Blood Will Spill

**Blood Will Spill** is the ninth episode of *Survivor 1 (US)*.

## Story

 After Tribal Council, the ten remaining members of Talotia returned to camp. DJ, Paloma and Jarrett were noticeably separate from the others. Gloria made a side comment about the “show” they’d put on at tribal and accused them of smearing her character. Owen backed her up and said it was all very out of pocket and that they singled her out. Paloma rolled her eyes and said that nothing they said was untrue and that they were getting very defensive over something that allegedly has no merit. Gloria said Paloma was impossible and always had been. Everyone heads to bed. DJ tells Paloma that she needs to keep her cool or else they won’t get anywhere with flipping people. He explained that their way in was with Boston, Madi, and Sage. Jarrett agreed and said that Gloria, Owen, and Trina were dominating the game and one of them had to leave next. He felt Trina should be next because of her competition dominance but Paloma’s eyes were set on Gloria and Owen. After DJ and Jarrett head off, Paloma rolls her eyes and said she hates everyone there.

 The next day, the tribes arrive at the beach for the Reward Challenge. Jeff explains the challenge which mostly involves an obstacle course. He passes around a bag of different colored rocks to select the teams. After the draw, the teams were Boston, DJ, Gloria, Paloma, and Spenser on Red, and Jarrett, Madi, Owen, Sage, and Trina on Blue. Jeff explains that the winning team would get to enjoy hot showers and some cake and ice cream. Everyone cheered. Jeff marked the start of the challenge and everyone headed off to begin. The star competitors were Boston on Red, and Trina on Blue. It fairly quickly became a tight race. In the end, the Red tribe pulled off the win, with much thanks to Boston. They all celebrated and hugged one another. Jeff revealed he had something to tell the players before they left. He explained that the cake and ice cream would be waiting for the Red team on the other side of camp, because the game was splitting in two for a week. He explained that the Blue and Red teams would live separately for two days and attend two separate tribal councils and by the end of the week, only eight players would remain. Jeff added that part of Red’s reward was getting to vote last. Everyone was shocked. With that, he sent them back to camp in two boats.

 The Red tribe enjoyed their cake, ice cream and showers back at camp. Gloria and Paloma visibly ignored each other and tried to just enjoy their reward the best they could despite everything going on. DJ took the opportunity to get to know Boston better one-on-one. They talked about both being former athletes and what it was like. Gloria found a basket and read the note out loud. She explained that it said another aspect of their reward was that they were all getting letters from home. Everyone immediately looked super thrilled and emotional. Gloria and Spenser lay down together and read their letters while holding one anothers hands. Gloria’s was from her best friend and Spenser’s was from his boyfriend. Spenser started crying and Gloria consoled him. DJ and Boston decided to open their letters together as they’d noticed Paloma walk off on her own. Boston’s was from his little brother. He immediately started crying as he read it. DJ’s was from his daughters so he had a much similar reaction. The two vented to one another about how hard it’d been to be away from their families and how they felt protective over their brothers and daughters respectively. Boston told DJ that he felt silly for crying over his brothers when DJ was away from his daughters. DJ reassured him that he was valid and his brothers were lucky to have him. Paloma had headed off into the woods to find a private spot. She’d had a feeling it was from her little sister and she was right. She sat down and read the letter, and it wasn’t long before tears streamed down her face. Paloma finished and folded the letter, tucking it into her back pocket. She wanted to keep this with her for the rest of the game as motivation.

 The Blue tribe headed back to the other side of camp without any rewards. Jarrett asked to go for a walk with Madi and Sage to which they agreed. After they left, Owen pointed out how sketchy it was which Trina agreed with. She asked him if he was worried at all about Gloria on the other tribe and he said he had faith that the three of them on red could stick together and get DJ out. On the walk, Jarrett had gone over the same points to Madi and Sage that the Loto members had been making since merge. He talked about how Owen, Gloria, and Trina were a power trio that would take Spenser with them to Final 4. Jarrett added that Trina was two-for-two on performing incredibly well in the immunities. Madi and Sage took a chance to talk one-on-one afterwards and acknowledged that he’d made some good points. Sage felt like Trina might flip to work with them and Boston once they got to seven so they were apprehensive to vote her out. Madi did feel that Trina could be a big threat to them in the long haul because she had more game awareness than Gloria, Owen, and Spenser. They agree to discuss it again later.

