Ghost Island Episode 10: He Said, She Said

We start off with Domenick recalling a dream where Laurel's father was Martin Sheen. Ok, that's pretty funny. Desiree tells the Malolos she's willing to turn on Naviti, starting with Kellyn. Jenna is shocked. Laurel is unsure on what to do.

The guys get to live out their rescuing damsels in distress fantasy

The reward challenge sees two teams start off in the water and have to paddle a boat to rescue their teammates from three cages. Then they get to land and solve a puzzle. One team is Michael and Sebastian rescuing Chelsea, Kellyn and Jenna, the other is Domenick and Wendell rescuing Laurel, Desiree and Angela. Donathan is not playing. The girls are all in cages, hmm interesting. Michael's orange team gets off to an early lead as Wendell and Domenick fail with the boat. The lead carries over into the puzzle, which has large pieces and also decoy pieces. The orange team get it and win reward. They can't agree on a Ghost Island exile (seems silly to dispute it at this point, why should they give a shit?) so they draw rocks again and Angela goes.

The reward winners take a helicopter trip (that Sebastian compares to Jurassic Park), and Michael takes an opportunity to make an appeal to stick around. On Ghost Island, Angela has a chance to play for an advantage, which she does - and loses her vote. It's kinda funny now how much their big twist has flopped.

Waiting for peace and quiet

Donathan asks Laurel if she's considering Desiree's proposal, as he wants to take it, but Laurel is a bit more unsure. Laurel rats out Desiree to Domenick, but when he tells Kellyn, she doesn't believe it. Her dedication to Naviti will be her downfall. Meanwhile Donathan and Michael decide to hunt for an idol together. Donathan finds it. It's half of the superidol from Kaoh Rong, and the note tells him the other part is under the shelter. He has his Malolos help stand guard for him, and when he finds an opening, he is able to grab it.

Now give her some screentime, dammit

The immunity challenge is to balance a ball on a platform that you're holding by rope. When Wendell is out first, it starts a wave of people dropping, including Jenna, Desiree, Laurel, Angela, Donathan and Domenick....and we're barely two minutes in. Michael also fails to make the next stage. They have the remaining players hold it further back now, which takes Kellyn out. Chelsea is shaking pretty badly and Sebastian is having to save his repeatedly. Sebastian loses, Chelsea gets it - 3 out of 3 for the women!

Desiree still wants to stick with her Kellyn out plan, until Kellyn lets her know that Laurel spilled the beans. She goes and yells at Laurel for ruining it, whilst adamantly denying the conversation ever happened to Wendell or Domenick. The Malolos back Laurel up though, and Domenick believes them, so he goes to Michael to tell him the strong players need to band together. Kellyn puts her foot down and says she wants Michael out, pointing out the girls have been caving to the guys' demands all season, and that it's sketchy how he wants to keep Michael around.

Hey Kellyn, your gut sucks

Hand caught in the cookie jar

At tribal council, Donathan is sticking with the story that Desiree is a liar, whilst Desiree continues to deny deny deny. Domenick says both sides are believable. Michael says he's hoping Naviti have finally cracked, but Laurel calls them a cult. Kellyn says she's been trying to be Sherlock Holmes, but feels more like Helen Keller.

The votes are read, and they're ordered so that Desiree votes come first, followed by Michael...but then it switches back to Desiree and she is out. "They could tell I was lying?" she asks in her final words, sounding surprised. Yikes, really? I thought she was pretty bad. Desiree is proof that making big moves can sometimes backfire, but at least by torpedoing her game she's made the rest of the season a little more uncertain.

STAR OF THE WEEK: DOMENICK ABBATE

I feel like Domenick had a good read on the situation and knew what he needed to do. Getting Desiree out before she got him has now made it a hell of a lot harder for someone to make a move against him.

Ghost Island Episode 9: Casualties Of War

This is where the power lies

Back from tribal, Libby doesn't know who voted for her or why. Although Domenick could be gloating right now, he decides he needs to lay low a bit lest he be considered a threat. Wendell wants to make sure Laurel is still on his side, so tells her about the idol. But it leaves her pissed he didn't tell her sooner, and now she realizes they're dangerous.

Injecting some levity with a casual chat

The reward challenge is to fire a slingshot to knock down targets. Wendell and Laurel both hit one with their first shots, but Domenick and Michael do for the other team as well. In fact, Wendell and Laurel are so good at it the rest of the team switch out as quick as they can and allow them to do all the work. Probst comments on Sebastian being "high every time" - yeah, we know. Wendell gets three in total, winning the challenge. When it comes to determine who from the losing team is going to Ghost Island, we're back to drawing rocks. Surely it can't be Kellyn again? Nope, it's Jenna this time (but there's no game so we don't spend much time there).

