Who was voted out in Wednesday’s eighth episode of CBS’s “Survivor: Ghost Island”? Season 36’s highly anticipated merge episode brought together the remaining 13 players from all three tribes, but all eyes were on the ever-growing feud between Domenick Abbate and Chris Noble. Did these two former tribe members put their rivalry aside and stick to tribal lines? Or did Domenick, who still holds his legacy advantage, help seal Chris’ fate, as Gold Derby’s readers predicted?
Below, check out our minute-by-minute “Survivor: Ghost Island” recap of Season 36, Episode 8, titled “Fear Keeps You Sharp,” to find out what happened Wednesday, April 11. Then be sure to sound off in the comments section about your favorite castaway, who annoys you the most, and who you think can go the distance to join the “Survivor” winners list. Keep refreshing/reloading this page as we’ll be updating live.
7:59 p.m. – “Previously on ‘Survivor’!” During last week’s seventh episode the Malolo tribe burned their flag in an effort to reverse the curse of their losing streak, and it worked. Malolo and Yanuya won immunity, resulting in the elimination of Bradley Kleihege from the tribe Naviti tribe. With only 13 players left in the game, how will tonight’s merge switch things up? It’s time to find out!
8:00 p.m. – Because this is “Survivor” and we’re not wasting any time, tonight’s episode starts off with the Naviti tribe welcoming the Malolo and Yanuya tribes to their beach for the merge. As a reminder, Domenick, Michael Yerger and Wendell Holland all have idols and Kellyn Bechtold has the advantage of an extra vote.
8:03 p.m. – Also not wasting time is Domenick who scopes out the merged tribe and realizes he has a number of alliances to work with: one is with Donathan Hurley, Wendell and Laurel Johnson; another is sticking with the original Naviti members but that would include his in-game nemesis Chris and he would prefer to not work with him.
8:04 p.m. – After the merge feast, Chris notices a clue hidden in his new buff that says a secret awaits him at tree mail. That secret was a clue to a hidden immunity idol that is hidden on ghost island. In order to get to ghost island he’s told that at night a boat will arrive at the beach to whisk him away to ghost island clearly at the risk of other tribe members noticing his departure and/or absence.
8:06 p.m. – In hopes of refocusing both Domenick and Chris away from targeting one another, Wendell pulls them both aside to mediate a discussion between the two of them. At the mediation, Domenick says he’s open to protecting Chris long enough to get rid of the other Malolo members, but Chris shuts down both Domenick and Wendell thinking that they were trying to smooth talk him, but that just sets Wendell off and makes him just as eager to get rid of him as Domenick already was.
8:11 p.m. – When it came time for Chris to board his boat to ghost island he was able to make a clean getaway without waking any of his tribe mates. On ghost island he found J.T. Thomas‘s hidden idol from Game Changers, the idol he left at camp the night he was voted out of the game. The catch with this idol is two-fold: first, it’s only good for the next tribal council, but second, he can extend the life of the idol by risking his vote. He chooses boxes (from 10 choices) and with each one he gets right he extends the life: his first choice was a correct one and he extends it to two tribals, but his second choice was a “no vote” box which means the game ends and he cannot vote at the next tribal while his idol now works for the next two tribals.
8:17 p.m. – While the Chris vs. Domenick feud is frustrating to most of the players in the game, Jenna Bowman and Libby Vincek actually find it refreshing from a game perspective because it takes the focus off of the minority alliance of original Malolo players and pits the original Naviti members against two of their own. Objectively, they like Domenick more on a personal level, but think that Chris is probably the more trustworthy of the two so it’s still a toss up for them in terms of which to vote out if it comes to that.
8:23 p.m. – For the first individual immunity challenge of the season the players have to stand on a narrow beam while balancing a horizontal pole with a statue resting on the edge of it. Last player standing wins immunity and the rest are vulnerable to be voted out.
8:24 p.m. – The first players to drop out of the challenge are: Jenna, Donathan, Desiree Afuye and Angela Perkins, leaving nine standing to move on to the second stage after only five minutes.
