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Hello good people and welcome back to another quarantines edition of the BOP Survivor: Winners at War recap. Hope all of you are doing well adjusting to a new normal. I'm not so sure I am, but more on that later.

Last week was the big one. Merge episode and return episode. Tyson outdueled Rob to get back in the game. Jeff Probst shed one lonely single tear at his boy narrowly missing getting back in the game. Seen as a danger after winning the challenge, Tyson was immediately targeted and sent back to Extinction. Wait, what? His name didn't even come up? Are we SURE about that? Oooo-k. It came down to Adam vs Wendell for the next boot and miraculously, Adam escapes doom one more time.

Apparently, the folks calling the shots (Sophie and Sarah, from my angle) decided Wendell's relationship with Jeremy was much more concerning than Adam's relationship with...well...Adam can't really get any traction with ANYone at this point. Probably a good move on their part. The Adam vote will always be there, so why rush it, right?

Tonight's episode begins right after Tribal. Michele and Nick are super pissed about being left out of the Wendell vote. They seem overly pissed if you ask me. That's how the game is played. You can no longer tell the boot or his alliance that they're going home. You just can't. And the voice of Survivor reason comes into the conversation in...Tony?? Yep, you heard that right. Tony comes in to see if he's ok. As Nick complains about not knowing, Tony says, "You know how the game is played." He tells him that just because Wendell went out; it doesn't mean he's next. And he's exactly right. Michele continues the Whine Tour talking to Adam. And he's just happy to still be in the game. He thinks it might be a good time to pick up Michele and see if they can make a play.

Adam also tells her (and then us) that he is fairly certain that there is an immunity idol on the Tribal Council set. He mentions the fleur-de-lis on Jeff's podium. It is an exact duplicate of the hidden idol Denise found earlier in the game and showed him. This would be big. First, there's never been an idol hidden at Tribal before. Also, it would be one of the rare times where the OG Survivor stole an idea from an international version of the show. The most recent season of Survivor South Africa has an idol hidden in the exact same spot on the Tribal podium and one of the players saved herself with it. I'm sure that's where Adam has come up with this. Not to mention we've already seen shot of him checking all around the voting urn area. He is convinced there's an idol at Tribal. And now he and Michele are the only ones who know where it is.

Oh boy, time to check in on the Edge of Extinction. We're doing yoga and getting sail mail. Looks like there's something hidden out there. The clue suggests that something is hidden and that sometimes history repeats. So everyone takes off to where all the other tokens and idols and stuff were found. As they search, Danni and Parvati start thinking about the history clue and they dig ALL the way back to 2 seasons ago and think that maybe they should look where Aubry found an advantage on the last EoE season. So they head down to the bottom of the steps and sure enough, there is a package hidden down there in the exact same spot.

They unwrap the package to find a 50-50 coin flip advantage. The user of this advantage would get to flip this coin. One side is immunity, the other is nothing. Also new to this one is that they can set the price. It's not stuck being only one token. Seeing as they found this together, that makes it a little more difficult in setting the price. And then for some reason they let Amber and Rob in on the secret. They go back and forth with who to send it to and how much to ask. Seems that they're settling on Michele as they think she probably has the most tokens of anyone in the game. And they'd be right. But really - how much is a maybe idol worth? I wouldn't pay more than 2 fire tokens for it. But that's me. All of this talk leads us right into a...

Probst sighting!! And also, some new lyrics to that weird ass song they keep playing over challenges and stuff. What IS that?!? Anyway, this is a reward challenge. They'll be divided into 2 teams of 5. They have to go out in the water and grab a net with a bunch of big wooden fish attached to it. They have to drag it back to shore and then use the fish to put together a puzzle. They're playing for Fijian Chinese takeout. Yeah, I think I'll pass. Anyway, teams are drawn and no one picks Denise. She will not participate in the challenge or the reward. As with every other team or tribe challenge in Survivor these days, it all comes down to the puzzle.

Sophie and Michele are on the puzzle against Jeremy and Nick. If you're like me and you see Sophie on the puzzle, you just assume she'll win. And, you'd be right. She does. Sophie, Michele, Kim, Sarah and Ben win reward. But apparently, yesterday was Nick's birthday. And Sarah, of all people, gives up her reward to Nick for his birthday. And let all the speculation begin. Game move? Nice move? What's the deal from someone with the reputation for turning on her friends? As we head to break, Adam tells us she made a horrible move there and he really can't trust her now.

