Rising From the Aches

**Rising From the Aches** is the tenth episode of *Survivor 1 (US)*.

## Story

 Madi, Sage, Owen, and Trina were sitting at camp waiting for the others to return back from their tribal council. They were all joking around with one another and just having fun since they were among friends and allies only. The four start talking game and discuss what might happen at the other tribal council. They all agree that Paloma left and if she didn’t, it’ll be very tense once they return to camp. Madi alerts the others as she notices four figures approaching. Everyone turns to see DJ, Paloma, Boston, and Spenser return from tribal. Owen gets up immediately and asks what the hell happened. Boston stepped forward and tried to explain but Owen cut him off and asked again what the hell happened. Everyone looked around in awkward silence when eventually Boston just said that he flipped. Owen started yelling at Boston and Spenser joined in. Spenser said Boston wouldn’t of made it here without Gloria and said she was the kindest person on the tribe. Madi, Sage, and Trina just watched this all in shock, still processing the boot. Paloma smirked at DJ before sitting down.

 DJ heads off on his own and once he’s gone from the tribe, he starts jumping up and down. He chants that he did that and that he killed that. DJ says that it was for his daughters and that he’s bringing home the money for them. He then starts to look around the bushes and shrubs for the idol. He figured that the night be an easier time to search because nobody else would see him or also be looking. DJ dug into every little crevice and eventually felt something. He gasped and grabbed it. He read the note and it said that he had indeed found the Talotia tribe Hidden Immunity Idol. DJ smirked and noted that he hoped to use it better than his last one.

 Back at the shelter with all of the chaos, Trina splits up the boys and gets them to all take a moment away from one another. Boston steals Sage and asks to talk one-on-one. Once they left, Trina turned to Madi and said she was shocked that Boston did that and that he had to realize he was on the bottom now. Madi nodded and said she would’ve never guessed. Boston and Sage were in the forest and Sage asked why Boston flipped knowing he wouldn’t be able to contact Sage. Boston said he had a gut feeling that it’d be their only and last chance to get Gloria out and split up the showmance. He then went on to pitch to Sage that them and Madi need to align with DJ and Paloma. Boston said that Owen and Trina were the most respected players in the game and if they go to the end with them, they’ll lose. Sage takes a deep breath and asks if they can continue their chat in the morning because they were drained, confused and tired. Boston agreed and the pair went to bed.

 Owen was sitting on the beach by himself. Trina walked over and sat down next to him. She asked how he was doing and he said he was doing shit. Owen started getting teary-eyed and looked to Trina. He noted that he just wish he got to say goodbye. Trina also felt herself fighting tears and she said “me too.” Owen tells Trina that he’s going to get his revenge and make sure DJ, Boston, and Paloma paid for what they did. He threw rocks into the ocean and said all three of them were going to leave, one by one.

 The tribe meets Jeff on the beach for the Reward Challenge. Jeff explains that it will be a blindfolded challenge competed in pairs and that the winning pair would get a spa day with pizza. The pairs were randomly selected to be; DJ and Madi, Boston and Owen, Paloma and Trina, Sage and Spenser. Boston and Owen immediately struggled with communication and bumped into all kinds of things along the way. Sage and Spenser struggle with keeping up with the teams in terms of speed. It quickly becomes a race between DJ and Madi versus Paloma and Trina. In the end, DJ and Madi managed to clutch out the win due to some good communication, winning reward for themselves. Jeff sends them on a boat to their spa, and the others back to camp.

 At the spa reward, DJ and Madi enjoyed massages next to one another. DJ uses the opportunity to talk some game and take inventory on where Madi’s head is at. She says that she does feel somewhat at the bottom on her current side. DJ explains that if she, Boston, and Sage all work with him and Paloma, it benefits her the most. He lays out that she’d be in Final 5 with two duos who’d take each other out and want her in the end with them. Madi hears him out and notes that he’s making a really good point. She asks who he’d want to vote out and he names Owen or Trina. Madi says she’d feel more ampt to vote for Owen as she does have a personal connection with Trina, as does Sage. DJ said he was completely fine with the vote being Owen. Madi said she didn’t want to make promises but that she was absolutely thinking about it.

