Survivor: Vanuatu's rebellion is complete and the queen is dead. Falling victim to the upstart regime formed by Chris Daugherty, Eliza Orlins, Twila Tanner, and Scout Cloud Lee, Ami Cusack, the 31-year-old barista from Lakewood, Colorado that had reigned over the competition's previous all-women alliance, was voted out of the game during last evening's Survivor broadcast.
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Survivor: Vanuatu's twelfth episode began with the Alinta tribe returning from Tribal Council after the game's new power foursome had teamed together to destroy the game's previous all-women alliance by booting Leann Slaby, the 35-year-old research assistant from Kansasville, Wisconsin who had served as Ami's chief henchwoman. The decision shocked Ami and Julie Berry (Leann's closest allies) who quickly realized that their cockiness had cost them greatly and that they were now outsiders to the game's controlling alliance.
Upon returning to camp, Ami was furious, claiming that Eliza had only survived in the game as long she had due to Ami's refusal to agree with Scout and Twila's previous suggestions that they oust the extremely talkative 21-year-old pre-law student from Syracuse, New York. Ami also attacked Twila, the 41-year-old highway repair worker from Marshall, Missouri, for falsely swearing on her son's name and stated that she could never believe or even respect Twila again.
Having watched Ami previously dominate her tribe since the game's initial days, Twila revelled in Ami's sudden frustration over her suddenly powerless position. "We've overthrown the queen and the little princess," she gloated. "People like that just piss me off because they think they're so better than everybody else. We have the power now. I have a great mind sometimes. I love it."
After assembling for the Reward Challenge, the remaining castaways learned that the challenge would consist of a floating obstacle course through which each survivor would have to travel while individually retrieving three submerged flags, with the winner of the challenge winning a brand new Pontiac G-6. In addition, the second and third place finishers would also get to join the winner for an overnight excursion to a nearby resort.
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Ami managed to grab an early lead and still held it as she was returning from her final flag retrieval, but stumbled into the water during her final return trip, allowing Eliza, who had been trailing closely behind throughout the competition, to finish first and win the new car. With Ami finishing second, the competition for the final slot came down to a neck-and-neck race between Chris and Julie. Chris pulled slightly ahead as they waded in to shore, capturing the final resort trip slot and leaving Julie to face a lonely night back at camp with Twila and Scout, the 59-year-old rancher/entrepreneur from Stillwater, Oklahoma.
During the overnight trip Ami attempted to get Eliza to change her mind regarding allying with Scout and Twila, with Chris realizing Ami's strategy and doing his best to prevent Eliza from changing her mind by reminding her of the duo's suddenly strong endgame position. "We're [in the] Final Four and look at our competition, a 60-year-old women and Twila," he stressed to Eliza after she began to entertain Ami's suggestion that rather than ousting her next, they instead make a move to breakup the threat of Scout and Twila's remaining twosome." "Why don't we just get the checks out now," the 34-year-old highway construction worker from South Vienna, Ohio, gushed.
After returning to camp and assembling for the day's Immunity Challenge, the survivors discovered that they that immunity would be determined via a three-dimensional version of shuffleboard based on a map of the Vanuatu islands. The castaway to land the most of their discs on land masses would win immunity. With Ami remaining tied for the lead for most of the competition, it began to look as though she might once again manage to avoid the wrath of those she'd previously oppressed, but Chris scored another point during the game's fifth and final round, winning individual immunity.
At the evening's Tribal Council, Eliza stuck to her new alliance despite her personal dislike and distrust of Scout and Twila and friendliness with Ami and Julie, resulting in Ami's ouster from the game via a 4-2 vote.
Ami, the thirteenth survivor to be ousted from the competition, joins previous bootees Leann, Chad Crittenden, and Lea "Sarge" Masters as the fourth member of the seven-person jury that will ultimately decide who wins Survivor's million dollar prize.