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Hello good people and congratulations to all of you who have made the Survivor: HHH merge with me! As expected, the tribes will merge tonight with 12 players remaining in the game. The merge factored highly into the decisions made last week as the Soko Tribe (they're yellow) went back to Tribal for the 2nd time in a row.

The decision boiled down to whether JP's strength and challenge prowess was a bigger merge threat than Ali's hurt feelings and likelihood to take revenge. In the end, Ryan and Chrissy made the only choice they really could and sent season favorite Ali to the pre-merge trip where she and Patrick will be able to relive some of those college days. War Eagle!

To get everyone up to speed for the merge, let's real quick set the tables of each of the 3 tribes. Levu/Blue - Joe and Desi vs Devon and Ashley, though Desi seems ready to turn on Joe and Joe has an idol, so things are really kinda up in the air over at Levu Beach. Soko/Yellow - Ryan and Chrissy are in lock step and might be the tightest alliance in the game. JP is along for the ride and is likely to be a vote until he's not needed, and things like that. Yawa/Red - did not go to Tribal after the swap, meaning that Cole, Jessica and Dr. Mike have managed to avoid Tribal Council for the entirety of the pre-merge. Dr. Mike has the Yawa idol and Jessica knows about it. Cole can't keep a secret and also isn't eating enough. Ben and Lauren, so far, have been holding onto their butt cheeks and hoping to not go to Tribal. As it stands now, they may have pulled in Dr. Mike, but it remains to be seen if he'll even be necessary once the tribes merge. Ben and Chrissy were pretty tight pre-swap and Lauren was working with Ryan pre-swap.

Right now, everything is shaping up to see the Heroes and Hustlers join forces and take out the Healers. Don't forget that Devon is now locked in with Ashley and he was Ryan's right hand man (or is it the other way around). And, let's not forget power couple Ashley and JP from the pre-swap days. It would take a pretty massive event at this point to stop the Heroes and Hustlers from taking over. Hell, the merge buffs are purple, for crying out loud, the blend of the original Hero and Hustler colors. But, with 2 idols in play and both in the hands of the Healers, we could be in for an interesting next couple of votes if the wrong Healers get targeted.

Ok, enough setup - let's get on with the merge!!

We begin the episode at Soko Beach as everyone returns from Tribal. Chrissy tells us that she feels like she's dominating the social game on her tribe. Ryan and JP are both coming to her and she feels like she's in the power position and set up for a nice run.

Over at Yawa, Cole tells us how much everyone on this tribe trusts each other. The plan for their group is to stay together after the merge. They expect that original tribal lines may come back up, but they don't plan to fall for that. They want to pull in Joe and Desi and they'll have the numbers advantage. Ben is down for that plan right now, but Cole worries him. As does his closeness to Jessica.

Catching up at Levu and they are out of food. They have a small bit of sugar let, which they all share. Ashley narrates this segment to let us know how bleak everything is on their beach right now. Devon echoes this by telling us that he just feels dead inside. So hungry that he can hardly think. He says that this reward challenge win is HUGE for him.

Which brings us to the expected Probst sighting!! As Soko comes in, Devon looks shocked to see Ali voted out. Before getting to the challenge, Jeff asks Desi about how sluggish she was coming to the challenge. She admits that they are completely out of food at their tribe. Ben chimes in that he thinks everyone is feeling that way, so "Let's get to gettin', Jeff."

"Alright, first things first - everybody drop your buffs. You are merged."

And there is much rejoicing. Everyone somehow finds the energy to jump up and down, scream and hug. Ryan is just looking for someone ANYone to give him a high five. He finds no takers and just joins in the hugging, playing it off as if it never happened. But we saw it Ryan, we saw it. Ben tells us that the game can really get moving now. Let's roll those beautiful credits!

We come back from break to everyone getting their new purple buffs. Ashley hopes that the merge means food. Joe is thrilled that it's merge time. He feels like he has the numbers and his new idol. Desi wants to know where the food is. Jeff addresses everyone about the traditional merge feast. He admits to them that there will be no merge feast. Not this time - they have a corporate sponsor for the merge feast. I don't feel like I need to give them an more free advertising, but I'll suffice it to say that Queen Sandra Diaz-Twine would be in 7th heaven out here with this restaurant providing the food. They'll be having steaks, potatoes, salad and chocolate lava cake as well as sodas and beer. Ryan is so excited to have made the merge, calls it the playoffs.

As everyone arrives at the make shift restaurant, Devon tells us that he just feels like a king right now, finally getting some real food. Cole tells us about how this meal is meaning so much to him, physically. They have huge bone-in ribeyes, baked potatoes with all the fixin’s and massive chocolate cake deserts. As Joe is obnoxiously ordering 2 steaks, Chrissy tells us that she is getting her first taste of Joe and that she's really glad to not have been on a tribe with him before. Jessica confirms for us that she wants to stay Yawa strong and add in Joe and Desi and they'll be set til the end. But, Ben is chatting up Chrissy. She tells him that she's really worried about Joe having another idol. Ben is being very nonchalant about this as he doesn't want everyone to know how closely they're working together. He tells us that now that the game is individual, he plans to start playing a little different. He doesn't need to be the nice guy anymore. Now it's all about his family and his future. He promises some blindsides and the fact that some people will probably leave crying.

When the tribe arrives at a brand new beach, they find a set of tools and nails and all kinds of stuff with which to build a super duper new shelter. Cole tells us that he's very excited to have all this stuff, but he feels like he needs to get back into the game, so he's searching all of the gear for some sort of advantage. As he reaches into the bundle of nails, the camera zooms in on a note hidden among the nails. Cole, however, never finds it. Way to be alert, dude. We see Jessica and Desi getting away for a chance to chat it up. Jess wants to know if Joe is still with them or not. Desi says she's glad to keep Joe around as long as they need him and this leaves Jessica feeling, in her own words, "...like a queen bee."

Also catching up are Devon and Ryan. Devon was worried that Ryan wouldn't make it to the merge. They start talking alliance and once they break it down, they decide that the Hustlers and Heroes need to get together and go after the Healers. They'll have a 7-5 advantage and can then run the game. He plans to waste no time setting up this new alliance. But first, CBS needs to pay some more bills, I guess an entire corporate sponsored segment doesn't go as far as it used to.

We come back from commercial to Day 18 at the new Solewa Beach. Devon tells us that the Heroes and Healers have seemed to be after each other all season, while the Hustlers have kind of flown under the radar. He approaches Lauren about the plan to align with the Heroes and while she agrees to it to his face, she tells us that she has a good thing going with the Yawa alliance and she doesn't want to break that up. So she goes to Dr. Mike to tell him of the plan. He confirms that they're together 1000 percent. Mike tells us that he was worried about the Healers becoming the targets but that he feels confident in Lauren and Ben and that when the war is waged, he'll end up on the right side of it.

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