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Previously on Survivor, the last of the three “supervillains” of the season was ejected from the game. Yes, Aaron, Missy, and Elizabeth all saw karma come for them in consecutive votes after using Dan’s sexual harassment against other players. Last week’s vote was particularly tough, as Karishma would have been voted out had she not played an Immunity Idol.

With those three gone, the only truly icky person remaining is Dan himself. And of course, Karishma isn’t the greatest personality on the show this season, either. She’s miserable all the time. She’s the kind of person who *would* be taken to the end, but she’s an attorney and we think that the other players worry that she can make a persuasive argument if she is sitting in front of the final jury.

Episode 12 gets right to it, as we go straight to a challenge. We know from the previews that family will arrive tonight. So, with that said…

Probst sighting!

Dimples aglow, he starts by bringing out Lauren’s husband, who is pretty stinkin’ cute. Tommy’s girlfriend is “beautiful,” according to Janet. We also get to meet Karishma’s husband, which nearly causes her to collapse. She tells him, “I’m not good.” Considering that she was talking early in the season about her arranged marriage, the fact that she’s so relieved to see him is a tender moment.

Noura’s sister nearly knocks her down when they hug, and Janet hugs her husband as she finds out that they will soon be grandparents to a little girl. Dean hugs his mom, who weirdly smells his neck. Thankfully, Dan’s wife does NOT come out. Instead, it’s his 13-year-old son. Cool for the kid. Icky for the audience. We wrap it up with Elaine’s girlfriend.

For today’s challenge, the Survivors will be tethered to another tribe member (and they’ll draw for pairs). Jeff brings Noura’s sister down close to the challenge to watch, as she is visually impaired.

Each pair has to walk.swim through the water, then climb and crawl through an obstacle course. Once through, they must dig in the sand to get under a pole. Finally, they finish by tossing a bean bag onto a platform.

It’s decently close between Tommy/Janet and Dean/Elaine once the bean bag portion comes up, though all teams are eventually throwing them. Eventually, Tommy and Janet win, and they’re allowed to pick one person each. They choose Dan (hiss) and Lauren.

Karishma is super mad, saying they should “put a wrecking ball to someone else’s head.”

At the reward challenge, Janet says she doesn’t want to talk strategy, but they must. They plan to potentially split the vote between Elaine and Karishma.

Back at loser camp, Noura elaborates all the reasons she thinks she’s better than the other three, but they should align with her. Next is a montage of her ranting (part of which includes her saying, “I’m enjoyable to be around.”). Dean, who previously complained about the “goats,” now finds himself having to join forces with them.

Recognizing that they only have four people, though, the group desperately searches for the Immunity Idol, and Elaine finds it. Theoretically, they could make a move. Unfortunately, they have a LOT of unpredictable people in their alliance.

Thankfully, it’s already Immunity Challenge time. Today’s challenge will have the Survivors standing on a small block of wood while stabilizing a ball against a small, hanging block of wood.

This type of challenge is always boring to recap (but a bit better to watch). Dean is first out, and we take this time to note how completely terrible he is at them. Notably, Noura also falls out, which is significant since she’s won a couple times previously

Janet falls when she loses out, and bloodies her foot in the process. Eventually, the final two are Lauren and Elaine (just 15 minutes in). Elaine looks pretty comfortable, while Lauren’s arms are shaking and she is crying. But then, all of a sudden, Elaine drops her ball.

At this point, Tommy says in confessional that Karishma is out. And despite Noura’s earlier speech, we tend to agree. She’s the easy choice for this Tribal Council, and they can defer to the next one to make the harder decisions (likely a choice between Dean and Elaine).

Dan confirms the plan, saying that they’ll split the votes between the previously discussed Elaine and Karishma. Janet tells Noura the plan, which sends Noura off on another rant. After commenting that she has the power to make the decision, Noura immediately goes to tell Elaine and Karishma what they told her. Karishma is thrilled, saying that they can choose the person who will go home.

BUT. Noura can’t do math. In a conversation with Dean, she says that she thinks they should split the vote 2-2 amongst the other group. He tells her that they don’t have to do anything. Just all stick together and vote for ONE person. She tells him that maybe they should worry about Karishma, but Dean says he’s most worried about Noura.

At this point, everyone realizes that Noura is THE most unreliable ally possible.

She uses leaves to try to help herself do math. It doesn’t work. She’s a mess.

At Tribal Council, while Probst is conversing with the group, Dean tells Tommy that the other four are voting for him. At this point, the Tommy alliance starts whispering back and forth. Jeff asks Elaine to “extrapolate” and she asks him what “extrapolate” means.

With everything in chaos, Noura decides to talk, saying that Dean is untrustworthy and also revealing that Elaine has an idol. There is effectively no Probst discussion. It’s just everyone planning the vote.

Quite frankly, it’s annoying that this is allowed. They shouldn’t be able to have these conversations at Tribal. Janet does tell Karishma to vote for Noura, but the conversation between Dan, Elaine, and Tommy is whether they actually vote for Noura tonight or NEXT time.

(They should get rid of Noura tonight.)

Elaine does play the Idol. “I’m sorry if it smells like feet,” she says.

In the end, the votes are indeed split - Noura/Karishma. Dan celebrates. What a dick.

“All that talk just to vote out Karishma?” Boston Rob asks. We agree.

“These are the dumbest moves,” says Kellee on the jury. We also agree with her.

Two more weeks to go. Put us out of our misery.