Following Brxanne’s explosive departure, Nalu returned to camp with plenty of fallout to deal with.
Malibu was once again frustrated after discovering she had been lied to and completely excluded from the vote. Despite believing she had relationships she could rely on, another Tribal Council had passed where everyone seemed to know the plan except her.
mattychamps was dealing with a different frustration. His Hidden Immunity Idol had successfully cancelled two votes, but ultimately had not been necessary to save him. With his idol now gone, Matty was disappointed that he had wasted one of the most valuable advantages in the game.
Unfortunately, there was absolutely no time to rest. The tribes were immediately brought to their next Tribal Immunity Challenge:
REEF RUNNERS
For today’s challenge, four members from each tribe would compete in a live board crossing battle.
The objective was simple: get all four members of your tribe from one side of the board to the other!
The first tribe to successfully get all four players across would win Tribal Immunity.
Representing Ahi:
AMANDA, cullenistehbest, Jane and Ryan.
Representing Nalu:
xcharliex, Intuition, mattychamps and Nick.
The tribes would alternate turns, moving one player at a time across the board. However, opposing players could block one another’s paths.
If somebody wanted to move through a square occupied by an opponent, they would have to challenge them to a 1v1 duel.
Production would post an arrow sequence alongside instructions. The first player to correctly complete the sequence would win the duel.
If the challenger won, they advanced and sent their opponent back to the beginning. If the blocker won, the challenger was sent all the way back instead.
This meant one failed duel could completely erase somebody’s progress.
And Production was about to learn just how long that could make a challenge last.... it was two hours of hell.
Around 20 minutes into Reef Runners, Intuition became the first castaway to successfully cross the board, putting Nalu ahead 1–0.
Shortly afterwards, Jane crossed for Ahi. 1–1.
At this point, Production assumed the challenge would be wrapping up relatively quickly. We were so wrong.
What followed was everybody’s worst nightmare. Nobody could get through.
Players would make it almost entirely across the board, reach what appeared to be their final duel... And flop.
Straight back to the beginning. Again. And again. And again.
Nick became particularly frustrated, repeatedly insisting that he had completed duels first on his Motorola 3700 screen, while Production and the rest of the castaways stared in confusion as it appeared fairly clear that he had not.
Meanwhile, AMANDA became increasingly vocal about allowing people a moment to catch their breath between duels, particularly as Ahi began smoking Matty and Nick in several of the head-to-head battles.
Nalu did, however, have one secret weapon: xcharliex
Charlie had established himself as one of the strongest duel competitors and made it very clear to his tribemates that sending him across too early would be a terrible idea. As long as he remained on the board, he could continue blocking Ahi and protecting Nalu’s chances.
Around an hour and a half into the challenge, Ahi finally made another breakthrough. cullenistehbest successfully crossed.
AHI 2 – 1 NALU.
Surely the end was approaching. It was not.
The challenge continued until mattychamps eventually fought his way across for Nalu. 2–2.
And then the worst possible thing happened. DISCORD CRASHED!
The endless arrow sequences, duels and chaos had apparently broken the matrix.
Panic immediately spread as Skinnisha attempted to figure out how an already painfully long live challenge could possibly continue with Discord refusing to cooperate.
But Skinnisha Survivor is a fluid game. So Reef Runners moved to the Kovaze Blogs Game.
Unfortunately, Nick’s Motorola had apparently followed him there and he was unable to properly use the arrow controls required for the duels.
Production adapted once again.
For the remainder of the challenge, the castaways would compete using counting duels instead.
Eventually, Ryan managed to break through for Ahi. AHI 3 – 2 NALU.
Only one person remained for Ahi: AMANDA.
Nalu still needed both Nick and Charlie across, and after another series of battles, Nick finally made it through. 3–3.
After more than two hours of Reef Runners, everything came down to one final showdown:
AMANDA VS xCharliex
One duel would effectively decide which tribe escaped Tribal Council. After approximately two and a half hours of challenge hell…
xcharliex took it home.
NALU WON IMMUNITY!
What had begun as a relatively simple board crossing challenge had somehow become an emotional endurance competition that killed Discord, forced Production onto another website and nearly destroyed several friendships in the process.
But by the end, Nalu were safe. And Ahi were heading to Tribal Council.
After the chaos of Reef Runners, Ahi arrived at Tribal Council exhausted.
muribolt Jane Amanda WowPlatinum Lover Cullenistehbest October
Publicly, there was very little discussion. Behind the scenes, however, plenty was happening.
Following Matty’s idol play at the previous Tribal Council and the ongoing paranoia surrounding advantages in Hawaii, nobody wanted to settle on a plan without considering what could happen if an idol appeared.
Multiple names and backup plans were discussed, but u ltimately, one player increasingly emerged as the easiest option:
cullenistehbest.
Despite performing well enough in Reef Runners to score one of Ahi’s points, Cullen had struggled to fully integrate himself socially with the rest of his new tribe.
With nobody particularly eager to disrupt the vote, Cullen became the casualty. Unbeknownst to him, the majority of his tribemates had agreed on his name.
Cullen had actually entered Tribal Council hoping to create a very different outcome. His original plan was to organise a blindside against AMANDA, but he was unable to gain enough traction to make the move happen.
When Skinnisha asked whether anybody had an idol or advantage they wished to play… Nobody stood. The votes were read.
Parchment after parchment revealed the same name:
cullenistehbest.
Cullen’s lone vote landed on muribolt.
And with that, Cullen became the eighth castaway voted out of Skinnisha Survivor: Hawaii.
Cullen was disappointed to discover that his tribemates had spent the day lying to him about where the vote was heading, although they explained that much of the deception had been driven by fear that an idol could disrupt the plan.
Despite his disappointment, Cullen remained gracious, thanking everyone for the opportunity and wishing the remaining castaways good luck.
When asked for his final words, Cullen had this to say:
cullenistehbest, thank you so much for playing! You brought plenty of energy to Hawaii and proved yourself to be a fierce competitor, especially during the challenges. Although your attempted Amanda blindside never managed to take off, you certainly weren't planning to leave the game without trying something.
We hope this isn't the last we see of you!
THIRTEEN CASTAWAYS REMAIN
After two tribe swaps, eight eliminations, countless blindsides, one idol play, a mysterious missing idol and enough Tribal Councils to permanently traumatise WowPlatinum…
The tribal phase of the game was finally coming to an end.
Because the next time the castaways arrived at the beach, there would no longer be Ahi and Nalu.
THE MERGE IS HERE.
Old tribal lines are about to disappear, former allies will reunite and enemies who have spent weeks separated will finally share the same beach.
Who will take control of the game?
And who will become the first victim of the merge?
Find out next time on Skinnisha Survivor! Follow the season here: https://discord.gg/ugcwkffBS
Jordie
