As famed as Survivor South Africa is for reliably delivering wild twists and turns, the producers also know how to ease up on the gas pedal and just tell the story of a (mostly) straightforward elimination in a straightforward way. Sometimes it’s better television to just show how someone got themselves booted rather than attempt to maximize the suspense of every. single. vote. at the expense of narrative clarity. This episode is a case in point.

• Vuna gets tree-mail informing them of the raid they “won” as a result of Amy’s Immunity Island loss. They choose Dino (male, original Zamba) and Anesu (female, original Vuna) to be their raiders. Interestingly, Dino, who spazzed out so badly in Episode 1, now seems to be trusted.
• Amy lies and tells Zamba that she received warning of the impending raid, not that it’s the consequence of her challenge loss. The tribe goes about hiding their stuff.
• Dino and Anesu end up taking cushions when Zamba stonewalls them. Should production have intervened at this point? Dino and Anesu have the right to take three items, and there’s no “if you can find them” clause in the note. And being an original Zamba, Dino knows exactly what they have (including the special items from the Tribe Advantage on Day 1). Discuss.
• Dino and Anesu give the deets on Zamba to the rest of Vuna. Renier is delighted that the original Vunas on Zamba are in such disarray, since it means Tyson, Anesu, and Kiran can’t simply hold tight until reuniting with the other original Vunas at the merge. Renier and (especially) Santoni are really thinking on another level (much more on Santoni later).
• Reward challenge: It’s a champions showdown, with each tribe sending its strongest male and female. Dino and Marisha demolish Chappies and Wardahg Wardah, thanks entirely to Marisha. I thought they missed an opportunity here, not letting the two sides just hang out for a while and possibly develop secret ties (a la the Outpost on Survivor New Zealand: Thailand).
• Dino and Marisha have a dilemma: Choose 10 items for the tribe or five for the tribe and five for themselves. They choose the former so they can show the note to the tribe and prove everything is aboveboard. This is yet another tiny way the players have solved the game of Survivor. We’re a long way from the days of “Neutral Box”.
• Two words, Paul–Banana etiquette.
• Santoni huddles with Wardah, Carla, and Amy and explains to them (and the audience) that she’s pretending to be with Chappies and Paul but she’s 100% with them.
• Shaun has an alarming allergic reaction to something, requiring a visit from medical (who are masked up). This doesn’t have any further consequences aside from his having to sit out the immunity challenge.
• Immunity Challenge: Roll gigantic cubes that are also puzzle pieces. Paul and Chappies completely ignore the women’s correct advice (roll, don’t carry the cube; copy the solved part of Vuna’s puzzle). Vuna wins and sends Carla to Immunity Island (makes total sense, she would seem to be the most vulnerable since her ally Mike just got voted out).
• Zamba was so terrible that I thought they might be throwing the challenge, but Paul and Chappies were the ones messing it up and it was everybody else who would have reason to throw it.
• At Immunity Island, Carla chooses to Get Up and Go, but says she didn’t realize that would mean giving up her immunity. But it’s OK because Chappies and Paul won’t know that she isn’t immune. This takes some real guts: I can’t imagine playing Survivor and not taking every opportunity possible to be immune.
• We learn from Wardah that the four women had made an agreement beforehand to not play if any of them were sent to Immunity Island, so that they would have the votes needed to split 3-3 between Chappies and Paul. I surmise that Santoni and Amy told Carla and Wardah about the rules of Immunity Island (otherwise Wardah wouldn’t know), but neglected to tell them that if you don’t play you lose immunity.
• Carla concocts a lie that is somehow even worse than Amy’s: She was given a choice of “Bloat or Vote”–Have a big meal or give it up and preserve her immunity and her vote.
• Chappies knows this is a lie, and that if Carla returned immediately without playing she has no vote and isn’t immune, because he has the parchment from Santoni’s visit to Immunity Island. Santoni knows that Chappies knows, but doesn’t try to save Carla from herself.
• Smash is also trying to play all sides. He tells Paul and Chappies the vote is on Wardah, then turns around and tells Santoni, Amy, and Shaun that he’s voting Paul.
• Santoni tells us that it’s Chappies and Paul on one side and Carla and Wardah on the other, with both sides thinking she (Santoni) is their minion and that they have all three of the OG Zambas. Since Survivor has no narrator, it’s invaluable to have people in the cast who can explain exactly what’s going on (incidentally, I watched the first two seasons of Survivor Japan during the Year of No New Survivor, and like almost all Japanese reality TV, it was all but wall-to-wall narration).
• Now Smash is saying to Santoni that he will actually vote Wardah to honor his “commitment” and preserve trust with Chappies. I get the logic but this seems more likely to just alienate everybody. This also makes a vote split impossible.
• Santoni explains her strategy: Float among the pairs, break them up, and scoop up the singletons: Chappies and Paul this time, Carla and Wardah next, Smash and Amy after that (Carla and Mike having been broken up last time). Again I must say that it’s Survivor gold when someone can clearly articulate their strategy. Compare Santoni to, say, Nick Wilson, who did something similar on Survivor: David vs. Goliath but didn’t really explain it. It’s a good thing Santoni didn’t go home in Episode 2.
• Tribal Council: Shaun blames the immunity challenge loss on his having to sit out. Wardah notes the structural misogyny of the men ignoring what the women were telling them, “like we didn’t exist”. Paul takes great umbrage at being called a misogynist, and Chappies says the women should have spoken up. Textbook gaslighting!
• Nico reveals that Carla is not immune. Did he go too far and interfere in the game? Discuss.
• Chappies votes for Carla, Paul and Smash vote for Wardah (so much for faking loyalty to Chappies), everybody else votes for Paul.
• I really hope Vuna goes to tribal council next episode. Except for Renier, Dino, Anesu, and Marisha, the entire tribe was Purple this episode. It would be nice to have some clarity on the dynamics over there, and if we lose any more OG Vunas on Zamba, we risk a post-merge Pagonging by the OG Zambas.
• Trinket Watch: Chappies has Diplomatic Immunity, Santoni has the camp idol clue and the tribal council idol clue,  Tyson has the Vuna camp idol. Did I miss anything?