Shots Have Been Fired

Shots Have Been Firedis the third episode of Survivor: Canary Islands - Blood vs. Water.

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Fresh off of their first Tribal Council, the eight remaining Sangres trod back to camp and crawl into bed at their shelter. No one says much; the only one blindsided by the vote was Jonny, and no one's really surprised by Brandt and Vince's grudge votes for one another either. Brandt looks a little worried, sitting by the fire and chewing his lip, staying up later than everyone.

On the seventh morning of the game, Riada's campsite was rather peaceful. Carina and Araxie had gone for an early morning dip in the ocean so there was no drama or obnoxious flirting from Carina. The majority alliance's bonds became stronger than ever, with even the rather weak and useless Wilma integrating well into the group. In fact, Wilma held them together and was the lovely social glue that kept all of the majority people together; she bridged the gap between the men (Tae Min, Allen, and Roderick) and the women (Yara and Carlota), and seemed in a pretty good position despite not adding much but smiles and puzzle skills to the tribe. However, Carina noticed that Wilma was holding the alliance together, and talked with Araxie about eliminating her using the front that she was the weakest in challenges, but really so the majority alliance would fracture. The two spent the day plotting how they could do this.

Things were not so peaceful at Sangre. Vince and Brandt got into another fight, this time about the size of rice rations being given out. Vince wanted to up the size so they'd be better fed for challenges, while Brandt didn't want to make them any bigger so they'd have rice for the whole game. Everyone else stayed out of the conflict and let the two argue it out until it fizzled away. While the two were caught up in their fighting, some of their allies made moves to convert people from the other side. Sharrie spent much of the day with Brenna, doting on her and pretending to do her makeup and laughing the day away, hoping that if they became close she could convince Brenna to join Brandt's alliance. Liris went fishing with Edgar out in the tribe's little canoe, and she talked pure strategy with him, pointing out why Brandt needed to go and why it was smarter to keep Vince (Brandt was a savvy player, while Vince was just a loudmouth target that wasn't as good at the game). Edgar noted her points but didn't come to a decision.

The eighth day of the game started out with an early reward challenge. Carina looked extremely unhappy to see her little cousin voted out of Sangre. The castaways found themselves in a clearing with two large wooden frames. Flags numbered one to twenty hung from little slots around the frame, and a sling with six ropes attached hung in the middle of the frame. One person would lay inside the sling, and the rest of the tribe would pull on the ropes to move the sling so the person inside could grab the numbered flags. They had to put them in the ground in order, 1 to 20. The first tribe to do so would receive a reward of cooking utensils like a spatula, knives, and another pot, along with a rack of spices. For Riada, Carlota was in the sling, while for Sangre, Brenna was in the sling.

It was clear who would be winning the challenge from early on. Allen established a decisive lead with his tribe, ordering each person when to pull and what to do. Carlota eagerly grabbed flag after flag, and within ten minutes they were already to flag fourteen. Meanwhile, Sangre squabbled with both Vince and Brandt trying to take charge in the challenge; after ten minutes, they had only five flags. Riada soared to the easy win, putting in their twentieth flag while a defeated Sangre only had eight flags collected.

Riada was riding high on a cloud of pride and happiness, having won their second challenge in a row. The cooking supplies and spices were great. Before the challenge, they had found a dead stingray washed up on the beach. Roderick butchered it, and Wilma spent an hour preparing it perfectly with their spices until it was delectable. The tribe groaned in delight as they devoured the meat, sitting in a circle around their fire, tribal unity at an all time high. Araxie had realized that her partnership with Carina might not be able to be saved, so she had begun to try and assimilate into the majority bit by bit without her friend noticing. Not everyone bought it, however; her mood switch from spending most of her time with Carina and being indifferent to the others, to suddenly being cheery and talkative, was pretty obvious.

Sangre was even darker than before after their embarrassing blow out of a loss to Riada in the reward challenge. Brandt immediately started yelling at Vince for costing them the challenge, saying that Brandt himself was better with technical stuff like that and he should've let him lead the challenge. Vince spat back that he was a terrible leader, and the fighting escalated until Vince tried to punch Brandt but was held back by Edgar. Production separated the two to opposite sides of the camp. Sharrie sat watching by the fire, bewildered, her confessional playing in the background.

Nevertheless, while their leaders were put in solitary confinement for the day on opposite sides of the tribe's beach to think about their actions, the alliances were still trying to flip a member to their side. Liris had Soo Jung join her in convincing Edgar of the strategic and social benefits of siding with Vince, and the two eloquent and persuasive players were starting to wear down Edgar's intolerance to the idea. Meanwhile, Brenna and Sharrie were becoming very close. Sharrie proposed Brenna voting out Vince, which she seemed hesitant about but said she would consider, and Sharrie continued to work the impressionable young girl, hoping to get her on her side.

