Even though Jack Nichting was voted out of Wednesday’s seventh episode of “Survivor: Island of the Idols,” he is looking ahead to the next stage of the competition. “I’m freaking pumped to be on the jury!” he shouted during his exit interview at the end of the episode. Jack is now the first member of the jury that will determine the winner of the $1 million prize. He’ll be joined by another jury member each week until only the finalists remain during the Season 39 finale in December.
After Lairo lost the immunity challenge, the near-unanimous plan back at camp was for Dean Kowalski to be voted out. However, since Kellee Kim and Dean had a mutual friend back at home, she decided to give him her immunity idol in secret in order to protect him. Dean happily played the idol, which negated the five votes from Kellee, Jack, Jamal Shipman, Janet Carbin and Karishma Patel. That meant Jack went home with only two votes from Dean and Noura Salman, whom Kellee brought into the plan.
“I’m really sad about the game,” Jack declared during his parting words. “Maybe Dean sees me as a threat, which is kind of cool. But everyone that was there tonight wanted me to be there, except for one or two people. Overall, this was way freaking harder than I thought it was gonna be, but I’m happy with how I did. I think I was able to show my true colors.”
SEE ‘Survivor’ deaths: Remembering the castaways who’ve passed away, including Rudy Boesch and Jenn Lyon
Jamal did his best to try to prevent one of his allies from going home by giving his hidden immunity idol to Noura. Unfortunately, Noura was completely safe and one of only three people who was in on the true plan. “I’m sorry you wasted it on me,” Noura told Jamal as he lowered his head in shame. Perhaps this will bond Noura and Jamal closer together as the merge arrives next week.
Jack’s elimination means there are 13 castaways heading into the highly anticipated merge. The original Vokai tribe has a slight numbers advantage with seven members: Janet, Kellee, Noura, Jamal, Lauren Beck, Tommy Sheehan and Dan Spilo. And the original Lairo tribe joins the merge at six people: Dean, Karishma, Elizabeth Beisel, Missy Byrd, Aaron Meredith and Elaine Stott.
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