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Reed isn’t going to get eliminated without a fight. He plays a hunch by shamelessly searching Keith’s bag. He acknowledges that he hates it when other people do this, but then he adds, “Desperate times call for desperate measures.” He runs to tell Jaclyn and Missy, showing them a clue. Watching Missy try to process this information is like watching a cat try to catch a laser dot, only without the cuteness. Baylor at least understands that Keith is a bigger threat than they have appreciated thus far. For his part, Keith knows what has happened and is annoyed. “Different people got different values, I guess.”

The idol discussions are fascinating. Jaclyn worries about Jon being discovered. He notes that he burned his clues to avoid such a scenario. Our opinion of Jon’s gameplay exponentially increases. Meanwhile, Jeremy confides to Natalie that he is confident Jon has an idol. He also adds that he doesn’t trust anyone else in his alliance except for Natalie. He then approaches Jon with the clue, trying to get his younger opponent to confess that he possesses an idol. Jon refuses to play along.

Hilariously, Jeremy tries to guilt Jon into confessing by claiming that if they send someone back to Exile Island, They. Could. Die. Jeremy, there is a little thing called nuance you should research. Jon is annoyed by his ally, so he promptly heads over to Missy, tells her that he has an idol and asks to vote Jeremy out of the game over one of the next two votes. Missy immediately decides that she wants Jeremy AND Jon voted out, which in a backwards way reinforces Jeremy’s opinion that his “allies” are unreliable.

Tribal Council is a game of subterfuge as innuendo is including in most statements. Jaclyn complains that while Alec and Reed talk to them, Keith and Wes choose not to do so. She processes this information as one of the father/son tandem having an idol. We would be a lot more impressed if Reed hadn’t shown her a clue from Keith’s bag, but it’s still not bad detective work about human behavior.

Wes points out that Jaclyn hasn’t come to him to discuss strategy ever, noting that they share equal blame. Then he adds that Jon swore allegiance to him before voting out a mutual ally. Wes and Keith are a lot smarter than they get credit for being. Both of them have solid Survivor instincts, even if Wes did throw the game away last week due to his love of beer and tacos.

Jon grows defensive at this. Any perceived attack on Jaclyn switches his phaser from stun to kill. Several of the woman note that Keith doesn’t even speak to them. Keith notes to Baylor that he talks to her mother all the time. What goes without saying is that any time he has asked her to do anything, she has blown him off, which discourages further interactions.

The voting process is a huge shock. Moments after Natalie indicates that the only thing that needs to happen is for allies to stay strong, the vote is revealed. The first five votes are split between Keith and Reed, with the latter gentleman having three of them. Then, Jeremy gets a vote. And another vote. Jon cannot hide his smile. Another vote is revealed for Jeremy. Reed licks his lips in anticipation of potential chaos.

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