Kingmaker

Kingmaker is the fourth episode of Survivor: Japan - Civil War

Previously On Survivor...
At Ashikaga, Lawrence had fallen out of favor as the tribe's daimyo, and many intended to vote him out next. They would get their chance on day 7 at tribal council, where both tribes would vote one person out.

After Kamakura won reward, Tyler found himself on the chopping block and tried to turn Donna's allies against John. However, his plan failed and he was voted out. Ashikaga then voted out Lawrence, hoping that a new leader would help turn the tides in their favor.

Challenges
Reward Challenge: Tribe members will take turns shooting tribe-colored tiles with an authentic World War II-era machine gun. The first tribe to destroy all their tiles wins.

Reward: Fishing gear.

Immunity Challenge: The tribes must run across a series of wooden catwalks arranged in an x-shape over the water. At the end of the catwalk, they will pick up a basket and run back with it, with each basket being worth one point. At the middle of the course, castaways from rival tribes may knock each other into the water. The first tribe to ten points wins immunity.

Ashikaga
The Ashikaga tribe returns from yet another tribal council. Nobody is happier with the new leadership than Patton.

"black"

- Now I'm their king. I can't believe that these dumbasses trust me. *laughs*

"Patton: Alright people, from here on out, we're not losing any more challenges. Lawrence is gone, and now you've got a real leader, which is all this tribe ever needed. Our time is now."

Meanwhile, Landon and Bryce tend to the fire, speaking in hushed tones.

Bryce: Just so you know, I really don't trust you or Kyle. I think you playin' with fire by letting Patton become the new daimyo. He can cast two votes now, and especially on a smaller tribe, that gives him more power.

Landon: Hey, if you want to complain, take it up with Kyle. He knows exactly what he's doing. We don't like Patton any more than you do.

Bryce: Then why's he still here?

Landon: Because he's more useful to us in challenges than Lawrence. That was our only chance of getting anywhere as a tribe. Risky, but necessary.

"black"

- Bryce is very single-minded when it comes to voting. He seems to think that anybody who doesn't vote against Patton is wrong, when clearly we had to get rid of some weaker people first. In my opinion, he's not very good at the strategy game, and he's kind of a nuisance. But he's indispensable because we really need his athleticism for challenges.

Bryce: I dunno, man. He's still aligned with Phoebe and Shannon, which gives his side a total of four votes. Even if I vote along with the three of you; and I'm only gonna do that if you vote against Patton, there'd still be a tied vote and we'd have to risk drawing rocks.

Landon: But we can always turn one of his allies against him, or at least get him to split his votes. That's how we got rid of Beth when we did.

"black"

- Landon seems very confident that he can get Patton out of the game, even though he's basically guaranteed that the next vote will be a deadlock. I really hope he and Kyle know what they're doing.

Kamakura
With Tyler gone, nobody at camp isn't doing work. John, Emma, and Lisa work on the shelter while Donna, Katie, and Reyna collect tree mail and the rest of the men go fishing with makeshift spears.

Chuck: If only we had real fishing gear. I guarantee I'd have caught something by now if we had some of that.

Patrick: I don't doubt that. Hey, did I ever tell you about the time that-?

Dave: Oh yeah, I remember that one. You went fishing once and lost the fishing pole.

Patrick continues rambling, much to Chuck's contained chagrin.

Meanwhile, John decides to bring up the subject of last night's tribal council.

John: You're welcome, by the way.

Lisa: Welcome? What for?

John: I revealed who had the idol, remember? It's in the hands of two big threats right now. Dave's a very smart and likeable guy who's probably going to get extremely far in this game unless we get rid of him. And Chuck's going to become a tremendous physical threat the moment the tribes merge.

Emma: Are you suggesting that if and when we go back to tribal council, we split our votes to flush out the idol?

John: Yeah, something like that.

Donna, Katie, and Reyna return with tree mail. Once the rest of the men return to camp, Reyna reads it aloud, and they then depart for the reward challenge.

