Channel 10
Australian Survivor has returned for its tenth season in 2025 with the second edition of “Brains V Brawn II”. Here’s everything that happened last night on Australian Survivor.
If you are looking for more details on the survivors or the show itself, check out our guide here.
Warning: spoilers below!
Episode 14, “The Buddy System”
There were a lot of chats and scheming in this episode, which is surprising as everyone seems to be gunning for Paulie. Many tribemates pointed out that the tribe had started to pair off. AJ with Myles, Laura with Logan, Morgan with Kate, Kristen with PD, Karin with Zara…but Paulie doesn’t have a buddy. But by the way, no one seems to have paired up with Kaelan, who is still keeping his head down and serving up coconuts. Whereas, Paulie is on the outs with the tribe. He is well aware that he is in a precarious position and seems to have accepted that he’s the next vote.
Kaelan let it slip to AJ that Logan has an idol, something that she hasn’t shared with him. He tells Myles who then shares that he has an advantage which allows him to steal an idol at Tribal Council. They are beside themselves with glee at the possibilities for their gameplay.
No one knows about Myles’ advantage, few people know about Logan’s idol, and everyone knows about Kristen’s. Both AJ and Myles have all the information and are keen to start making big moves!
Immunity Challenge
There was no Reward Challenge today, so we are straight into the survivors competing for individual immunity. Another balance and strength challenge, and yet another challenge which PD has to sit out. Begging the question again if this will make him an easy vote or the ideal shield.
The survivors had to stand on platforms and pull down on a bar which is holding a spool. If the spool drops you’re out. The last person standing wins individual immunity.
The challenge definitely favoured survivors with upper body strength. “This is not Pilates,” Logan said at one point.
Everyone thought this would be Paulie’s challenge as he is fairly strong and needs the security of the immunity idol. Unfortunately, he loses focus and his spool just falls off. Leaving Paulie exposed. After Paulie drops out, many others drop out. Until it is a showdown between Kaelan and Kristen.
Ultimately, Kristen’s spool starts moving and drops, meaning Kaelan wins immunity.
Tribal Council
Back at the beach, the tribe agrees to dump their votes on Paulie. It’s an easy vote. However, AJ is keen to potentially blindside Logan to flush her idol. And, surprisingly, Laura starts scheming to vote off PD. He was part of an alliance that wanted to vote her off. Plus, she recognises that he will never work with her.
So, she chats with Myles who appears interested. Then speaks with Kate and Morgan, who are also on board. However, when she chats with Logan, she is furious. She is sick of not being able to push a name and of “being dictated to.” Laura immediately backs down, but Myles is still keen to make a move, especially one that doesn’t include voting off Paulie as he sees him as beneficial to his strategy.
With a few people breaking off to have chats and everyone worried about the split vote, PD speaks with Kristen. She promises to play her idol to save him if they feel like PD is in danger.
Myles is frustrated with the players, who appear to vote with their emotions and are not playing the game. And so, he hatches a plan.
When it comes to counting the votes at Tribal Council, Myles reveals his advantage to the shock of the tribe (and AJ’s glee). Instead of stealing Logan’s idol (as they aren’t 100 per cent sure she has one, although why wouldn’t they trust Kaelan?), Myles decides to take Kristen’s. Now leaving PD exposed.
The viewers at home had no idea, but it appears that AJ and Myles had planned this, as both voted for PD. Paulie also voted for him, so PD was the victim of Myles’ advantage. Now Myles can take credit for the move, stealing a move from Laura. A great addition to his resume…
Episode 13, “Vengence”
Merge time! This season is just flying by, it’s already time for merge. When two tribes become one! The new name, suggested by PD, is Malosi, which means strong in Samoan. When it comes down to fewer players, that’s generally when people stop being sent home after being eliminated after Tribal Council and instead become part of the Jury, who ultimately determine who becomes Sole Survivor. We still have one player too many, so whoever is sent home tonight is sent home…
After buffs are dropped and hugs are shared, the new tribe embarks on everyone’s favourite part of merge: individual challenges! Instead of a tribe winning, everyone is out for themselves.
The episode began with the tribes both arriving at the challenge, and they could clearly see that the tribe merge was happening. Let’s get into the challenges.
Reward Challenge
Starting off strong with a classic endurance challenge. Survivors had to hang from a rope, gripping it with their arms and legs. When one person drops, it affects everyone (as they are all on the same rope). The last person left dangling wins the reward!
