Survivor Caramoan Episode 10 Recap: Dawn's breakdown and Malcolm's fireworks

In what was an even better episode than last week's show, Wednesday's edition of Survivor was as crazy and unexpected as we've ever seen.  This one goes down as an all-time great episode of the show we so love.

hate him or love him, Phil keeps his troops organized

At the beginning of the episode, we are left with more division of alliances. The power three alliance is seemingly completely isolated, being composed of only Malcolm, Eddie, and Reynold.  The Favorites plus Sherri alliance is tighter than ever, having exclusive meetings that are clearly noticeable by the others.  The Favorites are entirely faithful that Reynold, Malcolm, and Eddie will leave next - in that order.  While Reynold and Eddie are almost accepting of their fate, Malcolm knows he's not going home this week. As they should, they hunt for idols. They have good chances, as Malcolm and Reynold seem to know their way around an idol.

Still edible?

The reward challenge is an obstacle course with familiar elements. The key to this challenge was a mud pit, in which each team member had to pull out a bag of balls.  Malcolm and Reynold had a good, proven strategy: pull out every bag and leave them in easily found places for the other contestants. While Reynold does this very quickly, Malcolm takes too long in this process and gets irreversibly behind the the relay race. Malcolm's much younger and stronger team thus looses to the somewhat weaker purple team.  The resort reward looked great, but we see very little from it. It is also important how we don't see much maneuvering with Malcolm back at camp. Staying back at camp during rewards is often the best time to strategize with members of opposing alliances.

He's a problem for the Faves

At the immunity challenge, we have a classic from Pearl Islands.  Jeff Probst makes a big deal out of Phillip not competing due to childhood trauma, and I don't blame him. Although he had very little chance of winning, Phillip must try for immunity at this part of the game.  The immunity challenge was again a battle between Reynold and Malcolm. Reynold outlasts Malcolm, perhaps because Malcolm had to swim in two consecutive heats. Reynold's win poses few problems to the Favorites alliance, as they can still go after Malcolm and Eddie. Everything's going to plan for the majority alliance.

Do they even bother to make clues anymore?

Malcolm and friends continue their search for the idol, but this time the other alliance joins in. Unfortunately for Malcolm, Andrea and Dawn are right there with him as he finds the idol.  This is not ideal, but it keeps his three safe for one night.  Andrea reports this to the Phillip and they keep their plan to split votes between Eddie and Malcolm. Questions loom in the audience's mind over how or if Malcolm would pull a Parvati and distribute his idols.

The fireworks take off with surely one of the greatest tribal councils of all time. Everything is calm at the beginning, with everyone expecting the removal of Eddie (including Eddie himself).  When Malcolm pulls out his second idol, all hell brakes loose. No one sees this coming, not even members of Malcolm's alliance.  These are the faces that we see after this happens:

And the tribal council whispers begin...

Suddenly, the Favorites alliance must find out who to vote for during tribal council. Andrea seems sure to go, while others audibly whisper to one another about voting off Phillip. Several, including Dawn, seem utterly perplexed by the situation sprung on them. This situation is unprecedented. Malcolm rallies everyone to vote Phillip, but only Erik strays from the original plan of the majority alliance. To force both idols out, the other six in the majority vote Eddie and Malcolm. This is not a bad move for them, as they all hope to not vote for Phillip in return for an eventual Jury vote. Malcolm and Eddie smartly play their idols, and the Favorites are stunned. This was utter mayhem, and sweet honey for fans of the show.

Last second decision making

While Phillip is gone, not much has changed for Malcolm's trio yet.  They still have only three alliance members compared to the majority of six.  We know already that both teams will be scouring the trees for new idol as soon as possible, and who knows who could stumble on one. The safe move for the minority is to get two flips from the other alliance to join them. The top candidates are Erik and Sherri. Sherri and Malcolm have a decent relationship, and Erik is well assimilated into the Gota guys alliance already. Making a flip happen will require a great deal of work, but is possible. As for the favorites, keeping tribe loyalty is key. And without the vocal Phillip, who can step up to lead?