• New ‘Earn Your Way Into the Merge’ Twist –

begins w/ drawing rocks – this will split everyone into 2 teams, however, 2 people will pull gray rocks. those 2 people will not participate in the challenge on either team. their fate will be decided by the winning team. the winning team will also receive their first proper meal in 12 days, a special Merge buff + don’t have to participate in the immunity challenge (automatically safe at Tribal Council)

aka HUUUUGE STAKES. (esp. since in previous seasons, usually everyone who makes the merge gets to partake in the feast.)

• Challenge Rundown –

1st part – digging a massive boulder out of the sand

2nd – rolling the ball to each key station + one person has to climb it to grab the keys

3rd/final – climbing up the platform + solving a word puzzle

Blue – Ricard, Danny, Evvie, Deshon, Sydney

Yellow – Xander, Lianna, Tiffany, Heather, Shan

blue team had a clear physical advantage from the start yet still almost fumbled the mf bag – yellow team actually solved the word puzzle first, but due to blue’s time lead, they were still able to slide the letters more quickly + secure the win.

blue then chose which person to bring w/ them for the feast – Naseer or Erika. Danny tries to say they did rock/paper/scissors to decide, but Erika knows its a cover + understands she’s at the bottom + now has to spend 2 days/2 nights alone. “i didn’t expect to have moments where i was perfectly safe and felt so powerless.”

Danny later admits at the feast that it’s “important to keep the men’s number up” – commenting that he noticed other tribes kicking out the men, so that’s the real reason they chose Naseer.

Naseer is so cute + happy + loves his new Merge buff haha – “it smells really good + i love the color” 🥰

Shan spills the beans about Lianna’s advantage to Tiffany… now yellow is imploding. Tiffany doesn’t trust Lianna, Lianna thinks Tiffany is a ticking time bomb. Evvie isn’t even in the conversation atm + Lianna still wants Xander out.

• Other thoughts –

finding myself like ‘is this a 2-hour episode?? feels long AF. usually the episode’s over before i know it/much too soon, but this one never ends….. #boringgggg’

not a fan of Evvie/others saying this is the hardest season ever…. it’s literally half the mf # of days of every other season….. soooo NO.

is Jeff gonna just pull a donkey kong right now, suddenly appearing on exile island + just hand Erika an idol?! (lol, glad i was wrong about that) 😂

F that cliffhanger ending!!! WE WANNA SEE SOMEONE GO HOME NOWWWWW!!! GTFO.

• New Hourglass Twist – power to change the results of the merge challenge… the 6 who are safe would now have to compete against each other for immunity, while Erika + the other 6 would now be safe at tribal. (no real commentary just yet, TBD. let’s see how it goes. pretty sure Erika’s royally screwed either way, but you never know what’s going to happen in this game – it’s not over ’til it’s over!)