This is the moment all Survivor fans prepare for and anticipate each season. The merge has come, which means no more tribal immunity, but instead the beloved immunity necklace and certainly more chaos. Audiences discover who has truly come to play and who will falter short of the million dollars. With crazy moves, intense individual immunity challenges and thrilling tribal councils, no one is safe going into the merge.
Players struggle with different problems prior to the merge
After voting out Ali, Chrissy felt very good about her future prospects, as she believed to have both JP and Ryan wrapped around her finger. The Yawa tribe decided to make a pact to stay five strong going into the merge, however, Cole’s selfish antics were still causing issues of trust with Ben. Over on the Levu tribe it was all about exhaustion and hunger. All of the players were clearly deteriorating, both physically and mentally.
A friendly feast or the beginnings of alliances
The merge came with great excitement to all the players, who were surprised with a feast from Outback Steakhouse. In this midst of the gorging-fest, Chrissy took this opportunity to touch base with her former ally, Ben. She talked about the threat of Joe and the possibility of him having a second idol. At the beach, groups of people started to plan out alliances. Ryan and Devon discussed a Heroes and Hustlers alliance to take out the Healers, while the Yawa five aimed to bring in Joe and Desi. Ben was still unsure about this, which caused Jessica and Mike to talk with Cole about his habits.
A new immunity challenge comes down to extreme focus
Spinning a ball within a round structure, while balancing on a beam would be hard and it definitely was as many players struggled to stay alive in this challenge, especially Ryan who fell out within seconds. Eventually, it came down to Desi and Ashley, who elapsed 30 minutes. Jeff joked at the discrepancy between Ryan’s two seconds and the 30 minute mark. Chrissy quickly calculated, 900 times more. Eventually, Desi outlasted Ashley after the last transition, securing her safety.
The tale old tale of the swing vote becomes vital
Cole immediately tried to apologize to Ben about his behavior. Ben forgave Cole in front of him, but was actually still annoyed by it. Joe approached Cole, who told him to not trust Ben, and stated he could flip. Mike focused the target on Chrissy, due to her strategic prowess, for his group. On the other side, Chrissy decided to target Joe, but threw out Jessica as a backup option. In both alliances, Ben was the constant who found himself in the middle going into tribal.
Lines are drawn in the sand at tribal council
I think it's safe to say now that Joe is Tony 2.0! Joe is just as loud as Tony, has already found two idols and he is a cop. After pointing out how smart he was, Joe stood up and pulled out his second idol to the tribe, and told the tribe they can figure the rest out. Cole talked about how he felt that Joe has his back despite the chaos. Ben closed the council and after the votes were casted, it was revealed Joe had played his idol on himself. In a back-and-forth affair between Chrissy and Jessica, Ben and Chrissy’s relationship prevailed and Jessica was blindsided in a 7-5 vote.
