After last week’s crazy tribal council and blindside, I thought that this week would be lackluster and a decent episode at best. Instead, this season adds another blindside to its resume by giving us one of, if not the best episode of the season so far. I keep waiting for this season to go downhill (like most seasons around this point,) but so far David vs. Goliath is going strong!

The episode starts us off by reminding us of Nick’s and Carl’s advantages, which is already a large sign that they are going to play some kind of role in the story of the episode. It also reminds us how Alison and Alec have considered flipping in the past, foreshadowing one of the main plot points of the episode.

Davie has comfortably worked himself into the role of the “strategic comic relief.” His character is perfectly represented in multiple parts of the episode, most notably when he is shown trying to make peace with the rest of his tribemates at the same time as he is celebrating John’s blindside. This is one of my favorite moments of the episode because while it shows how excited Davie is, it also calls back to Angelina and Natalie’s jacket fiasco from a few episodes back. I’m really enjoying how the editors are making jackets such a memorable part of this season. Having someone’s jacket has become like a trophy to show that you have defeated them, which is a really fun thing to throw into the show. Davie is also shown as comic relief when he is smiling and messing with the other team at the reward challenge by yelling out incorrect combination numbers.

The next scene introduces two of the major plot points of this episode: Alison wanting to make a move and Dan’s downfall. Both of these stories have been introduced in previous episodes. Alison, Alec, and Kara are shown talking about how they are afraid of missing the boat on advantages, which further provides evidence of an advantage (or two) being played soon. Dan sitting on the beach alone while the other three talk strategy is a huge statement on his game as a whole. Dan has been shown to be an emotional player all season, and this scene is the epitome of that. Him isolating himself makes him look very weak, helpless, and whiny, which is detrimental to his edit (not that he still had a chance in the first place.) Kara, however, came out of this situation looking very levelheaded and smart. This is the moment that fans of Kara have been waiting for: the betrayal of Dan. The edit is very favorable to her here, as it could have easily shown her doing it strictly off of emotion or doing it maliciously. Instead, the edit shows her feeling remorse for what she is about to do to Dan and stating that she is only doing it for strategic purposes. This is literally the best edit you could get in a situation like this. This scene boosted Kara’s stock in this game immensely.

Next comes the reward challenge, which provided an opportunity for Gabby to talk to Alison about flipping over to their side. One editing moment that I found entertaining is when Carl was shown celebrating over the possibility of winning beer, and then immediately having it taken away by picking the odd rock out. After the challenge, Angelina continues to be shown as being as extra as possible by complaining about the veggie burgers of all things. She is then given a confessional about how hard the game is and how much of a toll it has taken on her, but I didn’t get the sense that we were supposed to feel sympathy for her as viewers. It could just be my personal dislike of her character arc, I can’t quite tell. Gabby then begins working on Alison, who seems to be very receptive of what she is saying. Both Gabby and Alison state in confessionals that they have a good relationship. The only difference is that Gabby says that she can use her relationship to get her further in the game, while Alison mainly just states that she feels comfortable around Gabby. The very slight tone shift shows that Gabby is thinking more strategically for the future and Alison is attempting to think strategically, but is still letting emotion make some decisions for her.

The winning team enjoying their hard-earned veggie burgers gave Mike a chance to try to keep the Goliaths together. Mike seems to have this idealistic vision of what the Goliaths can be. Kara’s confessional completely undermines Mike when she basically says “Yeah… but no.” This episode continues to be fantastic for Kara’s edit, especially considering how the episode turns out in the end. She is finally breaking free from the Dan’s plotline, which is exactly what she needed right now. Kara has a decent chance to win this season at this point. Mike, on the other hand, took another hit in terms of the edit. He is shown to not have much control of the game as people are listening to him and doing the exact opposite of what he says. There is nothing negative about Mike’s edit in this episode, he just doesn’t seem to know what is actually going on. Being one of the three people who weren’t in on the vote doesn’t help his chances in the future, either. If Mike had a chance of winning, they would have shown as little of him as possible in this episode to shield him from looking too out of the loop. Kara revealing Dan’s second idol to Alec and Alison cements that she is serious about turning on her boyfriend. The three of them seem so solid and ready to make a move; it is baffling to me that Alison still somehow chooses to stay “Goliath strong.”