At the Survivor taco hut (that looks suspiciously like the Outback steakhouse from last season), Libby finally gets an explanation for why her name keeps coming up, when Angela says everyone thinks she has an alliance with Michael. Back at camp, Michael tries to sway Angela to work with them and take out Wendell. He seems to think it worked, but Angela just rats him out and lets Kellyn and Chelsea know he was throwing them under the bus.

Emotional? Kellyn? Naah

Coming out like an Alien chestburster

For immunity, it's the classic gross food challenge. Round 1 is fish eyes. Michael, Desiree and Laurel progress through the first heat. Angela, Sebastian and Domenick take the second, just beating Kellyn. Wendell doesn't even attempt it, meaning he won't reverse the curse of people from Philly sucking at this challenge. Speaking of Gervase, his favorite is next: the larvae (and even Probst shouts him out).  Michael, Sebastian and Angela get it. Then we have the sea slug round, where Angela tries to just swallow it whole and fails. She still makes it through along with Michael though. Why we needed to go from 3 to 2 is beyond me, but Angela emerges the winner over Michael. Must've been the dancing that did it.

Kellyn, Desiree and Chelsea are targeting Michael but they need Laurel and Donathan's help if they are going to split the vote on him and Libby. Donathan and Laurel are playing the middle a bit, as Donathan says his gut says to take the risk and go with Malolo on this vote. That still won't give them the numbers though, and Laurel isn't sure if she even wants to turn on Wendell yet.

How's that for a death stare, James?

At tribal council, Donathan says the game is getting more intense, as Desiree claims big moves are coming. But Michael is focusing on tonight, and says some people are feeling too comfortable. Laurel says that though Naviti pretend to not have the power, she's been trying to get some of them to come with them. Kellyn points out that any purple who flips is still gonna be on the bottom.

After the vote, Michael plays the idol just to be safe. Good move, as he would've been voted out without it. As a result, Libby ends up collateral damage. The supposed mega threat that we never saw in action...maybe she'll end up a random returnee one day and get to show it. Until then, the Naviti dominance continues and we wait to see how long playing it safe wins out.

STAR OF THE WEEK: ANGELA PERKINS

Not only gave a stellar performance in the immunity challenge, but she came forward as a game player this episode too. The target planted on Michael was mostly her doing, and there's sure to be more pot stirring to come.

Ghost Island Episode 8: The Cold War

Boats are racing to the Naviti beach carrying the other two tribes, and Kellyn is raring to get the merge started. But as soon as they arrive, they are all sent away to the other side of the island, where they find the merge feast. Domenick is hoping his nemesis Chris won't target him straight away. Ha, good luck with that.

Nice vacation photo

Chris finds an advantage in his buff...that's a new one. It tells him to wait for a boat to take him to Ghost Island at night where he will find an idol. Wendell brings Chris and Domenick together for a peace summit to see if they can agree to target a Malolo, but Chris dismisses it very quickly. Wendell is now done with Chris. At least he tried though.

Chris tries his luck

It's time for Chris to make his move and he gets to a torchlit Ghost Island to find J.T.'s Game Changers idol waiting for him. At the moment, it's only good for one tribal council but he can increase its power by picking bamboo and risking his vote. He gets the first one right, but then loses the second one. I had a feeling someone like Chris would find restraint difficult, but hey, this is still a pretty good deal for him.

Chris and Domenick continue to talk trash about eachother try to get the other one out. Jenna and Libby discuss it among themselves and seem to conclude that Chris is a bigger target and more likely to be loyal. Not looking good for Domenick at this point.

Proving she can do more than puzzles

Our first individual immunity challenge is to hold a pole above your head whilst standing on a beam and trying not to drop the statue on top of it. Jenna and Donathan don't put up much of a fight, neither does Angela. Sebastian loses it too, and Domenick has a wasp bugging him but perseveres. It's being forced to go to the end of beam that knocks out Domenick, Michael, Chris and Wendell. Once Chelsea is out, it's a Kellyn/Libby showdown. Kellyn emerges victorious and secures her safety.

Chris leads the pilgrimage

Chris leads everybody to the well - and I mean literally everybody except Domenick and Wendell. There he plots to split the votes between them, since he still maintains Domenick has an idol. Donathan spills this plan to Domenick and suggests blindsiding Chris, whilst also warning him not to trust Libby. As Wendell campaigns, Kellyn gets the Naviti girls together and says they can seize the power themselves by all voting for Libby. I can't believe she's still insisting on Naviti strong.

Chris is at tribal council for the first time, and says now he finally feels alive. Domenick explains his side of the Chris feud, and pulls out his (fake) idol to wear around his neck. But Chris maintains he's not so innocent either and reminds everybody that he tried to get Angela out. Wendell sarcastically mentions how everybody got very thirsty and went to the well without him. Angela says that wasn't necessarily the only important discussion though.

