This past week on Survivor, we saw the new strike at the old once again, as well as the goodbye of a Survivor legend from the Edge of Extinction. At the Edge, it began with the old-school players and Natalie chatting around the fire, as Sandra decided to raise the flag of Extinction upon the beach, much to the surprise of the other castaways. As she raised the flag and sailed off into her Survivor retirement, the two-time winner leaves Survivor as one of the all-time greats in the show’s history.
Going into the immunity challenge, Wendell once again was aggravating those on the Sele tribe, while Dakal was in pure shock still over Sandra’s epic blindside, as the target surprisingly still stayed upon Cagayan winner, Tony. At the immunity challenge, the task was to fill up a heavy saucer with as much water as you can handle, and take it back to a well through balance beams and other obstacles to drop down a bag of puzzle pieces. From there, the first to complete the puzzle wins immunity.
Unlike Dakal and Sele who rushed immediately down the lane, the Yara tribe decided to take it nice and slow, making it easy as Dakal and Sele lost a lot of water, and Yara barely losing any. As Dakal and Sele ran back for a second dip of water, Yara had filled their well and was already on the puzzle. Dakal and Sele immediately bounced back moments later, as the puzzle race was in a dead heat. Michelle and Wendell—the two exes on the season—were on the puzzle for Sele, as Yara had already won their own immunity, leaving Dakal and Sele in a race to the finish. Wendell continued to taunt the other tribes, as it came down to the final seconds until Dakal pulled it out, leaving yet again a stunned and angry Sele tribe.
As Dakal and Yara went off into their evening, Sele came back to camp angry, disgusted and just not happy whatsoever. It was especially shown in Nick, who failed the same challenge on the season he won. Wendell seemed like a sure-fire lock in the vote for the tribe, with Yul coming out of the shadows and leading the charge. However, Michelle and Nick took notice of Yul starting to show his cards and it immediately began to change the feeling around camp. In their eyes, Wendell was a threat but was their shield to get farther in the game. Yul continued to push what he wanted as the evening went along, even asking if he could get one of Wendell’s fire tokens if he left. At Tribal Council, Yul continued to talk, as Nick and Michelle curiously watched, and made their decision. As the last old school player left in the game, Yul was ceremoniously blindsided, as the winner of “Survivor: Cook Islands” was sent to the Edge of Extinction. Now that all of the old school players have been sent to the Edge, who will rejoin the recent winners as the castaways’ head closer to the merge? Find out this Wednesday night at 8/7 central, only on CBS!
Jeff Babcock is a third-year student majoring in communications. JB884128@wcupa.edu