Christian then finds the re-hidden idol through a systematic search of the island (We get it Christian, you’re smart) and we head into the immunity challenge. Alec beating out Dan ensures that the plan to get Dan out is a go. Dan also gets the last confessional after the immunity challenge saying how confident he is in the vote, which is never a good sign. Kara is portrayed as being the biggest driving force behind Dan’s elimination, which is great for her down the road. The plan that she pitches to Gabby and Nick is the exact plan that goes down in the end. Kara really stole the show throughout this entire episode, huh? The only thing that Kara did wrong was making the Davids feel separated from the Goliaths, therefore making them uncomfortable. However, this observation by Nick wasn’t directed at anyone in particular, so it doesn’t hurt her edit at all in my opinion.

Alison is so close to making a move and you can tell that she wants to so badly, but she keeps convincing herself that it would be better to just do nothing instead. Her confessional about the right move being to stay Goliath strong is definitely not a good look. Especially because her partner in crime, Alec, decided to make the move that he needed to without her. After all of the talk she had about building a resume and making a big move, I was genuinely shocked when she said that her “big move” was doing absolutely nothing. Now, we can’t know for sure if she was going to change last-minute and vote with the Davids because of Nick’s vote steal, but I believe that the plan she stated in her confessional is what she was going to do. Plans aren’t usually explicitly disclosed in a confessional, so the fact that they showed it most likely means that this is what she was actually going to do.

Next comes my favorite scene of the episode: the advantage show and tell. Opening the scene with a shark in the water is great foreshadowing towards the Davids striking at one of the Goliaths. The genuine joy on the faces of the Davids in this scene is something of beauty, especially Carl. Carl is playing an interesting role in this season. He has no chance of winning based on how little we have seen him talk strategy, so what is his role? After this episode, I think it’s safe to say that Carl’s entire story revolved around the idol nullifier. He is just a secondary character to the bigger Davids like Christian, Gabby, and Nick. I wouldn’t be surprised if we don’t hear much from Carl after this until his boot episode. Christian is the one that gets to explain the Davids’ situation to the viewers before tribal, which probably doesn’t mean much, but is a good moment for his edit.

I am a firm believer that the answers contestants give at tribal council don’t matter very much at all (most of the time.) Plans are almost always set in stone before tribal. Alison talks about her realization, Carl and Dan talk about being on the bottom, some talk of flipping is had. You know, the usual. Then, Nick pulls out his advantage and takes Alison’s vote. Why Alison? Why not Angelina, someone you know is voting against you? Taking Alison’s vote just seems to isolate her from the Davids, which hurts the potential of her working with them in the future. Anyways, Nick steals the vote and Carl plays his nullifier, leading to Dan being eliminated in a 6-3-2 vote. Technically, Nick’s vote steal was wasted because the vote would still have been 5-4-2 if Alison voted for Christian. However, I don’t think it was a dumb move for him to play it. He wasn’t completely confident in Alec and Kara, and if they had stayed Goliath strong, it would have been a 6-5 vote sending Christian home. Considering how pivotal this vote was (according to Christian,) it was completely reasonable to give themselves 100% odds of success instead of 50%.

I also feel bad for Dan in this situation. In any other season of Survivor, Dan would have just pulled off a great move and avoided a blindside. He did everything correctly and was still outplayed by the Davids. There was no way he could have anticipated an advantage that has never been seen in Survivor before. While he definitely dug his own grave in many situations, he would have survived at least one more tribal if it wasn’t for bad luck.

That being said, this has to be one of the best moves I have ever seen on Survivor. Getting the Goliaths to trust you enough to want to work with you and tell you who is playing the idol is very impressive and was incredibly entertaining to watch. The producers must have been just eating this up during filming. The Davids pulling off two great moves in a row to conquer the big bad Goliaths goes perfectly with the theme of the season and I honestly can’t believe it. They keep coming up with these insane themes for Survivor seasons, but they somehow keep working!

What do you think of this week’s vote? Were you as impressed with it as I was?