Fool's Gold

This is the penultimate episode of Survivor: Couples Showdown.

Previously On Survivor...
Kasia castigated Martin for almost sending her home. At the Survivor Auction, some of the survivors indulged with food, and some, not so much. Though she was unable to win a single food item due to her paltry $50, Talia won an advantage for the next Immunity Challenge after Kevin gave her his remaining money. And after a collectively-terrible string of challenge performances, Talia's advantage made wonders, winning herself immunity.

At the Immunity Challenge, Talia's advantage paid off, winning immunity. Back at camp, with Martin ruining both alliances' strategies, the warring alliances initially wanted to temporarily work together to vote Martin out, but Martin's recent conflicts with Kasia were enough to coerce him and the Bulan alliance to exploit Kasia's Cursed Idol instead, and with five votes, Kasia was sent home. Though spiteful of Martin voting her out, Kasia handed the Cursed Idol to Jacki to test Martin's true allegiances. Will Martin stay true to the alliance that kept him over his supervillain partner Leo, or be a prodigal Bulan member and ultimately usurp Tala? Six remain, one more will go before the finale. Who will it be?

Challenges
Reward Challenge: There's Mud in Your Eye Under a time pressure of ten minutes, tribe members are going to dive into a mud pit and cover their body with as much mud as they can, then race back and scrape it off into a bucket. They may not carry mud in their arms or in their hands; they can only use their body. Then the host will weigh each bucket. The three castaways that own the heaviest buckets would win Reward. Reward: An overnight stay at a luxurious ferry where they can enjoy a jacuzzi, a buffet, a shower bath and new clothes. As a secret part of the reward, their loved ones will be joining them. The survivors will return in time for the next Immunity Challenge. Winners: Kevin, Talia and Martin

Immunity Challenge: Dear Liza Initially working in two teams of three, the survivors must race to fill a holed bucket with water. They will then carry the bucket to a larger bucket, and must repeat the process until the bucket is heavy enough to tip a seesaw and raise a flag. The first team to complete the task will move to the final round, where they will compete individually. For the final round, players must fill a holed dipper with water, traverse an obstacle course (a net crawl, a hurdles and a seesaw) and transfer its contents to a 1.5-liter bottle. First person to fill their bottle and brings it to the finish line wins immunity. Winner: Martin

Day 34
The six remaining castaways awake after a terrible rainfall. At the water well, Talia and Kevin discuss their already-limited options, being the only reamining loyal members of the Tala alliance.

Talia: "Kevin, do you think Martin's still gonna side with us?" Kevin: "I really hope so, because all we need is one vote to turn this thing around." Talia: "I'm just nervous that Martin might flip to Bulan completely." Kevin: "If we have a Reward Challenge tomorrow, either of us should win and take him and use Jacki's Cursed Idol." Talia: "We also have to make sure that Jacki doesn't win immunity though." Kevin: "Exactly. The next vote's gonna be a doozy nonetheless." Talia: "Why not wait for the Reward Challenge if we can talk to Martin right now? He's coming!" [Martin arrives] Kevin: "Okay, there's a little bit of misunderstanding between you and Kasia. We just wanna tell you we need you terribly. Like, You've been wishy-washy these past few days, and you can't blame us if we want to vote you out. But here's the thing. We've tolerated you time and time again, and if you side with the Bulans, you're scrwed. They'll just vote you out when they don't need you anymore." Martin: "I've said it yesterday it will be the last time i'm gonna go with your votes, man. But you won't believe me." Talia: "Okay, that's enough of that. As much as we wanted to vote Andy or Josh out, it's in our best interest to vote Jacki out to take the numbers back to our favor."

Martin: "I'm fine with that."

Jacki, Andy and Josh also discuss strategy at the shelter, agreeing that Martin is detrimental to how the endgame is going to be like. With that, Andy will attempt to to Martin about joining them and oust the remaining Tala members.

Day 35
After receiving Tree Mail, the final six contestants meet Jeff Probst for their next Reward Challenge. Jeff points out to the sea, where a ferry is waiting for the three winners. Kevin starts off leading as the castaways race to the mud. Talia and Jacki cleverly place mud on their hair. They frantically remove the mud from their bodies and scrape it into their buckets. Talia gains lead for carrying a large amount of mud on her shoulders, while Kevin is still close behind, until he slips a handful of mud into his crotch. Jeff yells the time is up, and starts to weight each player's buckets. Jeff reminds them that the three players with the heaviest buckets would win reward. With the winners determined, Andy, Jacki and Josh walk back to camp dejected.
 * Kevin - 35.5 lbs. (first place)
 * Talia - 35.4 lbs. (second place)
 * Martin - 34.3 lbs. (third place)
 * Jacki - 32 lbs.
 * Andy - 30.1 lbs.
 * Josh - 29.4 lbs.

