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I get what Matt is saying – why decide now when you don’t have to, especially when it could start stuff that you don’t want. But why would you make that point to someone trying to ally with you? Of course, this is probably music to Michael’s ears – of course he would want to ally with someone who doesn’t really understand the game.

Probst sighting! Immunity challenge! Probst calls out Cochran as having the worst sunburn ever in 26 seasons of Survivor. Cochran probably wets himself at being named “#1 ever at something Survivor” by Jeff Probst himself. “When did that happen?” asks Probst, as though Cochran has been spending too much time at the floating bar in the swimming pool when he could have been watching PPV in his air-conditioned room. “Instantly,” is Cochran’s reply.

Anyway, the immunity challenge. In pairs, the castaways have to climb ladders in a four-story tower and toss crates over the side to smash on the ground, then slide down a pole and run back to their tribe. There are four levels in the tower with three crates each, and the tribes send out one pair for each level. The fifth pair will gather the sandbags that have fallen out of the smashed crates and then throw them to land in targets. First tribe to get sandbags in all six targets wins. Fire is still up for grabs, not that anyone needs it, and someone from the losing tribe will be voted out first.

The first pair have the last amount of physical work to do, so it’s Cochran and Phillip from the “favorites” and “Sherri and Laura from the “fans”. The “favorites” get back marginally ahead. Michael and Hope outperform Francesca and Corinne on the second leg, but Erik and Brenda even things up on the third against Julia and Matt.

On the fourth and final leg, Brandon and Andrea easily win the race to the top level, and are sliding back down the pole while Eddie and Allie are still throwing their crates over the side. Malcolm and Dawn go to collect the bags and the fans “need to pick it up.”

Malcolm is doing the tossing, and he is up to three out of six sandbags in targets by the time Reynold and Shamar have collected theirs. However, Reynold goes on a tear and gets five sandbags in almost immediately. Malcolm is left struggling with four, Reynold gets in his last sandbag and the “fans” win the first immunity challenge. No Tribal Council for the “fans” and one of the “favorites” is going home.

There’s dangerous-sounding music as the “favorites” arrive back at camp. Cochran is walking under a sheet to help ward off sunburn. Francesca puts their loss down to luck as it was just bad luck that “Reynold was really good at tossing sandbags into holes.” In the shelter “I think Phillip,” Francesca tells Cochran. “Yeah,” he replies.

Francesca also says that Corinne may also be a good person to target. Francesca doesn’t trust her, mostly because Corinne has only talked with her about non-game things and because Corinne has a reputation as a schemer, this only puts Francesca on guard. To illustrate this, we see Corinne come up to Cochran and Francesca with a wet buff to soothe him and everyone takes turns laughing at Cochran’s sunburn.

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