Survivor 51, episode 5, ”Not Here to Get a Pedicure”: Who went home?

It’s been a month since Survivor 51, and it’s definitely been a fun one so far! With plenty of ups, downs, blindsides, and more, this season has shown some joyful promise that we hope continues. Last week, a Tribe Swap divided the remaining 17 players into three tribes, Savu, Toka, and Dina, with Savu the ultimate loser of the night.

There were two OG Savus with Alexis and Ori, and three OG Tokas with Jenna, Jelly, and Devin. Jenna wanted to keep OG Toka strong while Alexis plotted to get Jenna to her side. However, both were unaware that Ori, Devin, and Jelly had been working together from the start, having formed the Helicopter Alliance.

The episode ultimately ended in another blindside: Jenna was voted out unanimously. With 16 players still in the running for Sole Survivor, there’s plenty of game left to play, so let’s see where the night and episode 5 take us!

After last week

It’s night 9, and the Savu tribe rejoices after surviving their latest Tribal Council. Jelly is excited that everything went according to plan, but no one is as giddy about getting his way as Devin. Alexis says she sees this foursome (Ori, Devin, Jelly, and her) working together moving forward.

In a highly emotional scene, we see the Savu players decompressing and sharing their “whys” for playing the game. Ori shares his story about his mom and how he wants to help her, since she has always helped him. Devin reveals that both of his brothers have passed away and wants to honour them. Alexis’s story is devastating, as she discloses she has dealt with substance abuse in the past, as well as having gone through serious legal troubles. She says she knows the importance of family and found family, which is what the Savu tribe has become for her.

It’s day 10 at Toka, and the tribe is playing jungle basketball while they’re bonding. Thien An continues to distrust Mike over Kristin, even though Kristen is the clear outsider. However, being a walking Survivor encyclopedia has greatly helped Kristin to bond with everyone. Well, everyone except for Maggie.

Maggie states everyone has completely fallen for Kristin’s charm and shares her fears with Brady about her infiltrating the OG Toka numbers. Brady, in turn, completely distrusts Maggie because he considers her wishy-washy and because of how she got the Extra Vote advantage from him. Brady even states that even though he’s a psychopath, he can’t continue to live with Maggie’s paranoia.

At Dina, Kilby still wants to use his connection with Eric to survive and is willing to vote out Lewis if that saves him. Lewis is back to feeling good after suffering through a health crisis during the last couple of days, and sees the connection between Kilby and Eric as dangerous.

Lewis is proven right about his fears, as Kilby is much more ingrained with the OG Savus than he is. When Lewis and Linnea talk, Linnea is adamant in a confessional that Lewis is gone if Dina loses the next immunity challenge.

Reward/Immunity challenge

At the Reward/Immunity Challenge, Survivor host Jeff Probst announces that only one tribe will win, which will send the other two tribes to Tribal Council. Jeff also reveals they will be playing for a massive basket of Survivor pastries.

Kristen, Maggie, Kilby, and Cristian sit out the challenge, a water race to the endgame. All three tribes are pretty much neck-and-neck for most of the challenge, but Toka is the first to move on and starts to build an early lead. This ultimately leads to the Toka tribe winning both reward and immunity, sending Savu and Dina to vote out one member each.

Back on Savu

After the challenge, the Savu tribe feels completely defeated. There’s a clear divide between Devin/Jelly and Ori/Alexis, and ultimately, only one pair will come out on top.

Jelly points out to Ori that only women have been voted out so far this season, and she doesn’t want that to be the narrative of Survivor 51. Meanwhile, Devin tells Alexis about his Extra Vote and says he won’t use it unless she votes for Ori. In reality, Devin wants Alexis to feel safe so she doesn’t play her SITD and to blindside her. Devin expresses regret about what he needs to do, but wants to work with his HA allies first.

Alexis doesn’t trust him and wants to go against Devin instead. Alexis tells Ori she will try to get Jelly to vote Devin out with them, especially since Jelly has been outspoken about wanting to correct her mistakes in the game. Jelly agrees that Alexis is right about both not wanting to contribute to another woman leaving and about Devin being a threat.

At the Dina camp

At Toka, just before they enjoy their reward, a note awaits them, telling the tribe that one person must renounce their reward and join another tribe’s camp. Mike, Kristin, and Maggie throw their SITD in the ring to do it, and Maggie is the lucky one to be chosen to leave, much to the dismay of her tribemates. Maggie then gets an Alliance Builder Extra Vote for the player of her choosing, so she heads to the Dina camp.

