Survivor: Last Resort 2.9 - New Zealand Episode 9

Survivor: Last Resort 2.9 - New Zealand Episode 9
Writer: Chad Taylor

Coming back from tribal council, there are clearly three people pleased with the result. While still technically a minority, the trio of Rick, Bradley, and Earl feel like the strongest entity in the game. Even though they tried to make good with them last round, the trio are keenly aware of the other trio in the game: the “Outsiders”. And then there is Jill - a once powerful playmaker who is now a lone wolf with little game capital. Each trio has a decision to make: do they take target the other trio this week and try to sway Jill or save themselves for now and go after the easy target?

The goal of this week’s immunity challenge is to ignite the top of a "teeter-totter tower". East castaway must gather firewood and use matches to start a fire in one bucket. Then they must fill a bucket on the opposite side of the teeter-totter with water. To make things more difficult, the water bucket will have a hole in it. First castaway to ignite their tower wins immunity. Over the course of the challenge, this ends up benefiting the castaways who can keep up the fastest pace. In this case, it is Sage and Jill, the two younger women. Sage comes close but Jill pulls it out in the end, winning her second straight immunity challenge!

In confessional, Jill is in tears as she knows the target has been on her for a while now. With no allies, the only thing she has is her Hidden Immunity Idol and the challenges to ensure safety. She is going to try to use this safety to leverage power and break away from her powerlessness.

Sage and Kenny meet with Jill and they discuss who they should target this week. Jill is hesitant to show her cards, as she knows anything could come back to bite her. She does say that she think Rick is the biggest threat. After she drifts off, Amanita talks to them and says that she is skeptical of Jill’s intentions. She voted out Vinolia and tried to vote out Sage, so she is basically a snake. Sage tells Amanita that it doesn’t really matter at this point: they need her vote this week to make a majority. This still does not sit perfectly with Amanita.

Rick pulls Amanita in and the former tribemates talk a little bit. He asks her who she is wanting to target this week. So as not to say one of his alliance mates, she says would’ve wanted Jill but that’s unfortunately off the table. So she has no other choice but to say someone like Bradley. Rick says he understands. He says that he really feels like it might be in his best interest to go Maori strong from here on out. Them two plus Kenny and Sage could have the majority until the end and then battle it out. Amanita says she likes the sound of that and asks for a pinky swear, which he obliges.

Meanwhile, when the man trio convenes, Rick updates them on this situation and Earl is sent out to talk to Jill. He tells Jill that Amanita was said to be targeting her this week. This confuses Jill as she doesn’t understand why her name would still be in people’s mouths. She wants to confront Amanita about it but Earl advises her not to. He says that the two Rick’s want to work with her to the final four. They get out Amanita, Sage, and Kenny and then they can take out Rick Broller and have a Tasman final three. In confessional, Jill says she doesn’t feel fully comfortable about aligning with them but she feels a bit hopeless after the amount of work she put in last vote (only for them to negate all the votes). And so this deal is sounding much more enticing than it would have last time around. She is not sure on which side to align herself with.

At Tribal Council, they talk about Jill’s second-straight immunity win and, again, she emphasizes how important it is for her game. Jeff asks them if they have to play differently because of the threat of the Hidden Immunity Idol, as seen in the last vote. Kenny says that it is difficult to do something like splitting the votes at this point, because that likely puts you in the minority. And so you have to be willing to make a gamble. Bradley acts smug throughout this conversation, as he was a dead man walking who survived despite them targeting him. Jill says that they came to play Survivor, knowing full well that unforeseen circumstances could wreck their game. This is easy for her to say, as no one here knows about her idol. Jeff says that it is time to vote.

After they have voted, he says that if anyone has a Hidden Immunity Idol, now would be the time to play it. Jill is the only one with an idol and doesn’t need to play it since she has immunity. He’ll read the votes.

First vote…..Rick

…..Amanita

…..Rick

…...Amanita

Two votes Rick Broller, two votes Amanita

…..Rick

…….Amanita

……….The tenth person voted off of Survivor: Last Resort - New Zealand and the third member of our jury: Amanita. The tribe has spoken.
In her post-show confessional, Amanita talks about her worry about Kenny and Sage going forward. They are playing too passively and the game is set to be dominated by the three men. She realizes that she probably shouldn’t have let her emotions get in the way from letting her work with Jill.

Amanita: Rick, Bradley, Earl, Jill
Rick: Kenny, Sage, Amanita