Island Of The Idols Episode 8 & 9: Touchy Subjects

Jamal wants answers after tribal, and Noura admits she was the 2nd vote for Jack, but that somebody else told her to do it. Jamal pushes for an answer, and Noura rats Kellee out. Uh oh, this move is already backfiring. Kellee denies involvement, which Janet believes, but Jamal is less certain on. The next morning, everybody searches for the new idol...and Kellee finds it.

Party time!

Treemail indicates a merge and all of Lairo immediately cheer. As the two tribes are reunited, Dan proposes a toast and says "let's get lit". Dan's plan is for all of Vokai 2.0 plus Kellee and Janet to form a new alliance. When Janet says Jamal wants to work with him, he doesn't seem interested. Tommy makes the proposal to Kellee, but she rejects it and thinks Missy should go first, which leaves Tommy a little taken aback.

Missy talks to Kellee about Dan's hands, as she's experienced them too. Kellee is annoyed that she can't say anything, but relieved that it's not just her. We even hear the voice of a producer reassuring her. That's how serious this situation is. But Tommy is scared of Kellee for how she can be so buddy-buddy with Missy despite wanting to vote her out.

No longer off the radar

Pulling out the receipts

Kellee opens up to Janet about the Dan stuff, which puts her in a difficult spot as she's close to both of them. Missy tells Elizabeth to play up her discomfort with Dan when she talks to Kellee and the two of them bond over it. Lauren warns Missy that Kellee is gunning for her and she needs immunity, which leaves her very taken aback. Then we get a title card saying that production had to have a talk with everybody about Dan.

This challenge shifts you into some awkward positions

The immunity challenge is to hold up a table containing balls. Every time you drop, it locks in so you can't get it back up. Noura is first to lose a ball, with Elizabeth and Dean dropping one early too. Soon Noura, Kellee, Dean and Janet are out whilst Tommy, Karishma (wut) and Aaron still have three balls. Tommy loses all three in one go when he seemed fine, looks like he lost his grip or something. It's soon down to Elizabeth, Aaron and a very sweat-drenched Jamal. Aaron wins immunity, and Jamal collapses in a heap on the floor.

Lauren and Tommy want to vote Kellee out, but Dean isn't sure he can do that after Kellee saved him. Jamal wants to get Dan out since Dan has been throwing his name around, and Noura agrees. Janet tells the girls to vote Dan but Elizabeth doesn't believe it. Elaine decide to spill to Dan he's a target now in the hopes of pulling him to their side. Jamal asks Tommy for his vote, and now him and Lauren are the swings. Kellee is looking for her 2nd idol and she finds it - but she know she might need it?

At tribal council, the theme quickly becomes about deception vs trust, with Missy saying how trust is necessary. Lauren says she's been trying to get to know the new people without alarming the others. Janet says tribal lines are softening over time. Dean says he's in an interesting spot as he was bottom of his original tribe and his swap tribe. Missy calls this a gut check to see if you're as good a player as you think.

Two more idols down the drain

Kellee and Dan vote for eachother, with Dan acknowledging it'll be one of the two of them blindsided. Kellee gets reassurance from Lauren that she's good, and doesn't play an idol. The votes come out and Kellee gets blindsided. Well that's really unfortunate, especially given that Dan is making snide comments on her way out.

The gaslighting begins

After the vote, Janet feels betrayed on a personal level since she put her own game on the line to help the women. Janet explains the situation to Dan and he seems totally shocked. Didn't they already have a meeting about this? Janet gets Elizabeth (eventually) to admit that she did come to her about Dan's behavior, but later Elizabeth retracts her statement and blames it all on Janet for blowing things out of proportion. Yikes, this feels really over the line. Janet spends the night away from camp and watches Missy and Aaron walk past her in the early hours, presumably idol hunting. Janet goes looking herself and manages to find it. Oh man, is that a relief.

Is this a prank show?

Jamal and Karishma see a note hanging from a tree and Jamal manages to grab it first. He is told to take it to Island of the Idols and then open it. Once there, he learns that he has lost his vote and he should've known it was too good to be true. Uhhh what? That is bullshit, they have easy to find advantages all the time. However, Sandra offers him a chance to pay it forward by giving him a blank piece of paper and a pen that he can use to write anything he wants. So Jamal comes back and tells a lie about how he won an advantage to give to another player, and chooses Dean because it's his birthday. Dean is quite taken aback and sees it as a target on his back....which it is.

Great dismount, 7 points

The immunity challenge has the contestants suspended over water as Probst slowly lowers the rope connected to their handle. Lauren wants to quit almost immediately and is the first out. Dan, Jamal and Elaine follow. Another crank sees Karishma, Janet and Dean. Noura drops, then Tommy is down to give Aaron the win. Missy beats Elizabeth to win immunity for the girls. The power duo making themselves even bigger targets.

Jamal says he feels in danger for this tribal (finally, he's been on the wrong side of every vote so far). The majority want to split the vote on Karishma and Jamal, since Jamal might have got something from Island of the Idols. Tommy tells Janet she is safe, but she's still not sure.

Jeff keeping Dan on the hook

At tribal council, Janet says there was a miscommunication on the last vote. Missy points out she only just met Janet and didn't have trust in her, and gets her to admit she was originally targeting her. Aaron accuses Janet of playing the victim and belittles the issue...yeah OK, we could've done without that (dreadfully wrong) take, thanks. Jamal defends Janet and says that they should believe women. Dan seems desperate for Probst to let the topic go, but he won't. He gives a half-hearted apology and claims it was never his intention. Janet says she's debating whether to quit, but everybody reassures her they don't hate her so the game goes on. Man, I would love to know what Kellee is thinking, watching this in silence from the jury.

After the vote, Janet plays her idol. It cancels 2 votes, but the bulk are for Karishma and Jamal, with Jamal leaving. And one of the few people that hasn't completely tanked their reputation departs. Well...this was an exhausting double episode that was just viscerally unpleasant in a lot of ways, and has really sucked the air out of what was a pretty fun season. We'll pick up the pieces next week and hope for something less dark-sided.

STAR OF THE WEEK: JANET CARBIN

Is there any other ethical choice? Janet stood up for what she felt was the morally right thing to do, even knowing it could jeopardize her own game...that's the kind of character we're dealing with. It was impossible not to feel for her in her position, and if there's any justice, she will make it through this.