User blog:Survivor321/Survivor Nicaragua blog episode 5: "Playing With His Hormones"

Last time on Survivor: At La Flor, Kelly S was furious at another blindside and broke down. But after recieving support from Brenda and Alina, she felt better. At Espada, Jill's injury grew worse and worse, causing concern from her tribe. At the Reward Challenge, La Flor dominated and brought back comfort items. Later, Kelly S revealed her feelings towards Fabio, who she connected with that day, causing concern with Shannon, Sash and Benry. At the immunity challenge, La Flor broke their losing streak, sending Espada back to tribal. Jill tried to scramble and oust Marty, but it was no use and she was voted out. 16 are left, who will be voted out tonight?

EPISODE

At Espada, Marty was enraged after finding out that Wendy voted for him. He unleashed a tirade onto her and she walked off in tears. Yve comforted the crying Wendy and told her that she'll vote out Marty with her. Jimmy T was concerned the tribe could continue into a downward spiral and wondered what to do.

At La Flor, the tribe was divided. Kelly S and Fabio were walking and talking along the coastline, Brenda and Alina were hanging out and braiding each other's hair and Sash, Benry and Shannon were creeping about in the bushes. Shannon told the two that they would blindside Fabio, who they felt betrayed the tribe with his flip to Kelly S. Shannon stated he would find the idol, while Sash made a duplicate one and would give it to Fabio.

Before the reward challenge, both tribes were instructed, via Tree Mail,  to represent their tribes, for only 4 people from each tribe would be able to compete, two males and two females. La Flor choose Shannon, Fabio, Kelly S, and Alina to represent them, while Espada choose Jimmy J, Marty, Holly, and Wendy. When they arrived, Jeff told them the rules to the challenge. Starting from the beach, each member will swim out into the ocean and navigate a floating maze. In the middle of the maze was a station with 16 bags of puzzle pieces, 8 for each tribe. One at a time, one member from each tribe will navigate the maze, collect a puzzle bag, and return back to the beach. Then the next person will swim out, and the process repeats. Since there were 4 tribe members competing, each member would have to navigate the maze twice. Once all 8 puzzle bags are taken out of the maze, the tribe would untie the bags, and use it to solve a jigsaw puzzle. First tribe to get all 8 bags and solve the jigsaw puzzle would win reward, a basket containing 3 chickens. There would be a twist later, but revealed after the challenge was over. At the start of the challenge, La Flor took the early lead and never seemed to wavier, having youth on their side as they quickly navigated the water maze. They never lost their lead as by the time they had gotten all their bags, they were ahead of Espada by 2 bags, what with Jimmy J, Wendy, and Holly all not doing so well in the challenge. Espada fought hard, but by the time they finally got all their bags, it was too late as La Flor won reward. But then there was the twist. Jeff informed the representatives of La Flor that even though they ended up winning reward, they ended up winning it for the opposite team. Because, they were no longer members of La Flor. Throwing opposite colored buffs to everyone, it was clear what the twist was...a tribal swap. Shannon, Fabio, Kelly S, and Alina were now members of Espada, While Jimmy J, Marty, Holly, and Wendy were now members of La Flor.

When the La Flor members arrived in Espada's camp, the original Espada were stunned that their old rivals were not only wearing their buffs, but were bearing gifts in the form of chickens. However, the older Espada members hid their shock and expressed their gratefulness for winning the reward challenge for them, and made them feel welcome. That night, the new Espada tribe celebrated around the fire in the sunset, telling stories and just having a good time hanging out with each other. However, away from the campfire was Fabio and Kelly S, sitting on the beach and watching the sunset. The two ended up getting rather intimate with each other, even sharing a kiss. Shannon seemed to catch them in mid kiss, and was infuriated, his worst fear was coming true. Fabio, his only ally after the tribal swap, seemed to have committed an act of betrayal. In a confessional, he wowed to get even with Fabio and punish him, planning to flip over to the old Espada and vote off Fabio.

Over on La Flor, the old Espada members arrived at camp, much to the surprise of Sash, Kelly B, Brenda, and Benry. Sash in particular wasn't so keen on the old Espada now being a part of their tribe. How he viewed it was that it was him and Benry on one side, Kelly B and Brenda on another, and then the new La Flor members were a complete wildcard. But then, he had an idea. He went deep into the jungle to find the fake immunity idol he was still in the process of making. It was originally intended to be given to Fabio in order to blindside him. However, now that Fabio was out of the tribe, it was useless to him now...or was it? It was a risk, but he approached Jimmy J with a deal for an alliance after he had finished the idol as fast as he could. Sensing that Jimmy J was the odd man out of the old Espada, he showed him the fake immunity idol in order to win his trust. Jimmy J seemed to believe him as they shook hands. Sash didn't know what he'd do afterwards, but one thing's for sure, he may have secured an ace in the hole in Jimmy J. Wendy was working hard, collecting firewood in an attempt to fit in on the tribe.

