Caramoan Episode 8: The Decision Maker

The rest of Bikal congratulate Michael on staying. Phillip tells Dawn and Corinne he threw the challenge, but they don't believe it either. With a merge coming up, Dawn is thinking a lot, because not playing hard enough at the merge was what lost it for her last time.

Dawn turns on the waterworks

Come sail away: Gota are ready to join the party

Gota see a boat coming, and it turns out to be taking them to the other camp for the merge. Andrea is excited to reconnect with her allies on the other side. Now all on the Bikal beach, the tribe are given green buffs and tuck into the feast. with Dawn going to "mom mode" and cutting cheese. Malcolm wants to call the new tribe Enil Edam, which he claims means something relevant but is actually just a shoutout to his mom, Madeline. Corinne hates it.

Phillip and Andrea want their core four to stay intact, and are hoping Corinne isn't going to start scrambling. "When you go to sleep tonight, pretend you're Boston Rob" Phillip tells Andrea, "that's what I do". I'm sure you do, Phillip. How many times is he mentioning Boston Rob out there? Obviously enough for Corinne to be able to mock it in a confessional. Speak of the Devil, Corinne is plotting Phillip's vote-off with Malcolm after revealing what a dick he's been to her the last few days. But they still have their sights on Sherri as an easy vote for now because Malcolm thinks she's "weird".

The treemail hints at an eating challenge. This is something Reynold considers his Achilles heel, and it's just his luck that it's coming at a time when he needs it most. Anyway, the first round involves eating grubs. Andrea, Malcolm and Eddie get through. In the other heat, it's Cochran of all people who swallows first, followed by Phillip and Michael. The next round sees three going through. They are eating a really ugly-looking pile of shipworms, and Malcolm's reaction is hilarious. Eddie and Malcolm finish first, followed by Cochran.

Cochran wins immunity - three words
I never thought I'd hear on Survivor

After beating Eddie to eating the nasty balut, Cochran is now in the final round of an immunity challenge, which Probst points out is pretty absurd. The final food is pig brains, and Cochran manages to get it down faster than Malcolm. He does a little boxing/victory dance to celebrate, and rightly so - he's earned it.

This is gonna be the one

Corinne wants Sherri out. Phillip is resistant to the idea, though. He wants another split vote between Eddie and Reynold, to get one of the strong guys out. Cochran begins to suspect ulterior motives, which are later confirmed when Corinne talks to Eddie and Reynold in the woods about how she wants to "throat-punch" Phillip. She then goes to Dawn and tells her she wants to make a move next round. Why she thought Dawn was on the outs, I don't know...but Dawn is now going to use that information to beat Corinne to it and pull a power move of her own.

After Cochran and Andrea discuss it over, they decide it's time to get Corinne out, as long as they can get Erik on board. Erik's been very wishy-washy this game, and Cochran pointing out how he's already proved himself incompetent at the game starts to look like a fair criticism after Erik admits he basically has no idea what he's doing. I loved the scene where Erik asked Andrea to point to a name on the flag though...very Godfather-esque. Sherri has also been informed of the plan by Phillip, and even though she doesn't like him, she pretty much has to go along with it otherwise it's her leaving.

At tribal council, Corinne reveals how she's pretty open-minded after reaching the merge. Andrea says she's more paranoid than usual. Sherri thinks a fan is definitely leaving, and although Reynold agrees he thinks there might be some surprises in the not-too-distant future. Don't you ever get tired of being wrong?

Sherri lives!

Phillip votes for Corinne, calling her selfish. Andrea crosses her fingers that enough other people are too. As the votes are revealed, a shocked Corinne soon realizes things have gone wrong and can do nothing about it except cringe in embarrassment. Corinne is out, Eddie and Reynold are in the minority again, and now it's up to Michael and Malcolm to see if they can dig themselves out of this hole. Yet another classic merge episode. But why isn't Corinne on the jury? Anyone?

STAR OF THE WEEK: JOHN COCHRAN

Look at me, giving Cochran some credit for once! That's two in a row! Cochran was so rootable this episode, I loved that he got his Rocky moment and pulled off an unlikely win. But props to Dawn as well, for correcting her previous mistake.