8:26 p.m. – In the second stage (on a narrower part of the beam) the first and only to fall is Sebastian Noel, leaving eight to move on to the third and final stage, but in the transition Domenick, Michael, Chris, Laurel and Wendell all fall.
8:28 p.m. – The last three standing are Kellyn, Libby and Chelsea Townsend, but she becomes the first to drop leaving only two. With the wind picking up, both Kellyn and Libby show movement from their statues and as the weight seems near to spell the end for Kellyn, Libby’s statue drops and Kellyn wins immunity!
8:35 p.m. – Without the immunity necklace around the neck of either Chris or Domenick, the stage is set for the two to go head to head. Knowing this, Chris takes the entire tribe (sans Domenick and Wendell) to the water well to discuss splitting the votes between the two guys in order to flush Domenick’s idol.
8:37 p.m. – Feeling that it may be the right time to use it, Wendell discloses to Domenick that he has an idol, but Wendell still doesn’t know that Domenick has a real one. After the water well meeting, Donathan comes back to Domenick and says that they should get Chris out instead. Elsewhere, Wendell speaks to Libby and Sebastian and tries to get them to go against Chris as well. Meanwhile, the Naviti girls Kellyn, Desiree, Angela and Chelsea decide that they have an opportunity to instead get out who they want out: Libby. Oh boy, this is going to be a messy tribal!
8:40 p.m. – Chris can’t even vote at tribal, but he has an idol to play now or next week. Wendell, Michael and Dominick all have idols and have all mentioned that they might be inclined to use theirs tonight. I’m exhausted thinking about the possibilities and tribal hasn’t even started!
8:46 p.m. – Fun note: this is the first time Chris is at tribal council! His tribe only lost immunity once, but he was away on ghost island at the time.
8:47 p.m. – As expected, the conversation at tribal centered around Domenick and Chris butting heads, leading to Domenick pulling his fake (shell) idol out and putting it around his neck. Chris still doesn’t believe that it’s real and then brings up the tribal he missed where Domenick and Wendell attempted to vote Angela out. Naturally, Domenick, Wendell and Chris all acknowledge that they are each on the hot seat tonight and that more than likely one of the three of them is going home. None of them know what the original Naviti girls are planning though!
8:52 p.m. – Voting begins with Chris having to fake a vote, unable to actually cast one, and continues with Domenick very loudly declaring his vote for Chris from across the stage. And with five idols potentially set to play, Domenick uses his legacy advantage as an idol to nullify any votes cast against him. With that, the votes are read: Chris, Chris, Libby, Libby, Chris, Chris, Chris, Chris and Chris. That’s it for Chris and with an idol in his pocket he goes home! Wow. And Domenick wasted his idol!
8:59 p.m. – Closing thought of the night: I’m so, so, so thankful we don’t have to listen to any of the Domenick vs. Chris stuff anymore. Now we can finally learn more about some of the other people playing this game!
Here are the answers to Gold Derby’s contest questions for “Survivor” Season 36, Episode 8:
Who will be eliminated? Chris Noble
Who will win Reward? No one
Who will win Immunity? Kellyn Bechtold
Will a hidden idol be played? Yes
Will anybody quit or be medevaced? No
Who will go to Ghost Island? Chris Noble
Listen to our exit interview podcasts with all of this season’s “Survivor” castoffs: Stephanie Gonzalez, Jacob Derwin, Morgan Ricke, Brendan Shapiro, Stephanie Johnson, James Lim and Bradley Kleihege.
SEE exclusive odds: Who will win ‘Survivor’?
Be sure to make your predictions so that the contestants can see how they’re faring in our racetrack odds. You can keep changing your predictions until just before the next episode airs on CBS. You’ll compete to win a spot on our leaderboard and eternal bragging rights. See our contest rules and sound off with other fans in our reality TV forum. Read more Gold Derby entertainment news.
