As much fun as the season has been so far, almost every time the vote has come down to a choice between a power player and a pawn, the pawn has been sent home. I have a hunch that ends this week, if only because they’re running out of pawns. I (ADS) will recap episode 9 and Kemper Boyd will do the honors for episodes 10-11.

Episode 9:

• Harry is 100% for sure going to trip himself up because he doesn’t have a real parent’s knowledge of child-development milestones. He’s going to say something about supposedly three-year-old Little Oscar starting to read or having teething pain or something. 
• I’m not really into edit reading, particularly when it comes to AU Survivor (thanks Kristie), and it could be wishful thinking on my part because so many women have been voted out so far this season, but I really think the Pia/Janine/Abbey alliance is going deep into the game.
• Janine drops a dime on David, telling Shaun that the idol he swapped with David for is fake. Incredibly, Shaun never bothered to look at it. 
• LOL this reward challenge is a copy of a challenge in Society Game, a Korean show that was sort of a mash-up of Big Brother, Survivor, and The Genius. Society Game was just OK (less than the sum of its parts), but this challenge did give us this iconic moment for MJ Kim, who went on to be the breakout star of the season:

• Abbey twists her knee awkwardly and painfully but medical lets her stay in the game.
• John dives under Harry to win the challenge for the Champions. In the post-challenge celebration, Shaun manages to tell Daisy about David’s treachery and urges her to get rid of him.
• Ha!:  “I have to tell you something and you cannot tell anybody.”  “Come on, I’m not Andy.” 
• Shut out by the former Champions, who are a majority on new Contenders, an insecure Harry tells the OG Contenders about his idol and advocates for voting out Janine.
• The Champions almost blow a huge lead, but hang on to win immunity for only the second time all season. 
• In the post-challenge celebration, David tells Janine to play her idol and take Shaun out. Two mysteries solved. Janine has the Swap Idol after all and didn’t let David keep it, and the Swap Idols are valid for members of the existing tribes, regardless of starting tribe. 
• Harry tells Daisy that if he gets voted out, Shaun is next. This is strange on a couple of levels. What can Daisy do with this information? Why does Harry assume Shaun would be next and not, say, Matt? And why does Harry think he might be eliminated if he has an idol?
• TWIST! The Champions will get to watch the Contenders’ tribal council. I very much doubt this is happening for no reason.
• Harry wants to send Casey to spread a rumor that he has an idol to induce the OG Champions to split the vote, giving the OG Contenders a plurality. This makes no sense. There’s no way for the Champions to split the vote safely, so if they’re alerted to an idol wouldn’t they simply shift their votes to another Contender (like Casey, who should not be agreeing to do this)? And if they wanted to get cute with an idol flush, couldn’t they pull in Casey for a 3-3-3 vote? Harry should just play his idol straight up.
• Well, I didn’t expect Ross to be the one to expose the Live Child lie, nor did I expect the revelation to, on balance, benefit Harry, since he’s now trying to draw the vote onto himself. 
• Oh snap! Now that the Contenders have aired all their dirty laundry, the Champions are going to vote a Contender onto their tribe. I like this much better than the time a single representative of a tribe got to kidnap someone on the other tribe. 
• Since the Champions don’t get to discuss it, I’ll bet they pick Shaun. 
• Yup. I think this is great for Daisy, very good for the rest of the Champions except David, good for Casey (only because I think she was going home otherwise), good for Shaun (assuming the Champions haven’t seen Survivor: China), slightly bad for Janine, very bad for Harry, and terrible for David and Matt.

Episode 10:

Hi Pals, it’s Kemper Boyd here, ready to talk about episode 10 and the post Shaun tribe swap shenanigans. Unfortunately due to all of us who recap Australian Survivor planning our vacations for the same time I will not be able to write in depth.

• Daisy really really likes Shaun, in a platonic way. I hope maybe she sees that he is a great workhorse meatshield for her going forward, but seeing how she wanted to work with David and Luke I doubt she is that sort of player.
• Simon’s challenge performance on this one was an all time great performance. He destroyed the throwing section as Ross just held his breath forever.
• For me this was too telegraphed a move to take out David,  but it was done brilliantly to remove two idols from the game and remain completely in control of the tribe. The contenders on the Champions tribe got rid of two idols and lost the person they would have taken out if Daisy and John had stuck with Dave and Luke without the Shaun swap.
• What was Andy’s vote for Daisy about? To signal to David he’s loyal? There seemed to be no value to it but to make Daisy nervous which can only turn Shaun and John against you longer term.
• Quick note from Contenders beach. Harry destroyed himself in the last tribal.
  I think Matt is so challenge focused a player he would vote for Casey allowing a 3-3-2 split on Harry and Casey keeping Janine strong with her idol in pocket.
• My favourite thing about Harry ‘s plan is at no point does he think Janine could have an idol. If he plays his then she will play hers and Casey or Matt go home.
• Last comment: I really do not enjoy Matt.

Episode 11