After washing themselves at the beach, Kevin, Talia and Martin are sent to the luxury ferry via motorboat. The three are welcomed by a waiter named Rico, who informs them that meal time would be ready in half an hour. To not have dead time, Rico advises the survivors to take a bath and freshen up first. Martin and Kevin agree to share a shower room while Talia has her own. After they take a bath and change clothes, the survivors are surprised to see their loved ones: Kevin [and Camille's] son John, Martin's fiancee' Bernadette and Talia's brother Mark. Martin and Talia waste no time asking the goings-on at the outside world, whilst Kevin becomes emotional to tell his son how the game changed him as a person, as a father and as a husband to Camille. Kevin tells John his mother serves on the jury, and he plans to give her a church wedding. Since their first wedding was merely a civil one, Kevin tells his son he will propose immediately after the Final Tribal Council, whether as a finalist or as a jury member. Back at camp, bored and hungry, Jacki fantasizes about food, which aggravates Josh and Andy. Not wanting to "kill himself," Josh arms himself with the fishing spear, and goes to the ocean to catch some fish. After half an hour, Josh returns with a basket full of fishand a giant clam all three of them can enjoy.

Day 36
The final six reunites for the Immunity Challenge. Andy asks Kevin how their reward went. Kevin replies that the experience was lovely and their loved ones were a surprise addition, secretly fuming Jacki. For the first round of the challenge, the two competing teams are Martin, Kevin and Jacki (purple team) and Talia, Andy and Josh (yellow team).

The purple team patiently fills their bucket entirely, but gains a lead because the yellow team slows down because Talia continually slips throughout the course. The yellow team trails further behind when Talia slips to the point of accidentally dropping their bucket, spilling ever single drop of water they have. In the end, the purple team advances to the final round, where they have to compete individually to battle it out for the Immunity Necklace.

Kevin earns a lead, while Jacki and Martin are close behind. Martin catches up when Kevin accidentally falls from the seesaw, spilling every precious water from his dipper. Jacki falls behind after she runs out of water after taking a long time at the hurdles. With Kevin and Jacki lagging, a composed Martin successfully finished the task at hand without spilling his dipper entirely, winning himself immunity.

At camp, Martin converses with Kevin and Talia about exploiting the Cursed Idol to their advantage. While Josh and Andy are clear physical threats, Martin points out they must vote Jacki first so they can have the majority again. Talia expresses her worry of who will receive the Cursed Idol from Jacki once she gets voted out. Kevin states that he would worry about the Cursed Idol later. Meanwhile, Jacki expresses to Andy and Josh her fright that Martin will ultimately side with Kevin and Talia. Josh tells her he will try to convince Martin to join them.

With twenty minutes away before Tribal Council, Josh approaches Martin and asks him to join the Bulan alliance in voting Kevin out, in exchange for a top three spot with himself and Andy. Martin states that both sides are vying for his vote, and basically, by joining either sides almost guarantees him a final three slot, regardless of which alliance he joins. At Tribal Council, jury member Leo fumes in anger to see his rival Martin wearing the Immunity Necklace. Jeff asks Martin of his current position in the game. Martin explains that though he seemed indecisive in the past votes, he feels that voting Ricky and Melissa out are crucial to his endgame because of Ricky and Melissa's strength and likability respectively. Jeff then points out he voted Kasia out of spite (Kasia giggles on the jury bench). Martin explains that Kasia did not buy his explanations and kept him out of the strategies she and Kevin are doing, so it was for his best interest to vote her out; and since Kasia uses the Cursed Idol to cleverly test his true allegiances, and tonight is the night to prove it, though he states that in the end, a survivor's true allegiance must be to himself. Jacki then scolds Martin for turning his back on her and Melissa, but Martin explains that moves in this game should not be absolute, and he really wanted to get out of the alliance because Jacki is a physical threat, while Melissa is too likable to be up against with at the Final Tribal Council. In the end, Martin sides with Kevin and Talia in voting Jacki out, and with the aid of the Cursed Idol, Jacki is sent home, but not before leaving without handing the Cursed Idol to Martin, saying that he cannot win immunity all the time, and assumes Martin will not win the next Immunity Challenge.

Next Time On Survivor...

 * Five remain, who will be the Sole Survivor?
 * With three days remaining, Talia catches up on strategy, but will be it too little, too late?
 * Will Andy and Josh continue to be loyal to each other, or turn on each other instead?
 * Will Kevin make it to the jury and make his second wedding proposal to Camille as planned?
 * Will Martin be able to redeem himself after a long string of unnecessary vote swinging?

Author's Notes

 * Should still there be a full couple remaining the game, they would share the same loved one. For example, if Kevin's wife Camille is still in the game, their son will be the chosen loved one for both Kevin and Camille. If one of them lost the challenge, only the winning partner will get the chance to see their loved one.
 * At the ferry, Talia referred leche flan as "caramel jelly," while Martin liked the ube, and referred it as "that purple stuff." Zac Efron was here in the Philippines to do some modeling job, and he liked ube and also called it "that purple stuff."