We come back from commercial to the winners enjoying their takeout. And my first thought is, "I'd like some Chinese takeout about now." C'Mon - someone make China King an essential business already!! But I digress... Sarah tells us that this was not a game move. This was just a nice thing she wanted to do for Nick after he was blindsided last night, on his birthday. She tells us there just needs to be more niceness in the world. And ya know, I could see why she would lie to all the players but I have no idea why she would lie in a confessional. So, I'm gonna take her at her word. She wanted to do something nice for someone and she did it. Good for her.

Tony was...not impressed with the move. He takes her to the beach to ask her what she was doing. He tells us he thinks she got caught up in a moment. And a moment like that could be all it takes to kill her game. He suggests to her that people are probably talking about the strategy behind her move and he's worried they'll use it to target her. She poo poos the idea, but we flip to camp where Jeremy, Adam, Denise and Tyson are all talking about the strategy behind Sarah's decision to give away her reward. Seriously, they are editing Tony to look like a Survivor genius this season. Everything he says is dead on and they have the video to prove it.

Back to the feasters, they're all starting to wonder about clues or idols in the meal. They decide to open all the fortune cookies looking for clues. They find none. However, Michele feels like the fortunes may be speaking to her. When she gets back to camp, she finds Wendell's fire token AND the 50-50 coin advantage. Parvati did it - she asked for 4 fire tokens. Are you frickin' kidding me? No chance, no way. But, I'm not Michele Fitzgerald. Michele hearkens back to her fortunes and they both seem to suggest that she should take the chance at something like this 50-50 idol coin thingy. And, she does it. 4 fire tokens headed to the Edge!

And we're back in time for another Probst Sighting! Today's immunity challenge is the Andrea Boehlke memorial dog house challenge. Everyone will perch on very narrow boards on a dog house looking structure in the water. At regular intervals, they'll step up to narrower boards until they have to balance on the top surfboard style. Last one standing is safe from the vote at Tribal and wins a fire token.

Michele drops out of nowhere and is first out. Denise quickly follows. Everyone else makes it to the next round and works their way to the second perch. Shortly after standing up, Tyson drops out followed by Jeremy. Tony wobbles wobbles and drops out and there are 6 people left. Cue the obnoxious new Survivor theme. ~ Winners at waaaaaar. They're comin for you ~

And with that, they all make it through the second round. It's time to move to the top of the platform. Adam is never able to set himself and gets called out before the last round even begins. And almost immediately, Sophie, Nick and Sarah drop out. It's Kim against Ben for immunity. Ben has been surprisingly good in challenges all season. But Kim is one of the all-time best. She won 4 immunities her first time out and she also wins this one. By my count, that gives Kim the most individual immunity challenges won by any female Survivor player. Well effing done!! As we head to commercial, Tony restates his lions and hyenas concern. He wants to get the higher profile players together to start picking off the Micheles and Nicks of the game.

Back at camp after the challenge, it's time to play "It's Anyone But...Um...Michele? Maybe Nick? Possibly Adam? Then it could also be Tyson. Or Sarah." Here's what we do know. It won't be Kim. She tells us this should be an easy vote, unless someone plays an idol or something. She pow wows with Tyson, Denise, Ben and Tony and suggests the easy vote should be a split between Adam and Nick. Tony wants to see what Jeremy thinks about that. Ben suggests swapping out Michele for Adam. Ultimately, they all seem to want Nick to go. In a weird conversation, Nick makes up some shit about Tyson's name being thrown out there. When Tyson asks by whom, he's very shady in saying Sophie. So Tyson says, "Let's get Sophie then." Adam seems to think Sarah is more dangerous than Sophie, so Sarah is now the target. This is actually quite the mess and it becomes impossible to follow.