Reward Challenge
"Jeff Probst: Come on in, guys!"

The Ashikaga tribe enters the inland challenge area, greeted by Jeff and the Kamakura tribe.

"Jeff Probst: Kamakura, take your first look at the new Ashikaga tribe. Lawrence was voted out at last night's tribal council."

Nobody at Kamakura seems very surprised.

Jeff Probst: Ashikaga, now that Lawrence has been voted out, who is the new daimyo of the tribe?

Patton: That would be me, Jeff.

Jeff Probst: Patton is now the daimyo of the Ashikaga tribe. He is responsible for assigning tasks around camp and roles in challenges, and gets to cast two votes at tribal council instead of just one.

Kamakura merely shrugs at the news.

"Jeff Probst: Here is how today's reward challenge is going to work: taking turns, each of you will use a World War II-era machine gun to shoot a series of seven tiles of your tribe's color. The tiles are scattered in pairs across the area; in both pairs, there is a tile for both tribes, so make sure you shoot the correct tile. The first tribe to shoot all their tiles wins reward. Do you want to know what you're playing for?"

The castaways respond in the affirmative. Jeff pulls the covering off the table next to him.

"Jeff Probst: The winning tribe will receive fishing gear; fishing poles, hooks, bait, snorkles, and a spear gun. Worth playing for?"

Once again, the castaways respond in the affirmative.

Jeff Probst Kamakura, you have two extra members. You must sit two people out. Who are they going to be?

Donna: I'm going to have Patrick and Emma sit this one out, Jeff.

Jeff Probst: Patrick, Emma, take a spot on the bench. I'll give you all a minute to strategize.

Landon goes first for Ashikaga, hitting the black target that is practically right in front of the gun, twenty feet away. Donna fails to hit her target. '''Ashikaga: 1. Kamakura: 0.'''

In the next round, Phoebe accidentally hits Kamakura's target to the far left. Katie, however, also hits the opposing tribe's target by mistake; shooting Ashikaga's target on the right. '''Ashikaga: 2. Kamakura: 1.'''

Shannon shoots the only Ashikaga target that is hanging from a tree rather than being planted in the ground. Dave just misses Kamakura's similar target. '''Ashikaga: 3. Kamakura: 1.'''

Bryce's shot at the Ashikaga target on the far left misses, while Lisa hits Kamkura's hanging target. '''Ashikaga: 3. Kamakura: 2.'''

Kyle hits Ashikaga's target on the far right, while Chuck easily shoots the front and center target for Kamakura. '''Ashikaga: 4. Kamakura: 3.'''

Patton and John both take aim at the back center targets and miss. '''Ashikaga: 4. Kamakura: 3.'''

Hannah shoots Ashikaga's target on the far left, while Reyna obliterates Kamakura's target on the far right. '''Ashikaga: 5. Kamakura: 4.'''

Landon hits Ashikaga's target to the left, while Donna's shot at the very back target doesn't even come close. '''Ashikaga: 6. Kamakura: 4.'''

Phoebe misses Ashikaga's final target; the one in the very back, while Katie successfully hits Kamakura's target to the right. '''Ashikaga: 6. Kamakura: 5.'''

Shannon accidentally shoots Kamakura's back center target, while Dave misses an opportunity to complete Kamakura's comeback victory when he just misses Kamakura's target to the left. '''Ashikaga: 6. Kamakura: 6.'''

Bryce's shot misses Ashikaga's final target by a good ten feet, while Lisa seals Kamakura's fifth straight challenge win by shooting the final target for her tribe. '''Kamakura: 7. Ashikaga: 6.'''

"Jeff Probst: Kamakura wins reward!"

Kamakura celebrates their fifth straight challenge win while Ashikaga looks on, unable to believe what just happened.

Shannon: At least it was close this time.

Hannah: Yeah, but we should have won.

Jeff congratulates Kamakura on their victory, and both tribes exit the challenge area.

