After his historic move at the last Tribal Council backfired, Rob won’t even sleep with his Tribe. He contemplates his next move. He keeps saying his foot hurts. His fellow teammates aren’t buying it until medical, alongside Jeff Probst, comes the next day. Medical essentially says they don’t see anything wrong with his foot, but it doesn’t mean something coule happen later. Rob tells his Tribe he needs to leave the game, and Probst makes sure the Tribe knows he was not pulled due to the medical evaluation, and that Rob made the decision on his own. So Rob becomes the official first quit of the Open Era. 

Over on Toka, Devon begins bad mouthing Kilby. He wants him gone from the game. His badmouthing continues, but not on the Toka Tribe, as one member from each Tribe is chosen to go visit the other camp, and Devon volunteers immediately to go to Savu, so he can continue planting the Kilby seed on that Tribe and to reassure his helicopter alliance with Shandrona and Ori. For Savu, nobody volunteered to go, so they each threw their Shots in the Dark in a bag, and Carter’s was chosen. For Carter, this could be a good thing, as he sees himself on the bottom after the blindside of Ana and Rob eliminated. The one good thing for Carter is that before he voluntarily left the game, Rob gave him his idol.

While on their way to the opposing camp, both Devon and Carter are informed of two pieces of information:

  1. There is an advantage at each camp. On Savu, it is by the water well in the ladle. On Toka, it is in an oar on the boat. 
  2. Both players also have the opportunity to stay at the other Tribe permanently if they wish.

After telling all on Kilby, Devon pulls Shandrona aside and tells her about the advantage to solidify the helicopter alliance. She helps him get the advantage, which is an extra vote. Devon also lets Ori in on the advantage.

Carter’s mission at Toka is to talk to everyone and look for cracks to see if he can fit in on this Tribe. While him and Mike are away talking, Lewis notices Carter’s bag is still out in the open. He opens it up and sees the note about the advantage sitting right on top. The rest of the Tribe scurries down to the boat, where Maggie and Brady fight over the advantage, which is the same as Devon’s -- an extra vote. Brady agrees to give it to Maggie if she votes the way he wants when she uses it. 

With all this already going down, when Carter pulls Brady aside, Brady asks him if there’s an advantage or another part to the Tribe visit. Carter lies and says the only thing he knows is he has the opportunity to stay with Toka permanently. In a confessional, Brady makes clear that even though Carter lied to him, he doesn’t blame him and that he wants to work with him moving forward if he stays. 

When the bell rings, and it’s time to get on the boat, Devon follows suit. Carter begins looking for the oars in the boat for the advantage, but he can’t find the oars (because they were broken by Brady and Maggie and tossed into the woods!), and he doesn’t get back on the boat, meaning he has officially traded teams at this point.

For immunity and for chickens, with Toka now having a 11-7 advantage, it’s a 4-person sit out, and this is noteworthy because. Kilby is one of the one’s who sits out, allegedly told by Devon as we find out later. The finishing stage of the challenge was an anchor puzzle, and even with a big lead, Jenna and Thien from Toka completely fail on the puzzle, one of Kilby’s strengths, sending the Tribe back to Tribal for the second time.

The group of five that was formed last week (Devon, Jelly, Brady, Mike, and Patt) are all aligned in Devon’s vision to blindside Kilby. They know they just need one of Lewis or Carter to vote with them, and it’s a down deal, and Mike and Brady both feel great about Carter. What they didn’t take into account is Kilby, Thien, Jenna, and Maggie have been getting into Lewis and Carter’s ears. They want to take the shot at Patt -- who is seen as a great social player. They want to break the five up. Lewis and Carter realize they are the deciding vote, and they are faced with a dilemma: Do they go with the big group and integrate themselves, or do they make a big move and put a big target on their back?

The discussion is similar at Tribal, as everyone is open about wanting to make a big move, but that they don’t know what that big move looks like. Unfortunately for Patt, Lewis and Carter decide to make a majority with Kilby’s group and take her out in a 6-5 decision.

This episode had almost everything you can ask for in a Survivor episode. As we know, the Open Era is about permanent uncertainty, and the players are taking that into their own hands. We have had three Tribal Council’s and all three have ended in a non-unanimous blindside. It’s a testament to the game design this season, yes, but also the players for playing hard and not giving up when they’re at the bottom.

And for Lewis and Carter, they both came into Toka on the outs. Lewis from Exile Island and Carter from another Tribe. Now, they have the majority alliance. That’s a crazy turn of events in the matter of five days in real time.

The helicopter alliance is discussed every episode. If Devon, Jelly, Shandrona, and Ori all make the merge, it may be a problem for the other castaways. I know hindsight is 2020, but I think Kilby’s group should have taken the shot at Devon and not Patt. Devon is clearly the leader of the Tribe, but his game is wide open. Much like Jenna not going home first, I think this could be a moment we look back on as one of the turning points of the season.