Last week on Survivor Hamilton: Fire & Ice… After contributing to another Immunity Challenge loss, Elliott was voted out of Hielo. Then, in a surprise twist, 14 castaways re-drew for tribes, and Graham was given the choice to go back to Fuego, which he chose.

Hielo walked briskly back to their beach after the tribe swap, with everyone rolling over and over strategies in their minds, wondering how they could turn this twist to their advantage. With only 7 on the tribe, there was an original Hielo advantage of 4-3, but as always things were more complicated than they seemed. Bryan had been with Hielo for 3 weeks, surviving 2 Tribal Councils, where he watched his former ally Peter be voted out, and then last weekend it was Elliott. He had clearly made some connections on Hielo, but was now seeing 2 former Fuegos crashing the party.

Jordan and Claudia had to fight in Fuego since bombing Week 1’s Immunity Challenge, but eventually they made their way into the majority, only to be surprised by the twist. Now in unfamiliar territory, they were only connected with Chelsea, who had her own history with Hielo.Chelsea had been lucky to be saved by Week 7’s twist, and found herself on a Fuego tribe that voted out her ally Paul, and she may have been next. Now Cait,Jonathan and Silas would need to work to bring Chelsea back into the fold or else they could end up in the minority on their own beach.

Fuego had not necessarily had the same experience at the tribe swap. Fuego had walked back with a 5-3 advantage after Graham decided to return to Fuego beach instead of venturing to Hielo.Stevie,Meg,Graham,Luke and Rebecca all got to stay with their original tribe, while Alex,Stef and Tyler would need to do their best to integrate. This was not going to be easy, because Fuego had a… unique sense of humor.

After Luke introduced them to Lil’ Flamer, which Alex absolutely had the patience for, they got down to business. Tyler pulled Graham aside to chat. They had had some epic showdowns in Immunity Challenges so far, so it was time to see where Graham’s head was at. Alex and Stef meanwhile went for a dip with the 3 original Fuego women, and as they watched the sun set on their new beach, they felt that this tribe had a chance to win some challenges.

Come on in guys! Ready to get to your first challenge as new tribes? First things first, Stevie, got to take back the idol.

While harnessed together, the two tribes will wade around a large oval roped-in course while carrying a twenty-pound shoulder bag each, after starting at opposite ends. Players can drop out of the challenge when they get too tired, but they must give their pack to someone before unclipping themselves from the rope. The first tribe to catch the other by touching one of their members wins Immunity and safety from Tribal Council, the loser a date with me tomorrow where one of you will become the 10th! person voted out of Survivor Hamilton: Fire & Ice. Hielo will compete with 7, giving them a total weight of 140lbs, while Fuego will compete with 8 at a weight of 160lbs. I’ll give you a minute to strategize.

For Immunity, Survivors ready? Start walking.

And so it began for the orange-buffed and the blue-buffed survivors; their afternoon of walking round and round in the rain trying to catch eachother. Both tribes started out as a run, Fuego’s tail just a little longer, but soon realized that this was futile as they were moving at the same speed. This would be another long day. With Cait at the head of Hielo, and Stevie at the head of Fuego, both tribes looked determined to put it out of their minds that they were freezing cold and soaked through within minutes.

They were able to look past the thick mud that was forming as they tread over the same surface over and over. They could deal with the boredom for there had been a lot of days with little to do on the island. What quickly became a problem was the weight. Twenty pounds may not seem like a lot, but in these conditions it was proving to be very difficult. Shifting the bag back and forth from shoulder to shoulder was necessary, but also precarious in the mud, as Rebecca found out first, tipping over, and frantically attempting to get up while Hielo inched closer. But soon after, Silas’ foot got stuck, and he fell forward, twisting his ankle in the process. He immediately realized he couldn’t continue and hastily unclipped himself and passed Cait his bag, as she had rushed back to assist. She was now carrying 40 lbs.

Things went from bad to worse almost immediately, as the weight was too much for Cait, and she too unclipped, passing Bryan one bag and Jonathan another. Fuego had made up good time during this transition, and was now clearly closer to Hielo, than vice versa. But they too had some folks that were tiring out. First, Rebecca hadn’t really recovered from being totally caked in mud, so she passed her bag to Alex, who was handling this challenge really well. Stef and Stevie had been talking with eachother the whole time so far, realizing that they weren’t long for the challenge. So despite them dropping out too, and giving both bags to Tyler (eager to show himself off for his new tribe no doubt!), giving him 60lbs to lug around.

So now there were 5 Fuegos and 5 Hielos, with Fuego still much closer to Hielo than the other way around. It was around the 60 minute mark that it became clear that Hielo was not going to be catching up today. After some more shifting of bags, you had both Chelsea and Alex absolutely beasting for their tribes, with everyone else certainly carrying their weight, but Hielo was just a tad slower than Fuego, so round and round they went until Alex finally was able to reach out and touch Jordan’s shoulder, meaning FUEGO WINS IMMUNITY, sending Hielo back to Tribal Council tomorrow for their 3rd week in a row.

Hielo, please have your votes in by 8pm tomorrow (Friday). As a reminder to everyone in the game, Hidden Immunity Idols must be played at the time of your vote, and you should ask your host if you have any questions about how to play them in Survivor Hamilton.

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