What’s the reward, you ask? An exclusive cocktail party and the winner can choose the “guest list”, a perfect opportunity to make new relationships and start scheming (and enjoy a couple of cocktails).
Although a simple concept, people start dropping fairly fast. AJ uses his position next to Kate to start building a relationship and charming her. While Laura and Karin use the opportunity to catch up on what has been happening in each other’s tribes.
Eventually, it’s just Kate, Logan, and Zara left hanging. Zara and Logan pitch that they will drop if Kate agrees to take them to the cocktail party. She readily accepts.
Kate keeps her word and brings the ladies along to cocktails. Also on the invite are AJ (his charms worked), Paulie (so she can find out what happened on his tribe), Morgan (her closest ally in the game), and Kristen (her old tribe mate).
After the group enjoys their cocktails, Logan has a chat with Zara and Laura about how she’s determined to vote out AJ and that if they don’t vote with her, she will believe they are against her. She’s happy to wait until the next vote but wants to get him before he gets her. Laura and Zara attempt to smooth over their issues from when Zara “hijacked” Laura’s advantage. Logan makes it clear to the camera that she doesn’t trust Zara, even calling her cruel. So Zara is on Logan’s hit-list…
Immunity Challenge
PD was excused from the challenge due to his arm injury. So he’s on track to be a big shield or voting number in the game going forward, as it’s unlikely he’ll be able to engage in many of the challenges.
The survivors had to balance on a see-saw while attempting to balance balls on a platform. The last person left standing wins individual immunity.
It proved to have a tricky learning curve, but the paddleboarder (Kaelan), skateboarder (Jesse), and Pilates-lover (Logan), appeared to have it in their stride. Soon, it was just Logan and Jesse and Pilates won out over skateboarding! Logan is the first person to win individual immunity!
Tribal Council
As is normal after merge, voting lines and alliances are hard to track. Jesse and Paulie are keen to stay original Brawn-strong and vote for an OG-Brain, namely Logan. The “Girls Gone Wild” alliance of Kate, Morgan, Zara, and Laura pitches Jesse’s name (their plan from the last Tribal Council they went to). AJ attempts to scrounge votes for Paulie, who he is adamant to get out. Kristen, PD, and Myles appear keen to join him in that vote.
Myles is keeping his idol-stealing advantage under wraps; no one mentions Kristen’s idol, and it’s unclear who knows about Logan’s immunity idol. So, even as the contestants were heading to Tribal Council, it was anyone’s guess who would be voted out. A toss up between Paulie and Jesse.
It ended up being a close call. Zara, as she expected, copped two votes (from Paulie and Jesse); Paulie, as he very much did not expect, got five votes; but in the end, it was Jesse, who was completely blindsided, who received the most votes at six. He and Paulie had no idea that the OG-Brawn-strong alliance was broken. This means that Paulie is now on the bottom, yet again.
Episode 12, “Just What The Doctored Ordered”
The return of mid-week reward challenges! This episode had more shocking twists and turns beyond the gameplay itself. Let’s get into it.
So, Zara is back with her alliance, who welcomed her back with open arms. She immediately clocked the tension in the tribe and knows AJ has been up to things with his “hostages plan”. and went on a fact-finding mission. Karin lets her frustration with AJ be known to her, despite him butting in on her chats with Zara.
Back on the Brains tribe, Laura is furious that Zara “hijacked” her advantage. The advantage didn’t only mess up her gameplay, but it also ruined Kate and Morgan’s plan to vote out Jesse. So, Kate attempts to smooth things over with Jesse, who hints that he feels like something is up in the OG Brawn alliance…we shall see if those cracks become fissures.
Whereas Myles is embracing his “Jungle Rat” moniker. Finally comfortable with his position at the bottom of the new Brains tribe, he uses their lack of interest to scurry away and locate a hidden immunity idol!
Reward Challenge
As mentioned above, there was a reward challenge in this episode! It was a fun challenge on the surface, but there was an awful accident which changed the course of the game.
One-on-one survivors from each tribe slide down a massive water slide, pick up a ring and wrestle one another to hook the ring on their tribe’s column. The first tribe to hook the ring three times wins the reward. And what’s the reward from this episode? A trip to The Survivor Spaghetti Shack, all the pasta they could eat.
