Night 6 and Mikey says, “Joel is a playing a long game right now when he should be playing a short game.” Well said. He confronts Joel and tells him he can’t win aligning himself with a bunch of weak players.

At Camp Fav the lovers pull Eliza aside and say they should vote out Yau-Man first to keep their tribe strong. Huh? Yau can do anything!

The next day is a Reward Challenge. Tree-mail says it’s “aggressive” and each tribe picks three things they want to play for. The Fans go nuts with the face paint. Jason is either a skeleton or a scary clown, and Natalie is some sort of angry mime.

There is a roped off playing field in the middle of a lagoon. Each tribe starts with three large bags and the goal is to get five of the six total bags into your end zone. All bags are live and can be stolen back and forth until one team wins. This could take forever.

Jeff cues some rain and we begin. The Favs take an early 3-1 lead as James flings people around. Joel steals a bag and the Fans tie it 2-2. Erik drags Eliza by his pants then whacks her in the head with his bag. Bravo! 3-2 Fans.

Erik body-slams Amanda. If the WWE ever went co-ed this guy would dominate. Erik’s moves get James to leave behind his bag stash and come headhunting. But Alexis runs through Eliza (tee-hee) and the Fans now lead 4-2.

Fatigue sets in. James and Amanda both steal bags and now the Favorites have the 4-2 lead. Jonathan drags out a bag from a pile and dives into the end zone for the win. The Favs get a tarp, lantern and some hatchets. Kathy is (sadly) sent to Exile Island and Ami (happily) chooses to go.

Back at camp Cirie talks with Amanda and Poverty. Poverty claims she hasn’t made any promises to James. Cirie says she wants Yau-Man out because he’ll find the Hidden Immunity Idol. Am and Pov promise they’ll stick with Cirie to the end even over their boyfriends.

Ami looks for clues and Kathy pretends she hasn’t seen them before. She convinces Ami to quit searching because it is about to rain.

That night the storm drenches the Fans because their shelter still stinks. What did you do all day? Meanwhile the Favs are in a cave under their tarp, completely dry.

The next day Joel is pruny and Alexis is weepy and shivery. Motivate yourself, woman!

For the Immunity Challenge four members of each tribe hold ropes to keep a net in the air. The others throw coconuts into the opposing tribe’s net. The first team to drop their net loses.

Erik, Natalie, Tracy and Joel are the Fan holders, and the Fav net is held by James, Johnathan, Cirie, and Poverty. Huh? Is she going to massage James while he does all the work?

Jonathan does some taunting and the Favs laugh it up but the Fans start knocking down some shots. Time passes. Coconuts fly. The Fav holders are starting to weaken. And they drop it! The Fans win!!

Now it’s scramble time. Jonathan and Yau-Man want Poverty out. Am and Pov want to follow Cirie’s wishes and vote out Yau-Man but James doesn’t agree. Ozzy agrees with James and tries to talk Cirie into Eliza.

Jonathan’s group corners Cirie and tells her she can’t break the romantic four’s alliance. She says they’re giving her the same argument. She says she knows Jonathan and Yau would stick together before siding with her. Jonathan doesn’t deny it and keeps arguing with her, before Cirie leaves to be alone.

Jonathan now talks to Ozzy. Ozzy says he doesn’t want Yau-Man to go but he says if Jonathan doesn’t agree to vote out Eliza they have enough votes to get Yau.

Ozzy talks with his group, which interestingly now includes Ami. Ozzy says he’s voting for Eliza and they don’t need Cirie. Poverty doesn’t agree. The lovers again try to get Cirie to change. James isn’t happy that she’s telling them what to do.

Ami tells Jonathan and Eliza that the other group is split. Jonathan thinks maybe their four votes will be enough but Eliza thinks there’s no way the other group doesn’t vote together. And in the background we see – Poverty and Yau-Man kissing?! Oh wait, no, they’re just talking. Silly me.

Tribal Council. Jonathan says some people want to keep the tribe strong and others are already playing to win. Cirie says you can do both. Jonathan accuses her of flopping. Cirie says she doesn’t trust him. They keep arguing. Wow. I guess we don’t have to worry about which way Cirie is voting.

Jonathan votes for Poverty. Cirie votes for Yau-Man. The tally goes: Pov, Yau, Yau, Pov, Cirie (huh?), Yau, Yau, and Yau. Awwww…Man!

Next time on…Survivor: Jonathan and Cirie keep fighting, Joel and Mikey square off, and “it’s an Exile Island that can’t be missed” as we see someone’s hands about to lift a rock off the ground. Ami was the one who voted for Cirie.

So there are only three real favorites in this game and we just lost one of them. Bah. I can understand why the Fans freaked out with their strategy but it really surprises me the Favorites would make the exact same mistake. I guess this is a great season to be really weak.

That said, I do think Cirie made the right choice of foursomes. With two clear couples she remains the swing vote as long as their alliance sticks together. What she has to worry about now is someone like James getting tired of her and convincing his people to bring Ami along instead.

But, don’t worry, we’ve got some huge twists coming that will make all this long-term planning seem silly.

Right, Mr. Burnett?

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