With Aaliyah out of the game, Lewis hikes from Exile Island to the Toka beach, where he becomes the 10th member of the Tribe. He tells the exact story of what happened on the other island, something Kilby doesn’t believe for one second (strangely). 

As for the Tribe dynamics, everything goes haywire when Brady literally CHOPS PART OF HIS THUMB OFF while cutting wood with an axe! He immediately begins to cry, not because he’s in pain, but because this isn’t the way he wants to leave the game. The pro wrestler is tough, however, and with a little stitching, he is allowed to continue.

Over on Savu, Ana is beginning to throw names out and cause chaos. She tests the waters with Linnea and Alexis on different names to vote out if they have to go to Tribal Council (maybe a little foreshadowing by the producers in hindsight!).

We get to our first reward challenge of the season, where for pillows, tarp, and a hammock, groups of players where one is blindfolded must go through a net and unrope sandbags. Then, non-blind participants had to build poll long enough to reach to clip the sandbags on a platform.

Toka won the challenge, and over on the Savu beach, Rob believes it’s because Linnea was blindfolded in her pair and not Eric. A steaming Rob pulls Ori and Carter together for an alliance to vote out Eric. Also, Kristen is concerned about her foot that got rolled up on during the challenge, so like Brady, may be something to look into later on this season. I don’t think we would have seen Kristen’s busted foot if it didn’t come into the storyline of the season in some way.

As for Toka, while everyone is happy about winning reward, Jelly goes and looks for an idol and finds it! She tells Devon and Patt at the water well that she wants to work with them, but Devon is playing too hard. Devon counters by saying that in the Open Era; you should be able to vote differently but still work together. 

Once Devon leaves the scene, Jelly does reveal to Patt she has the idol, and the girls pull in Brady, Devon, and Mike for a majority alliance. 

Toka should be glad Brady didn’t have to leave the game because they needed him for the immunity challenge. While in the water, castaways had to lift a 500-pound wale in the rain over a platform, get it to the beach and land balls in targets on a platform to secure safety.

This time, the yellow tribe is successful, sending Savu to Tribal, where it is clear Eric is the target. Playing hard, Ana once again suggests her name as the decoy vote.

In a confessional, Shaundra reveals to us that she does not want Eric going home, as Eric has given her information. She rallies Eric, Linnea, Cristian, Kristin, and Alexis together to get out Ana; she also wants to bring in her No. 1 in Ori, though he believes Eric is the bigger threat.

Right before Tribal, Rob pulls Eric aside and says at Tribal, he’s going to pull him aside and not to worry about going home. He won’t reveal his whole plan to his fellow Rhode Islander, which causes even more mistrust from Eric’s point of view.

At Tribal, Rob does exactly what he said he would do, as he interrupts Tribal to pull Eric aside. He tells him to play his shot in the dark, Ana is the decoy vote, and that he’s going to give him an idle to play.

Rob’s plan, as we learned on the beach, is to vote himself out, with everybody else going on Eric. He misses his family. There’s only one problem with Rob’s plan: In Survivor, you are not allowed to vote for yourself!

With his plan null and void, Rob does vote out Eric, but he is blindsided when Ana goes home 6-4, with Alexis, Cristian, Eric, Kristen, Linnea, and Shaundra sending her home. 

Rob’s attempt at a historic move at Tribal Council backfired in more ways than one, creating the second live Tribal already of the season. In contrast to the New Era, the Open Era has already seen the days of voting all together during the Tribe stage out the window. The players are embracing the Open Era and are playing hard. Through two weeks, permanent uncertainly has brought the perfect mix of old school and new school to the game. Next week, it looks like one Tribe member from each group will be allowed to visit the other Tribe. How will that go? 

On another note, I always felt in the New Era Tribe swaps were too common, so I’m glad we have not seen a Tribe swap (yet) this season. Two Tribes has definitely opened the game up more as well. That’s not to say three Tribes can’t work; it did during Season 50. Two Tribes just give more room for the players at the bottom to work their way out of sticky situations, and that’s how we’ve gotten two entertaining Tribals within the first five days of the game.