Gonzalez was viewed as a potential strategic threat down the road, and without offering much else to offset that, she was the first person voted off the island in Survivor: Ghost Island Episode 1.

Domenick quickly dug himself a hole by being the only person from either tribe to openly express that they made a mistake with their choices for the challenge, and he hasn’t been doing himself any favors since then. He gets up in the middle of the third night and finds an idol in the dark. It is Andrea’s idol, which she did not play and was eliminated.

Jacob is going to “stretch the truth”. By that, he means blatantly lie, but he refuses to admit that is what he’s doing. He makes a fake immunity idol to show his tribe when he returns. Nobody really believes him, but there is always some risk that he is telling the truth and can pick off whoever he wants with just one vote.

Domenick wants to earn the trust of Chris. He won’t show him the real idol, but he makes a fake one. Put together with his note from the real idol, his story is actually believable, unlike Jacob’s. The problem is he just got done lying and telling Chris he didn’t have an idol, so even though part of the story is real, something is not right.

For the immunity challenge, they will race through a series of obstacles, release buoys, then shoot the buoys into a basket. Reward is comfort. Angela sits out for Naviti, saying she is not a good swimmer, honest but not something anyone wants to hear longer term. Naviti starts off with a bit of a lead, and the ineptness of James and Donathan allows them to completely overtake the others, more than lapping them. As James struggles to dive, Donathan won’t even try. After his tribe badgers him, Donathan finally agrees to make an effort, and although this is probably already lost, Donathan is successful at his mission. Naviti has 7 of their 8 baskets before the others even start. Naviti wins immunity.

They send Donathan to Ghost Island, which seems like it would have been the right move minutes ago when he refused to help, but not after he actually was successful.

Donathan gets an empty urn, which means he will not have the opportunity to play whatever game of chance there is.

James is clearly not a diver, but unlike most people who choke, he looks like someone who may have something else to offer. He won’t be the target, but they can throw some votes his way in a split to hedge their bets in case Jacob is telling the truth.

Stephanie pretends to be the only person on Jacob’s side. All it takes is a little flirting, and he tells her everything. The legacy advantage and who has it, the idol is not real, that he would like to get rid of a strong guy like Michael. He trusts her way too much. That trust may be good, but his inability to keep his mouth shut is problematic.

The question now is whether the beautiful people and their clique is considered to be a threat to everybody else. If the answer is yes, the others can band together and flip the script. It wouldn’t even taken many people if there is a split vote coming. Jacob, Stephanie, and her close ally Jenna. They would just need one more.

Votes
Michael
James
Jacob
James
Jacob
Jacob
Jacob

With 4 votes, Jacob has been voted off the island. He’s lucky to have lasted this long. They did show their hand that they wouldn’t have minded if James was out.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another recap of Survivor: Ghost Island Episode 3, which airs Wednesday at 8/7c on CBS.