Brilliant and Boneheaded 'Survivor' Plays of the Week: Flippers Never Win

Warning: This recap contains storyline and character spoilers for this week’s episode of Survivor.

When three Survivor tribes become two and then become one, it really is every man for himself. Or every woman, as Hali learned the hard way this week on Survivor: Worlds Apart.

Related: Get Caught Up With Our ‘Survivor’ Recaps

Joe was the clear winner after this week’s puzzle and balance beam-themed reward and immunity challenges, while everyone else scrambled to find their footing. (Those balance beam challenges are rough.) While Dan used the bullying tactic to try to shrink down some of the women, the overly-confident Mike actually showed that he deserves to be in this game, despite the fact that he hangs out with some questionable players.

Brilliant Play of the Week: Mike

Joe is the man to beat, no doubt. With three consecutive individual wins, he has both brains and brawn — and he even cleverly fished a clue to the immunity idol out of Carolyn’s soda bottle. (How she missed it is a major head scratcher.) But he got a bit lazy when it came to actually using the clue and finding the thing.

Mike stalked Joe to get an idea of where the clue would lead, and while Mr. Manbun wasted time pretending he found the idol, an obsessed Mike spent hours actually climbing trees, crawling through brush, and looking in every nook and cranny until he found it. While we could have done without his happy dance, Mike’s speech was inspiring. “When you feel like everything’s against you, you keep digging within yourself, and when you have nothing left, then right here is what you find,” he proclaimed as he clutched his beautiful new friend.

But finding the idol wasn’t Mike’s only brilliant move. In a major light bulb moment, the blue collar bigmouth convinced the majority to break up the tight no collar tripod, instead of voting out Shirin simply because she’s annoying. “They’re gonna crumble,” he predicted.

Boneheaded Play of the Week: Hali

Dan is becoming a major problem, so after he berated Shirin and called her Joe’s minion, the girls had a powwow.

“I want girls in the end, so I have to decide do I want to go with the girls or stick to my blue collar alliance,” Hali said. “I like the idea of us girls just banding together; we can make each other stronger.” She later added, “You go misogynist on the girls, girls can take you out, Dan.”

While her power coupledom with Jenn survived after Jenn’s brilliant use of the immunity idol last week, it was time to up the ante. So when Sierra tried to rally up some girl power in the terribly named new ‘Merica tribe, Hali agreed. But instead of sending Dan home, the fringe-bikinied beauty had her torch snuffed out.

Of course, at tribal council, Dan warned the girls that “flippers never win,” and Hali’s retort was one for the Survivor Hall of Shame: “If you look at history, what if the colonists never flipped on the greatest empire in the world?” she said. “How about that? So since we’re tribe ‘Merica, I think flippers have a great historical record to win this game.“

Except when Sierra flips her vote and votes you out, Hali.

Power rankings: 1. Joe 2. Carolyn 3. Mike

Survivor airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. on CBS.