After a shouting match, a mutiny and a very dramatic Tribal Council, Wednesday’s episode of “Survivor” ended up coming down to a couple of rocks.
For the only the second time in the show’s 27 seasons, contestants were forced to draw rocks from a bag to see which one of them would get the boot and go to Redemption Island. Host Jeff Probst and the jury, which included three-time player Aras Baskauskas, seemed stunned at what they were witnessing.
Down-and-out Hayden Moss made a desperate plea to Ciera Eastin to abandon her alliance and vote with him and Katie Collins instead of ending up in the dreaded fourth place spot. At first, Ciera seemed content to stick with her alliance of Tyson Apostol, Gervase Peterson and Monica Culpepper, but as Hayden continued to play on her fear of finishing in fourth place, Ciera began to realize she was, indeed, at the bottom of her alliance.
"Four is better than six," Monica told Ciera, in a (very poor) attempt at making her feel better about her standing in the game.
"Nobody is entertaining any ideas of jumping ship in this alliance," added Gervase. "It’s one, two, three and four."
Even Jeff Probst noticed that Ciera was the "four" in Gervase’s count.
"It’s just how I’m counting," Gervase replied.
Ciera was obviously not convinced and decided to vote with Hayden and Katie, leaving her formerly rock-solid (no pun intended) alliance stunned — and suddenly worried about their safety in the game.
“What are you doing?!” Tyson yelled at Ciera after her vote was read.
Even after a verbal tug-of-war between Hayden and Tyson to sway Ciera’s vote, she refused to change her mind, resulting in her, Tyson and Katie — all of whom had previously been safe from elimination — having to draw rocks to see who would be sent to Redemption Island.
In the end, it was Katie who pulled the dreaded white rock, sending her to face off with her own mother, Tina Wesson, in next week’s episode.
This was the second big move for Ciera, who just weeks ago played a major part in voting her own mother out of the game.
"There are no words that can top what just happened," Jeff told the remaining players after the vote. "This game is definitely on, and it’s clear it’s going to be a battle until the very end."