Winners At War Episode 5: Ex On The Beach

Breaking character, for a great cause

Nick is happy Tyson is gone, but is glad to have got a fire token from him. Now he's saying he would love to work with him. Yul talks about his friendship with Jonathan Penner and how his wife has ALS, and that he's playing to help them. The gamebot even breaks down crying, which is rare for him.

The players return to the sand spit where they first got divided up into tribes and drop their buffs to do it again. The new blue tribe is Parvati, Nick, Yul, Michele and Wendell. The new red tribe is Jeremy, Denise, Tony, Sandra and Kim. The green tribe is Rob, Ben, Adam, Sarah and Sophie. The early headlines are former lovers Michele and Wendell sharing a beach together and the most dysfunctional majority ever in the former Sele boys.

Jeremy admires the Dakal camp (which is largely Wendell's handiwork), but needs to find somebody to swing to his side. Talking with Kim, he senses she was on the outs and might be his best bet. Tony knows it's important to keep her with him so hammers home that the threats need to stick together.

Queen of options

Sending "u up?" texts on the cringe tribe

On Sele, Parvati is with her former Cook Islands castmate Yul, which is sure to be an interesting one given they were on opposing sides. She takes hearing Yul's wife is a fan of her as a good thing though. She also learns of Nick's crush, but Wendell gives her nothing. Wendell and Michele's talk is very awkward, with Michele saying it didn't end well and Wendell not wanting to talk about it at all. Michele and Parvati talk together, wondering what they can do.

The first thing Sarah does upon meeting Rob is blame the Amber vote-out on Tyson. The guys then rehash the awkward history of the Ethan vote, and it's clear that none of them want to work together. Sophie even wonders if there are too many cracks. Everybody decides to look for the new idol and Sophie is the one who finds it. Wow, and on a tribe with three previous idol finders too. She hands her other half off to Sarah.

Sandra the challenge beast

Wendell sees the challenge and tells Nick to get his throwing arm ready. It involves climbing over nets, knocking blocks down and stacking the color cubes with no repeating colors. Yara do the nest first, with Dakal dragging. Soon Rob, Ben, Kim, Wendell and Nick are all trading shots. Yara get them down first allowing Adam and Sophie first crack at the puzzle. Sele are next, and it's up to Parvati and Wendell. Dakal are way behind but get there in the end. Sele get 1st place and then Sandra and Jeremy get 2nd for Dakal. Yara are going to tribal and Rob gets the classic kiss-of-death confessional. Yikes...if it can happen to him, it can happen to anyone.

Stay sharp

Rob, Adam and Ben agree on Sarah as the target and Rob proposes just staying at camp. Adam finds it annoying, and so does Sarah, who is the first to bounce. Sarah contemplates using her vote stealer but would rather keep it if she can. Sophie says it's worrying to be relying on a few brief winks from Ben and Adam.

At tribal council, Adam talks about how every player on this season is really good so waiting for others to make rookie mistakes is not gonna happen. Sarah says the other three spoke about 7 words to her. Sophie rejects Jeff's usage of the word "crack" when he asks if she's found one, saying they're not invaders, they just want to form solid alliances of their own. Rob says that his buddy system has proved to be effective in the past.

Sarah chooses not to play her advantage. Wow, big move...she could've made it airtight. Sophie doesn't play her idol either. A 4-1 vote for Rob sends the legend off to Extinction. He gives his tokens to Parvati, which means she has 4 now. He was getting a lot of praise for surviving this long against the odds, but in the end this ends up being his worst performance yet (barring an EoE return, that is). The old schoolers are dropping like flies - will this continue?

STAR OF THE WEEK: SARAH LACINA

This could've gone to Sarah or Sophie really, but I think it's time to admit Sarah is actually a really good player. Swung the numbers back to her side, and keeps the advantage that gives her full control of the tribe.