Previously on Survivor Hamilton: Old Meets New
With Bryan narrowly missing out on the Final 4, we headed into our 2nd last Immunity Challenge, which April won – besting Graham, Jon and Jordan. Then, at Tribal Council, April decided to bring Graham along with her to the Top 3, while Jon and Jordan faced off in a head to head trivia battle. Jon won by a narrow 7-6 margin, sending Jordan to the Jury in 4th place. Now our Top 3 compete in the last, and most important, Immunity Challenge of the season.

Our final three players had each been through the ringer to get to this point. Jon had survived 21 Tribal Councils, needing to use an Idol to get through one of them. April had been to 20 Tribal Councils, also needing to use an Idol to even make it to the Tribe Swap. Graham had actually been voted out right before the Merge, when a fortunate twist allowed Exile Island to vote someone back into the game, and they chose Graham. It had not been easy. They had each won timely individual Immunity Challenges as well, along with being a part of huge blindsides and successful alliances.

April and Graham were the last two remaining members of The Family alliance, while Jon was the Last Bastard – which was a fitting end to the two most powerful alliances in the game. Jon of course was hoping to win today’s challenge because there was likely no way that April or Graham – a married couple for heaven’s sake – were going to take him to the Final Tribal Council if they came out victorious today. Sure, anything can happen, but a victory, for each player, was exactly what they needed today. The winner of today’s Immunity Challenge would not only earn their spot in the Top 2 (and final Tribal Council) but get to choose which player they sat beside.

That is a HUGE feather in the cap, and a great story to tell the Jury – look no further than last season, with Meg winning and taking Rebecca instead of Jordan and going on to a landslide victory with the Jury. Victory today was the final piece in the puzzle of an almost 4-month long battle for supremacy, and April, Graham and Jon could taste it. The concern for Jon of course would be that he’s up against a pair of players that will likely be sitting with eachother when the challenge is sent. If there are multiple questions or tasks, it’s possible for April and Graham to share them, thereby increasing their chances of one of them winning. Of course, as challenges earlier in the season showed, they could be wrong, or confuse eachother which would add to their response time.

Additionally, Jon could always get help from HIS wife, or another player if he wanted. That may NOT be what he wants – too many cooks in the kitchen and all that – because working slow and steady has been Jon’s technique since the beginning and I imagine he needs peace and quiet for that. So here we go April & Graham vs Jon for all the marbles!!!

The final Immunity Challenge would be a Three Round contest, with each player having only 3 chances to correctly answer the first question before moving on, 2 chances to answer the second question, and 1 chance to submit an answer for the final question – closest to the correct answer winning Immunity. I hope that makes sense, because it took some explaining to the players that’s for sure.

 VS VS

Round 1:

At how many different points do the above triangles intersect?

The players would only have 3 chances to get a correct answer here, because 3 wrong responses and they’d be completely eliminated from today’s competition.

April was the first player to answer, with a response of 79.

Incorrect, 2 chances left for April.

Then, April answered again with 82.

INCORRECT, ONLY 1 CHANCE LEFT FOR APRIL!

Graham was the next player to respond, with a CORRECT answer of 84. Graham moves onto Round 2.

Graham’s correct answer appeared to come at the right time, because April swiftly answered 84 and also moved onto Round 2.

Jon was nowhere to be found.

Round 2: 

Seven soldiers were always positioned in the game order when standing at attention. Their names are Able, Baker, Charlie, Dog, Easy, Fox and George. The problem was that their commanding officer couldn’t remember the order, just these facts:

1. Baker was no more than two places from Fox.
2. Able was two places from Baker.
3. George was somewhere to the left of Charlie while Dog was next to Fox.
4. Charlie stood three places to the left of Easy.

Can you find the correct order of the seven soldiers? Answer using the first letters of their names only. (eg. ABCDEFG) 

It was around this time that Jon finally sent in his first attempt at the answer for Round 1. He answered 80, which was incorrect and he’d have 2 more chances.

