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Tribal Council. Probst says that when you’re sitting in your living room fantasizing about playing Survivor, four straight immunity losses is not how things go. Brad agrees, and says that they have lost two challenges so far due to poor puzzle performance, i.e. Ciera.

Probst points out to Ciera that she was beaten by her own mother, and Ciera owns it, agreeing that she now feels that maybe she’s not as good at puzzles as she thought. But she isn’t going to whine – she’s going to focus on getting further in the game and looking at where she can be of benefit to people.

Probst points out that poor Brad takes grief at every Redemption Island, and he talks about how everyone thinks he’s a bad guy. Poor Brad! I don’t think Brad’s a bad guy, just a bad Survivor player. Being “the leader” is as close to a Survivor death-sentence as you can get – which is why Probst likes to force tribes into picking leaders. This goes double in a season where everyone you vote out has a connection to the other tribe and quadruple when they have a chance to air their grievances in front of everyone. Hayden realized this. Vytas realized this. John realized this. Brad only started to realize this in Episode 3, and by then he was already the leader, which he shouldn’t have wanted to be in the first place in any normal season. Being the leader only works when you know how to play Survivor, like Boston Rob or Yul Kwon.

Probst nudges Brad along, by saying that it would be great to vote out someone without a loved one. No one would be mad and there’d be no Redemption Island comeuppance! Brad admits, after spending a long time scratching his stubble, that this is a factor in tonight’s vote. Again, too much honesty from Brad. There is nothing wrong or immoral about lying to Probst.

Probst asks Caleb, the only one without a Galang connection, if he is feeling the pressure. Caleb talks about the “taste in the mouth” from a blind-side and that maybe people want more of that. While Caleb loves blind-sides and is fine being the goat, he doesn’t want to be blind-sided himself.

Caleb says he knows that he is low on the totem pole and Brad tries to assure him that is not the case and that Caleb is a valued member of the tribe. Caleb’s comeback is “you campaigned against me today.” Brad admits that “there were conversations,” but “campaigning’s a bad word.”

Probst asks Hayden about the cracks appearing in Tadhana. Hayden says that there is some “patchwork” to do, and that once you’ve lost someone’s trust in the game, it’s very hard to regain it.

Probst then points out that as someone without a loved one, Caleb has value as a vote – he can go any direction he wants without risking his relationship with his horrible, immature fiancé. What does the tribe have to do to get Caleb’s trust back? He says he trusts Vytas and Hayden while Brad is on the fence, and then he says to Ciera “I don’t want you to go home. I’ll just write Brad’s name down. You can do what you want to.” Katie’s hands are up, but not even close to hiding her huge grin. Ciera’s poker face is better.

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