IT'S EVERY CASTAWAY FOR THEMSELVES, AS TWO TRIBES BECOME ONE IN THIS SEASON'S MERGE, ON "SURVIVOR," WEDNESDAY, APRIL 2

"Head of the Snake" - It's every castaway for themselves, as two tribes become one in this season's merge. Meanwhile, one castaway's thirst for power could earn them a spot on the jury, and jaws drop as the blindside streak continues, on SURVIVOR, Wednesday, April 2 (8:00-9:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.

CASTAWAYS:

Solana Tribe
Jefra Bland
Trish Hegarty
Yung "Woo" Hwang
LJ McKanas
Lindsey Ogle (6th Off, Quit)
Cliff Robinson (5th Voted Off)
Tony Vlachos

Aparri Tribe
Spencer Bledsoe
Latasha "Tasha" Fox
Sarah Lacina
Alexis Maxwell (7th Voted Off)
Morgan McLeod
Kassandra "Kass" McQuillen
Jeremiah Wood

Eliminated Castaways:

Brains Tribe
David Samson (1st Voted Off)
Garrett Adelstein (2nd Voted Off)
J'Tia Taylor (4th Voted Off)

Beauty Tribe
Brice Johnston (3rd Voted Off)

Boy, big move showing the HII. And Cass flips. Don't blame her. Bye bye Queen Sarah.

Oh and nice overhead shot of Morgan voting

Morgan doing yoga.

Just when I thought LJ was playing the best game...

While not the single dumbest, sorry Erik, Kass has now become the architect of one of the dumbest moves in Survivor history. Not only was she in the majority alliance, but she was in a three person alliance within the majority alliance where the other three people don't really get along.

She gives that up to be four or six in another alliance as well flat out betraying five members of the jury so they will NEVER vote for you. What a brain!

I thought it was pretty obvious that Tasha was soothing the lunatic, and also thought the Kass confessionals were just for drama. Oops. Since it's highly unlikely that Tasha and Spencer can win now, I guess I rooting for LJ.

Yeah, that was really stupid on her part.

She goes from being a tight, three-person alliance within a six-five majority alliance, and throws that away to be the low person in another.

Jesus, Kass, placate Sarah, pick off the other tribe, cut off Sarah when you no longer need her, boot the other two people from your tribe, and you're guaranteed final three.

I mentioned this a couple of weeks ago - when did they start allowing folks to basically get together and re-strategize during TC? That seems to undercut a lot of the strategy heading into tribal. Didn't they used to have an explicit rule against doing that?

I know Jeff looks at it as better TV excitement and puts on his producer hat at the expense of the game, but it changes the game quite a bit. I think there are times where showing an idol prior to the vote can really shake things up, but if you then allow people to get together and strategize on it, it changes the game and the effectiveness of doing that.

And yeah Kass was stupid - I think it was more of an emotional decision (get Sarah the bully) than one based in the logic that she professes to use. They only needed to secure Sarah for one vote; they could have blindside her next at 6-4 and still had a 5-4 advantage after that - it seemed like this was painfully obvious to Tasha.

I feel bad for Tasha and Spencer, who I think understand the game. This whole game the other "Brains" have pretty much not had any.

They had such a good game plan. Run a bluff to get the idol played then vote out the non-threat first b/c they won't have the idol. I hate to see bad game play rewarded. Tony deserved to lose tonight with his ill-conceived bull in a china shop at tribal. What reason was there to do that before the vote other than to preen?

I have no problem with them being able to discuss the vote at tribal. It's not like they can hide or go off and huddle up. Others can hear you so if you don't have a well-formed plan B then it can cost you. They had a well-formed plan B. They just had a dunce on their team.

Kass seems to be the type that's very arrogant and can't stand being dictated to. I found Sarah extremely annoying, too, but it sure wasn't 'brainy' to vote her out this week.

Maybe it's not all over for Tasha and Spencer. You never know what will happen in the world of Survivor. There will be an HII back in play plus the one with unknown powers (maybe it can save someone who has just been voted off??). There could be potential injuries, illnesses and peeps just losing it. That's why Survivor is still around after all these years. You never know (for sure) what's going to happen!

And you could tell they worked stuff out beforehand. They had Plan A and Plan B, Spencer called the audible and he called it right.

Go from the final three within a majority alliance of six, to bottom spot of another alliance ... where even if she somehow makes it to the end, none of her former alliance members will vote for her. Giving brains a bad name.

I'm warming up to Tony. He's not afraid to make big moves, he seems to genuinely enjoy playing the game, and despite playing a "cutthroat" game I'm not getting any vibes of maliciousness towards the other players.