"black"

- Ugh! We were so close to finally winning a challenge! I can't even tell you how disappointing this is. I'm so tired of losing all the time!

Ashikaga
The Ashikaga tribe returns to camp in lower spirits than ever before after blowing their lead in the reward challenge. Adding insult to injury, they discover that a storm ravaged their campsite while they were gone, causing significant damage to their shelter, putting out their fire, and soaking everything too much to start a new one.

Landon: You gotta be (bleep)ing kidding me.

Bryce: Well, I guess there's only one thing we can do; we just gotta rebuild the shelter and hope it's dry enough to start a new fire soon.

"black"

- As if it isn't bad enough that we just lost yet another challenge, and still don't have flint, a storm laid waste to our campsite while we were gone! Could this possibly get any worse?

"Patton: Let's get this shelter repaired. I'll be right with you all in a minute. I need to use the bushes."

"black"

- It's idol-hunting time! If the idol was hanging from a tree, it probably got knocked out of the tree and into plain sight, so it shouldn't be too hard to find.

However, after several minutes of searching, Patton cannot find the idol. Of course, he is totally unaware of the fact that Shannon already has it. He is also unaware of Bryce following him the whole time.

"black"

- How hard can it be to find that damn idol?! I've looked everywhere, but still haven't found anything.

Bryce returns to the campsite, where the others have started working on shelter repairs, to alert them about Patton's idol hunting.

Bryce: Patton's looking for the idol. Do you think we should also search for it just to keep that thing out of his hands?

Kyle: Bryce, we have more important things to worry about right now. Just help us out with the shelter.

Phoebe: I think it's a great idea. He's not trustworthy, so the last thing we want is for him to find the idol.

"black"

- It's amazing how easily Phoebe was able to disguise the fact that we already have the idol. She's a good ally to have. She's a much better liar than I am.

Hannah: You've got a point. You guys think we should do it?

Landon: We've got a few minutes. Why not?

Kyle: But guys, what about the shelter?

Landon: If we don't get the shelter repaired in time we can just sleep on the beach, assuming it doesn't rain again.

The castaways all leave the shelter and split up to search for the idol, having no luck. Of course, only Phoebe and Shannon are aware of the idol's whereabouts. After about fifteen minutes of searching, nobody has found it. However, when Landon runs into Bryce, he gets an idea.

Landon: Hey, Bryce, put this rock in your pocket.

Bryce: Why?

Landon: We're going to trick Patton into thinking you have the idol so he'll give up on his searching.

Bryce: You sure this'll work?

Landon: If he doesn't have the idol, it's probably going to work. We'll just have to see what happens.

"black"

- The fake idol ploy isn't 100% reliable, but it's definitely worth a shot. Besides, it'll deflect Patton's attention away from me and my alliance.

Bryce puts the idol in his pocket just as Patton is returning from his failed idol hunt. He notices the bulge in the pocket of Bryce's skinny jeans and struggles to hide his dismay.

Patton: You found it, didn't you?

Bryce: Mhm.

Patton: Well that explains a lot.

"black"

- I gotta give credit where credit is due; Landon's a really good Survivor player. His idea worked like a charm.

Kamakura
Upon returning from camp, Chuck and Dave both go fishing while the rest of the tribe does other chores.

Chuck: Where do you think we stand on this tribe right now? Do you know anyone else who might want to join our alliance?

Dave: John probably doesn't trust us. Patrick might want to join, but that may only be the case if John goes home next. I know those two don't like each other, and Patrick seems like a more reliable ally. As for the women, I think we might be able to recruit Katie and Lisa. But since we have the hidden immunity idol, we just need four people. And if we play the idol correctly, we'll have an even playing field.

"Chuck: Oh! I think I caught something."

Chuck reels in the fishing line and discovers that he's caught a fairly large fish; one that can comfortably feed the whole tribe.

Chuck: Hell yeah!

Author's Notes
The title of this episode was spoken by Landon.