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ELR's desperate gambit blows up in his face quickly in that Parvati and Danielle catch him in the act. They have a specific conversation on the beach wherein they realize what he has done, but the cameraman offers the best performance here. He catches shots of the other players, particularly Sandra, paying careful attention to the conversation. Moments later, ELR moves on to Plan B. He knows that he has burned a bridge with Danielle that will never be rebuilt. He isn't quite sure where he stands with Parvati, but he realizes that what has to happen is that he has to orchestrate Danielle's elimination from the game. Immediately.

Russell goes over to first Colby and then mortal enemy Rupert and offers them an alliance. Rupert hypocritically fist bumps him after the men agree to work together. We do not expect this to be a longstanding agreement. It does make sense for Colby and Rupert, though. Both of them have a chance of getting out of tonight's episode with their game status intact, something we hadn't expected to be a possibility prior to the show.

"Danielle, I'm not changing my vote. I'm voting for Rupert. Rupert needs to go." -- Jerri, whose vote is about to determine the next phase of this season of Survivor.

Yes, Jerri changes her vote. While she was right that Rupert needed to go, he does not. How does this happen? Jerri votes for Danielle. How does this happen? Let's just say that Danielle has no one to blame but herself.

Right before Tribal Council, ELR attempts to berate Jerri into voting off of Danielle. His argument is the same nonsensical garbage that Parvati saw right through and our inclination is to believe that the same is true of Jerri. She asks all of the right questions when ELR threatens her about her impending elimination after Danielle goes. Jerri specifically states that she wants to know who will get her voted off and how, but all ELR can offer, the tell-tale sign that he is making the whole thing up is when he says those dreaded words all liars use when they're desperate: "Help me help you."

So, if Jerri says she won't vote off Danielle and she blows off ELR when he tries to manipulate her into voting off Danielle, how does Jerri become the swing vote that eliminates Danielle? Jerri watches Danielle cry at Tribal Council. No, it's not as simple as that, but this is the first domino to fall in the process. Danielle is overly defensive from the start of Tribal Council, trying to justify actions that frankly didn't need a lot of justification.

As we have noted at several points since the merge, a certain portion of Danielle's self-esteem comes from her tight alliance with Pavarti. This proves to be her undoing as having that threatened causes her to meltdown when pressed to define it. She slips when she offers the tell-tale words that the real alliance, the one driving everything is Parvati, ELR and her. This is news to Jerri, whose eyes widen when Danielle utters that statement.

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