Survivor Bloomsburg episode four ramped up the intensity of this competition. A new advantage was revealed at episode three’s Husky Island competition. That advantage is called the Husky Island fast pass. This allows a contestant to bypass the Husky Island competition and return back into the game. Carlos played this advantage, allowing them to come back alongside Brandon who fought his way back into the game.
As most players anticipated, a tribe swap was at the very start of episode four. With Uakira at five players, this was much needed considering the two other teams had doubled their players.
Tribe swaps are seen as a curse and a blessing. It can really be the luck of the draw for some players. You could be put on a tribe with half of your alliance or you could get a tribe where you know no one. In both the CBS show and past Survivor Bloomsburg seasons, tribe swaps can ruin a person’s game because they can’t get into the majority alliance.
Everyone is feeling a bit of dread. Yet, at the same time, it’s exciting because it creates an opportunity for new friends and alliances.
The castaways form a line. Bonobo in the front, Uakira in the middle, and Gibbon in the back. Each player gets to choose one of the 29 burlap bags. That bag would hold one of four colored buffs: Gibbon Yellow, Uakira Maroon, Bonobo Black, or Lesula Blue.
That’s right! A fourth tribe was introduced! This means that each tribe gets seven members. However, there’s one additional person. Cade picked the lone orange buff. What does this mean? He earned the privilege of being immune from the first tribal council of the night. However, he would be forced to join one of the losing teams once the second challenge began.
The first challenge required players to hold a plate in the center of six ropes. Each player would then have to stack a block on top of the plate. The blocks would have to spell out the word SAFETY. If any of the blocks or ropes touched the ground, the tribe would be forced to restart. The first to finish this challenge was Lesula followed by Bonobo.
Here’s the twist for the night. The two losing tribes would be sent to tribal council. These tribals would be separate from one another, but it meant that two castaways would be sent home after every tribal. Gibbon and Uakira were sent to the first tribals of the night.
Gibbon’s vote: Noah—4 and Joseph—3. Uakira’s vote: Dylan—6. It’s important to note that Dylan did not show up to this episode. Although he was not present, he could still be voted for. Uakira wanted to keep their numbers strong, so it was an easy vote for them.
Cade decided to join team Uakira making Gibbon the only team with six players.
The second challenge kicked off. It was a type of relay challenge with a lot of moving parts. Here’s what to take away: most people struggled balance beam portion of the challenge. Castaways were required to walk across a beam while balancing a collection of blocks. If a castaway’s blocks dropped or if they fell, they were forced to restart.
Both Gibbon and Uakira struggled on the beam section, a allowed Lesula and Bonobo to breeze through the challenge. Once again the yellow and marron tribes were sent to tribal.
Two small pieces of history were made at this tribal council. In Uakira’s vote, Marz was absent after leaving the episode early due to a sickness. In past seasons, any time a person is absent from a vote, they’ve been voted off. However, Uakari’s vote resulted as: Carlos—4 and Marz—2. So, despite not attending tribal Marz survived the vote.
Gibbon’s was a different case. The vote was split: Joseph—3 and Chase—3. This is the first tie in Survivor Bloomsburg history. See, Joseph’s original tribe was Bonobo. The five other people on Gibbon were from the original Gibbon tribe. This left Joseph being an outcast. In his case, this tribe swap was more of a curse than a blessing.
On the other hand, Chase had no luck with the balancing part of the challenge. He was a big part of the team’s loss. The tribe revoted which led to four votes on Chase.
The final challenge of the night was called ‘The Black Hole.’ Tribes played a game with a massive board. They would take turns placing cones on each tile. Each cone would have a numbered value on it. At the end of the game, there would be one unused tile. Any cone adjacent to this open tile would count as penalty points.
When the points were tallied, Lesula and Gibbon scored the most points. This sent them to tribal council for the final time.
Lesula worked up a plan to deceive Hadden T. Their vote resulted in Hadden T—6 and Scott—1. And, after getting votes the whole night, Joseph was sent home. Joseph—4 and Jack—1.
Going into next episode, it’s difficult to predict how things will play out. Tribe numbers are staggered. Bonobo has 7. Lesula has 6. Uakari has 6. And Gibbon has 4. Things do not look bright for Gibbon. However, having four players may mean a tribe swap next episode.
It may also mean that the winner of Husky Island will be forced to join Gibbon’s team. It’s hard to tell. However, in both seasons one and two the merge has started on episode five. Will we see a merge soon? Stay tuned to find out!