God Damn Trombone Man

**God Damn Trombone Man** is the third episode of *Survivor: Middle Earth.*

After our previous tribal, our players found out that they would be split into pairs for the Tether Twist! Together, they would have to talk in all chats, compete in challenges, and cast a single vote at tribal.
Here are our tethered pairs:

* DylHan - Dylan Hattabaugh & James Hanson
* Marin - Erin Hoodlebrink & Maddie Wright
* Rammers - Amanda Bryan & Ryan Cundliffe
* Duck - Daniel Gluck & Dakota Houser
* Shangela - Shaylyn Thornton & Angela Young
* Masurra - Dylan Masella & Surra Arielle
* Meagally - Meaghan Farrell & Ally Specogna
* Jalijah - Jay Milligan & Elijah Van Camp-Goh

For the challenge, the tethers competed in our classic game of Mastermind. Two tethers worked their way into first place, which meant they would select one member to compete in a head-to-head tiebreaker. In the end, it was Jay Milligan and Elijah Van Camp-Goh who secured themselves immunity.

Meanwhile on Redemption Island, Taylor Kerr beat Gianna Reed in a one on one version of Mastermind securing his spot on Redemption and sending Gianna out of the game for good.

At tribal, Jay discussed how excited they were to be safe, especially when considering the weird dynamics amongst the mixed pairs causing a feeling of uneasiness. Maddie and Erin agreed it was particularly difficult to lose in the tiebreaker, as there hadn’t been an abundance of game talk. Dakota then discussed how he figured that he and Gluck had been having a great time and meshed well together. Surra and Dylan M then agreed that while it was great to remain with someone from their original tribe during this twist, it also made it more difficult to make new connections. Dylan H and James then talked about coming in last during the challenge and how that could be seen as a reason to target them, with the potential of a swap in the future. Amanda then spoke about the lack of disagreements amongst the tethers, as this twist came early in the game and no one wanted to make waves. Shaylyn and Angela then spoke about the minimal discussions surrounding advantages, with the exception of pairs discussing the potential of losing votes with the host challenges. Lastly, Meaghan and Ally both commented on previous relationships within the cast and how they both hoped that everyone was more focused on this game and building new connections.

When the votes were revealed, it was Meaghan and Ally who would become the third and fourth person voted out of Middle Earth.

## Challenges

* Immunity

**Challenge: Mastermind**
 In this challenge, castaways competed in an LCA classic, Mastermind! They were given a list of Middle Earth characters. From there, the castaways had to figure out which order the list of characters was in by submitting lists and being told how many names were correct. In this tether twist variation, tethered castaways had to take turns submitting lists and were not able to discuss with one another during the challenge. The tether who cumulatively got the list perfect in the least amount of attempts won immunity. app.
**Winners:** Jalijah

## Tribal Council

 (6 votes)

## Trivia/Stats

* This episode introduced the Tether Twist, the first of its kind in LCA history.
* In this episode, the advantage system for season 2 took its first victim. Daniel Gluck challenged Fred Davino for his Steal-A-Vote Advantage and lost, losing his vote for his next tribal council. Because of the tether twist, this also meant that Dakota Houser lost his vote as well.
* The title of this episode was said by Zach Love, Dylan Hattabaugh’s confessional buddy, about Elijah Van Camp-Goh.