The truth hurts

Time to vote (or not, in Chris' case). Wendell has some particularly harsh words for Chris, saying he's trash at rapping. Domenick gets up to play his idol, but plays the legacy advantage instead. Chris holds onto his idol. Chris gets votes, so does Libby, but then the Chris votes keep coming and the Noble one is blindsided. I wish I could say I was surprised this is how it ended for him, but...I'm not. I guess the J.T. idol really is cursed. Not only did both people who held it not get to play it, they were both voted out immediately after finding it.

Well, this showdown turned out to not be much of a contest at all - Derek Zoolander vs Tony Soprano. But the question now is, what next? Some people who were sitting comfortable letting these two duke it out have now got to declare a new target.

STAR OF THE WEEK: DOMENICK ABBATE

He finally emerged the victor of the heavyweight clash, as if there was any doubt. Now let's hope we can hear no more about it, and he's freed up to do something new at last.

Ghost Island Episode 7: Prize Giveaway

Michael is on the hunt for an idol again, and he doesn't care if somebody sees him. He manages to find idol #2, and this one is...the infamous stick from Micronesia! Only now it's a real idol this time. Hey, it's like Pinocchio.

Let's see how the tribes stack up

Onto a challenge now, and it's the one that robbed us of Ali last season.  They have to stack blocks as a team on a platform to win BBQ stuff. Naviti hit early wobbles and drop with one left. Yanuya fall also, leaving Malolo in the lead...but not for long. Naviti have a strategy of only using three people, but Bradley yells at Donathan for doing it wrong. Obviously he can't have done too badly, as they win the challenge. Yanuya then beat out Malolo for second place. Getting to send someone to Ghost Island, Chelsea explains they want to send someone that has already been and pick Kellyn.

Second time's the charm

Kellyn is back at Ghost Island and has another game, now with 2 in 3 odds of getting something good. With the numbers not so tight this time, she decides to go for it. And it pays off, as she now owns the vote stealer from Game Changers (although it's just an extra vote now).

Donathan wants to savour Naviti's victory, but Bradley wastes no time in ordering people around, trying to get their food cooked. The other four all have a bitch session about how they can't stand him, and Donathan is hoping this is enough to get him voted out.

On Yanuya, Wendell spots an opportunity to get away from the rest of his tribe and look for an idol. He finds a clue in a tree that leads him to it. His idol is...the immunity necklace that Erik gave away. Wow! Now how is he gonna keep THAT hidden?

New hardware acquired

Malolo are hungry, picking scraps out of a shell. Desiree suggests burning the tribe flag in order to reverse their curse. Up in flames it goes! It's fun to see players really embrace the theme.

Put a ring on it

The immunity challenge is to dive into the water to pick up rings and bring them back. Once they have them all, they must move on to the ring toss section. Sebastian really nails the swimming part, as Bradley and Kellyn are about even. Probst gives Domenick a bit of shit for his awkward dives. On the tossing part, Chris gets 2 rings and Donathan gets 1, whilst Desiree is doing a poor job. Wendell takes over and hits a hot streak, and Donathan is getting some too. Michael tries to bail Malolo out and brings them back into it. It ends with Yanuya getting first and Malolo getting second. Curse well and truly reversed! Donathan throws his last ring and gets it on, but it doesn't matter - they're going to tribal.

After the challenge, Domenick apologizes for his performance - and true to form, Bradley just has to get a jab in. As far as Bradley knows, Libby is the vote, but Chelsea tells Libby just to trust them. It's up to Domenick and Chelsea now to decide if they want to pull the trigger on getting Bradley out, with Domenick suggesting it'll be a "last-minute call".

Objection! Bradley makes his case

At tribal council, Bradley says the 5 of them all get along (somehow not realizing he's the agitator?). Donathan mentions having history with Domenick over the Morgan vote, which Domenick admits "still stings". Libby defends her decision by saying she was loyal to her alliance. Bradley wants to jump in and argue about it, even though he doesn't know about the situation, admitting he's just an argumentative guy. Chelsea mentions how the way you treat other people affects your game - wonder if Bradley senses this was aimed at him.

The votes are read, and Bradley is sent home. He didn't see it coming at all, and keeps saying "wow" and "crazy" as he leaves. Finally he's impressed by something. It didn't seem like there was much reason to turn on Bradley like that. Was he just THAT much of a dick? I guess we'll see if Domenick extending an olive branch to the Malolos works out for him this time.

STAR OF THE WEEK: WENDELL HOLLAND

Wendell picked up a valuable immunity idol and secured his team a win at the challenge. Seems like the furniture designer is carving out a great path to success in this game.