‘Survivor 48’ recap: Kamilla proudly runs Shauhin over ‘with a bus’ in ‘Icarus Time’
?on??48 the "core four" alliance once again resisted the urge to turn on one another, despite a rare opportunity to blindside?Joe Hunter?who was unprotected by the immunity necklace after a close call loss to?Kamilla Karthigesu.?Shauhin Davari?and?Kyle Fraser?briefly toyed with the idea of voting Joe out once he showed signs of paranoia over hearing from?Mary Zheng?that she'd be voting for him. In the end, everyone voted against Mary and she joined a would-be knight in shining armor?David Kinne?on the jury.
This week, Mitch and Kamilla angle for "move shaking," but run into the stumbling block of the emotional connections already built among the other four — can the biggest lie and a bit of acting clear a path forward? Read on for our recap of?Survivor?Season 48, Episode 12, titled "Icarus Time," which aired Wednesday, May 14 on?.
The players still competing to become "sole Survivor" at the start of the episode were:?Eva Erickson,?Joe Hunter,?Kamilla Karthigesu,?Kyle Fraser,?Mitch Guerra, and?Shauhin Davari. The members of the jury that will decide the winner are:?Cedrek McFadden,?Chrissy Sarnowsky,?David Kinne,?Star Toomey, and?Mary Zheng.
"I am gonna be very, very, very mad if it's another arm-based challenge"?— Shauhin DavariGoing into this final stretch of the game, the "core four" had a spoken plan to target Mitch at the next vote because he's less ideal to sit next to in the Final Tribal Council than Kamilla. The backup if Mitch were to win immunity is obviously to go against Kamilla instead. Mitch's pitch to Shauhin at this point is that it would be "hard to not pick the dude" if Joe is sitting at the end, so he'd like to initiate a move again him now that they've all made it to the six. At the same time, Kyle is still considering his best move and when he'll have to choose between the alliance of four and his "true number one Kamilla" who is not in that group. Kyle's hesitation rested in how hard it might be to beat Mitch in the end, but Kamilla told him they'd be able to build a convincing argument better than Mitch's and reiterated how that wouldn't be the case against Joe. On a stormy Day 22 at sea,??brought the final six in for an endurance-based reward challenge where they'd have to hold themselves up on a steep ramp suspended over the water using only hand-holds of sizes of varying difficulty. As a prize for the winner, a burger, fries, beer and cheesecake lunch in addition to an overnight stay at the Sanctuary inclusive of letters from home -- easily "the biggest reward of the season." Despite a ganglion cyst in one of his wrists, Shauhin managed to make it all the way to the final stage of the challenge. Going "kerplunk" before him was Kamilla, Mitch, Eva, and Joe. In the end, the arm-based face off between Shauhin and Kyle resulted in a very unexpected first individual win for Shauhin! As the reward champ, Shauhin elected to bring Joe and Kyle along as his guests, leaving Eva, Kamilla and Mitch without any communication from home and no extra food. "I'm sittin' home with two adults that want to, like, watch the news"?— Eva EricksonAfter the guys devoured their fair share of cheesecake and burgers at the reward lunch, they settled in to read their letters from home. Joe heard from his 10 year old son, Shauhin from his mother, and Kyle from his father. Kyle's letter triggered a conversation and opening up of Joe's relationship with his sister who passed a few years prior and he explained the significance of the number six in his life because of her. For a trio of guys that are already so strongly bonded by their emotional connection, it was yet another moment to potentially solidify how rock solid they are as a loyal group of friends. Back at camp, frustrations reached an all-time high for Mitch and Kamilla who couldn't understand why Shauhin would give Joe more food than is necessary, essentially setting him up for another immunity win. The decision put freshly on the table the idea that they might have to turn the tides and vote out Shauhin instead. When Kyle was away from them, Joe and Shauhin discussed whether they'd feel a need to vote Kyle out, but Joe dismissed it as unnecessary because he sees either of them beating Kyle in the end. Joe added that he sees himself, Eva and Shauhin as the "inner part" of their alliance and having Kyle in the final four with them is not a threat. Shauhin expressed that there's "no hesitation" in what Joe is saying, but he was privately concerned that he's been waiting to make a move and might need to make now his "Icarus time." When Shauhin expressed a similar willingness to make a move against Eva with Kyle, it reminded Kyle of when Shauhin went through his bag earlier in the season, but also opened the door for Kyle to be ready to make a move of his own choosing. In an effort to get him and Kamilla safely to the final four, Kyle returned to camp to involve her in a newly hatched plan to get Shauhin out next by using Eva and Joe to do it for them. In his plan they would tell Joe that Shauhin went to Kamilla with an idol and his own plan to use it against him and Eva. Kyle and Kamilla knew it was a lie that would be difficult to pull off, but if successful they'd get Shauhin out and undermine Joe's control of the game in order to strengthen their own pitches at Final Tribal Council. "My favorite thing to do on?Survivor?is just pick a person, don't give them any heads up, run them over with a bus, back up, run them over again ... and it's fun"?— Kamilla KarthigesuFor this week's immunity challenge, the players ran an obstacle course that ended with a ball-balancing snake trap. Shauhin took an early lead due to a quick traverse of the barrel roll and cargo next crawl, but we was overtaken by Joe, Kyle and Eva who all landed their first ball on the snake trap sooner than him. Without any blip, Joe managed to land his second ball first and earned his fourth individual immunity win, just shy of a record five. Joe's immunity win was a small wrench in Kyle's plan because it meant Joe might feel secure enough to not get paranoid over the incoming lie about Shauhin and the idol, but he proceeded with it anyway. Joe's reaction was calm, but he went to Eva straight away who was immediately concerned because she knew that Shauhin must know he can't win against her or Joe at the end, making the alleged story plausible. Both Joe and Eva said they get "a better vibe" from Kyle than Shauhin and can trust him more. When Kamilla corroborated Kyle's story to Joe and added details, but when Joe "baited" Shauhin to open up, Shauhin stuck to their plan to vote Mitch and gave no inclination to Shauhin that blood was in the water. Shauhin's reaction to Joe's demeanor was to tell everyone how uncomfortable Joe made him and reignited talk about possibly going for Eva, which only worsened his case. The worry for Kyle and Kamilla was that Joe or Eva would blow up the lie at Tribal Council, but they lucked out that it stayed under the rug. Instead of a flare up among alliance members and the biggest lie in the game getting exposed, Kamilla played up her outsider position in the game and Shauhin made the mistake of saying "you don't think of personal connections" and "things can change in an instant." Kyle also managed to bait a conversation on "paranoia," which Shauhin played into, and the trap felt firmly set for Joe and Eva to do Kyle and Kamilla's dirty work of turning on Shauhin. In the end, no advantages or idols were played, and the votes were: Shauhin, Mitch, Mitch, Shauhin, Shauhin, Shauhin. On his way out, Shauhin asked everyone to at least get up and hug him and left in good spirits, telling them "Y'all took out the best player and you know it." Next time on?Survivor...Two immunity challenges, two tribals, and one fire-making showdown bring the final five to "Finale" night.
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Sharon Pohlman