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And with that, it's time for another Probst sighting! Today's immunity challenge is another endurance challenge. This one's going after the legs. The players will stand in a squatting position holding a couple bars on their shoulders. If they stand too tall, their urn of water will drop and they're out of the challenge. If they stand too low, their bars will hit a rope and release a flag and they'll be out of the challenge. Last one standing wins immunity and can't be voted out of this game. Jeff, as usual, talks throughout the entire challenge, with a couple references to The Wiggle Room (shout out to Rob and Josh). He has to be doing that on purpose, right? Anyway, Ashley and Dr. Mike are quick casualties of this challenge and we're down to 8. JP, Devon and Joe are the next 3 to drop and we're down to 5. Ben drops next and we have 4 left. Chrissy, Cole, Lauren and Ryan. Ryan?? Wow, ok! 20 minutes in and we still have 4 people standing. Chrissy loses it and she's out of the challenge. With the slightest of movements, Ryan drops out. It's down to Cole and Lauren. After a few minutes of back and forth, Cole finally loses his urn and Lauren wins immunity!! As we head to break, Cole tells us that he had the chance to save himself in the challenge and his only hope now is how much everyone hates Joe and hopefully they'll take him out.

We come back from the final break to play, "It's Anyone But Cole"! As we enter camp, everyone is complimenting Lauren on the win. Ben is very excited. Cole is unprotected and he wants him gone. He is worried about the idol, though, so he wants to split the vote. He says they should vote 4 for Cole and 3 for Mike. Ashley is pissed that Joe is no longer on the table. Lauren tells her she needs to get passed that for a second. Ben wants Cole because they might not get another shot at him, but Ashley doesn't get why they won't put some votes on Joe. So, she goes to Chrissy to rally her to the cause of voting out Joe. Devon is on board with getting rid of Joe as well.

Meanwhile, Mike has no idea what's going on, so he asks Ben who to vote for. Ben tells him to vote Cole and not to tell Joe. He doesn't really trust Ben right now, so he's decided he's going to do something to break up that alliance. Joe and Mike have a strategy session and discuss getting Ben out. Joe admits to Mike that he doesn't have an idol or they'd be having a different talk right now. His plan is to play his idol for someone and take out Ben.

Chrissy decides to straighten Ben out on the Joe vote. However, he is having none of it. He is set on the vote as it is. She does NOT like being told what to do, that's for sure. She even tries to talk him out of voting for Cole at all. It would seem that there's a compromise to be made here. Split the vote on Cole and Joe - chips fall where they may. But instead, Ben is being quite stubborn about this and he has just put the first serious target on his back. Chrissy wants to be the smartest person in the room and he's not letting her do that. This will come back to bite his ass later. I'd almost guarantee it.

We get to Tribal Council and Jeff brings in the first member of the jury. 2 things happen here. First, Mike leans to Joe and whispers, "Just follow my lead. Trust me." Joe nods but is clearly confused. Second, Devon has little hearts in his eyes when Desi comes in all cleaned up and dressed for the occasion. He starts with Joe and asks him where everyone stands 24 days in. Joe says that his game is lost as he's not part of the Round Table. He tells Jeff that Mike and Joe are also on the outs. Cole says that no one is talking game with him at all, so he's pretty sure he's in trouble tonight. Chrissy explains the vibe at camp is very strained as Joe has decided to just pick on her and Ashley and be quite the bully. Before Joe can even answer, Dr. Mike speaks up. Here it comes, the big play. Follow the lead, Joe!

He says that he's really disappointed in the tribe. He says that Survivor represents society. He feels the game should be played with high moral character. And they keep painting Joe as this pariah, but they never vote him out. Where's the integrity in that? He also says something about Ben being King Arthur, but he'd rather be America because America will win in the end. Um, yeah, I don't get it either. He tells Lauren straight up that they're displaying poor moral character by not voting Joe out, if he's such a horrible person. She suggests she could give him a shovel to dig deeper. Honestly, I have no idea what he's doing. Is he trying to be an asshole so people will vote for him? Or is he trying to goad people into voting for Joe and then giving him the idol? This is the oddest "strategy" I've ever seen at a Tribal Council. Joe chimes in that they're all living in a fantasy world where they don't need to play the game. Mike suggests that they're not thinking past the 7 and once the Healers are gone, 3 don’t beat 4. Ben tries to play down the whole Round Table thing - but no one is buying it. No one. Lots of talking is going on right now, but I have no idea what they could be talking about. After a bit of this, it's time to vote. I have a feeling I know how this is gonna go.

All we hear is Ryan's vote saying, "Kinda shocked right now. Sorry, buddy." And Jeff tallies the votes and asks about idols. Mike stands up and says that America is gonna stay one more day. He plays the idol for himself. He's also very proud of himself. Let's see how it plays out. First vote: Ben. Second vote: Mike. Third vote: Mike. They don't count. After the 3, there's a flurry of 7 votes for Cole and Cole is the 9th person voted out and the second member of our jury. I would LOVE for someone to explain this one to me. Mike goes out of his way to be an asshole in an attempt to use his idol for something or other. In the end, he plays an idol he doesn't need to play AND votes for Cole anyway! What in the blue hell is going on here? I can't wait to hear what in the hell is going on in his head here. He needed to come out of this Tribal with 1 of 2 things intact. Either he, Cole and Joe needed to still be in the game or he needed to still have his idol. Amazingly enough, he now has NEITHER of these things as he wasted his idol and voted for Cole anyway! In a season that is really dragging me down, this is just another head scratcher. Bad strategy, boring Pagonging and some unlikable people remaining make this a bottom tier season of Survivor through 9 episodes. Hopefully next week's double episode will shake things up a bit.

Speaking of...Next time on Survivor: the Alliance of 7 is set in stone. Or maybe not. Lauren thinks they're stupid if they think this whole thing will last. And we see Ashley and Lauren trying to make a play with Mike and Joe. Mike sets it up nicely, "Stay tuned, I think it's about to get really good." All right, Mike, you're the Doc. I'll give it a shot. Til next time, take care everyone!

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