Previously on Survivor Hamilton: Old Meets New
The hits keep on coming with April winning her first individual Immunity necklace of the season, while our Top 6 players worked to avoid the dreaded 3-3 tie. When all was said and done, Graham received 1 vote, Bryan had 2 against, and James was sent to the Jury with 3 votes against. Now there are only 5 players left, and and in a week and a half – a winner will be crowned. Find out tonight which of these players will book their spot in the Final 4.

I honestly can’t believe we’re all the way down to 5 players left. Each of them has had a different journey to this point, and though I always claim it’s an individual game, they will each need the others to help them get to the end. But while the other players can help you get further, they can also stand in your way. The only way to guarantee your safety is to win Immunity. And that’s got to be the #1 goal for April, Bryan, Graham, Jon and Jordan tonight.

April had just won her first individual Immunity of the season, and she’d be eager to repeat and continue to represent all of the women that had fallen throughout the game. Bryan had also only won individual Immunity once, a fact I’m sure he’s not too thrilled with after how he dominated the first phase of the game. While he’d won a Reward or two throughout the season, individual Immunity is the greatest way to protect yourself at this point.

Graham came back into the game from Exile Island on fire, winning Immunity in his first challenge back. That hadn’t placed a target on his back however as he avoided the vote for a number of weeks before winning 2 of the last 3 challenges – he’s won 3 in all and would like to add another. Jon had won 2, but five Immunity Challenges have come and gone without a win for the Last Bastard, and tonight he’d need it more than ever.

Jordan hit a hot streak a couple weeks ago, really turning it around from earlier in the game – patience and accuracy overtaking the need for speed. But recently he’s regressed to the mean, rushing his answers and missing out on adding to his 2 individual Immunity wins. He along with the other four players knew that if they did not win today there was a very real possibility they’d be headed to the Jury. No player could be 100% they’d be safe, no matter what had been promised, and no plan could be trusted completely. Nobody knows for sure how the Jury is going to base their votes, and so deciding who to work with NOW could be the difference between winning and losing at the end.

So let’s get to today’s Final 5 Immunity Challenge!

The players would need to look at the below picture and count how many times the circles intersected with one another. I’m sure that every player would take a slightly different approach, but taking the time to get it right would be completely worth it now. There’s no point in rushing if you leave the chance open that you may have missed an intersection. There are no longer any points for 2nd place.

It’s beautiful isn’t it? So I had the benefit of counting intersections as I added the circles, to make it easier on myself. I could then re-count to make sure that my initial tally was correct, and I could do all that without the pressure of Immunity over my head. If you count carefully, and double check your total you’ll eventually get to the correct answer of 60. But how many players would get the right answer, and who would be quickest?

All throughout the season there’s been more incorrect answers than correct ones, which is likely due to the pressure to be fast. But if it was me, I’d rather be correct and 2nd than incorrect and first. Training yourself to take it slow and steady, while taking the time to double-check your answers is essential to win these challenges, and some players were learning that lesson exactly at the right time. So in what order did they answer?

The first player to answer was April, who for the 2nd time in a row got her answer in immediately before Graham. Has Graham decided to wait to let April answer first, given how long he had been answering seconds before April? Or has April shut Graham out altogether and started solving the challenges by herself? We may never know for sure, but ultimately April’s speedy answer of 61 was off by one, and over the total of 60 – so just like The Price Is Right, April cannot win.

As I mentioned, Graham was next to answer with a pretty close guess of 56. There are still three other players to answer, but 56 is pretty close, and for the moment Graham is in pole position.

His cousin Jordan buzzed in 3 minutes later. He indicated that he was in the shower, which is never ideal for an Immunity Challenge, and likely played into the fact that Jordan felt he didn’t have enough time to take it slow and steady. He definitely did though, and so his “way off” rushed answer of 36 puts him currently in 2nd place and Jordan will not win Immunity today.

Three minutes after that, Bryan got his answer in. Would Bryan get it right? If not, would he be closer than Graham? Well the answers to those questions are No and Yes! Bryan’s answer was 58, and while not correct, was 2 closer than Graham – who was now eliminated. So with only Jon left to answer, Bryan was in a very good position to win his 2nd individual Immunity of the season.

And so, like clockwork, three minutes after I received Bryan’s answer, Jon submitted his. Ten minutes had passed since April first answered, and that goes to show how much extra time Jon took to figure it out. Would Jon’s answer be closer than Bryan’s? Would he get it right? Would he guess a number higher than 60?

Let’s find out…

The winner of Immunity, and a highly coveted spot in the Final 4 is…

…

…

…

And just when he needed it most, Jon pulled out the victory with a perfect answer of 60!!! 

After seeing his allies Chris and James voted out back to back over the past 5 days, Jon knew that this would be the most important Immunity Challenge of the season, and he got that clutch win. I imagine the other players, all tightly connected by alliance or family, are now scrambling to determine what path they should take to join Jon in the final week of the game. As I’ve said before, who you keep in the game is even more important than who you vote out now that we’re so close to the end. Every player is a potential blocker or opportunity, and the four players not named Jon will need to figure out which is which.

Tribal Council will take place on Saturday at 8:15pm, and from there, the Final 4 will embark on a crazy last week of Survivor Hamilton.

Good luck everyone!

MH

Next Episode