Shortly after voting out Jonas, a male, the remaining men led by Troyzan and Jay are immediately suspicious of the women.  Planning for the next tribal council the duo decides that in order to maintain balance in the game, a woman has to be voted out.

The remaining survivors are split in to two tribes for the reward challenge with Tarzan the odd man out and not competing.  All five members of the tribes have to rush down a water slide before retrieving a large box-shaped puzzle piece.  Once all five puzzle pieces have been collected the first team to solve the puzzle wins reward.  While trailing through the entire collection process the orange tribe of Christina, Kim, Mike, Leif and Sabrina rally putting the puzzle together to win the challenge.

While enjoying their reward of a 7UP themed barbeque at a pool oasis, Kim plants the seeds with Sabrina of a long term strategy.  With Chelsea as part of their three-person alliance Kim and Sabrina believe the trio can win the game.  Their first move is to convince Troyzan to vote off Mike.

Back at camp Kim begins the process of turning Troyzan against Mike by suggesting Mike was implicating him as a threat.  Troyzan buys Kim’s story, but the plan is put in jeopardy when Chelsea suggests to Jay the possibility of voting off Mike in front of Alicia and Christina.  Confused and concerned Jay tries to talk to Mike about the situation but Kim interrupts the pair before Jay can blow the lid off their plot and suggests Christina as a viable alternative to be sent home.

The ensuing immunity challenge is a two-part challenge.  For the first part the eleven remaining survivors had to navigate a pile of puzzle pieces along a rope intertwined on a horizontal ladder.  Jay, Kim, Troyzan and Alicia advance to the final stage which involved putting the puzzle together with the pieces from the first part of the challenge.  Kim and Alicia both get very close to solving the puzzle but ultimately have to restart.  This allows Jay’s slow and steady approach to catch up and win the reward.

Having narrowly averted disaster between Jay and Mike, Kim discusses with Chelsea and Sabrina what their next step should be.  Voting off Mike means betraying their alliance while voting off Christina weakens a future opportunity to go with an all-female alliance.  At tribal council the survivors reveal that no one is worried about going home, which means someone is getting blindsided.  Two votes are given to Tarzan and Christina but Mike gets the rest and is sent home.