Survivor Nicaragua, Season 21, week five brought the surprises that have kept viewers watching over the years. During this unpredictable episode, Marty proved not to be as smart as he thinks and NaOnka proved not to be that fearless “hood” girl she bragged about being in a previous episode. The show started with a recap of Jimmy T’s departure and cast commentary to follow of surprised tribal mates.
Jeff Probst, the shows host, announced an exchange of tribal mates, adding a new twist to the game and alliances. The tribes pulled straws for team captains; both Brenda and Holly “won” the responsibility of captain. Holly, Alina, NaOnka, Chase and Benry joined the Espada tribe while members of Espada; Jane, Jill, and Marty moved to LaFlor. Along with this change, the Medallion of Power was retired from the game.
Tribal contention was evident with the mixture of the young vs. old. The younger tribe members of Espada did not like Tyrone’s authoritarian approach. After the tribe’s realignment, Tyrone was thought to have been the leader of the “old” tribe. He was giving orders and telling the new tribal members that nothing was to be changed from what the tribe did previous. If you left camp for a walk, you were certain to bring back wood. If you ate from a bowl, you would clean the bowl.
In fact, the younger tribe seemed to mesh better among the strangers. Holly, Alina and NaOnka all seemed to get along much better. Alina even took time to console NaOnka during a bad storm.
Tribe LaFlor was not impressed with Marty to say the least, calling him arrogant as he flaunted the immunity idol. Brenda, the team’s captain could see through Marty’s shallow claims of being a team player.
During Episode 5’s Tribal Challenge it was required that three members from both teams to be attached to a wheel that spun both above and underwater. In order to win the challenge, the underwater member had to take in as much water as possible. Once above water, the water from the mouth was into a bowl, until the bowl was filled. After the bowl was filled, tribe members had to break five tiles with a ball released by the water.
Team LaFlor’s win, meant tribe Espada had to lose a member. NaOnka confessed to not caring if she was voted off, but in the end, it would be Tyrone and the end of his tyranny that was sent home.