Brawn wins first; Brains wins second. On the third round, Kaelan went up for Brawn, taking on PD for Brains. An epic wrestle took place until…PD took a bad fall, and we all heard a large snap and a roar from PD. Viewer discretion is advised:
The challenge was halted while PD was examined by the medical team and JLP, who has a medical background. We rarely get to see what happens with the medical team, so that was an interesting break in the fourth wall. They determined that his arm wasn’t broken, but they were concerned about whether he had torn his bicep.
They took him away for further examination, and the tribes had to continue the challenge. Before he left, JD and Kaelan shared a sweet moment, like true sportsmen, where PD said it was all good.
In the end, the Brains tribe won and went to all they could eat pasta heaven. It was the classic reward where tribe members could only go in one at a time, and everyone leaves a mess.
Myles was the only one to find a clue to an idol but misread “check the shelter” for “check the shelves.” Luckily, when they got back to camp, he still found it anyway! It was an advantage. It stipulates that at tribal council after people have voted, he can present the advantage to JLP and accuse someone of having a hidden idol. If he’s correct, he can keep that idol for himself.
Immunity Challenge
First up, PD is back! He was cleared for continuing in the game, and he decided to keep going! He will have to be excused from certain challenges, including this one.
Teamwork was the name of the game in tonight’s episode. The tribe members had to stand on a beam and pull on a rope that was holding up a disc on which they would attempt to balance ten cubes stacked on top of each other. It called for balance, communication, and precision.
After a few frustrating attempts, Brains was successful, sending Brawn back to the tribal council.
Tribal Council
Ahead of the council, Paulie was doing his best to hustle to shift the vote away from him. However, there has to be a split, and AJ is on the outs with many in his tribe, and everyone is afraid of Laura and Logan making it to merge (which is believed to be this coming Sunday). AJ is fine with copping votes. Zara warns AJ in her strongest “mum voice” not to do anything crazy — “no hostages” is repeated a couple of times.
Paulie is no fool; he is aware of the cracks and knows there are opportunities, so he attempts to exploit them. First up is Karin. She is keen to worry AJ, so her plan is to make the vote a 3-4 split on Paulie and AJ and not 6-1. Paulie pleads his case of an alliance come merge. Next is Kristen. She has an idol. He promises that if she uses her idol to save him, they could be part of a huge alliance come merge. She doesn’t seem so keen to use it to save Paulie.
AJ starts thinking that something is up because Paulie is too chill around camp. So, he starts scheming to vote out Logan.
However, it’s anyone’s guess how the vote would have played out!
When they arrived at Tribal Council, JLP immediately let them know that there wasn’t going to be an elimination as a player had left the game.
Who left? To everyone’s surprise, it was Ben. All JLP said on the show was that Ben “decided to leave the game.”
However, Ben clarified what happened in a video posted to his Instagram account. In one of the earlier challenges, he tore a calf muscle. It wasn’t shown on the show, besides him sporting a calf bandage in subsequent episodes. It turns out that was just the beginning of his troubles. He also shared that after moving to the Brains and sleeping in a puddle for many nights, he contracted pneumonia and is still recovering six months later.
During the hoop challenge in this episode, he said he “retweaked” his calf injury and noticed afterwards that he couldn’t catch his breath and his heart was racing. The Survivor medical team evacuated him. He also shared that he went onto the show with Ross River Virus and chipped a tooth.
“Survivor is no joke,” he quipped.
He hasn’t closed the door on his Survivor journey, he’s keen to return for his unfinished business.
Episode 11, “The Strong-Arm”
If your favourite part of Australian Survivor is the challenges, then tonight was definitely a disappointing episode for you. It was a weekday episode, so there was no reward challenge, and the new Brains tribe arguably threw the challenge in a matter of minutes. Like maybe two minutes. The fastest challenge I have ever watched.
The episode opened on the new Brawn tribe as AJ tried to plead his case and again attempted to claim that he didn’t throw out Logan’s name to Noonan and Paulie…even though he did. He is a good liar, but unfortunately, no one trusts him anymore. Karin no longer wants to work with AJ after he revealed his hidden immunity idol. At one point, she even says his actions have potentially blown “up the alliance completely.”
Paulie takes his opportunity and gives an impassioned pitch for the former Brains to flip on AJ and “replace” him with Paulie. He has a few people on his line…let’s see if he can reel them in.