About 5 minutes after sending Graham and April the 2nd question Graham responded correctly with AGBCFDE with April answering only about a minute and a half later with the same answer. April and Graham both move onto the Final Round while Jon was still on Round 1.

Round 3:

How many total votes (including re-votes, and the votes at the 3-Player Swap) were cast by Kobara, Nevala and Ulloo BEFORE the Merge? If no player is correct, the player closest without going over will win. 

So with Jon still toiling away on the first question, taking his time in the tortoise-style that only he perfected, April and Graham had to solve the above question. They were smart in that they spent time building out their own spreadsheet in the eventuality that they’d need to answer a question like this.

April was the first to answer with a response of 184.

Graham answered immediately after with 229.

Are we sure they worked together on the spreadsheet? How could their answers be so different? Anyways, their challenge was over, and now they had to wait.

So with April and Graham locked in, would Jon get the chance to compete with them in the Final Round or would be be eliminated by the first 2 questions?

Jon took another shot at the Round 1 question, answering 81, and now he only had ONE MORE CHANCE to even compete with April and Graham.

Jon took his time (as he does) and finally answered 84, moving onto Round 2.

Like Graham, Jon answered the 2nd question correctly, and quickly, and was sent the Final Question.

A full 27 minutes after April answered 184, and Graham answered 229, Jon responded. But before we get to Jon’s response, let’s see what the correct answer is:

Tribal #1: 14 for Ross, 1 for Wayne – 15 votes
Tribal #2: 9 for Silas, 6 for James – 15 votes
Tribal #3: 9 for David M., 5 for Jim – 14 votes
Tribal #4: 7 for Wayne, 4 for Ruth, 2 for Sharon – 13 votes
Tribal #5: 4 each for April, Damien and Sasha – 12 votes, THEN 7 for Damien, 2 for Sasha – 9 votes
Tribal #6: No votes
Tribal #7: 5 for Jim, 4 for April, 1 for Ruth – 10 votes
Tribal #8: 4 for April, 3 for Ian, 2 for Ruth – 9 votes
Tribal #9: 4 for Shareed, 2 for David C., 1 for Sasha – 7 votes
Tribal #10: 7 for Jonathan, 1 for Elliott – 8 votes
Tribal #11: 6 for Andre, 1 for Peter – 7 votes
Tribal #12: 4 for Elliott, 2 for Dave, 1 for Cowin – 7 votes
Tribal #13: 5 for Dave, 1 for Chelsea, 5 for Graham, 1 for Peter, 2 each for April, Ruth and Sasha – 18 votes, THEN 3 for Sasha – 3 votes
Tribal #14: 3 for Dave, 2 for Amanda, 1 for Chris – 6 votes
Tribal #15: 2 for Ruth, 2 for Sasha, 1 for David C., 1 for Paul – 6 votes, THEN 4 for Sasha – 4 votes
Tribal #16: 4 for Amanda, 1 for Peter – 5 votes
Tribal #17: 2 each for Cowin, Sharon, and Kyle – 6 votes, THEN 3 for Cowin, 1 for Sharon – 4 votes
Tribal #18: 2 for Graham, 2 for Sharon, 1 for Jordan – 5 votes, THEN 2 for Graham 1 for Sharon – 3 votes

Total Votes: 186

So Graham’s answer of 229 is disqualified.

April’s answer of 184 is REALLY close, and should be enough to win her 2nd clutch individual Immunity of the season. But what about Jon’s answer?

…

…

…

Jon answered…

184 also!

Which means…

April wins Immunity, a spot in the Final Tribal Council, and the decision whether to take Graham or Jon with her! 

Congratulations April! Your hard work paid off, as well as the decision to partner with Graham and keep eachother safe all through the Merge so that you’d have the opportunity to give eachother a little assistance here and there through these challenges.

Tomorrow will be the last traditional Tribal Council of the season, and on Friday the Jury will vote for the winner!

Good luck with your decision April. Take a look at all of the members of the Jury and decide which path forward is best for you.

MH

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