Last week on Survivor Hamilton: Fire & Ice… After Tyler struggled for Hielo at the Immunity Challenge, his close friendships and history with his tribe saved him, while newcomer Peter may have regretted his choice to leave Fuego.

With only 8 people left, Hielo woke up thinking about Tribal Council the night before, Peter leaving after only arriving, and all of the votes that came before. Hielo had been a tribe with many previous connections, the obvious assumption being that this would lead to greater communication, and a domination of Fuego. For one week the difference had been clear, but Fuego had scratched and clawed back, sending Hielo to Tribal Council 5 times in the first 9 weeks.

Then the greatest challenge became clear. Voting out your friends was hard. Lying was even harder, and the repercussions could be permanent (in the game of course!) David had clearly lost the first challenge for Hielo, making him the easy first target, but Cowin had other plans, meticulously orchestrating a tie behind everyone else’s back. With almost all trust lost on the tribe, Cowin became and next target, with his close ally Greg close to follow. Then things became difficult.

Cowin had made himself a target, but when Hielo kept losing, no one wanted to be next. This led to long-time friends needing to choose one alliance over another, and though Survivor Hamilton is simply a game of getting farther than anyone else, being left in the cold would definitely hurt. And after the dust settled on a crazy night at Tribal Council, Chelsea and Paul had found themselves on the outs, fortunately being spared and sent over to Fuego. And now with Peter gone, the 8 melting snowballs patiently awaited their next challenge whatever that may be.

On the other side of the island, Fuego lounged around, well rested from a night off from Tribal Council. The fiery ones had always seemed like they would be a ragtag group of individuals, and somehow over the course of 9 weeks they had come together. With everything from cousins, to a mother, to best friends, to strange white men from Whitby, Fuego had it all, and had to learn the game as they went. But throughout, the first quarter of the game, a Pitman sized shadow hung over Fuego.

Shout out to Kyle Pitman for winning what could be called the game of Survivor Hamilton that started it all, and we were able to get 2 of them for Fire & Ice. And wherever a Pitman is, drama is sure to follow. But before we could get to that, with the dubious honor of being the first castaway voted out, Jon spectacularly blasted himself off the island by nominating himself for eviction, before trying desperately to save himself in the hours up to the first Tribal Council. After that distraction was out of the way, a majority in the tribe formed, and they set their sights squarely on the loud ones, first voting out Iain, and then finally, Chris.

Then, when an opportunity presented itself, Bryan and Peter, whose connection with Chris had left them on the outs with the tribe, jumped ship to Hielo when Chelsea and Paul came over. Paul proceeded to botch his first Immunity Challenge on his new tribe, and they were down to 8. And funny enough, just as on Hielo, things seemed to be calming down, and wiser minds were keeping the simmering tension at bay. Things were groovy on Fuego beach today, and nothing was going to mess with that.

Come on in guys! Fuego, getting your first look at the new Hielo – your old tribemate, Peter, voted out at Tribal Council. Ready to get to another Immunity Challenge? First things first, gotta take the Idol back… thank you Graham.

Since it’s Week 10, this challenge will be special because it comes in 3 stages. First, there will be 8 head-to-head matches, with one member of Fuego and one from Hielo fighting to dig a 40lb medicine ball out of the sand and bring it back to their colored mat. Then the winners of each match will move on to the next stage, where as a team they will run out into the deep water, dive down and slowly drag a heavy chest along the bottom of the sea, back up onto the beach and on another colored mat. Once there, 2 members of each tribe will open the chest, and complete a puzzle with the pieces inside. The first tribe to complete their puzzle win win another Immunity, sending the losers to Tribal Council, where someone will be the 9th person voted out of Survivor Hamilton.

Everyone understand? I’ll give you a minute to strategize.

The first matchup is going to be…

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As their host yelled GO Jordan and Silas each ran to the centre of the roped circle in the sand, colliding with their shoulders and dropping face first into the sand. Realizing that they first had to find and dig out the medicine ball, the two fine young gentlemen dutifully dug, the heat of the early rising sun beaming over their shoulders. Soon enough, Jordan uncovered the edge of a giant leather ball painted purple. He tried to turn his body in front of Silas to block his view, but it was too late and Silas pounced.

