Previously on Survivor Hamilton: Old Meets New
After a very eventful week, both Kobara and Nevala spent Saturday evening at Tribal Council, with Elliott and Andre being voted out RESPECTIVELY. Now with 6 players on each tribe, no one felt particularly secure, and many were hoping for just one more twist or their game could be in danger. Speaking plainly, no tribe was fully confident that they would win Immunity today, and no tribe wanted to lose.

I’ve said it before: the vote after a unanimous vote it always going to be interesting. For Kobara, so used to avoiding Tribal Council, going back to back was less than ideal, especially with 2 new players involved. Everybody had their own idea of what they wanted to do, and so finding a majority that could agree on a plan had proven to be very difficult. Elliott ended up going home with 4 votes, but Dave and Cowin also received votes, and the plan had changed over and over as Saturday progressed.

Finding common ground was now going to be even more difficult. With only 6 players on the tribe, there was nowhere to hide, and alliances were going to be tested. Cowin and Chelsea had worked together in the past, but this last vote had been so stressful that the partnership was strained. Sharon was adamant that she wanted to run her own game, prior relationships could go screw themselves! Dave was still trying to figure out who he could really trust. Jordan just wanted to stay out of the spotlight, and Kyle couldn’t avoid the spotlight even if he wanted to. Kobara was going to continue to be very interesting to watch!

Speaking of unanimous votes, Nevala just send Andre off to Exile Island with one of their own. Everyone could agree to vote out Andre, who unfortunately didn’t have any connections on the tribe, but after him, it was not looking so good for Amanda and Graham. The alliance of Chris, James, Jon and Peter was well known at this point, and it would take a miracle to get any of them to flip this “early” into the game.

Obviously there would be only one winner at the end, but you’ve got to get there first, and you get there by playing with people you trust. These guys had a lot of trust in eachother, but nagging in the back of each of their minds was, “when will they betray me?” This game is meant to be fun, and blindsiding friends can be VERY fun, and so it was only a matter of time until the battle of the bastards. But could Amanda or Graham find some cracks to speed that battle along a bit?

Ulloo had managed to avoid Tribal Council on Saturday as a result of Monday’s failed Immunity Challenge, and a very strong performance on Thursday. It was much needed time off for April, Ruth and Sasha, who had practically set up summer homes at tribal. While Ruth and Sasha had worked together on many prior votes, April had been on the other side and had looked to partner up with the Kobara transplants, which had worked on the Shareed vote, but would it continue?

Bryan and David C. were pretty close, especially since they had both intended to work with Silas who went out back in week 1. They knew that at least for now they were eachother’s best options. Paul had voted with them on the Shareed vote, but the Silas vote was still fresh in their minds because they too had been on opposite sides. Continuing off their last vote, you’d think the next one would be a simple 4-2, but things were not always so simple…

And so now we get to today’s UNIQUE Immunity Challenge. Today our players would be compete for Individual Immunity, with the top performer on each tribe winning safety at Tribal Council. That means that all three tribes would be voting someone out this week, but there’s got to be more to it right?

We will get to that later. With our tribes even in numbers, all 18 remaining players would be participating, and here was their challenge:

How many TRIANGLES can you count in the above picture? The player on each tribe closest to the correct answer (without going over) in the shortest amount of time will win Immunity. 

And here is the answer:

23 is the correct answer, and we’d be looking for the player on each tribe that is the closest to 23 (without going over) in the shortest amount of time. To reveal the result, we will start in reverse order – from the losing players on down to our three winners.

In last place was Dave with an answer of 42. I do feel however that I rushed him by requesting he and Jon to answer (since they were making me wait the longest!) and so maybe he just guessed. My bad for rushing him. Dave’s bad for being slow. Chelsea answered quickly, but only counted 13 triangles – way off – and so was stuck in 17th place with no shot at Individual Immunity. Cowin was the very first to answer, but only counting 14 triangles was nowhere near good enough. Eliminated!

Jordan and Sharon each counted only 16 triangles, which was only good for 14th and 15th place RESPECTIVELY. Graham, Chris and Peter only answered 17 triangles, and so they too were eliminated. Amanda answered 18, eliminating her too, which left only Jon and James left for Nevala. And I don’t know if you noticed, but 5 players had already been eliminated for Kobara. That means that Kyle’s answer of 18 triangles was good enough for Immunity.

Kyle wins Individual Immunity!

And then in a stunning move of unity in a challenge that definitely did NOT call for it, all of Ulloo responded with an answer of 19 triangles. But who answered first, and therefore won Immunity? Well it wasn’t Ruth. It wasn’t David C. It wasn’t Paul. It wasn’t April, and it wasn’t Sasha (who cam very close!). Nope, it was none of those players. It was Mr. Number 1 in the Rankings himself, Bryan.

Bryan wins Individual Immunity!

So now we just needed to determine who would win Immunity on the Nevala tribe. With only James and Jon left it would be one of them. James was the 5th player to respond, and with an answer of 20, he had been the closest all game. That is until Jon, the last player to respond, sent in his answer. Which was 21. Jon answered 21, and that means…

Jon wins Individual Immunity!

So we have our three winners, Kyle, Jon and Bryan, who cannot be voted out of their tribes at the next Tribal Council. But what’s the deal you ask?

Well, let me tell you.

All three tribes will be voting out one player tomorrow (Tuesday). This vote is taking place on Tuesday, because the three players voted out will NOT be leaving the game, but will be swapping to one of the other tribes. The three voted out players will compete in a challenge on Wednesday, giving the winning player, and the 2nd place player a chance to choose which tribe they want to join. They could join a new tribe, or rejoin the one that just voted them out.

Wednesday’s activities with the three voted out players will be accompanied by a video and a PLAYED! episode, meaning that the other fifteen players will get Wednesday off. Does that make sense? Feel free to post any questions in the comments below.

MH

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