Previously on Survivor Hamilton: Old Meets New
After Paul was voted out in 9th place, our Top 8 competed in this season’s Tournament of Champions. And after 2 hard-fought rounds we had an all family final between Jordan and Graham. When all was said and done, Graham became the champion over his cousin, winning both Immunity and a secret Reward. Now, at our 25th Tribal Council, eight will become seven, and Graham is the only player that could be confident he wouldn’t be joining the Jury.

As I mentioned, tonight is Survivor Hamilton: Old Meets New’s 25th Tribal Council, which is quite an accomplishment, and for Jon in particular as he will be attending (and hopefully surviving) his 17th vote of the season. At this point in the game, each player needed to play not just how to get to the Top 7, but what’s going to happen beyond that – which is extra difficult when trust is rare, and players would need to work with players that have gone back on “plans” in the past. Luckily for Graham, he was the winner of the Tournament of Champions, and was wearing the Immunity necklace that accompanied that title.

He also had a built-in alliance with April and Jordan that should theoretically give them an edge should they be able to get themselves to the Final 6. But getting there with each of them still in the game would be the challenge. But with any alliance, we’d need to remember that each player SHOULD be playing a game that suits their own interests, and is in service of getting them to the Final 2. If April, Graham and Jordan truly wanted to get to the final Tribal Council, that means that one of them would need to go to the Jury first. And that doesn’t even take into account the relationships and trust that each of them had built with other players throughout these past 3+ months.

So if the family had a three person alliance, the other clear alliance was still Chris, James and Jon. They’d voted together pretty much each time since the Tribe Swap joined them on Nevala, and it was looking more and more that it would be in their best interest to continue that trend. Why turn on someone who had your back all game long just to help someone else get further who hasn’t shown that same commitment? But again, like the family, these guys also needed to remember to do whatever they needed to do to get themselves further in the game. It’s just that they appear to be stronger together than they would be apart.

And if there are 2 groups of three, that only leaves Bryan and Kyle, and each of them had their own journeys so far – yet maybe it was in THEIR best interest to work together. Of course they were both viewed as big threats in the game, Kyle due to his big moves after the Tribe Swap (not to mentioned the fact that he won SH2), and Bryan due to his early game challenge dominance and his strong alliance on Ulloo. However they had both lost their closest allies after the merge, and were in need of someone to trust. Both strategic and challenge threats, they would be strong pair, but could they REALLY trust eachother? Only time would tell. On top of that, they’d need to pick a side.

Common wisdom would say that they’d already chosen to side with the “family”. They’d been working together since the merge, and even sacrificed Paul once he dared to talk to the other side, but was there room for Kyle in an alliance with Graham and Jordan who he’d already betrayed once? So far it seemed so, but how long could that last? Kyle obviously also had the option to join up with his brother Chris. Most players assumed that would happen eventually, but they’d been on opposite sides of most of the votes so far, and Chris had been instrumental in eliminating Kyle’s closest ally Chelsea.

Whatever happened tonight, it was clear that we had 2 groups of three, and a pair that could go either way. All in all each player is a threat to the endgame of all of the others, and no alliance greater than 2 could promise eachother a spot in the final Tribal Council. Nobody should take the game personally, because backs are gonna be stabbed – each player just needed to remain vigilant and active or else they’d be joining the Jury sooner than they expected.

And now. Tribal Council…

Below I’ll read the votes. But first, as always, we need to determine if any player is using a Hidden Immunity Idol to protect themselves or someone else from the vote. And the result is…

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Yes! Jordan stood up and announced that he was playing his recently won Hidden Immunity Idol…

And he wasn’t playing for himself. He was playing it for…

So with Jordan’s idol around James’ neck, any votes cast for James will not count.

And now I’ll read the votes.

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First Vote:

Does not count!

Second Vote:

Does not count!

Third Vote:

Does not count!

Fourth Vote:

Does not count!

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Fifth Vote:

.

Sixth Vote:

That’s 2 votes for Kyle. 

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Seventh Vote:

That’s it, that’s enough. By a total vote of 4-4, the 7th member of our Jury is Kyle!

And with that, Kyle loses his chance to become the first 2-time winner of Survivor Hamilton on the back of Jordan’s huge move with his Idol. Kyle had been playing a strong game since his very first vote, and seemed to have things in control until the merge when his secret alliance with Chelsea came to the forefront and she was immediately voted out. From there, Kyle tried to get out the spotlight, and it worked for a few weeks but eventually caught up to him. Despite what Kyle says, he was a huge threat to win in the end, and Jordan took this chance to take him out – whether simply to get himself further in the game, or with a little bit of vengeance thrown in. Either way it was great to see Kyle work all game long, and he’ll get his final say on the Jury.

As for our final 7 players. Your next Immunity Challenge takes place tomorrow evening, and of course at a time like this you NEED that security for Saturday’s Tribal Council. As always, you can check out PLAYED! with Meg & Mike below for our interview with Kyle.

MH

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