 The tribes gather at the beach with Jeff for the Immunity Challenge. He explained that each tribe would have one player win immunity. He revealed the challenge to be an endurance challenge where the players had to balance a block on their head and the last to drop won immunity. Everyone started at the same time and the challenge begun. For the first few minutes, everyone seemed stable… until the wind picked up. Within the span of merely a few seconds, Jarrett, Owen, Spenser, and Gloria all lost their balance and were eliminated from the challenge. This left Boston, DJ, and Paloma standing for Red, and Madi, Sage, and Trina standing for Blue. After the ten minute mark, Boston moved a bit and his block dropped, eliminating him. The five remaining players all last an impressive forty minute stretch. A ton of bugs start all swarming Madi and eventually she’s covered in bites. After an impressive effort, she couldn’t hang on any longer and dropped. This left both tribes down to their Final 2; DJ and Paloma for Red, Sage and Trina for Blue. DJ is solid like a statue, while Paloma is visibly struggling and has a few close saves. Sage and Trina both look somewhere between DJ’s statuesque position, and Paloma’s uncomfortable squirming. Eventually, Paloma drops and is visibly very disappointed. Jeff announces DJ as the immunity winner for Red and tells him that he can drop. DJ cheers and sits on the bench with the rest of his tribe as they awaited the results of the Blue immunity. Eventually, out of absolutely nowhere Trina’s block fell. Sage gasped and cheered for their first individual immunity win. Trina hugged and congratulated them. Both DJ and Sage ran to be given their immunity necklaces from Jeff. Jeff explained that neither of them could be voted out and that both tribes would meet him that night for tribal council.

 The Blue tribe returned to camp and everyone was happy for Sage and congratulating them on the big victory. Trina noted how proud she was of how far Sage has come since Tau. Jarrett and Owen leave to find firewood for the night. Once they were gone, Sage let Trina know that Jarrett was pitching her name. Trina said she kind of assumed that’s what he’d do but that she trusts them and Owen enough not to worry. Madi caught up with Jarrett and continued talking with him about what the plan would be down the line if Trina did leave. Jarrett said he’d be more than happy to work with Madi and even go all the way with her. He noted that he felt in a weird way DJ and Paloma were getting closer to one another and that he was the third wheel. Jarrett said it’d be great to have a number one like Madi. She said she’d been feeling the exact same way and it felt great hearing it come from someone else. Madi pulls Sage aside and presents some arguments for Trina to potentially go. Sage said they saw where Madi was coming from and that Trina’s competition performance was becoming more and more worrying. Sage just worried about their position after the week if they did that as the other tribe might not flip. The two agree to talk more about it. The tribe collects their torches and get ready for tribal, they head out in a line and march towards Tribal Council.

 The Red Tribe returned to camp after the Immunity Challenge and everyone congratulated DJ on his well earned win. Gloria had a quick meeting with Spenser and Boston where she checked in to make sure the plan was still Paloma. Both men agreed and she was happy with that. They all went their separate ways and relaxed for the day. DJ and Paloma sat down by the beach. Paloma was feeling pretty hopeless and asked DJ if he’d heard anything. DJ said he’d been working on Boston and was going to test the waters on his willingness to cut Gloria. Paloma said that she might use her Shot in the Dark because she didn’t see the flip working. DJ strongly urged her not to because they could need her vote. DJ finds time to pull Boston aside and the two look for firewood. DJ brings up how Gloria and Owen are seen as the dominant players in charge of the alliance. He says that if they vote off Gloria that they weaken Owen and could stand a better shot at taking out the biggest player in the game. Boston said that he heard what he was saying but that he was nervous to flip, especially if the other tribe doesn’t. DJ promises Boston that he would take him to the end of the game if he saved Paloma this one round. He adds that Paloma is no threat, and that she has burnt so many bridges that she’d have to work with them. Boston nods and says that he knows Gloria is a bigger threat than Paloma, he just doesn’t know if nows the right time to take the shot. DJ asks Boston if not now, then when. Which Boston didn’t have an answer to. The tribe returns to shelter to get their torches before tribal. Gloria smiles at Boston and thanks him again for giving Tau second life in the game. Them and Spenser do a little huddle before tribal. Paloma watches it and gags. She tells DJ that she really thinks she should play her shot in the dark. He tells her that it’s too risky. Paloma decides to bring it just in case.

