Previously on Survivor Hamilton: Old Meets New
The past two weeks had a little bit of everything. There were dominant Immunity Challenge performances, and complete fails. There were twists, votes, blindsides, and complaints. There was sabotage and tribe swaps. It all resulted in Dave being voted out of Nevala, a team that’s down to 5 players, with Kobara and Ulloo each having 6 left. 17 players are left, so let’s get to another Immunity Challenge!

Kobara was feeling on top of the world right now, and full of confidence heading into this Immunity Challenge. While Sharon had begun to improve her performances since a rough start on Nevala, the other 5 players (Chelsea, Cowin, Graham, Jordan, Kyle) were all top 8 in terms of overall challenge ranking. That’s gonna be tough to beat in any type of challenge, and so so Nevala and Ulloo better do their best to keep up. But when Kobara does lose, they lose hard, and the vote always ends up being an intriguing one.

As mentioned before, Nevala just voted out Dave on Saturday, and was now made up of 4 ex-Kobara players and Jon (who may as well have just been from Kobara). That should mean that they would also be dominant in the challenges, but it was not so. Chris was leading the charge, but even he had been super inconsistent after a great start to the season, and had been the one that messed up, sending Nevala to a weekend Tribal Council. Amanda had received 2 votes against on Saturday, so she would be desperate to win today, and the other 4 should also begin to worry about what happens to their little alliance if they lose again.

Five Immunity Challenges had come and gone since Ulloo voted out Shareed. Yes, they voted out Sasha last week, but they knew that she wasn’t going home, and ultimately expected her to elect to rejoin Ulloo if given the chance. And so the tribal lines that Ulloo began with are likely still there. Bryan, David C. and Paul would likely not have much incentive to betray eachother, while April had made it clear that her allegiance was NOT to Sasha and Ruth. That meant those 2 were still on the outs, which makes a win tonight even more essential.

And now to tonight’s Immunity Challenge! With 17 players left in the game, we’d be asking 15 of them to compete, meaning that both Kobara and Ulloo would need to sit someone out. Taking a well-deserved trip out to Tobermory, Ontario this week were Graham and April, and so they would be getting a break: Graham sitting out for his 2nd time, and April sitting out for her first. Sidenote: With April not participating, it means that only Ruth and Sasha remain in the game as the only players to participate in every Immunity Challenge of the season.

So with 5 players each on Kobara, Nevala and Ulloo, we’re looking for the first two teams to reach 5 points by correctly answering the following question:

Sandra is creating floral arrangements using the flowers and vases that she has. If she puts 1 flower per vase, there are 3 flowers left over. If instead she puts 4 flowers per vase (and all flowers get used), there are 3 vases left over. 

How many flowers does she have? 

Back to a math question! A pretty simple math question, but it would still take a little while to figure out. From the get-go it was obviously that Ulloo once again had their stuff together, that Kobara was right there with them, and that Nevala would be some distance behind.

Within 3 minutes of posting the question, Ulloo struck first (Sasha). And second (Bryan). And third (Paul). And fourth (Ruth). Ulloo was out to an amazing 4-0-0 lead in the early moments of the challenge, and all they would need to do is WAKE UP DAVID C. 

Kobara: 0
Nevala: 0
Ulloo: 4

A minute after Ruth buzzed in, Kobara entered the contest. With a question like this, either a team got it wrong and they all did, or they got it right and they all did. So tonight there were no wrong answers – maybe for the first time all season. Chelsea answered in 5th place, followed by Cowin, then Sharon, Jordan and Kyle. It was beginning to look like the time difference for David C. was going to have an impact tonight, because…

Kobara wins Immunity!!! Of course they did. Strong performance, but they weren’t the first out of the gate – just the first to cross the finish line. Which admittedly is the whole point! Great job snakes.

Kobara: 5
Nevala: 0
Ulloo: 4

Now of course this looks like Nevala is about to be blown out right? Teams have been in this position before, and somehow snuck away with a win. Could Nevala do the same by quickly solving for the correct answer? Or would David C. wake up? What would happen first?!?!?!?!

Nevala would need all 5 players to answer before David C., or else they’d be heading right back to Tribal Council. Chris got Nevala on the board first (in 10th place). Then Jon followed him. Then Amanda. That’s 3 for Nevala. David C. wake up!!! James then buzzed in. Oh no. This couldn’t be happening! Though of course it could. All season we’ve been waiting for the 5 hour time difference between us and David C. to make a big impact. That time was now, because we were just waiting on him and Peter.

The next player to answer correctly was…

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He did it. Despite probably not helping much with the solution, and letting little things like a minor water damage and mold catastrophe get in the way of his social game this past week, Peter is all of a sudden a hero! And…

Nevala wins Immunity! Well that must have been a relief for the mongooses, Jon in particular who has been to 9 of the first 14 Tribal Councils. No need to delve into the dynamics over there because they just won some time off!

Kobara: 5
Nevala: 5
Ulloo: 4

Now the same could not be said for Ulloo and this guy…

As I mentioned earlier it’s been 2.5 weeks since Ulloo voted out Shareed, an eternity in this game, and now we will get to see how much has changed in that time. David C. should certainly be in the hot seat for this one, considering how fast his 4 teammates were (4-0-0 lead!!!). But this game is more about social connections than Immunity Challenge performances, and David C. had some allies in the game, and ex-Kobara players had been targeting ex-Nevala players all season long, so it would be interesting to see what the majority decides is best for their short and long-term games.

I’ll see Ulloo at Tribal Council on Wednesday evening – even April! Good luck figuring out what to do.

MH

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