Eliza isn’t liked by anyone, so her best strategy is to align with fellow outcast Jason. When Jason tells her that he has the hidden immunity idol, she’s excited that her alliance might have some power, especially if they can join with Ami when the tribes merge. But Eliza doesn’t yet know that Ami got booted off, and that what Jason believes to be an idol is just a stick that Ozzy carved a vague face into.
The tribes are told to gather their personal items immediately and go to a new location, and they correctly assume that a merge is coming. Before the two tribes merge, Erik, incredibly grateful that he wasn’t kicked off, tells Ozzy that he’s not flipping to another side. Erik tells the camera that he and Ozzy have a “zookeeper bond,” with Ozzy being the zookeeper and Erik being the monkey. Wow. That’s pretty much more than I cared to know, Erik.
As Airai prepares to leave for the merge rendezvous, Parvati realizes that she’ll have to face up to the fact she’s in two alliances (one with Amanda, James and Ozzy, and one with Amanda, Natalie and Alexis), and she feels she’s in a pickle. A “hot pickle.”
The tribes meet, squeal, hug, find out they’ve merged, decide which camp to live in (they choose Malakal), and partake in a feast that includes a bowl of bats. Little, black, teeth-baring bats, which James chomps into without hesitation. His assessment: “It was good, like a juicy rabbit.” The legend of James the Bat-Eating Gravedigger just grew a little.
The Survivors discuss what to name their merged tribe, and Erik says that the Micronesian word for “good” is “dabu” and everyone says, “OK, cool, let’s go with that.” He tells the camera, “Really, I pretty much just made it up. I love that everyone thinks ‘Oh, Erik looked up Micronesian.’ Hell-o, I didn’t look up Micronesian — I just wanted to name the tribe something funny, For all I care, it could have been Momo or, like, Fo’ Shizzle.” I totally love that — every season, I hope that the merged tribe has a completely goofy name, and now the tribe sounds like what a child nicknames his blanket. (Whoa — scary — I just called my mom and confirmed: When my brother was a toddler, he did indeed call an airplane a “dabu.”) Now every time I see the name of the tribe on the screen, I want Erik to win for that reason alone.
Ozzy decrees that the game be put on pause while they celebrate the merge, and then he and Alexis lie next to each other, his arm around her. He tells her he likes her a lot, he thinks she deserves to be there, and she smells good. Amanda’s not happy with Alexis moving in on her man, and she wants the interloper gone. (But, Amanda — the game had been paused!)
Back at camp, Ozzy believes that Jason found his fake immunity idol on Exile Island. He thinks this is “a beautiful thing … poetry in the making.” Jason hides his non-immunity stick in the woods, not far from all the other non-immunity sticks in the woods.
Parvati tells Amanda that she put Amanda in an alliance with Natalie and Alexis without consulting her, and now they’re both in a pickle because to get to the end, they’ll have to vote out people they were supposedly aligned with, and those people will decide who gets the million. Parvati jokes, “I may as well go make an alliance with Erik, Jason and Eliza right now — triple pickle.” Mmmmm … triple pickle. Amanda giggles with Parvati but tells the camera she thinks Parvati screwed her over, and she doesn’t want to go up against Alexis at the end — “She’s a motivational speaker, for crying out loud.”
Before the immunity challenge, Jason tells Eliza that if he wins immunity, he’ll give the hidden idol to Eliza. She’s excited and full of hope. Sad, false hope.
Jason does end up winning the challenge (it’s the one where the contestants are under a grate in the water; they have to figure out how to breathe when the water rises as the tide comes in, and I gag as I watch them sputtering for air), and he does give Eliza the non-immunity stick. Sharp cookie that she is, she takes one look at it and says, “This isn’t it. This is so stupid.” At first she thinks that Jason is messing with her, but it’s clear he really believes it’s the idol (it’s got to be — “it has a face on it”). He eventually concedes, “Then that’s a bummer.” Eliza realizes that Ozzy must have the idol.
At Tribal Council, some coverage is given to Alexis, who identifies the three strengths (mental, social, physical) that are important in the game. Probst asks Cirie which of those Alexis has, and she says all three — Alexis is a triple threat (which isn’t nearly as tasty as a triple pickle). Alexis then assesses how Eliza played the game, and Probst points out that Alexis uses past tense, as if Eliza had already been voted out. Oops.
Before the votes are revealed, Eliza presents her stick, hoping that maybe it’ll be magic. Ozzy smirks. Jeff says, “This is not a hidden immunity idol,” whereupon Eliza announces, “That means Ozzy has it.” Ozzy confesses that he does indeed have the true idol, so even though Eliza gets voted off, she still does damage on the way out.