IMMUNITY CHALLENGE

The Immunity challenge was simple. It was a survivor version of a relay race. The first two members would toss balls onto 3 tiles that would progressivly get farther and farther away to hit. Once all 3 tiles were hit, the next two members would swim out into the ocean and retrieve a flag and swim back to shore. Then the next two will retrive the flag from the previous two and navagate a series of obstacles including a cargo net climb, a rope bridge, a wall climb, and a balance beam. Once the obstacle course was completed, the final 2 tribe members will take the flag and pull on a rope to pull a heavy 8 foot tall mast from out of the sea. Once the mast was pulled out of the water, all 8 tribe members would put the flag on the mast, and rest it in a hole on their starting mat. First tribe to finish would win immunity. At the tiles, Jimmy J and Wendy tossed balls for La Flor, while Yve and Jane tossed for Espada. La Flor broke their tiles first, with Espada finishing up 30 seconds later. Sash and Brenda swam for La Flor, retreving their flag first, while Kelly S and Jimmy T made up some time on the swim. On the obstacle course, Espada made up some more time as Alina and Tyrone did the obstacle course. Kelly B and Holly lost some time for La Flor as during the cargo net, her prostetic leg fell through one of the holes, and took some time to get out of it. By the time both tribes got to the mast pull, they were dead even. Fabio and Shannon seemed to be doing well, but Shannon seemed to wear himself out pulling out the mast. Marty and Berny pulled for La Flor and took it nice and east enough to take the lead, being the first tribe to pull out the mast. Espada was right behind, but it was to late as La Flor set up their mast first, giving La Flor immunity, meaning Espada were once again going to tribal council.

Once Espada returned to camp, Shannon's plan for revenge was set into motion. He talked with Yve, telling her he was willing to flip to the old Espada to vote out Fabio, making the numbers 5-3. She told him he was all for it, but something sneaky was brewing. She realized that Shannon flipping would give the old Espada members a potential advantage later on when the two tribes would merge. But she also thought Fabio wasn't the weakest player. So she went to the rest of the old Espada members, telling them that they should vote out Alina instead. She told them Shannon was on board and that he was gonna vote out Fabio, so that if the old Espada voted Alina, it would be a 4-3-1 vote, with Shannon's vote being wasted. After making sure none of them tell Shannon about, the plan was in action. She had a confessional explaining the plan, but also, subtly, trashing Fabio, Kelly S, and Shannon being nothing but a bunch of dumb immature kids. And that if tonight's vote went as planned, not only would they get rid of a not so good physical player, but they'd turn the numbers in favor of Espada, all because Shannon played with, how Yve put it, "He's playing with his hormones and not his brain."

TRIBAL COUNCIL

At tribal council, Jeff asked Kelly S how things were at camp, to which she replied that life at camp was rather good. The old Espada members welcomed them in camp, and that they had a good time that night. Shannon was asked that since this tribe was half Espada, half La Flor, if tribal alliances would hold up, and if there would be a deadlock vote. Shannon replied, to the shock of everyone, that he had flipped over towards Espada in order to get out Fabio. This immediatly stirred up yet another heated arguement with Kelly S, Fabio, and Shannon. Fabio, looking genuinly hurt, seemed angry at how Shannon would even think about betraying him, while Shannon was ragging on Fabio for hooking up with Kelly S, to which Fabio seemed confused on how getting intimate with Kelly S was a betrayal, when he still felt like he was alligned with Shannon. And all the while, Yve was covering her face, trying to hide her amusement. The plan was working well so far. Soon, the votes came in. There was 3 votes for Shannon, which wasn't a surprise since those votes came from Fabio, Alina, and Kelly S. There was 1 vote for Fabio, which also wasn't a shock since that was Shannon's vote. But then, all of them got blindsided when the next four votes were not for neither Fabio, nor Shannon, but instead Alina. Alina's torch is snuffed and Yve has a smirk on her face. Kelly S, Fabio, and Shannon however left tribal council with their fellow tribemates in complete shock. None of them got their way...and all of them were blindside

Voted out 20th- Dan 19t- NaOnka 18th- Chase 17th- Jill 16th- Alina