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Day 29 brings the rain and a little bit of depression. We're at the month mark now and when the weather sucks, the mood is just down. Chrissy seems to be feeling it the most. Mike, to his credit, offers about the only thing he has to offer. A hug. Part of her issues here are that she has waited SO long to get on this show and right now, she's really facing the reality that her game might be over.

And that brings us to our 4th Probst Sighting of this amazing double episode night. Today's immunity challenge looks like quite the gauntlet. It's big enough that the players freak out a little as they walk in. Today they will be using a Survivor driving wheel to transport a key in an urn through some obstacles. Drop the urn; you go back to the start. Once they get through, they'll use the key to unlock some letter blocks. They'll have to transport the letter blocks across more obstacles on the wheel to get to the puzzle itself. Drop a block, go back to the start. Once all blocks are to the puzzle, they can start to figure out the one word answer (INVULNERABLE - by the way). First one finished wins immunity.

Ben, Devon and Joe are the first ones across to start unlocking puzzle pieces. Ashley and Chrissy are next to join. Mike and Ryan cannot get past the first section. Lauren is a little slow, but she gets to her puzzle pieces. Devon and Ben take a decent sized lead on this one and it looks to be their challenge to lose. Ashley makes a huge move to catch up to the guys and the 3 are started on their puzzles. Devon has no idea what this puzzle could be. As he and Ashley struggle; Lauren, Joe and Chrissy all get to the puzzle. As everyone kinda sits around for a bit, something clicks for Chrissy and she starts rearranging. Devon does the smart thing and cheats off her, but he is not fast enough and Chrissy wins immunity. As we head to commercial Chrissy tells that she was really in trouble tonight and she needed to win this one.

We come back from break to play, "It's Anyone But Ryan, Maybe. Or Joe. Maybe Even Ben or Mike. Hell I Don't Know". We get a little comedy from Devon as he congratulates Chrissy by mentioning that he doesn't even know a 12 letter word. The four get together to decide who to get rid of. Ben wants Joe gone and everyone is on board with that vote. But, they need to have something to tell Mike and Joe. Devon comes up with the plan to tell them that he, Mike and Joe should vote Ryan. Lauren, her extra vote and Ashley will all vote Ben. If an idol is played, they'll revote for whoever isn't safe. This, ladies and gentlemen, is called managing your alliance. It's easy to just decide to vote Joe out. It’s very much harder to vote out Joe AND come up with a plan for Joe to follow that doesn't cause him to go scrambling into the woods. This works perfectly. Joe and Mike want to get rid of Ben so bad that they ask no questions and jump right on board the train to see Ben go home. Devon is really stepping up his game tonight. I really think the kid can win it all.

We join Chrissy, Ryan and Ben talking things out. Chrissy knows that they will split the votes and she figures Ben will be the main target. Ryan is trying to figure out whether or not to play his idol. Ben tells him he'd definitely be playing one tonight if he had one. They realize that they're down 5-3, so there's not much of a chance for them, so Ryan and Ben shake hands as if to say, "May the best man win." Meanwhile, of course, Ben is loving life since the biggest thorn in his side, Joe, is getting ready to be sent home without the slightest inkling that it's happening. But, right before Tribal, Ashley and Lauren start talking about how crazy it would be to take Ben to the final 4. If he gets to the end, he wins. They decide tonight might be the time to make a play for Ben. Use Joe and Mike as extra votes to help that happen. Ashley takes this idea to Devon to gauge his reaction. He does his best Spicoli impression to suggest he's blown away by this suggestion. He tells her he doesn't know what to think right now. He tells us that Ben is a threat in the game and that it would be a huge move to get rid of him. As they head to Tribal, Devon continues to break down the differences in a Ben vs Joe vote.

We get to Tribal and Jeff starts with Mike. He asks him about walking into Tribal smiling. He loves the game and he's getting along real well with his tribe. Joe says that he enjoys Tribal because it's the time when you get to see which relationships are real and which are manufactured. Ben agrees with this and suggests that he's in trouble tonight since Chrissy has the necklace and he's on the bottom. Ryan talks about how there was a crack in the alliance of 7 and Joe and Mike somehow got into it. Joe chimes in that there never really was a 7. He says that Ben sat there like a king with his 6 knights, but he was really sitting there with 6 other Kings and Queens. Mike adds that the suggestion that he and Joe are on the bottom of the new alliance is not necessarily true. They're simply the newest members of the alliance - not the least valuable. He goes on to say that just because Ryan and the 7 weren't able to make their alliance stick that doesn't mean this new alliance will do the same. The difference is the alliance itself. Devon and Ashley both comment on the fluidity of the game and the ups and downs and how hard it is to stay on top of everything. He finally asks Joe if there's any change in his feeling at tonight's Tribal from all the other Tribals. He says that he feels more comfortable than he has this entire game. And with that, it's time to vote.

As everyone casts their vote, we see no votes. The only thing we see is that Lauren only votes once. We also hear Devon tell whomever he voted for that they're a dangerous player and it's time for them to go home. Jeff tallies the votes and asks about immunity idols. Ryan steps up to play his idol and he plays it for himself. Ok, let's read the votes. The first 2 votes are Ryan and they don't count. The next 2 votes are Ashley. And here they come. 4 votes in a row - all for Joe. And Joe becomes the 4th member of our jury. On his way out, Devon and Ben both compliment him on his game. Chrissy, as is her MO, has to throw shade at him snarkily talking about how tight his alliance is/was. I don't think we need to look any farther than this to see why almost everyone coming out of this game has nothing but bad things to say about Chrissy. I mean, you got him. You won the war against Joe. Is there any reason to dress him down on the way out? Especially considering in about a week's time, he could be deciding whether or not to give you a million dollars and the title of Sole Survivor? The answer to this question is "No" there isn't a reason to do that, other than she just can't help herself. She just can't NOT say it.

Next time of Survivor: Love brings everyone together. They'll be running the reward challenge with their loved ones on the family visit. The game also starts to take a turn for the individual. Ben is feeling a bit off, so he seems to be making some sort of fake idol and looks like Devon might be the person he targets with it. Either way, after 9 episodes of mediocre to poor Survivor episodes, this week's double episode was exactly the kick in the teeth the season needed. Hopefully the momentum of this week will carry over to next week and the rest of the season. Thanks for reading, kids, and take care!

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