At the previous tribal council, Spencer successfully led the blindside of Stephen Fishbach. With Stephen’s alliance left in the game, Spencer needs to mend the relationship he has with them before moving forward in the game.

All-Girl Alliance

Spencer and Jeremy talk about Fishbach’s elimination the next day at camp. Spencer assures Jeremy that he is still working with him in the game. Though Jeremy seems okay with continuing to work with Spencer, he tells us that he didn’t want Fishbach to go home and the “voting bloc” strategy is making him uncomfortable. Jeremy likes to know exactly what’s going on and currently he does not. While relaxing on the hammock, Kimmi proposes an all-girl alliance to take out the remainder of the men left in the game. Kimmi’s biggest closest ally in the game was Fishbach and with him gone, she wants to take control of her destiny. The first step of Kimmi’s plan is to take out Joe the first time he loses immunity. Once Joe is gone, they can vote out Keith, Spencer, and Jeremy one by one.

It’s a boy!

The reward challenge is the iconic “Loved Ones Visit.” Many tears are shed as all the castaways are reunited with their loved ones from home. Jeremy’s pregnant wife Val (from Survivor San Juan Del Sur) has some great news for him. She whispers into his ear that she is expecting a baby boy. Joe’s dad, Tasha’s cousin, Abi’s mom, Spencer’s girlfriend, Keith’s wife and Dale Wentworth (Kelley’s dad also from Survivor San Juan Del Sur), join Val in rooting on the castaways in the reward competition. Kelley Wentworth ends up winning the challenge and the ability to share a barbecue with her dad back at camp. Wentworth is given the opportunity to invite three more castaways and their loved ones to join her for the reward so she chooses Abi, Kimmi, Keith and Joe. The rest of the castaways are forced to say goodbye to their loved ones before heading back to camp.

Tasha, Spencer, and Jeremy sulk while the rest of the tribe enjoys the reward and time with the loved ones. They take the opportunity to make a pact to work together until they are the last 3 castaways remaining in the game. They too recognize that Joe is the biggest threat and plan to vote him out as soon as he doesn’t win immunity.

Medic

Spencer returns the Immunity Necklace to Probst before the beginning of the next challenge. Probst surprises the tribe when he tells them that there will be two winners of the individual immunity challenge. The man and woman that can last the longest balancing a statue above their head will win immunity from the next tribal council. After 25 minutes, Kelley Wentworth wins the female immunity necklace but the challenge has to continue until the male winner is decided. Joe and Keith are once again the last 2 competitors remaining after an hour of balancing the statue. It seems like the two of them could last forever but unfortunately for Joe, his body just won’t allow him. The other castaways watch in horror as Joe passes out from exhaustion and collapses onto the ground. The medical team comes rushing out to examine Joe and make sure that he isn’t severely injured. They conclude that Joe will still be able to remain in the game but due to passing out, Keith wins individual immunity.

When the castaways return to the Orkun camp, the game is back on at full speed despite Joe’s dramatic fall. Wentworth fills Abi in on the all-girls alliance. Seeing Joe push his body to the limit during the last challenge, has reinforced their idea that Joe will need to be the next one eliminated from the game. Joe tries to save himself by diverting the attention to Abi-Maria. He tells Jeremy that Abi is someone that no one will ever target in the game because everyone thinks they can take her to the end of the game and easily defeat her. Jeremy approaches his alliance of Spencer and Tasha to discuss taking out Abi. Tasha alerts the two that the women want to align to pick off each of the men one after the other. She feels like sharing this information with Jeremy and Spencer will prevent them from being suspicious of her working with the rest of the women. Spencer isn’t convinced that Tasha is still firmly aligned with him so he and Jeremy discuss the possibility of targeting Abi to weaken the possible “all-girls alliance”. The problem is that they would have to convince Tasha to vote with them to save Joe instead. Tasha tells Jeremy that if Joe is given the chance to go any further in the game, he could very well go on to win all the other challenges.

Bad Apple

At tribal council, the tribe discusses Joe passing out at the immunity challenge. Kimmi says that she felt like she was watching an epic battle between Keith and Joe so seeing Joe go down like he did was frightening. Kelley Wentworth adds that Joe fighting until his body gave out on him makes him look like an even bigger threat in the game. Jeremy tells Probst that just even though Joe does not have immunity he doesn’t feel the need to interrupt his strategy to vote Joe out of the game. Joe confirms that he does feel like he is on the chopping block for this elimination, but Abi-Maria reveals that she doesn’t feel safe either. Joe calls Abi a huge threat in the game because everyone would love to sit next to her in the end. Abi however, alludes to Joe being the “bad apple” of the tribe and she feels like the tribe should vote to get rid of him.

When Probst tallies the votes it’s clear that Joe’s plan to rally against Abi didn’t work. She only receives one vote for Joe and he is subsequently eliminated from the game. However, there was one rogue vote for Tasha from Keith Nale who clearly wasn’t in on the plan to vote out Joe. Even though most of the tribe voted against Joe, they are far from united. This was the perfect opportunity to eliminate a huge physical threat that they just could not pass up. Joe is now a member of the jury and will help decide who will be this season’s Sole Survivor