Maybe Kass' plan was to make herself so toxic that people would want to take her to the final three. But I really don't give her credit for planning out such a thing. It definitely seems she voted based on emotion rather than brains.

I hope Morgan puts her in her place next week. But with the shift in power it seems Morgan isn't long for this game.

I loved watching her do yoga, though!

Not sensing any facetiousness on your part, so...

I was just going to pose the question "Why would anyone on a jury vote for Tony after the way he has continually acted?" right before I saw your post.

Can't remember anyone who has 'rubbed it in' as much as Tony at this early stage. From "Top Five, Baby!" (much discussed by the losing tribe...didn't seem that they appreciated that much) to his insistence that people "Swear on your kids! Swear on your badge!" (although that was mostly Sarah, who is gone...but still on the jury) to the over-the-top rubbing of hands, "Can't wait for this vote!", "We'll see, Jeff...we'll see!", "Let's see what happens", etc...on and on and on. If Cliff were still there, I'd have expected him to turn and throttle Tony in mid-gloat.

Must be catching...don't ever remember that raucous a celebration after a contestant was kicked off. If it was just aimed at Sarah, one would think that she was just hated by a lot of people, but it seemed to be aimed at the losing alliance. More salt rubbed in the wound. Some of these people will remember that come the Finals.

Hopefully, we'll see some actual strategizing and flipping instead of a rote knocking off of the group without the numbers...which makes sense for someone in the majority, but makes for boring tv (which is why the producers merged into two tribes after only 4 weeks and then one tribe 2 weeks later).

Tony (and Trish) are so annoying to the viewers at home that it's hard to see the other contestants...who will be voting on Tony's fate if he makes it to the finals...not resenting his gloating and 'in-your-face' behavior. He's the very definition of a sore winner. Can't decide if his complex is a superiority or inferiority one.

That said, he's playing a good game other than his outbursts that have to come back to bite him at some point. If that weren't the case, then Russell Hantz would have been awarded the cash for playing a great strategical game but a horrible social game.

Yeah, I was impressed with the group picking the right person to pick off. But then Kass left her brain at the door. I just got the feeling that she was so jealous of Sarah due to her momentary "power" that was only going to last for this vote. I was laughing when Sarah kept mentioning that she was the queen when really she was in the worst position of anyone...she was at the bottom of both alliances and no matter who she voted for, she would still be at the bottom of the winning alliance. Not much to brag about. Why Kass couldn't see this is beyond me.

Kass's decision was just a plain dumb. I hate it because she was one that I kinda liked and seemed the smarter one of the bunch. Oops.

Kass started off by making a cardinal sin when she told Sarah that she didn't trust her, so although shocking when she voted for Sarah, I guess I shouldn't have been surprised that she would make an idiotic choice.

Even if Kass did not tell Kass about not trusting her I think Kass would have known anyway. But yeah, that was a really bad move by Kass and I wonder if next week she realizes what she did.

She's a lawyer, so that goes without saying.

Stupid move, but Sarah was driving me crazy, so I'm not sorry she's gone.

I'm beginning to like Tasha's chances. Other than irking Kass, she seems to get along well with others, has some physical skills & competes well in challenges while not being targeted as a "top" threat, and pretty much plays a diplomatic game. I could see her being able to forge a secret alliance behind Tony's back.

It was obvious Sarah was going to be voted out when they showed her saying she wasn't stupid a dozen times in the episode.

Missed the episode last night because bad storms wiped out my Dish feed. Just now caught it online.

For an episode that had literally no action, it might have been the most entertaining of the season. The strategizing from several players was on display. I was shocked as well that Kass did end up flipping, but then for her former alliance members to call her out immediately afterwards while sitting there. Good stuff. And while it's hard to agree with Kass' approach, it was still funny to see Sarah knocked off her perch of power.

The balance challenge, while kind of boring under normal circumstances, was fun when a half dozen folks went into the water at the same time.

What a dumbass... boggles my mind how people let shit get personal on Survivor.

Sarah kept saying she was certain Tony didn't have an idol, but I thought he had showed it to her. Am I mistaken?

As far as I recall, he hadn't.

Didn't he tell LJ he had it?

I thought one of them told somebody they had it.

I thought Wu had a slight advantage since he was wearing those shoe things. Looked like the non-slip shoes you wear on a sailboat. And I'm surprised there wasn't a woman in the final mix. They have a lower center of gravity but maybe these women just had bad balance.

^ And the last woman standing didn't exactly have the lowest center of gravity.

Probably because one of the traits they look for when casting a reality show is someone who is thin skinned enough to flip over petty shit.