Time to Raise Hell

This is the 9th episode of my second fan fiction, Survivor: Couples Showdown.

Previously On Survivor...
Weeks ago, Bulan rivals Martin and Leo agreed to make a temporary coalition with Melissa and Paula and Burgundy and Declan -- with Martin and Melissa ended up on the outs. After the tribe switch which sent them to the Tala tribe, Martin swore loyalty to Tala and helped them vote out Leo, sending him to the Jury.

At Tala, the antics of twin brothers Tyler and Josh rubbed the Tala tribe the wrong way. So at Tribal Council, Kevin formed an alliance with his wife Camille, Kasia, Talia and Ricky to send the twins home, voting Tyler out first. So after the tribe switch which sent Josh, Camille and Ricky to the Bulan tribe, and Melissa forgoed a reward to accept a Hidden Immunity Idol, Josh threw the Immunity Challenge so he can use Melissa's idol and vote Camille, Kevin's wife and right hand maiden out of the game. Josh tricked Camille and Ricky to vote for Melissa, but in the end, Josh's plan worked, sending Camille to the jury.

What will become of the two vengeful castaways now that they will merge as one tribe? 10 remain, who will be voted out next?

Challenges
Reward Challenge: Crack Pot One tribe member will lead four blindfolded members to eight hanging clay pots which they will have to break using a stick. Once a pot breaks, they must retrieve a flag and must place them in their appropriate spot. First tribe to collect and hang all 8 flags wins reward. Reward: Five boxes of pizza and soda Winner: Bulan Temptation Reward: An advantage at the next Immunity Challenge Consequence: They must give the feast reward to Tala

Immunity Challenge: A-maze-ing Prison Break Traversing a balance beam maze, the survivors must retrieve three bags of puzzle pieces which would reveal coordinates of the location of a bottle (containing a set of keys) which is buried at the shoreline. These keys will open a jail cell. First player to bail him/herself out of the cell wins immunity. Winner: Ricky

Night of Day 21
The Bulan returns to camp, where they shocked the then sleeping Tala tribe that Camille was voted out after their Tribal Council. This hurts her husband Kevin tremendously, who is supposed to give a special item to Camille -- his luxury item. "tala"

- [cries] Camille's been bugging me about my bag, because she wanted to see what's inside it. But I never told her what is that I'm hiding. It's actually a wedding ring I bought weeks before we left for the Philippines. It's actually my luxury item. I know I made mistakes which put our marriage at the brink of divorce, but after I went to rehab, I felt like I have to make it up to her. She didn't deserve what I did to her. Now she's gone, I think my second wedding proposal will have to wait.

Day 22
Morning at camp, Kevin approaches Josh and asks him how their Tribal Council went down. Not knowing that Kevin instigated Camille's blindside, Kevin learns that Melissa accepted a Hidden Immunity Idol which can only be good the next time she goes to Tribal Council. Thinking that she is a threat for Jury votes, Josh "explains" that himself, Ricky and Camille voted for Melissa that night, only to find out that she drew the idol, which negated their three votes, counting only the three other votes cast against Kevin's wife.

The tribes meet Jeff for their next Reward Challenge, where they will have to compete for a pizza feast. Jacki is assigned to be the "eye" of Bulan, while Martin is for Tala. Jacki and Martin are doing equally well until Talia loses her way, going off-course -- giving Jacki an opportunity to extend Bulan's lead. In the end, Ricky breaks the last flag containing the final flag the Bulan tribe, winning themselves reward.

In a surprise turn of events, Jeff calls the whole Bulan tribe for the Temptation Reward. Jeff offers them a sealed bottle which contains an advantage at the next Immunity Challenge. But in order to have access to the advantage, they must give up the pizza reward to the Tala tribe. Melissa insists they give up the reward to Tala, because ignoring the Immunity Challenges proved disastrous to the Drake, Zapatera and Manono tribes during their respective seasons, and this would at least give a higher chance that Bulan would win the next Immunity Challenge, regardless if it is still a tribal or an individual one. The tribe halfheartedly accepts the bottle, thus surrendering their reward to the losing Tala tribe. Jeff tells them they cannot share leftovers to Bulan. Bulan heads back to camp, while Tala tribe chows down, and discusses game strategy. With the merge in all of the ten remaining players' heads, Kevin initiates the strategy talk.