Each needing to bring the ball to the opposite side of the roped circle, Jordan and Silas struggled for what seemed like an eternity, until exhausted they both let go, slumping into the sand. This was going to be a long morning, afternoon and maybe evening at this rate. But getting up and going first was Jordan, who dragged the ball towards the orange mat with Silas trying to follow behind, but not catching up in time. Jordan reaches Fuego’s mat first and Fuego leads 1-0. Next up…

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With Chelsea vs Stef we had another intriguing matchup with the two women involved in Week 7’s 5-4 vote that sent Chelsea, and not Stef to Fuego. As they finally dug out the heavy medicine ball by working well together, the two looked at eachother and the struggle began. For another 10 minutes they fought, until exhausted, Chelsea reached her destination and Fuego leads 2-0. Remember, that means that Fuego can now have 2 castaways helping in the next stage. On to round number 3…

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In another battle of former tribemates, Luke mercilessly trash-talked Bryan throughout, with a lot of pushing and shoving in between. Luke had clearly felt that Bryan betrayed Fuego and would not listen to any of Bryan’s strained, but completely rational explanations of why he made the decision to swap. In the end, Luke wore down Bryan physically and emotionally, giving Fuego an amazing 3-0 lead. The 4th matchup awaits…

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In Week 1 it was Claudia (and Jordan) who performed worst at the season’s first Immunity Challenge, where Alex started the first in her streak of beast performances, leading Hielo week after week. So this was an anticipated match to see how the game had changed these two over 10 weeks. And it did not disappoint! With Fuego and Hielo standing beside cheering on their strong women, Claudia and Alex, covered in sand and sweat pushed and pulled with everything they had. And at a time when Alex was closest to sending herself to the next round for Hielo, Claudia tripped her up, grabbing the medicine ball with all of her remaining strength and ran to the orange mat! Fuego leads 4-0, meaning Hielo still has no one heading to the next round of this all-important Immunity Challenge. And on we go…

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In the first of what would be two woman against man contests, Rebecca stared Tyler down, knowing that this was Survivor Hamilton and she ain’t got to be scared of no man. So Rebecca and Tyler dug together, but strategically Rebecca merely pretended to dig hard, actually creating more work for Tyler to slow him down.

In all his eagerness to get Hielo out of their 4-0 hole, Tyler didn’t notice, and by the time they discovered the purple medicine ball, it was too late. Though Tyler was able to lift the 40lb ball out of the sand, Rebecca dragged him back down to the sand, stripping him of the ball and giving Fuego an absolutely improbable 5-0 lead. Here we go again…

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Though Jonathan wanted to put up a big fight, we had not slept properly the night before, and we had started early in the morning, and he had not had a decent meal in weeks. So while Graham and Jonathan dug together respectfully, discussing their lives outside the game, when the fight began, Graham was able to overpower Jonathan, staking Fuego to a 6-0 lead. 2 more left…

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In an integral matchup of the emotional leaders of both of their tribes, Meg and Cait were expected to put on a show. But when it came down to it, either something was wrong with Cait today, or Meg had the powers of a super cat, because it was a stomping! Meg was ferocious from the word go, and Cait had no answer (maybe feeling in the back of her mind that dragging a heavy chest along the bottom of the sea by herself wasn’t the best way to spend the rest of her afternoon), so Fuego now had an unbelievable 7-0 lead. Would Elliott decide to put in the effort required to keep Hielo in the challenge all by himself?

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NO! Not only did Elliott blow it big time, but Stevie showed the most fighting spirit of the week, completely dominating Elliott in every way possible. So it was here, on Week 10, that Fuego miraculously reversed their fortunes from Week 1, where all of Hielo out-answered them in the season’s first Immunity Challenge. With all of Fuego answering this morning’s question before Stef finally chimed in, it put a symbolic cap on the first 10 weeks. Because Fuego won the first round 8-0, we are forced to announce that FUEGO wins Immunity and safety from the vote, while Hielo will head once again to Tribal Council. With the tie in Week 2, and the twist in Week 7, after this week, Hielo will have completed 8 of the 12 votes so far in the game. AND, now our staff need to drag those chests out of the water themselves. Thanks everyone.

So Hielo, rough morning, but realistically, everyone answered within roughly an hour of eachother madly in the morning as I was leaving for work, just all of Fuego answered first. Hielo, please have your votes in by Friday evening at 8pm. Happy strategizing!

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