Redemption Island: Mother vs. Daughter
After Katie gets voted off, she joins her mother, Tina, and Laura on Redemption Island. As expected, Tina is a loving mother and tells Katie she is willing to let her win and move on. However, Katie wants them both to give their best effort. In the end, Survivor is just a game. It is not life or death so Tina does not need to sacrifice herself to show her love for her daughter. At the challenge, the Survivors need to assemble a pole strong enough to hook and bring back three keys. The keys will open a gate for them to step through to advance. As Laura has been a challenge beast, she wins easily again. Although Katie is ahead of her mom at first, she drops the second key and never recovers as it is very difficult to hook a key in the sand. Accordingly, Tina is able to hook her three keys before Katie can. Before she unlocks her door, she repeatedly asks Katie if she is fine with it. Of course, Katie tells her mom to go ahead. Tina’s internal conflict is a reason this season has been so good with the Blood vs. Water twist. In any other season, a contestant would never think about getting eliminated to save someone else.
Again, Laura finishes first and gets to give a clue to the hidden immunity idol to a player still in the game. Naturally, she continues to hand it to Ciera. As Hayden is now Ciera’s ally, she shares the clue with him. However, Tyson has already found the idol. Since Hayden searches the limbs of the tree that the clue points him to and cannot find it, he realizes that Tyson already has it again. Accordingly, they will not be able to win the immunity necklace then play the idol to both stay safe and cause the three person alliance to turn against itself. Since Gervase will never turn on Tyson, they know they will have to work on the paranoid Monica to sway her to their alliance.
Monica: The Swing Vote
At the Immunity Challenge, the contestants have to swim and a pull a buoy to a platform, around a pole on the platform, and back to shore. At this point, they will solve a puzzle of a scrambled Survivor phrase. Although Ciera is last to come back to shore, she is still able to solve the phrase first: “You are going to have to dig deep”. As an additional perk, Ciera gets to pick a player to enjoy a Survivor meal. Although she chooses Hayden so they can strategize more, she should have selected Monica to start pitching the plan to turn on Tyson and Gervase. Nevertheless, Ciera tries her best to sway Monica after the reward. Her argument centers on Tyson and Gervase poking fun and belittling Monica behind her back. Naturally, it is difficult for Monica to listen to the demeaning insults. However, she is skeptical of Ciera as Tyson was willing to go to rocks and put himself at risk rather than vote Monica out to break the tie in the last Tribal Council. Monica is still very touched by Tyson’s decision to stand by her. At the same time, Ciera sided with Hayden to vote against Monica. Consequently, I think it is farfetched for Monica to fall for Ciera’s desperate ploy. Nevertheless, Tyson’s alleged comments really hurt Monica’s feelings and gives her a reason to turn. As Tyson and Gervase see Ciera talking to Monica, Tyson rightfully gets nervous. On the other hand, they should never have allowed Ciera to talk to Monica alone in the first place. However, it is a testament to the trust they have in her.
At Tribal Council, Ciera’s accusations become the center of conversation. At first, Gervase vehemently denies them and gets worked up calling Ciera a liar on the premise that she is at the bottom and will say anything to save her game. Nevertheless, it is clear that there is truth to Ciera’s statements as Tyson and Gervase are shaky in their denials. If Monica chooses to turn based on strategy, I have no problem with it. If she switches alliances out of spite and due to Ciera and Hayden’s desperate scramble, I deem it as poor gameplay. Ciera definitely participated in the trash talk about Monica. Nevertheless, she does not disclose this information to Monica until she is in trouble and needs Monica’s vote. Moreover, it definitely looks like Hayden and Ciera are trying way too hard to swing Monica’s vote to a point where she will seem like she is being played if she goes with them. In the end, it just makes sense for Monica to stick with the alliance that has been completely loyal to her. If she votes with the other alliance and Laura reenters the game from Redemption Island, Monica becomes number four in the new alliance instead of a final 3 spot with Gervase and Tyson. Consequently, Monica thinks strategically, stays loyal, and votes for Hayden with Tyson and Gervase. Hayden has been a great player. He plays hard but graciously congratulates Tyson and Gervase on their great games on his way out of Tribal Council.
Finale Sunday Predictions
Laura is the clear favorite to win the final duel on Redemption Island. Tyson is the obvious favorite to win the game. He is already guaranteed a final 4 spot with his Hidden Immunity Idol. If he gets in the Final 3, he will sweep the jury votes easily. However, he is also the biggest target to be voted out in the Final 4. Unless he wins Final Immunity, it just makes sense for the other players to vote him out. Although Gervase and Monica are definitely loyal to Tyson, they need to vote him out for any chance of winning. Nevertheless, I still think they lose to Ciera if they go to the Final with her. She has made bold moves that the jury can respect. Assuming Laura is on the jury, she is a guaranteed vote and advocate for Ciera at the jury. In addition, Gervase has trash talked way too much. You can see the jury roll their eyes at him during his outburst. I do not see him getting enough, if any, votes to win. On the other hand, Monica has been great at the physical part of the game as she has won multiple Immunity challenges. However, her strategic game does not stand out. She has also annoyed other players at times with her paranoia, talking too much, and overplaying the game. Accordingly, I feel she will get a negative reaction by the jury in the Final Tribal Council. For this very reason, Monica is a lock for the Finals as the other players want to sit next to her as they will feel she will not win any votes. As Gervase or Monica will probably not win anyway, they might as well stay true to their alliance. It should be an interesting Final. As Tyson has played a brilliant game and is a likeable, entertaining person, I am rooting for him to seal the deal.