“Survivor: Island of the Idols” sent home two castaways last week — Aaron Meredith and Missy Byrd — which left only nine players still in the running to win the $1 million prize. Four of those came from the original Lairo tribe (Elizabeth Beisel, Dean Kowalski, Karishma Patel and Elaine Stott), while the other five were original Vokai members (Lauren Beck, Janet Carbin, Noura Salman, Tommy Sheehan and Dan Spilo). According to Gold Derby readers’ racetrack odds, Elizabeth, Dean and Dan were most in danger of being sent to the Ponderosa jury house in this week’s pre-Thanksgiving episode. Were they right?
Below, check out our minute-by-minute “Survivor: Island of the Idols” recap of Season 39, Episode 11, titled “Bring on the Bacon,” to find out what happened Wednesday, November 27 at 8/7c. Then be sure to sound off in the comments section about your favorite castaways on CBS’s reality TV show and who you think will ultimately join the “Survivor” winners list. Keep refreshing/reloading this live blog for the most recent updates.
8:00 p.m. – “Previously on ‘Survivor’!” In last week’s 10th episode, Jeff Probst surprised the castaways by splitting them into two groups, each of which would visit tribal council. Aaron’s group went first, with him being unanimously voted out over Janet. Missy’s group was not so unanimous, as they delivered Missy a shocking blindside after Elaine, Tommy and Karishma learned she threw out Tommy’s name. Who will be voted out tonight and become the sixth member of the jury?
8:01 p.m. – No one was happier to see Tommy return from the double tribal council than Lauren, his number one ally since the beginning of the game. Karishma was proud of her ability to remain in the game especially since her two biggest targets, Aaron and Missy, were the ones that took her spot on the jury. Elizabeth was on her own, but felt a little sense of relief that now she could maneuver around on her own without the attachment of an alliance.
8:02 p.m. – The next morning Lauren, Tommy and Dean and a pow-wow, specifically about Karishma’s “goat” status in the game. Dean is worried that they’ll keep leaving her there as a non-threat and then she’ll wind up in the final three in one of “their” spots. Tommy was definitely on board with the idea of getting Karishma out next, but kept his eyes on Elizabeth because of how strong she is.
8:04 p.m. – When the tribe was presented with the opportunity to unanimously send one player to the Island of the Idols Lauren volunteered and everyone agreed that she could. There she excitedly met Sandra Diaz-Twine and Rob Mariano for the first time. Lauren’s lesson was about “situational awareness” with an opportunity to predict who will win the next immunity challenge with a prize of an immunity idol good for two tribals or the consequence of losing her vote at the next council. Rob told her that it’ll be an endurance/concentration challenge with an “eat or play” component that might convince some players to eat instead of compete. After thinking about it for too long, Rob doubled her odds giving her two players to predict. Considering all her options, she decided to wage her bet on Elizabeth and Noura.
8:15 p.m. – Dean, still holding on to the fake advantage Jamal Shipman bequeathed him, devised a plan to create a second one that he’d use at the next tribal council making everyone think it’s the one Jamal gave him and is fake so that later he’d use the real one (Jamal’s fake one) at the final six tribal instead. LOL okay buddy! Thumbs up.
8:17 p.m. – Upon her return from the Island, Lauren told the tribe about the upcoming immunity challenge in the hopes that it would jazz a few people up to sitting out the challenge. Her other strategy was to be upfront with Tommy about her bet to earn an idol so that he could help encourage everyone to sit the game out and eat instead so that less people will be competing against Noura and/or Elizabeth.
8:25 p.m. – At the immunity challenge sure enough Jeff offered everyone the chance to eat or compete with a result that Tommy, Dan, Dean, Lauren, Janet and Elaine all elected to eat, leaving Karishma, Noura and Elizabeth to compete for immunity. Wow, Lauren’s plan…. worked?
8:27 p.m. – And almost immediately into the challenge Karishma’s ball dropped, leaving Elizabeth and Noura left to compete meaning that Lauren officially won her bet and earned herself an immunity idol! Surprisingly, Elizabeth didn’t give the eaters a ton of time to finish eating because she slipped and her ball dropped as well, giving immunity to Noura.
8:36 p.m. – After collecting her idol, Lauren and Tommy named Elizabeth and Karishma as the two options to vote out. Later, Elizabeth confessed to Noura her worry that she’s on the chopping block, especially if Karishma has an idol and votes against Elizabeth. Noura, still annoyed by Karishma, decides to grab her bag in order to go through it looking for an idol. They didn’t see anything and so Noura was convinced that Karishma does not have an idol.
8:38 p.m. – Later, Dan tells Karishma that the plan is to split the vote between Elizabeth and Janet in the event that Elizabeth plays an idol. But immediately after that conversation Dan and Lauren observed Karishma go to Elizabeth and suspected that she’s telling Elizabeth the plan. They also overheard her telling Elizabeth to vote out Dan.
8:48 p.m. – At tribal council there were a bunch of metaphors about trenches and car races, on top of Dean announcing he has an advantage keeping him safe for the night and Karishma warning everyone that people they think are on their side could slit their throats eventually.
8:52 p.m. – Once all the votes were cast, Dean played his own fake advantage to no effect, but before the votes were read Karishma stood up to play her immunity idol for herself. That put Lauren on such an edge that she, too, played her new idol to save herself! Jeff read the votes: Karishma, Karishma, Karishma, Karishma, Karishma, Karishma, Karishma, Janet, Elizabeth. That made a tie and a revote between only Janet and Elizabeth!!
8:56 p.m. – Jeff read the new votes: Elizabeth, Elizabeth, Elizabeth, Elizabeth. And that’s enough so Elizabeth was eliminated while Karishma becomes the first player of the season to correctly use an idol and Lauren joins the clubs of those that failed to use theirs in the right way.
NEXT WEEK: Will Karishma, Elaine and Noura join in a formidable alliance? And it’s family visit time!
Here are the answers to Gold Derby’s contest questions for “Survivor” Season 39, Episode 11:
Who will be eliminated? Elizabeth Beisel
Who will win Reward? No one
Who will win Immunity? Noura Salman
Will a hidden idol be played? Yes
Will anybody quit or be medevaced? No
SEE exclusive predictions: Who will win ‘Survivor’?
Be sure to make your predictions to influence our reality TV 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 Season 39 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.
