Monty Brinton/CBSJalapao took the concept of fighting tooth and nail to another level on tonight's Survivor: Tocantins.
Alas, J.T. Thomas' offering to the dental gods couldn't secure a victory for his tribe, and Timbira, while not one for reward challenges, got to skip Tribal Council for the second week in a row.
Will Jalapaoans Taj Johnson-George and Stephen Fishbach and Timbirans Brendan Synnott and Sierra Reed get a chance to put their fourway super-alliance into action, or did those ties start unraveling Thursday as Taj's time spent in exile took center stage when it came time for Jalapao to assess its strengths?
First off, Jalapao most successfully completed the sprint-spin-dizzy-balance-beam-walk reward challenge, earning a trip to the Charmin Cafe, where they partook of coffee, pastries, modern facilities and plenty of tush-friendly toilet paper.
And by sending Brendan to Exile Island again, Timbira's resident schadenfreudist, Tyson Apostol, had the chance to voice his suspicions about Brendan's recent alliance-forming habits.
"He's got to go next," Tyson said.
But Timbira didn't have to worry about eliminating anyone, because Tyson, though always happy to see someone cry, also managed to catch a bunch of balls in his lacrosse stick-style net and help his tribe to a 5-4 victory over Jalapao in the immunity challenge.
J.T. almost singlehandedly steered Jalapao to a win, catching four balls and losing half a tooth in the process—earning his hosting Emmy all over again, Jeff Probst helpfully stopped the game to find the tooth and keep it safe for later—but Timbira just came out ahead.
Taj became the focus of much scrutiny, as a cranky Joe Dowdle and Ryan Phillippe look-alike Spencer Duhm took issue with her 'tude and her time in exile.
Stephen and J.T. had Taj's back, though, and ultimately it was Spencer—who, thanks to Survivor's producers had just voiced concern about the rest of his tribemates finding out he was gay and whether guys like J.T. would be OK with that—who was voted out, 5-1.