Guts And Glory Episode 7: Master Plan

Mollie is trying to explain herself after that crazy tribal, but Evan and Micah are still very confused. They don't trust Mollie anymore and want her out over Allan.

On Noir, Brandon expresses confidence that Matt is going to stick with him. But Matt already has a new alliance, and they're all talking about taking Brandon out. The core 4 of Matt, Rene, Michelle and Katie all agree to trust eachother and try to keep their connection as secretive as possible. They control the votes right now, but Michelle wants Alex to be their fifth anyway.

Not content with just one idol, Evan is on the hunt for the Azula idol too. He finds it and tries to get away as quick as he can. Unluckily for him though, Alex just happened to be in the area and saw it. Evan and Alex decide to meet up, where Evan encourages him to keep his secret in return for him owing him one. They agree, and now Alex tells Evan his plan to start taking out strong players.

Mollie wins the wet T-shirt contest

The immunity challenge is for the tribes to carry a member on a wooden plank. Next, they must toss water to eachother in buckets to fill up another bucket. To finish the challenge, there's a Tower of Hanoi-style puzzle. Allan and Katie are the ones carried on the planks, with Noir completing it first. Micah tosses to Mollie as Matt tosses to Rene. Micah picks it up quicker, and Noir hit a further setback when Alex uses the wrong bucket and gets his team penalized. Rozay's lead gets bigger and bigger, and Evan dominates the puzzle to give them immunity.

Nicola tells Rene and Brandon they should start targeting the Sohcahtoas, since all six of them are still in the game. Rene doesn't really commit at first, but when Nicola firms up an alliance with him in private, he's starting to see it as a more feasible option. Alex is implementing his strongarm strategy to get Rene out, saying that he'd rather be feared than loved. I don't see this ending well for him.

Fear keeps people loyal

The core 4 are happy to do Brandon first, but Rene is mindful that Alex has connections with the other tribe, so as much as Michelle might hate it, they need to consider him as an option sooner or later. Alex's logic is actually kinda winning Michelle over, who talks with Katie about whether they should go along with it or not. Alex has a group meeting with his chosen recruits, and it does not go well. Brandon barely even listens to most of it, as he thinks Alex is "full of shit". Sensing that Brandon doesn't trust him, Alex now wants to change course and target him instead.

Nicola tells Matt and Rene that Alex is gunning for them, which is pretty concerning to them...and now they don't even trust the girls because they said nothing about it. A new alliance is forming between Rene, Matt, Nicola and Brandon with the mission to break Sohcahtoa up. But since they think Alex might have an idol, they're not quite sure the best way to go about it - do they target him directly and hope he's blindsided, or do they go for someone else and try to flush the idol out of him?

At tribal council, Brandon thinks everybody has been wheeling and dealing. Rene reveals the talk has been about not letting strong players get to the merge, but Nicola says everybody's personal strategy will always take precedence. Alex rambles on about binary code...perhaps he's starting to lose it. Austin asks everyone who feels in danger to raise their hand, and nobody does. The only conclusion to draw from that is that we're about to have a blindside.

There's a real air of uncertainty over the vote, with only Michelle's vote for Brandon being shown. When the votes are read, it comes down to Brandon and Michelle. Michelle is voted out 4-3 and takes a long time to get up...probably due to the shock. She suspects Rene (though not Matt) as being the one that turned on her, and wonders if one last talk with him before the vote could've changed things.

Well, it wasn't hard to foresee Alex's overplaying coming back to bite him...I'm actually surprised he didn't leave. But the core 4 alliance didn't even hold up for one vote, so there's always a chance things could shift again.