Survivor: Ghost Island Recap
It's Like the Perfect Crime
By Kim Hollis and David Mumpower
April 30, 2018
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Tonight’s episode begins with Dom doing his Apocalypse Now impersonation. He starts to tell Laurel about a dream that involves her and Martin Sheen. Food is involved, so it’s not a bad dream or anything. Still, his tone is very Colonel Kurtz. Sleep with one eye open, Laurel.
For the first time all season, they’re focusing on Desiree, which is bad news for Desiree. She tells Jenna, Donathan and Laurel that she’s ready to start kicking out other members of Naviti. Her gut tells her that she’s at the bottom of that tribe, so it feels like a good time to get rid of Kellyn.
Laurel is conflicted. Should she go with Desiree or stick with creepy Dom and the other Naviti?
It’s already time for Probst sighting, which is GREAT news. That means the episode should move along at a fast clip. It would only be better news if this was an Elimination Challenge, but it’s not. It’s just a Reward Challenge. The prize is a delicious bunch of food, and since Dom is dreaming about food in weird ways, the timing is good.
They do a schoolhouse pick for teams, which means one person is left out. That person is Donathan, who cannot win reward or go to Ghost Island.
The challenge involves rowing a boat to free teammates in cages. Michael and Sebastian are better at steering the boat than Wendell and Domenick. They break their “team” out into a great lead, which means that they run to the shore to unlock some puzzle pieces.
Eventually, the other group releases their final “prisoner,” and they’re on their way to try to win it with great puzzle skills.
Team Dom/Wendell seems demoralized. Michael is kicking puzzle ass. However, both teams suddenly realize that there are decoy pieces. It doesn’t fool Michael, though. He’ll join Sebastian, Kellyn, Chelsea and Jenna for a delightful reward. They also get to send someone to Ghost Island… except as usual, they agree to have them draw rocks. Angela is headed to Ghost Island. Dom will have to content himself with dreaming of food.
Michael is hoping this reward will allow him to make some inroads with some of the enemy Naviti. We don’t think he has a shot in hell with Kellyn, but Sebastian and Chelsea might be bendable.
And in fact, Kellyn confirms this after Michael makes his pitch. The editing shows her eating food like the ruling class, which is never a good sign.
Angela smashes her urn at Ghost Island, and she does get to play a game of chance. As always, she has to risk her vote to play. Since she thinks Naviti has the numbers, she decides to give it a shot. She loses her vote.
Back at camp, Donathan asks Laurel what she thinks about teaming up with Desiree, and she tells him she’s not thrilled about it. Then, she goes to Dom to tell him what’s going on. He starts talking about people going against the family, so he’s now swapped from Apocalypse now to Godfather.
He approaches Kellyn when she returns from the reward to tell her about Desiree’s Malolo play. Kellyn refuses to believe that Desiree would turn against her. Sucker.
While the original Naviti try to figure out what the hell is going on, Michael and Donathan set out to find an Immunity Idol. Donathan, who everyone underestimates, finds a clue leading him to Scot Pollard’s immunity idol that Tai betrayed him with. The Malolo tribe members have to be super sneaky, but they’re able to grab it. With Angela losing her vote, if one of the Malolo wins immunity in the challenge, things might just get interesting.
Probst again! The challenge has contestants holding ropes that will balance a disc with a ball on it. They’ll have to move further and further back, keeping the ball on the disc. Last person standing obviously wins immunity.
Wendell, Jenna, Desiree, Laurel, and Angela are out in just about an instant. Then we lose Dom. Michael also falls, which means (dammit) only Naviti remain. Eventually, it’s down to Chelsea and Sebastian. Chelsea is shaking, but Sebastian’s ball is moving (insert Beavis laugh here). Eventually, Sebastian loses. Chelsea wins immunity. Not that she was ever in any danger of being voted out anyway.
Dom notes that the plan had been Michael, but he’s worried about the Naviti girls’ alliance. That leads us to believe that we’re playing “It’s Anyone But Michael,” which sucks since he’s actually a pretty great Survivor player (and from Knoxville!).
The real question will be whether Donathan gives up the idol for Michael or if he goes to tell Domenick that an idol is in play.
Desiree, meanwhile, really is making her play for Kellyn, who has zero notion that her friend is gunning for her. Alas, Desiree discovers that Laurel busted her. She plays innocent very nicely with Kellyn before confronting Laurel. As far as Desiree is concerned, it’s “bye, Michael.”
Laurel wonders why Desiree is yelling at her, but that’s pretty disingenuous. She did tell Dom. BUT Desiree then lies to Dom, saying that she never approached the Malolo group. He’s annoying, but he’s no dummy. He approaches Michael about a temporary alliance.
THEN, Laurel and Jenna tell Kellyn that Desiree was indeed coming after her. Kellyn is obviously heartbroken to be the target, but she doesn’t think that now is the time for Naviti to break up. Then, she crazily yells at Dom that it’s time to vote out Michael. She tells him he’s paranoid.
In confessional, he correctly deduces that Laurel is the one telling the truth. Will it translate to Tribal Council?
Well, instantly, Donathan confirms the Desiree story at Tribal Council. Kellyn REALLY should have some alarm bells going off at this point.
Desiree lies about the fact that she had the conversation with the Malolo. EVERY SINGLE MALOLO says that she is full of crap. She paints it as a desperate move from a bunch of people who are being Pagonged.
Time to vote. The only vote we see is Angela’s “no vote.”
Donathan hangs onto his Immunity Idol, which is the right call, because Desiree is voted out. That was some pretty bad play on her part, and some worse lying.