Over on the new Brains tribe, Morgan and Kate are finally starting to play Survivor. They haven’t really had the opportunity as they have missed a lot of tribal councils and haven’t had to scheme. Since the tribe swap, they have been part of a strong alliance. However, now they are a bit sick of the status quo and the guys calling the shots. Instead, they approach Zara and Laura to start a secret women-only alliance, which they call “Girls Gone Wild.”
Immunity Challenge
As mentioned, this Immunity Challenge was a quick one. The tribe members had to (as a team) hold up a trough filled with water with a long pole. The last tribe to hold up the trough wins.
However, quite quickly into the challenge, Laura mentioned that it was getting heavier too fast. Interestingly, the edit made it appear that Ben was loosening his grip. Soon, the trough emptied on top of them. It lasted less than five minutes.
If they did throw the challenge, viewers are over it. Throwing a challenge once or twice for strategy is totally acceptable, however, we are getting to a point of unsportsmanlike behaviour.
Tribal Council
Once the new Brains return to camp, they start strategising. Myles, Laura, and Zara got idol-hunting while the former Brawn alliance went to the well to chat. The OG-Brawns decide to put the vote on Laura but split the vote on Myles. Kate and Morgan offer to speak with Laura and Zara to convince them to vote for Myles, but unbeknownst to their alliance, they plan to flip and vote Jesse out.
They speak with Laura and Zara, and Laura immediately starts panicking. She doesn’t want to cop any votes at all. However, her strong alliance with Logan and Karin on the other tribe make her a threat come merge. Zara and Kate try to keep Laura calm, but the constant chats make the guys nervous, and they discuss flipping on their alliance by convincing Myles to vote for Laura (not much of a flip, to be honest). He agrees, but he is actually with Laura and Zara.
However, before they get to Tribal Council, Laura finds an advantage! It stipulates that whoever cops the most votes at Tribal Council won’t be sent home, instead, they will be sent to the new Brawn tribe. Laura is beyond thrilled as it means she could reunite with her old alliance. She shows Zara, who initially is mad that her game is at risk. But then sees it as an opportunity to save herself.
At Tribal Council, Zara strongarms Laura, who reveals the advantage to the tribe. Laura volunteers herself and pitches why it is a benefit to the strong five alliance. Myles and Zara also pitch themselves. Morgan and Kate aren’t keen to send Zara or Myles because of their alliance with AJ. However, Jesse and Ben believe that reuniting Laura with Logan is riskier. So, Zara gets the most votes and heads to safety at the new Brawn tribe and into the arms of her old alliance.
Laura is fuming. If she makes it to merge, Zara will be on her hit list.
Australian Survivor: Brains V Brawn II continues Monday-Tuesday at 7.30pm and Sundays at 7pm on Channel 10 and 10play.com.
Episode 10, “The Vault”
Reward challenges are back on this Sunday episode! After episode 9, there are five idols in play… and we may see some make a resurgence at tonight’s tribal council.
Starting over at the new Brains tribe, Myles is firmly at the bottom, saying that everyone in his former alliance is now playing for themselves, realising that the OG Brains voted for him and Max went home. Everyone on the tribe agrees that AJ has thrown the OG Brains “under the bus”. If Zara and Laura don’t make it to merge, they have very little chance of making it as Sole Survivor.
Over on the new Brawn tribe, AJ is going around having conversations with everyone and saying to the camera that he’s in charge and has all the power. He is very dismissive of his current alliance but also plans to use the OG Brawns as “puppets.” When having a chat with Noonan, AJ suggests Logan as the next vote (because of her relationship with Laura on the other tribe) or Paulie, her closest ally.
Reward Challenge
Hurrah for reward challenges! This week’s reward is a classic chicken parmi/parmaz and beer at The Survivor Pub. To win, each tribe nominates a player to go head to head to attempt to knock off two idols from the other tribe: one a pedestal and one being carried by the player. The first tribe to score three points wins the reward.
After some worthwhile match-ups, it was a close one, but the new Brains tribe clinched it and went to the pub.
Immunity Challenge
There is only one word to describe this challenge: frustrating.
Was it a tricky challenge? Somewhat. Did the survivors try their best? Absolutely not. At least, not all of them did.
A classic obstacle challenge, it looks like the Brains and Brawn tribes were both in it to win it. Brains was lagging a bit at the beginning but quickly caught up, and Brawn showed surprising strength and team worth — particularly from Noonan, who gave it her all and rolled her ankle in the effort.
The final part of the challenge was a simple task of throwing three balls into three baskets. Brains put up their top thrower (in more ways than one, more on that to come), Ben, and Brawn put up their “leader”, AJ.
It became clear that both Ben and AJ were throwing the challenges — because they literally said it to each other. The two men had a conversation about it while their tribes were yelling at them to throw. I will say that if Ben was truly throwing, he is a better shot that anyone realises as he hit the rim of the basket “like twenty times” like seven times. Maybe he wasn’t throwing but was trying to save face.
At one point, even JLP was frustrated with both men and threatened to send both tribes to tribal council and vote out two people.
Eventually, Ben landed his third ball, sending Brawn back to tribal council. Before they headed off, Ben denied he was throwing the challenge, gaslighting everyone, and throwing AJ further under the bus. If the two end up surviving until merge, it could be an interesting showdown…
Tribal Council
No way around it; the tribe are not happy with AJ. No one more so than Noonan, who is now unable to look for an idol or have secret chats thanks to her busted ankle.
Noonan shares the chat that she had with AJ to everyone, revealing that he planned to put Logan on the chopping block. He denies it. They have words, and Logan is mad that her name is out there. However, Kaelan convinces her and Karin that it’s too early to vote out AJ as he’s a good shield. If they get to merge, he shrewdly points out that other survivors would see him as a threat and target him. They agree to hold… for now.
AJ tries to disregard the bad feelings about camp and says the vote is on Paulie…when Paulie rocks up and asks what is happening. AJ admits that they are splitting on Paulie. Furthermore, when they are counting out votes in the group, Kaelan points out that AJ is counting incorrectly, accidentally revealing that Paulie is the real target.
So, Noonan and Logan are mad at AJ, Paulie is worried his name came out (and hints that AJ is a snake), and everyone has forgotten that Kristen has an idol. In addition to hers, Paulie and AJ both have secret idols which they haven’t revealed to anyone (even their alliance members).
When we get to tribal council, all the armchair experts on Reddit and Instagram are suggesting scenarios and predicting how many idols and revotes we may see tonight.
After voting, Paulie reveals his idol and plays it to save himself. AJ immediately panics and takes out his own — to the shock of his alliance Kaelan, Logan, and Karin. Noonan spots it and tries to convince him that no one voted for him. It nearly works. But he plays to save himself.
In the end, Paulie nabs four votes, AJ gets one (from Noonan), and Noonan gets two (from her own former Brawn tribe members). So, Noonan goes home and leaves behind a very tempestuous tribe.
Australian Survivor: Brains V Brawn II continues Monday-Tuesday at 7.30pm and Sundays at 7pm on Channel 10 and 10play.com.
Episode nine: “Hostages”
No reward challenge again tonight.
We are getting closer and closer to merge, so the strat chat is amplifying amongst both tribes. AJ is positively gleeful with his supposed master plan of “Taking Hostages”. However, despite what he believes to be his great observational skills, his own tribe mates (the OG Brains) are getting tired of his antics and do not agree with his plan. They have very astutely realised that if his “plan” is successful, then their alliance and former tribe mates from Brains will be burned.
After his antics at tribal council, Logan is making it her mission to get AJ out. Kristen is 100 per cent on board with her and does not trust AJ at all. She puts up with him trying to charm her while they are washing in the sea. Apparently, he is not able to understand that she is just playing along with him, even though he lied and sent her ally Ursula home the night before.
Over on the Brains tribe, Myles is still going hard with the strat chat and really wearing out the ears of the OG Brawns. Max is loving his new tribe and the opportunity he has to get rid of his “jungle rat” rival, Myles. He is positively giddy as his circumstances, although it doesn’t appear that he realises that if he’s part of the new OG Brawn alliance, he’s at the bottom.
Immunity Challenge
This challenge was honestly frustrating to watch. Ahead of the action, AJ revealed his “master plan” to the other tribe. Shocking his OG Brains, Zara and Laura and dumbfounding the other Brains members, including Jesse, who called him “delusional”. Despite this, Ben was clearly interested in throwing so that his alliance could get rid of some of the OG Brains ahead of merge.
So, onto the challenge itself.
The two tribes had to race to unload heavy sandbags from a canoe loaded with puzzle pieces. Once free of sandbags, the tribe has to drag the canoe up the shore and unload the plank puzzle pieces and put the puzzle together. Once successful, each of the tribe members has to land a ball on a high platform. The first tribe to land all their balls is saved from elimination.
