Survivor: Caramoan -- Fans vs. Favorites' merged Enil Edam tribe eliminated Phillip Sheppard, a 54-year-old in software sales from Santa Monica, CA, from their tribe during Wednesday night's tenth episode of the CBS reality series' 26th edition.
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Phillip was voted out of his tribe at the season's tenth Tribal Council, the third time the new Enil Edam tribe had an elimination vote.
"I feel I played a great game. I am so happy with the way I played. I tried to bring into the game some things that I learned from Boston Rob. I felt often like I did in Survivor Season 22. I wasn't respected. I wasn't appreciated for the things that I do, so that part hurts for me. But I'm feeling good. I think I played a great game. I know that I did a very good job out here and did my best," Phillip said following his ouster.
On Night 25, Edward "Eddie" Fox, a 23-year-old fireman and EMT from East Brunswick, NJ; Malcolm Freberg, a 25-year-old bartender from Hermosa Beach, CA; and Reynold Toepfer, a 30-year-old in real estate sales from San Francisco, CA, decided they needed to find a hidden Immunity Idol the next morning because it was their small alliance against everyone else at camp.
Malcolm, however, still felt pretty good about his position in the game because he had an idol in his possession that no one else knew about.
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Meanwhile, the "Stealth R Us" alliance -- which was comprised of Phillip; Erik Reichenbach, a 27-year-old comic book artist from Santa Clarita, CA; John Cochran, a 25-year-old law student from Washington, DC; Dawn Meehan, a 42-year-old English professor from South Jordan, UT; Andrea Boehlke, a 23-year-old entertainment host and writer from New York; Brenda Lowe, a 30-year-old paddleboard company owner from Miami, FL; and Sherri Biethman, a 41-year-old fast food franchisee from Boise, ID -- was scheming to get Malcolm, Eddie and Reynold out of the game.
Sherri was the other remaining "Fan" but had been the latest addition to Phillip's alliance. "Stealth R Us" planned to continue splitting their votes between two of the guys in the threesome in case one of them played an idol.
On Day 26, Dawn broke down into tears because she lost her bottom retainer with a couple teeth in it in the water. She told Brenda she'd pull herself from the game if she couldn't find it, so Brenda went diving and ended up discovering it. Dawn was hysterical, experiencing big ups and downs, and Brenda said she would never turn her back on Dawn in the game and vice versa.
The Enil Edam tribe then met Survivor host Jeff Probst for a Reward Challenge.
The Reward Challenge required the castaways to divide themselves into two teams of five. One person from each team had to race through a series of obstacles into a muddy pit, where they must search for a bag of balls. The tribemates must then move through a pit of rice and drop their bag onto a table, allowing the next person in line to go. Once a team collected all five of their bags, they had to shoot their balls into their basket.
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The first team to get all 12 balls into their basket would win Reward in the form of spending a day at a resort with a pool and having lunch complete with beef, chicken, pork, and cocktails.
Reynold, Erik, Dawn, Cochran, and Phillip competed against Eddie, Malcolm, Sherri, Brenda, and Andrea.
In the end, Reynold's team won.
On Day 28, everyone in Phillip's alliance agreed they should get Reynold out before Malcolm because Reynold was a huge threat in challenges and was very likeable. They decided to cast four votes for Reynold and three for Malcolm because of a potential idol.
Later that day, Enil Edam's castaways met Jeff, who then explained the rules to what would be their tenth Immunity Challenge but third Individual Immunity Challenge of the season.
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For the challenge, there were two heats in which each person had to run across a platform, jump into the ocean, swim back under the platform by pulling a rope along the way, climb back onto the platform, grab a ring, and then place it around a post at the end of the platform.
The first two tribe members to successfully finish each heat by placing three rings around their post -- so four castaways total -- would move onto the final round in which they'd complete the same set of tasks but must land five rings.
The winner of the final round would receive individual immunity and be safe from the next vote at the upcoming Tribal Council session. The winner would be granted a one in nine shot at winning the million dollars.
Reynold and Andrea moved onto the final round in the first heat, and then Malcolm and Brenda advanced in the second heat. Phillip chose to sit out of the second heat because he admitted a bad childhood memory made him very uncomfortable in this specific water challenge.
Reynold ended up defeating Malcolm, Brenda and Andrea in the final round and was victorious.
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Once all the castaways returned to camp, Reynold said he had no respect for Phillip because he was "all talk and no action." Meanwhile, Phillip truly felt in charge of his alliance and told Andrea they needed to split their votes -- four for Malcolm and three for Eddie -- and that it didn't matter who had an idol. Phillip believed he had a great chance to make it to the end.
Andrea and Dawn then went looking for an idol because they acknowledged they shouldn't just be sitting around all day doing nothing. However, Malcolm and the guys were off looking for it too.
Much to everyone's surprise, Malcolm ended up finding the hidden Immunity Idol in a rock when both Andrea and Dawn were watching and talking to him. It then became clear to Andrea's alliance that Eddie had to be the one to go next, because it was their only option.
That night, Survivor: Caramoan -- Fans vs. Favorites' members of the Enil Edam tribe arrived for the season's tenth Tribal Council session.
Andrea blatantly announced Eddie was going home. Cochran admitted it wasn't his alliance's first choice, as they wanted Reynold out of the game because he was a "huge threat."
When Jeff asked Phillip why he didn't participate in the Immunity Challenge, Phillip explained he got stuck under a deck when he was a kid underwater, so he was simply fearful of the challenge. As Tribal Council progressed, there was clearly tension between Malcolm's all-male alliance and Phillip's "Favorites" alliance. Malcolm then stepped up to the plate and completely stirred things up.
Malcolm took out his second immunity idol he had that no one knew about and gave it to Eddie. Malcolm bragged that his guys were all safe and one of the solid seven had to go home. The very tight majority alliance was shocked about the turn of events.
Malcolm announced he was still aware his boys were going to be down six to three come the next Tribal Council, but he was still beaming and openly threw out the idea his alliance was voting for Phillip.
"I don't need to go down the list of reasons why. Everyone knows in their heads. This is supposed to be a game and it's supposed to be fun. But it's not fun anymore. I came out here to have the time of my life. Phillip is the fun sponge. He sucks it all out of the group. This is still a game. It doesn't have to be this militaristic thing where we're all in basic training," Malcolm explained.
"That is not how I play the game. He is trying to label me as something I am not," Phillip noted.
Andrea, at that moment, didn't feel safe and was paranoid because she knew she had been a target at the previous Tribal Council. She worried the guys were just saying they were going to vote for Phillip when they may actually be voting for herself.
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Phillip then told his alliance to vote the way they had planned regardless because there was a possibility one of the two guys -- Eddie or Malcolm -- may not actually choose to play his idol.
"I'm having this real bi-polar reaction to everything. Because as a Survivor fan, I'm just sitting at home saying, 'What the hell just happened?! This is the most exciting frigin Tribal Council I've ever seen!' People are whispering to each other, voting plans are changing, which is extraordinarily rare at Tribal Council. So, this vote's going to be a gamble," Cochran said.
Before Jeff revealed the votes, both Eddie and Malcolm played their idols.
Jeff then revealed two people had voted for Malcolm, four castaways had voted for Eddie and three tribemates cast their votes to oust Phillip from Survivor: Caramoan -- Fans vs. Favorites. Because Eddie and Malcolm's votes did not count, Phillip was eliminated.
The episode's closing credits later showed Phillip and Cochran voted for Malcolm; Brenda, Dawn, Andrea, and Sherri voted for Eddie; and Reynold, Eddie, Malcolm, and Erik voted for Phillip.
About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski