Days 25-27 (1st)

## Day 25

### Merge Camp

On the morning of Day 25, Marcus started his new revolution to make everyone who voted for him as miserable as possible. All the aspects of his personality that he knew annoyed them were amped up intentionally. Even Timothy was starting to wonder if he should have just let Marcus go the night before.

Jade made a point to not talk to Blaike for basically the entire day. She was giving her the cold shoulder for her perceived betrayal again. Blaike knew she hadn't voted against Jennifer, but didn't see a point in explaining herself to Jade. Blaike couldn't stand how Jade was acting as if Blaike lying made her the least moral player in the game, so Blaike didn't see any reason to waste time explaining herself. However, she did make a point to go find Zillik and talk to him. Meanwhile, Kim went to speak with Jade.

Blaike confronted Zillik about voting for Jennifer and wanted to know why he wasn't owning up to it. Zillik shrugged her off, claiming that no one would take her word over his after she had lied to Jade twice before. He had no reason to bury his own game. Zillik also conveniently left out that Timothy had approached him with the plan to vote out Jennifer, as he wanted that relationship kept private for now. Blaike, in frustration, told Zillik that his decision had basically left her with no options moving forward. Again, he shrugged her off and told Blaike that she could always still force a tie with Kim and Jade if it was a big deal to her.

Kim and Jade, unfortunately for the two of them, had very little to discuss. They had come to conclusion that Blaike was definitely working against them now and absolutely couldn't be trusted. That left few options for them as a pair besides forcing a tie with Zillik. Kim told Jade that their best course of action was to win the challenge to ensure safety for at least one of them. Then, she was convince Zillik to force a 3-3 tie at the vote, where hopefully Timothy would flip to protect himself, as he did before with Dragon on the line. However, given what had happened at the last elimination, Kim suggested they vote for Blaike instead of Marcus. The three of them would never see it coming, so even if they found another idol, they would misplay it for Marcus. Jade happily agreed, as she was beyond ready to be rid of Blaike. If they could make that happen, Marcus would follow soon after anyway.

Finally, Blaike met up with Marcus and Timothy to do damage control. They had already been talking, and Marcus had been ready to fully flip on Blaike and vote her out for betraying him. Timothy had managed to talk him out of the plan, however, by assuring Marcus that he would make sure Blaike was still with them. After the fight Blaike had with Jade, she promised that she was definitely with the two of them. Timothy dismissed the entire thing as water under the bridge in that case. It was a rogue vote because Marcus had been annoying her, but it hadn't mattered so it was nothing more than that. The three of them were still solid, as far as Timothy was concerned, so the two of them just had to bury this and move on. Blaike apologized for voting for Marcus, which he accepted, albeit with some snark and told her not to let it happen again. That, of course, pissed Blaike off, but since Zillik had flipped and Jade hated her, she didn't see many options left for herself other than working with the boys. She could expose Zillik, maybe, but that might not even work and would just burn another bridge. She could force a tie with the girls, but they didn't trust her and a tie could put Blaike's own game in jeopardy. It seemed like her only real recourse with sticking with Timothy and Marcus, at least for now.

## Day 26

### Challenge

At the challenge on Day 26, it was announced that the Hidden Immunity Idol had been rehidden following its play and all previous clues were null and void. New clues would start being given out as of this challenge.

After that announcement, everyone pushed hard for the win. Kim, especially, did her best to ensure her safety. However, it was Timothy that came away the victor. He received both immunity and the clue for the rehidden idol, which he felt put him in a very strong spot.

### Merge Camp

Back at the camp, Kim didn't care that she didn't have a clue. She went off into the forest to look for the idol without it, which meant that Timothy read his clue and raced off to try and beat her to it. Marcus, wanting some power for himself after getting voted for at the last elimination, also went off in search of the rehidden idol. Left alone at camp, Jade, Blaike, and Zillik started cooking, and conversation naturally followed. Despite the obvious tension in the air, Jade decided to try and play Blaike a little bit. She wanted to maintain her morals, but in Jade's mind, Blaike had been lying constantly for the entire game. It was fair game to lie back to her now. So, Jade told Blaike that the plan was for Zillik, Kim, and her to force a tie on Marcus, and that Blaike could save her own skin by voting for Marcus with them. Zillik sat quietly to the side. He hadn't been approached yet, so the comments amused him. Jade and Kim were just taking his vote as a given on their side, completely unaware that he'd flipped at the vote prior. Blaike told Jade she would consider it, but that her odds of getting to the Final 3 didn't look particularly good in that scenario. Jade rebutted that Final 4 was better than going out at Final 6 due to a tie, and Blaike conceded that she had a point. Again, she would consider it.

