Feuds, Fire-Making And A Full House At Tribal: What Just Happened On Australian Survivor: All Stars?
While the unexpected tribe swap this week caused plenty of chaos, Jonathan La Paglia wasn't quite done with his bag of tricks.
After Abbey Holmes was blindsided at tribal the previous night, the second generation Mokuta and Vakama tribes arrived at their next immunity challenge ready to put their new team's skills to the test.
But after Sir Tarzan handed Lord Jonathan back the immunity sword, JLP announced that the game was going to play out a little differently -- and from then on, the power-packed twists didn't stop coming.
If you're still reeling from that heart-stopper of an episode and wading through the rat's nest of pandemonium in your head-- we're going to try and make sense of it here for you.
Act I: The Individual Immunity Necklaces
Last time we checked, the tribes hadn't reached merge and yet, just to cause more confusion, Jonathan announced that Mokuta and Vakama would be playing for two individual immunity idols.
He also casually mentioned that this meant both tribes would be voting someone off that night, giving the castaways at the bottom of the ladder extra incentive to get their hands on the prizes.
Except the eventual winners -- Jacqui and Brooke -- absolutely didn't need an extra layer of protection, being part of strong alliances, so there was zero relief for anyone worried they were on the chopping block.
Act II: Shonee's Working Through Her Death List
After the immunity challenge, and still feeling the high from her last blindside, Shonee announced that she was excited to keep exacting revenge on her enemies.
"Tonight's vote is definitely about revenge for me," Queen Shonee beamed. "I just need everyone to continue on the path that I've set and we're going to send Lydia home," adding that she'd had enough of the past three assassination attempts directed at her.
"There's just no going back, that relationship is over and, if my relationship is over with someone, what's the point of keeping them on my beach?" she asked.
Act III: Moana's Ready To Make Her First Big Move
Over at Mokuta, it was hard to tell who was scrambling and who was leading. Dave was keen to boot the "original Survivor snake" Nick, thinking he'd recruited Mo, Phoebe, Tarzan and Zach for the big vote.
But Phoebe's strong bond with Nick meant that was never going to happen with the Season 1 duo planning on a Moana strike.
Just to make things more confusing, Moana decided to take her first steps towards getting rid of Dave -- by removing his closest Mokutan ally, Phoebe.
Act IV: Mokuta And Vakama Enter The Biggest Tribal Ever
While we've seen an Australian Survivor tribe observe their rivals vote before, we've never had two tribes sitting down together for a double elimination.
"I don't think I've ever seen 18 people at a tribal council," JLP said as Mokuta and Vakama squeezed themselves around the campfire, double-checking with superfan Nick, who agreed.
The advantage here is that both sides can view all their neighbours' dirty laundry, which is very handy information when it comes time to merge.
Act V: A Song Of Earth, Wind And Fire
Surprise! JLP said two tribes would vote, but he didn't say that two people would be leaving the game.
After Lydia and Phoebe earned the most votes from their tribemates, they were sent into a fire-making challenge on what looked like a pretty windy evening.
It looked like Lydia's slow and steady approach was going to burn through the rope first, but it was Phoebe's persistence that paid off, shocking the alliance led by Moana that had tried to send her home.