The Sarah vote goes around, but Kim doesn't like it. Tyson suggests that everyone should vote for Adam since he was able to get people on board with the Sarah vote so quick. What's great about all of these scenes, is the new Godfather, Jeremy, sitting on a bench while people keep coming to him with all the different plans. It doesn't look like he even moved today and everyone just kept bringing information to him. Before Tribal, Ben shows off what he's learned from Rob in the interrogation mode this season. He wants to know, from Adam, who threw out the idea that Ben and Sarah are too close. Well, it was Adam that said that. And Ben basically catches him in it and walks away. But the last bunch of clips we hear all of the following names: Nick, Michele, Sarah, Adam and Tyson. Also Ben questions Tony, who questions Jeremy. It's just a mess. Bottom line, this is when the safest vote is, well, the safest vote. All of these schemes and plots going on right now and my guess is when all is said and done, the group goes back to the original plan of splitting between Adam and Nick. Or course, Adam thinks he has an idol at Tribal, so this could be epic!

Ok, I couldn't really recap Tribal as it was happening. I have to come back to the beginning. Tribal is every bit of a mess that we saw at camp. We all start by talking about how crazy it was around camp. Everyone felt it. And as Nick is talking about being one of the targets, the whispering starts. Jeremy, Tony, Tyson, Ben. Sophie and Sarah get in on it. Kim's talking to Jeremy. Adam's getting up to talk to Nick. Basically, everyone is having little side whisper conversations. Come on Probst - get some damn control. The audience - you know, the people you allegedly make this show for - can't follow along with this shit. As plans are being discussed among the bulk of the tribe, Ben and Adam continue their little bitch fight and air out all their grievances. The jury loves it, but no one else is paying any bit of attention to it. Seriously, I'd rather see more of the Edge than anymore of Ben v Adam. Adam tries to get an answer from the group and we hear literal crickets. Adam is definitely the vote here. It all comes down to whether or not he goes for what he thinks is an idol and then, whether or not it IS an idol. Jeff goes up to tally the votes and comes back to read them.

As always, he asks if anyone has a hidden immunity idol. Adam stops him and gets up. He goes over to the podium and tries to remove the fleur-de-lis. It doesn't budge. He jiggles and jiggles and nothing. He says, "Worth a shot" and sits down. Well, he gave it a try and you can't fault him for that. But wait...we're not done? They chuckle at him and he says he thought maybe it was an idol. Probst says, "You're convinced it's not?" Wait, what??? Adam, "Is it? Can I play it? I wanna play that!" Jeff eggs him on a little bit more and then says, "If that's an idol, it will be historic. The first idol ever hidden at Tribal Council in plain view of all players selected by you and played for you. That is.............NOT a hidden immunity idol." And while everyone chuckles, it's a nervous chuckle. With Probst entertaining the thought, I guarantee there were some people shitting themselves on those stumps. They'll never admit it, but it was happening. I guarantee it. Oh yeah, and Adam got voted off. He voted for Sarah and there were 2 votes for Nick, just in case. On his way out, he gives his fire token to Denise and grabs the torch.

As I mentioned earlier about losing my mind in quarantine, I was actually pretty sure that was gonna be an idol. It all made sense. The edit showing Adam looking for one all over tribal. Adam telling Michele about it. And it seemed so obvious that Adam was getting the vote. I really thought we were going to get a second massive Tribal Council shocker. And frankly, the way everyone was laughing at him, I really wish it had happened. But knowing that Adam is the "super duper fan" of the show and that he watches all versions of it, it's not a surprise to think he would be the one to check for that. Plus, he knew 100% that he was the boot. So, with that knowledge in hand, I'd have tried to play Jeff Probst as an idol if I thought it might help.

Next time on Survivor: all eyes are finally on Sarah and Sophie. But wait, Tony's talking about maybe blindsiding Jeremy. Whatever is going on, Sarah tells us it's going to end badly. Also - family visit! Not loved one's visit. Family visit. As in, families of the Survivors will be out for the visit this time around. Another unprecedented move for this ultimate of seasons. We finish up with Adam arriving at the Edge. They congratulate him on trying the idol thing at Tribal. He tells us that he played more aggressively as he was so sure it was an idol. And it cost him his game. Um, Adam, no it didn't. You were going home no matter what. Anyway, next week looks to be another fantastic episode, so come on back and join me, won't you? Until then be safe out there and wash your damn hands!