Heading into the fifth episode of Survivor 51, Devin Way and Jelly Loblack had just gone against original Toka tribal lines to oust Devin’s day one nemesis, Jenna Doore. The move was made in their new Savu tribe of five after Jeff Probst reassembled two tribes into three in the first tribe swap of the “open era.”
Tonight, two of the three tribes go to Tribal Council after a “do or die” challenge where only the first tribe to finish earns safety from the vote. At the reward feast, one player is given the opportunity to visit another tribe with an “Alliance Builder Extra Vote” advantage while another player creates a nearly-believable story about a new “Blood Idol” ring.
Read on for our recap of all the important moments from Episode 5 of Survivor 51, titled “Not Here to Get a Pedicure” which aired Oct. 21 at 8 p.m. PT on CBS. And then see what Jeff has to say about the “brutal” and “historic” Tribal Councils.
The tribe breakdowns at the start of the episode are:
SAVU: Ori Jean-Charles, Alexis Levine, Angelica “Jelly” Loblack, Devin Way
TOKA: Brady Booker, Kristin Flickinger, Carter Krull, Maggie Nestor, Thien An Nguyen, Mike Pinsky
DINA: Linnea Capobianco, Cristian Chavez, Sharonda Cox, Lewis Kelly, Danny Kilby, Eric Macksoud
Immunity/Reward Challenge
For the challenge that Jeff considers “do or die” for the tribes because only one will win, three players must individually dive in the water for buoys and then work together to transport them over a balance beam where a fourth player is tasked with tossing them into three baskets. Set as the throwers for the three tribes are Mike (Toka), Sharonda (Dina), and Ori (Savu), but because Dina and Savu are slower than Toka at getting the buoys to their throwers, only Mike gets the opportunity to toss them into the baskets. Toka handily wins the challenge, earning a basket of pastries as reward and sending the other two tribes to vote out the sixth and seventh players to leave the game.
New Advantage
When Toka arrives back at camp to feast on their baked goods, they’re presented with a note that declares “one of you is needed somewhere else,” signifying that a volunteer must forego the reward and instead choose one of the other tribes to visit. Mike, Maggie, and Kristin all throw their names into the bag and Maggie is randomly drawn to make the journey. She receives a second note, the Alliance Builder Extra Vote advantage, allowing her to give another player an extra vote at their looming Tribal Council. Knowing that her allies Kilby and Lewis are outnumbered 4-2 at Dina, Maggie chooses to visit them.
Savu Tribal Council
The night after voting out Jenna, the four members of Savu made personal bonds with one another by explaining their “whys” for competing on Survivor. Ori shared wanting to improve the struggles of his single mom, Alexis explained her history with substance abuse, and Devin spoke about his two brothers that he lost. Now, as a solid group that had hoped to protect each other until the end, they are forced to turn on one another.
Remaining loyal to Jelly, Devin attempts to convince Alexis to vote with them against Ori, but instead of going that route, Alexis commits herself to Ori in their own attempt to convince Jelly to vote with them against Devin. Caught in the middle, Jelly weighs the “two different sets of morals” that she’s stuck between: going against the Helicopter Alliance plan to “see Black people do well in this game” by voting out Devin or participating in a fifth consecutive vote to send a woman home by voting out Alexis.
In the end, it turns out that Jelly was not the one with the tough decision to turn on an ally and, instead, Ori sticks with the Helicopter Alliance to vote Alexis out 3-1.
Dina Tribal Council
Given the four original Savu, two original Toka split at Dina, it seemed to be a foregone conclusion for Lewis and Kilby that they must throw each other under the bus. Having recovered from a stomach sickness, Lewis hits the ground running by pitching to Sharonda that he was given a “Blood Idol” ring at Exile Island, and in offering it to her has tied his own fate to hers for the next two votes where, if he’s eliminated, then so is she. While Sharonda and others initially believe Lewis could be telling the truth, Cristian dispels the myth by pointing out that Lewis told him about the details of an Irish ring he has that has striking similarities to this supposed advantage.
When Maggie arrives at Dina with the actually real Alliance Builder Extra Vote advantage, she pulls Kilby and Lewis in to a risky plan that involves one of them using this new extra vote and the other taking her existing Extra Vote to create a 4-4 tie at Tribal Council. Maggie wants them to each cast two votes for Linnea, which Lewis is down for, but Kilby is less sure of. Believing that the Savu four are voting for Lewis, Kilby is worried that if the tie goes to rocks that he’s putting his own game at risk when he could otherwise just vote Lewis out with Savu and pocket the Extra Vote given to him by Maggie.
At Tribal Council, Lewis and Kilby lean in to the “Toka madness” and both use their advantages to counter the Savu block of four votes for Lewis with four of their own for Linnea. After a revote, the tally remains deadlocked and so Eric, Kilby, Sharonda, and Cristian are given the chance to come to an unanimous decision to send either Lewis or Linnea home — or else make themselves vulnerable to a rock draw. Kilby insists that he’s deadlocked and “part of the dream is standing on business.” Instead of going to rocks themselves, Eric, Sharonda, and Cristian agree to make it unanimous with Kilby to send Linnea home.
Jeff’s Field Notes
Following both Tribal Councils, the Survivor host shared his thoughts on the eliminations of Alexis and Linnea.
“A truly brutal Tribal,” Jeff said about the first vote. “And it takes us right back to the decision to include that very personal bonding moment with this entire group that begins the episode. Those deep bonds will now be tested in the most difficult way. Only four people. Someone has to go. That was a very real, very raw conversation and a very emotional Tribal Council. None of that was performative. I could feel it, and I had nothing at stake. Alexis was absolutely crushed.”
As for the second Tribal Council, he declared, “As brutal as the first Tribal was, this one was historic. This is a great example of what playing to win looks like. Kilby and Lewis made a big move that certainly could have backfired … but if you play not to lose, you’re doomed. You must play to win. Sometimes that means a risky, go-for-broke, big move. That’s what tonight was. Anytime you are truly willing to go to rocks, you have a massive advantage. Kilby’s willingness to draw rocks put all the burden on Eric, Sharonda and Cristian. Would they really risk the thought of one of them drawing the wrong rock to save Linnea? Given the shock of what went down, I thought Linnea handled it really well. Being voted out is always very difficult to accept, but if you’re able to find some kind of silver lining — in this case, being a part of history — it certainly cushions the blow … a bit.”