Seems straightforward enough — or as straightforward as Survivor challenges can be! However, immediately, it is clear that Ben and other OG Brawns are throwing the challenge. Ben actually tells his alliance to slow down and pretend not to carry the heavy canoe. Despite their actions, Laura and Myles rally and Myles nearly single-handedly gets the tribe to the puzzle section.
With the new Brawn tribe ahead, the puzzle begins to be revealed. They quickly realise it says, “One of the sandbags contains an idol”. Zara yells to Laura, and she races back to the sandbags to find it. Jesse on her heels. Myles keeps pushing ahead with Max (of all people). Ben, Morgan and the other Brawns abandon the puzzle to find the idol. At this point, Brawn has solved the puzzle and moved on to throwing their balls. Once they land their balls, each member runs to the water to find the idol. Soon, it is only Karin who hasn’t landed her ball. Kristen finds the idol in the water, and now they are just waiting on Karin for them to win.
Myles closes the gap with the puzzle and runs to the water to get his tribe to come back. They ignore him, but the Survivor gods were clearly listening, as he looks down and lo and behold, the idol is floating in the water by his feet. Distraught, his tribe return to the challenge, and it looks like they may even win. Finally, Karin lands her ball, sending Brains to tribal council.
Tribal Council
Now that Myles has an idol, it has complicated things on the new Brains tribe. Laura tries to get Max and the rest of the OG Brains to work together and use Myles’ idol to their advantage. Max will not listen and goes straight to the OG Brawns and suggests they split the vote on Myles and Zara, hoping that Myles will play it for Zara. Jesse is keen, but the OG Brawns already have a plan. They already decided to confuse by not saying who they are splitting the vote with Myles on, but are planning to blindside Max and flush the idol.
Max shares that he is voting for Myles with Laura, who panics and talks to Zara. Both of them decide to vote for Myles and convince him to use his idol to save Zara. No one knows about Max’s idol; he manages to keep it secret and plans to use it for himself if he senses anything awry at tribal council.
At tribal council, the OG Brawns don’t give too much away. Max makes it very clear that he is gunning for Myles and switching to the OG Brawns.
Before the votes are read out, Myles plays his idol. He uses it to save himself. When JLP reads out the votes, it seems like Myles played it correctly as he nabs four votes. He votes for Kate. But then, the OG Brawn’s plan is revealed (to the shock of the OG Brains). Max gets the most votes and goes home with his idol in his pocket.
Australian Survivor: Brains V Brawn II continues Monday-Tuesday at 7.30pm and Sundays at 7pm on Channel 10 and 10play.com.
Episode eight: “A Maggot In The Rice”
No reward challenge in this episode!
It opens on the new Brains tribe, with Ben finally having enough of the shoddy shelter and pulling together a team to fix it up. A team building exercise that would normally help build relationships. However, Myles put his best strategy foot forward and started coming on way too strong. Leading the rest of his former Brains tribe to warn him that he’s putting himself on the chopping block and to go easy on the “strat-chat”. The former-Brawns tribe are very tight and not likely to let Myles into their alliance.
Over on the Brains tribe, Ursula has put herself on the bottom of the ladder. She simply does not trust Paulie and especially Noonan. After going rogue and solely voting for Noonan during last night’s tribal, relations between the two women are at an all-time low. AJ attempts to play all sides and build up his power. Kristen, Noonan, and Paulie all speak with him separately to set up “secret” alliances. However, he’s only truly loyal to him (and the OG Brains).
And so, onto the challenges:
Immunity Challenge:
We have another balance challenge today! Survivors will have to balance on a wall of numbered pegs. Two throwers from each tribe will attempt to knock off a coconut from a wall of coconuts with corresponding numbers. Once they do, the pegs are pulled out, and eventually, survivors will not have any pegs left to stand on. The last tribe standing wins.
Ben and PD were the Brains throwers (no surprise) and made quick work of knocking off coconuts. AJ and Noonan were up for Brawn and were less lucky. AJ used the downtime between throws to attempt to convince Ben and PD to throw the game so that they could go to tribal and vote out the OG Brains on their new Brains tribe — to the bafflement of viewers.
Despite a standout effort from Paulie on the Brawn tribe, who was incredibly hanging on by one peg for a few rounds, he dropped sending Brawn back to the tribal council.
