Survivor: Ghost Island Recap
Episode 2: Only Time Will Tell
By Kim Hollis and David Mumpower
March 12, 2018
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Night 6 at loser tribe Malolo has James feeling a little bit worried about his stature with the group. One of his tribemates tells him not to “hate himself,” which sounds fairly ominous.
None of that matters, of course. It’s Day 7, and Probst has summoned both tribes to the beach. Obviously, this can mean only one thing – a tribal switch. Indeed, Probst hands out new buffs. It’s time to mess up everyone’s game!
The new Naviti tribe members include enemies Dom and Chris, along with other previous Naviti members Angela, Wendell and Morgan. The former Malolo tribe members Donathan, Libby, Laurel and James find themselves outnumbered. On the plus side for the former Malolos, at least they’re moving to a more comfortable camp.
On the other side, New Malolo includes former Malolos Jenna, Stephanie, Brendan and Michael. They’re outnumbered by the former Naviti as well, as that group includes Desiree, Sebastian, Kellyn, Bradley and Chelsea. We’re pretty sure we’ve never seen any of the latter three prior to this moment.
Kellyn does say that she’s pretending to be open to working with Malolo, but really she thinks it would be epic to take them out one by one as she sticks with her Naviti alliance 100 percent. Bold thinking.
The former Naviti now inhabiting the Malolo camp are in for a bit of a shock, as the shelter is lopsided and sad. It’s nowhere close to the comfort they were used to at their home for the past six days. While Brendan is appreciating the beauty of the islands, Bradley is whining about the fact that the conditions at Malolo suck. He will continue to do so for the body of the episode. Way to make a great first impression!
But over at New Naviti, everyone is super happy because the camp is so delightful. Wendell comments that he doesn’t think that they’ll be going to Tribal Council anytime soon, but Chris follows that up pretty quickly by commenting that he doesn’t trust Dom and he needs to find a way to get that guy out of here and damn the consequences.
Chris goes to his right-hand woman Angela to mansplain why Dom needs to be the target at the next vote. “He’s talking to you instead of with you,” she complains.
Then, he goes to James and Libby to tell them how to vote. He tells them that Dom very likely has an idol and that they’re from New York and they should understand. Or something like that. They shake his hands, because why not?
“I’ll play dumb, but I’m not going to be dumb about it,” Libby says. Wise to be wary, we say.
Day 8 has Stephanie and Kellyn appreciating the beauty of the sunrise, while Bradley bitches. What game did he think he was playing, exactly?
Since Stephanie and Jenna realize that they don’t have the numbers with this new group, they go on a mad dash to search for a hidden Immunity idol. Meanwhile, Bradley and friends celebrate their awesome position.
Soon, Michael and Brendan have joined the hunt for the idol, with Michael and Brenda locating it successfully. It’s a “ghost” idol from undertaker James, who went home with two of them in his pocket.
Morgan and Dom fret about Chris’s potential treachery. Even though they desperately wish that they could stay together for a vote, they realize that Chris probably isn’t onboard with them. Morgan figures she can approach Libby, and the two of them seem to connect. For her part, Libby is comforted that she can choose between the two alliances of the majority group.
So, it’s Probst time, which means Immunity is back up for grabs. Teams will race through same ramp walls and a sand pit before climbing up a ladder. Then, they have to unwind a rope, climb up a wall, and solve a puzzle. Along with Immunity, the winning tribe will take home a tarp and also will send someone from the other tribe to Ghost Island.
The ramp walls are no trouble for New Malolo, but Angela struggles with it. Malolo has their ladder well before Naviti gets theirs, but it gets close again with the ladder portion of the challenge.
Incidentally, Donathan rocks it throughout this challenge.
The tribes are neck and neck to get up on the platform where the puzzle sits. Naviti gets there first, but Malolo is right behind them. Wendell and Laurel are handling puzzle duties for Navita, while Bradley and Kellyn are in charge for Malolo.
The good news is that tribe members can help the people assigned to the puzzle. Well, it’s good news for Malolo, because Michael and Brendan totally have this thing figured out. The combination of brain power allows Malolo to win Immunity and reward, which means we do indeed have a Chris/Dom showdown in the offing.
Or do we?
Malolo cannot agree on the person to send to Ghost Island, because the decision has to be unanimous and obviously the tribes are split. So, Naviti will draw rocks.
Chris is going to Ghost Island.
With this turn of events, not only is the showdown over, but the numbers are even.
At Ghost Island, Chris gets emotional. He doesn’t get to play any Ghost Island games, but instead just has to suffer alone. He’s missing home severely, and especially his mother, who was diagnosed with MS years ago. She’s his hero, but he’s struggling through this time to himself. He’s hoping to get rid of some negative energy and reboot by the time he returns to the tribe.
Angela tells Wendell that she is sticking with her group. She doesn’t want to send Dom home, so she expects the vote to be 4-4. Wendell believes that she is sketchy because she is Chris’s girl, so he wants to vote her out. He and Morgan figure that Chris will have no power if they eliminate Angela, so they pull Libby and James into the fold to vote Angela.
Dom exposes his fake idol to Libby, James and Laurel. And he actually tells them it’s a fake. So, they know it’s fake, but Chris doesn’t. This is knowledge they can use as they desire.
James’ spidey-senses go up, because he wonders if Dom might not be trying to throw them off the track of the fact that he has a real idol by showing them a fake idol. This wasn’t Dom’s intent, but he’s sneaky and untrustworthy enough that it could sure be perceived that way. Also, James is right about the real idol, so there’s that.
The old Malolo group gets smart here. James realizes that if Old Naviti wants to send Angela home, the four of them can vote for whomever they want and that person will be the boot. They decide to keep Dom around because 1) he might have an idol and 2) his dislike for Chris is to their benefit moving forward.
So, with the choices coming down to Wendell or Morgan, all of the former Malolo want to go with Morgan, except for her new BFF Libby. Libby feels like she can work with Morgan, and now she’s forced to decide which alliance makes the most sense for her.
At Tribal Council, the two factions basically say that they split into their two separate groups. But when Jeff quizzes them further, both Dom and Angela admit to going outside their own “alliance” to try to play the game a bit. Morgan says that she thinks that old Naviti could be stronger than ever, while Dom smarmily says that he’s excited to work with this new group of four.
While Libby talks about the fact that she’s not as sweet as she looks and that she would be perfectly willing to fib if needed, Morgan is ever more charmed by her. Jeff even notices and asks Morgan about it.
Angela does in fact stay with her alliance and votes Libby. The other three vote for Angela, though, which will prove to be doom for them.
All four Malolo tribe members vote for Morgan, which means that they have managed quite the strategic coup. For a group that looked like they were in a terrible position at the beginning of the episode, they’re sitting pretty now. Angela knows that Dom and Wendell voted for her, and Chris already can’t wait to go head-to-head with Dom. So that tribe is splintered, while Old Malolo is solid.
Well done, Libby, Laurel, Donathan and James.
P.S. Morgan wills the Legacy advantage to Domenick. Ugh.