Andy: "I have something to tell you guys, Josh blew last night's vote up." Kevin: "What? But he..." Andy: "Look, when Josh found out that Melissa took the idol to skip the Temptation Reward, he told me he will throw the challenge for Bulan to force Melissa to use her idol." Kevin: "No wonder Bulan was a mess at the last challenge." Andy: "Not only that, Josh tells me and Devon that he will force Ricky and Camille to vote for Melissa to negate their votes, leaving the former Bulans' votes to take Camille down." Talia: "Now it makes sense! Josh wants to avenge Tyler. He was not the Josh we knew when Tyler left. He wants to tke us down for voting his brother out." Kevin: "We have to vote for Josh tomorrow." Kasia and Talia: "Agreed." Andy: "Let's do it then." Martin: "I already told you since the switch, I'm with you guys." "tala"

- Andy can't really shut his mouth when he needs to. Like, you basically gave us an idea how to blindside your beloved friend Devon. We're not voting Josh tonight. because knowing Andy has a connection with Devon, we have to catch him off guard. But first, we have to confirm if Ricky is still on our side.

After finishing their reward, the Tala tribe returns to camp, where Kasia immediately pulls Ricky aside and asks him if he is still on board with the Tala tribe. Ricky promises that he is still on board with Tala, be he discloses he is scared that Josh is not. Kasia tells him everything about Andy's revelation on the truth behind Camille's blindside, shocking Ricky. Meanwhile, Andy is talking to his partner Devon about the former Bulans sticking together. Thinking that Andy is on his side, the five original Bulans plus Josh will take down the former Tala tribe. Devon then asks Andy for a second time about lending him the Immunity Idol they found together days ago. Andy assures his friend he will give it to him. "tala"

- I am in a dangerous position at this point. I made a promise to Tala so they don't vote me out, but at the same time, I have Devon, my best friend. I'm between a rock and a hard place at this point.

Day 23
The tribes meet Jeff Probst for what they think is a tribal Immunity Challenge. To the survivors' delight, Jeff hands them ten, new, green buffs, telling them they are merged. After suiting up, the new tribe is subjected to their first challenge. Before they start, the post-switch Bulan tribe traded their pizza reward for an advantage for the said challenge. Its remaining members, Ricky, Jacki, Devon, Melissa and Josh will start the challenge with their first bag of puzzle pieces already on their puzzle board.

While the rest of the tribe struggle at the balance beam maze from the get-go, Andy, Devon, Kevin and Ricky sprint through the maze, easily collecting their bags. Andy and Kevin stump at the sand pit for being unable to decipher what the puzzle's cryptic message, while Devon and Ricky successfully find their keys. Devon frantically tries to find the correct key, but it is too late when Ricky finally opens and escapes his jail cell, winning himself immunity.

The new tribe returns to camp, and the yet unnamed merged tribe is excited to see a full meal in front of them. The tribe eats their meal, while Kevin proposes for their new tribe name. Kevin says that he watched a few episodes of the most recent season the local version of Survivor because the show was still airing when he was a backpacking around Manila; and he states that the tribe names of that season were also Bulan and Tala. Upon receiving the green buff, he felt that it was only fitting if they follow their merged tribe name as well. Kevin proposes "Apolaki," which is the Tagalog sun and war god and also Bulan and Tala's brother. The tribe unanimously agrees, thus christening the new Apolaki tribe.

Day 24
Early morning at Apolaki, the Tala alliance (Kevin, Kasia, Talia, Ricky, Martin and Andy) coincidentally wake up the earliest and decide to talk strategy using the raft. Josh wakes up next, and after seeing the whole Tala alliance at sea, he wakes the Bulan alliance up.

At the raft, Kevin initiates the strategy talk, while Josh tells the Bulan alliance to act like they're still sleeping, but in truth they are also making their own move.