Tribal Council
Ahead of the tribal council, the Brains tribe were scrambling. AJ flexed his best “poker face” and tried to play all sides to blindside one of the former-Brawn members. Karin suggests Paulie — despite his stellar effort at the elimination challenge — but he wants Ursula. He immediately goes to Paulie and Noonan and suggests Ursula. Kaelan agrees with Karin that Paulie is the better choice.
Paulie speaks with Ursula and suggests being a strong four and voting out one of the former Brains. Ursula suggests Karin. Noonan and Kristen join them, and Paulie does his best relationship management to try to get Noonan and Ursula on the same page. However, as soon as they finish chatting, Noonan blabs to Karin. Cue major scrambling and chats around the camp, and suddenly it’s back to Paulie and Ursula on the bottom, but really it’s anyone’s guess who could be going.
AJ comes up with a plan he calls “Taking the Hostages”, where he encourages the other tribe to throw challenges and vote out his former tribe mates — his plan isn’t well received by anyone, as he would be burning bridges on both tribes. He gleefully shares his master plan at tribal, and at one point, it looks like the tribe might turn on him.
However, when the votes are tallied, it’s Ursula who gets the most votes. And so the former Brawn tribe member makes her goodbyes. Paulie and his idol live on for another day.
Australian Survivor: Brains V Brawn II continues Monday-Tuesday at 7.30pm and Sundays at 7pm on Channel 10 and 10play.com.
Episode seven: “A Date with JLP”
The episode began with the Brains tribe members Laura and Karin eagerly awaiting their tribe’s return from the tribal council to see who survived this complete mess-around that was Max’s gameplay. They were somewhat surprised (maybe not Karin) to see that Ally had been knocked out.
Logan called Max out for blindsiding his new alliance (of herself and Laura), but when they counted the votes, they realised something was up. Unfortunately for them, they did not realise that another alliance had been formed, led by Myles, with Kaelan, Karin, Zara, and AJ. Dubbed “The Graduates”, they planned to vote Ally out. So, to keep their alliance under wraps, Zara feigned confusion. In fairness to her, everyone was confused.
Onto the challenges.
The challenges:
The reward challenge was a little less exciting today: triple-decker sandwiches. More exciting for the survivors and viewers at home: Tribe Swap!
It feels like it’s coming a little earlier than usual, but here we are!
Karin responded to the news with “Not happy Jan.” She had just manoeuvred a clear majority in her tribe.
The new tribes are drawn:
New Brains: Ben, Laura, PD, Kate, Morgan, Myles, Zara, Jesse, and Max.
New Brawn: Ursula, Kaelan, Rich, AJ, Logan, Noonan, Paulie, Kristen, and Karin.
Reward challenge:
So, to the reward challenge. One by one, two survivors (one from each side) had to wade or swim out to a platform in the water’s shallows and memorise a sequence of symbols. Once memorised, race back to shore and attempt to recreate the sequence. If you are wrong, you have to swim back! The first tribe to three points wins the reward.
First up was Laura for Brains versus Kaelan for Brawn. Putting his best brawn face on, Kaelan whipped out a perfect butterfly stroke and smashed the round. First point to Brawn.
Next up was Rich for Brawn and Zara for Brains. Rich was quicker and scores for Brawn.
Next was Ursula for Brawn and Kate for Brains. Both were really quick on memorising. However, both made mistakes and had to go back into the water. Ursula was correct on the second try.
Brawn wins the reward!
Immunity Challenge:
A mixture of teamwork and strength today. Tribes first had to unravel a heavy chest tangled in ropes to free a key. Once the key was free, they had to unlock the chests. Then, carry the chests under a low rope obstacle and then push them up a ramp. Once landed, they could open the chest and then push tokens up a wall using only a very long stick. It required a lot of teamwork and communication. In the end, Brains prevailed, sending Brawn to the tribal council.
Tribal Council
Ursula was not able to accept that Noonan was part of her alliance. Despite everyone telling her that Noonan was working with her, she did not trust her and broke old-Brawn lines and was the sole vote for Noonan. Everyone else blindsided Rich, who thought they were blindsiding Logan. AJ’s idol lives for another day.
Check in for the next episode!
Australian Survivor: Brains V Brawn II continues Monday-Tuesday at 7.30pm and Sundays at 7pm on Channel 10 and 10play.com.
