Tied Re-vote Sends Viper Out of Survivor Samoa

Survivor Samoa has has three shocking Tribal Councils back to back but tonight's probably took the cake. The night following Russell's hidden idol game changer was an odd one to watch. Dave tried to suck up to the Foa four by calling it a "great move" while Laura and her posse went to sleep crabby. The next morning was much brighter for Shambo though as she laughed about Laura's reaction to Kelly going. She sure doesn't like Laura and cemented that she'll vote her out time and time again until she's gone. Russell also had a busy morning as she already was looking for the third hidden immunity idol. Nobody else really seemed to care but they would after the reward challenge!

The reward was a rehash of an Exile Island challenge. They split into two tribes, temporarily, with four pulling ropes that connected to a floating wooden slab. The person on the slab had to grab flags and then place them in the correct order on new pegs. The yellow group had John on the slab and after dropping a flag and then knocking one out of its pegs, they fell behind but still kept somewhat up. Natalie did a great job collecting the flags, while not falling out of the thing, and gave herself and Russell their first reward win. They were off to a picnic lunch on a new island. Oh and they took some product placement, I mean a palm pre, along with them.

At the reward challenge a new clue to the hidden idol was given on the palm pre. The phone had a text message that said to look under a rock, then a video played on the phone showing the exact rock and how to find the idol. Everyone watch it but only Russell took it to heart and began looking for it right as he landed back on the beach. Russell, Jaison, Mick, Laura and Dave all ran out for the idol but after losing Dave in the woods Russell was able to discreetly uncover the idol and yet again find his third. This time with a clue though.

The upcoming vote then became talk of the town as Shambo revealed to John that she wanted to flip and vote for Laura to go. John wasn't sure what to do with that info but used it to further himself in the future. The immunity challenge was somewhat of a let down as they first threw rocks to gain spears, then shot the spears at a target. Mick got his spear closest to the center of the target and therefore gave him the immunity necklace. Only good thing that came out of that was Laura not winning for once.

That then set off a chain of events that led up to one of the most compelling Tribal Councils to date. Shambo told Brett that she was voting for Laura no matter what. Galu however wanted to get rid of a Foa and John talked them into voting Natalie simply by saying "no, vote for Natalie". They all did just that, so stupid but still so brilliant. Realizing that Laura could still go, Monica put a plan in action to throw John under the bus and save Laura. She told Russell and Mick that she would vote for John to go to give them the numbers, they wouldn't tie since Shambo would vote for Laura still but they didn't buy it. Monica didn't plan on sticking to the plan, she just wanted Laura safe.

Brett spilled the beans to John who then went to Russell. He didn't want himself to go and realized that people on Galu would do anything just to keep the "viper" alive. So John decided to do what was best for him and going into Tribal Council nobody really knew what was going to happen. Something interested was said though, by John. He simply said that "the rules of Survivor state that if there is a tie, a revote happens. If there is still a tie then the pull out the rocks and person with the colored rock goes." That hasn't been used since Marquesas and it is very unfair. I thought they got rid of it for good and stuck with the tie breaker challenge but guess not.

Tribal Council then began with Shambo saying Galu was dead while Laura said that was a lie, it's alive without Shambo. Jeff kind of sided with Shambo though and said it's dead if not all are "in it". Erik had a few good one liners during the council, which was odd as we never hear from jury members unless it's Eliza making crazy amazing faces. But after the vote we did have a tie with Natalie and Laura getting five votes each. That led to another vote, which everyone assumed would be yet another tie. Little problem though, someone on Galu switched it up (John did thank God) and Laura went home stunned, along with Dave, Brett and Monica. It was a brilliant move and made for great TV. I have a feeling we'll be hearing a lot about this one and hopefully next week will have yet another stunning outcome.