Survivor 51 split its merged tribe into pairs this week, and one vote sent two people to the jury at once. Kilby and Kristin Flickinger left together after a tribal council that the Salt group thought they had locked down. On the latest episode of Outlast Podcast, Frank and Shirley trace how it flipped: one idol, one warning and one extra vote that never got used.
Carter Builds the Salt Group
Coming off Brady’s blindside last week, Eric and Mike started the episode stuck on the bottom. Carter spent it pulling a new group together with Lewis, Kilby, Maggie and Cristian, and he showed Cristian his idol to lock him in. Frank sees Carter as the most connected player left, and with Kristin gone, he now has Carter as the frontrunner to win.
Picking pairs turned into its own strategy. Most players chose a partner from the opposite side of the vote, so they would never be on the chopping block together. Kilby and Kristin went the other way. Both were comfortable with almost everyone, so nobody felt bad about taking one of them out to get the other.
A Challenge Shirley Loved
Shirley calls the three-stage pairs immunity challenge one of the most original she has seen on the show. Lewis and Sharonda won it by thinking ahead. They dropped out of the first stage early, gave up the advantage that came with winning it, and came into the final stage rested. Their slow, careful build beat Carter and Cristian, whose stack collapsed right at the finish.
The reward was spaghetti, and it gave Sharonda a moment that hit Frank hard. “Sharonda, you’re incredible. Don’t ever think less of yourself like that,” he said on the show. Cristian, meanwhile, swam down a line of buoys on a Fiji sandbar and came back with an extra vote.
How Tribal Flipped
The Salt group had Devin and Jelly dead to rights. Then Thien An quietly warned them, and Jelly played her idol at the last second. Frank thinks that was the right call, even though it took out two of his and Shirley’s favorites. “The idols are no more valuable than they are right now, when they could save two people instead of one person,” he said.
Thien An gets Frank and Shirley’s Strategist of the week for that move. She saved Devin and Jelly and still voted with the majority, so she takes no heat for it.
The vote that could have changed everything is the one that never got used. Cristian told Eric about the extra vote he won on the sandbar, since Cristian planned to play his Shot in the Dark. Eric sat on that information, and Frank and Shirley point out that one spread vote would have saved Kilby and Kristin. Shirley’s read on Eric is blunt. “I think they’re going to bring him to the end because he’s absolutely no threat,” she said.
Picks of the Week
Carter takes Social Butterfly for building the Salt group and putting himself at the center of it. Carter and Cristian share Challenge Beast for staying locked in on the balance beam while every other pair wobbled. Thien An takes Strategist.
Kilby’s exit stings for this network in particular. Frank interviewed him on Geek Freaks Interviews earlier this season about Noodle Goose Games, the studio he runs off the island. Frank thinks Kilby could end up giving Carter a jury vote, which would make Carter’s path to the end even clearer.
Frank and Shirley also get into Jeff Probst’s comment about a possible future host, roast Rob’s new YouTube analysis, and suffer through a corn story from Lewis that Shirley wanted no part of. Was Jelly’s idol the move of the season, or should Eric have spread that vote? Tell Outlast on Twitter at @OutlastPodcast1.
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