At Dina, Kilby throws Lewis under the bus to save himself, since he can’t fracture the former Savu’s alliance. To save himself, Lewis comes up with a ludicrous plan of using his ring to say it’s a ” Blood Idol, ” which will link his fate with another player for two Tribal Councils and that player (being Sharonda) will earn an immunity idol in return.

Sharonda is extremely sceptical, but since we saw a Blood Moon during Survivor 50, she decides to share this information before deciding. Purple Cristian sees right through the scheme, as Lewis had already told him about this particular ring because it is linked to his Irish heritage, and he knows it is the same ring. Good effort on Lewis, though.

Just then, Maggie arrives to stir up the tribe and starts having one-on-one talks with everyone, but secretly wants to help Lewis and Kilby survive the vote. Maggie tells Kilby and Lewis that the Savu members are holding strong, so she comes up with a plan to use her two Extra Votes to vote out Linnea. While Lewis doesn’t want Linnea to be voted out, he promises to follow through; however, Kilby is debating whether to turn against Lewis (and Maggie) while keeping the Extra Vote for himself. Maggie returns to her camp and tells the other Toka members about sharing her two Extra Votes, hoping the guys turn this upcoming Tribal Council craziness in their favour.

Savu’s Tribal Council

At Savu’s Tribal Council, Devin announces that he’s with Jelly and will never betray her. Jelly is more hesitant to publicly declare her intentions and plans, as she knows everything can increase the target on her back. Devin surprisingly breaks down at Tribal as he recounts how everyone’s stories about being on Survivor made him realise he’s playing with people, not just numbers, and how heartbreaking it is to potentially lose one of them after growing so much closer over the last couple of days.

The final decision on who leaves comes down to Jelly: either her close but potentially dangerous ally, Devin, or Alexis, another woman to account for this season. Her decision ultimately comes down to loyalty and the Helicopter Alliance, as Alexis becomes the FIFTH woman to be voted out (and unanimously). Jelly apologises to Alexis as a stunned Alexis leaves after her torch is snuffed.

Dina’s Tribal Council

The second Tribal Council of the night begins with Lewis being targeted as the general target because of his trip to Exile Island and his lack of bonds from being sick. Eric mentions Maggie joining their tribe and possibly giving an advantage to either Lewis or Kilby, and Kilby takes a page out of Devin’s weaponised honesty book and publicly announces he has an Extra Vote advantage.

However, Kilby definitely plays everyone, as he declares he wants to work with the OG Savus but simultaneously uses his Extra Vote advantage against Linnea. Lewis also plays his Extra Vote, creating a 4-4 deadlock between him and Linnea. Everyone is stunned by Kilby’s duplicity, and after another 4-4 vote, Jeff announces that the remaining players must come to a consensus on who to eliminate between Lewis and Linnea, or the rest (Eric, Kilby, Sharonda, and Cristian) will go to rocks, and whoever draws the odd rock will be eliminated instead.

Kilby immediately broadcasts that he’s unmovable on voting out Lewis. Every former Savu person is distraught because they genuinely trusted Kilby, but he says he was never sure about Lewis, as the latter had already proven his loyalty to him. Lewis starts pushing the “we’re on Survivor 51, and everyone should go to rocks” narrative, while an almost teary Cristian and Eric beg Kilby to reconsider. Seeing that Kilby will not take his foot off the ”get Linnea out” pedal, and dreading going to rocks, one by one, Sharonda, Eric, and Cristian concede in eliminating Linnea, sending a SIXTH woman in a row out of the game.

If you had asked me how this episode would have turned out two hours ago, I certainly wouldn’t have been able to predict that two more women were going to be voted out, making it so that only five are left in the game. I will have to vent my thoughts on this in a separate article, but I’ll say that while I’m liking the season overall, this gender disparity is baffling and unheard of in over 50 seasons of the game. Everything can and probably will still happen in the game, but suffice it to say, the remaining players, especially the women, better beware. Oh, and Kilby, you’re in danger, girl, too.

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This article was originally published on www.survivingtribal.com as Survivor 51, episode 5, ”Not Here to Get a Pedicure”: Who went home?.