 The Blue tribe arrives at Tribal Council and take spots in the seats. Jeff welcomes the members of the jury; Marissa. She waves to everyone and sits down. Jeff asks Sage if they felt a lot of power coming back to camp as they had immunity and could be easily swung to any side. Sage nodded and said that they definitely heard multiple campaigns as soon as they got back and that it was overwhelming. Jeff asks Jarrett if he felt on the bottom because of the last vote. Jarrett said he did and that he definitely knew he was in trouble coming into the round. He turned to Trina and started listing off her accolades and said the tribe needed to be weary of her because if they didn’t take her out, they may never get the chance again. Jeff asked Trina what her reaction to it was. She said that she felt Jarrett was acting out of desperation and that she wasn’t surprised but that she just hoped she’d proven herself enough to Owen, Sage and Madi. Jeff asked Madi what her perspective going into the vote was and if she fult confident in her decision. She said that she hasn’t ever been confident in her decisions but that she thinks the one she’s making tonight will set her up the best going forward. With that, Jeff began the voting process. By a vote of 4-1, Jarrett was voted out. Marissa frowned when the votes for Jarrett piled in. He got up and told Madi and Sage that they’d regret their decisions. He grabbed his torch and headed up for Jeff. Jeff snuffed out his torch and told him the tribe had spoken. He invited Jarrett to sit next to Marissa on the jury bench as they waited for the Red tribe to pour in. Jeff excused the Blue tribe members and told them to head back to camp.

 The Red tribe arrives at Tribal Council and notices Jarrett on the jury bench next to Marissa. DJ and Paloma both look defeated as they know that’ll make the sell harder for Boston. Jeff addresses Jarrett’s elimination and asks if it was surprising to anyone, evidently it wasn’t. He asked Gloria about the drama with Paloma from the tribal prior and asked if it’d been festering. Gloria openly said that she had no ill will towards Paloma but that she knows she isn’t exactly Paloma’s favorite person. Paloma nodded and said she was correct. Gloria laughed at the little remark and continued, saying Paloma was having a hard time because as soon as DJ won immunity, it was all bet set in stone that she’d be leaving. Jeff asked Paloma if she felt that way, and Paloma said she did and that as soon as DJ won immunity, she knew she was in trouble. Jeff asked Boston if the twist influenced his decision making at all. He said that it had greatly affected it because he suddenly had a lot more power than before and even one vote could completely change the vote. Jeff asked DJ if he anticipated a blindside tonight. DJ said that in a tribe of five people, nobody should be blindside if they go home and that everyone should be ready to see their name come up. With that, Jeff begins the voting process. By a vote of 3-2, Gloria was revealed to have been voted off. Paloma smirked as the last vote came in and flung her hair back. Marissa and Jarrett were non-verbally freaking out and both waving their hands around celebrating. Gloria and Spenser’s jaws dropped. Gloria turned to Boston and asked why he did that. He said that it was out of respect and he had to. She looked down and shook her head. Eventually, Gloria stood up and grabbed her torch. Everyone wished her good luck and said good game except Paloma who was still smirking. Gloria asked her to stop looking at her like that and Paloma told her not to worry and that she’d keep Owen company. Gloria ignored her and headed over to Jeff. She secured her torch and took a deep breath. Gloria added that it was surreal to actually be having her torch snuffed out. Jeff smiled at her and snuffed out her torch. He told her that the tribe had spoken. Gloria smiled and turned to wish everyone luck. She walked off. Jeff turned to the four players and said that the vote evidently showed that not all was what it seemed. He excused them back to camp. Spenser was still in shellshock.

## Tribal Council

### Blue Team

 Jarrett (4 votes)
 Trina (1 vote)
 VOTED OUT:Jarrett Jerome

### Red Team

 Gloria (3 votes)
 Paloma (2 votes)
 VOTED OUT:Gloria Lancaster

## Trivia

* The episode's title was said by Paloma Michaels.