It didn't actually take Timothy very long to find the idol, armed with the clue. Now that he knew how to look them for him and had information, it was a relatively quick process. He decided to continue searching for the rest of the day, however, to make sure that he didn't look too obvious. Kim and Marcus, likewise, spent much of the afternoon searching. Marcus eventually gave up and went to eat, but Kim looked through part of the night.

## Day 27

### Merge Camp

The next morning on Day 27, Kim pulled Zillik aside to give him the information on the real plan to vote for Blaike. He was surprised, given what Jade had said the evening before, but just nodded as he usually did. Kim took that as his usual agreement.

However, when he got the chance, Zillik went to talk to Blaike and Timothy. In as few words as possible, he told them that the real vote was on Blaike, and Jade's entire spiel the evening before was a ploy to throw them off. Infuriated, Blaike was about to confront Jade when Timothy stopped her. He assured her that she would not be leaving that night, under any circumstances, provided she voted for Kim with the rest of them. Zillik could have leaped for joy, as Kim had been a thorn in his side from very early on. Instead, he remained quiet, solemn, and nodded his agreement as usual. Blaike pushed for them to do Jade instead, but Timothy reminded Blaike that Kim was a far bigger challenge threat, and that leaving her around for Final 5 was just begging her to go on an immunity run to the Final 3. She needed to be taken out while she was clearly vulnerable and thought that she still had numbers. Blaike questioned if Timothy found the Idol or not, and he lied and claimed not to have. She pushed for a plan in case Kim had it then, and Timothy told her to tell Jade that she was voting out Marcus with them. If they believed one stray vote was on Marcus, two were on Kim or Jade, and their three were on Blaike, they wouldn't use an idol. He, of course, knew Kim didn't actually have one. Blaike suddenly felt very morally conflicted. Lying to Jade about voting for Marcus to trick them into not using an idol would just help prove Jade's point about how Blaike was willing to play the game, but then again, Jade had also just lied about voting for Marcus when she was actually voting for Blaike. The trio split, with Timothy going to fill Marcus in on the Kim vote and Blaike going to play her part to Jade.

At camp, Blaike approached Jade and Kim and told them she was in. There was no chance in Tartarus that she was forcing a tie and risking her own spot in the game for Marcus. Timothy didn't have the idol, or so he'd told her, so she was voting Marcus out with them to get herself one round farther. The two seemed excited by this, and pretended it was because Marcus would be leaving. Blaike couldn't help feeling some bitter joy in their excitement. They were lying to her face and she knew it, but she had to keep playing her part and prevent them from catching on. She was still nervous, though. There was always the chance that they did find and still would play an idol, and then she would leave. Timothy seemed rather confident that she would be fine, but if Blaike got even the slightest tinge of doubt, she would call Zillik out at the vote and see if she could blow his game up instead.

#### Vote

When the players arrived at the vote, Timothy decided to immediately put on a show. He announced that he would be giving the Individual Immunity to Blaike so that she couldn't be voted for. Completely shocked, Blaike accepted and realized that had been his plan all along. Jade wouldn't vote for Timothy, as she had already made clear. This would force them to vote for Marcus if they wanted to force a tie, which meant that Timothy had secured his safety and Blaike's. Marcus, of course, wanted to know what was up, and Timothy quietly promised him that it was just a show to secure loyalty. Kim grabbed Jade and started whispering about flipping the vote to Timothy, but Jade pushed back against that. She told her brother that she wouldn't vote against him at the start of the game, and she intended to keep some semblance of her integrity, even if he didn't. Frustrated, Kim knew that meant they'd have to vote for Marcus, so she told Zillik as much. Kim didn't see a reason to tell Blaike the plan. If Timothy was giving her the Individual Immunity then he had clearly figured out their real plan. That meant that Blaike was pretty unlikely to vote with them, so they needed to hope for a tie that would scare Timothy into flipping.

Unfortunately for Kim, she hadn't been paying enough attention to Zillik, and it wasn't until the votes came through that she realized he wasn't on her side. She and Jade voted for Marcus, which pissed him off, but it didn't matter. There were four votes for Kim, eliminating her and making her the fifth member of the Jury. Marcus did some gloating as she left, so Kim turned and flipped him off on her way out, and also told Zillik and Blaike that she hoped they were happy with themselves. Blaike sighed, feeling frustrated and exhausted at the constant attacks on her character, but Zillik just shrugged. He had never really felt that loyal towards Kim. She had just been steamrolling people the entire game, and it finally stopped working out for her.