 DJ and Madi returned to camp and reported back about the pizza and spa. Everyone was super jealous. Owen didn’t bother listening to DJ talk about his journey. Sage and Madi go for a walk in the water and discuss the potential looming vote. Sage explains that Boston is all in with DJ and Paloma. Madi said that DJ had made some valid points and that voting off Owen could be smart for them but she’s also scared to keep DJ around for too long. Sage asks if it’d make more sense to boot DJ here and work on Trina to potentially bring her with them to the Final 5. Madi said they definitely had a lot to think about.

 The tribe meets Jeff on the beach for the Immunity Challenge. He explains that it’s a race with several obstacle courses along the way. He begins the challenge and immediately Sage, Paloma and Madi fall out of it and it becomes a race between the others. Boston and Owen maintain a steady lead, with DJ, Spenser and Trina trailing behind them. It comes down to a photo finish between Boston and Owen where Boston ends up pulling through with the win. He cheers and shouts. Jeff notices this and asks Boston if he felt he needed this and he said he absolutely did. Jeff notes that the eight players will meet him that night for Tribal Council. They head back to camp.

 Once back at camp, what remained of the majority alliance got together. Madi, Sage, Owen, Spenser, and Trina all sat by a tree and solidified their plan for the vote. They agreed that DJ was the more dangerous player between him and Paloma. They locked in their decision to vote for DJ and dispersed. Madi and Sage agreed that voting out DJ was really tempting, but that they couldn’t tell if it was the right move or not. Boston sits down with DJ and Paloma. DJ explained that he’d put in some good work with Madi and that the safest vote would be Owen. Boston headed out to find Madi and Sage. He explained again why he felt that voting off Owen benefited them the most. Boston swore that he wanted the three of them to reach the end of the game. He left to give them some time to discuss. Madi and Sage sat down and really struggled with the decision. The two went over the pros and cons between Owen and DJ and tried to sort out what was best. The eight remaining players got ready for tribal council and collected their torches.

 The Talotia tribe arrived at Tribal Council and sat down. Jeff welcomed in the members of the jury; Marissa, Jarrett, and Gloria. Owen makes eye contact with Gloria as she walks in and smiles. He’d missed getting to see her. Jeff turns to Owen and asks what his reaction was to finding out Gloria had been voted off on the other tribe. Owen says that he blew up on Boston and was completely blindsided by it. Jeff asks Boston what made him decide to flip. He explained that he felt it would be his only chance to get Gloria out of the game. Jeff turns to DJ and asked how it felt to finally seemingly be on the right side of the vote. DJ explained that it gave him the motivation to continue and also let Boston and hopefully others see that DJ and Paloma are valuable players that can be picked up as allies. Jeff asks Madi if her relationships with the two conflicting sides will affect her vote. She responds by saying her vote will be determined by her and her only, regardless of anything else. With that Jeff, began the voting process. By a vote of 5-3, Owen was voted off. Him, Trina, and Spenser were all shocked when the last two votes for Owen came in, as was Gloria from the jury. He stood up and said he was disappointed in Sage and Madi. Trina’s face had stressed written all over it. Gloria started crying from her jury seat. Paloma smirked and whispered to Madi, “Welcome to the dark side.” Madi smiled back to her. Owen set his torch down for Jeff. Jeff snuffed it out and told him the tribe had spoken. Owen headed off for ponderosa. Jeff told the tribe that clearly lines drawn in the sand are being washed away and nobody is ever safe. He excuses them back to camp.

## Tribal Council

 Owen (5 votes)
 DJ (3 votes)
 VOTED OUT:Owen Lewis

## Trivia

* The episode's title was said by DJ Greco.