• During the votes, Mark votes for Shay while Jordie seemingly loudly votes for Mark. The votes are Mark, Shay, KJ, Mark, Shay, Shay, Shay, and Shay. Everyone hugs Shay on her way out and she seems to be in good spirits. JLP tells them that they are not playing a team sport, while Sam says twice that he is wrong because it seemed like she didn’t get the reaction she was looking for.
• We see Shay approach a rock that tells that she is in Purgatory, which explains the weird comment that JLP asked to Jordie about if being in the challenge was being in heaven, hell, or purgatory. This will probably function in a similar fashion to Redemption Rock last season, but we shall see how long Shay will be out there next week.
• Since we didn’t see the votes, I am only able to see via Survivor Wiki that Josh was the stray KJ vote, which feels like such a weird move.
• I honestly wish we could have heard from more people. Look at how many names are mentioned more than once throughout the recap. I know some people do not matter in the endgame and that is fine, but did we really need Jordie calling himself the Joker at least 5 times? I would argue no. I want to know why KJ and/or Michelle ended up voting for Shay instead of Mark, especially since Michelle seemed to be a key part of Jordie’s plan for example. Hopefully next week we get some answers.