On Day 3, the castaways were taken out to a shallow stretch of the ocean for their third Immunity Challenge where a giant ring of bamboo was found. The castaways would be chained together by a rope, and each would carry bags holding twenty pound weights. They would start on opposite sides of the large circle and they would have to catch the other team. If a castaway became too tired to continue, they could unclip, but they would have to give their weight to someone else. The first tribe to catch up to the other would win Immunity!

Only minutes in, Wilma unclipped for Riada, winded easily. Over the next twenty minutes, Riada also lost Yara and Carina while Sangre lost Brenna, Edgar, and Soo Jung.

Soon enough, Sangre was losing more people, with Sharrie slacking and dropping out. Sangre was slowing down while Riada was maintaining their pace, and they were inching up on the struggled red team. Carlota let go for Riada, but Allen barked for Tae Min to do so as well, as he was struggling. Araxie, Roderick, and Allen were the only ones left, but they were all strong. They charged carrying all the weight at the frantic Sangres, closing the gap. Vince tried to use the same strategy, telling Liris to drop out. She did so, but Brandt struggled to carry her weight, and fell, bringing down the rest of his tribe remaining on the course. Before Sangre could get back on their feet, Riada had caught them, and Araxie triumphantly tagged a frustrated Brandt on the top of the head, already celebrating her tribe's second Immunity win in a row.

Returning to camp, everyone knew on Sangre that either Brandt or Vince would be leaving the game that night, that fact was plain as day despite the both of them being rather strong competitors. Their feud was destroying the tribe's unity and one of them needed to assume the full leader role, and the only way one could do that was if the other wasn't there also jockeying for the position. Vince gathered his troops on the beach. Liris reported that she'd done her best to convert Edgar and was pretty sure she had gotten him to believe that voting off Brandt was a better idea. Vince went on a short walk with Edgar and gathered that the man was on the fence, and Vince did the best to assuage his concerns.

Meanwhile, Brandt gathered Pasqual, Edgar, and Sharrie. Sharrie said she'd done her best to get Brenna to flip and that she was their best shot. Brandt went through a rough, emotional speech about how much he loved the game and how he needed to win this for his future, saying also that if one of them they'd be on the bottom of Vince's alliance and would have trouble in the game. Edgar looked uncomfortable throughout the exchange, and was relieved when it broke up, with Brandt leaving to go talk to Brenna and give her the same speech, which she got teary eyed during.

There was a lot of last minute scrambling, with Brandt going up to Brenna and telling her about his love for the game and beginning her to vote with him. She got teary eyed, seeing her need to win for the cash in Brandt as well, except for him it was that he wanted the title. She felt him, but she wasn't sure if she could vote with him. Liris did a last minute check in with Edgar, and he seemed so unsure of what he was doing that Liris looked very worried as she picked up her torch and followed the others as they hiked off to Tribal Council.

At Tribal Council, Sulola prefaced the conversation with asking Soo Jung how it felt to keep losing. She said that it was tearing them apart, and really wasn't a fun experience. She said that Brandt and Vince's feud was also a main reason why they were continuing to lose, as it was ruining morale. Everyone the tribe agreed to this, with Sharrie even blatantly saying that one of them had to leave that night if the tribe wanted any hope in recovering. The next ten minutes were spent discussing the merits of why Vince and Brandt should stay or go. Brenna and Edgar both looked pretty confused as this went on. Sulola asked Liris who the swing vote was that night, and she quickly replied, saying it was definitely Edgar. Sulola questioned Edgar about this, and he said he felt pretty torn and wanted to go with both sides, and was still debating his decision. With that, it was time to vote, and everyone was on edge. Edgar took a very long time to vote, pondering his decision in the voting booth for a good five minutes.

After the votes had been cast, Sulola got the urn and then read the votes to the tribe. It soon became clear that the strategy talks with Liris had sunken into Edgar, as Brandt was voted out 5-3. Brandt hugged Sharrie and Pasqual, who had voted with him against Vince. He also gave Edgar a disappointed grimace before giving his torch to Sulola. She snuffed it, and the third person voted out of the Canary Islands walked away, defeated. As the tribe left Tribal Council, Sharrie and Pasqual looked concerned about their futures in the game while Vince was grinning widely, victorious, and Liris looked pleased that her scheming had flipped the swing vote her alliance's way. Brandt's final words were played before the episode concluded.

 Vince (3 votes)