Previously on Survivor Hamilton: Old Meets New
The Kobara veterans continued their winning ways with their 3rd Immunity Challenge win in a row, sending the shellshocked Nevala Tribe back to Tribal Council. With two strong alliances forming, a middle group that must be won over, and trust in short supply, who would become the 5th player voted out of the game?

Going back to Tribal Council for the 3rd time in a row was not in the plan for Nevala. Yes, this game was new to each and every one of them, but they had high hopes that they’d continually improve in the challenge department after their first 2 weeks in the game. The problem was that Kobara was continually improving as well. Just as some players on Nevala were starting to get the hang of it, and perform with some consistency, the intimidating snakes have tightened their grip on the frightened mongooses.

As you can see above, only Shareed and Jim were able to submit the correct answer on Monday before Kobara’s last player David C. And HE had the excuse that it was 12:30am at night when I posted the Immunity question. Couple the delay in responses with a number of Nevala players jumping the gun and responding with incorrect answers, and it was another one to forget for the yellow tribe. They got correct responses from Ian, Marishka and Jon, who continued their above average play; by Nevala standards they are the top 3 players so far. Damien also proved that he could IMprove over the past few challenges, but he was still the last person to correctly answer for the tribe.

Unfortunately for Nevala, 6 players ended up disqualified before the challenge was over, either by incorrect answer or sending multiple messages. These mistakes turned the challenge into a complete domination for Kobara, which came at the worst possible time for Nevala. These new players were already dealing with a fractured tribe, whose continual visits to Tribal Council had bred nothing but division and paranoia. Ruth and Sharon had both received votes on this past Saturday that saw Wayne go home, so their contributions to the losing effort were less than ideal for their chances.

Andre had been hoping to continue to fly under the radar, but after getting the right answer, he decided to change it at the last second, disqualifying him from the challenge and bringing some unwanted attention. Though the season was still early, April had to be unhappy with her Immunity Challenge performances so far. They had pushed her to the bottom of the rankings, which is where you don’t want to be on a tribe that keeps losing challenges. Add her close alliance with Jim, Ian, and presumably Damien to the mix, and April was flirting with disaster.

Ruth was another player desperate to get the target away from her. Fresh off of wasting the first Hidden Immunity Idol (although wasting it is WAYYY better than going home with an idol in your pocket), Ruth could tell that her name was still being discussed as a potential target. But with another idol in the mix, and nobody sure who had it, would enough players be willing to write down her name? Sasha, for her part, seemed to be pretty happy whether Nevala was going to Tribal Council or not. She saw it as an opportunity to socialize with her new friends, and so whatever happened, Sasha would be ok.

So as two alliances built around Jim and Ruth continued to wage their war, the middle players like Dave realized that they had to make a choice here and now. The idol would of course play a factor, because a correctly played idol can throw all strategy out the window. Did the person who won Tuesday’s idol tell anyone about it? If word got out, would people vote against that person, or throw votes against their close allies? This was shaping up to be an exciting Tribal Council, and we’re pretty sure nobody is going to be blaming Wayne for being the only “liar” anymore.

Watch the video below to see Tribal Council play out in real time, complete with all the drama you could want out of an evening with Survivor Hamilton.

Now let’s get to the votes shall we? If anybody had a Hidden Immunity Idol, they would tell us at the time of voting and it would be played right now. Anybody? Ruth? No?

No?

Nobody?

Ok, let’s read the votes…

…

…

…

First vote:

Second vote:

That’s 1 vote Sasha, 1 vote Damien.

Third vote: 

That’s 1 vote Sasha, 1 vote Damien, and 1 vote April.

Fourth vote:

That’s 2 votes Sasha, 1 vote Damien, and 1 vote April.

Fifth vote:

That’s 2 votes Sasha, 2 votes Damien, and 1 vote April.

Sixth vote:

We’re all tied up. 2 votes Sasha, 2 votes Damien, and 2 votes April. 

Seventh vote:

That’s 3 votes Sasha, 2 votes Damien, and 2 votes April.

Eighth vote:

3 votes Sasha, 3 votes Damien, and 2 votes April. 

Ninth vote:

We’re tied again! 3 votes Sasha, 3 votes Damien, votes April, and 3 votes left. 

Tenth vote:

That’s 4 votes Sasha, 3 votes Damien, and 3 votes April. 

2 votes left. 

Eleventh vote:

That’s 4 votes Sasha, 4 votes Damien, and 3 votes April.

1 vote left.

…

Twelfth vote:

WOW! If you can believe it, we’re now all tied up after all the votes have been read. 4 votes Sasha, 4 votes Damien, and 4 votes for April. 

What we’re going to do is a live re-vote. Here’s how it works. Sasha, Damien and April will NOT vote. The rest of you can only vote for either Sasha, Damien, or April.

This is our first tie of the season (a 3-way!) and honestly it’s very exciting to see, because every tribe should experience the stress of a live re-vote, and the consequences therein. And so after a brief recess where the 9 other players submitted their second votes of the evening, we are ready to continue on. Remember, that the votes will only be for either Sasha, Damien, or April.

I’ll read the votes.

here

we

go

…

First vote:

Second vote: 

That’s 2 votes for Damien. 

Third vote:

That’s 2 votes Damien, 1 vote Sasha. 

Fourth vote:

We’re tied. 2 votes Damien, and 2 votes Sasha. 

Fifth vote:

That’s 3 votes for Damien, and 2 for Sasha. 

Sixth vote:

That’s 4 votes for Damien, and 2 votes for Sasha. Next vote…

Seventh vote:

That’s 5 votes for Damien, and with only 9 players voting, that is a majority. 

And so by a total re-vote of 7-2, the fifth player voted out of Survivor Hamilton: Old Meets New is…

And as Damien follows Wayne out the door, things are not looking good for people that went to high school with your host. We got a thrilling Tribal Council tonight, where we saw what appeared to be 4 votes on Sasha from the “family”, and the rest of the tribe either split the votes on Damien and April for fear of an idol, or they had two different targets. A vote split takes a lot of coordination, and for 8 people it appears that it paid off, and their target went home.

Damien himself admitted that it took him a few days to get into the game, and it’s possible that the delay made him an easy target in some players’ eyes. In a game like Survivor Hamilton, it’s essential to get out of the gate early and build at least high-level bonds with everyone on your tribe. If people view you as a weak link in either the challenges or the social game, you become a likely target. Damien may have found that out the hard way, or it may have been that his alliance of 4 was just too tight to keep together. We may never know, but we may also know on Saturday, when Nevala is likely to be back at Tribal Council. Or can they turn their fortunes around?

Tune in tomorrow to find out the result of the next Immunity Challenge!

For now, check out the most recent episode of PLAYED! with Meg & Mike to hear directly from Damien what went wrong, and what he thinks the future has in store of Nevala.

 

MH