In Tala's conversation:

"Andy: 'Why not vote for Josh today? You screwed his brother, he screwed Camille. Now he definitely out to get you guys. Let's get rid of him before he gets a chance.' Kasia: 'Yeah. Since you have their idol, they're basically powerless at this point.' Kevin: 'So it's Josh then?' Talia: 'Josh.' Ricky: 'Josh' Martin: 'Yep. Josh tonight. Now that's settled.'" Meanwhile, at the shelter, Josh also talks strategy with the Bulan people:

"Josh: 'We have to vote Kevin tonight. Like, he is the big boss from Tala. With him gone, the stars are falling down.' Jacki: 'We're 6-4 right now. Dev, can you convince Andy to join us?' Devon: 'Absolutely. We can use his idol against Kevin.' Melissa: 'But what if he has an idol too?' Josh: 'I'd say we talk to Andy first. Then we make a move.'"

The Tala alliance returns to the shelter, where Devon immediately pulls Andy to the woods, but unknown to them, a suspicious Kasia is secretly following them.

"Devon: 'Hey pal. We need you on this. I thought we're both in this together.' Andy: 'We are; and they think I'm with them, but I'm actually with you guys. They said it's Josh who's going home.' Devon: 'That's exciting. Well, will you give the idol to him?' Andy: 'Maybe. More likely yes.' Devon: 'I'm still a little unsure. Like, what if Kevin has an idol?' Andy: 'Doesn't seem like it. I have asked him about that before, he doesn't seem to have it.' Devon: 'Is it true that Kevin is the ringleader of Tala?' Andy: 'Yep. He is, he's too savvy, he needs to go. I'd agree on a 5-5 vote for now. But in case I find something fishy, I will let you know.' Kasia (hiding in the woods): 'Bang! He's mincemeat!'" After hearing their conversation, Kasia talks to Kevin, telling him everything Andy said to Devon, and proposes they should vote for Devon instead. Kevin secretly relays the message to Martin, Talia and Ricky. Minutes before Tribal Council, Andy and Devon approach Josh and give him their Immunity Idol. Josh is ecstatic. At Tribal Council, Josh comes out at Kevin, telling him that he never gave Josh and Tyler a chance and voted his twin brother in his lowest low. Kevin rebuts that their jokes went overboard, even as going far as offending the former anorexic Talia. Josh continues to apologize to Talia and tells that the joke was a misunderstanding. Talia says she already forgave him for his "fat ass" comments, but not his defection from Tala. Josh explains that regardless if he was forgiven on not at that point, they would still vote him out because they already had an alliance of five going on, and if weren't for the tribe switch, he could be gone by now. Kevin then asks Josh if he threw last week's Immunity Challenge to get rid of Camille. Josh frankly admitted to the deed, but he states he is the head honcho of the Tala group, and warns him if he wants to stay, he rather use an idol if he has any, or accept a rock-pulling tiebreaker. Kevin looks at Josh very smugly.

Before asking the survivors to vote, Jeff reveals the Cursed Idol, and whoever gets voted out will award the object to one of the remaining nine players, effectively giving them an additional vote at the next Tribal Council. The Cursed Idol will be in play up until the final four.

Talia's smug gesture angers Josh, and as the tribe votes, Josh whispers "Kev" to the Bulan alliance. After the vote, Josh plays Andy and Devon's Hidden Immunity Idol, and to everyone's surprise, Kevin draws his idol as well (only Camille knew about Kevin's idol prior to its usage) as well. To Bulan's shock, Josh receives no votes (most especially Andy and Devon), and is further shocked when the Tala tribe redirects their votes at Devon, blindsiding him in a 5-0 vote. Before leaving, Devon hands the Cursed Idol to his Andy, and calls him a "traitor."

Next Time On Survivor...

 * Will the Cursed Idol be the final nail on Andy's coffin?

Author's Notes

 * Cracking clay pots while blindfolded is a staple party game, especially during festivals. Think pinatas.
 * Unlike the US Survivor, the names of merged tribes in Survivor Philippines are predetermined by the producers, not by the players themselves. It irks you, I know. Me too :)